tonás

Tonás ({{IPA|es|toˈnas}}) is a palo or type of flamenco songs. It belongs to the wider category of Cantes a palo seco, palos that are sung a cappella.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=idJTAQAAQBAJ&q=%22Ton%C3%A1s%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA32|title=Cantaoras: Music, Gender and Identity in Flamenco Song|author=Loren Chuse|page=32|publisher=Routledge|year=2013|isbn=9781135382049|accessdate=2020-01-27}} Owing to this feature, they are considered by traditional flamencology to be the oldest surviving musical form of flamenco. This musical form originated in the Calé Romani subculture of Southern Spain.{{cite journal|last= Manuel|first= Peter|title= Evolution and Structure in Flamenco Harmony|url= https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D8902FFS/download|journal= Current Musicology|publisher= Columbia University Press|year= 1986|volume= 42|issue= 42|pages= 46–47|doi= 10.7916/D88051HJ|s2cid= 193937795|doi-access= free|quote= Other cantes, although Andalusian in a general sense, originated from Gypsy subculture and lack non-Gypsy counterparts; these would include siguiriyas, soleares, bulerias, and tonas}} The first known flamenco singer, Tío Luis el de la Juliana, who lived in Jerez de la Frontera in the last third of the 18th century, was said to have excelled in this palo.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4eWeBAAAQBAJ&q=%22Ton%C3%A1s%22+%22T%C3%ADo+Luis+el+de+la+Juliana%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA29|title=Origen y evolución del Flamenco|page=32|author=Andrés Bernal Montesinos|publisher=Lulu Press|year=2013|isbn=9781291242447|accessdate=2020-01-27}}

Other cantes a palo seco, such as martinetes and debla, are sometimes classified under tonás,{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iO5KAQAAMAAJ&q=%22martinete+is+really%22|title=An Analysis of Federico García Lorca's Poema Del Cante Jondo|page=47|publisher=University of California|year=1971|accessdate=2020-01-27}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p7Ry-cGN0WEC&q=Ton%C3%A1s+%22debla%22&pg=PA117|title=Antonia Merce,́ "La Argentina": Flamenco and the Spanish Avant Garde

|author=Ninotchka Bennahum|page=117|publisher=Wesleyan University Press|year=2000|isbn=9780819563835

|accessdate=2020-01-27}} while at other times they are referred to as palos on their own.

The tonás were almost in disuse by the end of the 19th century. The reason seems to be that they were considered a difficult style by the general public, and resulted in Tonás on the near verge of disappearing.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bAAxbTZnHM4C&q=ton%C3%A1s+difficult+flamenco&pg=PA258|title=The Art of Flamenco|page=25|author= D. E. Pohren|publisher=Bold Strummer|year=2005|isbn=9780933224025|accessdate=2020-01-27}}

During the 1950s the tonás came back into use, with singers like Antonio Mairena,{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bzd1CTtnjS8C&q=ton%C3%A1s+Antonio+Mairena&pg=PA38|title=Flamenco – All You Wanted to Know|page=38|author=Emma Martinez|publisher=Mel Bay Publications|year=2011|isbn=9781609744700|accessdate=2020-01-27}} and came to be considered one of the main flamenco styles together with seguiriya and soleá.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WmB0UKh8Q64C&q=ton%C3%A1s+soleares+flamenco+style&pg=PA10|title=Flamenco Guitar Basic Techniques|page=10|author=Juan Serrano|publisher=Mel Bay Publications|year=2016|isbn=9781610654302|accessdate=2020-01-27}}