Question about "Adiemus" by Karl Jenkins

[Allen]

Karl Jenkins has written a piece entitled "Adiemus" (Songs of Sanctuary).

I need to translate the following movements of the piece into English:

Adiemus
Cantus Iteratus
In caelum fero
Amate adea
Kayama

Does anyone have any idea?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

[jbuck919]

Karl Jenkins has written a piece entitled "Adiemus" (Songs of Sanctuary).

I need to translate the following movements of the piece into English:

Adiemus
Cantus Iteratus
In caelum fero
Amate adea
Kayama

Does anyone have any idea?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

What a jumble! OK, here goes:

Adiemus is not a Latin word or a word in any other language, as far as I can tell. It seems to be the name of a singing group (see the video in the link below). It may be a combination of the Italian "adio" (farewell) with a Latin subjunctive first-person plural, to mean something like "Let's say good-bye." That's a guess. (By comparison, Libera as in the boy choir is a real Latin word but it makes no sense as the name of a group, being the singular imperative of "liberare," to free.)

Cantus iteratus means "repeated song," and "In caelum fero" means "I bear [something or someone] to heaven."

Amate adea seems to have been chosen for the sound of its syllables. Though "amate" is the plural imperative of "amare," to love, "adea" makes no sense as a self-standing word in Latin. You will find out more about this piece on the following page, where the German commentator agrees with me that the language is "fake." (You might want to play the YouTube in a separate page or tab, as it hung up my computer when I tried it on this page.)

http://mynextjob.what1wants.com/2011/08 ... mate-adea/

Kayama is obviously not Latin, and I have no idea what it could possibly mean.

Hope that was helpful.

[piston]

He's a curious fellow who creates words, like Adiemus, or borrows words from different languages, like Kayama (Swahili?). Why even attempt translation?

[Lance]

I have enjoyed most of Karl Jenkins' music. I was very curious about this CD as well, which is available on Virgin 67524. He has composed a great deal of music recorded for Sony Classical, EMI/Warner, and Virgin/Warner.

[John F]

If you get the CD, maybe its notes will explain these very odd titles.

As for kambaya, according to the Urban Dictionary online:

Let's all gather together. A phrase from "The Lion King." Also a very good song from Karl Jenkins's "Adiemus."

[Chalkperson]

karl is a fellow welshman, i have known about him since the early 70's when he was a jazzer and saw him perform recently, we chatted for quite a while after the concert at carnegie hall as i was a guest of the welsh government, i can't speak for him but i think he'd ask you to leave his titles alone.

[jbuck919]

karl is a fellow welshman, i have known about him since the early 70's when he was a jazzer and saw him perform recently, we chatted for quite a while after the concert at carnegie hall as i was a guest of the welsh government, i can't speak for him but i think he'd ask you to leave his titles alone.

In spite of my ponderous effort, in this matter, I think you can speak for him.

[ChrisX]

From the notes of Jenkins own recording:

"The text was written phonetically with the words viewed as instrumental sound. The idea being to maximise the melisma (an expressive vocal phrase) by removing thr distractiin, if one can call it that, of words. The sound is universal, as is the language of music."

Simply put: the words / combination of words are made up and actually don't mean anything. Or you can make up your own meaning .

[Allen]

Thanks for all the information above. Much appreciated.

[piston]

It's like a mind game with him, because some of his titles are translatable. When asked if Adiemus was a derivation of a Latin word for "let us assemble" he denied awareness of such a connection:

The word Adiemus itself resembles the Latin word 'adeamus' meaning 'let us approach' (or "let us submit a cause to a referee"), or, is sometimes regarded as the future tense of the same verb, meaning "we will approach" or "we will take possession. Jenkins has said he was unaware of this.

Yet, In caelum fero is definitely Latin and I gather it means to the wild heavens.

[jbuck919]

It's like a mind game with him, because some of his titles are translatable. When asked if Adiemus was a derivation of a Latin word for "let us assemble" he denied awareness of such a connection:

The word Adiemus itself resembles the Latin word 'adeamus' meaning 'let us approach' (or "let us submit a cause to a referee"), or, is sometimes regarded as the future tense of the same verb, meaning "we will approach" or "we will take possession. Jenkins has said he was unaware of this.

Yet, In caelum fero is definitely Latin and I gather it means to the wild heavens.

I accept ChrisX's post. with thanks, as something like the last word on this, even though I started out with a premise along the lines you have followed. Your translation of that phrase, though I know where you are coming from with "fero," is incorrect, and I already dealt with it in my earlier post. However, the whole business is irrelevant because it appears that any resemblance between this composer's titles/texts and meaningful Latin is purely coincidental. They do a great job, though, of distracting us from the quality of the music, which we might note has not been discussed at all.

[stenka razin]

Sir Karl Jenkins is his new title. The knighthood was conferred in June, 2015.

Regards,
Mel