Song of the Outcasts: An Introduction to Flamenco Paperback with CD (Amadeus)

With so few books on flamenco in English, we are fortunate to have Robin Totton's, for it is excellent in its insights and survey of flamenco's many forms, palos. A musician and scholar, he probes in turn the song, the dance, and the role and style of the guitar. He explains what makes a great rendition of each contributor. He clarifies the divergence in rhythmic accents of cantaor and guitarist in, for instance, the soleá, which had long challenged my grasp. Totton's observations on Spanish gypsy, or Caló, culture support our understanding of this powerful art form. We learn not to focus on the melody but on the words, the emotions, and the rhythm. As in classical music's leider or art song, the artist's emphasis on the songs' poems is key to a fine performance. A glossary, including gypsy words, in included. We are also treated to a CD of 76 minutes that provide examples of the various palos. Most are recorded and discussed by the author and the sound is very good. He incorporates historical aspects of the music and the gypsies themselves. Photographs of performers also enhance this study. Thus, the book is a wonderful and worthwhile "introduction." But it is so thorough that I wonder what an advance book would be! If you listen to flamenco and wish to know more, find and buy this book. It will open your ears.

This book is excellent in defining flamenco in its purity, in technique and above all in spirit, Flamenco has been adopted in various ways, inevitable. This book separates the foreign elements, which may not be bad, simply not true flamenco. It does this on the chapters on guitar, dance and song Flamenco is not pleasant, or even beautiful in the formal sense. It is as the name implies it's a dance of flames. It's forceful, fiery, with driving rhythms and dramatic expressions. The intense, evocative world of flamenco is entrancing and beautiful. If this book doesn't convince you, I doubt another hook would

Flamenco is all about the song and, outside Andalusia, the song is often the least understood or enjoyed part of a flamenco performance. With true flamenco, the guitarist exists to support the song; the dancer is there to physically express the song. In flamenco the song is paramount.In "Song of the Outcasts" Robin Totton has put together an excellent introduction to flamenco for English speaking audiences. He has studied his subject and takes the time to clearly explain the history and significance of the various forms, and the roles of the performers. Best of all, there is a CD attached to the inside back cover that aurally illustrates what the author is talking about when he refers to various techniques and styles.Chapters include: The Song, The Dance, The Guitar and Its Music, The Song Forms, Where is Flamenco Heading, Who Are the Gypsies of Andalusia?, and a nice Glossary of terms.For those who enjoy a flamenco performance but don't know much about the art, this book is like taking a Learning Annex course in Flamenco 101. You won't learn to sing, dance or play the guitar - but you will come away with a greater understanding of, and appreciation for, those who do.Recommended

I am thoroughly impressed with his research and fieldwork on this book. Which quite honestly seemed to consist of hanging out with Andulusian Flamencos and drinking. More power to him, however, the reason I didn't rate this book that highly is the prevalent attitude that only someone 'born' to flamenco could ever actually play or be a part of flamenco. I didn't enjoy repeatedly being told that none but andulusians with gypsy ancestry should ever attempt this wonderful music. This attitude is quite prevalent among todays european flamencos and puts many people off from getting involved in this wonderful art form.After all, why try and understand what you can never be a part of? If we're living in a world where the best rapper is white, the best golfer is black and the best flamenco guitarist is half portuguese instead of 'Gypsy on all four sides' Then I'm sure that this wonderful art form of interwoven song, dance and accompaniment can be learned and enjoyed by everyone, rather than a handful of people with a bit more exposure to it.Okay book, could have been great without the authors somewhat obsequious attitude towards Andulusian Flamencos.

The combination of book and CD gives the student of Flamenco an excellent introduction to this artform. The CD covers a wide variety of categories and interpretations of the music born of unique roots and influences. The book not only describes the history of Flamenco songs, dance and personalities, but details the musicology. By setting the artform in its social, political, economic, geographic, religious and psychological context, the selections on the cd take the listener to a deeper understanding of a rare (and becoming rarer) expression of the human spirit.I enjoy this product very much and have shared it with others.

A must read for flamenco lovers, the one I bought for a great deal says “used in good condition” but it’s actually like new

Ole!

WONDERFUL INVESTMENT......LIKE BRAND NEW

I am a flamenco dancer but never really read about why flamenco. This book will teach you. It comes with a cd so you can refer to the music when required. Great book for all flamenco lovers.

This is a book which works in a number of different ways, sometimes well, sometimes not so well.As an introduction to the music itself it is excellent, especially in the chapter in which the author gives a commentary on the different flamenco styles and the examples contained on the accompanying CD, giving typical time signatures, subject matter of the songs and their likely origins. He explains key concepts such as compás (rhythm), although compás on one occasion suffers the indignity of becoming "compass", presumably because of our trusty false friend the spellchecker.As a history of flamenco it is good enough, though this clearly is not Totton's principal area of interest for the book. Flamenco's roots are shrouded in the mists of time, permitting all kinds of people to claim it without possessing much in the way of proof. However, the chapter dealing with Gypsy identity is interesting: the Calós of Spain first appeared, from North Africa, in significant numbers, in the 15th Century. Their language has Sanskrit origins, hence their journey is inferred to have started in India, giving strength to the claim by some, such as sitarist Anoushka Shankar, that flamenco's roots lie in the subcontinent.As a purveyor of song lyrics it is fine in Spanish and disastrous in English because of the inexplicable desire to bend the "translation" to rhyme, hence losing a great deal of the feeling and nuance in the Spanish, as where "trenzas", plaits, is translated as "long hair". It isn't the same, is it?Finally, as a political - there's no other way of describing it - tract it does little other than reinforce the image that it's next to impossible, unless you're a gypsy born and bred in the Albaicín, Triana or similar, to ever get to see real flamenco.In that sense, flamenco is the most frustrating of musical forms. There seems little doubt about what it is in principle. But it is set about by intense arguments, mostly centred on what constitutes authenticity in flamenco. Going to see "flamenco" looks easy. Cities such as Granada and Seville offer myriad venues at which it is possible to watch and hear flamenco artists, but authors such as Totton, with an apparent "inside track", caution that these are all too often tourist-trap tablaos.So why not ask a local? I did. In Jerez de la Frontera, one of the supposed spiritual homes of flamenco, I asked the friendly dueña of a restaurant where I could get to see some. Nowhere but during the festival, she told me. But have you seen the photographs of the festival? They seem the epitome of what Totton denigrates, with bunches of would-be bailaoras in spotty dresses dancing in formation in the street. Even Totton suggests there are good places to visit in Jerez. Then doesn't give addresses! Go to the tourist office, he suggests, where they will probably press on you some glossy flyers from the tablaos.Books such as Totton's are both useful and dangerous. They warn of the possibility that what the unsuspecting audience may be watching is the cultural equivalent of fish and chips in Torremolinos. But they can also establish a suspicion in that potential audience that nothing is going on but a rip-off. Nobody likes to be duped. They therefore deter people from visiting some establishments: I for one have felt a great reluctance to visit the establishments advertising flamenco in the Sacromonte district of Granada. He references the Zambra de María la Canastera there, but having seen what's on the Internet about that place I shan't be rushing over. Unfortunately, looking through Totton's list of potential venues in any of the cities he mentions I didn't feel helped at all.I have personally seen a fair number of flamenco performances. One in Barcelona was fun but quite clearly a tourist spectacle and the tourists were packed in to the rafters, to the extent that I for one spent much of the performance checking the quickest way to the fire exit, and who I'd have to climb over to get there. My first performance, at a tablao in the El Arenal district of Seville, was a little more satisfactory, but the best I have seen have been at the former Upsetter in Granada (now Le Chien Andalou) and La Carboneria (an old coal distribution depot) in Seville. These latter two were rough and ready, but felt the better for it. I agree with Totton that, as enjoyable as they may be, the "flamenco" shows put on at Sadler's Wells deserve the parentheses. But he extols Paco Peña's shows there, even though some in Spain, such as my Spanish tutor, a resident of the Albaicín, don't consider him to be at all authentic. You hear about him abroad, but he's not mentioned in Spain.But what is flamenco? I'd challenge anyone, notwithstanding Totton's strictures against (spit it out!) fusion, to say Enrique Morente's song Omega, recorded in collaboration with Granada rock band Lagartija Nick, is not flamenco. The music of Ojos de Brujo maybe isn't quite flamenco, but it is flamenco-inspired. The trouble is, it's possible that Totton has paid too much attention to those with vested interests in preserving some imagined golden age of flamenco in aspic, and not enough to those who respect the tradition but feel artistically constrained by it.Nevertheless, this is a better treatment than you'll find in Lonely Planet, and certainly more positive than the Claus Schreiner-edited book, Flamenco, which was my previous read on the subject. But the more I read, the more I feel like doing the fieldwork and writing the book myself.