A Glimpse on Spain’s Music, Flamenco and Its Beginning

November 5th, 2009 Posted in Camping

Sound is the medium of music which is regarded to be the basic form of art; music has varying elements which are rhythm, harmony, tempo, melody and pitch. Music has varying forms, faces, and intent in many countries and although music may be employed in unique techniques, the fact still remains that it is an important part of cultures all over the world.

Spain has a very unique tradition because of its geographical characteristics and because of the many foreign influences that has shaped their culture over the centuries; you can see this in the styles of architectural structures that vary from one era to another, and on the different techniques in paintings as well as music and dance. Roman, Greek, German, Jewish, Moorish and other cultural influences helped shape what can today be known as Spanish music and dance art forms. To appreciate more of Spain’s art and music, you must know how to understand their culture and language and the easiest thing to do that is by taking advantage of our technology today by searching the internet for sites like Rocket Spanish which offer basic cultural lessons and basic Spanish language lessons for free. Rocket Spanish lessons is an excellent tool that can aid you in learning to speak Spanish.

When one speaks of Spanish music and dance culture, there’s one particular style that is constantly present and which is often considered as representative of Spanish music and dance; Flamenco is, without a doubt, the most popular dance and music style of Spain. A closer study of Flamenco, however, will show that it had a troubled past in its own country. The neighboring regions within the area of Andalusia have varying music because the number of countries that really affected Spain’s culture and music.

Flamenco is separated into three areas and is composed of the guitar, the dance, and the song elements. In the era when Flamenco first became known in the Andalusian regions, that region was the poorest and one of the most neglected regions in Spain. The surprising fact is that numerous things is still unsolved about Flamenco as an art form.

Andalusia was one of the poorest, most set apart areas in Spain during the generation when Flamenco first made its popularity in the country. Studies also presents that there is a link between gypsy dance culture and the descendants of Moorish music in the 8^th century until 17^th century in the ancestry of Flamenco; still many also believe that apart from gypsy dance and Moorish music, there is also influence of music from Egypt, India, and the Byzantine church which played a big part in creating this art form. It’s not a shock that the historians and government officials of Spain weren’t curious enough in recording the minute facts since they viewed the region to be a poor one and the dance form as not worth recording at all. Unfortunately, most of the people from the Andalusian regions were of persecuted lineages, they were also mostly illiterate so they had no means of recording their own cultural practices for posterity; most of the history of Flamenco has been lost and greatly altered because it had only been passed on through oral tradition.

Regardless of the experience that Flamenco and its ancestry went through, it still made quite an impression on other cultures. However one fact remains the same; it has played a major effect on dance cultures all around the world.