'My music has a classical base but draws on other cultures that flavour the music...'
Free Be-a-Maestro Newsletter 47 - 21 December 2015 - Be a maestro!
by Reinier Maliepaard
Last week a former student of mine sent me a Christmas postcard. His message was clear: listen to 'In dulci jubilo' of the Welsh composer Karl Jenkins (1), enjoy and best wishes. The arrangement of the traditional Christmas carol 'In dulci jubilo' is part of Jenkins' Christmas album 'Stella natalis' ('Star of Birth'), released in 2009. His album is "an attempt to convey the Christmas message of peace and goodwill to mankind" (2). The album represents different cultures and ethnic sounds. To mention a few: German, French, Spanish, Caribbean, and English carols, late Renaissance polychoral style, Eastern drumming and percussion and jazz-inspired melodies.
For this melting pot approach -"My music has a classical base but draws on other cultures that flavour the music"(3)- gives Karl Jenkins the following explanation (4) :
"I suppose all of my life I have been something of a musical tourist. I studied classical from an early age, studying at the University of Wales and the Royal Academy of Music. To begin with I had a passion for jazz and worked initially as a jazz musician. In the 1970s I played with Ronnie Scott's jazz band and jazz-rock fusion band Soft Machine. Then I worked as a commercial composer, which in itself was very educational as commercials can vary, as one at anytime has to do anything. So one day one type of music would be in demand, and the next day, something with an Indian flavour would be needed, so I learnt a lot about different ethnic music there as they were in such a variety of different styles. All of these styles coming together after initially being trained classically went into the melting pot, I suppose". (5)
What can we say about Jenkins' arrangement of the old carol 'In dulci jubilo' (with its 14th century text (6) and 16th century melody)?
- Four identical sections for choir - according to the four couplets of the text - define a clear structure. All sections have the choral melody in the upper voice while the other voices bring in some more or less traditional, slow moving harmony.
- The four sections are separated by three interludes with their remarkable repetitions on the word 'jubilo' by a few vocalists.
- An orchestral prelude opens the work; a vocal-instrumental postlude closes the composition. The prelude, postlude and interludes are very familiar with each other. Surely for reasons of variety, instruments are added in the second interlude (a quasi-improvising trumpet solo) and in the postlude (metallic percussion instruments, trumpet).
- The most important characteristic of the work, however, is the fast tone and chord repetitions in the orchestra and in the interlude vocal parts with their driving, nicely interacting, even and uneven rhythms.
The endless rhythmical ostinato in the orchestra against the sweeping vocal lines of the couplets brings me into a certain "trance". It urges me to repeat Jenkins' composition several times: I do not care, I like it.
Listen on YouTube to Jenkins' 'In dulci jubilo': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwxsXNmX0GE
I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, filled with love, peace, joy and lots of music.
Notes
(1) www.karljenkins.com
(2) www.classical-crossover.co.uk/articles/interviews/213-karl-jenkins-december-2009.html
(3) www.classicfm.com/composers/jenkins/karl-jenkins/
(4) see note 2
(5) see note 2
(6) 'In dulci jubilo' uses originally two languages: German and Latin. Jenkins replaced the German text by an English translation, so maintaining the bilingual character, inserting some playing with the word 'Jubilo'
In Dulci jubilo Let songs and gladness flow
all our joys reclineth
In praesepio and like the sun he shineth matris in gremio
alpha es et O, alpha es et O
Jubilo, jubilo, jubilo
Jubilo, jubilo
O Jesu parvule I yearn for thee alway
Comfort me and stay me
O puer optime
with all thy loving kindness O princeps gloriae
traheme poste traheme poste
Jubi, Jubi, Jubi, Jubi, Jubi, Jubilo
Jubi, Jubi, Jubi, Jubi, Jubi, Jubilo
(orchestra with trumpet solo)
Jubilo, jubilo, jubilo
Jubilo, jubilo
O patris caritas O nati lenitas
Deeply we were stain-ed
per nostra crimina but he for us has gained Coelorum gaudia
O that we were there, o that we were there
Jubilo, jubilo, jubilo
Jubilo, jubilo
Ubi sunt gaudia in any place but there
there are angels singing
nova cantica and there the bells are ringing in regis curia
o that we were there, o that we were there
Jubilo, jubilo, jubilo
Jubilo, jubilo, jubilov
Jubilo, jubilo, jubilo
Jubilo, jubilo, jubilo!