Eleggua 1

In Cuba, due to the fact that practitioners were uprooted from their natural environments and exposed to ethnic interaction, the original African religions were modified by Cuban traditions. From the Yoruba culture (a people of southwestern Nigeria), the religion of Santería was derived and developed in the Caribbean among West African descendants under the Spanish Empire. Santería includes a group of orishas (minor gods) with different myths and attributes; Elegguá is a deity of roads who protects homes and is the personification of fate.

Elegguá 1, for trombone and computer musician, was written for the IX Festival Internacional de Musica Electroacustica held in Havana, Cuba, and premiered at the Sala Teatro Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes on March 7, 2002. It employs an interactive performance environment using a Macintosh computer running Max/MSP, a basic patch that enables the computer musician to record live improvisation and playback using several basic types of manipulation; e.g., changing speeds, reversing, and looping. This recording features by Bill Lowe, trombone, and the composer, Anthony Paul De Ritis, on computer. It was recorded at Northeastern University, Boston, MA, in March 2002.

Elegguá 1 was recorded by Bill Lowe, trombone; and Anthony Paul De Ritis, computer, at Northeastern University, Boston, MA, in March 2002. It was officially released by Albany Records (TROY1710) on Anthony Paul De Ritis: Electroacoustic Music – In Memoriam: David Wessel on April 1, 2018.

• Sala Teatro Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, IX Festival Internacional de Música Electroacustica, Havana, Cuba, March 7, 2002