Without this exchange of musical ideas and the rich cultural influences also transmitted, music would rest compartmentalized. Fixed and rooted to one location. One Culture. One Historical identity. It would touch only the locals. Not the World at large. St. Francis' words "Life is a book. If we don't travel, we only see one page" apply equally to Music.
This is especially true for the Spanish Flamenco Guitar and it's music. To fully grasp the evolution of this instrument, we must travel back in time to Cordoba, Spain. The operative date is 711. Just after the Islamic invasion. Accordingly, Cordoba had become a focal point for Islamic musicians.
It is there, at that time, that the Spanish Flamenco Guitar was born. It began as the Oud, to which a fifth string was added. The name given to the resulting instrument was the "Moorish Guitar", or "Andalucian Nuba."
The next instruments to contribute to the "melting pot" that was the creation of the Flamenco Guitar were the European Lute and the Guitar Latina. Centuries later elements of the "Moorish Guitar" were combined with these two instruments. The result was the Vihuela.
In it's most developed form, the Vihuela had six double-strings (paired courses) made of gut. Vihuelas were tuned almost like a modern guitar, with the exception of the third string, which was tuned a semitone lower. Viheula bodies were usually made from cypress, with a spruce or cedar top.
After the creation of the Vihuela, there would be three more stages of evolution necessary to arrive at the Flamenco Guitar. The first descendant of the vihuela was the baroque guitar.(MORE)
It became the precursor to the CLassical Guitar. From which the Flamenco Guitar evolved.
Flamenco Guitar Music has an equally rich and captivating History. Although it's rarely accurate to place a definite date or time on the "birth" of movement or genre, there are always people and or events of obvious importance.
Three of those people, who each passed the torch of their accomplishments on to the next, were Ramon Montoya, Sabicas, and Nino Ricardo. Montoya, the son of gypsy cattle traders, was the first to perform solo on the Flamenco guitar. Thus elevating it from it's background role accompanying singers and dancers in cafes - to the concert stage.
"Sabicas" - noted for his amazing technique and flawless sense of rhythm, further refined and evolved Montoya's accomplishments. History also remembers Sabicas as the first guitarist of his genre to introduce genuine Flamenco Music Internationally.
The saddest note in that period's History was sounded with the untimely death from liver failure of Nino Ricardo. "Little" Ricardo, hailed as the foremost guitarist of his day, began his career composing and playing in the bars of his native Seville. Those long years, in those conditions, quite probably contributed to the illness that was to claim him at age 68. Nino's upwardly curving fingernails produced a truly individual tone that other guitarists, try as they did, were unable to duplicate.
This is especially true for the Spanish Flamenco Guitar and it's music. To fully grasp the evolution of this instrument, we must travel back in time to Cordoba, Spain. The operative date is 711. Just after the Islamic invasion. Accordingly, Cordoba had become a focal point for Islamic musicians.
It is there, at that time, that the Spanish Flamenco Guitar was born. It began as the Oud, to which a fifth string was added. The name given to the resulting instrument was the "Moorish Guitar", or "Andalucian Nuba."
The next instruments to contribute to the "melting pot" that was the creation of the Flamenco Guitar were the European Lute and the Guitar Latina. Centuries later elements of the "Moorish Guitar" were combined with these two instruments. The result was the Vihuela.
In it's most developed form, the Vihuela had six double-strings (paired courses) made of gut. Vihuelas were tuned almost like a modern guitar, with the exception of the third string, which was tuned a semitone lower. Viheula bodies were usually made from cypress, with a spruce or cedar top.
After the creation of the Vihuela, there would be three more stages of evolution necessary to arrive at the Flamenco Guitar. The first descendant of the vihuela was the baroque guitar.(MORE)
It became the precursor to the CLassical Guitar. From which the Flamenco Guitar evolved.
Flamenco Guitar Music has an equally rich and captivating History. Although it's rarely accurate to place a definite date or time on the "birth" of movement or genre, there are always people and or events of obvious importance.
Three of those people, who each passed the torch of their accomplishments on to the next, were Ramon Montoya, Sabicas, and Nino Ricardo. Montoya, the son of gypsy cattle traders, was the first to perform solo on the Flamenco guitar. Thus elevating it from it's background role accompanying singers and dancers in cafes - to the concert stage.
"Sabicas" - noted for his amazing technique and flawless sense of rhythm, further refined and evolved Montoya's accomplishments. History also remembers Sabicas as the first guitarist of his genre to introduce genuine Flamenco Music Internationally.
The saddest note in that period's History was sounded with the untimely death from liver failure of Nino Ricardo. "Little" Ricardo, hailed as the foremost guitarist of his day, began his career composing and playing in the bars of his native Seville. Those long years, in those conditions, quite probably contributed to the illness that was to claim him at age 68. Nino's upwardly curving fingernails produced a truly individual tone that other guitarists, try as they did, were unable to duplicate.
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