Johannes Jansson
*24 July 1950
Works by Johannes Jansson
Biography
At its core, Johannes Jansson’s life work is characterised by the earnestness of his creative voice and deep sense of emotional honesty, beyond the music's considerable qualities of style and technique. Here is a search for inner truth, clarity and freedom of spirit.
This quest is passionate, leads through forests of chaos, whilst also touching the sensuous.
Jansson's music can be truly intimate – the Swedish word "innerlighet" is appropriate, which speaks of an inner world, and of quietness and warmth. But his musical scope can also verge onto the gigantic – the colouristic sweep of a Romantic: at its richest, in some of his orchestral scores in later years, such as in the "Hymn to the Mystic Fire" (2003-04) and, indeed, in parts of his consummate work for orchestra, choir and soloists, the "Peace Symphony" (2014-15), in which so many aspects of Jansson's vision come to meet.
Johannes Jansson (born in 1950) grew up partly in Stockholm, partly in the vicinity of Ravlunda in Österlen – the culturally vibrant, rural south-eastern part of Sweden where he now resides. Following studies at the Malmo and Stockholm Conservatories, and having gained experience as an orchestra and chamber musician, as conductor and double bass player, Jansson established his personal path as composer towards the mid 1970:s with a fine series of chamber works for solo flute and solo violin (both 1973) and the string quartet. His Second String Quartet (1975-76) is an expansive composition in a traditional four-movement form. Superficially it could be termed conservative, with strong memories of the late Beethoven Quartets passing by – but in its softly spoken way, this is a work of integrity; a free and deeply personal creation, where the music develops with natural – and radical – ease.
A period of inner probing in the early 1980:s prepared the way for Jansson's first two large-scale orchestral works. In “ The Mutation of Death '' (1985), gradually growing tensions in harmony and rhythmic gesture call forth a transformation – a new life personified by a dramatically soaring soprano cantilena. – The luminous ”Nimbus” (for baritone and orchestra, premiered by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1986) seems to shed a layer of late Mahlerian influence in its sound-world, coming out distinctly on the personal side. Jansson uses the crisp, sun-drenched chamber sound of the orchestra as part of an ecstatic ritual, where the song soloist develops the poetic words by Georg Backman in a chant-like manner, transcending the boundaries of individualism.
"Nimbus" and "The Mutation of Death" are both profound statements of Jansson's continuing devotion to Indian philosophy and literature developed over a number of visits, especially at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry and the neighbouring community of Auroville. Working within the Western tradition, his Indian experience has been a wake-up call to challenge ingrained and restricting world-views. This earnest spiritual concern, to break down mental barriers, foreshadows the deeper concept of "peace" in the culminating "Peace Symphony".
The later part of the '80:s saw a fruitful collaboration in a number of music-dramatic projects with the scenographer and librettist Marta Cicionesi, Jansson's creative partner and wife since 1985 (the one-act opera "Day´s Twilight Night" and the children’s choir opera "The Only Escape" – based on a story by Marguerite Yourcenar – were premiered during 1988-90).
Jansson has described the following years up to the middle of the 1990:s as a severe emotional crisis, when composing came hard. There is a more abstract feel than elsewhere to the two chamber works from this period, the Trio (violin, cello, piano, 1989) and the Third String Quartet (1993). In these works, Jansson seems to come close to an idea of ”absolute”, strictly non-programmatic music. There is also, particularly in parts of the Quartet, a harder grit to it, which does not preclude that this part of Jansson’s oeuvre is engaging and at crucial moments intensely beautiful (witness the wistful canonic dying-out of the Trio).
Evidently, happier times saw the coming of new major chamber compositions in close succession around the turn of the century. These were all connected with treasured colleagues such as the flautist Anna Norberg and guitarist Mats Bergström (Flute & Guitar Sonata 1998); the pianist Hans Pålsson (Piano Sonata 1999); and the clarinettist Kjell-Inge Stevensson (“Nadaswaram” for clarinet 2006 and ”Chiarezza” for Clarinet and Piano 2001). The centrepiece of these sensitive and warmly sonorous works is the refined Piano Sonata, flowing between the meditative and dramatic, classically proportioned and concentrated.
With the first years of the millennium came the composition of Jansson's grandest purely orchestral piece, the almost hour-long "Hymn to the Mystic Fire '', premiered by Malmo Symphony Orchestra in 2005. Here, characteristics of both orchestral poems of 1985-86 seem to coerce. But everything is larger, the soundscape is wider, the registral scope as well as the variety of the instrumentation maximized. While in "Nimbus" there were bells and harp, here there are also big gongs, piano, xylophone and massive percussion in addition to the full orchestra. A huge symphonic painting, evolving from stormy sea-billows into complete calm and an extensive gong solo as the mystical heart of the piece – and stretching out further, past renewed climaxes towards a final return of the gongs in pianissimo.
Standing out among many works – vocal and instrumental – in the hectic decade succeeding the "Mystic Fire" are two intense Concerto pieces: the Violin Concerto (premiere soloist Sara Trobäck-Hesselink with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in 2010) and the Second Piano Concerto (soloist Martin Sturfält at the premiere with Malmo Symphony Orchestra in 2012). The two Concertos were created more or less simultaneously and they stand in fine contrast. The Violin Concerto is a powerful chamber orchestra work – dare one say in a "Nordic" light–tinged spirit – with the violin's continuous lyrical line deftly spurred on by the surrounding winds and strings. The Piano Concerto is a bigger orchestral concept, more of a tightly knit "Symphony with Piano"; with the piano as a freely moving agent, but also an integral part of the fabric.
This symphonic Concerto quite clearly looks forward to the "Peace Symphony", premiered in 2018 by The Swedish Radio Orchestra – as the first work entitled Symphony, though much of the symphonic in character recurs through Jansson's orchestral career. The "Peace Symphony", however, turns out to be the first of Jansson's mature orchestral pieces with something of the classic four movement-division (even though these parts flow together). But this well-balanced, rich and colourful choral Symphony, to the moving words of Tawakkol Karman, does not stay protected within its stylistic bounds – as Jansson seems determined never to do. This work could also be termed Cantata, or even a Mass, in the sense in which Beethoven composed his Missa Solemnis. "Peace Symphony" ends, like Beethoven's "Missa", with an ethereal and impassioned supplication for inner and outer peace – in Jansson's case, for the voices alone: "Peace be upon you"...
for Universal Edition, Mattias Gejrot
About the music
Peace Symphony is a dedicition to humanity. Its words by Tawakkol Karman carry a vision of a wide human possibility and yet unknown great future.
As composer of the symphony I was obliged to follow and live up to its call. The reality it describes through Mrs. Karman's own experiences at the Tahrir Square in Sana'a, living there for months in a tent, leading the Arabic spring in Yemen. It was there she was offered the Nobel Peace Prize 2011.
They were protesting for Peace, after 33 years of dictatorship. But Mrs. Karman's message doesn't stop short there. She turns to the world with the urgent request: “ Peace does not mean just to stop wars, but to also stop oppression and injustice”.
I continue relating to Mrs. Karman's words, framing the expression aspired for in this symphony: “...it is the sound and the soul of the people who suffer from struggle for freedom and justice. It is the sound of the brave people against tyrannies, and the dreamers for a better life and future. It is the belief of the people on the shining future, despite all deterioration that happened now, injustice, hatred, racism.”*
It was to this Spirit I was dedicated composing the Peace Symphony.
Johannes Jansson
* Tawakkol Karman's comment after the premiere 13th April 2018.
PEACE SYMPHONY
WORDS OF TAWAKKOL KARMAN (extracts from the Nobel Lecture 2011)
Revolution youth in the arena of freedom and change
All people of the world.
Their land is the land of prophecies and divine messages calling for peace
“Thou shalt not kill”
“Blessed are the peacemakers”
“O ye who believe, enter ye into the peace, one and all”
Mankind’s yearning for reconstruction,
Not for destruction,
For progress,
Not for regression and death.
Peoples and nations of the world,
Despite differences,
Members of one family
Share the same aspirations and fears.
Humanity will go on in its march
Taking and giving.
Understanding replace dispute,
Cooperation – conflict,
Peace – war,
Integration – division.
Marching towards the creation of a new world
To all human beings
A world where all relationships
Exclude the enslavement of man by man
No injustice, oppression, discrimination or tyranny.
A world full of partnership
Cooperation, dialogue, coexistence,
Acceptance of others
Where the law of power and might
Against groups, peoples and nations
To deprive them their liberty and dignity
Will disappear once and forever.
I see on the horizon a glimpse of a new world,
Of a shining and flourishing globalization,
I see the end of a black history
I see the beginning of a history full of love and fraternity
Oppressed people have revolted declaring the emergence of a new dawn
To break free the free people of the world.
All beliefs, all divine messages support oppressed people.
Injustice against one person is injustice against mankind.
Our joy of being on the right side of history
With flowers and bare breasts
Filled with dreams, love and peace
The triumph of the peaceful revolution
The sacrifices of great peaceful people.
Share my belief
That peace will remain the hope of mankind forever
The best hope for a better future
Drive us to speak noble words, do noble deeds.
Together we will push the horizons
One after another
Towards a world of true human perfection.
Peace be upon you
Copyright Tawakkol Karman