Antonio Chacón

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Antonio Chacón, ca.1910
Bust of Antonio Chacón

Antonio Chacón (* 1869 in Jerez de la Frontera ; † January 21, 1929 in Madrid ) was a flamenco singer . He is considered one of the best Spanish flamenco singers of his era and was respectfully called Don Antonio Chacón .

Life

The beginnings

Antonio Chacón's birth parents are unknown. Immediately after his birth he was adopted by a shoemaker and grew up in his modest household. The foster father wanted Antonio to learn the same trade. However, he hovered around the bars and cafes at every opportunity to listen to the singers from outside, and even sang at celebrations in the district. At the age of 10 he worked as a temporary worker in a cooperage , but soon gave up this work. When he was 12 or 13, he joined up with guitarist Javier Molina and one of his brothers, a dancer. They performed together first in Jerez and then in the towns and villages of the province of Cádiz . The tour started in Arcos de la Frontera and eventually lasted four years. They traveled on to Seville and Sanlúcar la Mayor , toured the entire province of Huelva and returned to their hometown of Jerez via Cádiz . During the long tour they had matured artistically, among other things through meeting other artists such as Salvaoriyo de Jerez, whom they had met in Huelva. Antonio Chacón took over some Soleares , Seguiriyas , Polos and Cañas from his repertoire .

In the cantantes cafés

Antonio Chacón's career received the decisive impetus from an encounter with Enrique el Mellizo . He heard him sing in a restaurant and convinced the foster father that the son was moving to Cádiz and performing with him in the cantante café . From Enrique el Mellizo Antonio Chacón learned the Malagueña , his future favorite discipline.

From Cádiz his reputation spread through Andalusia. Silverio Franconetti , owner of the Café de Silverio in Seville and one of the most famous singers in Andalusia, signed him. Antonio Chacón received a fee of 20 pesetas per performance , more than any flamenco singer had ever received before. Silverio and Antonio Chacón showed mutual admiration for one another. The following saying about Antonio Chacón has come down to us from Silverio:

«Para hablar de ese señor hay que descubrirse. ¡Es muchísimo mejor que yo! »

“It takes self-knowledge to talk about this man. He is much, much better than me! "

- Silverio Franconetti

Conversely, Antonio Chacón said of Silverio:

«¿Pero qué está usted diciendo, señor Marqués? ¡Si yo soy una zapatilla al lado de ese monstruo! »

“But what do you say, Marquis? I am a slipper next to this titan! "

- Antonio Chacón

Together with Fosforito , who sang in the competing Café del Burrero , the two shaped the musical life of Seville at that time.

At the height of the career

In his mid-twenties, Antonio Chacón moved to Madrid. It is said that he invented the caracol singing form there. In reality, it was more that he rediscovered this almost forgotten Palo and developed it further. In the meantime his repertoire encompassed almost all flamenco palos. The name Tiento for the so-called Palo of Flamenco is also attributed to him. Enrique el Mellizo and other singers sang Tientos before him, but he derived the name from the following verse, which he sang frequently:

Me tiraste varios tientos
por ver si me blandeabas
y me contraste más firme
que las murallas del alba.

You threw me a few tientos
to see if I would soften
and you found me stronger
than the walls of Alba.

In Madrid he became the star of restaurants and large, privately organized celebrations. If the mood suited him, he could perform day and night at a festival lasting several days and hardly sleep. Pepe el de la Matrona reported on a festival for the Carnival in Seville, which was paid for by the impresario Manuel Cantares and in which Antonio Chacón Juana la Macarrona , Magdalena la Malena , Pastora and Arturo Pavón and other well-known artists performed. In spite of all his festive exuberance, his entire devotion was devoted to music, and he used to make corresponding demands on his audience. When someone was chatting or joking, he would sarcastically ask the audience: "¿Y los señores saben escuchar?" - "And the gentlemen can listen?"

He is considered the best paid artist of his time in Spain. High nobles up to the royal family hired him. He was extremely generous and generous, often invited his companions after performances and gave parts of his fee to those who had little income. In the years just before the First World War , Antonio Chacón was signed by the Teatro San Martín in Buenos Aires .

The last few years

In the last few years of his life, his style had gone out of fashion. He also had a lung disease that affected his voice. The previously celebrated Don now met the disdain of the audience, who, for example, greeted a singing lecture in Jerez with loud displeasure. In this poor health and financial condition, his partner Anita also fell ill. In order to get some money, he sang some recordings that have been preserved. José Ortega and Enrique el Granaíno dragged him to the record studio by their arms. A few days later, on January 21, 1929, he died.

reception

Honor roll for Don Antonio Chacón in Jerez

Antonio Chacón is regarded as an artist of the transition between the classical period of flamenco, the so-called Edad de Oro with the cafés cantantes , and the theatrical period of the emerging 20th century. The latter finally found its controversial climax in the Ópera Flamenca , with protagonists such as Pepe Marchena .

He was considered to be a master in almost all forms of flamenco singing. Fernando el de Triana called him dueño y señor de todos los publicos en España , lord and master of every public in Spain, and wrote about him:

«… Todos, chicos y grandes, frescos y borrachos, estaban cautivados por su incomparable arte, ya malas penas respiraban, por no perder un detalle, ni una nota de su estilo sublime y sentimental, a la vez que raro y desconocido.
Su voz era de una melodía extraordinaria; su modulación facilísima, y ​​tanto las notas graves como las agudas las ejecutaba con una sonoridad encantadora. "

“… Everyone, young and old, sober and drunk, was captivated by his incomparable art and hardly breathed in order not to lose any detail, not a note of his sublime and soulful, but strange and unfamiliar style.
His voice had an extraordinary melody; their modulation was as light as a feather, and he sang both the low and the high notes with a bewitching melody. "

- Fernando el de Triana

He enriched the Cartagenera and spread it all over Spain. He earned the greatest recognition through his interpretations and extensions of the Malagueña and the chants related to it. He practically reinvented the granaína , which was previously a simple form of fandango . Antonio Mairena wrote about him:

"Brillantez, genio creador, innato don de la musicalidad, un oído seguro y un falseto esplendido, todo ello recocido con clarísima intelligencia y buen gusto inimitable, convirtiéronle en el malagueñero por excelencia."

"Brilliance, creative genius, innate musical talent, a sure ear and a grandiose falsetto , all of which used with a clear mind and inimitably good taste, made him the singer of the Malagueña par excellence."

- Antonio Mairena

He also gave the Caña its final shape. He brought the almost forgotten milonga back to life and through his interpretations made other forms, derived from Latin American chants, popular in the world of flamenco.

Only in the case of the palos, which are considered to be particularly typical of Gitano singing, was it not quite as high as with the other chants. This is particularly true for the Bulería and the Seguiriya, where the audience expects the typical voice coloring of the Gitano singer, which Antonio Chacón was not his own. He also pronounced the texts in high Castilian language and not, as is customary in flamenco, in Andalusian dialect. He articulated madre and del viento and not mare and the viento .

In his appearance in the theater, critics see an artistic impoverishment both in personal terms and with regard to the general development in flamenco. Antonio Mairena and Rafael Molina wrote:

«Su majestad y su solemnidad, tan encarecidas, alternaron con apropósitos de pretendido color andaluz. No hay más remedio que reconocer que don Antonio permitió la creciente simplificación del cante, llamando la atención sobre algunas de sus facetas más virtuosísticas y públicas. »

“His majesty and precious solemnity gave way to alleged Andalusian coloring. There is no avoiding the admission that Don Antonio allowed the increasing simplification of the singing and drew attention to aspects of exaggerated virtuosity and public impact. "

- Rafael Molina, Antonio Mairena: Mundo y Formas del Cante Flamenco . Revista de Occidente, Madrid 1963.

However, this strict conception of the "purity of flamenco" is in turn controversial.

Web links

Commons : Antonio Chacón  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b c Ángel Álvarez Caballero: El cante flamenco . Alianza Editorial, Madrid 2004, ISBN 978-84-206-4325-0 , p. 179 .
  2. ↑ Ángel Álvarez Caballero: El cante flamenco . S. 193 .
  3. ↑ Fernando el de Triana : Arte y artistas flamencos . Extramuros, Sevilla 2010, ISBN 978-84-9862-418-2 , pp. 22 (Spanish, facsimile of the original 1935 edition).
  4. ↑ Javier Molina. In: El arte de vivir el flamenco. Retrieved March 9, 2020 (Spanish).
  5. ↑ a b Ángel Álvarez Caballero: El cante flamenco . S. 183 .
  6. ↑ Ángel Álvarez Caballero: El cante flamenco . S. 184 .
  7. ↑ Ángel Álvarez Caballero: El cante flamenco . S. 180 .
  8. ↑ Ángel Álvarez Caballero: El cante flamenco . S. 181 .
  9. ↑ Around 1900 a peseta had the equivalent of around US $ 0.19 , see P. Martínez Méndez: Nuevos datos sobre la evolución de la Peseta entre 1900 y 1936 . Banco de España, Madrid 1990, ISBN 84-7793-072-4 , p. 16 .
  10. ↑ Fernando el de Triana: Arte y artistas flamencos . S. 19 .
  11. ↑ a b Ángel Álvarez Caballero: El cante flamenco . S. 182 .
  12. ↑ a b Ángel Álvarez Caballero: El cante flamenco . S. 185 .
  13. ↑ a b Ángel Álvarez Caballero: El cante flamenco . S. 186 .
  14. ↑ a b c Ángel Álvarez Caballero: El cante flamenco . S. 189 .
  15. ↑ a b Ángel Álvarez Caballero: El cante flamenco . S. 190 .
  16. ↑ Ángel Álvarez Caballero: El cante flamenco . S. 188 .
  17. ↑ Ángel Álvarez Caballero: El cante flamenco . S. 192 .
  18. ↑ Ángel Álvarez Caballero: El cante flamenco . S. 193 .
  19. ^ Gerhard Steingress: Cante Flamenco. On the cultural history of Andalusian modernism. 2nd Edition. Logos, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-8325-3441-7 , pp. 165 .
  20. ↑ a b Fernando el de Triana: Arte y artistas flamencos . S. 20 .
  21. ↑ a b Ángel Álvarez Caballero: El cante flamenco . S. 187 .
  22. ↑ These palos are known as cantes de ida y vuelta , songs of the outward and return journey .
  23. ↑ Manuel Ríos Ruiz: Ayer y hoy del cante flamenco . Ediciones ISTMO, Tres Cantos (Madrid) 1997, ISBN 978-84-7090-311-3 , pp. 55 .
personal data
SURNAME Chacón, Antonio
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chacón, Don Antonio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish flamenco singer
DATE OF BIRTH 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Jerez de la Frontera
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1929
Place of death Madrid