Flamenco: Musical Structure and the Practice of Improvisation

Year 2021, , 47 - 65, 30.06.2021

Robin Foggo

https://doi.org/10.33906/musicologist.880602

Abstract

Improvisation is a commonly recognised marker of flamenco. Since flamenco is a musical practice that was traditionally transmitted aurally and often acquired rather than explicitly taught, there is no widely accepted teaching methodology for the increasing number of participants in this style, and even less guidance on improvisation.
The aim of this study is to show what the structural aspects of a flamenco piece are, and which of these aspects are open to improvisation. It also examines how improvisation is conceived of by practitioners, and how it is practised and taught. The observations and findings here are drawn from fieldwork centred on learning the flamenco guitar and consequent ethnographic notes.

Keywords

flamenco, improvisation, tradition, transmission, guitar

Supporting Institution

MIAM, Istanbul Technical University

References

• Hecht, Paul. (1968). The Wind Cried ; An American’s Discovery of the World of Flamenco. New York: Dial Press.
• Nettl, Bruno. (2005). The Study of Ethnomusicology: Thirty-one Issues and Concepts (New ed). Urbana: University of Illinois Press. [Original work published 1983]
• Ong, Walter. J., & Hartley, John. (2012). Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (3rd ed). London; New York: Routledge. [Original work published 1982]
• Rice, Timothy. (2014). Ethnomusicology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.