Famed composer Karl Jenkins premiers his Alem The Universe in Mumbai

He was declared the most-performed living composer in the world in 2011 survey
Famed composer Karl Jenkins premiers his Alem The Universe in Mumbai

Many people might’ve appreciated the works of Sir Karl Jenkins without even knowing his name. Starting from the title track of his very first album Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary being used in an advertisement by US-based Delta Air Lines in the early ’90s, his music has found its elite space in commercial music. Endorsed with multiple accolades from the D&AD Award for Best Music in advertising, his claim to fame expanded with his musical prowess resulting in over 30 classical-influenced releases, which led to 17 gold and platinum disc awards.
 The most popular among his creations is the 2001 composition named The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace—which has found its niche on the top charts and has been showcased over 1,500 times in 20 different countries—earning him the title of ‘the most-performed living composer in the world’ in a 2011 survey. We talk to the Golden Lions awardee, prior to him conducting the Autumn 2017 Season of the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) on a piece commissioned by Marat Bisengaliev and his Almaty Symphony Orchestra, to find out what makes him ‘a composer who’s essentially classically-based but who looks outside it.’ 


Tonal resonance
Jenkins’ repertoire has been affected by lot more than his stint as a media composer. Growing up around his father, who was a church choirmaster and organist, has had a deep and pervading touch. “The main effect, as a musician, was the choral hymn singing that was common to chapel services. This sound was rawer than the refined sound of ‘classical’ choral music,” says Jenkins. His explorations into the energetic and improvisational form of Jazz during his life in Royal Academy of Music in London also marks his later compositions with a distinct style. Renouncing the atonal music, which had come to be in vogue among the academic classical exponents in ’70s, he brought the rather uncommon oboe into the contemporary jazz scenario. His fusion output with the band Nucleus, and later with Soft Machine, also created ripples in the rock music scene.


Aligning influences
“I like all good music regardless of genre, but it’s hard to quantify influences,” says the musician, who was inducted into the Classic FM’s Hall of Fame at number eight (the highest position for a living composer) in 2004. Citing influences ranging from the Austrian-Germanic classical tradition (like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) to blues guitarist Eric Clapton, the Welsh figure who was knighted for ‘services to composing and crossing musical genres’ says, “It’s techniques that have influenced me, like using percussion (like the tabla in Indian Music) as a pulse or running rhythm and using ethnic ‘flutes’.” Inspired by the Jazz tradition of scat singing, his earlier Adiemus series treats vocals more like an instrument rather than a conveyor of meaning.

 
Cultural confluence
Mumbai can expect a new composition titled Alem The Universe (Alem means ‘the universe’ in Kazakh) which is much similar to Adiemus in that it also uses an invented language. “The work is a personal reflection on how I perceive the universe since only twelve people have ever set foot on ‘terra firma’ in space - the Moon; and then each one, only once,” he begins, about the work which features a ‘Big-Bang’ (an impactful opening) and ‘Infinitum’ (a movement expressing the infinity of space).On a closing note, the veteran also shares his enthusiasm about the release of his new album Symphonic Adiemus on September 29, featuring an orchestra of eighty-four musicians and a ‘galaxy of world percussion’.

Reading the lines
Enthusiasts of classical music will have more to look forward to at the Autumn Season 2017 of the Symphony Orchestra of India. Here are musicians to look forward at the venue.

Dan Zhu 
Critically-acclaimed Chinese violinist who’ll join renowned conductor Jacek Kaspszyk to perform composers Giuseppe Verdi, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Antonín Dvorák. On September 17

Stephen Hough
Named by The Economist as one of Twenty Living Polymaths, this pianist alongside conductor Evgeny Bushkov will conclude the season with the works of Beethoven and Mozart. On September 28


`410 onwards. On September 22 and 23.
At Jamshed Bhabha Theatre,  Mumbai
Details: in.bookmyshow.com

 

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