Days later on June 18, 1912, those lyrics would begin to be sung in Utrera. 'When Serneta died / the little door was closed' in allusion to his cantes por soleá. The sentence has remained in the collective memory to this day. The fountain must have had something to be blessed in this way.
However, the date has another meaning because, some years before, the voices of the flamencos in wax cylinder and Nobody decided to record our singer. Or perhaps she never wanted to. However, the arrival of the slate record, first in single-sided format and then in double-sided format, could have perfectly reached Merced. It should be remembered that some of her greatest followers recorded in large numbers in the years 1909 for the Odeón label (such as Chacón and Manuel Torre) and in 1910 for Zonphone (La Niña de los Peines). But the sad story is that we have no record of the Serneta, a fact that will remain marked as a lapsus calami of biblical proportions in the history of the genre jondo, like so many other cases.
In search of reasonable indications
Hence our summer course in Space expoflamenco revolved around a search for the artistic and human profile of the protagonist. An interpreter who had very bad luck with historians, according to the late José Manuel Martín Barbadillo. So there was no choice but to draw on accredited research work, like those of Luis and Ramón Soler or Manolo Bohórquez, those gatherings of the Caminos del Cante with Alfredo Benítez and the sound references of those who pointed out themselves as confessed devotees of the singer of Albarizuela de Jerez. Fortunately, they were able to meet her and were very respectful of her legacy; this can be seen from the samples of Pastora Pavón and his brother Tomás, Don Antonio Chacón, Manuel Torre, Juanito Mojama, and Centeno, among others. But we will never hear her voice.
On the day of St. James the Apostle, July 25, we met at Espacio expoflamenco to carry out a course to bring us closer to the impressive legacy that tradition attributes to the singer Merced Fernández Vargas 'La Serneta' (Jerez, 1840 – Utrera, 1912) through different research sources.
An immense expressive wealth
Therefore, in the search for the Serneta's complaint we proceeded with the necessary caution. A largely intuitive task that resulted in the astonishment of the letters attributed to him like that one of I went down the drain and lost my center, I have such a full taste or Evils that time brings... And also for its alleged musical contributions full of solemnity and beauty (from a singer who also knew how to play the guitar) like those elongated ayes to spice up some verses…
The truth is that it has been a unforgettable adventure which we experienced in our summer course, analyzing one by one the sound examples that could lead us to her. A musical archaeology that, along the way, sought to place her figure at the top of flamenco expression of all time.
Thanks
It only remains to thank the small but excellent group of students who accompanied us as well as the staff of expoflamenco, my colleagues Yuri and Nazanin, for their kindness. There's still a long way to go, but the pale reflection of that singer who forever united Jerez and Utrera has achieved the brilliance that only the greatest can achieve. And off we go, as they say, to study.
