IRON IN THE SOUL
Pythagoras codified music after hearing a smith working on different sized anvils, which produced different sounds directly in proportion to their size.
Martinete is probably the most primal form of flamenco. Based on the anvil, and who-knows-what cross-conception of magic and hell which the blazing forge conjured up in the minds of the Gitano, who were expert smiths, of course.
Martinete is also the most cosmic of the flamenco forms. A true cry of the lone, travelling individual soul in the vastness of the universe and time. A child of rhythm and vibration – not that old trickster Melody.
And as if that were not enough, without its iron core, the earth would have no magnetic field. And with no magnetism, the sun would have stripped away our atmosphere billions of years ago, and we would never have existed. Iron makes our blood red and gives us life in the process. And now we learn that iron is the element on the periodic table which all other elements try to be.
‘As it expanded and cooled, the early universe was a nuclear reactor — protons and neutrons combined to make light elements such as deuterium.. helium and lithium. The nuclei themselves would have liked to continue this process of fusion, combining all the way to form iron (the most stable nucleus), but the rapid expansion of the universe soon made the nuclear plasma too thin to sustain further reactions. ‘
It is the most stable organization of atomic particles there is. It is the rhythm of the universe. The anvil of the cosmic forge. And also the forge of music and of flamenco.
Again the Gitano knew something without being told. Without having to be taught. No wonder they have always been so persecuted.