Search - Duende: Jeffrey Agrell; Gil Selinger; Evan Mazunik :: Mosaic: New Interpretations of Early Music

Duende is a Spanish word that translates badly into a variety of English equivalents: goblin, dark spirit, inspiration, charm, magic, charisma, personal magnetism. The great Spanish poet Frederico Garcia Lorca wrote of duende, describing it as a dark, earthy, creative force, visceral rather than intellectual. The three contemporary musicians who make up the trio known as Duende have set out to discover the future through the past. Classical musicians until the advent of the Romantic Era were trained in improvisation along with note reading. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin all superb improvisers. But the huge musical canvasses of the Romantic composers had no room for improvisation, and the ability to create spontaneous died out among classical musicians. The musicians of Duende are part of the vanguard of classical players who are reviving the lost art, treating audiences to fresh interpretations of old music as well as music that is created on the spot. This recording takes a wide variety of early music pieces as sources for improvisation. There is no attempt to be authentic by using original instruments or in strictly following written manuscripts, but what is absolutely authentic is the spirit of improvisation that imbues each performance. In the present day, classical performers are taught to be highly consistent to produce exactly the same performance every time. In improvisation, the challenge is the opposite to produce a rendition that is both different and imaginative every time. Duende takes the various pieces and plays them with new delight and imagination as contemporary musicians. The result is early music like you ve never heard it before, fresh as morning, contemporary in sound, authentic in spirit. It s time for classical musicians to take a new look and what they play and how they play it. It s time for classical musicians to reclaim their birthright of creation in addition to re-creation. Performers, audiences, and tradition will be the