Duende

Jason Webster has written an intriguing book titled "Duende". Duende is what Juan Martin in his Flamenco method "El Arte Flamenco de la Guitarra" defines as follows: Duende, literally meaning goblin or elf, is the spirit which inspires those extraordinary, perhaps fleeting moments in Flamenco when te performer achieves a total communication with his audience. It is an experience of bare truth, when one is somehow transported in the very depth of things, to emotion at its most naked and most poignant, so that one can feel "that is how it really is".

Though difficult without an audience, I would invite you to listen to the latest CDs of e.g. Paco de Lucia or Tomatito. It might bring you in the mood.

The story tells the authors search for Duende, passionate has he became by Flamenco music. The book is both a description of what Duende probably really means, and gives an idea about the backstage of emotions; in flamenco for sure, but of course equally in any other human activity.

Interesting in the book is also the learning process of the main personage that illustrates what I think is probably the one and only way to learn about the things that really matter: by experiencing them.

Comments

[Erna Oldenboom]

Let us all look for duende in everything we do. Invite others to do the same and let us share the experiences.

[Dmitri]

Glad to see another academic insitution to levereage the power of blogs

[Vincent]

I think Duende is a goog exemple of "order at the edge of chaos", a kind of perfect moment, among a lot a movement. Maybe the elf or the goblin is nothing more but the uncouncious willing of the dancers to reach the Duende...

[Raphaëlle]

the duende is what expresses a performer by singing and dancing the flamenco accompagned by a guitare and the "pito".
And the cheerfulness is what expresses a flamenco performer, but when he is accompagned by the "zapateado" or the "taconeo".
but even if we could easyly beleive that the duende is an art, it's important to say that it's also an art of living, and of thinking by itself! Indeed I think that the gypsies of Andalucia never pretend to be sad, neither to be in deep communion with their earth, their boby, and their minds.it's as if naturally they were near the chaos.