Tynan was given to easy dichotomies, whether or 
not they held much water--his role was more as 
provocateur than thinker. In my humble. This 
one's a case in point: it's a stretch to see much 
similarity between jazz and bullfighting, and one 
has to distort their histories pretty badly to 
maintain the parallel. One could probably do the 
same with the development of breakfast cereals or hand guns.

On "duende": you're certainly right, Alison, that 
this is Lorca's sense in the famous essay. It 
means something like what we've taken to calling 
charisma. The origin of this usage is in 
Andalucia, Lorca's home province. Elsewhere in 
the Spanish-speaking world it means an imp or a 
goblin, or the spirit inhabiting some houses--not 
a ghost, but a spirit attached to place, that 
sometimes manifests itself in human form, usually 
as a child. That's it's primary meaning in 
Andalucia, as well. Lorca, I'm sure, wanted the 
more common meanings to piggy-back on his special 
usage, which is why the term is difficult to 
translate. In doing two anthologies and reading 
hundreds of post-Lorca poets and critics, I've 
encountered its dominant meanings, but not once 
Lorca's Andalucian sense, except when  the 
discussion is specifically about Lorca--the other 
meanings are too old, too dominant and too useful to be displaced.

Of course in English, because the translators 
have left the word in the original, Lorca's sense is all we have.

Mark

At 04:52 PM 4/7/2009, you wrote:
>Fasinating Hal! I didn't know Tynan used Duende in this sense, which
>is actually Lorca's. I certainly have on occasion. Maybe it's
>inevitable in discussing a certain quality of performance.
>
>xA
>
> From Alison's iPhone
>
>On 08/04/2009, at 5:13 AM, Halvard Johnson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>>"Bullfighting and jazz are two minor arts with much in common. At the
>>beginning
>>of the century they were national and special; and both depended on
>>collective
>>improvisation. In New Orleans, the trumpet, trombone, and clarinet
>>improvised
>>on a given melody; in Spain, the picador, banderillero, and matador
>>improvised
>>on the theme of a given fighting bull. Suddenly, in the 1920s, there
>>arose
>>in both
>>countries a revolutionary performer who not only changed the course
>>of the
>>art
>>he was practising but made it for the first time internationally
>>renowned.
>>In Spain,
>>Juan Belmonte, and in America, Louis Armstrong. Outside their
>>countries of
>>origin, both were predictably reviled as harbingers of fiendish moral
>>depravity.
>>
>>"In the 1930s commercialism takes over. We hear on one side that
>>bullfighting
>>has been ruined by the mechanical, crowd-pleasing efficiency of
>>Domingo
>>Ortega; and on the other that jazz has been killed by the popular
>>triumphs
>>of
>>Benny Goodman. The first hints of resurrection appear in 1939; at
>>Minton's,
>>in Harlem, a nucleus of venturesome musicians inaugurates the modern
>>movement
>>in jazz; and in Spain, a lean young rebel named Manolete takes the
>>*alternativa
>>*and
>>becomes a full matador. There follows, in both countries, a ferocious
>>struggle
>>between the supporters of modernism and the adherents to tradition.
>>The
>>arrival
>>of the LP permits a favoured soloist to improvise for fifteen minutes
>>without
>>interruption; at the same time, bullfighters develop the habit of
>>prolonging
>>the
>>*faena*--the series of passes that precedes the kill--until it
>>becomes the
>>focal point
>>of the spectacle. Traditionalists love teamwork; modernists love
>>soloists;
>>and
>>the battle in both countries remains unresolved for more than a
>>decade. An
>>armistice is ultimately achieved. In jazz as in bullfighting, there
>>arises a
>>modern
>>classicist, one who combines the best of both worlds. In Spain, his
>>name is
>>Antonio Ordóñez, the *Número Uno* of living matadors. In America
>>it is Miles
>>Davis.
>>
>>"The Spanish have a word, *duende*. It has no exact English
>>equivalent, but
>>it denotes the quality without which no flamenco singer or
>>bullfighter can
>>conquer the summit of his art. The ability to transmit a profoundly
>>felt
>>emotion
>>to an audience of strangers with the minimum of fuss and the maximum
>>of
>>restraint: that is as near as our language can get to the full
>>meaning of
>>*duende*. Laurence Olivier has it; Maurice Evans does not. Billie
>>Holiday
>>had
>>it, and so did Bessie Smith; but Ella Fitzgerald never reached it.
>>It is the
>>quality that differentiates Laurette Taylor from Lynn Fontanne, Ernest
>>Hemingway from John O'Hara, Tennessee Williams from William Inge.
>>Whatever else he may lack, Miles Davis has *duende."*
>>
>>--Kenneth Tynan, c. 1963
>>
>>
>>
>>Hal
>>
>>"Never underestimate the power of stupid
>>people in large groups."
>>               --George Carlin
>>
>>
>>Halvard Johnson
>>================
>>[log in to unmask]
>>http://sites.google.com/site/halvardjohnson/Home
>>http://entropyandme.blogspot.com
>>http://imageswithoutwords.blogspot.com
>>http://www.hamiltonstone.org