There are projects that don't emerge by chance, but are the result of a long inner ripening process.
Uw Vlees en Bloed: een passie vol volk by Jef Neve is such a work. On the eve of the world premiere, Werner De Smet spoke with the composer about his deep bond with Bach, his collaboration with writer Jeroen Olyslaegers, and why he no longer considers himself a jazz musician.
An age-old story, newly urgent
The passion as a musical form has something fundamentally inevitable about it. It confronts us with the sacrifice of the innocent, with the intractability of the masses, with the question of who or what we are willing to sacrifice for our own peace of mind. Jef Neve sees that premise as timeless and urgently needed: "It is an age-old story that people who confront us with shortcomings in society are themselves sacrificed. That's why we must keep telling this story."
His homage to Bach is not a nostalgic look back, but a conscious return to a living source. The musical reflections on the great Baroque master are unmistakably present for the attentive listener, but the ode is situated equally in the dramaturgical structure that librettist Jeroen Olyslaegers has carefully maintained. "The listener will hear clear musical reflections of my deeply rooted passion for Bach," says Neve, and he means that word 'passion' both in a musical and personal sense.
That he deliberately seeks connection with the classical architecture of the genre should come as no surprise. The centuries-old alternation of narration, reflection and collective contemplation remains a powerful vehicle for taking an audience through a story that is both individual and universal. How those familiar forms precisely relate to his own musical language, Neve leaves open for now: "You can discover that during the world premiere of this composition." The statement sounds playful, but also reveals a composer convinced that some answers can only be given in the music itself.
The project started with vocal ensemble Reflection, with whom Neve previously brought his Rain Requiem to life – a large-scale composition as a tribute to the victims of the flooding that struck southern Belgium, created in collaboration with author David Van Reybrouck. That line continues: Neve as a composer who transforms great social traumas and questions into music with a choir as its resonant center. Anyone who surveys his oeuvre will notice that this commitment is not a recent development. His first album on a major label bore the telling title Nobody is Illegal, a project whose themes sound scarcely less urgent today than twenty years ago. His work with Ghetto Classics in the slums of Nairobi also testifies to an artist who consciously relates to the world around him.
Text as compass
The collaboration with Jeroen Olyslaegers was unusual: both worked independently of each other. Neve only received the text once Olyslaegers was completely finished with it. But that distance proved fruitful. "The text inspired me enormously to set the right meter," Neve explains. "Everything starts with respect for the text. From that intention, I as a composer didn't need to add an extra layer."
That restraint is characteristic of his approach. Where some composers want to bend the literary source to their will, Neve chooses to listen. The text dictates; the music follows and deepens. That principle becomes clearer nowhere than in the figure of the evangelist, who appears in this work as an exhausted mother. In the classical passion tradition, the evangelist is an impersonal narrator, a conduit for the story. Here that distance is removed. The evangelist is given a distinctly human face, bringing the biblical story closer to the lifeworld of today. "I've tried to present this figure as naturally as possible in the music," he says, and he is explicitly pleased with the artistic collaboration with Ann Pierlé for that role. That 'naturalness' is not simplicity, but rather the highest ambition: to create a figure that feels as though it should have always sounded this way.
For the performance, Neve works with Reflection and B.O.X., two ensembles with different musical backgrounds and sound cultures. This too reflects the tension between tradition and actuality that runs through the entire project.
The lamb as mirror
Central to Uw Vlees en Bloed is the image of the lamb – appearing here as a pubescent figure, with all the vulnerability and uprooting that brings. For Neve, that symbol transcends its religious origin: "A lamb radiates uninhibited innocence." It is precisely that innocence – and society's reflex to sacrifice it – that makes the passion tradition so urgent for the present.
The work consciously addresses contemporary themes: climate anxiety, the pressure of social media, the tension between generations. Yet the music does not pretend to illustrate those themes or pass moral judgment on them. Trust in the text and in the listener suffices. "Everything starts with respect for the text," Neve says on this matter. From that attitude emerges a work that asks questions without imposing answers, and that uses actuality not as decoration, but as an inevitable context.
Classical roots, jazz-like myth
Perhaps the most striking aspect of this conversation is how resolutely Neve shakes off the identity of 'jazz musician' – a label that the outside world has been attaching to him for years, but which he has never fully experienced as his own: "I don't consider myself a jazz musician. I have been writing classical compositions for longer than I have been improvising."
This statement casts a different light on his entire career. What many see as a successful jazz career, Neve himself views rather as a series of excursions from a fundamentally compositional practice: "The ground from which I make music will always start from a compositional structure, even when I improvise." This perhaps also explains why improvisation plays hardly any role in this passion. "That is indeed not applicable here, everything is written out."
When he situates himself within a broader musical tradition, he spontaneously refers to Bach and Mozart, composers who not only wrote their own work but also performed it: "That is very organic for me." The pianist on stage and the composer at the writing desk are not different people for him, but two forms of expression of the same artistic identity.
As he looks back on his path, Neve describes it rather as a logical line than as a break: "I see myself first and foremost as a classical composer who made excursions into the jazz world during his career. This therefore feels much more like a logical next step on a path I embarked on long ago." His musical heart beats especially for the creation of classical compositions where he can take the time to work out each voice beautifully. In an age where speed and immediate impact are often the norm, this sounds almost like an artistic manifesto.
Bach remains his permanent reference point. When asked what music he returns to when seeking inspiration, Neve answers without hesitation: "Bach." It is an answer that is both simple and revealing. Some influences do not diminish over the years, but grow larger.
A catharsis for the audience
What does Neve hope to bring about in his audience? "I hope that people reflect on their own position in society after listening to this work. That they experience a catharsis while listening to the creation." It is a classic goal in the most literal sense: Aristotle would recognize it.
Whether music can actually shift perspectives is a question Neve does not answer dogmatically, but is also not cynical about: "That is certainly my hope, especially with such a strong text accompanying it." This statement reveals a belief in the power of art that is not loud or naïve, but persistent.
Uw Vlees en Bloed: een passie vol volk is performed by vocal ensemble Reflection and B.O.X, with Ann Pierlé as evangelist. Text: Jeroen Olyslaegers. Composition: Jef Neve.
PERFORMANCE DATES
18 June, 20:30 (Premiere)
As part of STROOM
Venue: Hangar 43, Dendermonde
21 June, 15:00
Venue: Zaal Athena Antwerpen
In collaboration with Humanistisch Verbond
and huisvandeMens Antwerpen