“Duende” was commissioned by Thomas Buckner, with whom I have collaborated for several years, composing two other works for him, “Night and Fog” and “The Angle of Repose”. This is the most collaborative of the three works, and draws on the remarkable and expressive array of sounds which he has evolved over years of improvisational work, a form of personal vocabulary. From this vocabulary I selected sounds which remind me of certain vocal transformations I have heard in recordings of shamanic ceremonies. In such singing, changes in the voice mirror and also help to bring about changes in the singer's mind and awareness. Within an improvisational framework, Thomas Buckner explores the possibility of change of state through such transformations, moving through three stages: preparation, a first flight, and a final flight in which he moves beyond the self he knows. Thus “Duende” is not a prepared, performed work, but a vehicle for experience. He is partnered by a tape drawn from the sounds of the cuica (an African and South American instrument), a large glass gong and other glass sounds, wind, a Cameroonian rattle, a kea (New Zealand mountain parrot), and a bullroarer; our thanks to Tom Hamilton for his assistance in making the tape. Federico Garcia Lorca, for whom duende was a fundamental, essential quality, said "The duende, then, is a power, not a work. It is a struggle, not a thought. I have heard an old maestro of the guitar say, ‘The duende is not in the throat; the duende climbs up inside you, from the soles of the feet.' Meaning this: it is not a question of ability, but of true, living style, of blood, of the most ancient culture, of spontaneous creation." And, "We have said that the duende loves the rim of the wound, and that he draws near places where forms fuse together into a yearning superior to their visible expression." Immersion” is a quiet and dramatic work is based on a continuous four-mallet, then eight-mallet roll on the marimba, colored by sound from a quartz bowl gong tuned in F. The bowl gong sits on the keys of the marimba, setting up beat frequencies which are gently amplified and provide a haunting atmospheric effect. The second player employs two tam-tams, one of which is "prepared" with hanging ping pong balls and other objects, which vibrate gently when excited. Both the tam-tams are bowed as well. “Immersion” was composed for keyboard percussionist Dominic Donato. "Annea Lockwood |
