The Poetry of Flamenco: Anguish Made Flesh
In a new Big Read feature, award-winning poet Paul Chambers delves into the world of flamenco art and explores the poetic concentration and lyricism which underpins this distinctive musical form.
The cante, the song, is the soul of flamenco art. Before the later additions of toque (guitar), and baile (dance), the cante jondo, or deep song, of flamenco, gave form to what flamencologist Ricardo Molina describes as “the cry of a man mortally wounded by destiny.” While most often bearing a fatalistic tinge, the lyrics of flamenco song represent a complete vision of life, conveyed with an intense poetic concentration.
To isolate the lyrics of flamenco song from the intensely impassioned stylisations of its performers is undoubtedly to diffuse them of a vast amount of their emotional power. And yet, in many cases, their poetry retains a profound resonance. For Federico Garcia Lorca, the primitive lyric of the gypsy cante jondo is a “channel through which all the pain, all the ritual gestures of the race, can escape.”
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