• for chorus SATB, percussion, flamenco dancers, flamenco guitarist and flamenco singers

• Duration: 54'
• Composed in 2010
• First performance: 23.10.10 Antonio Vargas, Talegon de Cordóba, El Titi de Algeciras, Jorge Padilla, Singapore's Flamenco Sin Fronteras, Singapore Youth Choir Ensemble Singers, conducted by R Casteels Chijmes Hall, Singapore
• ISMN: 979-0-9016510-5-0
• Parts: re score and parts, please email <rc@robertcasteels.com>
• Downloadable scores for inspection:
  Flamenca12.pdf

Very little is known about Ricardo Fernández de la Torre, except that he was a priest who composed this Misa Flamenca in Barcelona before 1971, the year when choreographer Antonio Vargas first performed it with flamenco dancers. Vargas brought to my attention this beautiful music composition in which the guitar links the Roman Rite of the Catholic Mass with the flamenco repertoire. The only material at my disposal was a recording of poor audio quality, and a handwritten, unpublished and incomplete score that forced the music into the straight jacket of 3/4 and 4/4 time signatures which are alien to flamenco music. However, by analyzing the relation between the metric of the Castilian language and the harmonic rhythm of the music, I discovered that the music in fact fitted perfectly within the flamenco rhythmic structure of 12 beats per cycle. I hope that this edition will render justice to the powerful emotional content of Misa flamenco.
The structure of Misa flamenco is as follows:
1. Kyrie La Caña/ Falseta/ Verso 1 de cante flamenco/ Kyrie/ Verso 2 de cante flamenco/ Kyrie/Macho de la Caña/ Soleá/
2. Gloria Las Cantes de Malaga/ Verdiales/ Gloria/ Falseta/ Malagueña/ Jabera/ Gloria/
3. Credo Cantes gitaos/ Debla/ Credo/ Seguriyas 1/ Credo/ Seguriyas 2/ Credo/
4. Sanctus/ Falseta/
5. Agnus Dei Alegrías/ Soleá por Bulerías/ Agnus Dei/ Alegrías 2/ Agnus Dei.