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Home / History / Jenkins Requiem November 2008
Karl Jenkins Requiem November 2008
We performed the Requiem on 1 November 2008 at the United Reformed Church in Sittingbourne.
The choir was accompanied by three very able singers - Annalisa Flood (soprano), Harriet Burns (mezzo soprano) and Alex Abley (alto).
Instrumental accompaniment was provided, equally ably, by Michael Gibbs (French Horn), Peter Ashwell (percussion), SOCS accompanist Micheal Burleigh on keyboard, and as a special treat David Bowdler on the traditional Japanese shakuhachi (some information about the shakuhachi is given below; its fascinating history, including its role as a spy-detection device in the Middle Ages, is outlined on the Wikipedia page).
Programme notes
Requiem
About his Requiem, Karl Jenkins says,
"I have set the usual Latin text but as is my wont,
have drawn on cultures outside the European,
setting five Japanese haiku poems dealing with death.
These evocative concise poems of but seventeen syllables
often equate life with the water cycle or cherry blossom.
For these haiku, I have introduced the ancient Japanese flute,
the shakuhachi into the orchestration.
The work is dedicated to my late father, a musician and an inspiration."
Shortly after its release in 2005, Karl Jenkins' Requiem, a mass for the souls of the dead, went to the top of the classical charts. The driving Dies Irae with its 'hip-hop' percussion beat provides the soundtrack to the current Lynx commercial.
Karl Jenkins
Karl Jenkins was born in Wales and read music at the University of Wales, Cardiff. He then commenced postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music, London. It was in jazz that he initially made his mark, playing at London's famous Ronnie Scott's. This was followed by a period with Soft Machine, one of the seminal bands of the 70's. In the field of advertising music credits include Levi's, British Airways, Renault, Volvos, C&G, Tag Heuer, Pepsi as well as US/global campaigns for De Beers and Delta Airlines. After a period as a media composer, his -return to the music mainstream was initially marked by the success of the Adiemus project. The Armed Man; A Mass For Peace, commissioned by the Royal Armouries for the millennium and premiered at the Royal Albert Hall, London has had over four hundred performances recent years while the CD, featuring the National Youth Choir of Great Britain and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, has gained "Gold Disc" status in the UK. Recent CD releases include Requiem, which went to No 1 in the UK classical charts. In 2004 he entered Classic FM's 'Hall of Fame" at no 8., the highest position for a living composer and has been the highest placed living composer since, as well as, in 2006, no. 4 amongst British composers. Karl was awarded an OBE, by Her Majesty The Queen, in the 2005 New Years Honours List "for services to music".
Notes from the Karl Jenkins Website
The shakuhachi is a Japanese end-blown flute. Its name means "1.8 feet", referring to the size of the standard instrument. It is traditionally made of bamboo, but versions now exist in wood and plastic. It was used by the monks of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism in the practice of suizen (blowing meditation). Its soulful sound made it popular in Western 1980s pop music.
The shakuhachi player blows as one would blow across the top of an empty bottle (though the shakuhachi has a sharp edge to blow against) and has substantial pitch control. The five finger holes are tuned to a pentatonic scale with no half-tones, but the player can bend each pitch as much as a whole tone or more, using techniques called meri and kari, in which the blowing angle is adjusted to bend the pitch downward and upward, respectively. Pitches may also be lowered by shading or partially covering finger holes. Since most pitches can be achieved via several different fingering or blowing techniques on the shakuhachi, the timbre of each possibility is taken into account when composing or playing. The shakuhachi has a range of two full octaves and a partial third octave. The different octaves are produced using subtle variations of breath and embouchure.