An Overview on Flamenco and Spain’s Music

Sound is the form of music which is considered to be a primary form of art; music has different elements which are rhythm, harmony, tempo, melody and pitch. Music and dance is quite dynamic, often changing and most of the time modifying; it is used for different purposes throughout different cultures and eras.

The ancestry of Spain is also influenced by music; the main culture that dominated Spain was the Roman culture which had been a strong influence on them for hundreds of years and which also introduced Greek music. Spain’s music is generally heavily influenced by Roman and Greek music and later on by other influences resulted from the Visigoths, Jews, and Moors who have communicated with the locals of Spain. To deeply appreciate and know more about Spain’s music and culture, you simply must travel to Spain and learn its language and the most appropriate technique to do that is by the web and taking advantage of websites like Rocket Spanish which offers lessons in Spanish language and lessons in Spanish culture. Rocket Spanish is a Computer Assisted Language Learning that can help you speak Spanish fluently.

A well-known music that is accumulated from Spain is Flamenco, which many people thought to be a national music in Spain. Ironically, Flamenco is actually not famous in the whole Spain; it’s only famous in a certain parts, particularly the Andalusian region of Spain and in a few of the smaller surrounding regions. Because Spain’s music has been affected by numerous countries, their music is different from region to region.

Spain’s Flamenco, an Andalusian cultural folk music, is sectioned into three parts; it is composed of the dance, the song, and also the musical accompaniment created by the guitar. On the contrary, Flamenco is only known just in one section of Spain; an autonomous community in Spain called Andalusia, which is viewed to be the largest in terms of land area in the country. It’s interesting that very little is studied about the ancestry of this famous type of dance.

Flamenco’s roots can be found in Gypsies who have traveled through or settled in the Andalusian regions during those times; this region was also populated by Jews, Moors, and other persecuted and discriminated groups. It’s not entirely surprising that historians didn’t ecert much energy to study nor record the development of this art form; it simply wasn’t a priority back then; Gypsies were viewed to be the bottom of the barrel as far as social caste system is concerned. It’s not a wonder that the historians didn’t really make an effort to study and record the nuances that present the beginnings and the development of Flamenco as an art form. Another reason for difficulties in determining the origin of Flamenco is that the lower class people have no education and cannot write and they just passed on 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.

Even today, researchers, historians and experts are still discussing and researching to find out the exact history and ancestry of Flamenco; it’s not even known where Flamenco got its name. However, one truth is certain which is that Flamenco has affected dance cultures worldwide.

 

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