This collection of essays poses a series of questions revolving around nonsense, cacophony, queerness, race, and the dancing body. How can flamenco, as a diasporic complex of performance and communities of practice frictionally and critically bound to the complexities of Spanish history, illuminate theories of race and identity in performance? How can we posit, and argue for, genealogical relationships within and between genres across the vast expanses of the African—and Roma—diaspora? Neither are the essays presented here limited to flamenco, nor, consequently, are the responses to these questions reduced to this topic. What all the contributions here do share is the wish to come together, across disciplines and subject areas, within the academy and without, in the whirling, raucous, and messy spaces where the body is free—to celebrate its questioning, as well as the depths of the wisdom and knowledge it holds and sometimes reveals.

A Queer History of Flamenco offers a groundbreaking exploration of flamenco through the lenses of queer theory and cultural studies. Previous histories have provided a largely distorted image about why, where, and how people have done flamenco—as well as who has performed flamenco. Yet feminists, transvestites, butches, femmes, the Spanish Roma, disabled people, guiris, and “incomprehensible” artists have been determined to do things differently without giving up their flamenco status. In this skillful translation of his book Historia queer del flamenco, Fernando López Rodríguez draws on diverse archival materials as well as his own lived experience and artistic practice, unearthing queer flamenco histories, voices, and perspectives that were previously unknown, avoided, or purposely hidden. Tracing flamenco’s development from its birth up to the contemporary era, the book places flamenco within significant historical periods such as the Spanish Civil War, Franco’s dictatorship, the transition to democracy, and the economic crisis of 2008, up to contemporary performances of the late 2010s. In taking a queer approach to History, the author abandons antiquated debates about purities and impurities; anecdotes about the lives of artists that are completely detached from their processes of creation; and myths about geniuses who seem to make art alone and completely detached from their collaborators and the historical, social, economic and artistic moment in which they lived. A Queer History of Flamenco is not only about the present and the queerness of people living, performing, or creating in it, but also about flamenco’s past in which so many queer artists and practices and their lives have remained unearthed and unaddressed.

Transatlantic Malagueñas and Zapateados is an exploration of two fandango dances, recording the circulations of people, imagery, music, and dance across what were once the Spanish and Portuguese Empires. Although these dance-musics seem to be mirror images, the unbreachable space between them reflects the political fault-lines along which nineteenth-century musical populism and folkloric nationalism extend into present-day debates about globalization, immigration, neoliberalism, and neofascism. If malagueñas are a fantastic incarnation of Spanishness, caught like a fly in amber by their anachronistic references to a fraught imperial past, noisy and raucous zapateado dances cut toward the future. Inherently marked by European conventions of zapatos (shoes), zapateados are nonetheless shaped by Africanist and Native American footwork traditions. In these Afro-Indigenous mestizajes, not only are European aesthetic values reordered and resignified, but the Catholic catechism which indoctrinated the New World yields to alternate spiritual systems springing out of a culture of resistance to European domination.

Popular Music in Spanish Cinema analyses the aesthetics and stylistic development of soundtracks from national productions, considering how political instability and cultural diversity in Spain determined the ways of making art and managing culture. As a pioneering study in this field, the chronologically structured approach of this book provides readers with a complete overview of Spanish music and connects it to the complex historical events that conditioned Spanish culture throughout the 20th century to the present day, from the Second Republic, the Spanish Civil war, and the dictatorship through to democracy. The book enables an understanding of the relationships between the recording and film production industries, the construction of collective imagination, the formulation of new stereotypes, semiotic meanings within film music and the musical exchanges between national and international cinema. This volume is an essential read for students and academics in the field of musicology, ethnomusicology and history as well as those interested in the study of diverse musical styles such as copla, zarzuela, flamenco, jazz, foxtrot, pop and rock and how they have been used in Spanish films throughout history.

This volume focuses on the musicscapes that contest, critique, and rethink Mediterraneidad (Mediterraneaness) in Contemporary Spain, and understands it as a fluid and elusive sociological, cultural, and artistic category. The volume argues that since the 1990s we have witnessed a shift in which the mythical image of “Mediterranean harmony” has been superseded by the net: a figure that represents the linking of urban nodes and trans governmental networks, migratory movements, and cultural fluidity. Further, this book assesses how Mediterraneidad became, within the realm of music, the site and sign of a diverse array of social issues such as the formulation of Catalan, Valencian, Andalusian, and Mallorcan national identities, with the 2017 Catalan Independence process taking center stage. Using diverse methodologies-data-driven sociological approaches; ethnographic and anthropological tools; feminist and gender theories-the authors also address the rapidly changing social landscape that started in the 1980s due to global migrations as well as the dismantling of traditional gender dynamics.

An expert explains and analyzes the beloved art form An iconic symbol of Spain, flamenco has become a global phenomenon. Peter Manuel offers English-language readers a rare portrait of the music’s history, styles, and cultural impact. Beginning with flamenco’s Moorish and Roma influences, Manuel follows the music’s evolution through its consolidation in the mid-1800s and on to the vibrant contemporary scene. An investigation of flamenco’s major song-types looks at rhythm and compás, guitar technique, and many other aspects of the music while Manuel’s description and analysis of the repertoire range from soleares and bulerías to tangos. His overview of contemporary flamenco culture provides insight into issues that surround the music, including globalization, gender dynamics, notions of ownership, and the ongoing debates on purity versus innovation and the relative roles played by Gitanos and non-Gitanos. Multifaceted and entertaining, Flamenco Music is an in-depth study of the indelible art form that inspires enthusiasts and practitioners around the world.

"Providing numerous case studies ranging across the Indian Ocean--across disparate time periods and historical and ethnographic approaches--Sounding the Indian Ocean: Musical Circulations in the Afro-Asiatic Seascape brings together the disciplines of Indian Ocean and music studies. As glimpsed above in the Sufi and Catholic networks connecting South and Southeast Asia, the chapters in this volume explore how music helps materialize networks of connection across the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and in several of its distinct locales. Our focus is not simply the well-worn tropes of Indian Ocean cosmopolitanism, however, nor a definition of the IOR as a site for the harmonious mixing of populations (though some of our chapters do one or both of these). Rather, we show how music contributes to placemaking in distinct 'Indian Ocean worlds' (Srinivas et al. 2020). Instead of defining music's value in its ability to provide either narratives of identity formation or the celebration of mixture, Sounding the Indian Ocean explores the role music plays in both boundary-formation and boundary-crossing in Indian Ocean contexts, past and present"--

Music is the invisible thread that weaves through every aspect of our lives, shaping our memories, emotions, and cultures. In Whispers of Harmonic Souls: How Music Shapes Our Lives, Cultures, and Hearts, we explore how music influences our deepest experiences, from the way a song can transport us back to a specific moment in time to how it heals wounds we didn't even know we had. This book dives into the rhythms of memory, the melodies that comfort us, and the universal language that unites people across all walks of life. It's a celebration of music's role in our lives, revealing its profound impact on both individual and collective levels. The book takes you on a journey through diverse perspectives on music, illustrating how it serves as a spiritual guide, a tool for social change, and a reflection of our inner and outer worlds. Chapters like Echoes of Resistance and The Muse's Touch show how music has fueled revolutions and sparked creativity, while Lullabies Across the Globe and The Dance of Cultures emphasize its role in preserving traditions and connecting us to our roots. Even in the silence, there is a melody; The Symphony of Silence and Cadence of the Cosmos explore the power of pauses and the mystical patterns of music, offering a glimpse into how music and the universe itself resonate together. Whispers of Harmonic Souls is more than a collection of stories—it's a tribute to the transformative power of music. Whether you're a musician, a music lover, or simply someone who's been touched by a song, this book will deepen your appreciation for how music shapes our world. It's a journey through the soul of music and its ability to connect, heal, and inspire, reminding us that, in the grand symphony of life, we are all connected by the harmonies that resonate within us.

How is the politics of Blackness figured in the flamenco dancing body? What does flamenco dance tell us about the construction of race in the Atlantic world? Sonidos Negros traces how, in the span between 1492 and 1933, the vanquished Moor became Black, and how this figure, enacted in terms of a minstrelized Gitano, paradoxically came to represent Spain itself. The imagined Gypsy about which flamenco imagery turns dances on a knife's edge delineating Christian and non-Christian, White and Black worlds. This figure's subversive teetering undermines Spain's symbolic linkage of religion with race, a prime weapon of conquest. Flamenco's Sonidos Negros live in this precarious balance, amid the purposeful confusion and ruckus cloaking embodied resistance, the lament for what has been lost, and the values and aspirations of those rendered imperceptible by enslavement and colonization.