This is an attempt of an Arts Practice-Based Research-project proposing a creative and practical exploration of a selection of musical-traditions descending from the rituals known as Fandangos, celebrated across the former Spanish Kingdom. These traditions have preserved the voices of colonial subaltern groups (otherwise erased from the colonial archives) amalgamated with European ancient baroque practices and instruments. As a classical Violinist educated in the field of Historical Performance Practice, I have undertaken the creation of concert programs where I put the realms of the classical written and the aural vernacular in a dialogue that informs the public about their own musical and cultural perception. This creative work is meant to create a musical language that comments on the silence of the oppressed groups in the former Hispanic colonies. I do this by developing a stylistic hybrid between the different dances through arrangement and improvisation. The main goal of this website, is to share insights of this process with you, in the hope that this inspires like-minded people to pursue their dreams of bringing arts in harmony with their social values, and to make our role as artists more meaningful for our society!

What is Postcolonial in Postcolonial Fandango?

The justification for my work has been borrowed from cultural studies contesting hegemonic academic views. When put in relationship to the performance of colonial music from Latin America in Early Music concerts, a postcolonial thinking demands a commentary on the function this music had in colonial society - unlike most of the performances known under the name “Missional Baroque” or “Latin American Baroque”, to which public and performers have assigned a certain “wold-music” character, “making it suspicious of charges of complicity in papering over the hugely conflicted sphere of contemporary geopolitics with an artificially harmonious global imaginary“ (Baker, 2008).

Instead of amplifying the colonial message, deposited in the archives of Latin American  cathedrals, I choose to imagine the sound of the voices that were not written down, eavesdropping through the oral traditions. It is precisely this what G. Baker proposes as one of the alternatives to the uncommented performance of colonial music:

“The idea of invention can also be brought to bear on the issue of repertory. The voices of subaltern groups have been lost because most of their music was not notated but was transmitted orally. A focus on elite, notated music perpetuates Western musical imperialism. By bringing lost popular music traditions back to life, by turning to reinvention and improvisation, performers may reinsert excluded cultures where they have been written out or have vanished from texts. The musicologist may identify notation as an example of the imperialism of Western literacy, but the performer has the possibility of doing something about it (...)" (Baker 2008, 444)

Since I am myself a violinist educated in historical techniques and improvisational styles, the research has a big baroque-language component. Identifying genealogical traits is my only scientific contribution in the traditional academical sense. I identify the baroque elements of style and performance preserved through fandango-traditions, which acted as time-capsules, retaining instruments, poetical and musical forms dating back to the XVII and XVIII centuries. My main research question has been:

What kind of knowledge can be gained by a performer versed in Historical Performance Practice through the performance of different Fandango musics, in its both written-aristocratic-, and oral-popular expressions?

Can I identify parallelisms and cross-fertilizations? On a purely musicological level, I try to understand the morphology of this music through their particular rhythmic profiles. Through comparison with historical dance-forms, I am attempting to shed light into the genealogy, origins and historical development of these dances. I do this empirically, and the research is about formulating only the conclusions that one can apprehend EXCLUSIVELY through performance and improvisation on this music.