Seville City Council

Evolution. Hermetic Stage. First singers

Aside from the keys that the history of literature has provided for the study of the origin of flamenco, there is data, many of it still unproven, that talk about ancient flamencos. The reference to two figures who for a long time have been thought to be the first singers in history cannot be left out.: Tío Luis de la Juliana and Junquito de Comares from Jerez, two names that have created many conflicts among flamencologists of yesteryear, since an agreement was never reached as to which of the two was prior to the other. Today that discussion has no relevance., since it still cannot be proven that they even existed.

However, Of those who do have reference to their existence, they are one of the first artists of the 18th century in Triana., which, together with Jerez and Cádiz, is the enclave in which flamenco ceases to be a folkloric expression and becomes an artistic genre.. must be cited, by

example, to singers like El Planeta, Although it seems that he was born in the Bay of Cádiz area - it is believed that in Puerto Real -, He developed all his art in the Sevillian suburbs singing seguiriyas - of his own creation- and by tonas. His main student was El Fillo, gypsy also from Cadiz lands who had a love relationship with Andonda, who was many years apart. This woman was probably the first to sing soleá, although there were also other cantaora families in Triana such as the Pelaos and the Cagancho to whom this style can be attributed.. At first soleá emerged as a dance song, until the potters of the Sevillian neighborhood began to make unaccompanied styles not subject to compass.. At that time, ballads and martinetes were also sung., styles are connected with the toná.

In parallel, Important flamenco centers also develop in Jerez and Los Puertos. The name of Paco la Luz remains in history., mythical seguiriyero from which almost all the great Jerez singers descend, as much as that of Crazy Mateo, Manuel Molina, Diego the Marrurro, Joaquín Lacherna or Mercé la Serneta, which would later move to Utrera. And in the Bay Ciego la Peña makes history, Durse Job, Enrique El Gordo or Enrique Jiménez Fernández, “The Twin”.

However, that stage, called “Hermética” by Ricardo Molina and Antonio Mairena in their book “World and forms of flamenco singing”, remains a mystery to scholars, since there are few written documents that shed light on the analysis.

Shortly after, instead, everything would change. The inheritance that a boy named Silverio Franconetti received from El Fillo in Morón de la Frontera would be key to the future of a genre that until then had not left private festivals..