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Home , Cante flamenco, Cante jondo, Carmen (novella), Music of Spain

“Con tu voz:” Social Meaning in the Voice of Cantaora Linares Jonathan Shold Bowling Green State University

“Ms. Linares’s voice has the gritty quality one hears in singing, in Portuguese fado and in some Middle Eastern forms. It is not beautiful in the operatic sense, but its expressive power is extraordinary.”—Allan Kozinn, New York Times Critic, 1997 (Kozinn)

Carmen Linares is arguably the most important singer active in the world of ! amenco today. Born in 1951 in the town of Linares, in Eastern , Carmen Linares (Mari Carmen Pacheco Rodríguez) has been pursuing her career in ! amenco cante ( singing ) since her childhood. # e daughter of a ! amenco guitarist, young Linares was o$ en escorted by her father to attend ! amenco recitals (Chuse, “Anda Jaleo” 140). In addition to being one of the % rst ! amenco artists to perform at the Lincoln Center (singing de Falla’s “” with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra), Linares also currently has eight studio to her name. Of particular note is her Antología de la Mujer en el Cante (1996), the % rst of its kind to compile composed or sung by cantaoras ( female singers ) (Chuse, Cantaoras 136). Her newest album, Raíces y alas (2008), was awarded “Best Flamenco Album” in the thirteenth edition of the Spanish Premios de la música (2009) and was a candidate for the 2009 Latin Grammys (Linares, “Discography”). Comprised entirely of settings of poetry by Juan Ramón Jiménez, Raíces y alas channels together the art forms of poetry and in the medium of Linares’s voice. When Jimenez’s thought-provoking poetry is yoked with Linares’s expressive vocal power, the resulting creative synthesis justi% es Linares’s estimation of cante as “la madre del ! amenco” (Chuse, Cantaoras 31). # is general privilege that Linares a+ ords to cante is signi% cant for several reasons. Since ! amenco music originally consisted of unaccompanied voice, in one sense cante is granted a birthright by being the % rstborn of the traditional ! amenco trio (consisting of cante , toque [ guitar ] and baile [ dance ]). At a deeper level, however, the human tendency to empathize with the sound of the human voice provides the ! amenco cantaor (a) with an immediate avenue for expressive communication with the audience. While the instrumental toque unquestionably plays an important role in ! amenco, both generally and in Raíces y alas speci% cally, it is the sound of Linares’s voice which serves as the main transmitter of social meaning in this particular album.

Divergencias. Revista de estudios lingüísticos y literarios . Volumen 8, número 2, invierno 2010 4 Jonathan Shold

Linares utilizes her vocal expressive 1860s, around which time it served as a public capabilities in a unique way on the ! nal track form of entertainment in Andalusia in the café of Raíces y alas , “Con tu voz.” Of the ten tracks cantante . In addition to % amenco performers in Raíces y alas , only “Con tu voz” is sung receiving stable salaries for the ! rst time from completely unaccompanied, a salute to the roots wealthy patrons, the café cantante era saw of cante which draws special attention to the the addition of both guitar accompaniment track. " e text of the song is a juxtaposition of and dance to the originally unaccompanied two discrete poems by Jiménez, “Clavo débil, % amenco cante , as well as the participation of clavo fuerte” and “Cuando esté con las raíces.” non-gypsy performers (Chuse, Cantaoras 44- In Linares’s song “Con tu voz,” the two poems 45). Although the popularity of % amenco grew by Jiménez are placed back-to-back as follows: along with its commercialization, the demands of its patrons also necessarily caused % amenco to Clavo débil, clavo fuerte… evolve from its original form as unaccompanied Alma mía, ¡qué más da! song; increased commercialization in the Fuera cual fuera la suerte, twentieth century furthered what % amenco 1 el cuadro se caerá. purists considered the “adulteration” of the style. Beginning in the 1920s, % amenco found a Cuando esté con las raíces voice in the theater in what became known as llámame tú con tu voz. Me parecerá que entra opera " amenca , in which traditional % amenco temblando la luz del sol. (quoted in song styles were mixed with popular from Torrón 59) 2 and Latin America (Chuse, Cantaoras 46). At the same time, Spanish intellectuals Of the song “Con tu voz,” Linares believes that sought to counteract the “prostitution” of “it’s purer, it’s the most traditional, the most % amenco to commercialization through a return % amenco on the album. It’s a very serious note to the “true” roots of (“deep song,” to end [on]” (Castillo, “Track by Track”). At the most serious and profound type of cante ), a glance, Linares’s comments on the purity of a movement typi! ed in the Concurso de cante “Con tu voz” seem to lend the track a credibility jondo , held in in 1922. " is movement of vocal style not attributed to other numbers towards % amenco “purism” was spearheaded on the CD. Given the current controversy by such notable ! gures as Manuel surrounding authenticity in % amenco in general de Falla (1876-1946) and poet Federico García (and in cante in particular), however, a brief Lorca (1898-1936), who sought to portray overview of the history of % amenco is necessary a romanticized cante jondo as the essence of in order to interpret Linares’s remarks on the Andalusia (Chuse, Cantaoras 46). “authenticity” of her vocal style in “Con tu voz.” " e question of “authenticity” in % amenco Flamenco scholar Loren Chuse traces the singing becomes signi! cantly more complex roots of % amenco song most immediately to the during the reign of the right-winged dictator nineteenth century, during which time gypsies (1892-1975; in power 1939- in Andalusia would gather together at intimate 1975). Following the (1936- parties and sing ( Cantaoras 44). Flamenco truly 1939), Franco ideologically assented to the became an “established” musical style in the conservative and purist approach to % amenco

5 Divergencias. Revista de estudios lingüísticos y literarios . Volumen 8, número 2, invierno 2010 initiated by Spanish intellectuals in the early images of femininity, however, a trend towards 1920s, although Franco’s concern for ! amenco ! amenco purism began germinating anew in the was far from being rooted in aesthetics. In an late 1950s. In particular, the reinstitution of the attempt to portray Spain as a culturally uni" ed cante jondo contest/festival at Córdoba in 1956 and homogenous nation, Franco constructed a and the creation of the " rst ! amencology chair new Spanish identity solely around Castilian and in 1957 in Jerez resulted in a new generation of Andalusian culture (Pérez-Villalba 151). $ us, ! amenco performers and “purist” connoisseurs the Andalusian-born ! amenco was chosen to (Katz). Importantly, the purist aesthetic of become the “” (Chuse, Cantaoras early “! amencology” stills exhibits of a degree 46). Ironically, although Franco’s means of of hegemony today over more liberal styles, portraying ! amenco as the voice of ancient particularly those catering to tourists. Spain aligned with the means of ! amenco $ e strand of purism persisting in the purists, Franco’s end of increasing tourism stood ! amenco discourse today would imaginably be in stark relief to the purists’ desires of achieving at odds with numerous elements of Linares’s an authentic musical voice. album Raíces y alas . Manuel Moraga raises this At the same time that Franco sought to issue in his 2008 interview with Linares by export ! amenco to tourists, the (theoretical) asking her how she managed the inherent risk importance that Franco placed on Catholicism of doing justice to neither Jiménez’s poetry nor and traditional family values resulted in the the “! amenco-like” music through the merging marginalized role of women in ! amenco. of the two. Linares candidly responds that the Although women had " gured somewhat intention of Juan Carlos Romero (guitarist for prominently as singers, dancers, and guitarists and composer of the album’s music) was not since the era of the café cantante (Chuse, to force Jiménez’s poetry into preconceived Cantaoras 45), they were virtually excluded ! amenco frameworks, but rather to allow the from ! amenco during Franco’s reign under demands of each individual poem to dictate the the ideological premise that it was shameful musical ! avor of each song. On the deferment for women to be active in the public sphere. of music to text in Raíces y alas , Linares remarks $ ose women who did participate in ! amenco that the album is during the Franco regime were o% en presented as matriarchal " gures, devoid of any traces of made by a professional who loves threatening sexual power (Chuse, Cantaoras fl amenco and loves poetry, and he [Juan 108). $ e role of women in ! amenco during Carlos Romero] went over to Juan Franco’s rule thus represents a con! ict of political Ramón [Jiménez]’s territory, never thinking Juan Ramón would come to ideology: although a lascivious gitana " gure (as fl amenco.… I’m very satisfi ed with depicted in Bizet’s 1875 opera Carmen ) would this work. If the purists don’t like it, have portrayed Spain as an exotic destination for I’m terribly sorry, but what I want is tourists, this image simultaneously con! icted when people hear the record they see with the conservative Spanish ideal of the it has coherence, feeling and concept. woman as the angel del hogar . (Moraga) Amidst the ideological frictions that arose between commercialism and conservative

6 Jonathan Shold

Some of the surface elements of Raíces y alas understanding of how meaning and identity are that ! amenco “purists” might not care for could created in and conveyed through Linares’s voice. include a prevalence of the major and minor Linares’s voice would be best classi# ed as a musical scales over the traditional Phrygian scale, 3 !oz a" llá ,4 one of the most common voice types a general lack of jaleo (shouts of encouragement in the ! amenco voice classi# cation system. 5 from the audience), and a relatively constant use Popularized by the famous cantaor Camarón of percussion and occasional uses of other non- and currently considered to be the most “ gitano ” traditional ! amenco instruments (! ute, oboe, voice type, a !oz a" llá is typically characterized bassoon, cello, and contrabass). While some as “rough,” “unpolished,” or “hoarse” (Chuse, of the formal parameters of the album’s tracks Cantaoras 40). Contributing to the perception may be slightly unconventional, one of the of roughness in Linares’s voice is her relatively main anchors that keeps Raíces y alas rooted in low vocal range; Linares would be considered an the ! amenco tradition is the sound of Linares’s alto according to the common system voice. As musicologist and sociologist John of voice classi# cation. 6 Shepherd suggests, In addition to the popularity of her a" llá voice type, many of Linares’s vocal gestures It is the tactile core of sound, timbre, conform to the basic principles of the ! amenco that reminds us that the gaps and cante aesthetic, some elements of which are silences between the delineations of delineated in Francisca Merchán Higuera’s study structures, whether social, cultural or of expression in ! amenco cante . According to musical, are not gaps or silences, but Higuera, common expressive techniques in directionally charged fi elds of meaning and experience that speak to our sense ! amenco cante include the use of quejíos and 7 8 of identity and existence. If it is the salidas , glottal attacks, and melisma (multiple syntax of music, the relationship of pitches sung on the same syllable). Other individual sonic events as deployed common techniques include an alternation in time and space, that speaks to the between vibrato and “straight” tone (o& en socially structured context of existence, within a single phrase), the treatment of vibrato then it is timbre, the essence of as a musical ornament or “micromelisma,” and individual sonic events, that speaks to the creation of a diphthong on the # nal vowel of the core of existence. (Shepherd 90-91) a phrase (even if the # nal vowel is part of a word that does not contain a diphthong when spoken) What is it about the sound of Linares’s voice that (16-19). Perhaps unsurprisingly, all of these keeps one foot of her music rooted in tradition as elements appear to some extent in Linares’s voice the other wanders o" towards experimentation? in “Con tu voz.” Although the text of the song Clearly, much is necessarily lost in the process contains few phrases that begin with a vowel, of translating a vocal timbre from the medium and even in these instances the opportunity for of sound to the medium of written prose. a glottal attack may be exchanged for combining Despite Roland Barthes’s lament of the reliance two phrases in one breath, a notable glottal upon the adjective in the description of timbre attack occurs on a quejío near the end of the (Barthes 181), a verbal description of Linares’s track. vocal qualities nevertheless provides an initial

7 Divergencias. Revista de estudios lingüísticos y literarios . Volumen 8, número 2, invierno 2010

While Linares relies heavily upon melisma instability is most likely achieved through rapid in “Con tu voz,” melisma is nonetheless periodic & uctuations in breath support, which balanced with syllabic singing, in which one produces an overall e% ect similar to that of a note is sung per syllable. Linares typically sets sobbing or weeping gesture. the text syllabically at the beginning of a phrase, When Linares’s use of quejíos , glottal increases melismatic ornamentation towards attacks, melisma, variable vibrato rate, changing the middle and end, and ! nishes the phrase vowels mid-syllable, grunts, and & uctuations of with a sustained tone, ornamented with vibrato breath support are considered all together, it (“micromelisma”). " e ending of the ! nal sung may appear to the listener that Linares is not phrase on the track (“llámame tú con tu voz”) always in control of her voice. By comparison, provides a subtle yet clear example of the addition consider some of the physical and vocal actions of a diphthong; speci! cally, as the word “voz” that might be entailed in an outburst of weeping is sustained, the “o” sound quickly and subtly or sobbing: for one, the act of retching creates shi$ s to “ah,” and ! nally to “ooh” before the & uctuations in breath support, resulting in an tone dies out. 9 " e e% ect is described nicely by amplitude & uctuation of a melismatic cry; also, Bernard Lortat-Jacob, who, in noting the general involuntary grunts might also punctuate the “importance of the treatment of the vowels by vocalization. If a comparison is made between [a & amenco] singer,” suggests that “one might the characteristics of Linares’s singing style and speak, at times, of a ‘melody of timbres’” (144). the act of retching that accompanies sobbing, Linares adds further interest to her “melody a natural conclusion would be that Linares’s of timbres” with her use of vibrato. A typical voice is expressing some type of pain, su% ering, vibrato rate on a sustained, unornamented tone or lament. Such an interpretation is at least o$ en falls around 5 & uctuations per second, a partially validated if “Con tu voz” is approached vibrato rate just slow enough that, according to as a siguiriya (a sub-genre of cante jondo ). An voice specialist Phillipe Dejonckeres, a listener apt description of the ethos of the siguiriya is will perceive the periodicity of pitch change provided by studies scholar Timothy (4). Linares varies her song style, however, by Mitchell: frequently singing with a “straight” tone. Two other vocal gestures common in Two early synonyms for the seguiriya, Linares’s singing bear mentioning here. " e ! rst playera and plañera, are deformations is a vocalized grunt that accompanies the end of of plañidera (from plañir, “to wail”). The seguiriya is considered the deepest each of the eight major phrases in “Con tu voz.” and saddest fl amenco style, and it was A$ er having sustained the ! nal pitch of a phrase among the fi rst folk forms to undergo with vibrato for several seconds, Linares initiates underclass reelaboration. Death and a vocalized grunt that causes the pitch of her voice grieving, moreover, are the most to drop nearly an octave as her voice fades into common themes of seguiriyas (127). silence; the time interval between the onset of the grunt and total silence is usually slightly less " e link between the siguiriya and su% ering than half a second. Another important gesture is is further strengthened in light of ties to the a vibrato-like e% ect consisting of a & uctuation in upper-class funereal practices in eighteenth- the amplitude (loudness) of the tone. " is vocal century Andalusia. José Antonio Rivas Álvarez

8 Jonathan Shold notes the former tradition in Andalusia for the together formed a set of coplas suitable for a wealthy to have grandiose funeral processions siguiriya : with as many in attendance as possible. ! ese processions o" en provided a source of income We [Linares and Juan Carlos] saw for lower-class female professional mourners [“Con tu voz”] as a kind of siguiriya (called endecheras , plañideras , or lloronas ) (142- from the very fi rst moment....What a great piece of poetry. You could sing it 43, cited in Mitchell 127); Spanish musicologist as if it were tonás, , it was just Manuel García Matos has further suggested begging for it! So yes, that last piece is that the $ amenco siguiriya might have grown a toná because that poem was meant for from this tradition of professional mourning in it (Moraga).10 Andalusia (79-80, cited in Mitchell 127). ! e common interpretation of $ amenco As Linares suggests, both “Clavo débil, clavo cante as a “cry of pain” also seeks its justi% cation fuerte” and “Cuando esté con las raíces” evoke in the historical hardships in Andalusia, and an atmosphere that exempli% es the traditional of Andalusian gypsies in particular (Manuel siguiriya theme of human mortality. In “Clavo 48). As $ amenco specialist Peter Manuel notes, débil, clavo fuerte,” Jiménez’s image of a hung Andalusia had experienced religious tolerance picture (for which even the strongest of nails and economic prosperity under the Moorish only delays the inevitable fall to the $ oor) rule (711-1492). Under the subsequent Spanish cultivates a sense of fatalism that refers to the rule, however, all non-Christians were expelled impending death of every living being. Despair from Spain, and the economic and agricultural gives way to sober acceptance in the subsequent processes in Andalusia were neglected by the setting of “Cuando esté con las raíces,” as the central government. ! e e& ects were speaker muses about a possible metaphysical particularly hard on , who occupied existence a" er death. Jiménez vivi% es this the lowest class strata in Spain. Even into resigned meditation by exploring the word the twentieth century industrialization and “roots” (“raíces”) and its various meanings: when development took place on a smaller scale in the speaker’s corpse is overtaken by the roots of Andalusia than in other parts of the country the grass and trees, he will % nally have met the (49-50). Although in relatively recent years same fate as his ancestors, thus portraying death Andalusia has come to enjoy its highest standard as the ultimate connection to one’s roots. of living in several centuries, Manuel notes that In light of the “purity” that Carmen Linares the perception of Andalusia as an impoverished attributes to “Con tu voz,” it is interesting that and politically discontented province (including she and composer Romero chose for Raíces y gypsies and non-gypsies alike) has persisted, alas the poetry of Jiménez. At a glance, a more continually generating the conception of “its” logical choice of poetry might have been that of music, $ amenco, as a means of expressing Federico García Lorca, whose frequent treatment su& ering (63). of Andalusian and gypsy culture would have % t ! e interpretation of Linares’s voice in “Con nicely with the Andalusian and gypsy roots of tu voz” as conveying lament is further validated $ amenco cante (Paredes Mendez, et al 569). By by the singer herself, who, when interviewed by contrast, Jiménez’s “pure” and more abstract Manuel Moraga, suggested that the two poems poetry (ibid. 539) paints the music of “Con tu

9 Divergencias. Revista de estudios lingüísticos y literarios . Volumen 8, número 2, invierno 2010 voz” in a less obvious and less pictorial manner. 11 outward expression of a primarily spiritual and While Jiménez’s fertile poetry unquestionably intangible phenomenon. adds another rich layer of meaning to Linares’s Regarding the expression of pain and song of lament, some scholars argue that the su$ ering in " amenco cante , Washabaugh argues linguistic content of a cante text (particularly for a more body-centric approach, one rooted if its meaning is abstract, as with Jiménez) is in the concept that the expression of pain is not necessarily second to the sound of the voice itself. intended to convey meaning at all but is rather For " amenco scholar William Washabaugh, non-functional. Following philosopher David overemphasis of the text of " amenco cante Leder’s concept of a body in pain turning its re" ects an overly intellectual (i.e.,Westernized) attention inward, Washabaugh notes that framework of approaching song contemplatively as a spiritually transcendent force. In the [i]n their uselessness, the expressions speci# c case of " amenco cante , Washabaugh of bodies-in-pain are exceptional. links this approach to two di$ erent yet related They deviate from the institutionally sub-categories within this Western aesthetic established channels which recommend that expressions serve as “conduits of framework: communal song and competitive meaning” (Lakoff and Johnson 1980; song. Whether a " amenco singer is perceived Lee 1992: 80), that they be directed as downplaying his individuality to emphasize to a listener, and that they transfer a connection to musical tradition (communal some useful information or sentiment song) or downplaying tradition to assert his from the speaker to the listener. […I] individual creativity (competitive song), both ndividuals in pain are often oblivious to approaches place “a special emphasis [ …] on listeners as they focus inward and direct spiritual ties and gi% s,” the intangible nature of their attentions to their own bodies. which ultimately cultivates a “marginalisation of (“Flamenco Body” 86) the singer’s body” (85). 12 Naturally, the communal- and competitive- If one accepts Washabaugh’s proposition, then song approaches need not be set up as it logically follows that “the singer’s words and diametrically opposed to one another, and intentions suddenly become secondary, and in one sense Linares’s voice may be seen as a the singer’s body, sounding itself, obtrudes combination of both. While Linares freely into the musical event” (“Flamenco Body” 89). admits her grounding in tradition, stating that While Jiménez’s profound poetry may provide “if you don’t have deep roots and a strong base intellectual food for thought a% er “Con tu voz” in " amenco[,] you get lost” (Castillo, “Deep has # nished, during the temporal performance Roots”), at the same time her impressive career of the song itself the text hides in the wings as a cantaora undeniably casts her as a soloist while the singer’s body, performed through the whose creativity has thrust her to the top of her voice, takes the spotlight. profession. Even the very language that Linares It is not a new concept to theorize the human uses to describe her relationship to tradition, voice as a transformation and projection of the however, in its ethereal ambiguity, may physical body into sonic form. Popularized by encourage the listener to interpret the mournful Roland Barthes in his in" uential essay “& e sound of her voice in “Con tu voz” as merely the Grain of the Voice,” the idea that “the ‘grain’ is

10 Jonathan Shold the body in the voice as it sings” (188) suggests As Linares’s style of singing in “Soleares de that the voice serves as a sonic realization Tía Jílica de Marchena y la Roesna de Alcalá” of the body and its various processes. While is comparable to that in “Con tu voz,” the undoubtedly true at some level, it nevertheless perceiver can infer that similar body gestures seems unreasonable to extrapolate that the to those accompanying “Soleares de Tía Jílica” voice is not in some way diminished through would have accompanied Linares’s recording the process of disembodiment, the state in of “Con tu voz.” Nevertheless, the mental which Linares’s voice exists in the CD medium reconstruction of body gestures for “Con tu of Raíces y alas . Regarding the expression of voz” will only be as vivid (or as realistic) as the pain, the disembodiment of Linares’s voice imagination and acuity of the perceiver will is particularly critical because it deprives the allow. As John Shepherd notes, “the articulation perceiver of experiencing the body gestures that of social and cultural realities involves all the accompany the song. For ! amenco cante , Chuse senses, and we are continually reminded […] notes that of the way in which the world rubs up against us and continually stimulates us to active [t]he anguish expressed in facial participation” (90). Although Washabaugh tension, tense upper body movements, bemoans the fact that the reproduction of intense eye contact, and very expressive ! amenco on television and video (and, by hand gestures that emphasize, extrapolation, the internet) “reframes cante as punctuate, [or] implore despair, give conventional song” (“Flamenco Body” 88) and the cante a high degree of emotionality. […I]t often seems that the cante is thus forces the perceiver into a Westernized practically being pulled, or forced out of intellectual aesthetic framework, these media at the singer, almost against his or her will. least partially preserve the intimate ties between (Cantaoras 40) voice and body (albeit a visual reproduction of the body). In the purely sonic CD medium of Chuse’s account of the cantaor (a)’s body Raíces y alas , however, any traces of Linares’s gestures aptly describes the movements that physical body vanish, and the acute listener Carmen Linares makes when performing in is le% with only the grain of Linares’s voice to public. In a video of a 1997 concert at the Teatro reconstruct her misplaced anguished body Monumental in Madrid, 13 for example, Linares’s gestures. performance of the song “Soleares de Tía Jílica Following Washabaugh’s line of thought, de Marchena y la Roesna de Alcalá” (from her it may be tempting to decry the institutional 1996 album Antología de la Mujer en el Cante ) constraints of the CD or MP3 $ le that result in is $ lled with impassioned gestures that match the disembodiment of Linares’s voice in “Con the timbre and gestures of her voice. Linares tu voz.” Yet in doing so, one teeters over the alternates between clenching her $ sts, grabbing same pit into which many have fallen before, at her clothing, and throwing her hands at her from Lorca and de Falla to contemporary chest, all the while keeping her eyes tightly shut; ! amencology “purists.” Speci$ cally, by during particularly passionate outcries, her overemphasizing the traditional elements of entire upper body even begins to shake. lament in cante , ! amenco purism asserts that the past traditions of the ! amenco culture

11 Divergencias. Revista de estudios lingüísticos y literarios . Volumen 8, número 2, invierno 2010 should be preserved in static form, an ideology su% ering in Andalusia? Is Linares trying to that denies ! amenco the right to exist and create a sonic tapestry to accompany Jiménez’s evolve organically in time. Furthermore, if mournful poetry? Could the vocal timbre of ! amenco cante is forced to derive its identity Linares be tied to an excerpt from the Jiménez solely from its past instead of allowing tradition poem used in track seven of Raíces y alas to be viewed as a means of creating culturally (“Canción de Madre”): relevant ! amenco in the present, the musical style will be prevented from tapping deeper Las palabras de las madres levels of social meaning. As ethnomusicologist tienen fragancias y ritmos Philip Bohlman suggests, if unchecked, such de llanto, que nadie sabe a purist approach is in danger of gradually dónde los han aprendido[?] (Muñoz Ramírez) replacing the “observed and collected tradition with the system that has purported to de" ne Or, " nally, as Washabaugh suggests, should it. In other words, the classi" cation system the listener refrain entirely from searching becomes the surrogate for the tradition itself[, for the cause and meaning of the su% ering in and t]he emergence of a surrogate tradition Linares’s inward-focused and non-functional is the most extreme and insidious product of voice? While in one sense the answer to all of canon formation” (50, quoted in Mitchell 217- these questions is “yes,” these are by no means 18). the exclusive phenomena that are channeled While ! amencology purists may seek out through Linares’s voice, a multifaceted site “traditional” and “authentic” forms of ! amenco for the re! ection and reinscription of social with a relatively high level of sophistication, the meaning. As musicologist Richard Taruskin same may be said at a lower level of sophistication notes about the nature of musical discourse, for tourists. For purposes of tourism, however, “as contexts change, subtext accumulates,” and the role of dance in ! amenco is o# en emphasized “the price of certainty [regarding these subtexts] at the expense of song (Manuel 56). $ is tourist is always reduction—reduction not only in preference for ! amenco dance over song is meaning but in interest and value” (475-76). perhaps unsurprising in light of the myriad of $ at the de" ning borders of the discourse levels at which the ! amenco voice conveys pain; cante are in constant ! ux is further emphasized by tourists in search of an “authentic” Spanish ! amenco scholar Parvati Nair, who suggests musical experience may not have bargained that “! amenco becomes doubly performative: for the complex sonic image that results from a musical performance that shows cultural a metaphorical polyphony of pained voices identity […] to be an experiential—that is, within the cantaora ’s song. performative—process” (53). One may legitimately wonder at the A " nal insight into the meaning (or lack underlying causes of the lament expressed thereof ) of the perceived vocal lament in “Con in Carmen Linares’s voice in “Con tu voz.” tu voz” is found in the phrase “raíces y alas,” Is Linares mimicking the (perceived) time- the name of the album itself. As Linares notes, honored vocal aesthetic of cante jondo ? Could the title is derived from an aphorism of Juan Linares be heard as lamenting the oppression of Ramón Jiménez, “alas que arraigan y raíces que the Spanish gypsies and the historic economic vuelan” (Castillo, “Deep Roots”). Regarding

12 Jonathan Shold future vocal style in cante , Linares interprets (coplas, or “couplets”) of the song; quejíos may also be the aphorism as meaning “if you have roots interjected in the middle of the text (Higuera 17) you can ! y to where you want, and if you have 8 A glottal attack is characterized by a rapid and sudden burst of air across the vocal folds, resulting wings you can always return to your beautiful immediately in a vowel sound that is not preceded by a nest” (Castillo, “Deep Roots”). As the beautiful consonant. nest of the cante tradition becomes reinforced 9 & e word-" nal “s” in “voz” is omitted here. with increasingly varied and eclectic materials, 10 Not unlike the siguiriya, the toná is among the ! amenco a" cionados can look forward to the oldest forms of cante jondo (Grove Music Online, s.v. “Toná,” www.oxfordmusiconline.com [accessed May 4, ways in which cantaoras such as Linares re! ect 2010]). on the past while weaving new layers of social 11 Linares has dealt with Lorca’s material (though meaning into ! amenco song. not necessarily his poetry) in the past; most notably, her 1994 album Canciones populares antiguas is a ! amenco setting of Spanish folk songs that Lorca set for piano (Chuse, Cantaoras 136). Notes 12 The importance of the body to flamenco cante (as suggested by Washabaugh) is echoed in 1 “Clavo débil, clavo fuerte” was written by the realm of gender studies by feminist musicologist Jiménez on January 20, 1916. See Juan Ramón Jiménez, Suzanne Cusick, who argues that “musical Diary of a Newlywed: A Bilingual Edition of Diario de performance…is partly…the culturally intelligible un reciencasado, trans. Hugh A. Hartner (Cranbury, NJ: performance of bodies” (27). Rosemont, 2004) 93. 13 This video was accessed under the 2 “Cuando esté con las raíces” was written “Video” section of Carmen Linares’s website, www. between 1951-1954 and published in De ríos que se van , CarmenLinares.org. a book that Jiménez dedicated to his dying wife (Torrón 59). 3 Whereas the major and minor musical scales are by far the most common in the art music of Western Europe, the Phrygian scale is one of the more commonly used scales in traditional ! amenco music. It is characterized by the interval of a semitone above the fundamental pitch, which distinguishes it from both the major and minor scales. 4 & e term a" llá is derived from “El Fillo,” the nickname of nineteenth-century cantaor Francisco Ortega (Higuera 19). 5 & e two other common voice classi" cations in ! amenco cante are the voz redonda (literally, a “round voice,” described as “sonorous and full, with a wide dynamic range”) and the voz naturá (literally, a “natural voice,” described as “! exible and relaxed with a wide vocal range”) (Chuse, Cantaoras 40). 6 While most of the literature on the ! amenco voice emphasizes issues of timbre over issues of range, a comparison of the ranges and tessituras of a variety of male and female ! amenco singers could be of interest. 7 *uejíos (literally, “cries”) and salidas (“departures”) refer to the melismatic vocalization of the syllable “ay” before the cantaor begins the actual

13 Divergencias. Revista de estudios lingüísticos y literarios . Volumen 8, número 2, invierno 2010

Works Cited Labajo, Joaquina. “Body and Voice: The Barthes, Roland. “The Grain of the Voice.” Image, Construction of Gender in Flamenco.” Music, Text. Trans. Stephen Heath. New York: Music and Gender: Perspectives from the Hill and Wang, 1977. 179-89. Print. Mediterranean . Ed. Tullia Magrini. Chicago: U Bohlman, Philip. The Study of in the of Chicago P, 2003. 67-86. Print. Modern World. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1988. Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Print. Live By . Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1980. Print. Castillo, Juanjo. “If you don’t have deep roots in Leder, Drew. The Absent Body . Chicago: U of fl amenco you get lost.” Interview with Carmen Chicago P, 1990. Print. Linares. Trans. esfl amenco.com. Esfl amenco. Lee, David. Competing Discourses: Perspective com. Spain Ten Points S.L., 17 Dec. 2008. Web. and Ideology in Language . New York: 10 Apr. 2010. Longman, 1992. Print. ———. “Track by Track: ‘Raíces y Alas.’” Interview Linares, Carmen. “Discography.” Carmenlinares. with Carmen Linares. Trans. esfl amenco.com. org . N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2010. Esfl amenco.com. Spain Ten Points S.L., 15 Apr. ———. Raíces y alas . Factoría Autor, 2008. CD. 2009. Web. 6 Apr. 2010. Lortat-Jacob, Bernard. Liner notes. Les voix Chuse, Loren. “Anda Jaleo! Celebrating Creativity in du monde . Centre national de la recherche Flamenco Song.” The Mediterranean in Music: scientifi que, 1996. CD. Critical Perspectives, Common Concerns, Manuel, Peter. “Andalusian, Gypsy, and Class Cultural Differences. Ed. David Cooper and Identity in the Contemporary Flamenco Kevin Dawe. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Complex.” 33.1 (1989): 47- Press, 2005. 131-52. Print. 65. Print. ———. The Cantaoras: Music, Gender, and Identity Matos, Manuel García. Sobre el fl amenco: in Flamenco Song. New York: Routledge, 2003. Estudios y notas . Madrid: Editorial Cinterco, Print. 1987. Print. Cusick, Suzanne. “On Musical Performances Miles, Elizabeth J., and Loren Chuse. “Spain.” of Gender and Sex.” Audible Traces: The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music . Gender, Identity and Music. Ed. E. Barkin Ed. Timothy Rice, James Porter, and Chris and L. Hamessley. Los Angeles: Carciofoli Goertzen. Volume 8. New York: Garland, Berslagshaus, 1999. 25-43. Print. 2000. 588-603. Print. Dejonckeres, Philippe H. “Fascinating and Intriguing Mitchell, Timothy. Flamenco Deep Song . New Vibrato.” Introduction. Vibrato . Ed. Philippe Haven, CT: Yale UP, 2004. Print. H Dejonckeres, Minoru Hirano, and Johan Moraga, Manuel. “New Record ‘Raíces y Alas.’” Sundberg. San Diego: Singular Publishing Interview with Carmen Linares. Defl amenco. Group, 1995. 1-8. Print. com. Tintes Flamencos, S.L., 26 Nov. 2008. Higuera, Francisca Merchán. “Expressive Web. 5 Apr. 2010. Characterization of Flamenco Singing.” MA Muñoz Ramírez, Arabella. “‘Raíces y alas’ thesis, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 2008. Web. 1 dossier.” Arabellasiles.com . N.p., n.d. Web. 6 May 2010. May 2010. Jiménez, Juan Ramón. Diary of a Newlywed: A Nair, Parvati. “Elusive Song: Flamenco as Field and Bilingual Edition of Diario de un reciencasado. Passage for the in Córdoba Prison.” Trans. Hugh A. Hartner. Cranbury, NJ: Constructing Identity in Contemporary Spain: Rosemont, 2004. Google Book Search . Web. 11 Theoretical Debates and Cultural Practice . Ed. Apr. 2010. Jo Labanyi. New York: Oxford UP, 2002. 41-54. Katz, Israel J. “Flamenco.” Grove Music Online . Print. Oxford Music Online, n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. Kozinn, Allan. “Flamenco, as Itself and as It’s Been Tidied Up.” The New York Times . The New York Times, 11 Mar. 1997. Web. 7 Apr. 2010.

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———. “Vocal In-roads: Flamenco, Orality and Postmodernity in Las 3000 Viviendas: Viejo Patio (Dulcimer and EMI, 1999).” Music, Popular Culture, Identities. Ed. Richard Young. New York: Rodopi, 2002. 269-85. Print. Paredes Méndez, Francisca, Mark Harpring, and José Ballesteros, eds. Voces de España: Antología literaria. Boston, MA: Thomson Heinle, 2005. Print. Pérez-Villalba, Esther. How Political Singers Facilitated the Spanish Transition to Democracy, 1960-1982: The Cultural Construction of a New Identity. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2007. Print. Rivas Alvarez, Jose Antonio. Miedo y piedad. : Diputación Provincial de Sevilla, 1986. Print. Shepherd, John. Music as Social Text. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press, 1991. Print. Taruskin, Richard. “Shostakovich and the Inhuman: Shostakovich and Us.” Defi ning Russia Musically. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1997. 468-97. Print. Torrón, Diego Martínez. “El estremecedor testimonio de De ríos que se van.” Juan Ramón, Alberti: dos poetas líricos. Ed. Diego Martínez Torrón. Kassel, Germany: Reichenberger, 2006. 58-61. Google Book Search . Web. 4 May 2010. Washabaugh, William. Flamenco: Passion, Politics and Popular Culture. Washington, D.C.: Berg, 1996. Print. ———. “The Flamenco Body.” 13.1 (1994): 75-90. Print.

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