El Cimarrón

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The recital El Cimarrón , subtitle: Autobiography of the escaped slave Esteban Montejo , is a composition by the German composer Hans Werner Henze , which premiered in Berlin in 1970 as part of the Berlin Festival .

History of origin

The recital was written between 1969 and 1970 when Henze was living in Cuba . It is based on the oral statements made by the former slave Montejo in 1963 to the Cuban writer Miguel Barnet . Montejo had escaped slavery and became Cimarrón . During the Cuban War of Independence , Montejo took part in the Battle of Mal Tiempo (Batalla de Mal Tiempo). Hans Magnus Enzensberger wrote the libretto . Henze composed the work for the American William Pearson, who lives in Germany . After his death in 1995 Henze wrote: “'El Cimarron' was composed with lively ideas about Billy, his voice, his possibilities of expression, his increasingly charismatic charisma. Our friendship was fun and indestructible. "

occupation

Henze called his work a recital for four musicians . The cimarrón is represented by a baritone, the other roles are a guitarist, a flutist and a drummer. During the recital, all musicians sometimes also play percussion instruments . The flutist also plays the Japanese ryūteki , the jew's harp and four different conventional flutes.

Tableaux

Henze divided his work into 15 tableaux, which are similar to songs, but require the singer to use some additional modes of expression such as laughter, whistling, roaring, screaming and falsetto.

The tableaux have the following names:

  1. The world
  2. The Cimarrón
  3. The slavery
  4. The escape
  5. The forest
  6. The ghosts
  7. The false freedom
  8. The women
  9. The machines
  10. The pastor
  11. The riot
  12. The battle of Mal Tiempo
  13. The bad victory
  14. The friendliness
  15. The knife

premiere

The musicians of the premiere in Berlin were the baritone William Pearson , the flautist Karlheinz Zöller , the Cuban guitarist and composer Leo Brouwer and the Japanese drummer Stomu Yamashta . The conductor was the composer himself.

In June 1970 the recital was performed with the same cast in England at the Aldeburgh Festival .

literature

  • Stephen Walsh: in the booklet accompanying the Deutsche Grammophon CD El Cimarrón
  • Claus H. Henneberg (Ed.): El Cimarrón: A work report , text book (libretto), Schott, Mainz 1971

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerhard R. Koch : Changeable identical . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of July 5, 1995, p. 29