In Search of Duende
Interview with Drifting Cloud Press, Devon Soundart Radio
Hello friends.
A few months ago, I was interviewed by the lovely Gabriel Thomas Stevens on his podcast Drifting Cloud Press. Based on the wondrous Dartington Estate, we nestled into the local radio’s recording studio, and were swiftly taken by the current that is duende. Known in Spain as a mysterious, otherworldly yet earthen force that overtakes the poet, the dancer and the bullfighter alike and alters them forever…
The duende’s arrival always means a radical change in forms. It brings to old planes unknown feelings of freshness, with the quality of something newly created, like a miracle, and it produces an almost religious enthusiasm.
- Federico Garcia Lorca
See more on duende in my essay on the Wine of Dionysus.
Gabriel and I, as usual, had a lovely chat about Lorca - known as the poet of longing, its potential origins in the cult of Dionysus, its spilling over into Sufi poetry and the irrational wild that lives in us and is brought alive, ultimately, by the spirit of duende.
If this maddening topic is of interest to you, I recommend reading Lorca’s In Search of Duende and his transcribed lectures in Conferencias. My version of the latter is in Spanish and unfortunately I haven’t yet found an English translation for you anglo-saxons out there! If anyone knows of one please let me know so I can share.
So without further ado, here is the link to listen on Spotify. And our little chin-wag is available anywhere you might listen to podcasts.
Lorca’s quote above is from his essay Play and Theory of the Duende published by A New Directions Pearl, p62.