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ON 'CONSTELACIÓN FLAMENCA':
The musician of the stars
Once upon a time there was a musician who sought inspiration
in the stars. He spent hour after hour in front of a telescope.
One night he heard cosmic sounds. It so happened that "the
breeze brought him the sweet chords of the veena". And he
discerned, seated on the constellation Lyra, the goddess Saraswati
caressing the mysterious instrument. It so happened that he
surfed the Internet. And he surfed and surfed until he found
the magic veena. And the muses came to his gathering...
What story is told by 'Constelación Flamenca', the work premiered at the
eleventh Bienal of Seville?
The main character is a woman who might be in another galaxy
in the year 3500. They say that the farther away you are from
things, the more you remember them. Communications are much
more fluent in that time than now. And she sees how part of
the universe has some traditions and melodies that people sing
on certain occasions and accompany their moods with sound connotations.
Life revolves around music.
That place is called Triana, but they don't know where that
name comes from. It has appeared there on a statue which is
the one that is on Altozano, with a guitar... but, of course,
they don't even know what a guitar is. She starts to investigate
that part of the universe and, as in dreams, melodies start
coming to her: soleás, seguiriyas, alegrías, fandangos... Afterwards
she comes here and meets people and discovers the past. She
reaches the point that she even goes into some neighbors' courtyard.
And, for instance, the Sevillians talk about the community life
the people used to live and how they express themselves in certain
celebrations. It's really all that I grew up with as a boy.
Who wrote the lyrics?
The lyrics were written by Ángel Vela, who was a neighbor of
mine in Pagés del Corro. He based himself on what I wrote to
specify the story. In reality, it's the story of someone who
marvels at a kind of music from a part of the universe where
people live with something that nobody has. Each type of melody
has its own character and is played in certain moods. There
is a part which represents the four elements: land, which is
the potters' clay in Triana; air, which is cante; fire, which
is the forge; and water, which is the river. It's a pity the
public can't have a libretto, like at the opera, because the
lyrics go under each note. It would have been a precious memento,
but I was told that there was no budget for it...
What instruments are used in the work?
The harp, violin, soprano voice, flute, contrabass, percussion,
veena, sitar and guitar are all played in the concert. (While
he moves around the studio, everyone seated on the carpet,
he plays a recording of his daughter Meili for us to see what
type of voice she has). I wrote the music with flamenco schemes,
but adapted to her classical and Baroque education.
And what is a veena?
It is a religious instrument played in Hindu temples. Despite
being the mother of the sitar, it has been eaten up by the sitar
over time. It comes from the south of India. And it is different
from the sitar in the way it is played as well as in the frets...
You can make a melody and at the same time an accompaniment.
It has a very deep sound; it's more like a guitar.
How did you learn to play it?
I taught myself. The book that came with it only said to play
the rhythm with the the little finger and the melody with this
one. All things in life depend on the interest you have in them.
(And he starts pointing at all the instruments he has around
there to me, among them a sarod, of Persian origin.)
Who gave the flamenco touch to this composition?
We all gave it the flamenco touch. The harp player is the soloist
of the Seville Symphony Orchestra; she's Bulgarian. The contrabassist
is also Bulgarian. The flutist is from the Seville Conservatory...
(Gualberto is restless and constantly puts on samples, plays
bits and pieces on one instrument or another, and calls up recordings
on the computer...)
And did the story come from the poem by Tagore?
That's a thread you pull on little by little. When I read about
the veena, I started to investigate on the Internet, a friend
gave me a record, and I was really struck that the goddess Saraswati,
the Indian goddess of literature and the arts, was seated on
a constellation. It seemed really beautiful to me, beside the
coincidence that I'm always messing around with the telescope
I have upstairs. And then he shows us a new sitar he bought
on a trip to London, at a shop owned by some great people, who
I've become friends with. And he goes and plays tinkling on
the sitar, which "sounds awesome ". And he tells us that music
is an essential part of life in India. Although he recognizes
that "I've never been to India; that's why I ordered it on the
Internet". Globalization stuff. And, after asking me, "What
do you think of the story?", he explains that "it's really an
excuse, because flamenco is always the same; deep down it's
very traditional. Since my daughter sings, I did everything
around it so that the cante makes sense and has a story".
And we go on chatting about a little bit of everything with flamenco as a recurring
theme. And we rise up again to the stars, to that flamenco constellation in which
melodies express moods... "Benito Moreno told me that with my daughter's voice
he had managed to bring out the refinement of Cernuda's Seville, a Seville that
also exists. It's a little more forgotten than the other one, because that passionate
Seville of bulls and sunshine has much more strength. But that different Seville
also exists..."
Continue
revista@flamenco-world.com
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