The most famous are copla and flamenco, the latter being sometimes used as a portmanteau term for various regional musical traditions within Andalusia.
Further terms fell into disuse in Europe; adufe from al-duff, alboka from al-buq, anafil from al-nafir, exabeba from al-shabbaba (flute), atabal (bass drum) from al-tabl, atambal from al-tinbal,[1] the balaban, sonajas de azófar from sunuj al-sufr, the conical bore wind instruments,[2] the xelami from the sulami or fistula (flute or musical pipe),[3] the shawm and dulzaina from the reed instruments zamr and al-zurna,[4] the gaita from the Rhaita, rackett from iraqya or iraqiyya,[5] geige (German for a violin) from ghichak[6] and the theorbo from the tarab.
[8] Trend[9] acknowledges that the troubadors derived their sense of form and the subject matter of their poetry from Andalusia.
The hypothesis that the troubador tradition was created, more or less, by William after his experience of Moorish arts while fighting with the Reconquista in Spain was also championed by Ramón Menéndez Pidal in the early twentieth-century, but its origins go back to the Cinquecento and Giammaria Barbieri (died 1575) and Juan Andrés (died 1822).
[10] Certainly "a body of song of comparable intensity, profanity and eroticism [existed] in Arabic from the second half of the 9th century onwards.
Improvised flamenco songs of ancient Andalusian origin are called cante jondo, and are characterized by a reduced tonal ambiance, a strict rhythm, baroque ornamentation and repetition of notes.
The golden age of flamenco is said to be 1869 to 1910, later becoming more and more popularized internationally and influenced by South American music, especially the tango.
Other musicians of the early 20th century include Manolo Caracol, who walked from Jerez to participate in a cante jondo competition, which he won.
Though the golden age had long since passed, the 1950s saw flamenco achieving increased respectability in Spain.
In 1956, the first national cante jondo competition was held in Cordoba, followed by a Chair of Flamencology being established at Jerez in 1958.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Antonio Mairena and similar artists kelped kickstart a flamenco revival as American and British rock began dominating the Spanish music scene.
Emerging from this, Camarón de la Isla became one of the most popular and critically acclaimed performers of the century.