The Cachucha, the Alboreá and the Mosca. Flamenco dances and songs from Granada.
January 27, 2022Flamenco dancing in the singing cafés.
March 17, 2022Federico García Lorca's relationship with flamenco, with the 'jondo' and with popular culture, has generated a great attraction in the world of flamenco for the texts of the poet and playwright.
There is no doubt that García Lorca (1898-1936), among the so-called 'cultured poets', is the one who has had more links with flamenco. His interest was so great that he dedicated to this art his volume Poema del cante jondo ( 1921), in which he captured the feeling of seguiriyas, soleares, saetas or peteneras, all of them musical and literary genres of flamenco.
In Romancero gitano ( 1928), although there are no direct references to flamenco, Lorca is inspired by the 'jondo' and the gypsy.
Such was his involvement that Federico García Lorca organized two conferences, Importancia histórica y artística del primitivo canto andaluz, llamado cante jondo (1922) and Juego y teoría del duende (1933), through which he developed his own aesthetic belief of the 'jondo'.
As a result of this link of the poet from Granada with the 'jondo', the world of flamenco has always been attracted by Lorca's texts. This interest was born with the recording of popular songs by 'La Argentinita' with Federico himself, some of which were later adapted by Pepe Marchena or 'La Niña de los Peines'. But the artists who have drunk most from Lorca's source are, undoubtedly, Enrique Morente and Camarón de la Isla.
Camarón adapts several of Lorca's poems in La leyenda del tiempo: Mi niña se fue a la mar, Romance del Amargo, Homenaje a Federico, Nana del caballo grande and the title song. Following the trend, Soy Gitano includes Romance de Thamar y Amnón, Casida de las palomas oscuras and a new version of Nana del caballo grande. In Calle Real he adapts the Romance de la luna, luna.
Enrique Morente, back in 1972, adapted fragments of Doña rosita la Soltera for tangos in his work El lenguaje de las flores. Later, in Omega and Lorca, he adapted texts from Poeta en Nueva York. For bulerías, in Negra, si tú supieras, and so on and so forth. Morente becomes a great genius renovator of cante jondo.
The childhood of Federico García Lorca and flamenco
From an early age, Lorca was related to flamenco. At his home in Fuente Vaqueros, Granada, he listened to the singing and foot tapping of the "jondo" art. His grandfather Baldomero García, a great flamenco enthusiast, was a keen flamenco dancer and began to sing jabeas, a palo related to malagueñas, as well as popular Andalusian songs.
Federico's musical training comes from the hand of his mother and his aunt Isabel, with great musical talent: he sang, accompanied by the guitar with great intonation and a delicate voice.
In the Vega Granaína, Lorca learned popular songs related to agricultural work or country festivals, and from the nannies he learned lullabies and other popular music. This awakened in the young Federico a great interest in the musical culture of the time, making the popular a determining factor in the poet's work. Federico García Lorca assumes the popular as its essence and enhances it through his own artistic creation. The beginnings of Lorca 's relationship with flamenco and popular songs leave their mark in poems that will later be used in Poema del Cante Jondo and Romancero Gitano.
Federico began his musical training in 1909 with the professional pianist and organist of the cathedral, Eduardo Orense. Later, he began his friendship with Manuel de Falla, who settled in Granada in love with the romanticism of the city and the Alhambra. Falla was investigating the Spanish musical tradition, adapting it and introducing it into his work, as in Amor brujo. At the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid, where he studied law, he met personalities of the cultural world of the time such as Salvador Dalí, Luis Buñuel, Pedro Salinas and Maruja Mallo.
But, undoubtedly, his great research work comes from the hand of Ramón Menéndez Pidal. In 1920, he arrived in Granada and initiated Federico to take notes of the oral romances, which were still alive among the gypsies of the city. This contact with the gypsies of the San Cristóbal and Albaicín neighborhoods of Granada led Loca to become interested in cante jondo and to begin his own research into this art, which led him to write Poema del cante jondo (Poem of cante jondo).
It was on a trip with Manuel de Falla to Seville and Cadiz where Lorca met Pastora Pavón and Manuel Torre, and from there came the idea of organizing the Concurso de cante jondo de Granada, although they later realized that the Sacromonte of Granada was not the cradle of 'jondo' singing, nor was there much of a fan base.
In short, Lorca' s interest in flamenco throughout his life led him to draw inspiration from this art form, just as various artists of song and dance have been inspired by this poet for the realization of his work.