Erdenklang
Roland Kroell : Parzival (D,1996)***'
Roland Kroell is an experienced Celtic bard who made a huge effort to put parts of “Parzival”, into music. The starting point was a saved composition by the writer which was written down a century later. “Parzival” is now considered as one of the highlights of medieval German literature, and was written in the 12th century, by poet, mastersinger and minstrel Wolfram von Eschenbach, a legend in his own times.
From what I know about "Parzival"/Parsival, without needing to deal with the later further evolved fantasies, variations and interpretations that received its own life and associations and contexts, is that the story almost surely has certain Persian origins or associations. Not only does the story start with a chapter in Iraq, many names have clear Persian roots. The mythical stone with Latin name clearly refers to a stone as having fallen from the sky, might refer to some local legend of an existing meteorite (a fact that a stone might have fallen from heaven must have bewildered the logic in peoples general perspectives at its confrontation). This meteorite might have references to the black stone in Mekka, and to how it was associated with a certain spiritual significance in those days. There are also clearly references to a certain order, of which members look Templar-like. This might also have its origins in the crusades. Some crusaders might have brought with them (as also the Templers did), certain ancient and also foreign beliefs and experiences and they might have put all this in certain stories and contexts, which inhabited certain beliefs that worked as metaphorical imaginings, but which inhabited a mixture of certain wide ranging traditions how things were to be remembered, and perhaps also could not be told differently in a Christian society. All combined associations in a story could work as a tool to go inwards to certain deeper lying truths. At the same time certain historical references might be adapted in it, and to make it more coherent a story is remembered well when it’s a mixture of fantasy, history, traditions. All experiences surely will have formed certain order with rituals to remember all the uniting associations well. The form in which the 12th century story received fit within the local traditions of songwriting.
Roland Kroell plays dulcimer, epinette, flutes, musical glasses, gong, uileann pipes, drums, percussion and Günter Buchwald plays violin.
The first track surely sets the tone, starting almost as a chamber folk composition, until it becomes more and more rhythmical, with violin improvising, and the dulcimer pulsating. The singing which starts then sounds as if from a real story-telling bard (medieval style). The first five tracks are arranged or similarly, with inspired melodic interpretations of the songs, arranged as somewhat semi-eastern flavoured bard music with dulcimer, violin improvisations, and a bit of Celtic percussion. The last part of them, with no style difference, was based upon an interpretation of the preserved original von Eschenbach melody. “Munsalvaesch” is a combination of glass harp music with guitar-like dulcimer pickings. The next song sounds slightly flamenco-like (or some kind of dance but played with the soft sounds of the dulcimer, which makes this sound much more tempered, with the much louder and further reaching baritone voice keeping the bard context. The whole album lasts 74 minutes which might be a bit long for those who do not understand German or this old German well. There is in fact little more variety after this track. The dulcimer is either strummed or picked and only a little flutes or pipes are added, while the singing also keeps the same tone over each verse. Just on the longest track, “Lapsit Exillis” which refers to the ritual around the stone, there is introduced a new element, a dark rhythm and calm evocative singing, but then quickly comes back to the usual style of bard singing, with some minor dulcimer variations. This dark earth percussion returns a few more times during the next few songs. While the fundament surely is interesting, it is a shame that in such a long epos there hasn’t been a chance to add more musicians to the arrangements. That way we’re left with what is good, but could have been better as well as a more ambitious group project.
