5. Flamencology

In 1955 "Flamencología", by Anselmo González Climent was published (Madrid: Imprenta E. Sánchez Leal). It offered a different approach to the study of flamenco based on scientific methodology and extensive documentation (in 1965 the author went on to publish "Primera Bibliografía Flamenca", publishers Escelícer).

In the following years many different kinds of works would come to form the flamenco bibliography. There are now nearly a thousand different titles, a study of which reveals these observations:

a) The majority of studies deal with singing rather than dancing or guitar. Perhaps this is because the latter two require deeper technical knowledge of both the author and the reader; in any case, the difference is considerable. Of special note is the great number of publications dealing with flamenco verse.

b) The constant presence of foreign authors is a characteristic of the flamenco bibliography, and works have been written in such languages as Russian and Japanese. Foreign writers have produced 10% of the flamenco bibliography. This is noteworthy, bearing in mind that we are dealing with an intrinsically Andalusian art form.

c) The great amount of works dealing with the origin and history of flamenco, the genealogy and classification of song forms, etc. There are many studies of this nature, and although some are unquestionably valuable works (detailed in the annexed bibliography), a good number of them were written by flamenco enthusiasts who perhaps relied more on their good intentions than the knowledge necessary for taking on such a task. Many of these studies simply repeat theories of a romantic or legendary nature, at times influenced by local viewpoints, and based on unverified myths with absolutely no documentation or method of study. In this group of titles we may include a good number of biographies of artists that simply reproduce anecdotes that can be humorous and at times accurate. They are, however, practically useless as methods for understanding the idiosyncrasy of a particular artist or period covered.

Mitigating this rather poor impression of flamenco literature, in the last two decades multidisciplinary studies have appeared, dealing with the different facets of this art that are subject to analysis. There are now prestigious works on flamenco dealing with linguistics (Manuel Ropero Nuñez), sociology (Francisco Carrillo Alonso, Gerhard Steingress), anthropology (Cristina Cruces, Génesis García Gómez), literature (Francisco Gutiérrez Carbajo), music (José Romero, Norberto Torres, Faustino Nuñez, Miguel Espín), and even cinema (Angel Custodio Gómez). It is clear that this multidisciplinary approach to the study of flamenco will produce an excellent bibliography in the coming years.

In 1997, the Centro Andaluz de Flamenco held the "First Annual Conference on the Flamenco Bibliography", with three objectives:

- To analyze the process of evolution of the flamenco bibliography.
- To establish an internal comparison for each period of bibliographic production.
- To analyze the state of current flamenco research.

A group of nine experts was formed to debate these questions, using as a reference the analysis of eleven works chosen for being representative of the different periods of the flamenco bibliography. The result of this work is a book that has just gone to press, titled "La Bibliografía Flamenca, a debate".

Ana Mª Tenorio Notario
Translation: Norman Paul Kliman

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