One hundred years ago, in June 1922, Andalucian composer Manuel de Falla held the Concurso de Cante Jondo in collaboration with a small circle of artistic luminaries. The event was a flamenco singing contest, aimed towards elevating cante jondo (deep song), the raw and expressive form of flamenco practiced by the Roma people, into a serious art form.
Falla and his friends were concerned that the original form of flamenco was losing its essence and being contaminated by popular flamenco. The formerly popular flamenco had morphed into a frivolous public spectacle staged in urban drinking establishments by the 1920s. His group wanted to bring back the original form by talking about what flamenco was and how it was perceived.
To them, the music was a noble art whose structure was created by Andalucia’s Roma people from the 15th century. It was grand, intense, and capable of inspiring a heightened state of emotion. They revered its primitivism in the same way that Picasso did with African art.
However, flamenco had been losing its original form since the 1850s. Falla and his group argued that the flamenco played in the urban pubs was not real flamenco; it was in a different form. The new form incorporated a watered-down version of cante jondo called cante chico that mixed popular song with Andalusian folklore. They argued that if they did not protect the music, many of its original forms would become extinct.
Not everyone agreed with Falla’s viewpoint. Since the 19th century, many Spanish intellectuals viewed flamenco as regressive, cheap, and decaying. To them, flamenco was only a vulgar form of entertainment. They thought it resembled the remnants of Spain looking back and staggering from the loss of its colonial empire in the Spanish-American war of 1898, and also associated it with Spain’s social and economical ills.
Falla set out some rules to help organize his Concurso. Word was spread nationally and internationally about the concert’s aims, and he also encouraged important artists and intellectuals to attend to broaden the concert’s cultural influence.
He split the Concurso over two nights. In a wider concert, well-known professional musicians, singers, and dancers performed. The competitive portion of the Concurso was only open to amateur singers performing original cante jondo, in order to encourage new participation in the music genre.
While the concert was grand and memorable, it was also used as a chance to showcase rare songs and rural talent. This marked one of the important tasks for the concert: tracking down people who knew the old and endangered songs. Falla and his friends invested time traveling around rural neighborhoods to search for those people.
The Concurso received an audience of over 4,000 in two nights. Memorable performers include a 70-year-old man who sang a caña (an ancient song with religious overtones); Manolo Ortega, a 12-year-old boy who would later become a legendary flamenco singer; and an old and blind old woman who sang an unaccompanied liviana (an ancient musical style long thought to be extinct).
Falla and his friends were concerned that the original form of flamenco was losing its essence and being contaminated by popular flamenco. The formerly popular flamenco had morphed into a frivolous public spectacle staged in urban drinking establishments by the 1920s. His group wanted to bring back the original form by talking about what flamenco was and how it was perceived.
To them, the music was a noble art whose structure was created by Andalucia’s Roma people from the 15th century. It was grand, intense, and capable of inspiring a heightened state of emotion. They revered its primitivism in the same way that Picasso did with African art.
However, flamenco had been losing its original form since the 1850s. Falla and his group argued that the flamenco played in the urban pubs was not real flamenco; it was in a different form. The new form incorporated a watered-down version of cante jondo called cante chico that mixed popular song with Andalusian folklore. They argued that if they did not protect the music, many of its original forms would become extinct.
Not everyone agreed with Falla’s viewpoint. Since the 19th century, many Spanish intellectuals viewed flamenco as regressive, cheap, and decaying. To them, flamenco was only a vulgar form of entertainment. They thought it resembled the remnants of Spain looking back and staggering from the loss of its colonial empire in the Spanish-American war of 1898, and also associated it with Spain’s social and economical ills.
Falla set out some rules to help organize his Concurso. Word was spread nationally and internationally about the concert’s aims, and he also encouraged important artists and intellectuals to attend to broaden the concert’s cultural influence.
He split the Concurso over two nights. In a wider concert, well-known professional musicians, singers, and dancers performed. The competitive portion of the Concurso was only open to amateur singers performing original cante jondo, in order to encourage new participation in the music genre.
While the concert was grand and memorable, it was also used as a chance to showcase rare songs and rural talent. This marked one of the important tasks for the concert: tracking down people who knew the old and endangered songs. Falla and his friends invested time traveling around rural neighborhoods to search for those people.
The Concurso received an audience of over 4,000 in two nights. Memorable performers include a 70-year-old man who sang a caña (an ancient song with religious overtones); Manolo Ortega, a 12-year-old boy who would later become a legendary flamenco singer; and an old and blind old woman who sang an unaccompanied liviana (an ancient musical style long thought to be extinct).
