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How does the importance of singing fit into this system?
When I established the system and I sat down to start working with it without
really knowing what I was doing -I was just having fun-, I got to working on a
project that used this system and I realized that, with just a guitar, it wasn't
going to take flamenco a step ahead, because that step would be limited to the
guitar. Singing had to be involved. So the next question was whether or not singing
could fit into the complexity of the new system. I had the option of letting the
guitar take the new approach when it appeared on its own, and reverting to the
traditional approach for the accompaniment of the voice, but that wouldn't amount
to anything.
So I started to compose for the voice using the same system that I used for
the guitar. The melodies had to be based on the new system. I had to be very careful,
because these new melodies are very different from what we're used to hearing.
Before I started using the system, I was worried because, when you're not used
to a scale, you can easily use a wrong note that will take the harmony in a different
direction. When that happens, things go wrong, and you can't get back; and you're
aware the whole time that there are no reference points.
Manolo Sanlúcar and Carmen Linares
in 'Locura de Brisa y Trino' (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)
But none of that happened. I composed the melodies, I called Carmen Linares,
she put a tremendous amount of interest into the project, and she was fully aware
of how important it was. She faced all of the difficulties head on and never tried
to sidestep them. In the end, it was amazing how naturally it all came together.
She had such a strong focus that, for example, there were moments that she would
take the initiative and start to modulate towards other modes and keys. When that
kind of thing happens in classical music, the composer puts a repeating instrumental
line alongside the voice, setting down a point of reference for the singer. But
in this recording, there are moments when the guitar stops and lets the voice
take the melody into other keys.
What memories do you have of that moment when it all came together? Was
it like the end of a long search?
I feel very satisfied with the recording. This is a definitive achievement
for me; something that's beyond artistic feelings. Within the context of flamenco,
it's scholastic and at a very high musical level. I think I've managed to set
forth a series of values to be added to flamenco; for example, what I explained
about modulating into different modes and keys. Traditional flamenco doesn't do
that. At most, it modulates from major to minor, or it changes from the Andalusian
cadence to the minor mode, switching the root of flamenco harmony to the fifth
of the minor mode. That interesting approach of analyzing harmonic modulation
can also be applied to traditional flamenco.
Manolo Sanlúcar (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)
Modern flamenco guitar has looked to other cultures for harmonies, and, for
better or worse, this influence has been applied to flamenco. But this new system
provides access to a kind of flamenco with much more room for exploration, based
on flamenco itself. I haven't drawn on any other culture but flamenco. I haven't
invented anything or pulled any tricks to adapt this approach to the system of
traditional flamenco. It was a real discovery for me because I didn't set out
to find it, but once I had it, I found a way to explain why it sounded flamenco
to me, and that explanation led directly to a culture. When I saw where that explanation
was, I discovered that it led to flamenco and that it's even older than the Andalusian
cadence; that it's one of the areas that opens up a space within the Andalusian
cadence. Once I could see that, I studied it closely and established a system
in order to compose with this approach.
Is that space open to other kinds of music?
Of course. That kind of thing will happen because I'm going to continue working
on this; things have already been done with it. It's not a system that's in a
jar on a laboratory shelf. I've made a recording using this approach, and that
recording is already in the market and people are listening to it. When these
people start to interact and start to hear this approach, it will lead to a need
to incorporate it to what they're doing.
Are you teaching your students this new system?
I'm very respectful of my students and I never impose upon them my own pursuits.
But I wouldn't want them to think that I don't want to share my own ideas with
them. It's not a secret. If they want me to explain it, I'll show it to them.
I'm very cautious about this kind of thing because I don't want my disciples to
be followers. I give my students all the information that I possibly can because
I want them to fully comprehend that flamenco is a highly scholastic culture.
Improvisation is a very small part of it all. Flamenco music isn't written out
in a conservatory, but it should be, in order to transmit that information in
the future. We have to subordinate all of that to the art form, because flamenco
in itself is a discipline. That's the idea that I try to get across to people
who come to me looking for information.
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