`Música Para Ocho Monumentos´ Manolo Sanlúcar and the Orquesta de Córdoba.

`Música Para Ocho Monumentos´
Manolo Sanlúcar and the Orquesta de Córdoba.

Main guitar: Manolo Sanlúcar; second guitar: David Carmona; orchestra conductor: Carlo Palleschi; orchestra: Orquesta de Córdoba

Text: Gonzalo Montaño Peña

“Música para Ocho Monumentos” is the latest creation presented by Manolo Sanlúcar, the result of a commission by the Junta de Andalucía in 1991, later put off, and now finally a reality.

The main idea is to apply the musical creativity of the maestro from Sanlúcar to compositions that evoke monumental places in Andalucía that are not the best-known, so that each of the eight provinces is represented:  Los Millares, in Almería; Baelo Claudia, in Cádiz; Baño de Comares, by Granada; Castillo de Sabiote, in Jaén; Monasterio de Los Jerónimos, by Córdoba; the Round Cemetery of Salayonga, in Málaga; Minas de Riotinto, in Huelva and the Hacienda de Olivar, in Sevilla.

Giving full reign to his symphonic tendencies, Manolo Sanlúcar composed a concert in which the guitar is just another instrument in the string section, without giving it the spotlight this instrument usually has in a concert by a recital guitarist or flamenco in general.  In “Música para Ocho Monumentos”, the guitar executes pizzicatos, arpeggios, small melodic motifs or accompaniment, most of the time in the background, acting as musical bridge between instrumental portions, or at the beginnings of certain pieces.

Harmonically, nearly the entire concert moves in the Andalusian scale which the composer himself has described as the mother of the whole musical heritage that has come together in Andalusia over thousands of years.

All the music is guided by flamenco forms such as bulería, soleá, alegrías…nevertheless it sometimes seems that the composer preferred to seek out accents more akin to folkloric festivals, such as three-quarter time, rather than the measures that differentiate flamenco from folklore.

Regarding the melody, Sanlúcar himself cited the importance of the work of Manuel de Falla in achieving Andalusian symphonic music, and in this sense the influence of  said pianist in this work is highly noticeable, at times seeming to be a continuance of that sound, a creator of audible moods that relate to the Andalusian psyche.

The global result is a work of agreeably digestible music, the Andalusian landscapes are instinctively present, allowing us to gallop astride a horse through the mountains of Seville, or stroll through the Roman ruins of Cádiz, although there are moments when you have the sensation of hearing something you already knew.

You always hear about the inferiority complex flamenco suffers when compared to other music considered classical, and the anxiety that exists when flamenco is divorced from Andalusian sub-culture for its greater glory, and that is precisely where Sanlúcar’s attempts at association between symphonic music and flamenco are headed.  Which is, in itself, admirable.  Nevertheless, I think this is an outdated feeling when any music-lover knows that among so-called classical music, flamenco already occupies a privileged position.