Incidentes Melodicos del Mundo Irracional - by Juan de la Cabada, illustrated by Leopoldo Mendez

Leopoldo Mendez

Loosely translated as "Melodic Incidents of the Irrational," this collection of stories and songs of tradtional Mayan culture is interpreted by writer, playwright, and musicologist Juan de la Cabada (Mexican: 1899 - 1986) through a fantastic lens.

Accompanied by forty blockprint illustrations by Leopoldo Mendez, mostly in color, the book acts as an account of what might otherwise have disappeared with modernization of indigenous cultures of the Yucatan Peninsula. Musicologist Rudolfo Halffter notes that Cabada likely rescued many traditional songs from extinction, and literary critic Jose Luis Martinez described the book as "an extraordinary fantasy of indigenous origin".

Mendez' blockprints are fresh and vibrant, and show his breadth of style, ranging from traditional Mexican folk to classical European. The cover, featuring a lithographic reproduction of Mendez's rendering of an anthropomorphic brass band, has come loose with wear and has lost some paper at the edges (see first image); it has been repaired with acid-free binder's tape and has been inserted into the front of book behind the title page to preserve the image.

This book is pencil signed by Mendez and inscribed to TGP artist Seymour Kaplan (1919-2011) and is dated "49" on the publisher's page.