Music for jazz trio, inspired by the life of St Francis of Assisi
- Label
- Indigo Records 1006 CD, 2003
- Recorded
- on 17 and 18 October 2003 by Andi Reisner
15,– € incl. VAT, postage and packing
Tracks
- Die Sonne des Glaubens
- Das Bittere und das Süße
- San Damiano – Baue auf, was zerfällt
- Portiuncula – Der Geist des Anfangens
- Franz und Klara – Zwei Linien
- Vogelpredigt
- Der Wolf von Gubbio
- Alverna
- Il Canto di Sole
- Transitus
To listen to: Franz und Klara – Zwei Linien, Alverna and Il Canto di Sole
Line-up
- Matthias Petzold saxophones, cello
- Thiemo Kirberg guitar
- Nils Imhorst double bass
About the compositions:
The Franziskusinventionen (Francis Inventions) are a series of compositions in which the composer Matthias Petzold refers to important stations in the life of St Francis of Assisi. Each piece comes with a short text that tells the story. The compositions do not then retell the events as programme music; instead they take up the particular mood or, as Francis might say, the “fragrance” of a situation and let it sound as a whole. Text and music form a kind of brother and sister, as it were, meant to complement and enrich each other.
The composer’s personal connection with the subject comes from his many years of membership of the OFS (Ordo Franciscanus Saecularis, the Secular Franciscan Order), the lay branch of the Franciscan family. For Petzold, the creativity and spontaneity that flow from Francis are especially close to an improvised form of music such as jazz.
Press
“The music comes across like that of a chamber trio … its humour is of the kind with which Gustav Mahler, for instance, set St Anthony’s Sermon to the Fishes from ‘Des Knaben Wunderhorn’. Indeed, humour and cheerfulness give this music an inimitable lightness. No ‘mea culpa’, none of the solemnity and weight of religious fervour, but religion presented from its life-affirming side. And like all good music, it convinces even when you set the programme aside completely.”
Jazzpodium
“The trio fully lived up to its aim … of expressing an attitude of the spirit. This was due not only to the melodic, varied pieces, which once again bore witness to Petzold’s many-layered approach and his originality as a composer … Guitarist Thiemo Kirberg and Nils Imhorst on double bass played with complete absorption and yet intense concentration, technically spotless and perfectly attuned to each other. The composer himself made his mark effortlessly as a virtuoso on soprano and tenor saxophone and on the cello.”
Kölnische Rundschau