The Origins of Flamenco

August 4, 2025
11 Jan 2022
5 min read

Within the folk music of oral tradition, songs related to work and tasks are of great importance. Many Spanish songs of popular roots have been linked to customs, acts and needs related to human, social and family life. In the work of the field and the garden, in addition to giving free rein to all kinds of feelings, the workers have found in singing a help, or relief necessary to cope with their tasks. One of the characteristics of music of folkloric origin is that its survival was ensured thanks to oral transmission. Another of its attributes is its functional character, which implies an association with specific uses. Flamenco as a cultural phenomenon is linked to social practises, such as parties, meetings, relationships, religious ceremonies, rites of passage, or work, while the ethnic groups present in Andalusia during the 16th and 17th centuries such as Moors, gypsies and popular classes will be mixed. This explains the historical process of creating a musical-social system by cultural traditions of specific social and ethnic groups. For a long time, in our country, hardworking people have accompanied each other with songs in their occupations and trades, particularly in tasks related to the countryside. Thus, there are songs appropriate for the farming (known as besana songs) and also as pajaronas or temporeras, they were songs that were made in the open field, as an accompaniment for the work of labour, sowing, and collection, and many other tasks that we could mention. These songs, which could be classified as country tonas, such as the trillera, the ariera or the aceitunera, will provide a relief effect on the workers, to support the monotony and heaviness of the chores. The Spanish proverb says: "who sings, his evil scares away." Unfortunately, to this day, these work songs have practically been lost. Fortunately, popular music compilations have saved part of this repertoire. The songs of threshing As is known, threshing is the operation consisting of separating the grain from the straw. Although there are various procedures to do this, the farmers used to use cavalry, and some rustic agricultural machines called threshings. The time of the threshing coincides fully with the summer period. The songs of the tiller and those of threshing are not octosyllabic quarters, but seguiriyas. When the primitive flamenco intersects or mixes with Andalusian popular folk music, they will in many cases become flamenco sticks The trilleras, which are sung by seguiriyas, are one of these cases, are executed without guitar accompaniment, usually with a marking of the basic rhythm with bells or with bells, recalling those who, in their time, carried the shooting beasts during the work of the threshing in the eras. The cante is usually complemented by the singing voices of the singer himself, which were given to stimulate the work of the beasts. The four muleters This Andalusian popular song was recovered by Federico García Lorca, in 1931 Of the four muleters, Who go to the countryside, That of the tarda mule, Brunette and tall. Of the four muleters, That go to the water, That of the tarda mule, Steal my soul. Of the four muleters, That go to the river, That of the tarda mule, It's my Mario. What are you looking for? The street up If it comes out of your face The live embers. It is important to highlight the flamenco that the first public appearances date back to the mid-nineteenth century, until that moment, it was developed in private circles, in social contexts of work or family ceremonies. Flamenco was above all singing and rhythm, personal. Its creators or fathers of flamenco were those who alone and anonymously sang while working in the field, or the miner who sang going back and forth from the mine, the blacksmith in the forge, and even the client of the innkeeper who animated the atmosphere or shared his feelings with those around him in the bar. ‍‍

Luis Celorio