commission : Studium / Toulouse (France)
dedicated to : Les Percussions de Strasbourg
creation : 15.04.1987
composition : 1987
musicians : 6 percussionists
duration : 15 ‘
Written in 1986 at the request of the organisers of the “Soirées Catalanes du Studium de Toulouse”, this work was given its first performance the following year by the Percussions de Strasbourg, to whom it is dedicated.
Carmen Amaya was one of the greatest flamenco dancers and this “Tribute” aims above all to reflect, through the personal vision of the author, the most outstanding features of this great artist.
Inspired by the disc ‘In memoriam-Carmen Amaya’, certain sequences have been transformed into a modern language. The morphology is free and the only movement can be considered as a Fantasy, with three main intertwined sections, from which the atmosphere and tension of the first section stand out, the melody-timble side with several allusions to the “cante jondo” of the second, while the third, essentially rhythmic, is based on the typical “zapatsado” and achieves its full scope by using a range of frequencies emitted mainly by skin instruments and “palmas” that underline the elegiac character of the finale.
Cowbells, Thai gongs and tuned wood-blocks were also used to transform the tonal elements into a suggestive climate with exotic sounds, confirming once again this search for a synthesis of cultures that is a constant in Guinjoan music.