Eleggua 3 (2001) · 4 min
for Zeta 5-string MIDI violin controller and real-time signal processing
Zeta 5-string MIDI violin controller, Mac laptop running Max/MSP
Program Note
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.
Eleggua 3 was first performed by Anthony De Ritis on a Zeta 5-string MIDI violin controller, at the Sala Teatro Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, as part of the IX Festival Internacional de Musica Electroacustica, Havana, Cuba, on March 7, 2002; and reprised at the Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, New York City, on June 11, 2002, a Chamber Music Series produced by MidAmerica Productions, Inc. and by Del Lewis, Director, Northeastern University, Center for the Arts.