Hans Werner Henze

El Cimarrón

The making of 'El Cimarrón' began in about 1986, with a conversation I had with Hans Magnus Enzensberger about the difficulties of writing political songs today that would go beyond the achievements of Eisler, Weill and Dessau in this field. It seemed to me that I might try to tackle the problem by writing a cycle with a variety of musical materials out of which perhaps something novel might emerge in a new and different context, almost by chance. Enzensberger told me of the recent publication of a biography by Estéban Montejo, an old Afrocuban who lived in Havana and who recalled his adolescence as a slave, and suggested that I should set episodes from this book that he, Enzensberger, would select for my experimentation. 'El Cimarrón', however, did not turn into a cycle of songs and was, indeed, not even intended as such - what came out of the work is a new form of theatrical music making. Singer, flautist and guitarist are occasionally required to play percussion instruments. - Hans Werner Henze