I didn’t believe in the devil until I heard those drums, drums beaten by three dead and a lifeless. Scary King Vulture was no more. It was mandinga and my deceased dance. My feet trembled to the rhythm of the hands of those three lifeless and a dead. Stalking King Vulture was no more. I sweated over fire and danced ‘til dawn; I thought maybe this devil is me made drum, made rhythm, made free.
One drum stopped, I find no rest. Another one stopped, “What’s happening?” and I keep dancing. No screams. No drums. I think of mandinga, and turn around. No life. No drum. King Vulture has killed us.*
When I first heard Venezuela - Chants et tambours des confréries noires I decided to write a theme with Venezuelan drums. I started collecting sounds of drums and percussion sticks.
In the meantime the scope of the theme took shape: A tribute to Arturo Uslar Pietri’s short stories, specially to “El Rey Zamuro” (The King Vulture) and “El baile del tambor” (The dance of the drum), embodying the idea of a rich and incomplete country, a draft of a country. I ought to give an uncertain destiny to those sketches.
That’s the reason of mandinga, King Vulture, the deceased dance - a structure that begins and goes back again, a slightly out-of-tune guitar and a rhythm full of tones, textures and colors.
“Bosquejo de Tierra Firme” (Draft of dry land) is part of Escritorio.
Bosquejo de Tierra Firme
* Text: Xavier Losada. English translation by Ceci Egan.
