Fri, 10 Dec 2010

“Angry flames” in the service of peace

By NNA correspondent Ruth Zbinden

BERN (NNA) - The Waldorf School in Ittigen near Bern has chosen the oratorio “The Armed Man” by the British contemporary composer Karl Jenkins as its musical project for this year.

The work will be performed in Ittigen and Bern in January.

“The oratorio with its themes of war, peace and cultural understanding is a good subject for young people. I was looking for contemporary ‘classical music’ that can be understood by young people as an alternative to pop and rock culture,” the choral conductor and music teacher at the school, Stefan Werren, told NNA.

The music of the oratorio presents the pupils from classes nine to twelve, supplemented by parents and former pupils, with great challenges. The work posed questions at every rehearsal for which it was difficult to find answers, a participant said.

The title of the work appeared very contradictory. This was already apparent as early as the first bars calling to battle with strong rhythms accompanied by brass and drums. Humanity is called upon to prepare for battle and be willing to die.

The music, with its rousing dissonances, is sung in French, English and Latin. It is made up in part of medieval texts from anonymous poets as well as of parts from Orthodox and Latin masses. An imam calls to prayer in Arabic. Battle cries indicate death, destruction, fear and despair.

The text for the eighth section of the oratorio with the title “Angry flames” was written by an eye witness who experienced the atom bomb being dropped on Hiroshima and died a few years later of leukæmia. The text for the ninth section, “Torches”, comes from an Indian epic and tells how animals and humans roam about burning like torches. In the Agnus Dei humanity stands there helpless and weeping.

At the end, however, the realisation of the destruction which has been wrought by this martial spirit begins to spread. The call for bells of peace becomes louder, the music becomes more harmonious and the work closes with a conciliatory chorus.

It is a work which will leave neither performers nor listeners unaffected. After all, everyone who approaches the world with open senses is confronted daily with violence. Concerning ourselves with its also gives us the courage to take action for peace. Each one of us can make our contribution wherever we are.

In a diverse career, Karl Jenkins initially made his mark in jazz, playing at London’s famous Ronnie Scott’s club before co-forming Nucleus, which won first prize at the Montreux jazz festival and appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival, Rhode Island.

This was followed by a period with Soft Machine, one of the seminal bands of the 1970s. Through many incarnations, ‘Softs’ defied categorisation, playing venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall, the ‘Proms’, the Reading ‘Rock’ Festival.

This background may also explain why Jenkins’ oratorio was found to be so accessible to young people at the Bern Waldorf School.

As well as his many classical works Jenkins has written music for advertising and films. In the summer of 2005 he scored the feature film, River Queen starring Kiefer Sutherland & Samantha Morton, the soundtrack of which won the Golden Goblet award for best score at the Shanghai Film Festival.

He has received many academic awards. Current plans include, in association with the Worshipful Company of Musicians, the setting up of a foundation to help young players entering the music profession.

End/nna/zbi/cva

Item: 101210-02EN Date: 10 December 2010

Copyright 2010 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See: www.nna-news.org/copyright/

More NNA reports at: www.nna-news.org/en/

A different way to fund universities

WITTEN/HERDECKE (NNA) - With the escalating student protests in London over government plans – now adopted by the British parliament - to allow universities to raise tuition fees fresh in the mind, the subject of university funding is a controversial one. And not only in Britain. In Germany too the question of how to pay for universities is a hotly debated topic.

All the more relevant, then, that this year the private Witten-Herdecke University celebrated fifteen years of a funding model which was thought up by the students and which divorces the cost of study from the course that the student chooses to take. Students pay a contribution, but that contribution is not understood as a charge or fee to cover the cost of the course they are taking, but rather as a “contribution to financing the business of the university” says Malte Kullak-Ublick, a former board member of the StudierendenGesellschaft, the student association that was set up by the students to administer the funding model.

In a method from which the present plans of the British government are not that dissimilar in some respects, the financial contribution is not due until after graduation, is completely unrelated to the duration of the course and includes the income that the graduated student later earns. “We believe that this model is a true alternative to the traditional method of the payment of tuition fees. We encourage anyone who has any interest in the matter to contact us”, explains Gero Niggemeier, another board member of StudierendenGesellschaft.

The students believe that with their model they found a way of combining financing, social compatibility and freedom of study.

Repayment only starts above a certain income threshold and only lasts while the graduate earns above that threshold; if earnings drop below again, repayment stops. It is generally spread over a ten year period and comprises in the region of ten percent of net monthly income, although there is also an upper limit. After 25 years any amounts left unpaid lapse. The income threshold is currently about 30,000 euros.

The students describe this as a “reverse generational contract” in that the older generation pays for the education of the younger one (as opposed to pensions, for example, where the younger working generation pays for the retired older one).

What this model does, say the students, is divorce the ability to pay from the ability to study. Any student, no matter from what background, can study the course they want to study, no matter what its length, provided he or she can pass the stringent admissions process to the university. Whether or not they or their parents have the resources to pay for the course does not come into it.

What this means is that the freedom of choice of students is not restricted in three crucial areas: access to the course of their choice, the structure of the course (restriction of the length of study due to financial pressures) and the choice of their subsequent occupation.

What it also produces, is a commitment of the students to what they perceive as their university in which they have a real stake because they contribute to the cost of the institution as a whole and maintaining its quality and not specifically to the course they are taking. Indeed, the StudierendenGesellschaft meanwhile holds shares in Witten-Herdecke. The university in turn promises a quality education and a high level of student care.

When the university went through a financial crisis earlier this year because the regional government threatened to withdraw crucial funding, the students took action and managed to raise millions of euros which, with other funding, helped Witten Herdecke weather the crisis.

END/nna/ung/cva

Item: 101210-01EN Date: 10 December 2010

Copyright 2010 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See: www.nna-news.org/copyright/

More NNA reports at: www.nna-news.org/en/