About

Rationale

The renowned Concurso de Cante Jondo (traditional-Flamenco singing contest) held in Granada in June 1922 was a cultural event of extraordinary magnitude for the City of Granada that made a lasting impact, both within Spain and internationally. It was organized by public and private institutions and enjoyed the collaboration of many of the most prominent intellectuals and artists in Spain at that time. Such was its profile that the critical and theoretical output that surrounded its conception and creation, its organization, the final production, and its public reception positioned it at the very heart of the intellectual debates of the time and in the writings of local, national, and international authors. Yet, despite the tremendous profile it enjoyed—and continues to enjoy in cultural history and the collective memory, particularly in Granada—these debates were not without their clichés, negative stereotypes, shadows, and shortcomings. These diverse intellectual discourses are worthy of reflection, discussion, and fresh thinking.

The centenary of this milestone event is the perfect occasion to test out new views on the significance of the 1922 Contest in light of the latest trends in humanistic scholarship, and also to overcome one of the greatest challenges faced by research of this kind: the compilation of accurate primary sources. That task falls to the University of Granada (UGR): to create a space for new historical approaches that can provide a rigorous and unique vision of the Contest and its reception and subsequent repercussions.

“El Concurso de Cante Jondo Granada (1922): Processes, Critiques, and Contexts, Yesterday and Today” is a multidisciplinary conference that calls for the participation of both researchers and departments of the UGR and the entire national and international scientific community.

The research aims of the Conference are twofold:

a) To recover, for the benefit of the scientific community, the original musical, institutional, literary, documentary, visual, and audio sources related to the context surrounding the 1922 Cante Jondo Contest, many of which have never been compiled.

b) To study and reflect upon the Contest and its wider repercussions, guided by the research themes proposed below. These are not intended to be restrictive but are rather offered as an invitation for topic proposals and the planning of roundtable discussions:

  • The Contest itself and its origins: conception and organization; local, national, and international institutional responses; notable absences and personal contributions; disparate treatment of Flamenco singing, dancing, and guitar.

  • Intellectuals and Flamenco in 1922: conceptions of Flamenco; cosmopolitanism and particularism (romanticism, nationalism, “gypsyism”); critical, artistic–aesthetic, and musical ideologies and theories.

  • The Granada of the 1920s: the city, its spaces, and its artistic and musical practices; modernity and urbanism; Granada and the social and ideological conflicts of the time.

  • How the Cante Jondo Contest was received in the world of Flamenco: its impact on the creation, critical theory, and historiography of Flamenco; the Contest in the processes of cultural- and identity-construction—yesterday, today, and looking to the future.

  • How the Contest shaped and influenced the musical and cultural practices of the city—in both the public and the private realms—and its soundscapes: Granada as “Flamenco territory” renowned for its cultural events; Flamenco in the different spaces of the city; the ripple-effect of the Contest in other cities and its evolution toward other models; the Contest in the historical narrative.

  • The Contest, Flamenco, and the arts: contemporary and later plastic and literary creation; Flamenco and avant-garde arts; aesthetics; Flamenco, the world of performance, and artistic multidisciplinarity; the Contest as seen from the aesthetics and politics of the South; Flamenco and Andalucismo.

  • Communication, the internationalization of Flamenco, and economic impact: Flamenco and the media; Flamenco, leisure and tourism; Flamenco and the economy—yesterday, today, and tomorrow; Flamenco events and new communication formats.

  • The educational dimension of the Cante Jondo Contest: educational aspects of Flamenco and hallmarks of the Contest therein; the Contest in new educational propositions.