What is the origin of flamenco? History and where it comes from

Flamenco is a living art form: musical, oral, gestural, and social. When we use the word “flamenco” we are referring to all of its expressions — the dance, the sound of a flamenco guitar, the rhythmic clapping of hands, the raw cry of flamenco voices.

Flamenco is an entire musical and expressive universe, unmistakably rooted in southern Spain. One of the best ways to understand what flamenco is is to look at where it came from and how it has evolved to the present day.

Where does flamenco come from? The origin of flamenco

Among flamenco scholars there is broad consensus on both the place and the moment of its birth: flamenco originated in the lands of lower Andalusia. It was in the 18th century that the songs and dances practised there — by Andalusian people and by the Roma community — first began to be called “flamenco.”

It was around the 15th century that the first documented arrival of Roma communities on the Iberian Peninsula was recorded, entering through France. The majority settled in the south of the peninsula, where they lived alongside Arabs and Jews, sharing their traditions and cultural expressions over many centuries — exchanging and blending musical forms and styles.

It is important to note that the first public appearances of flamenco date from the mid-19th century. Before that, flamenco developed in private circles, within social contexts of work or family ceremony.

Flamenco was above all song and rhythm, deeply personal. Its creators were those who, alone and anonymously, sang as they worked the land — threshing, ploughing, walking; the miner who sang on his way to or from the mine; the blacksmith at his forge; the tavern customer who livened the atmosphere and shared his feelings with those around him; the women working or marking any occasion in family life.

Its origin lies in the moment a singer feels something and lets it out through song. The hardships born of social injustice and despair led the Roma and the Andalusian people to liberate themselves through song, expressing both their sorrows and their joys.

The origin and evolution of flamenco

Flamenco distils the encounter of many cultures that came together in Andalusia over centuries of coexistence. The Jewish, Arab, Roma, and Andalusian communities influenced one another, and very gradually rhythms and ways of singing began to emerge. The song and its rhythm invited the dance. The guitar and other string and box instruments accompanied its evolution.

It is worth highlighting the perspective of certain flamenco scholars. J. M. Caballero Bonald, in the prologue to Alfredo Grimaldos’ book Historia social del flamenco, writes that “from its uncertain origins to its most recent forms of expression, the artistic fortunes and misfortunes of flamenco have generally depended on the lived experience of its performers, on their expressive needs — but above all on their degree of integration into a given society.” Flamenco, human and expressive, flows and lives according to the society that receives it.

A brief overview of the evolution of flamenco can be traced through three distinct and different moments in its history.

In a first, marginal phase of Roma-Andalusian song, everything is the result of individual and personal creation by its performers. In a natural setting, where flamenco artists conceive the world in their own way and transmit it in their own way. Voice alone, without a guitar. Antonio Machado y Álvarez (known as Demófilo), who in 1881 compiled the first collection of flamenco verses, identified the first performer on record as El Tío Luis el de la Juliana, a water-carrier from Jerez.

Other studies have equally identified other early singers of note, such as El Planeta and El Fillo. Over time, these songs were taken to public stages, to taverns, to be heard beyond their original setting. They became professional, and the Roma songs became “Andalusianised,” moving away from their original character and distinctiveness. Flamenco became a mixed genre, a blend of highly heterogeneous elements. The purists of the time lamented the loss of flamenco’s essential character.

But it was then — throughout the 20th century — that flamenco entered a phase of “dignification.” Regardless of the influences that may arise from professionalisation and the world of public performance in the cafés cantantes and tablaos, the principal actors of flamenco — its musicians, the guardians of the compás — are the custodians of this art.

Where does flamenco really come from? Its true place of origin

As an art form, flamenco could be said to be born anew each day someone sings it, plays it on an instrument, or dances it.

Flamenco remains a philosophy of life, and its continuity depends solely on that of its creator. The flamenco artist has no borders, because art has none. The recognition of flamenco as something unique and compelling is undeniable.

Although it took its first steps in the Andalusian provinces of Seville and Cádiz, today flamenco can be found in any corner of the world that carries the spirit of that culture.

From our dedicated space, Tablao de Carmen in Barcelona, we hold a firm commitment to preserving and presenting flamenco in its most pure and genuine form.