Susana Baca/ Molino Molero
Susana Baca/ Molino Molero
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
This Afro-Peruvian singer’s music is substantially different from main stream American music genres. SO what can inspire you? As with all music you might focus on the overall tone and atmosphere. This “bubbling melancholy” is difficult to pin down. The piece uses extensive, complicated and intricately timed percussion. That could be translated into visual trim. It could also be translated into an acoustic environment. Perhaps the design could be based on creating a place where this song sounds fabulous.
You might also consider how this song might translate into light and dark and shades of dusk. Is this a work song (Molero Mill) is their sweat and protest caught up in the plaintive melody? Is there need and hard labor and a prayer for freedom? What would a peruvian Mill have been like? Is there a parallel to textile mills in the southeast US in the 1800s and 1900s? You could of course translate the lyrics, speak with Afro Peruvians and musicologists and come to understand the song in its entirety of music, rhythm and context. Then you could express what it expresses in your own interpretation.