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And here, speaking of that collective aspect of catharsis during Greek theatrical performances, we are going to place The first fundamental difference between Duende and Genio in the field of flamenco. The duende is a collective phenomenon, which occurs –when it sometimes surfaces– in the meeting, in a group. The meeting always has the expectation of joy, no matter what canten seguiriyas or bulerías. The encounter, the very fact of gathering around an art that moves us, already preludes the emotion, the catharsis, and if then the singer or singer, the dancer or dancer, is 'visited' by the genius, then the duende emerges, and the duende triggers our brain chemistry and our heart, as in the verse of Antonio Machado, “he cries again.”
Of course, the artist's genius fosters duende: if the artist is taken by genius, the public will become enraged and the duende will take up residence in the room, in the meeting, and explode collectively. Genius and duende, then, go hand in hand, but while one occurs in the individuality of the artist, the creator, the other occurs, necessarily, in the collectiveness of the public. The artist receives possession of genius involuntarily, without knowing it. If we saw Camarón –or another artist– who was visited by the genius at a certain moment of a performance, it was we who felt it from the outside, it was we who 'saw' it and said to ourselves: Camarón There is genius within him. But he didn't know it, he was innocent, he didn't prepare for his genius, many times he didn't even know what he was doing or why he was doing it.
«The duende is a collective phenomenon, which occurs in the meeting, in a group. The meeting always has the expectation of joy, it does not matter if it is canten seguiriyas or bulerías. The encounter, the very fact of gathering around an art that moves us, already preludes the emotion, the catharsis, and if the singer or dancer is then 'visited' by the genius, then the duende emerges, and the duende triggers our brain chemistry and our heart.
At this point in my reflection I want to say something: it is very difficult for the duende to appear in the context of a theatre, a large auditorium or any other space with a large audience. It is not impossible, but it is very difficult, the duende needs collectivity, however the massiveness usually scares the duende. This is contributed to by the great change and growth that has occurred in the flamenco. Now, the public is no longer that of the strict amateur, but a diverse public, students, foreigners and curious about the flamenco.
All of this, of course, is positive for the flamenco, it is good that in recent decades it has risen to the theaters and that the public has diversified, but the duende is more a thing of small groups, of rooms, of meetings, of fans capable of daring among friends with a cante or with a 'pataíta', in addition to listening in that meeting or peña to the professional.
The difference between Camarón and another great artist like Enrique Morente It consists of this: Camarón, in bursts of genius, he created things without intending to, while the Granadan master voluntarily set out to create in order to diversify, to innovate. Talent is one thing, something that we can sometimes even call “a stroke of genius,” and genius is another. Morente had talent, as well as other virtues and even abilities, but he was rarely possessed by genius. That is why Morente was a great teacher and Camarón, no. Mastery is something else. It also happened to us, for example, with Antonio Mairena and with Snail. The first was a master. If we were to return to Nietzsche's philosophy, we would say that he was a master of the Apollonian, of the formally structured, a master of the integrated, even of the complete, but he did not have genius with him. He organized and taught others a lot, but genius, as we are seeing, is something else. On the other hand, the second, Caracol, was possessed by genius at many moments.
Although in a book that has just seen the light, Poetic anthology of flamenco copla, Velázquez-Gaztelu He recalls how, when the maestro was already older, in a recording and at some other time, he would have liked to free himself from the 'straitjacket' that he himself had sewn for himself. flamenco and be himself, the one inside him, offering a flamenco wilder, more free of ties.
«Morente had talent, as well as other virtues and even abilities, but he was rarely possessed by genius. That is why Morente was a great teacher and Camarón, no. Mastery is something else. It also happened to us, for example, with Antonio Mairena and with Caracol.
Now that we're done, let's go back for a moment to Plato. Despite his poetic animosity, despite wanting to expel poets from the republic of knowledge, he was contradictory in his approach to poetry. In another part of his work, Plato says that poetry is more beautiful than reason because while poetry is a thing of the gods, reason is a thing of men. According to him, poets receive divine inspiration through the muses and the mania, which is enthusiasm (madness in a certain way, the irrational. And when we talk about duende in the flamenco we are talking about it under another name. The artist, in the world jondo, would be the poet, the singer, who is 'possessed' by genius, transmutation of the muse. Just as the poet did not know that he was possessed by the muses, who transmitted a divine madness to him, the singer does not know that he has been possessed by genius.
And then, the artist flamenco 'genialized', causes the duende to settle among the listeners, and arrives at that moment collective drunkenness, happiness, joy, and the duende takes over everyone. Drunkenness is the emotional drunkenness that is born from a natural or external dopamine. But, although this is obvious to the flamencoYes, drunkenness is not alcohol, flamenco It is not a matter of compulsive drinkers, there is no need to repeat it, I have already said it above, although wine, alcohol, taken in moderation, can help. The drunkenness brought by the duende is emotional drunkenness, it is the joy of being there at that moment. And then we can say that the duende flamenco It exists, even if it has no form carnal, corporal, although no one has ever seen it, but many have felt it and experienced it.
El flamenco, in its lyrics, in its history, is not a social art in the political, reivindicative sense, although lyrics of that type have been written in an intellectualized way. The lyrics of flamenco The old songs were always, for the most part, about pain, but about human pain: about the loss of a mother or brother, about the pain of being orphaned, about the pain of poverty, of fate, of lack of love or betrayal, but also about joy: a song to fulfilled love, a compliment to beauty, a song to nature in freedom. And all of that, whether sad or happy, is celebrated together, it is the joy of reunion that scares away death and suffering. And in that environment, people prepare a happy fallow land for the goblin to appear and life to triumph for a few hours, resoundingly, without palliatives.
→ See here the first installment of From genius to elf.
