A Quick Look on Flamenco and Spain’s Music

Sound is the method of music which is view as a principal form of art; music has varied elements which are rhythm, harmony, tempo, melody and pitch. In each country and in every culture, music presents an important role in society; it is utilized a variety of purposes such as traditions, religious acts, entertainment and a whole lot more.

Spain has her share of many different music and dance technique and they are as varied as the diverse kinds of architecture that you can find all over the country which are iconic of the era when they were constructed. Spain’s cultural influences had together with it mostly the Ancient Roman and Greek music and dance forms, although several other influences came and made their mark in Spain’s history such as the Visigoths, Jews, Moors, and the likes. To deeply appreciate Spain’s art and music, it is a must to have a trip to Spain and experience it for yourself, however you first need to understand and be able to communicate some basic Spanish language, and the easiest way to achieve that is to search for websites like Rocket Spanish which offer basic Spanish lessons as well as basic Spanish cultural lessons. Rocket Spanish or Bust is a Computer Assisted Language Learning that can help you speak Spanish fluently.

When one speaks of Spanish music and dance culture, there’s one distinct method that is constantly present and which is often considered as representative of Spanish music and dance; Flamenco is, without a doubt, the most famous dance and music style of Spain. Contrary to a lot of people’s beliefs, Flamenco is only considered popular in just one region; Andalusia, an autonomous community in Spain that is known for the beginnings of Flamenco as well as considered the second largest in terms of land area in Spain. The fact is that Flamenco is popular only to Andalusia, an autonomous region in Spain, and it has several dissimilar technique around that area; Flamenco is not a very popular dance form in other regions of Spain.

Flamenco is separated into three areas and is composed of the guitar, the dance, and the song elements. During the time when Flamenco first became known in the Andalusian regions, that region was the poorest and one of the most neglected regions in Spain. The art form continued to flourish even though it was largely ignored by other regions.

Flamenco’s roots can be found in Gypsies who have traveled through or stayed in the Andalusian areas during those times; this region was also populated by Jews, Moors, and other persecuted and discriminated groups. Studies also concludes that there’s an association between gypsy dance culture and the descendants of Moorish music in the 8^th century until 17^th century in the history 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 shaping this art form. Since Flamenco is being performed by the poor, upper class society and historians put in little time in recording and studying it, thus very little written records can be read about it. Another reason for problems in knowing the history of Flamenco is that the lower class people have no education and cannot write and they just kept the music through oral traditions; worst of all, the Jews, Muslims and Gitanos, which make up the lower class, were being killed throughout the period of Spanish Inquisition.

Researchers, historians and experts are still discussing and studying to determine the exact history and origin of Flamenco; how Flamenco got its name is still unsolved. Nonetheless, no one can erase the fact that Flamenco has affected the dance culture all across the world.