Al-Andalus, the period of Muslim rule of the Iberian Peninsula, is known for being a period of great cultural and musical refinement, especially during the Umayyad period and after the arrival of Ziryab at the court of Córdoba, which led to the development of Andalusian classical music.
Beyond the music of the court, a rich musical panorama developed. This included popular Andalusian music, Jewish Sephardic songs, and the sounds of India and Pakistan brought by the Roma population that arrived to the peninsula in the final years of the muslim ruling.
After the fall of Al-Andalus in 1492, Roma, Jews and Muslims faced persecution and expulsion. Many sought refuge in North Africa or the Ottoman Empire, spreading their culture and music through the diaspora. Others remained in Andalusia, preserving their traditions in secret and creating new songs of resistance and suffering, which laid the foundations of Flamenco, which brings together musical elements from all three traditions.
This session is the first part of a larger ongoing research conducted in collaboration with Disco Atlas, expert and collector of Moroccan music. In it we will explore on the one hand the music of the Andalusian diaspora and its connections with the most fundamental and primitive forms of Flamenco, and on the other hand fusions that some artists have made to reflect those Andalusian roots of Flamenco.
Tracklist
Juan Talega - A Mis Amigos (1966) Juan Talega sings here one of the most primitive forms of Flamenco: the Martinetes. From martillo (hammer), or martinete, a tool with which hot metals were struck in the forge to give them the proper shape. It is a free genre, without meter, a reflection of a desolate state of mind that manifests itself in the form of a very sad lament. Juan Talega, an undisputed master of the ancient and legendary cantes, did not begin to sing in public until he was sixty years old1.
Munir Bachir - L’Orient En Andalousie (Sources De La Musique Espagnole) (1973?) Munir Bachir, famous oud player from Iraq, studied the arabic roots of Flamenco23, which he reflected in some of his compositions. The chosen song was recorded at a concert in Geneva, and we can hear harmonic elements of the Andalusian cadence and chords played in an atypical way for a traditional lute.
Field Recording of Sephardic Jews of Thessaloniki - La Rosa Inflorece (1917) Historical recording of songs of the Sephardic Jewish community of Tessaloniki, which before the 1940s numbered more than 90,000 people, and was almost exterminated by the Nazis (90% of the total population). This song is an old Jewish ballad from the Al Andalus period, preserved orally from generation to generation in an archaich form of Spanish4.
Niña de los Peines - Peteneras nº2 (1911) Peteneras is a flamenco palo that, as José Romero Jimenez5 states, comes from the old Spanish Jewish tradition. Sometimes even the lyrics have a Jewish theme with scenes in Synagogues6.
Flora Benamol - En ca de mi padre, Field Recording of Sephardic Jewish women in Tetuan (1954) This fantastic record7 contains spanish medieval romances (ballads) and wedding songs from a comunity of Sephardic Jews of Morocco. They are sung in the old Judeo-Spanish dialect of the region called Haketia, spoken until present day in Northern Morocco. Incredibly, some of the songs featured here were still sung by the Sephardic Jews of Thessaloniki, and they are present also in the previous record.
Reinette l’Oranaise - Lik Nechki / Emchi Ya Rassoul (1986) Reinette L’Oranaise was an Algerian Jewish singer from Oran. She studied with another famous Algerian Jewish musician, Saoud l’Oranaise, and learned Arab Andalusian music from him. She did an important work of transcribing Arab Andalusian oral repertorie, and broadcasting it to wider audiences8. The chosen song is a traditional composition that begins by narrating a poem by Cheikh Fadhel from the 18th century, and ends with an anonymous Arabic Andalusian poem from the 13th century.
Abdessadeq Cheqara - Lalla Meriem (197?) Born into a family of poets and musicians in Tetouan, Cheqara is one of the most important musicians of Andalusian music. He helped popularize the genre among a wider and less elitist audience, becoming one of the most important voices in Morocco.9 He also innovated by incorporating elements of the Chaabi into the Andalusian repertoire and vice versa. In this case, we have an Aïta Jeblya song (see next track note) featuring notable Andalusian elements, heard for instance in the singing style.
Mokhtar Al Aroussi - Aji Ya Ghzali (197?) This song is from the repertoire of Aïta Jeblya, a musical genre from northwestern Morocco, characterized by Andalusian and Mediterranean influences10, with a richer orchestration than other Aïta styles.
Manolo Amaya - Zambra Arbola (1983) From the Andalusian Arabic voice zamra (gathering), it is a descendant of an Andalusian Muslim celebration that involved music and joy. Forbidden in the 16th century, it continued to be practiced clandestinely in the weddings, especially by the Roma communities in the caves of Sacromonte in Granada1.
Mohamed Agair - Tikchbila (197?) This song originates from a Moorish romance dating back to the 15th or 16th century. Today it is a popular children and wedding song in Morocco, Algeria, and other North African countries, but the lyrics narrate the expulsion of the Muslims from Seville and their persecution in the Iberian peninsula 11.
Cristobalina - Balcón de Flores (1974) Cristobalina was a singer born in 1936 who never dedicated herself professionally to singing. Based in the Sevillian town of Lebrija, in this track she sings bulerías, one of the most popular flamenco palos (subgenres), typical of parties and dance.
Agujetas - Siguiriya (1974) The song performed here by Agujetas is a seguiriya: a tragic, somber and painful subgenre of flamenco appearing towards the end of the 18th century which contains the basic values of pure and deep (hondo) flamenco. It expresses nothing but deep feelings, about the tragic condition of humankind1. Agujetas was a singer born into a flamenco family, oral inheritor of basic cantes and one of the most heartfelt voices in flamenco.
Lole y Manuel - Alquivira (1976) Lole y Manuel was a flamenco duo formed in 1972 by musicians Dolores Montoya and Manuel Molina Jiménez, key figures in the Flamenco modernization movement known as New Flamenco. Both deeply connected to the Maghreb region of North Africa, as Lole’s mother was born in Oran and Manuel himself was born in Ceuta, they explored the Arabic roots of flamenco in their compositions. Lole grew up listening to great figures of Egyptian music, which she sung by ear, and she even went on to perform and record with the Sono Cairo Orchestra.12.
Cheqara, José Heredia Maya - Encuentro Final (Tarara) (1983) In 1982, Cheqara meets José Heredia in Granada and develops the idea of merging the popular music of Tetouan with flamenco singing. The result of this meeting is this play, Macama Jonda, that was performed and recorded in Granada in 1983. This song, which closes the play, is the result of the mixture of La Tarara, a popular Spanish lullaby, with Bent Bledi, Cheqara’s own composition9.
