Kenajanayowa

Kenajanayowa ("playing round" in Kawésqar language) is based on free interpretations of musical elements founded by musicologist Maria Ester Grebe in the music Kawésqar or Alacalufe. The work takes some rhythmic and repetitive elements of Kawésqar dances for children. The movement in circles and its intoxicating effect or dizziness is the main characteristic of these dances, which determines a work with recursive and partially repetitive elements, which recall the condition of "round play" and its derivation in the game of jumping rope. The work reinterprets these rhythmic and melodic patterns, adapting the transcriptions made by Grebe to the percussion instruments. The patterns have been expanded over time, and the work behaves like a series of suspended episodes, slow, separated by long apneas, which also serve to accommodate the change of mallets or instrument. The piece proposes a spiral development, orbiting around a limited number of elements, until dissolving in an ether created exclusively by the action of the cymbals.