Narrow Sea

Musik von

Erik Griswold, Caroline Shaw, Matt Ulery & Hector Rufaro Mugani
mit der Black Forest Percussion Group

Termine

Freitag, 14.11.2025, 20 Uhr, Freiburg
Elisabeth-Schneider-Stiftung, Wilhelmstr. 17a, 79098 Freiburg

Samstag, 15.11.2025, 19 Uhr, Waldkirch
Musikschule, Merklinstr. 19, 79183 Waldkirch

Der Eintritt zu den Konzerten ist frei. Spenden sind willkommen.

Caroline Shaw, Narrow Sea (2017)

– For all humans seeking safe refuge –

Für Sopran & 5 Spieler:innen (Marimba, Vibraphon, 2 Suitcase Kits, Piano)

There everlasting spring abides,
and never withering flowers
Death, like a narrow sea, divides
This heavenly land from ours

The Sacred Harp, collection of shape note songs

Matt Ulery, Emigre and exile (2019)

Original für 6 Berimbau & Kontrabass. Wir spielen ein Arrangement von Lee Ferguson für 4 Spieler:innen (MalletKat, Marimba, Vibraphon, Keyboard & Piano)

  1. Mother Harp
  2. Tongues
  3. Bottomless
  4. Ephemeral stream
  5. Heart in fist
  6. The only thing you can do ist jump

Matt Ulery über Emigre And Exile:

“When I first spoke with Arcomusical Artistic Director Gregory Beyer about the possibility to collaborate on Emigre and Exile, I was in Portugal, “the land of the colonizers,” in residence at a jazz festival. Some abstract ideas soon began dancing in my mind: “singing stories,” “always rhythmic, always moving” and “here’s what happens when cultures collide.” During the relatively short compositional process, I focused closely on my impression of the sound and timbre of the berimbau. Once I “cracked a code” to write for Arcomusical’s brand new form of new chamber music, the music that flooded me, mostly rhythmically speaking, surfaced as dance music that I could only explain as being deeply rooted in African musical aesthetics, based on my experience as an open musician. It got me thinking about the ways folk musics are able to develop through the migration of people and cultures. Can a musician choose to “live” in another culture to be artistically expressive? Where and how did these cultures develop without the groups of people leaving the place they grew up learning music/lifestyle? Most importantly, I appreciate the traditions of the berimbau in African and Afro-Brazilian culture and now in contemporary chamber music. I’ve called upon some of these traditions in writing this piece and I want to express my sincere respect for the instrument and what it means to cultural traditions that have developed before me. I don’t know the half of it, to say the least. I hope that this piece can bring joy in any way to this troubled world.” – Matt Ulery

Hector Rufaro Mugani

Hurukuro Na Nyamasase (Conversation with Nyamasase)

Arrangement für 4 Spieler:innen (Midi MalletKat, Vibraphone, Marimba, Piano)

Nyamasase- (The one who carries the Shine) means the star that brings the sun, which is also referred to as the morning star.

Hurukuro Na Nyamasase is a conversation between a father and his daughter Nyamasase. The two have not yet meet in a long time and are speaking through space and time, an astronomical telepathy which is almost real. The conversation is almost happy as their dreams to converse are almost a reality and also realizing that they are still miles apart. They call and respond to each other’s happiness and sadness.

The song is played on an A Nyamaropa Scale which is equivalent to the western A Mixolydian scale. It is based on a traditional Shona Mbira music chord progression called Taireva Chord progression in the Manomwe Mazwi Mbira learning and teaching system.
This means the key signature of the song is D Major. Thus A Nyamaropa (A Mixolydian) has 2 sharps F# and C#, this therefore means that the 7th of this scale is flat. It has 4 phrases with 3 bars each. In a 6-8 time signature.

Traditional Shona Music is cyclic as these 4 phrases are repeated throughout the song. In other words like in jazz or blues these 4 phrases are the head where the artist can come and play then improvise over this head.

Mbira

Mbira is a family of musical instruments that is spread across Africa. They are made of metal or reed strips fastened to a wooden board. The instruments in this family are usually played by thumbs but in some cases also the forefingers.
The Mbira has been part of the Bantu Culture for over 3000 years. Artefacts and remnants of Mbira are found along the three main Bantu migration routes. Archaeological evidence reveal that the oldest Mbira artefact found had the keys made out of reed around in West Africa where there is present day Ghana. Further evidence also implies that around 1500 ago it moved from reed keys to metal keys in the Zambezi escapement region. The Mbira is more harmonically and melodically developed on the Zimbabwean platoon.