Work: And the Dakness dances
Composer: Juan Arroyo
Duration: 9 minutes 30 seconds
Instruments: violin and cello
In 2016, I had the honor and privilege of being selected to be part of the French Academy in Madrid – Casa de Velasquez. Admitted with fourteen artists, including photographers, painters, sculptors, and architects, among others, it was undoubtedly one of the most enriching experiences of my artistic development. During that year, among other discoveries, I came across the pictorial work of Nathalie Bourdreux. Her work, related to macabre images composed of skulls and skeletons, caught my attention. The theme of death, omnipresent and uncompromising in all her paintings, sparked in me the idea of writing something about it. Nathalie had painted a series entitled “Danzas Macabras” at the end of our residency, and I couldn’t leave Madrid without acquiring one of her paintings. “And the Darkness dances,” for violin and cello, is inspired by the dark image of her painting where two skeletons of women, dancing despite their fatality, remind us that, as in the time of the plague, death dances for everyone. The shadows unfold with the notes, with haunting and funereal melodies, summoning the specters of a bygone era. The skeletons, in their timeless dance, defy the void, creating an illusion of life in the bleak landscape of eternal night. The vibrating strings of the instruments embody the whispers of a vanished humanity, weaving a sonic tapestry where the tangible and the unreal merge in a gloomy embrace. These three macabre dances for violin and cello plunge you into the heart of this dark and captivating universe. The strident, metallic sounds and the drum rolls performed by the violin, the muffled harmonies, and the interplay of shadow and light, will take you on an auditory journey to the border of the real and the imaginary, with scattered and tormented fragments of melody. The work begins with an obstinate and violent rhythm of metallic sounds, reminiscent of the sound of knives. The second movement is inspired by the funeral march and the melody is a lament, while the last movement is associated with the idea of a festive death.