Luís Tabuenca+UMS’n JIP _ RM Rilke

Tribute to RM Rilke: NEOPHYTEN | poems by Rolf Hermann

Neophyten is a cycle of 24 poems by Rolf Hermann, included in the collection In der Nahaufnahme verwildern wir (2021). The cycle takes the poem cycle The Roses by Rainer Maria Rilke as its structural reference.

Neophytes are plants that establish themselves in territories where they were not previously native. For Rolf Hermann, they represent both a manifestation of our globalised world and of climate change: plants that are transported, intentionally or accidentally, from one continent to another and that, as temperatures rise, move northwards and transform the vegetation.

In this sense, neophytes become symbols of the Anthropocene: a biological phenomenon caused by human activity that has, to a large extent, developed a dynamic of its own.

“In the end, only nature remains, along with what we might perhaps call the ecstasy of words: poetry.”

Rolf Hermann

THE COMPOSITION

Neophyten is a song cycle for voice, recorders, percussion and electronics (audio and video), created by UMS’nJIP and Spanish percussionist and composer Luis Tabuenca, through their collaboration with Rolf Hermann.

The work lasts approximately 90 minutes and can be presented in its entirety or in excerpts, as a concert, performance and/or as part of a reading.

The composition draws on Hermann’s poems, exploring their sound, rhythm and intertextual references. Voice, recorder and percussion coexist with electronics in a process that lies between composition and improvisation.

The result is an expansive dramatic structure divided into sections, in which the spoken word gradually emerges from instrumental soundscapes, creating a virtual sonic space.

The aim is to translate into sound the same sensuality and vulnerability that Rolf Hermann seeks to make perceptible through words.

PROGRAMME

The cycle consists of 24 poems dedicated to different plant species:

1. Armenian bramble — Rubus armeniacus
2. Japanese knotweed — Reynoutria japonica
3. Empress tree — Paulownia tomentosa
4. Brazilian watermilfoil — Myriophyllum aquaticum
5. Himalayan balsam — Impatiens glandulifera
6. Annual fleabane — Erigeron annuus
7. Staghorn sumac — Rhus typhina
8. Black locust — Robinia pseudoacacia
9. Thicket creeper — Parthenocissus inserta
10. Tree of heaven — Ailanthus altissima
11. Large-flowered primrose-willow — Ludwigia grandiflora
12. Henry’s honeysuckle — Lonicera henryi
13. Black cherry — Prunus serotina
14. Himalayan knotweed — Polygonum polystachyum
15. Tansy ragwort — Senecio jacobaea
16. Canadian waterweed — Elodea canadensis
17. Cherry laurel — Prunus laurocerasus
18. Giant hogweed — Heracleum mantegazzianum
19. Narrow-leaved ragwort — Senecio inaequidens
20. Butterfly bush — Buddleja davidii
21. Giant goldenrod — Solidago gigantea
22. Common milkweed — Asclepias syriaca
23. Common ragweed — Ambrosia artemisiifolia
24. Verlot’s wormwood — Artemisia verlotiorum

ARTISTIC CREDITS

Work: Neophyten
Artists: UMS’nJIP & Luis Tabuenca
Texts: Rolf Hermann
Based on: Neophyten, a cycle of 24 poems from the collection In der Nahaufnahme verwildern wir
Instrumentation: voice, recorders, percussion and electronics (audio and video)
Year: 2023
Duration: approximately 90 minutes