Instrumentation

solo vla – fl.cbcl.tpt.harp.gtr – perc (1): 3 Taiwanese temple bowls/Javanese gong/2 Korean sheung cyms/crot/2 tam-t/tgl/2 wdbl/5 temple blocks/c.bell/guero/ratchet/vib – vln.vlc

Availability

Score, parts, Taiwanese temple bowls, Javanese gong for hire

Programme Notes

As so often with artistic creation, mingled images merged to produce something different, yet bearing vestigial traces. A solitary chanting monk, perhaps in a chapel on Mount Athos, was at the back of Chant for solo viola, a brief piece written in 1992. Jubilus is an expansion of that piece (from 2 to 14 minutes), just as medieval Christian plainchants were extended by interpolations on certain syllables in ecstatic soarings of the voice called jubili. Mingled with that image is an image of a buddhist monastery built high in the precipitous and barren rocks of a Tibetan or north Indian mountain. I imagined how, in such isolation and awe-inspiring austerity, a contemplative monk would pour out his longing and rapture. In fact the piece I wrote, for ensemble with solo viola, has the soloist rising gradually from the modes of the chant to a Tibetan ritual chant of the Drukpa Order called Flower Rain. This sings out in the very highest register of the viola at the end. The work is dedicated to Christophe Desjardins and was commissioned by Radio France for the Ensemble L'Itineraire in honour of their 30th anniversary. Jonathan Harvey

Jubilus

Blackheath Halls (London, United Kingdom)

Stephen Upshaw/The Riot Ensemble/Aaron Holloway-Nahum

Jubilus

Musik-Akademie (Basel, Switzerland)

Orchester Diagonal/Jürg Henneberger/Marcus Weiss

Jubilus

Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse (CNSMD) (Lyon, Rhône-Alpes, France)

CNSMD Lyon

Jubilus

Studio Ernest Ansermet (Geneva, Switzerland)

Ensemble Contrechamps/Stefan Asbury

Jubilus

Town Hall (Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom)

Remix Ensemble 1/tbc