El Murciano's “Rondeña” and Early Flamenco Guitar Music: New Findings and Perspectives

Abstract

The "Rondeña" of guitarist Francisco Rodríguez Murciano (El Murciano, 1795­1848) of Granada−as documented in a notation made by his son−has been a subject of considerable interest among scholars of flamenco guitar history. Such authors as Eusebio Rioja (2008, 2013), Javier Suárez Pajares (2003), Guillermo Castro Buendía (2014), and Norberto Torres Cortés (2010) have all recognized the importance of this piece in the project of reconstructing, however hypothetically, the development of the art of flamenco guitar. These flamencologists have also raised various questions about the piece, involving the date and circumstances of its preparation and the extent to which it accurately represents El Murciano's actual playing. In 2014­15, one of the present authors (Martínez) discovered
two previously unexamined variant transcriptions of Murciano's rondeña. In this article, we present these manuscripts and suggest how they shed new light on the evolution of pre­ flamenco guitar playing.