Karl Jenkins

Last updated

Sir
Karl Jenkins
CBE FRAM HonFLSW
Karl Jenkins - St David Awards 2017.png
Jenkins in 2017
Background information
Birth nameKarl William Pamp Jenkins
Born (1944-02-17) 17 February 1944 (age 80)
Penclawdd, Gower, Wales (Now part of Swansea)
Genres
Occupations
  • Composer
  • musician
Instruments
  • Keyboards
  • oboe
  • flute
  • saxophones
Years active1970–present
Labels
Formerly of
Website karljenkins.com

Sir Karl William Pamp Jenkins, [1] CBE , FRAM , HonFLSW (born 17 February 1944) is a Welsh multi-instrumentalist and composer. His best known works include the song "Adiemus" (1995, from the Adiemus album series), Palladio (1995), The Armed Man (2000), his Requiem (2005) and his Stabat Mater (2008).

Contents

Jenkins was educated in music at Cardiff University and the Royal Academy of Music, and he is a fellow and an associate of the latter. He joined the jazz-rock band Soft Machine in 1972 and became the group's lead songwriter in 1974. He continued to work with Soft Machine until 1984, but has not been involved with any incarnation of the group since. He has composed music for advertising campaigns and has won the industry prize twice.

Biography

Early life and education

Jenkins was born and raised in Penclawdd, Gower, Wales (now part of Swansea). His mother was Swedish, and his father was Welsh. He received his initial musical instruction from his father, who was the local schoolteacher, chapel organist and choirmaster. He attended Gowerton Grammar School. [2]

Jenkins studied music at Cardiff University and then commenced postgraduate studies in London at the Royal Academy of Music. [3]

Early career: Graham Collier's group and Nucleus

For the bulk of his early career, Jenkins was known as a jazz and jazz-rock musician, playing baritone and soprano saxophones, keyboards and oboe, an unusual instrument in a jazz context. He joined jazz composer Graham Collier's group and later co-founded the jazz-rock group Nucleus, which won first prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1970. In 1971, Jenkins collaborated with Linda Hoyle on her album Pieces of Me, co-writing 8 of the 11 tracks, playing piano and oboe, as well as arranging and conducting the orchestra. [4]

Soft Machine

In 1972, Jenkins joined the Canterbury jazz fusion rock band Soft Machine, playing saxophone, oboe and flute along with keyboard instruments. The group played venues including The Proms, Carnegie Hall, and the Newport Jazz Festival. The album Six , on which Jenkins first played with Soft Machine, won the Melody Maker British Jazz Album of the Year award in 1973. Jenkins also won the miscellaneous musical instrument section (as he did the following year). Soft Machine was voted best small group in the Melody Maker jazz poll of 1974. The albums in which Jenkins performed and composed were Six (1973), Seven (1973), Bundles (1975), Softs (1976), Alive & Well: Recorded in Paris (1978) and Land of Cockayne (1981). Jenkins was the group's primary composer on Seven and the subsequent four albums.

After Mike Ratledge left the band in 1976, Soft Machine did not include any of its founding members, but kept recording on a project basis with line-ups revolving around Jenkins and drummer John Marshall. Although Melody Maker had positively reviewed the Soft Machine of 1973 and 1974, Hugh Hopper, involved with the group since replacing bassist Kevin Ayers in 1968, cited Jenkins's "third rate" musical involvement in his own decision to leave the band, [5] and the band of the late 1970s has been described by band member John Etheridge as wasting its potential. [6]

Other works

Karl Jenkins at the Welsh Government's St David Awards (2015)

In November 1973, Jenkins and Ratledge participated in a live-in-the-studio performance of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells for the BBC. [7] It is available on Oldfield's Elements DVD.

Works

Jenkins has created advertising music, twice winning the industry prize in that field. From the 1980s, he developed a relationship with Bartle Bogle Hegarty, starting with composing musics for their Levi's jeans "Russian" series. He composed a classical theme used by De Beers diamond merchants for their television advertising campaign focusing on jewellery worn by people otherwise seen only in silhouette. Jenkins later included this as the title track in a compilation called Diamond Music, and eventually created Palladio , using it as the theme of the first movement. Other arrangements have included advertisements for the Renault Clio.

As a composer, his breakthrough came with the crossover project Adiemus . Jenkins has conducted the Adiemus project in Japan, Germany, Spain, Finland, the Netherlands, and Belgium, as well as London's Royal Albert Hall and Battersea Power Station. The Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary (1995) album topped the classical album charts. It spawned a series of successors, each revolving around a central theme. In 2014 Jenkins released a tribute song for the 2014 Winter Olympics, performed by his new age music group also called Adiemus. [8]

Jenkins was the first international composer and conductor to conduct the University of Johannesburg Kingsway Choir led by Renette Bouwer, during his visit to South Africa as the choir performed his The Armed Man: A mass for peace together with a 70-piece orchestra. In November 2024, the "Benedictus" from the mass, was the subject of the BBC Radio 4 programme Soul Music . [9]

Jenkins' choral work The Peacemakers was first performed in New York City's Carnegie Hall on 16 January 2012. Jenkins conducted from the podium and John H. Briggs, Sr. conducted the Children's Chorus from a seated position. [10] The seventeen-movement piece features extracts from religious texts and works by notable humanitarians. A recording was released on 26 March 2012; it features the London Symphony Orchestra and several choirs, as well as guest vocalists and instrumentalists. Additional concerts in the UK and US took place later in the year. [11] [ non-primary source needed ]

Album cover of The Bards of Wales (2012) The Bards Of Wales - Beirdd Cymru, album cover.jpg
Album cover of The Bards of Wales (2012)

Jenkins composed the music for the 2012 BBC Wales series The Story of Wales presented by Huw Edwards. [12]

A work entitled The Healer – A Cantata For St Luke was premiered on 16 October 2014 (7:30 pm) in St Luke's Church, Grayshott, Hampshire, and was recorded and broadcast on Classic FM. [13] The Healer received its US premiere at Carnegie Hall, New York on 19 January 2015. In September 2015, the recording of the premiere of The Healer was released on CD by Warner Classics as part of the 8-disc boxed set Voices.

A compilation CD Still with the Music was also released in September 2015, coinciding with the publication of his autobiography of the same name.[ citation needed ]

On 8 October 2016 Jenkins' choral work Cantata Memoria: For the children, a response to the 1966 Aberfan disaster with a libretto by Mererid Hopwood and commissioned by S4C, premiered at the Wales Millennium Centre. The concert was broadcast the following evening on S4C and was released as an album by Deutsche Grammophon. [14] [15]

Musical style

Lyrics

Many of the songs written by Jenkins have specifically written phonetic lyrics, but they are not in any language. [16] Instead, they are syllables intended to have a musical effect, but not to carry any specific meaning. [16] This glossolalia is similar to the sounds of "scat singing", except that this latter artform sometimes emphasises of-the-moment improvisation as well. [17]

The composer has said the lyrics to his "Adiemus" series of songs are in "an invented language", and have no particular meaning. [16] He has observed, "The text was written phonetically with the words viewed as instrumental sound, the idea being to maximise the melisma by removing the distraction, if one can call it that, of words”. [16] Some listeners compare his lyrics to the Latin language, but other critics discount such a connection. [18]

Other songs he has written use Biblical or literary texts for the lyrics.

Awards and achievements

Jenkins was awarded an honorary doctorate in music by the University of Wales in 2006. [19] He has been made both a fellow (FRAM) and an associate (ARAM) of the Royal Academy of Music] in 2003, [20] and a room has been named in his honour. He also has had fellowships at Cardiff University (2005), [21] the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Trinity College Carmarthen and Swansea Metropolitan University. [10] In 2022, he was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (HonFLSW). [22]

In 2008, Jenkins' The Armed Man was listed as No. 1 in Classic FM's "Top 10 by living composers". [23]

He has been awarded an honorary doctorate in music by the University of Leicester, [24] the Chancellor's Medal by the University of Glamorgan and honorary visiting professorships at Thames Valley University, London College of Music and the ATriUM, Cardiff. [25]

Jenkins was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2005 New Year Honours and promoted to Commander of the same Order (CBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours, in both cases for services to music. [1] [26] [27] In the 2015 Birthday Honours he was made a Knight Bachelor "for services to Composing and Crossing Musical Genres." [28] [29]

Jenkins is joint president of the British Double Reed Society [30] and Patron of the International Schools Choral Music Society (ISCMS). [10]

In 2016, Jenkins received the BASCA Gold Badge Award for his unique contribution to music. [31]

Jenkins' work Tros y Garreg (Welsh for Crossing the Stone) was performed at the coronation of King Charles III in 2023, [32] with Jenkins in attendance. [33]

Discography

With Graham Collier

The Graham Collier Septet
The Graham Collier Sextet
Compilations

With Neil Ardley – Don Rendell – Ian Carr

With Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber

With Nucleus

Nucleus
Ian Carr with Nucleus
Compilation

With Elton John

With The Chitinous Ensemble

With Linda Hoyle

With Barry Guy/The London Jazz Composers' Orchestra

With Soft Machine

Albums studio
Live albums
Compilations

With Mike Oldfield

With Planet Earth

With Plaza

With Rollercoaster

With Mike Ratledge

With JAR

With Kiri Te Kanawa

Adiemus

Studio albums

Compilations

Film score

Other works

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soft Machine</span> British rock band

Soft Machine are an English rock and jazz band from Canterbury formed in 1966 by Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen and Larry Nowlin. As a central band of the Canterbury scene, the group became one of the first British psychedelic acts and later moved into progressive and jazz rock, becoming a purely instrumental band in 1971. The band has undergone many line-up changes, with musicians such as Andy Summers, Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, John Marshall, Karl Jenkins, Roy Babbington and Allan Holdsworth being members during the band's history. The current line-up consists of John Etheridge, Theo Travis, Fred Thelonious Baker and Asaf Sirkis.

Adiemus is a series of new-age music albums by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins. It is also the title of the opening track on the first album of the series, Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary, recorded in 1994 and released the next year.

<i>Third</i> (Soft Machine album) 1970 studio album by Soft Machine

Third is a live and studio album by the English rock band Soft Machine, released as their third overall in June 1970 by CBS Records. It is a double album with a single composition on each of the four sides, and was the first of two albums recorded with a four-piece line-up of keyboardist Mike Ratledge, drummer and vocalist Robert Wyatt, saxophonist Elton Dean, and bass guitarist Hugh Hopper. Third marks a shift in the group's sound from their psychedelic origins towards jazz rock and electronic music.

<i>Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary</i> 1995 studio album by Adiemus, Karl Jenkins

Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary is the first album by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins, recorded in 1994 and released the next year as part of the Adiemus project. The title track "Adiemus" was used prior to the album's release in a 1994 Delta Air Lines television commercial.

<i>Bundles</i> (album) 1975 studio album by Soft Machine

Bundles is the eighth studio album by the jazz-rock band Soft Machine, released in 1975.

<i>Six</i> (Soft Machine album) 1973 studio album / Live album by Soft Machine

Six is the sixth studio album by the jazz rock band Soft Machine. Originally released in 1973 as a double LP, the first disc is a live album and the second disc is a studio album. This is the first album to feature Karl Jenkins as a member the group, replacing Elton Dean. Jenkins eventually became the de facto leader and main composer of the group.

<i>Seven</i> (Soft Machine album) 1973 studio album by Soft Machine

Seven is the seventh studio album by the jazz rock band Soft Machine, released in 1973. Bassist Roy Babbington, who had previously worked with the band as a session musician on the Fourth (1971) and Fifth (1972) albums, joined the band as a full-time member, replacing Hugh Hopper, who left to begin a solo career. This line-up change meant more than half of Soft Machine was now former members of the band Nucleus.

<i>Fifth</i> (Soft Machine album) 1972 studio album by Soft Machine

Fifth, is the fifth studio album by the jazz rock band Soft Machine, released in 1972. In the US the album was identified on cover and label by number (5).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Ratledge</span> British keyboardist and flutist (born 1943)

Michael Roland Ratledge is a British musician. A part of the Canterbury scene, he was a founding member of Soft Machine. He was the last founding member to leave the group, doing so in 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Wakeman</span> Musical artist

Alan Wakeman is an English saxophonist who was a member of Soft Machine during 1976, appearing on the album Softs. He is a cousin of the keyboard player Rick Wakeman.

<i>Softs</i> (album) 1976 studio album by Soft Machine

Softs is the ninth studio album by the jazz rock band Soft Machine, released in 1976.

<i>Alive & Well: Recorded in Paris</i> 1978 live album by Soft Machine

Alive & Well: Recorded in Paris is a (mostly) live album by the jazz rock band Soft Machine, released in 1978. It is their first album recorded entirely without any founding members of the band, as Mike Ratledge left the group during recording of the previous album Softs. It is also first album since their debut not to include any wind instruments.

<i>Wonderin</i> 1980 studio album by Rollercoaster

Wonderin' is a tribute album featuring jazz-funk cover versions of Stevie Wonder songs. It was recorded by the ad hoc band Rollercoaster made up of leading UK session and jazz musicians from British jazz-rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s such as Soft Machine, Blue Mink and Nucleus.

"Adiemus" is a song written by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins and performed by Miriam Stockley with Mary Carewe. It was recorded by the Adiemus project and officially released on the 1995 Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary album. Jenkins used the music for a setting of psalm verses, "Cantate Domino".

<i>Ode</i> (London Jazz Composers Orchestra album) 1972 live album by Barry Guy and the London Jazz Composers Orchestra

Ode is an album by the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra composed by bassist Barry Guy and conducted by his teacher, Buxton Orr. It was recorded as part of the English Bach Festival at the Oxford Town Hall in 1972 and first released as a double album on the Incus label then as a double CD on Intakt in 1996 with additional material.

Adiemus may refer to:

<i>Hidden Details</i> 2018 studio album by Soft Machine

Hidden Details is the eleventh studio album by the jazz rock band Soft Machine, released in September 2018.

Soft Machine are an English rock band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966. As a central band of the Canterbury scene, the group became one of the first British psychedelic acts and later moved into progressive rock and jazz fusion. Having known numerous line-ups, the band currently consists of John Etheridge (guitar), Theo Travis, Fred Baker (bass) and Asaf Sirkis (drums).

References

  1. 1 2 "No. 59446". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 2010. p. 7.
  2. ↑ "Alumni: Karl Jenkins". Cardiff University School of Music. Archived from the original on 22 February 2015. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  3. ↑ "Karl Jenkins: Biography" . Retrieved 17 March 2016.
  4. ↑ "Karl Jenkins | Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  5. ↑ Soft Machine: Out-Bloody-Rageous, Graham Bennett, 2008 ( ISBN   0-946719-84-5) p. 246.
  6. ↑ Soft Machine: Out-Bloody-Rageous, Graham Bennett, 2008 ( ISBN   0-946719-84-5) p. 324.
  7. ↑ Mike Oldfield. "Second House: Tubular Bells". Memorable TV. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  8. ↑ Olsen, John P. (8 January 2014). "Olympic Tribute Song by Adiemus". New Age Music World.
  9. ↑ "BBC Radio 4 - Soul Music, Benedictus". BBC. 9 November 2024.
  10. 1 2 3 "Search Results". catalogue.royalalberthall.com. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  11. ↑ "Warner releases world-premiere recording of The Healer as part of 'Still With the Music' collection". Karl Jenkins.
  12. ↑ "The Story of Wales". IMDb . Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  13. ↑ "Grayshott Concerts: World Premier of "The Healer – A Cantata for St Luke" by Karl Jenkins". grayshott.com. 2014. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  14. ↑ Thomas, Geraint (7 October 2016). "Aberfan: Sir Karl Jenkins' choral memorial to disaster". BBC. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  15. ↑ "Elin Manahan Thomas and Karl Jenkins perform Aberfan memorial". southwales-eveningpost.co.uk. 8 October 2016. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  16. 1 2 3 4 Roberts, Maddy Shaw (5 May 2021). "The meaning behind the lyrics to 'Adiemus' by Karl Jenkins". Classic FM. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  17. ↑ Childed, Serg (4 April 2021). "The meaningless song lyrics of Adiemus". MusicTales. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  18. ↑ Barone, Brian (3 October 2016). "An Aural History of "Adiemus"". The Awl. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  19. ↑ Edwards, Fiona (19 January 2006). "Honorary doctorate for Adiemus composer". DigitalSpy. Hearst UK. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  20. ↑ "Honours". Royal Academy of Music.
  21. ↑ "Cardiff University: Alumni". Archived from the original on 22 March 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  22. ↑ "Four Honorary Fellows Elected to Learned Society of Wales". Learned Society of Wales. 3 May 2022.
  23. ↑ "Top 10 by living composers". Classic FM. 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  24. ↑ Honorary graduates, University of Leicester, Jenkins has created advertising music, twice winning the industry prize in that field[ full citation needed ]
  25. ↑ "Explore the Music of Karl Jenkins Hal Leonard Online". Hal Leonard Online. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  26. ↑ "New Year Honours—United Kingdom", The London Gazette of Thursday 30 December 2004 Supplement No. 1; accessed 12 May 2023.
  27. ↑ "Special Reports". Channel 4 News.
  28. ↑ United Kingdom: "No. 61256". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 2015. p. B2.
  29. ↑ Metro, 13 June 2015. Retrieved 26 June 2015
  30. ↑ "About the BDRS". British Double Reed Society. 24 February 2009. Retrieved 24 February 2009.
  31. ↑ Daniel Gumble (4 October 2016). "BASCA Gold Badge Award winners revealed". Music Week. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  32. ↑ "King Charles III coronation: Sir Karl Jenkins piece to be played". BBC News. 5 May 2023.
  33. ↑ Yeates, Cydney (7 May 2023). "Myleene Klass debunks mystery surrounding identity of coronation guest". Metro. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  34. ↑ "Soft Machine – MP3 Collection". Discogs . 6 August 2023.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.