1, Introduction
“ By the documents contributed in: A Su Paso por Sevilla, minimum part of the contents; it is not exaggerate to state that during this tempestuos time of the 19th century, Sevilla was the center, the capital of the art even though the most of its distinguished minds ignore it, reject it and condemn it.” José Luís Ortiz Nuevo – 1996
When we start to read a common book about the flamenco, it is not rare to discover 2 recurrent elements: the moment of the birth of flamenco and, it is not so constant but usual, what we understand by flamenco, how far does it gets, and if “ the other” is really the other or not. They are not going to be our concerns, even though we will maintain the general theories about the first question, with a singular look about what it is, how one organizes and which are its economic relations; and an open attitude about the second question, dealing the one that the “people” consider as flamenco.
To document it, we will be basing on words of different flamenco artists who state it through his / her relation with the economic vision of this art.
As an artistic genre of Andalucía, which creation started during first half of the 19th century, the flamenco corresponds to the needs of identification of the modern Andalucian society, together with certain traditional and cultural expressions.
This duality between the tradition and the innovation, between the “ purity” and the “fusion”, characterizes the cultural critic conditions of the creation of flamenco music: it does not only explains the repeated attempts of intellectuals and politics to turn it into an unmistakable sign and “jonda ( deepness )” of the Andalucian identity, by means of resources of the “blood” and the “earth”, but also its obvious ambiguity, caused by the vitality of a genre which is anchored in the tradition, and the corresponding polemic among the enthusiasts, generated as a result of its dinamic and artistic avant- garde, on the one hand, and its canonization as cultural value, on the other. 1
We can judge the flamenco in its origins of agricultural roots, and more if we consider, like different authors, that a period of preflamenco exists. But in its development and professionalization it turns into an urban art, and is going to have some singular infrastructures or adaptations for its evolution and confirmation. Fernando Quiñónez used to comment: “ The actual lines of cante flamenco were basically outlined in the 18th century and incubated in the previous centuries”.
We find the first shows that contain flamenco in the theaters of the period. José Luís Ortiz Nuevo in ¿Se sabe algo?2 talks about them and the programs they used to perform. The Flamenco was performed in what we could call shows of varieties, and also in the ballrooms. As Charles Davillier comments in his Viaje por España (1862) “... the dances which they perform sometimes in some establishments that take the title of academies and dance schools. Their directors never stop sending advertising programs to the hotels or the guest houses.”
1, Steingress, Gerhard: The trasncultural hybrid as a key of the formation of the New Flamenco ( historical – sociological, analytic and comparative aspects). Magazine Transcultural de Música nº8 – 2004
2, Ortiz Nuevo, José Luís: ¿ Se Sabe Algo? Viaje al conocimiento del Arte Flamenco in the newspaper of Sevilla of the19th century, Editions El Carro de Nieve, Sevilla, 1990.
Bibliography: La Economía Sevillana del Flamenco ( Jan. 2009 )
In the middle of the 19th century, and due to the different circumstances, some people who are not alien to the existing mode in Europe, start up the Cafés Cantantes. The first one about which we have information in Sevilla is Los Lombardos, opened in 1842. Those places are one step forward for the professionalization of the different artists who are going to compose the flamenco shows, and a clarification of the different roles that the performers are going to represent there. The cantaor ( singer ) makes his way together with the guitarist, who at the same time keeps monopolizing the place of different instruments of accompaniment, like bandurria, violin, castanets, bells, crótalos and tambourines. The dance loses its place of presence and integrates, or is not performed, depending on the types of shows. The Cafés Cantantes worked with various passes, which made it necessary for them to have different teams of artists, and that made it easy for artists to professionalize since they got paid by show or by day.
This circumstance collaborated so that the comparison, which the audience could make about the quality of the different performers, happens in a very short period of time. The audience demonstrated it by visiting the tablao more or less, and that produced a variation in the incomes of the place, as well as the incomes of the artists. Here we pick up a comment of the period made by Antonio Chacón. 1 We used to perform in the tablao, Enrique el Mellizo was earning 80 pesetas a night with his tocador ( guitarist ) the master Tapia; and I was earning 7 pesetas with the master Patiño. He sings a copla ( Spanish popular fork song ) of Seguiriya and then I sing Malagueña. The discussions of these 2 performances last a while, and then he returns, and again, the kid ( they used to call me the kid ).
1, El liberal de Sevilla. Interview of Antonio Chacón done by the journalist Agustín López Macias ( Galerín ), published July the 9th, 1922.
Bibliography: La Economía Sevillana del Flamenco ( January 2009 )
The proliferation of the Cafés Cantantes all over Spain, many of them in Andalucía, made the flamenco artists to go one place to the other depending on his / her success and on his / her capacity of pulling in audiences, like Galerín relates us. 1
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, the flamenco artists were already diversifying their work, and were considering the foreign markets, not only for spreading the art, but also for the economic survival of the artists and the companies they formed. They did tours to Central and South America, following the route of the steamships that used to leave from Barcelona and Sevilla, and arrived to Buenos Aires passing through La Habana.
Also, the artists could be seen in the World Fairs: in the one in Chicago 1893 and the one in Paris 1889. We have information from the investigations of Ortiz Nuevo that for the Fair of 1900 2 the guitarist Rafael Martín de El Pedroso (1862) was hired, and there, people could see a showing of the Lumiére brothers about Baile Español.
1, In Cádiz, one could earn a lot of money?
So-so. I was 16 years old and people used to cheat with one becauseof the age. From Cádiz I moved to Utrera, to a café which el Junquera, who paid me 6 reales and fired me before, had. This time, he gave me 60 reales. In Utrera I saved some money, and I escaped to Sevilla. I went to Filarmónico. Some acquaintances “asked me”, and I went to the tablao to sing. They hired me.
And the impresario from Utrera?
He got mad. He came to Sevilla and caught me. He returned Mr. Andrés González, the owner of Filarmónico, 5 onzas that I got paid, and I returned to Utrera. From there I moved to Cádiz, in a theater that was in la Puerta Ontamana. I got paid 60 reales. Silverio came for me in Cádiz and hired me for 65 reales for the café he had in calle Rosario, Sevilla.
Long time with Silverio?
Yes. They sucked me up. I think they amended the contract, and where it said 1 month, they put 9, and I sand in Silverio for 9 months running. From Silverio I went to Málaga, to the café Siete Revueltas, for 5 duros a day. This was the year’87. I worked for a month and went back to Sevilla, to Buerrero. After 2 months, to Málaga again, to the café Chinita, this time for 8 duros. It is true that I used to sing in a café which was not “cantante”, El Universal, where I got paid 14 duros a day. I remember that the local newspapers used to call me “bandido (bandit)” because I was getting paid 22 duros a day. And nowadays, anyone earns 200 pesetas or more in a tablao!
2, Diccionario de Flamenco cinterco
Bibliography: La Economía Sevillana del Flamenco ( Jan. 2009 )
The trips to Europe become more habitual. Antonio Mairena tells 1 that Faico ( Francisco Mendoza, bailaor ) had been on tour in Russia, where the 1st World War surprised him, and he had to stay there until the war ended and could return. Vicente Escudero appears in London and Antonia Mercé La Argentina performs in the National Theater of the Comical Opera with her group Ballets Españoles in 1929, during 2 months, presenting her show Triana. Los Chavalillos Sevillanos ( Antonio and Rosario ) were hired in 1928 for the International Fair of Leija, and in 1937 they went on tour in North America, where they stayed for 12 years, even performing for some time in the hall of the Festival of the Waldorf Astoria.
1, Garcia Ulecia, Alberto: Las Confesiones de Antonio Mairena. Service of publications of the University of Sevilla, Sevilla 1976
At the end of the 19th century, people start the recordings of flamenco. First with wax cylinders – some of them have been preserved until today, and have been recovered and copied. These will help us to know the cantes of the moment with the quality that the existing techniques could obtain – Antonio Chacón commented about this to Galerín: In the year 1899, I recorded 11.700 cylinders for the phonograph for a company from Valencia. Borrul played the guitar. I got paid 32.000 duros for it. I had to pay the guitarist [...] before I did it in Sevilla, with an English man, who later turned out to be an "American spy". For him, about 500 cylinders, for 2 duros each. Later in Madrid, I recorded for the English man "in question" 1000 cylinders, for 5 duros each.
"Sevilla was enjoying a great atmosphere of flamenco at the beginning of the 20th century, even though neither el Café de Silverio nor El Burrero existed any more; however, El Novedades, Filarmónico, El Suizo and San Agustín were at their peak. Also, many fiestas were organized in private places and ventas ( places established on the road or uninhabited as a restaurant or / and accomodations of travellers ) like El Pasaje del Duque, Las Delicias, Venta Eritaña, etc. And during those period of Sevilla flamenca, the best of flamenco art happened, inevitably: Juan Breva, La Macarrona, Paco el Sevillano, La Malena, Diego Antúnez, Ramón el Ollero, Chacón, Medina el Viejo, La Serrana, Pepa Oro, Antonio el Portugués..., and it was a period of the first artistic steps of la Niña de los Peines, Manuel Torres, El Niño Gloria, Fernando el Herrero, Pepe el de la Matrona, Rafael Pareja, Niño de Cabra, Manuel Escacena, El Niño Medina..." 1
"In Sevilla, people always lived the flamenco as a natural phenomenon. And when we talk about this subject, it is precise to distinguish the city of Sevilla from its flamenco area par excellence: Triana. Likewise, we must mention especially about the villages of Sevilla and in specifically, about Alcalá, Lebrija and Utrera." 2
1, Arrebola , Alfredo: Bernardo el de los lobitos, pag. Internet. www.folcloreyflamenco.com
2, Internet, without datas of reference
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