Cantaoras

This book provides an in-depth ethnographic investigation of the greatly underestimated and underappreciated contributions of women singers, the cantaoras, to the creation, transmission and innovation in flamenco song. Situating the study of flamenco in the context of social and political currents that have shaped twentieth-century Spain, and drawing on interviews with the cantaoras themselves, Loren Chuse shows how flamenco is a complex of cultural practices at once musical, physical, verbal and social, involving the expression and negotiation of complex multi-layered identities, including notions of Andalusian, regional, gypsy and gender identity. Chuse shows how women are engaged in the formation of flamenco today, and how they respond to the balance and tensions between tradition and innovation. In so doing, she encourages a deeper appreciation of flamenco and initiates new approaches within ethnomusicology, feminist scholarship, flamenco, gender and popular music studies.

Loren Chuse

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Chapter One: An Andalusian Journey Chapter Two: Traditional and Innovative Musical Practice in Flamenco Chapter Three: Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Singers Chapter Four: Social and Political Conditions for Women and Their Impact on Cantaoras in Twentieth-Century Spain Chapter Five: The Cantaora Today Chapter Six: La Herencia: Traditions of Flamenco in Lebrija and Granada Chapter Seven: Women and the Guitarra Flamenca Chapter Eight: The Flamenco Copla: Themes, Archetypes, Stereotypes Chapter Nine: The Social Construction of Flamenco Identity Chapter Ten: Identity, Aesthetics, and Emotion Glossary References Index