ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the current past-oriented definitional approaches to heritage-flamenco. Artists and scholars everywhere have found it challenging to rethink such fundamental notions as musical style and patrimonial heritage. Although the term 'heritage' may remind nationalists of cultural loyalties, it should also prompt critical reflection. The idea of 'heritage' can no longer be accepted out of hand as it might have been when Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote- with nationalist movements surging forward in the early decades of the twentieth century- saying, 'style is ultimately national'. The relevant facts are that the current government designated flamenco music as a patrimonial object and marker of Andalusian identity in 2007: 'Exclusive power is accorded to the autonomous community of Andalucia regarding the knowledge, conservation, investigation, formation, promotion and diffusion of flamenco as a singular element of Andalusian cultural patrimony. Ultimately, the aim is to map out an alternative definition of the flamenco style.
