Flamenco, Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

Flamenco was born out of joy but grew through rage, between loneliness and the conviviality of the fiesta. Son of grace and desperation, of mockery and angst, of the diversity and the mixture among the settled population and the nomads that crossed the South of the Iberian Peninsula for centuries, Flamenco is, above all, music: a legacy of rhythm that travels through cante (flamenco singing), toque (flamenco guitar playing), baile (flamenco dance) and percussion. But it's also an attitude to life, an individual and collective act of resistance. 

Flamenco is, in turn, an array of traditions followed and cultivated in many parts of the world, but its origin is found among human groups of the geographical triangle formed by the mining region of La Unión in Murcia, the grasslands and country homes in Extremadura, and the fields, marshes and cities all along Andalucía. Gipsies and non-gipsies, together with echoes from Moorish, Sephardic Jews, Castilian, Indianos and African people - among other cultural resonances-, have contributed to the origin and conservation of Flamenco as a mixed-blood art. For many people, alone or with other people, Flamenco represents their life-rhythm and a main sign of their identity. It is a performance and a culture, but also a family experience, learning and practice. 

Images speak louder than words. But sometimes at least a thousand words are required to explain certain images… or even two hundred years of history, as, it seems, Flamenco has been with us. Through this museum proposal, you are invited to get acquainted with some of the documents that made Flamenco known to Humanity:  the dossier that led to its inclusion in the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in an intergovernmental session that took place in Nairobi (Kenya) on the 16th of November 2010.  

It was a long process that Junta de Andalucía, backed by Junta de Extremadura and Murcia’s Regional Government, undertook and achieved through an active institutional promotion campaign that started one year earlier and ranged from the unanimous endorsement of the Parliament of Andalucía to the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Spain. This campaign’s motto was “Flamenco Soy” and it travelled throughout Andalucía and cities like Shanghai, Paris, Madrid and Barcelona, which served as physical settings for some of the major events of this campaign, that included performances, lectures, publications and media announcements of various kinds.

Come and see, but don’t expect to find an encyclopedic history of this art. Instead, you can access some of the materials – images, audiovisual content and texts – that convinced UNESCO that Flamenco is a living, heritage, as intangible as its spirit, and as human as its protagonists.

"El Flamenco", From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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¿Qué es el flamenco?, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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¿Qué es el flamenco?

What is Flamenco?, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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What is flamenco?

Qu'est-ce que le flamenco?, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Qu'est-ce que le flamenco?" 

"If you'd like your visit of the exhibition to be accompanied by guitarist Juan
Diego's music, click on the player"

Juan Diego "Dieguito", From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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WHAT DO WE CALL FLAMENCO?

Flamenco is Music, and as such, it can be written in octaves on paper or in the air. It also responds to a body of customs, a way of being and behaving closely related to the gypsies, but also to a certain Greco-Roman legacy, as well as the legacy of other peoples and social groups that were victims of a long official repression in a country that refused to accept differences. Why didn’t Flamenco emerge in other parts of Europe when the Romans toured the continent in a long exile that started in 1500 in the North of India and Pakistan? Because it is not only the fruit of its own instinct but of other cultures present in the Peninsula, where even after 1492, after the Fall of the Granada Kingdom, Arabic-Andalusian music probably secretly coexisted with the andarríos tribes, with Sephardic songs, with Castilian romances, with the African percussion of slaves and freed men, and also probably with what was christened centuries later as cantos de ida y vuelta in the huge sea-avenue of the Carrera de Indias.       

There's more. Flamenco is magic. “All that has black sounds has duende”, snapped Manuel Torre, cantaor, to writer Federico García Lorca. Flamenco is also self confidence and verve. Hunger and success. A personal custom and a public performance. Industry and memory. Its universe ranges from the mourning of la Toná, to the grace of the brushes and the picking of the strings of a guitar. It includes the gestures, the looks and the mere quejío born in the insides of the earth or of a human being.

Un grupo de aficionados cantando de forma improvisada en las calles de Jerez, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Improvising on the street (Jerez de la Frontera)

Imagen de una cueva del Sacromonte (Granada), From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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The Sacromonte neighbourhood in Granada is one of the epicentres of Flamenco

Gitana cantando en una cueva del Sacromonte (Granada), From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Reunión gitana bajo la Torre de Espantaperros (Badajoz), From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Gipsy traditional party at the foot of the Espantaperros Tower (Badajoz)

El flamenco en la vida cotidiana, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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El flamenco en la vida cotidiana

Flamenco in everyday life, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Flamenco in every day life

Le flamenco dans la vie quotidienne, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Le flamenco dans la vie quotidienne

Mujeres en la Peña Tío José de Paula en una Zambomba de Navidad en Jerez de la Frontera, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Traditional “Zambomba de Jerez” at Christmas time

Típica zambomba navideña en Jerez de la Frontera, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Dos jóvenes bailando verdiales en la fiesta que cada 28 de diciembre se celebra en los Montes de Málaga, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Two young girls performing Verdiales in Málaga

Jovenes gitanas cantando en la Romeria de los Remedios de Fregenal (Badajoz), From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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The Pilgrimage of Remedios (Fregenal, Badajoz)

Gitanos en una fiesta flamenca de la Romería de Los Remedios de Fregenal (Badajoz), From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Recital del cantaor Antonio Reyes en la Peña Torres Macarena de Sevilla, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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“Las peñas flamencas” play an important role in the preservation and promotion of our most universal art 

Festival flamenco Porrina de Badajoz, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Summer season is the flamenco festivals time

Festival flamenco de verano en Extremadura, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Actuación en el Centro Andaluz de Documentación del Flamenco (Jerez de la Frontera), From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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The Andalusian Documentation Flamenco Centre (Centro Andaluz de Documentación del Flamenco) is the world's major resource centre for information about flamenco

Los niños, el futuro del flamenco, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Los niños. El futuro del flamenco

The children. The future of flamenco, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Children. The future of flamenco

Enfants. L'avenir du flamenco, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Les enfants. L'avenir du flamenco

Un grupo de niños bailan flamenco a los pies del Sacromonte en la Romería de San Cecilio, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Children dancing in the Pilgrimage of San Cecilio in Granada

Espectáculo didáctico para niños "Flamenquita", coproducido por el Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Educational show for children “Flamenquita”, co-produced by the Andalusian Institute of Flamenco (Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco)

"Flamenquita",espectáculo didáctico para niños coproducido por el Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco, representado en Larache (Marruecos), From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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En los niños está el futuro del flamenco, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Children are the future of flamenco

CANTE (FLAMENCO SINGING)

There is no sound recording that would allow us to fathom whether cante merged from the loneliness of the blacksmith hammering alcayatas gitanas (gypsy spikes) on the anvil or from the collective joy of a despesque. All we know is that it moved through different phases in the XXth century: from the wise elders' rooms to family meetings, and to cafés and theatres. Its different styles moved along over time as a result of the contact with other popular songs. From the classic and original flamenco cantes, those of the siguiriyas, soleares, tangos, bulerías and cantiñas, to those that derived from the rich plurality of fandango, in a geographical arch that goes from Huelva to Málaga and reaching the East of the Peninsula with the world of the cantes of the mining region. Ending, according to José Blas Vega and other researchers, in palos that have a completely different musical origin, such as the proper Andalusian folklore, saetas, campanilleros, bamberas or pregones, the seguidillas from Castilla-La Mancha that forged Seville, or even some ultramarine melodies, such as guajiras, milongas, colombianas and rumbas. Not to mention the songs developed by individual cantaors, such as the canastera, the galera or the ferreña.

El cante flamenco, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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El cante flamenco

The flamenco song, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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The flamenco song

Le chant flamenco, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Le chant flamenco

Camarón de la Isla, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Camarón de la Isla

El cantaor jerezano José Mercé actuando en La Unión (Murcia), From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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José Mercé

Carmen Linares, Premio Nacional de Música 2001, cantando poemas de Juan Ramón Jiménez en la Bienal de Sevilla, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Carmen Linares and Juan Carlos Romero

Arcángel en un recital en el Parlamento de Andalucía, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Arcángel and Miguel Ángel Cortés

Actuación de El Cabrero en el Festival de La Unión (Murcia), From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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El Cabrero

Enrique Morente, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Enrique Morente

TOQUE (GUITAR PLAYING) 

The Flamenco guitar has its origins in the guitar played in Castilla and the one played by the Moors. Both came from the Mediterranean zither, the Arabian plectrum and the vihuela. The flamenco guitar inherited the use of the classical bridge but its wood is different and percussive: cypress, persimmon or Brasilian rosewood, producing a sound of a different sound. As for the origin of flamenco plucking style, it could come from the Moorish way of playing, string by string. Let’s add to it the strumming from Castilla, tremolos and falsetas, all of them inherited from other sources or developed by Flamenco itself. A modal instrument, with its cadence A, G, F, E that characterizes the Frigian Mode – something that made it irresistible to classical composers - Flamenco guitar is, according to Manolo Sanlucar and other contemporary masters, the piano of the poors. In Flamenco, the guitar dropped by barber shops, and cantaores, such as El Planeta or Camarón, brandished them. Despite having formidable teachers such as Javier Molina, Ramón Montoya or Sabicas, guitar players were considered only as squires of cante for a long time until Paco de Lucía turned it into the vehicle of the greatest innovations this art saw in the second half of XX century. Flamenco guitar players were the ones who started with more glory than worth the approach to other musical cultures such as jazz, classical music, rock and ethnic music.

La guitarra flamenca, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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La guitarra flamenca

The flamenco guitar, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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The flamenco guitar

Flamenco. La guitare, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Flamenco: La guitare

Paco de Lucía, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Paco de Lucía

Manolo Sanlúcar, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Manolo Sanlúcar

Manolo Franco y Niño de Pura en el Festival de la Guitarra de Córdoba, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Manolo Franco and Niño de Pura

BAILE (FLAMENCO DANCE)

Andalucía not only exported emperors to Rome, it also exported dancers: those puellae gaditanum quoted by Martial. Their original small metallic discs attached and stuck with their fingers might be at the origin of castanets but, in any case, Flamenco dancing grew in Andalucía intermingled with fiesta and mixing itself freely with those coming from different lands, such as bolero and zarabanda. During the XVIIIth century, the so-called Escuela Bolera was crucial in the setting of Flamenco forms, in a partly academic reinterpretation of old popular dances: panaderos, zapateados, oles, boleros, seguidillas, fandangos, jaleos de Jerez, malagueñas, el vito or la cachucha. Cafés and music halls also played an important role in the birth of dances initially based on zapateado, and later on, on festive styles such as tangos and bulerías. Others were added to those, as many as the rich geographical variety of their place of birth: soleares, seguiriyas or alegrías, united by their common ancestral origin in Aragonese jota. Individual contributions or new choreographies of Flamenco companies made possible the addition of various unrelated styles such as farruca (of Galician origin), or new choreographies born from the coexistence with ballet and contemporary dance, jazz, pop or music hall. Ballet made flamenco international since the late XIXth century, with La Macarrona and La Argentina, producing spectacular results such as La Argentinita and Antonio Gades, among many others. Flamenco academies multiplied from France to Japan. Several treaties tried to define it. To no avail. Flamenco dancing has no fences.

El baile flamenco, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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El baile flamenco

Flamenco dancing, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Flamenco dancing

Flamenco. La danse, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Flamenco: La danse

Manuela Carrasco, Premio Nacional de Danza en 2008, interpreta la Danza de los Gitanos en el Festival de Jerez, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Manuela Carrasco

Baile con mantón de María Pagés, Premio Nacional de Danza en 2002, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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María Pagés

Baile con mantón de Mercedes Ruiz, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Mercedes Ruiz

Antonio El Pipa actuando en el Teatro Villamarta (Jerez de la Frontera), From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Antonio El Pipa

El Ballet Nacional de España interpreta "Café de Chinitas" de García Lorca con decorado de Dalí en la Bienal de Sevilla, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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“Café de Chinitas”, performance of the Spanish National Ballet (Ballet Nacional de España)

La bailaora Lola Greco interpreta "La vida breve" de Falla junto a la Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla y el Coro Nacional de España, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Lola Greco dancing "La Vida Breve" by Manuel de Falla

Sara Baras en el Festival Internacional de Las Minas de La Unión (Murcia), From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Sara Baras

Imagen del homenaje al bailaor Mario Maya en el Festival de Música y Danza de Granada, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Special tribute to bailaor Mario Maya

Imagen del homenaje al bailaor Mario Maya en el Festival de Música y Danza de Granada, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Cristina Hoyos y Manolo Sanlúcar en la Bienal de Sevilla, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Cristina Hoyos and Manolo Sanlúcar

spot Imágenes. Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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“Imágenes”. 20 years of Andalusian Flamenco Ballet (Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía)

En la memoria del cante: 1922. Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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“En la memoria del cante: 1922” performance of Andalusian Flamenco Ballet (Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía)

Bailaora en una cueva del Sacromonte (Granada), From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Bailaora in a traditional cave in Sacromonte in Granada.

Imagen de la versión flamenca de "Carmen" de la Compañía de Antonio Gades, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Flamenco version of "Carmen" by Antonio Gades dance company

El bailaor Juan de Juan actuando en el Festival de Mont de Marsan (Francia), From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Juan de Juan

Las bailaoras Matilde Coral e Isabel Bayón en una actuación de la Bienal de Sevilla, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Matilde Coral and Isabel Bayón, bailaoras, with Miguel Poveda, cantaor

UNESCO en castellano, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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El Flamenco, Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial de la Humanidad

UNESCO en inglés, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Flamenco, Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

UNESCO en francés, From the collection of: Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco
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Flamenco, Patrimoine Culturel Immatériel de l'humanité

Credits: Story

El tema que acompaña la exposición se titula “Dieguito”, compuesto por Juan Diego Mateos e interpretado a la guitarra por Juan Diego; Drums: Guillermo McGill; Palmas: Macano, Keko Baldomero y Juan Diego; Percusión: Juan Peña “Chispa”; Flauta: Jorge Pardo; Coros: Marcelino Fernández. Si quiere conocer más de este artista, visite www.juandiegoguitarra.es   Autoría de fotografías: Santiago Rodríguez Casado es autor de las imágenes en las que aparecen Celia Romero, el Festival Porrina de Badajoz, la Torre del Espantaperros y la Romería de los Remedios de Badajoz. Las fotografías del homenaje a Mario Maya en Granada pertenecen a Pepe Villoslada. La imagen de Paco de Lucía aparece por gentileza de Curro Sánchez y Juan José Téllez. Las fotos de Camarón de la Isla, Enrique Morente y Manolo Sanlúcar son de Carlos Arbelos—

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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