Multi-instrumentalist Jeff Hen might be performing his distinctive interpretations of the music of Hildegard Bingen in Toronto on February 9. The live performance at ArrayMusic is a continuation of Hen’s fascination with the works of the twelfth century mystic.
He explored her music on his 2016 album Felix Anima, organized for harmonica, electrical guitar, and shruti field. The shruti field originates from India. Just like a harmonium, it makes use of a system of bellows to supply a drone sound.
We spoke to Jeff about his distinctive tackle the centuries outdated music.
Jeff Hen
Jeff Hen has been lively within the music trade for greater than three many years, and has recorded folks, jazz, world, and digital music, amongst others, over 18 albums. He performs the fiddle, bass, harmonica, mandolin, vocals, percussion, amongst others.
Jeff can be a producer and composer, and might be finest recognized for his work with the Cowboy Junkies of their iconic Trinity Periods album.
The Interview
“Since college, again within the final millennium, I used to be launched to early Western music,” Hen explains. That’s when he first listened to Renaissance and medieval music, which struck a direct chord. “I really feel like I might need lived there.”
Hildegard von Bingen, per se, wasn’t a part of the curriculum throughout his scholar days on the College of Guelph within the Seventies. “You wouldn’t hear these things,” he says. However, his curiosity had been ignited, and he continued to discover the period’s music. “My curiosity in that music was kindled.” It wasn’t till bout the Nineteen Eighties that he really found Hildegard von Bingen and her luminous choral works.
“It was love at first hear.” The music has an everlasting magnificence that separates it from the atypical. “There are at all times those who rise to the highest,” he says of her compositions. Whereas he pursued many different forms of music throughout a number of tasks, von Bingen’s music was at all times in the back of his thoughts.
“It took me some time to come back to carry out it.”
As he factors out, her compositions encompass vocal music. “Singing isn’t my robust swimsuit,” he laughs. It took some time to hit on the correct method. “I’d been taking part in harmonica for years.” Utilizing the breath-driven instrument appeared the right selection. “Her music may be very a lot about breath.”
Including the shruti field additionally is smart. “It’s the identical know-how because the harmonium,” he factors out. It’s in the identical household because the accordion and concertina. “All of them use reeds which can be moved by air.”
The shruti field itself is often used as accompaniment for flute or vocals in classical Indian music. The know-how originates in China with the sheng, which impressed the European harmonium, which then, as a transportable instrument, made its solution to India by means of missionaries and others.
“It went to India,” he says, “it turned a shruti field.” As he explains, the performer can management the pitch, however not play a melody per se. It’s in the identical household because the harmonica, because it seems. “They have been simply made to be performed collectively.”
Not everybody, although, has a shruti field round to experiment with. “I’ve at all times been a collector of devices,” he says. “It’s in my home, and in the future, you set them collectively.”
It’s a reasonably good argument for gathering devices.
“I used to be shocked at how effectively it really works.” He pumps the shruti field with one hand. “I can really use that in the identical method as I’m respiratory with the harmonica.”
From Jeff Hen’s Felix Anima:
Hildegard von Bingen
The German mystic, often known as the Sibyl of the Rhine, was born in 1098 and lived to the age of 83, dying on September 17, 1179. She was a Benedictine abbess, which afforded her the chance to compose and write. Hildegard turned an influential author, composer and thinker of her time. Alongside along with her music, she was recognized for her writings on topics as numerous as drugs, music, philosophy, and mysticism, and was a medical practitioner.
She left a major physique of surviving work, together with the sacred music drama Ordo Virtutum, and a few 69 different items, together with their poetic texts.
“Numerous individuals are performing her music, which says one thing about its energy,” Jeff notes. “The best way it makes use of breath, it’s very human.”
He developed the solo model of his efficiency through the pandemic, and streamed it on the time.
“It’s a bit of totally different sonically.” Like most medieval chants, the music has no temp or rhythmic notation. German type notation of the interval was decorative, and use neumes, or a system that predates the fashionable system of staves and notes. “I take a number of liberty with phrasing and tempo.”
As a solo performer, he can even play with tempo. “I can take my time,” he says. “Alternatively, if one thing goes mistaken, there’s no person responsible however your self.”
Whereas his interpretation of the music is his personal, he underscores that he follows von Bingen’s melodies as written. “Actually the one ‘interpreted’ half is the clothes that you simply put across the music,” he provides. “I discovered that if I form of wandered off and extemporized by myself round it, it’s not pretty much as good,” he laughs.
His performing approach is up to date. “I’m not fearful about attempting to be genuine, it’s extra about honouring this stunning music.”
The Live performance
The live performance takes place February 9 at ArrayMusic.
Live performance observe: though Jeff is appreciative of applause, he invitations the viewers to benefit from the silence between every choice.
Discover extra particulars and tickets [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is a Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an skilled freelance author, blogger and writing teacher.
