Duende

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The duende is a rarely explained concept in Spanish art, particularly flamenco, having to do with emotion, expression and authenticity. In Spanish, the primary definition of duende refers to a fairy- or goblin-like mythological character. While its nature varies throughout Spain and Latin America, in many cases its closest equivalent known to the Anglophone world is the Irish leprechaun.

From this original meaning, the artistic and especially musical term was derived.

"So, then, the duende is a force not a labour, a struggle not a thought. I heard an old maestro of the guitar say: ‘The duende is not in the throat: the duende surges up, inside, from the soles of the feet.’ Meaning, it’s not a question of skill, but of a style that’s truly alive: meaning, it’s in the veins: meaning, it’s of the most ancient culture of immediate creation.

"This ‘mysterious force that everyone feels and no philosopher has explained’ is, in sum, the spirit of the earth, the same duende that scorched Nietzsche’s heart as he searched for its outer form on the Rialto Bridge and in Bizet’s music, without finding it---"

"The arrival of the duende presupposes a radical change to all the old kinds of form, brings totally unknown and fresh sensations, with the qualities of a newly created rose, miraculous, generating an almost religious enthusiasm."

"All the arts are capable of duende, but where it naturally creates most space, as in music, dance and spoken poetry, the living flesh is needed to interpret them, since they have forms that are born and die, perpetually, and raise their contours above the precise present." [link]

— García Lorca, Theory and Play of the Duende

Musical Examples

The 3rd movement of Leonardo Balada's Concierto Mágico (a guitar concerto) is subtitled Duende.

Duende

Musical Examples

See also