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.