He first created the category Cante Gitano Andaluz to refer to Roma flamenco music. Once he had been honoured with the Llave de Oro del Cante, Antonio Mairena found himself in a position to unveil his ‘gospel’ about flamenco.
Now acknowledged as a maestro, from this point on Antonio Mairena carried out his mission as a ‘disciple’ through a series of projects that he would bring to fruition: Mundo y Formas del Cante Flamenco
The second and third dates would each come in the form of recognition: in 1959 he was named honorary director of the Cátedra de Flamencología in Jerez de la Frontera (1959) and in 1962 he received the ‘Llave de Oro del Cante’. It was a true labour of love that consumed him, body and soul, resulting in the compilation of an authentic handbook of flamenco singing for future. With this premise in mind, he began the task of recovering, organising and classifying the basic structures of Gitano flamenco singing. He began the task of recovering, organising and classifying the basic structures of Gitano flamenco singing. His work formed the basis of what is today understood to be orthodox cante flamenco, or flamenco singing. This vision came to influence many Roma creative figures of his time who went on to adopt the same philosophy, reclaiming the authorship of their work and enabling a genre that stood up for all that was Roma from the standpoint of various artistic (musical, theatrical and literary) forms.Īll this was also reflected on the social level, and would influence the emerging leaders of the movement to defend Roma rights in the 1970s, leading to the movimiento asociativo Gitano – the ‘Roma association movement’ in Spain.Īs a flamenco singer he left an important and undeniable artistic legacy: an almost archaeological endeavour based on recovering, classifying and recording Roma songs, some of which were in danger of extinction. The importance of his vast oeuvre is not limited to the musical aspect: he launched a movement that promoted pride in being Roma, depicted the Roma culture as a source of great richness and delved into the past to explore Roma history.
0 kommentar(er)
