by Jennifer Berkowitz

Originally a southern Spanish folk art passed down through oral traditions, Flamenco exists in three forms: cante or "song", baile or "dance", and guitarra or "guitar playing". The amalgamation of the musical traditions of the native Adalucians, the Moorish Arabics, and the Eastern European gypsies produced the art form that became known as "flamenco". Moors from North Africa invaded southern Spain in 711 A.D. and established a highly developed Islamic society that was characterized by its rich vocal and instrumental musical traditions. In 1492 the Moors were driven out of this region - now known as Andalucia - and the remaining inhabitants shared the land with gypsies whose wide-ranging musical traditions were taken from Jewish and early European classical and folk music. The synthesis of cultures proved to be fertile ground for the development of the unique tradition known as flamenco.

Many of the great classical guitar makers produced flamenco guitars including Santos Hernandez and Antonio de Torres. Torres is credited with developing the first flamenco guitar in the 1850s. Light construction with a cypress back and sides characterize the traditional flamenco guitar, giving it a lighter sound. A plastic tapping plate called golpeadores protects the face of the guitar from the taps with the right-hand fingernails which make a percussive sound. Rasgueado strumming is also an important part of the sound in which the fingers are unfurled across the strings-up and down strokes played with the thumb and fingers. Melodies are also often played with the thumb. While there are hundreds of types of pieces that have generic names referring to characteristic moods as well as melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic musical structures, flamenco is distinguished by tremolo highlights and fast arpeggiation aided by strings closer to the frets and a more narrow fingerboard.

With its thriving gypsy population, Seville became a center for flamenco in the 1700s. The first flamenco schools were created in the mid 1770s in Cádiz, Jerez de la Frontera and Triana. The café cantante or "music café" appeared as a new kind of social venue in the early 1840s where Flamenco was performed by one or two singers, female and male dancers, and two guitarists who provided accompaniment for vocals and rhythm for dancers. Such cafes were found in cities all over Spain by 1860 until their decline in 1910.

Although Flamenco dancers were the major attraction in the cafés, the accompanying guitarists began to gain recognition. At the same time, falsetas or "short instrumental interludes" were incorporated into the musical pieces. Guitarists who knew many different kinds of song and dance were in high demand, creating competition between players as well as fostering many new techniques and acts of showmanship.

Encouraged by the new venues, flamenco enjoyed a golden era from 1869 to 1910. During this period, instructional material began to surface, particularly with the initiative of renowned classical guitarist Julian Arcas who is credited with bringing the guitar into published flamenco material. Other early figures of flamenco guitar include Jose Gonzalez Patino, Paco El Barbaro, Javier Molina, and Paco Lucena, who was instrumental in establishing staple guitar techniques in flamenco such as the use of the tremolo and three-finger arpeggiation.

Such artists who paved the way in flamenco set the stage for other pioneers to emerge such as Ramon Montoya who is known as the ambassador of flamenco guitar playing. During the turn of the century, Montoya not only enriched the techniques and styles for flamenco guitar playing with his sophistication and inventiveness, but his career in the concert world was groundbreaking, because it spotlighted the flamenco guitar as a solo art rather than just an accompaniment. During his career, Montoya also played with Nino Ricardo whose complex and imaginative playing style had a profound impact on the world of flamenco.

During the Spanish civil war in the 1940s, people were unable to afford the cost of attending flamenco performances which brought down interest in the music. However, flamenco made a significant recovery after the war during the 1950s and 1960s in which flamenco was promoted as an art form. This renewed interest encouraged younger artists who explored and expanded the vocabulary of flamenco. Manolo Sanlucar, for example, was recognized as an important innovator in modern flamenco guitar and wrote entire flamenco orchestra pieces. Perhaps the most well-known pioneer of modern flamenco who arose during this time was Paco de Lucia-influenced largely by Sabicas. Lucia modernized the flamenco sound in a variety of ways. Not only was his technical mastery of the guitar astounding, but his style and vision for flamenco was revolutionary-from his use of an extended rhythm section using electric bass, saxophone and percussion in some pieces to his use of a Latin-jazz and Brazilian flavors in others.

Artists today continue to build on and explore modern, more progressive translations of musical ideas as flamenco reaches more diverse audiences. The rich history of flamenco has allowed the style and sound to be preserved while leaving room for exploration and innovation of musical ideas.