A study abroad trip led to a music genre discovery.
Two of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life were two of the biggest, as well as the quickest, ones I’ve ever made. First, my decision to come out to KU for graduate school was made in about a day and it turned out to be pretty a pretty solid one: I got my master’s two years ago and I’m working on my PhD now. The other decision was deciding to go study abroad during my undergrad at Ohio State.
I got the idea, then got the information, then made the decision and then submitted the paperwork to study in Granada, Spain, in about 20 hours. The school timetable at Ohio State was divided into quarters, as opposed to semesters. I found out that I could take a year’s worth of credit in one quarter if I studied in Spain. It was an easily astounding life decision in that it completely reshaped me as a person and, actually, ultimately led me to this university.
Granada, Spain, is in a region of southern Spain called Andalucía. Granada, a beautiful, olive-filled region is about 40 minutes from the Sierra Nevada mountains and about 45 minutes from the Mediterranean Sea. On days in the late fall, you can go snow skiing in the morning and then hop on the highway to cities such as Nerja or Almuñécar.
Besides being most famous, probably, for the Alhambra, the agonizingly beautiful Moorish palace and inspiration for, in my opinion, the greatest song ever written, Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Francisco Tarrega, Granada is known for their ‘gitano’, or gypsy, population. Confined mainly to the Sacromonte, los gitanos solidified the area as a famous and important flamenco region. A few times, my roommate and Ben walked around the Sacromente and heard great music being played and once, accidentally walked into a gypsy wedding at the Sacromente Abbey.
The program that we were in in took us to a flamenco show and although knowing it was probably meant for tourists and not the ‘aficionaos’ (in Andalucía, their dialect drops the ‘d’ in words like aficionado. Thus, since flamenco started in Andalucía, we have words like tocaor instead of tocador for the guitar player, cantaor instead of cantador for the singer, and bailaor instead of bailador for the dancer. I can attest that I understood hardly any Spanish for about two months while I was in Granada, or how it is pronounced there, Grana. It was a substantial relief to watch the news everday, which was in the Madrileño accent) it was still fascinating to see the skill and ability of this sacred art.
My time in Spain was life-changing and made me believe that it should be required for every undergraduate. Not studying in Spain, obviously, but studying in a different country. Being able to live in a documented and historic place such as Granada and it’s importance for an art form that I love and shaped my musicality on makes me wish that I can somehow find a job in Granada, learn authentic flamenco, and enjoy an Alhambra 1929 during a warm fall night under the shadows of the Alhambra.
by zachary graham
tune in to balkanization of the american nation every thursday night from 8 to 9 .m.