Dark Sounds and Deep Song

In Tartessos, thinking on art and false excellence

An oil painting capturing the characters and emotions at a typical Andalusian zambra—this one the funeral of an infant, center. It hangs in the Charles V palace, part of the Alhambra complex in Granada, Spain.

There is a memorable story at the heart of the poet Federico García Lorca’s lecture “Theory and Play of the Duende.” Speaking in 1933, he describe…