A music drama performed in the Hebbel Theatre Berlin in 1994—a key work from Sven-Åke Johansson & Alexander von Schlippenbach.
Even within the sprawling oeuvres of Sven-Åke Johansson and Alexander von Schlippenbach, both known for their innovative rethinking and broadening of artistic categories, the dramatic work "... über Ursache und Wirkung der Meinungsverschiedenheiten beim Turmbau zu Babel" ("... on cause and effect of the disagreements during the building of the Tower of Babel") remains a unique and rare enigma: What is it actually? Johansson has alternately called it a music drama, an opera, and a singspiel with environment.
All of that is true but doesn't explain much, and retelling the plot wouldn't do the work justice either. The protagonists are moving inside a musical space, composed of not just their instruments but also: a construction wagon, a concrete mixer, bricks, other building material. They are waiting for a master builder who never comes. In the end, "the units of measurement have been changed", complete confusion ensues, building never even commences.
The real action is the waiting, put into practice through music—ostensibly—, rather than becoming an existentialist exercise harking back to the theatre of the absurd. Not only free jazz is being played, also songs. In eight scenes, Shelley Hirsch and Sven-Åke Johansson are singing about the bricks, the timber, the midday heat and the rain, the breakfast (sour milk with orange juice), and so on. Mandrills are being discussed, Shelley Hirsch is telling the story of Broadway Bud, Dietmar Diesner is climbing a pole. All of that is interspersed with improvisations that dancer Regina Baumgart and the players (apart from von Schlippenbach and Diesner, they are Anne LeBaron, Wolfgang Fuchs, Tristan Honsinger and Paul Lovens) throw in seemingly casually—after all, what else is there to do when no construction work is taking place?
In the programme, Johansson describes his observations of construction workers who "spend a good part of their lives—when it rains or snows, while changing clothes and so on—in these so-called construction wagons, usually set up in the immediate vicinity of the construction sites." The drama thus at the core employs an approach very typical of him: observing everyday activities and reinterpreting them artistically. What makes it unique is the combination of art forms: (absurd) theatre, dance, song and free jazz all are equal parts. Never, one of these becomes a simple accompaniment of the other. They alternate and mix, eventually leading to a Babylonian confusion that becomes meaningful in itself. Despite or maybe even because of its uniqueness, this opera is one of Johansson's key works.
"... Über Ursache ..." was performed three times between 1986 and 1994. The audio recording of the premiere at the Stuttgart State Opera was released by FMP as a standard double LP in 1989. The 1994 audio and video recordings from the Hebbel Theatre in Berlin are presented here for the first time, packaged as a lavish box set with two LPs, a DVD, a 16-page booklet with photos and liner notes by Johansson, Konrad Heidkamp and Peter Ablinger, plus 20-page libretto—an edition that this spectacular work has deserved for a long time.
Players: Shelley Hirsch (voc), Sven-Åke Johansson (voc, acc), Anne LeBaron (harp), Wolfgang Fuchs (sax, cl), Dietmar Diesner (sax), Tristan Honsinger (clo), Alexander von Schlippenbach (p), Paul Lovens (perc, dr), Regina Baumgart (dance).
Edition of 400.
Sven-Åke Johansson (born 1943 in Mariestad, Sweden) is one of the style-defining drummers of the German free
jazz era of the 1960s and 1970s. From the 1980s onwards, he pursued an artistic path largely independent of institutions and groups as a music performer in the circles of fine arts and new music. Among other things, more than fifty record releases, a number of music theatre pieces, radio
plays, pictorial works and a lively touring life are among his oeuvre.
See also
Das Moabiter Duo (Sven-Åke Johansson & Thomas Kapielski).
Alexander von Schlippenbach (born 1938 in Berlin) is a German jazz pianist and composer.
One of Europe's premier free jazz bandleaders, Alexander von Schlippenbach's music mixes free and contemporary classical elements, with his slashing solos often the link between the two in his compositions. Schlippenbach formed The Globe Unity Orchestra in 1966 to perform the piece "Globe Unity", which had been commissioned by the Berliner Jazztage.
He remained involved with the orchestra into the '80s. Schlippenbach began taking lessons at eight, and studied at the Staatliche Hochschule for Musik in Cologne with composers Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Rudolf Petzold. He played with Gunther Hampel in 1963, and was in Manfred Schoof's quintet from 1964 to 1967.
Schlippenbach began heading various bands after 1967, among them 1970 trio with
Evan Parker and Paul Lovens and a duo with
Sven-Åke Johansson which they co-formed in 1976. Schlippenbach has also given many solos performances. In the late '80s, he formed the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra,which has featured a number ofesteemed European avant-garde jazz musicians including Evan Parker, Paul Lovens, Kenny Wheeler, Misha Mengelberg and Aki Takase. During the 90`s Duo work with Tony Oxley, Sam Rivers and Aki Takase. 1999 started performance and radiorecording of
Thelonius Monk's complete works, (all the compositions) with Rudi Mahall and his group "Die Enttäuschung".
