The art form, in plain words
What you hear in a flamenco hour
Song, dance, guitar and the 12-beat cycle that holds them together, explained so the hour on Calle del Pez makes sense from the first note.
Reserve your seat in Malasaña ↗Three arts, one stage
UNESCO describes flamenco as an art that fuses song (cante), dance (baile) and musicianship (toque). Its heartland is Andalusia in southern Spain, with roots in Murcia and Extremadura too. It is performed at religious festivals, rituals and private celebrations, and it is an identity marker for many communities, especially the Gitano community. It is passed down through families, social groups and flamenco clubs. A one-hour show on a stage brings all three arts together in a compact form.
The voice
Cante is the vocal form. UNESCO says it is sung by men and women, preferably seated, without backing singers, and that its lyrics are brief and simple, expressing a wide range of emotions from grief to joy. A flamenco singer is called a cantaor, and the feminine form is cantaora. Most styles express sad and bitter feelings, according to Wikipedia, though some, such as the guajiras, are described as cheerful and lyrical.
The dance
Baile is a dance of passion and courtship that conveys situations from sadness to joy. Wikipedia notes its expressive use of the arms and rhythmic stamping of the feet, with the arms curving around the head and body. Dancers may use props such as castanets, canes, shawls and fans. The Madrid tourism board describes the show at Calle del Pez as including dancing in long-tailed dresses and flamenco in couples.
The guitar
The guitar, or toque, has moved well beyond accompaniment, in UNESCO's words. Castanets, hand-clapping and foot-stamping are also used. In a small room you hear the strings very clearly. You also hear the guitarist's role as the anchor of the rhythm, because the chord changes mark the key beats that the singer and dancer follow.
The beat underneath
The compás is fundamental to flamenco, Wikipedia says. It is the rhythmic cycle of a palo, and the guitarist's chord changes mark its key downbeats. Without a guitarist, the compás is carried by handclapping (palmas) or by tapping on a table. Flamenco uses binary, ternary and 12-beat cycles, and the 12-beat cycle is the most characteristic. You do not need to count it. If the room claps together, you are hearing it.
Palos: the forms
A palo is a flamenco form, and each has its own mood and rhythm. The soleá and the seguiriya belong to the cante jondo, or deep song, and are solemn. Bulerías and tangos are fast and festive. Which palos you hear depends on the cast and the day, so treat any list as a map of the art form, not a running order. The grouping into families is, in Wikipedia's words, a popular and sometimes inconsistent way of classifying songs.
What to listen for in your hour
The Madrid tourism board lists the elements of the show: dancing in long-tailed dresses, flamenco in couples, vocal and guitar solos, and a finale. Treat that as a map. In the solos, follow one artist at a time. In the group numbers, watch how the others keep the beat with their hands and feet. You do not need to know the names of the forms. If a song stops and the room goes quiet, you have reached the kind of moment that the art form is built around.
How old is it?
The earliest record of flamenco music dates to 1774, according to Wikipedia, and the genre emerged at the end of the 18th century in Baja Andalusia. The word was used for the music in an 1847 newspaper article that called it a gitano genre. In 1881, Silverio Franconetti opened the first flamenco singer café in Seville. UNESCO listed flamenco as intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2010.
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