Andalusia, a constant source of inspiration. Manuel Machado

This time it's about Manuel Machado, a Sevillian-born poet of the Generation of '98, who I have paid too little attention to until now. I have only casually mentioned here on my blog that he was brother of Antonio Machado. The two of them so similar and yet so different. It's widely known, as Juan C. Toledano, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies of Lewis & Clark College of Arts and Sciences, claims (see the references), that Manuel Machado didn't share the Christian socialist stance of his younger brother, Antonio Machado. It only shows us that they were independent thinkers. They both had their own truth that made them work for the greater good of the people they cared for, their people. They may not have had the same exact concerns, but what they surely had in common was love and caring for Andalusia, and that is way more significant than it looks. 

Manuel Machado y Ruiz (1874-1947). Image taken from a blog

In the play written together, La Lola se va a los puertos (already described on several occasions earlier), the Machado brothers do not display an Andalusia that is something mystical and far from what its people lived in the streets in the 1920s, it's the Andalusians' Andalusia they expose. Naturally, this is also where they differ from the other members of the Generation of '98 who were no flamenco enthusiasts. The Machado brothers disregard the non-Andalusian way of life without almost profane passion for music, and through the characterisation of La Lola they show how they view folk art as essential and constitutive:

Una relación flamenca de hombre y de mujer, que no es un matrimonio cualquiera entre cristiano y cristiana sino algo más.

A relationship of a man and a woman in flamenco is not like any marriage between Christians, it's more than that.

In their play, it's flamenco that dominates them all being the essence of the region, because flamenco "no es música, sino lengua del corazón" (is not music but the language of heart). Flamenco is its art and its heritage. And out of them two, it's especially Manuel's thing. Edward F. Stanton, an overseas Cante Jondo expert, insists in his article (see the references) that Manuel wrote texts for Gypsy songs, while Antonio was “smarter” for not wasting his creative energy on folklore; nevertheless, quite a few of Antonio's poems have also ended up in the repertoire of flamenco singers. At the same time, according to Francisco Gutiérrez Carbajo's study on Soleares (see the references), Manuel gave a new life to a handful of old folk songs.

 

Handwriting sample of Manuel Machado. Images taken from here

Manuel Machado not only tried to incorporate this familiar and dear world to him into poetry, but also published a book on Gypsy song in 1912 that he titled “Cante Hondo”, which was the apparent precursor to the García Lorca's book.

Interpretation of Manuel Machado's Cante Hondo by Javier Coble, video by Poetas Andaluces:

 

Among other things, Manuel wrote a poem in honour of the provincial capitals of Andalusia, but Seville, he thought, spoke for itself. 

CANTO A ANDALUCÍA	SONG TO ANDALUSIA
Cádiz, salada claridad. Granada, agua oculta que llora. Romana y mora, Córdoba callada. Málaga cantaora. Almería, dorada. Plateado, Jaén. Huelva, la orilla de las tres carabelas. Y Sevilla.	Cádiz, salt-laden brilliance, Granada, hidden waters that weep. Roman and Moorish, silent Córdoba, Málaga, flamenco singer, Almería, golden. Jaén, silvery. Huelva, shore of the three caravels. and Sevilla.
	Translation taken from Elizabeth Nash's book (see the references)

To him the essence of Seville - his birthplace - was beyond words. This is just what James A. Michener, a Pulitzer-winning American author, says in his book "Iberia" (see the references): 

“I was familiar with the rest of Spain before I saw Seville, but nothing I had learned elsewhere taught me so much about Spanish behaviour. Others have reported a similar experience for Seville does not have ambiente, Seville is ambiente, and nowhere has this been better expressed than in a lyric written by Manuel Machado, written in this century, which is quoted constantly throughout Spain. It is a litany of Andalusian names, each described with its most typical appositives, except one, for which no nouns or adjectives suffice.”

Here, listen to the interpretation of Manuel Machado's Canto a Andalucía by El Lebrijano. It's extraordinary!