The Flamenco Body

Author(s): William Washabaugh

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Popular Music, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Jan., 1994), pp. 75-90
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/852901 .
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Popular Music (1994) Volume 13/1. CopyIight ) 1994 Cambridge University Press
T he flamenco body
WILLIAM WASHABAUGH
Objective
T his article is part of an on-going analysis of a Spanish television documentary
series entitled Rito y Geograffa del Cante.1 T his larger on-going analysis treats the
programmes in this series as 'cultural performances'. T he programmes are
assumed to model personhood as they go about presenting information about
flamenco music. T his particular article focuses on the role of the body in these
performed models of personhood.
T he Rito programmes
T he Rito documentaries consist of about 100 half-hour programmes which were
produced by Spanish National T elevision and aired on Sunday evenings in south-
ern Spain between 23 October 1971 and 29 October 1973 (Zern 1987). T he docu-
mentaries were shot on 16mm black and white film. Filming was generally done
on location in southern Spain where flamenco artists live and perform and where
different 'flamenco forms' are popular. T he primary flamenco region is Andalusia,
and accordingly the Andalusian cities of Sevilla, Jerez de la Frontera, and Cadiz
are frequently featured in this documentary film series.
T he term 'flamenco forms' refers to the rhythmically distinct varieties of
flamenco song (henceforth cante). Flamenco forms like Solea', Alegrfa, Bulerfa,
Fandango, Malaguena, T ango, Rumba, etc. are derived from Andalusian peoples,
including Muslims, Jews, Gitanos (Gypsies), and from Latin American influences.
In different cities, towns, and villages of Andalusia, musicians cultivated these
distinct flamenco forms and, for decades, struggled to promote an appreciation of
their local forms over others. In consequence, the survey of flamenco forms in the
Rito films is also a survey of the competitive cultural life of Andalusia.
T he programme credits indicate that the documentaries were directed by
Pedro T urbica, Mario Gomez, and Jose Maria Velazquez. Flamencological know-
ledge was provided by Jose Maria Velazquez and Pedro T urbica. T he director of
photography was Federico G. Larraya. Camera work was done by Manuel Caban-
illas, Jesus Lombardia, and Alberto Beato. Juan Matias handled reproduction.
Antonio Cardenas, Rafael Viego, and Efren Gomez were the audio engineers. T he
film editors were Angelina Barragan Cabecera, Miguel Inlesta, and Manuel Gal-
indo. Aside from these few credits most of the artists and scholars who appear in
this series are unnamed.
T he programmes - I have access to eighty-nine out of the original one hun-
dred - are comprised of musical exemplifications, voice-over commentaries, and
75
76 William Washabaugh
on-screen interviews. Generally speaking, three-quarters of each programme con-
sists of musical exemplifications by a featured artist. T he remaining quarter con-
sists of voice-over commentaries and interviews conducted by Jose Maria
Velazquez.
Nearly half the programmes focus on individual artists, most of whom are
singers. Four programmes feature guitarists; no programmes in this series explore
flamenco dance, although subsequent television documentaries, produced on the
heels of this series do focus attention on flamenco dancers.
Besides those Rito programmes which focus on artists, some fourteen focus
on specific flamenco forms, providing overviews of the genesis and development
of those forms. Seven programmes are focused on geographical regions and on
the manner in which regional characteristics have influenced flamenco song.
Finally, the series includes a number of miscellaneous programmes on distinctive
aspects of flamenco, including elderly singers, very young singers, the role of
wine in the flamenco tradition, the contributions of Manuel de Falla and of Feder-
ico Garcia Lorca, the diffusion of interest in flamenco beyond southern Spain,
Christmas events, flamenco festivals, etc.
T he problem
T he voice-over commentaries and the interview segments of the Rito programmes
provide viewers with instruction in the rudiments of cante. Generally speaking,
they portray cante as a deeply spiritual practice. Such instruction would be convin-
cing and the lesson in flamenco spirituality would be persuasive except for one
condition, namely, the activity of bodies. Like a key that fits all the tumblers of a
lock except one, the Rito commentaries fail to unlock the complexity of cante
because they ignore, or repress, the raw and edgy flamenco body.
T his essay will contend that the flamenco body is central, not incidental, to
flamenco song, and that without an appreciation of the body there can be no
real appreciation of cante. T he argument will begin with a summary of the Rito
commentaries on cante. T his summary will be followed by a review of two major
conceptions of musical activity in Western society. When we compare the sum-
mary of Rito commentaries with the major Western conceptions of music, we
discover that, generally speaking, bodies are everywhere portrayed as incidental
and marginal to song.2
Rito and flamenco logy
T he commentaries and interviews of the Rito programmes encourage viewers to
think of cante as a contemplative activity. T he series presents cante as heartfelt
song and soul-stirred music. For example, in the introduction to a programme on
the form called Siguiriyas, the narrator informs viewers that 'T he themes of Siguiri-
yas refer to the most profound feelings of the Andalusian Gitano community on
the history of their personal and dramatic existence .... T hey are expressed in a
most elemental and direct form without artistic and literary presence' (Los temas
del cante Siguiriyas se refieren a los sentimientos mas profundos de ese pueblo gitano
andaluz a la historia de su existencia personal y dramatica .... estan expresadas de
la forma mas elemental y directa sin pretensiones artfsticas y literarias). Similarly the
commentary surrounding the musical performances of Manuel Agujetas tells
T he flamenco body 77
T he two sisters Fernanda y Bernarda de Utrera. (Photo by Peter Holloway)
78 William Washabaugh
viewers that 'T he song of Agujetas grows out of the whole lived world of feeling,
from the experience of infancy, right through to the everyday customs of this
neighbourhood (El cante de Agujetas se desprende de todo el mundo viviente del sentimi-
ento, desde la infancia, hasta dentro de las costumbres de este barrio).
T he 'feelings' to which these commentaries refer are said to have arisen
through chronic collective trauma and through communal experiences of pain
which extend over long periods of time. Individuals, it is said, have the seer-like
capability of resurrecting those social and historical experiences and of expressing
the emotions which those experiences have generated. For example, the pro-
gramme devoted to Pepe Nunez el de la Matrona displays the street scenes that
Matrona took in as he walked through Sevilla. T he musical backdrop to these
scenes consists of Matrona's rendition of 'Soleares'. Subsequently, the interviewer
asks Matrona, 'T he other day we were walking the streets of Seville. What did
you feel as we were walking there?' (El otro dfa estuvimos en Sevilla dando un paseo
por las calles. Que' sintio' entonces cuando estaba'mos paseando por allf?) Pepe responds,
'Joy and sadness' (alegrfa y triste), thus implying that the feelings produced during
Matrona's walk are the same feelings which dominate Matrona's song. T he joy
and sadness of Matrona's 'Soleares' are the conscious feelings that flood over him
as he walks the streets of Sevilla.
T he collective historical feelings which a singer resurrects, are supposed to
be elemental, authentic, and sincere. Cante should be unsullied by commercialism
and unaltered by considerations of popularity. T he Rito commentaries repeatedly
stress the importance of sincerity and purity in cante. For example, the Rito narrator
introduces the programme on E1 Perrate in this way: 'Success or acknowledgement
by the public at large for an artist, is greatly influenced by social circumstances
and by the aesthetic taste of the era. In the case of E1 Perrate de Utrera, his
expressive forms, canonical and pure, remain unknown or known only by a small
number of aficionados and artists, while the tendency of the public leans towards
the threatrical and the folkloric. In this programme, E1 Perrate, who has survived
in some manner the conditions described above, offers us without adulteration,
the distinctive styles of the Sevillian zone of Utrera' (El exito o reconocimiento por
parte del gran publico por un artista se influyen poderosamente por las circunstanctas
sociales y el gusto este'tico de la e'poca. En el caso de El Perrate de Utrera, sus formas
expresivas ma's cano'nicas y puras quedaron en el olvido o tan solo para una minorfa des
aficionados y artfstas, ya que la tendencia del publico entonces se vertfa hacia al teatro y al
folklore. En este programa El Perrate que en alguna manera ha mantenido vigencia, por las
circumstancias antes senaladas, nos ofrece sin ninguna adulteracio'n, los estilos propios de
la zona sevillana de Utrera).
T he Rito interviews, like the Rito commentaries, emphasise the importance
of sincerity in cante. For example, the Rito interviewer asks Pepe el de la Matrona
whether anyone can 'invent' a new form of cante. T he presumption seems to be
that invented songs are artifices and therefore less sincere than are songs sung
from memory. In another session, the interviewer asks Jose Pansequito whether
it is true that singing in clubs destroys a singer (se habla de que tablao, de alguna
manera, estropea al cantaor). In other words, the 'unnatural' setting of a tablao taints
the purity and sincerity of the singer's soulful message.
In general, the Rito programmes characterise cante as an expression of per-
sonal and historical feeling presented with candour and sincerity. Unsurprisingly,
this same portrayal dominates scholarly writings about flamenco, i.e. 'fla-
T he famenco body 79
Guitarist El Ingles and singer Paco Gil, fiom the flamenco dance company Jaleo, performing during
a tour of Britain. (Photo by Robert Holloway)
80 William Washabaugh
mencology'.3 For example, Felix Grande (1992) cites F. Garcia Lorca approvingly:
'the singer has a profound religious appreciation of the song' (el cantaor tiene un
profundo sentimiento religioso del canto). Ricardo Molina says that a singer is a 'solitary
hero' (he'roe solitario) who paves the way for the emergence of 'a new being', with
a substantial union of body and soul' (un nuevo ser, como la unio'n sustancial de
cuerpo y alma) (1981, p. 15). Singing, in this account, is a contemplative act. T his
contemplative act requires of cantaores that they establish appropriate moods
(Hecht 1968) and set their minds to the task of cutting through supeficial layers of
experience to reach an inner core of emotion.
A number of flamencologists have argued that the emotions of flamenco song
transcend the personality and the individuality of the singer. T hey are aspects of
human 'primary processes'. T hey are universals of the human collective uncon-
scious (cf. Molina 1985; Quinones 1982; Serrano and Elgorriaga 1991). Arrebola
(1991, p. 15) says that 'flamenco is universal, and at the same time Andalusian
and Spanish, because of its profound human inspiration and by reason of the
elemental force by which it directly expresses radical problems, needs and experi-
ences common to all human beings' (El f!amenco es universal, al tiempo que andaluz
y espanol, debido a su inspiracio'n profundamente humana y por la fuerza elemental con
que directamente expresa problemas radicales del hombre, sentimientos y preocupaciones,
deseos y experiencias comunes a todos los seres humanos). Quinones writes of cante that
'its basic content manifests a simple elemental force which makes it accessible to
all men' (Sus con ten idos primarios son de una elemen talidad simple que lo hace asimilable
a todos los hombres) (1982).
T hat simple elemental force, according to these flamencologists, is conveyed
in cante with sincerity above all else (Grande 1992; Molina 1981). T hat sincerity of
song is, for its part, driven by the power of duende. Duende, according to Grande,
refers to the singer's radical concentration (ensimismado) on memories, resulting in
liberation and a return to innocence:
With flamenco we endure a transformation: there is introduced into daily life, the site of
our identity, an exalted aesthetic atmosphere, which is the place of liberation. One can
summarize it in a word: communion. In flamenco, the shadow, the sorrow, the being, the
memory and the mystery of cante enter into communion . . . rescuing identity from the
daw of T ime and History, and revisiting transcendent intimacy, the paradise of innocence.
(El flamenco . . . sutrimos una transformacion: se introduce en lo cotidiano, el lugar de nuestra
identidad, una atmosfera este'tica supretna-gue es el lugar de la liberacion. Lo gue sucede puede ser
dicho con una palabra precisa: es la palabra de communion. En el flQmenco, la sombra, el dolor, el
ser, la memoria y el misterio del cante, entran en communion ....rescatarse de la identidad de la
garra del T iempo y de la Historia, y regresar al absoluto de la intimidad, al parafso de la inocencia).
(Grande 1992, p. 85)
T hus duende functions as 'a singer's hidden faculty for introducing us to the inef-
fable so as to draw us close to the ultimate mystery . . . ' (Insospechada facultad del
in te'rprete para hacernos part icipes de lo inefable para approximarnos al en igma ultimo de
lo que pretendfa expresar) (Caballero Bonald 1975, p. 67). Armed with this spiritual
power, singers probe the limits of the human condition, 'sentimientos radicales
del hombre' (Molina 1981, p. 14). T hey sing of life lived against death Fosephs
1983).
T he physical presentation of cante
T he problem with this portrayal is that it runs headlong into the jolting physicality
of the Rito exemplifications of cante. T he comments on profound feeling, collective
T he f!amenco body 81
memory, and sincerity of song in the Rito programmes and in the writings of
flamencologists
may be instructive and valuable, but these comments are helpless
at best, and more often confusing, in the face of the physical punch of the recorded
examples of cante.
T he sheer diversity of bodies of the Rito singers is unsettling. Some flamenco
bodies are harsh and daunting, some are languid and fluid, some are old and stiff
and barely capable of uttering a sound, some are portly without apology. Some
bodies, e.g. young Montoya in the programme devoted to children, are so young
and bright and smooth as to seem incapable of bearing the frightful weight of the
sounds they emit.
But even more unsettling than the physical diversity of singers is the move-
ments and actions which those diverse bodies produce. When Manuel Agujetas,
La Fernanda de Utrera, Manuel Soto 'Sordera', and Antonio Mairena sing, their
fists are clenched and their muscles are raw and straining. 'T he hands are like an
instrument in themselves,
which extend, join, retract, then suddenly punch, as if
they were appendages or springs responding to every emphasis and inflection of
the voice' (Woodall 1992, p. 106). Sometimes these singers seem to be doubled
over in pain, as if they had just had the wind knocked out of them. At other
times, they seem to be caught up in a birthing labour.
T he Rito commentators
and the majority of flamenco scholars typically
respond to the pained body of a singer with comments about the meaning of the
singer's pain. As such, the flamenco commentaries
miss the mark. T hey fail to
recognise the centrality of the body in the Rito exemplifications.
T hey fail too to
understand that cante might very well operate best when it communicates
nothing,
and when it expresses pain that has no meaning. T he persistent efforts of com-
mentators to attribute meaning to what has no meaning might, in the end, only
serve to further marginalise the bodies which singers seem bent on centralising.
T he Rito commentators
end up marginalising the bodies of singers because
they generally subscribe to Western conceptions of music. T hese conventional
conceptions of music are longstanding,
and they have been at work marginalising
bodies in social life from times in advance of the emergence of flamenco song. In
other words, the Rito commentators,
together with the flamencologists
on whom
they have relied, have simply followed some well travelled channels of interpreta-
tion. T hey have taken for granted what most Westerners have taken for granted
before them, namely, that bodies are marginal to song.
T his essay argues that cante - at least some cante - resists dominant Western
musical conventions which regard the body as marginal. Cante centralises the body
that is conventionally
marginalised (cf. Stam 1989, p. 163). T his resistance to the
conventions of Western music is misunderstood
or ignored in the Rito commentar-
ies. My aim is to respond to the Rito commentaries
by unearthing and examining
the historical roots of the Western marginalisation
of bodies and then by reflecting
on the central role of the body in cante.
Song and the body
T he social act of singing, like that of speaking, is variable and heterogeneous
. . .
necessarily and unavoidably.
Singing is heteroglossic and irrepressibly
diverse in
form and practice, from place to place, and from person to person (Bakhtin 1981).
T he variability of song is never lost in any society, but it can be overshadowed
by
institutional constraints (Middleton 1989). Specifically, institutional constraints can
82 William Washabaugh
encourage musical uniformity while discouraging what might otherwise be a
musical gallimaufry.
Variability is institutionally overshadowed and discouraged in surprisingly
concrete ways, as Goffman illustrates in his discussion of the shaping of conversa-
tions between patrons and ticket vendors at the movies (1983). T he ticket vendor's
box, with its hole strategically placed for speaking and trading money, stands in
for words, channelling conversation to a speedy end. T he architecture of the ticket
booth is a concrete institutional constraint which encourages patrons to rush for-
ward with a curt word, 'T wo please!'
T he 'official' institutions in the Middle Ages constrained song and song inter-
pretation, streamlining them through concrete devices along specific paths. Any
song that deviated from those paths was hidden and muted. However, heterog-
lossic song persisted on the margins of social life. Like the grass that grows persist-
ently in the cracks of a concrete sidewalk, diverse songs continually arose to chal-
lenge the constraints of officialdom and to reassert the heteroglossia of song in
particular and of social life in general (Bakhtin 1981).
Modern Western social life, no less than medieval life, involves tensions
between mainstream social forces that resolve diversity into uniformity and coun-
tervailing forces that encourage heteroglossia. However, the power of mainstream
forces has increased during the modern period (Stallybrass and White 1986). With
respect to music, the emergence of the performing stage - and subsequently audio
and video recordings (Corbett 1990) - is a primary concrete force which resolves
diversity into uniformity.
T he performing stage became a complex institution in the mid-nineteenth
century, usurping all prior aspects of popular music and redefining them according
to its own institutional parameters (Middleton 1989, p. 13). After 1850, popular
performers were distinguished from audiences. Stars became highly-paid profes-
sionals in contradistinction to amateurs. New roles were defined, including
'coaches' who trained the professionals to perform properly, and 'claques' who
trained audiences to respond properly (Attali 1987). And in all these roles, uni-
formity prevailed over diversity. By the end of the nineteenth century, it was very
difficult to maintain an awareness of the diverse range of possibilities of popular
song.
T he performing stage generally succeeded in channelling musical activity
along two paths. First and on the one hand, the stage played up a concept of
song which had been cultivated in the Roman Church, and which subsequently
encouraged universalist-communalist interpretations of music. Second and on the
other hand, the stage played up a concept of song which had been cultivated in
Protestantism, and which subsequently encouraged interpretations of songs as
competitive accomplishments of individuals. T hese two narrow channels of mutual
interpretation came to dominate musical activity by the end of the nineteenth
century, and, I will show, they have dominated commentaries on cante.
Communal song
T he first channel encouraged social relations in which individuals gave themselves
over to the performance of traditional and transcendentally significant roles. Greg-
orian plain chant exemplifies this form of song in which an individual's behaviour
is constrained by traditional roles in service to the sacred. Specifically, plain chant
T he flamenco body 83
is sung by a group in a monotone. Unlike polyphonic music which highlights
the distinctive contributions of different voices, plain chant aims to eradicate the
distinctions between individual voices. Chanters are to blend their voices so com-
pletely that listeners hear one voice only. T hus the attention of listeners is diverted
from the heterogeneity of the singers. Moreover, plain chant is sung in such a
way as to deny, in practice, the limitations of the body. In contrast to singing in
which phrases are matched to the lung capacity of singers, the singing of plain
chant proceeds without regard to breath groups. Chanters are advised to take
breaths anywhere but at phrase junctures. T he resulting song with its randomly
distributed breathing seems to be a single endlessly swelling voice unfettered by
normal bodily requirements.
Listeners, for their part, are encouraged to hear a
disembodied voice rather than a voice constrained by physical limitations.
By the nineteenth century, this mode and model of musical activity was
secularised, that is, emptied of its religious significance. Courtly music in Britain,
France and Germany was celebrated as a disembodied music whose form approx-
imated the structure of human reason (Barry 1987). Romantic writers at the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century embraced this music as a vehicle through which
the universal spirit might express a rationality which individual bodies, in their
contingency and concreteness, could never know: 'Unknown to me', writes Words-
worth, 'the workings of my spirit thence are brought' (Barry 1987, p. 131).
T his characterisation
of music as a vehicle for tapping an invisible and univer-
sal wellspring of meaning, has served as a powerful model of and for modern
social relations. According to this model, singers, though apparently independent
of each other, are capable of being joined by abstract universal ties. Songs operate
like the myths described by Joseph Campbell. T hey recover the abstract universal
ties which invisibly bind humans together. A singer is a hero who searches out
the forces in 'Mind-at-Large'
(Campbell 1972) thereby joining scattered individuals
into a seamless community. Song, understood along these lines, is a utopian pro-
ject. As a staged spectacle, it seeks to draw performers and audiences together to
form a perfect unity.
T his 'communal song' model has influenced the interpretation of cante in the
Rito programmes.4 For one thing, Rito narrations frequently characterise flamenco
as distinctly communal song. T he anonymous authoritative narrator in the pro-
gramme on T angos, says: 'In Gitano celebrations, the festive song - T angos,
Romances, Alborea's, Bulerfas - is one of the elements which lends coherence to these
reunions. Only in these situations of communal participation is there produced
songs with such an abundance of freedom'. (Dentro de las celebraciones gitanas, el
cante festero - T angos, Romances, Alborea's, Bulerfas - es uno de los elementos que da
cohesio'n a estas reuniones. Solo en estas situationes de participacio'n comunitaria se produce
el cante con toda largueza de libertad). With a similar tone, the programme on Soleares
offers this comment on the characteristics of the Soleares of Alcala: 'T he principal
characteristic of Soleares of Alcala is that . . . it is not a personal but a popular
creation with an unmistakable mark' (La caracterfstica principal de los Soleares de Alcala
es que . . . no es un cante de creacio'n personal sino popular con sello propio inconfundible).
More striking still is the stylised characterisation
of communal ties in the
programme which focuses on the Christmas-time festivities in the family of Manuel
Soto 'Sordera'. At one point late in the programme the family is singing and
dancing Bulerfas when suddenly the voice of La Nina de los Peines, perhaps the
most renowned of all cantaoras, is ghosted in over the sound track in perfect syn-
84 William Washabaugh
chrony with the rhythm being played at this Soto family reunion. T he suggestion,
which is advanced by this overlain sound track, is that communal celebrations are
potent enough to revive ties to the past. T he community that sings together, stays
together not only in the present but through time as well. In other words, cante
is an expression of universal emotions springing from communal memories which,
when unearthed, liberate singers from 'the claw of time and history'.
Competitive song
Western song and music was institutionally channelled along a second path which
also influences contemporary interpretations of cante. T his second path assumes
song to be a competitive expression of individuality (cf. T urner 1984, p. 174). Along
this channel, songs spring from individual artists for the purpose of validating
their personhood vis-a-vis other individuals. A song is inscribed onto the singer's
voice and then sent out into the marketplace for competition and validation. T here,
through that disembodied voice, the singer vicariously competes with others. T he
vicarious competition of songs forms a community of sorts among singers. How-
ever, the communal relations realised through such song are indirect rather than
face-to-face, and they are marked by competition rather than unanimity.
T he linkage between such competitive musical practice and Protestant theo-
logy is nicely illustrated in a recent film portraying the lives of St Colombe and
Marin Marais in the second half of the seventeenth century, T ous Les Matins du
Monde. T his film (and not necessarily the actual behaviour of St Colombe and
Marin Marais) models and celebrates a mode of producing and interpreting music
which assumes individuals to be gifted, to one degree or another, and charged
with a moral responsibility for cultivating that gift. St Colombe, an ascetic
reformer, builds a hut off in the woods where he practices at his viol for fifteen
hours a day. So committed is he to his music that he forgets his child-care respons-
ibilities. Viewers are encouraged to believe that the responsibility for developing
God-given musical talents supercedes any responsibility for cultivating physical
ties to others.
T his mode of interpreting modern song as both symbol and carrier of per-
sonhood gained popularity at the same time as body-cosmetics, and for the same
reasons. 'Cosmetic practices are indicative of a new presentation of self in a society
where the self is no longer lodged in formal roles but has to be validated through
a competitive public space' (T urner 1984, p. 174). T he actions of singing and of
putting on lipstick both serve the individual by enabling him or her to cultivate a
self which can compete in the marketplace of public life.
T he Rito interpretations of cante bear numerous marks of influence from this
second channel of song interpretation. Pepe Marchena struts about in natty dress,
with ascot, cigar, and a variety of stylish hats, singing for adoring audiences,
claiming to be a walking encyclopaedia of the art of flamenco (yo soy un enciclopedia
de las cosas del arte). T he question asked of him by Jose Maria Velazquez presup-
poses a world in which a distinctive talent like Marchena's might well succeed in
the musical marketplace and also validate personal worth: 'Can one speak of a style
created by Pepe Marchena?' (Se puede hablar de un estilo hecho por Pepe Marchena?).
Marchena responds to this question saying that his distinctive style consists in his
improvements and advances of all things flamenco.
Similarly, Camaron de la Isla, who is presented in a recording studio rather
T he flamenco body 85
than in intimate gatherings, is described as an artist bent on breaking away from
the pack, and forging new canons of flamenco art:
Nowadays many young singers set their sights on revising the traditions of flamenco that
have persisted up to the present. Perhaps the most significant of these is Jose Monge Cruz
'E1 Camaron'. He has revolutionized
the established canons. His very personal style is
distinct from others both in musical form and expressivity. T hus Camaron is a singer who
has captured the attention of the most important record companies. His recordings are as
successful as those of any other popular singer.
(Hoy en dia son muchos los cantaores jovenes gue intentan renovar las fradiciones flamencas
seguidas hasta ahora. Quiza' el ma's significativo de todos sea lose' Monge Cruz 'El Camaro'n'. El ha
revolucionado los ca'nones establecidos. Su estilo muy personal se distingue de los dema's, fanto en su
forma musical como expresiva. Por eso Camaron es un cantaor gue ha capEado la atencio'n de las ma's
imporEantes casas de discos. Sus grabaciones suceden con la misma frecuencia gue las de cualquier
cantante de las u'ltimas dias).
Here again is highlighted the idea that personal talents can be packaged for success
in the competitive world of music redounding to the credit of the artist. T he idea
is consistent with the conception of 'music as competition'.
On the whole, Rito encourages viewers to adopt one of two modes of inter-
preting cante. Viewers are led to see cante as a communal song in which individual-
ity is submerged, or viewers are led to see cante as an individual song through
which the artist breaks free of a stultifying community. With either mode of inter-
preting cante, a special emphasis is placed on spiritual ties and gifts. T hat special
emphasis results in the marginalisation
of the singer's body.
With an emphasis on spirits rather than on bodies, the Rito programmes are
generally unable to come to grips with the corporeal presence of singers in the
Rito films. Manuel Agujetas, Manuel Soto 'Sordera', Antonio Mairena, la Fernanda
de Utrera, La Perrata, Maria La Sabina, Diego E1 Perote and Juan T alega are singers
that come across as bodies first and foremost. T heir songs do not merely use their
voices, as if their voices were instruments of song. T heir songs are their voices. In
the Rito films, the songs of these singers are their bodies.
In sum, the two major Western paths for interpretation,
i.e. communal song
and competitive song, cannot account for the raw and edgy physicality of the Rito
exemplifications
of cante. Flamencologists
tell us that cante is an act which tran-
scends the physical in its quest to reveal universal sentiments, in its quest to
liberate the spirit. Or they tell us that singers are solitary heroes whose songs
spring from a unique combination of physical strength, personal insight, and creat-
ive genius. But neither of these modes of interpreting cante helps viewers to
appreciate the raw corporality of Rito songs. Neither addresses adequately the
flamenco body.
Cante and the flamenco body
Let us therefore focus on the flamenco body. T he remainder of this article will
argue that the flamenco body, when caught up in cante, steps outside both conven-
tional Western song models.
We can begin our inquiry into the flamenco body by searching out the origin
of cante. It should be noted, however, that this search for flamenco origins -
is quite different from the searches for ethnic roots, historical precedents and
genealogical affiliations which have prevailed in flamencological
literature. Our
question asks about the forces which have encouraged cante to step outside of the
86 William Washabaugh
modern Western song conventions. It asks about the social conditions in which
singers began to behave in ways normally suppressed in Western social life. With
its focus on the corporality of cante, this question asks about the origin of a practice
rarely associated with Western song.
T he force which prompts the distinctive practice of Flamenco singers is frus-
tration and failure. Mitchell (1988, 1990, 1991) has outlined the impact of chronic
economic and political failures and oppressions which, starting in the sixteenth
century, robbed Andalusians of autonomy and gave rise to a culture of victimage.
He has documented the relationship between the historical experience of failure,
and the emergence of provincialisms, the scapegoating practices, the blood sports,
the emotional religiosity of Holy Week, the penitential cofradias, the pilgrimages,
etc.
Why does frustration and failure breed the sort of practice which is character-
istic of Andalusian culture in general and of cante flamenco in particular? I suggest
that we search for an answer to this question in the behaviour of persons caught
up in bodily failures.
Bodies in pain turn their attention inward (Leder 1990). When in pain, indi-
viduals truncate their customary outgoing (ecstatic) attention, and begin exploring,
feeling, and exclaiming about internal realities which, in the normal course of
activity, are invisible and, for all practical purposes, absent. Bodily failures prompt
extended and repeated monologues of self-examining body-talk.
T he inwardly directed, self-examining expressions which arise on occasions
of pain and death, are often non-functional. T heir hallmark is their uselessness.
Often enough, such expressions do not even seek out a listener. Consider, for
example, the radio commentary presented on the occasion of the crash of the
Hindenburg dirigible, 6 May 1937:
I don't believe . . . I can't even talk to people whose friends are out there. It's a . . . (sobs),
I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen, honest. It's a laid-down mass of smoking wreakage, and
everybody can hardly breathe. I'm sorry; honest, I can hardly breathe. I'm going to step
inside where I cannot see it. Scotty, that's terrible. (sobs) I can't. Listen, folks, I'm going
to have to stop for a minute because I've lost my voice. (as quoted in Nichols 1991, p. 220)
T he Hindenburg commentator had turned radically inward. He forsakes all hope
of describing the events before him. Instead his words serve to bemoan his own
failing state. His 'I can't talk' is not intended to represent anything or even express
anything. T he commentator's emotional agitation is so great that he has disen-
gaged himself from the essential features of the communication process, even from
the listener. His words are directed to no one in particular and have no identifiable
purpose to serve.
In their uselessness, the expressions of bodies-in-pain are exceptional. T hey
deviate from the institutionally established channels which recommend that
expressions serve as 'conduits of meaning' (Lakoff and Johnson 1980; Lee 1992,
p. 80), that they be directed to a listener, and that they transfer some useful
information or sentiment from the speaker to the listener. Stepping outside of the
institutionally recommended channels for expressing themselves, individuals in
pain are often oblivious to listeners as they focus inward and direct their attentions
to their own bodies. T hey deviate from institutionally approved modes of
speaking.
T he singers in the Rito programmes behave in a fashion similar to the Hinden-
T he flamenco body 87
burg commentator. Like the Hindenburg commentator, Manuel Agujetas, singing
Siguiriyas, is focused inward. His whole-body expression is devoted to the task of
presenting internal realities which are normally held aside and assumed to be
absent from everyday affairs. Not that his self-presentations are supposed to do
anything or even mean anything. T hey are not. Rather they are distinctively non-
functional and uninformative. Like the Hindenburg commentator, Agujetas is
using his expressive force to introduce his own failed body into the landscape of
disasters which is Andalusia.
Cante resists the rules that govern conventional communicative expressions.
For one thing, the cantaor is often surprised by what comes out of his mouth.
'T hings come out of me that I wasn't expecting would come out of me' (me salen
cosas que yo no esperaba que me salieran - Jose Menese quoted in Angel Caballero
(1981, p. 172)).
Flamencologists, operating with understandings that are consistent with con-
ventional Western conceptions of music, have generally failed to appreciate the
uninformative and unintentional nature of such cante quejEo. Diaz del Moral com-
plains that 'there never appears [in cante] any rebellious uprising, any revolution-
ary impulse, or any urgency for political, social or economic reform' (no aparece por
ninguna parEe un brote de rebeldia, un impulso revolucionario, una ansia de redencio'n
polSica, social o econo'mica (as summarised by Molina 1985, p. 49). Herrero (1991, p.
118) describes cante as 'hermetic' song. In contrast to jazz, flamenco is closed off,
hidden, introverted, and in danger, therefore, of self-suffocation. Gelardo and
Belade (1985) contend that Andalusian flamenco became, over the past 150 years,
toothless. It lost the grit of resistance and the bite of protest during the decadent
period of the cafe's cantantes when, little by little, it was sweetened to please the
tastes of the middle classes. Earlier song involved wrenching accounts of life in
prison, but the sweetened moan of the cafe' cantante substituted the softer themes
of death and mother for the gritty theme of life in the prison (ibid., p. 133). In
sum, cante quejEo has been criticised as quietistic and self-indulgent.
Such criticisms take for granted the authority of dominant Western modes
of interpreting song. T hey fail to see that cante quejEo is itself a resistance. T hey fail
to understand that the 'uselessness' of cante is its sharpest challenge to an oppress-
ive institutional order which demands that expressions be communicatively useful.
Cante quejEo floods the floor with the 'wonder' of a failed body, leaving wit-
nesses awestruck and bewildered (Greenblatt 1990, pp. 161ff.), raising awareness
levels and producing exhilaration. Cante quejEo gives pleasure rather than meaning
(Frith 1988, p. 115; Middleton 1989, p. 261). It is a voice music, 'the materiality of
the body speaking its mother tongue' (Barthes 1977, p. 188). T he words used by
Barthes (ibid., p. 181) to describe the sounding body of a Russian church bass
apply equally well to the sounding body of a cantaor:
Something is there, manifest and stubborn, beyond the meaning of the words, their form,
the melisma, and even the style of execution: something which is directly the cantor's body
brought to your ears in one and the same movement from deep down in the cavities, the
muscles, the membranes.
Commentators may persist in asking about the meaning of such cante, treat-
ing songs as semantic and representational expressions. However, the persistence
is itself oppressive because it pressures cantaores to conform to conventional and
normal modes of musical practice. Like the persistent search of psychologists for
88 William Washabaugh
meaning and information in expressions of sorcery or possession or ecstasy (de
Certeau 1988, pp. 250ff.), the search for meaning and information in cante effec-
tively denies the Otherness of cantaores and assimilates their voices to mainstream
voices. T his persistent search for meaning in cante resolves the problematic
Otherness of the cantaor by dissolving it into a normality, and in the process
'stamping out the popular manifestations of the body' (Greenblatt 1990, p. 79).
Cante quejEo resists conventional modes of musical interpretation. However,
that is not to say that cante quejEo is therefore a general tool of political resistance. It
would be dangerous and ultimately oppressive (Grossberg 1992, p. 94) to attribute
general political significance to cante as if it were an 'anti-structural' force (T urner
1969), or a 'tactic' (de Certeau 1984), or 'a countervailing form of positive body
awareness' (Leder 1990, p. 153), or a 'hidden transcript' of resistance (Scott 1990),
or, as I argued under a pseudonym (Doe 1988, p. 220), a 'language of resistance'.
Rather, cante, like other popular manifestations of the body, is politically ambigu-
ous (Crowley 1989). Its political valence is negotiated in the concrete events of
presentation and uptake.
T elevising cante
T he negotiation of the general value of cante has less to do with the intrinsic
character of cante quejEo as a popular manifestation of the body, than with the
juxtaposition of cante with other expressions. Specifically when cante is put together
with the television medium in the Rito programmes, viewers are encouraged to
respond to cante as conventional song. T he video medium reframes cante as con-
ventional song, and the Rito commentaries encourage the interpretation of cante
as either 'communal' or 'competitive'. Cante on television comes off as normal song.
Meaning is returned to centre stage. Corporality is consigned to the wings. Reyn-
olds (1990, p. 82) would describe this process as a sell-out and not unlike the
sell-out of 'soul' music.
Soul was once - a very long time ago - the sound of a psyche breaking up, shattered by
desire or loss - a wracked catharsis, an ailing, dejected broken sound, essentially tragic.
T oday, soul has become a token of strength of feeling, of strength of being. Beige popsters
take a vicarious pride in the slow baptism of fire that their chosen genre and its protagonists
underwent. Beige vocalists admire and envy the blacks' for being more in touch with their
emotions, their bodies, the unfettered ignorance of their self-expression . . . Beige vocalists
attempt to construct an erstaz black body to signify, what? Health! T he vocal dexterity,
vigour and power of the soul man amount to . . . passion as workout! In our culture, which
sets such a high premium on self-enrichment, the robust, emotive and expressive aspects
of soul act as a sort of therapy, helping us to 'liberate' ourselves by getting back in touch
with ourselves, opening up, unblocking, becoming more functional and therefore (it runs)
more free.
Conclusion
In the documentary series Rito y Geografia del Cante, flamenco song is interpreted
and portrayed as meaningful song. cante is presented as a spiritual journey to the
heart of the human condition. T his handling of cante, while edifying, fails to
account for its physicality. Specifically, the singers in the Rito programmes advance
a corporality which is conventionally consigned to the margins of musical experi-
ence. T he intensity and diversity of singers' bodies overshadows the allegedly
spiritual mission of cante.
T he flamenco body 89
In this essay I have argued that bodies occupy a central rather than a marginal
place in the Rito examples of cante. T he singer's words and intentions suddenly
become secondary, and the singer's body, sounding itself, obtrudes into the
musical event, wondrous and awesome. As such, cante is a site of resistance to
conventional notions of song, and, potentially at least, to conventional models of
personhood.
Promising though this 'marginocentric' resistance may be, the promise is
compromised by the filmic condition of cante in the Rito series. T he presentation
of the Rito films on television reframes cante as conventional song and encourages
viewers to ascribe meaning and significance to meaningless bodies.
Still in all, flamenco song is a diverse and shifting experience. T he document-
ary television programmes of the Rito series cannot put limits on flamenco song
or fix its place in human affairs. Viewers are constantly revising their responses
to cante - and to each other through cante - with each viewing and with each
. .
muslca experlence .
Endnotes
1 T his article is part of a larger project of under-
standing the Rito films. My project of under-
standing these films began with translations of
the narrative and interview materials in the Rito
programmes and with analyses of the objectives
towards which the words and images in the Rito
films have been organised. But beyond the
focused activities of translation and analysis,
this project involves reconsiderations of ethno-
graphy, documentary film, and flamenco music
in the light of contemporary social theory. My
plan is to publish the results of the project in a
single volume.
My thanks to Brook Zern, to Professor
Dieter Christensen of Columbia University, and
to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Lib-
rary. T heir collaboration made it possible for me
to gain access to Rito y Geograffa del Cante. Also
I thank T imothy Mitchell, David Monroe, and
especially Catherine Washabaugh for their sup-
port and criticism.
2 T he marginalised role of the body in conven-
tional commentaries on song parallels the mar-
ginalised role of the body in commentaries on
drama. Specifically, conventional commentaries
on Greek tragedies, which focus on spleens and
humours, persist in interpreting spleens as
emotions and bodily fluids as states of mind,
thereby marginalising the body in Greek tra-
gedy (Padel 1992).
3 Scholarly writing on flamenco has been labelled
'flamencologia', in the wake of the landmark
book Flamencologia (Gonzalez Climent 1964).
T hese 'flamencological' writings tend to be gen-
etic and classificatory histories with emphases
on the oral traditions of Andalusia in general,
or on the contributions of Gitanos, or on the
specific contributions of Andalusian provinces,
or on the musical influence of Hispano-
America. Some contemporary and comprehens-
ive contributions to this literature include Rios
Ruiz (1991), Woodall (1992) and the forthcom-
ing work of T imothy Mitchell.
4 Interestingly, it has often been said that cante
bears marks of influence from Gregorian plain
chant. For example, the Rito programme on the
form T ona's, probably one of the very earliest
programmes in the series, implies such influ-
ence in its presentation of plain chant in the
audio track behind scenes that aim to depict a
formative period of flamenco. German Herrero
(1991, p. 31), Hipolito Rossy (1966, pp. 39ff.),
and Jose Caballero Bonald (1975, p. 20) all make
explicit reference to this influence, though none
of these scholars provides unambiguous histor-
ical documentation for the linkage between
Gregorian chant and cante.
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