WINIK TE'
(MAN/WOOD)
[2006]

[Solo marimba]

Commissioned by SGM New Music Commissioning Fund for Makoto Nakura

Premiered October, 29, 2005. Matsukata Hall, Kobe, Japan.

Makoto Nakura, marimba.

DURATION: 8'

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Program note:

According to the Mayan sacred book, the Popol Vuh, the gods Hurricane and Heart-ofSky used mud to make the first human being. This man had no soul and his body crumbled, crackled and, ultimately, melted with the arrival of the first rain. It was unable to do anything well and was discarded. Then, the gods carved new men out of wood. Hopefully, their new creation would "speak [the gods'] name, walk about, multiply and live a purposeful life." But the wood/men (Winik/Te' in Quiché, the Mayan language), though better than the previous version, still "...had no blood, no sweat, nothing in their minds, and showed no respect for Heart-of-Sky." They maltreated the other animals and misused the land. These imperfect men, with their human-like wooden faces, were banished to the forests by Hurricane and Heart-of-Sky. The monkeys that now live in the jungles are the descendants of the Winik/Te'.

When I look at men, I often wonder if the mindless, soulless Winik/Te' were truly sent by the Mayan gods to inhabit the forests. To me, these monkey-people seem to be everywhere I go, and when I look at the world I see their imperfect minds, bodies and souls abusing a land that doesn't belong to them.

My Winik Te' is a piece of music where there are always, at least, two elements in constant conflict—man/music and wood/music. Musical cells and processes that in my mind represent the qualities of these two "protagonists" confront each other in a series of episodes through which, like Hurricane and Heart-of-Sky, I try to create a musical experience out of carved wood (the marimba). With any luck, this forest of sound will be inhabited by the music of a soulful, mindful human being