Hans Werner Henze - El Cimarrón (1969-70)
Hans Werner Henze (1926-2012)
El Cimarrón (1969-70)
The biography of the runaway slave
Esteban Montejo
Text:
Hans Magnus Enzensberger
1. Die
Welt (
The World) [0:00]
2
. Der Cimarrón [6:50]
3. Die Sklaverei (
Slavery) [11:07]
4.
Die Flucht (
Flight) [15:34]
5. Der
Wald (
The Forest) [19:58]
6. Die Geister (The
Spirits) [28:13]
7. Die Flasche
Freiheit (
False Freedom) [34:54]
8. Die Frauen (
The Women) [38:08]
9. Die Maschinen (
The Machines) [41:13]
10. Die Pfarrer (The Clergy) [46:57]
11. Der Aufstand (
The Uprising) [51:44]
12. Die
Schlacht von Mal
Tiempo (
The Battle of Mal Tiempo) [55:59]
13. Der schlechte Sieg (
The Evil Victory) [1:02:02]
14. Die Freundlichkeit (
Friendliness) [1:07:
10]
15. Das Messer (
The Knife) [1:12:33]
William Pearson, baritone
Karlheiz Zöller, flute
Leo Brouwer, guitar
Stomu Yamash'ta, percussion
Hans Werner Henze, conductor
In the nineteenth century on
Cuba, “cimarrón” was a word used for an escaped slave. The “cimarrón” in Hans Werner Henze’s “
Recital for four musicians,” Esteban Montejo, was born in
1860. In February
1970 Henze completed the score at his home in
Marino, near
Rome. Enzensberger had arranged the libretto into fifteen scenes, some of which reflect subjectively on historical events, other on the personal views of the Cimarrón. Henze had produced a score that included aleatoric components as well as composed “fields” in which pitches and sounds are specified but the tempi and dynamics are determined by the musicians, as well as passages for free improvisation. There are, however, also sections composed in the classic manner, such as the rather quiet, filigreed, and often enchantingly beautiful duets and solos, such as the guitar solo in the postlude to no. I, “The World,” or the flute solo in no.
VIII, “
Women”. The latter reflects on how the Cimarrón became anxious and afraid when meeting his lover,
Ana, who he thought was a witch.
At the beginning of no.
VII, “The False Freedom,” the piccolo plays together with the vibraphone, supported by the tom-toms. The duet between the singer and guitar in no. XI, “
The Rebellion,” includes one of the most beautiful unison passages in contemporary music. Among the delicately fully written out ensembles that depending on the chamber music qualities of the musicians’ performances include the toque a
Babalu Ayé in no. V, “The Forest,” a reference to the Lukumi religion on Cuba, or no. VIII, “
Women,” in the rhythm of a Cuban son. In no.
XIII, “The Bad Victory,” another Cuban folk rhythm, a rumba, introduces the victorious frenzy that followed Cuban independence. The composer also used popular music in a parodistic manner: an habanera in no. II, “The Cimarrón,” alludes to the decadence of the colonial masters; in no. X, “
The Priests,” the slightly out-of-tune chorales allude to the falseness of the clergy on Cuba, and in no. XIII, “The Bad Victory,” the harmonica tells the story of how the new members of the “master race” naively and matter-of-factly make themselves at home on the island. A variety of
Caribbean and African instruments supplement the folkloristic aspects of the score, such as a
Trinidad steel drum, which has its big entry in no. VII, “The False Freedom,” as well as marimbula, log drums, octobans, temple bells, congas, bongos, and other better-known instruments. Several instruments are reserved for specific dramatic effects, such as an iron chain that drops onto wood at one
point (no.
III, “Slavery”) and onto steel at another (no. IV, “
Escape”), or the guiro that the singer in no. IX, “The Machines,” plays and thus becomes even more united with the relenting running of the modern machines in the factories. In no. IV, “Escape,” the flutist plays a
Jew’s harp, enables
us to hear the stars the overseer sees when the Cimarrón hurls a rock in his face.
Henze took up certain models and signs from the vocabulary of modernism (e.g., the use of aleatoric procedures, the integration of improvised sections, free, no longer serial tonality, and the predominance of elements of Cuban folklore in the rhythm and shaping of the melodies). There is a narrative gesture that derives from Esteban Montejo’s speaking style, which was captured on tape. And there is the basso continuo, it was derived from and developed on ancient African (Congolese-Cuban) percussion music. That is the often quite but often loud pulse of our Cimarrón.
Written by:
Michael Kerstan (
English translation by Steven
Lindberg)
Source: www.elcimarronensemble.com
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