On July 24, 1965, flamenco legend Carlos Monotya put on a clinic – literally – at the Berkshire Music Barn. Dancers did not accompany him, but he did bring along a program to identify the different styles (not the titles) of music he was playing.

Carlos Montoya Continues With Unique Ability

Use of Printed Program Listing 17 Rhythms Aid to Audience

By R.C. Hammerich for The Morning Union.

Carlos Montoya, flamenco guitarist, offers a service for his listeners that is very rare, perhaps unique along the jazz-folk circuit where he is well-known … a printed program.

Facile Fingering

Perhaps unique, also, is the incredibly facile fingering he used once again to amaze the audience Saturday afternoon during his annual visit to the Music Barn.

His printed program was a great boon Saturday to those of us who are ignorant to the fine distinctions among the subtles of Spanish gipsy music.

Montoya probably can’t remember when he wasn’t playing a flamenco guitar. He was at 14 already a celebrity in the dancing cafes of Madrid.

First for Concert

And he is believed to be the first flamenco guitarist to break away from the dancers to present his music alone before a concert audience.

He is a smiling, polite middle-aged man in a gray business suit, apparently shy and without pretence. He walked on stage, sat down, put his foot on a stool, propped up his guitar on his knee and played without preliminary fuss, no talk.

His virtuosic technique probably is unmatched. The independence of his fingers; his ability to pluck strings with blurring speed with both hands simultaneously, thereby sustaining steady notes along with
rhythmic pulses and tapping and thumping the guitar box rhythmically, as well is nearly
unbelievable.

Sound Alike

But he seems to use most of his fantastic technique on nearly every piece. And to the non-specialists, they tend to sound alike. That’s when the printed program becomes handy.

The listener could check off the numbers as they came along and keep score.

The pieces were not identified by title because they were, in virtually every case, extemporaneous variations of simple folk melodies presented in complex flamenco rhythm.

Rhythms Identified

It is the rhythms that were identified on the program, each with a few words of commentary. Saturday’s program listed 17 with two intermissions.

The first section listed six as follows: Alegrias, Fandango, Tientos, Tarantas, Petenera, Buleria Del Zorongo.

Our response to Montoya’s music remained unchanged Saturday. We found no reason to offer a report different from those made on two or three earlier Montoya performances.

Continued Astonishment

Our response consists essentially of continued astonishment at his digital dexterity and increasing disappointment with his habit of cutting off melodic phrases unfinished with constant fragmentation of melodies by strumming, chordal interruptions.

This is not an indictment of the flamenco style. Sabicas, for instance, another first-rate flamenco guitarist, has been more careful to complete his melodic phrases before searching into contrasting rhythms.

The suddenness of Montoya’s thematic changes, the unannounced illogical changes of volume, direction and speed may be appropriate as accompaniment for an arched-back whirling, heel-stamping flamenco dancer, but in the music they fill us with frustration and confusion.

Saturday’s audience, however, appeared highly pleased