Sensemayá

"Sensemayá" is a poem by the Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén, adapted as an orchestral work by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. It is one of Revueltas's most famous compositions.

Listen
filename=Silvestre_Revueltas_-_Sensemayá.ogg
title=Sensemayá (full-scale orchestral setting) (1937)
description=Sample from Sensemayá, by Silvestre Revuelts. From the album 'Mexican Fireworks / Música Mexicana de Concierto'.
format=OggGuillén's poem evokes a ritual Afro-Caribbean chant performed while killing a snake.

Revueltas first set the poem to music in Mexico City in 1937, originally setting it for small orchestra. In 1938, he expanded it into a full-scale orchestral setting for 27 wind instruments, fourteen percussion instruments and strings. It was well-received and was compared by one writerVerify source|date=July 2007 to Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" for its lush and dense rhythms. As one reviewer describes it:

Sensemayá is based on two Afro- Cuban religious cults found in Cuba, the "Salteria and the "Abacua". In these groups a sorcerer, or "medicine man" is called a "mayombero". He is knowledgable in the area of herbal medicines, as well as being the leader of rituals. In Sensemayá the mayombero leads a ritual wich offers the sacrifice of a snake to a god, perhaps Balabú- Ayé. This god, popularized as Balabú in the United States by Xavier Cugat and Desi Arnaz, is the Afro-Cuban god who has the power to heal, or spread pestilence. One of the main motives in Sensemayá is based on this word ¨mayombero¨. This chant "mayombe, bombe mayombé", may be translated as "magician, magic magician" and is another example of Revueltas´s use of repetition as vehicle to reflect primitive society. [ Lee Jack, Dean. "Silvestre Revueltas: A discussion of the background and influences affecting his compositional style. Page 57. ]

The piece has gained new popularity in recent years as Revueltas's work has been 'rediscovered'. Notably, "Sensemayá" was used in Robert Rodríguez' film "Sin City". The director/composer describes it as having been a major influence on the rest of the film score.

The score and parts for Revueltas's setting of Sensemaya are available to rent from the music publisher G. Schirmer.

Sensemayá was again set by Chilean Nueva Canción group Inti-Illimani. It was released in 1979 on their album "Canción para matar una culebra". The song in places borrows its 7 meter from Revueltas' work.

A choral setting of Sensemayá was written by Canadian composer Sid Robinovitch in 2000. The work was part of his three-part set of songs "Canciones por las Americas". Robinovitch's choral setting includes rhythmic chanting, dissonant and occasionally chaotic harmonies, and spoken verse.

ources

*Charles K. Hoag. 1987. "Sensemayá": A Chant for Killing a Snake." "Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana" 8, no. 2 (Autumn): 172–84.
*Dean, Jack Lee. 1992. "Silvestre Revueltas: A discussion of the background and influences affecting his compositional style". Ph.D. thesis. University of Texas at Austin.
*Jacobs, Glenn. "Cuba's bola de Nieve: A Creative Looking Glass for Culture and the Artistic Self". Latin American Music Review.
*Otto Mayer-Serra. 1941. "Silvestre Revueltas and Musical Nationalism in Mexico." "Musical Quarterly" 27: 123–45.
*Kaufman, Christopher. 1991. "Sensemayá: The layer procedures of Silvestre Revueltas". DMA thesis. Ithaca, New York, Cornell University."
*Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon. 1998. "The Song of the Snake: Silvestre Revueltas' "Sensemayá"." "Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana" 19, no. 2 (Autumn): 133–59.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1979/5/79.05.06.x.html Text of the poem] (English and Spanish)