Antonio Machado and Álvarez «demófilo»: Science of folklore and flamenco copla

Abstract

The text analyses the intellectual career and the contribution to flamenco of Antonio Machado and Álvarez «Demófilo» (1846-1893), the most important folklorist of the Sevillian School and author of the Collection of flamenco songs (1881). It places the author at the historical crossroads between the raising of natural sciences, positivism and evolutionism, the political nationalisms, literarian and artistic movements of costumbrismo and realism. The article also sets out the project of institutionalization that Machado carried out of the studies of folklore and popular literature in Spain. The synthesis of research on flamenco by Demófilo shows the scientific and modern condition of his main contribution: the construction of a systematizing model of the poetic corpus of oral tradition, fully committed to a humanist and progress ideology.