Jacaranda
Ensemble
Jacaranda - an african tree and the music of this world
By
Wolfgang G. P. Heinsch
Perhaps the best way of approaching the "Jacaranda" ensemble and their
music is not to expect music - or at least music in the usual,
traditional sense. Rather one should prepare oneself for a reflection
in sound of one's own
inner resonances and moods, immersing oneself in "the sounds of nature
becoming music".
Music is and always has been expression: expression of both universal
and very personal feelings, of moods, but also of course of the
conscious artistic process, working on, in and with the musical
material. The one can never suffice
without the other, and this remains true from age to age and from
culture
to culture. It is only the particular types of music, their sounds,
rhythms,
musical forms and formulations, the manner of ensemble playing, as well
as
their purpose, which are bound up with specific times and places.
Whether one thinks of the cult music of bygone ages; modern music
secular or sacred; entertainment, the troubadours and dancing; the
musical rhetoric of the baroque; the extravagance of the romantics or
the ingenious theory-based structures of new music; the drum-defined
dances and songs of the African continent; the music of Asia and the
Middle-East, India or Australia: all of them are in the end simply
giving expression to human sensibilities in relation to their specific
worlds. Pragmatism is also involved in various ways: notes and sounds
are means of communication and information serving the most diverse
purposes and functions. The calls of shepherds or the whistling of the
inhabitants of La Gomera are just as much examples of it as the martial
music which attends acts of war, or the psychological use of
"programme" music
and modern advertising. The meditations of Zen buddhism, the magical
cultic
immersions of Australian aborigines, or the ecstatic dances between
temple
and medaeval processions (St. Vitus' Dance) - notes and sounds simply
support
and enhance the release of something rooted deep in human nature.
Today we have a view of the whole which was denied to previous
generations, an entire world of soundmaking, of music. And yet we are
still a very long way from having a "harmonia mundi", or a world music.
For that we need a focus
which does not merely make a disjointed sequence of individual
segments, reproducing
them in an acoustical media show, but one with a genuine feeling for
this
cosmos which can bring it together. "Jacaranda" is the name of a group
which
is trying to turn this dream into a reality. The name of an African
tree
(whose linguistic meaning nobody has yet been able to decipher) also
stands
for a German instrumental ensemble which successfully uses alphorns,
didgeridoos,
clarinets, saxophones, bassoons, flutes, marimba, xylophone, congas,
drums
and timpani to turn the literal meaning of music on its head. The
ensemble's
musicians simply lift the body of music out of the gravity of written
form
and content with which people are always trying to clothe it, using
their
instruments to serve a world-music in which there is nothing which
cannot
or should not exist. At any rate the five musicians, all of whom are
members
of the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra, are building a musical world
edifice
which neither needs nor indeed permits stylistic definition. And if
here
or there one thinks one has identified the musicological source of a
piece,
then the next sequence may lead one to quite different impressions.
This is not randomness, but rather intentional and methodic. The method
is not gratuitious but instead one which derives from a lively approach
to
the intercultural impressions which the musicians gather on their
journeys
around the world, and from the sounds of their instruments in space,
whose
sound personalities are fused into an individual musical language which
can
surely claim to be a small piece of world music.
Of course Jacaranda also lets notes form motifs, motifs form melodies,
happy or full of longing, cheerfully brisk or dreamy, impulsive or
sharply accentuated. There are love songs and fanfares, ecstatic dances
and devotional meditations, embedded in a tapestry of drum sounds,
vividly coloured and overflowing with inventive ornamentation while
resting on the rich bass of the alphorns. Hearing, one is drawn into a
third musical dimension, where there are no styles, but simply
expression. The titles reflect this. "Dervish" for example, where
energetic
oriental improvisations on the soprano saxophone (which incidentally
one
could take for a completely different instrument, something between a
clarion
and a Turkish oboe) is placed over rhythmic cymbal, accompanied by
alphorn.
Or "Colour of Earth", which fuses the "incomprehensible" snorting and
roaring
of the Australian didgeridoo with the radiant stability of African
rhythms
on marimba and congas, over the sound of the alphorn, the yearning
broad
melodies of the saxophone sending them out into the skies of the globe.
"Imagination"
leads one into meditative soundscapes in which the metallic resonances
of
tam-tam, bells and cymbals large and small become finely chiselled
reliefs,
while in the furious rhythmic ecstasy of "Dance with Fire" the
saxophone explodes
into jazz breaks together with the marimba. The pieces are given their
instrumental
polish in a cooperative compositional process with the members of the
group,
and are powerfully suggestive.
A musical esperanto? Yes, because the five musicians of "Jacaranda"
achieve the impossible in uniting the devotees of the most diverse
musical genres under the crown of this one tree. The fascination of
their music reaches out
to old and young, attracting the classically-trained and the jazz-tuned
ear
alike, reconciling devotees of rock with lovers of folk music.
Feelings, moods,
states of experience are what is being adressed here, and these are
timeless.
Therefore this esperanto is not an artificial language but perhaps
rather
the rediscovery of a primaeval universe through the means of music.
"Jacaranda" will certainly not disappoint any listener with his own
private musical agenda, but will equally certainly add something extra
too. This may
be a reason for the success of the ensemble, which was founded in 1997
and
achieved international notice surprisingly quickly. But the prophet is
never
recognised in his own country, and such was the case with "Jacaranda",
which
represented Brandenburg at the "Grand Performances Festival 2000" in
Los
Angeles, in Austria, and displayed the cosmopolitan flair of its music
when
invitated by the Federal German President to play at his Christmas
concert in 2002. But they gave their West German premiere only
recently, in Bad Windesheim
in Franconia, and future concert plans will take the ensemble abroad
once
more. Tours of Italy, Switzerland, Austria, as well as America and Hong
Kong
are all in planning, to be realised as and when the orchestral schedule
allows.
Germany must take care not to be left behind.
