Sacro-Monte
Definition
The Sacro-Monte (Sacred Mountain) is a hill district on the edge of Granada, Spain, traditionally inhabited by the Gypsy community and associated with the most authentic and intense forms of flamenco. Its cave dwellings were (and some remain) the sites of private and commercial flamenco performances, and the district has a powerful mythological weight in Spanish cultural imagination as the birthplace of the deepest flamenco singing and dancing. Turina's piece of the same name (Cinco danzas gitanas Op. 55 No. 5, A minor) captures something of the mysterious, rhythmically incandescent atmosphere of the place.
Interpretive Guidance
The A minor tonality of Sacro-Monte should feel modal and ambiguous, not like Classical A minor. Allow the Phrygian inflections — the flat second degree — to colour the melody distinctly. The piece has a hypnotic quality that depends on rhythmic evenness underpinning any expressive flexibility in the melody.