4. The reevaluation of flamenco. The Concurso de Cante Jondo in Granada

A milestone in the reevaluation of flamenco was the celebration of the Concurso de Cante Jondo (singing contest) in Granada in 1922. It was promoted by numerous intellectuals such as Manuel de Falla and Federico García Lorca, along with Andrés Segovia, Fernando de los Ríos, and Manuel Angeles Ortiz. The event provoked an intense debate among enthusiasts and detractors (led by Eugenio Noel and Francisco de Paula Valladar), and was widely covered by the press at the time. The organizers sought a way to revitalize certain core singing styles that they thought were on the verge of disappearing, due to the hostile atmosphere in Spain towards flamenco.

From an artistic point of view the contest was not seen in a favorable light, but from a bibliographical point of view it had two significant consequences:

- The lecture "Importancia histórica y artística del primitivo canto andaluz llamado cante jondo", read by García Lorca, and was published along with other lectures of the poet.

- The pamphlet "Cante Jondo: Canto primitivo andaluz" by Manuel de Falla, published by Editorial Urania, the same year as the contest.

In the period of time between the celebration of the contest and the mid-1950's some titles dealing with flamenco appeared. Some are of greater relevance than others for researchers, and a few of these titles are:

- "De cante chico y cante grande" by José Carlos de Luna (1926), and "Andalucía, su comunismo y su cante jondo" by Carlos y Pedro Caba Landa (Biblioteca Atlántico, 1933). These works attempted to describe the essence of cante jondo, considered to be the very essence of Andalusia.

- "Arte y artistas flamencos" by the singer Fernando el de Triana. 1935. It is a series of biographies of flamenco artists accompanied by an extremely valuable collection of photographs of many of these artists. The book provides important details because of the direct contact between the author and the artists.

Ana Mª Tenorio Notario
Translation: Norman Paul Kliman

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