Glossary

 The glossary is a set of “working definitions” of the key concepts used in this book.  

 

Classical. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the term classical refers to music that traces its origins to the music of European cultural élites, including music of the classical style per se (Mozart, Haydn) as well periods before and after periods (baroque, romantic, etc…).  

 

Context. Contexts can be geographical (spatial), historical (temporal), cultural (in any relevant sense of the word), and musical. Both the production and the reception of music are contextual, occurring in a place, a time, and with reference to particular cultural and musical traditions.  

 

The cultural turn. In musicology, the “cultural turn” is associated with the “new musicology,” or the movement to make music speak to issues of direct political or social concern, including gender and sexuality. See literary turn. 

 

Defamiliarization. Setting to music a poem in a way that takes it away from its expected context in order to associate it with new musical or cultural elements. See also irony.  

 

Elegy. The grief-stricken memorialization, in poetry or music or both, of the life and tragic death of a human being who is felt to possess exemplary status. 

 

Expectation. The listener has expectations shaped both by (1) his or her previous musical knowledge and experience and by (2) the piece of music to which he or she is listening at the moment. A piece of music can fulfill or frustrate expectations, either in relation what the listener is used to generally, or in relation to its own internal structure.   

 

Flamenquification (reflamenquification). The tendency, among flamenco artists, to set to music texts by Lorca (or by other poets) that in their original contexts are unrelated to flamenco. The singing of folkloric material that isn’t flamenco in a flamenco style (aflamencado). See also popularization.

 

Folklore. Any vernacular musical idiom as it exists prior to, or apart from, its commercialization.   

 

Fragmentation and recombination. Breaking off sections of a text to set to music; recombining short texts, or fragments of texts, to create new juxtapositions, in medley form or as separate components of a larger project. 

 

Fusion. Fusion is hybridity that has become so well established within in a musical styles that the elements that have been combined are no longer perceived to be disparate. (Fusion is its own style of music, not necessarily perceived to be a combination of rock-and-roll and jazz as it was at one moment, when it was known as “jazz-rock fusion”). 

 

The “goose bump” effect. The frisson that the listener might feel upon discovering a unique combination of poetry and music, when both the poetry and music are perceived to have value, and their combination is even more valuable than either alone. See also the “value added” factor and the “meeting of the minds” theory. 

 

Hybridity. The combination of musical elements perceived to have their origins in more than one musical genre or style. The culturally “mixed” situation of postmodernity generally. See also fusion. 

 

Infantilization. The tendency to concentrate on Lorca’s children’s songs, or to perpetuate a more naïve or innocent construction of Lorca’s subjectivity.  

 

Irony. Irony in music occurs through a perceived disjunction between words and music, or, through the combination of warring elements, like a jaunty melody played over a dissonant texture. It can seem intentional, in defamiliarized settings, or accidental, in kitsch. 

 

Kitsch (cursilería). Vernacular adaptations of high culture that reduce the original to a stereotype, or that popularize it in a facile way. Generally a term of opprobrium.   

 

The literary turn. In any vernacular musical idiom, the impulse to set to music poetry in the literary tradition not previously associated with that idiom. Also, the perceived “elevation” in status of the vernacular singer-songwriter to the category of poet.  

 

The “meeting of the minds” theory. The idea that a translation, a musical setting or performance, or some other kind of adaptation, will be gain value through the combined creativity of two or more individuals. See also the “goose bump” effectand the “value added” factor.

 

Middlebrow. The elevation of “popular culture” to a higher, semi-elite status, or, in the opposite direction, an effort to make elite culture less intellectually challenging. In its origins a term of insult, but perhaps redeemable as the name for a productive middle ground between “high” and “low” forms of culture. 

 

Popularization. The process through which canonical texts of the literary tradition become more popular or better known through their association with vernacular genres of music. See also kitsch. 

 

Postmodernism. An era characterized, in the arts and in intellectual life, by hybridity of forms, the unsettling of cultural hierarchies, and the suspicion of “master narratives” (Lyotard).            

 

Recombination. See fragmentation. 

 

The “see also” syndrome. The tendency to mention musical adaptations of Lorca without thinking of them as rewarding of study in their own right. 

 

The snowball effect. The tendency of composers and performers to be drawn to poets who are already canonical, or who have already been set to music extensively. 

 

Translation. In relation to musical settings, the singing a text in a language other than that in which it was originally written. It may be associated with defamiliarization or other processes of recontextualization.

 

 

Triangulation. The relation between the listener and at least two musical, literary, or cultural contexts perceived to be disparate. Triangulation also occurs in the relation between the listener, the music, and the text.    

 

The “value added” factor. The idea that an adaptation can be superior to the original, with the addition of the creativity of the adaptor to that of the original creator. See also the “goose bump” effect.

 

Vernacular. A vernacular musical idiom in the Western context is one perceived to be either folkloric or commercial rather than classical. Some writers use the word popular in this sense, since that word can mean either folkloric or commercially successful. Not all vernaculars, however, are popular in the second sense. 

 

Volatility (Kramer). The fundamentally unstable and sometimes arbitrary or “forced” relation between words and music in vocal settings.   

 

Words without music. A tendency in popular music studies to analyze the words to songs without paying much attention to the music, or to the relation between words and music.