Giver of Life

The composition Giver of Life for choir and jazz band is a Mass. The pieces are settings of the most important regular prayer texts of the Catholic liturgy: five prayers in all, plus the “Halleluja” that is sung before the Gospel. These texts date from the first centuries of Christianity (or, in the case of the Halleluja, from the Jewish tradition), and in similar form they are also part of the Orthodox and Lutheran liturgies.

For Giver of Life I have used the texts in different languages:

Kyrie – ancient Greek; Gloria – Latin; Halleluja – Hebrew; Credo (We Believe In One God) – English; Sanctus (Heilig) – German; Agnus Dei (Agneau De Dieu) – French.

(For the texts and their translations see here )

This expresses the worldwide community of the Catholic Church, but also its roots in 2,000 years of Christian history. The different grooves reflect both my musical sensibility as a jazz musician and the particular cultural dynamism that the Catholic Church is developing on the continents of the Global South.

Between the choral pieces there are three instrumental pieces: “Charles De Sacre Coeur” recalls Charles de Foucauld, who at the beginning of the 20th century lived a mission of silent presence among the Muslims of North Africa and so gave decisive impulses to dialogue between the world religions. “Nyamitanga” is the seat of the bishop in the town of Mbarara in western Uganda, where I spent a few weeks some years ago. And “Vogelpredigt” (The Sermon to the Birds) recalls St Francis of Assisi.

The compositions are intended for use in worship on festive occasions. They can be sung by a good church choir and include refrains for the congregation. The concept of the Mass suits two feasts especially well:

First, Pentecost (“Giver of Life” is one of the names for the Holy Spirit in the Creed). The Pentecost story tells how the sending of the Holy Spirit enabled the Apostles to speak to people in many languages, so that everyone could understand them.

Second, All Saints’ Day. The remembrance of the dead brings into focus the communion of the Church across all ages and cultures.

This recording is impressive for the harmonious interplay of band and choir. The choirmaster Matthias Haarmann and his VOICES have succeeded in turning the scores into living music. I am delighted with the creative input and the expressive improvisations the musicians have contributed.

My warmest thanks go to the parish association Kreuz Köln-Nord for the good cooperation, and to everyone who made the recording possible by taking part in the crowdfunding.

Besides the CD, you can also order the score and performance material: send a message

Introduction to the premiere on 1 November 2019:

Matthias Haarmann has asked me to write a few words about the Mass I have composed, which is being sung and played for the first time in a celebration of Mass in your parish on All Saints’ Day. I am a jazz musician and composer and (together with my wife) have been a member of the OFS, the lay community of the Franciscan Order, since the early 1990s.

Even as a teenager I was fascinated by the grooves and sounds, the improvisational freedom and the intense communication of jazz, and these elements still shape my work as an artist today. I have found many of the basic attitudes rooted in jazz again in Franciscan spirituality, and so over the years a number of projects have come about that build a bridge from music to my religious home: Psalm settings for choir and jazz band; the “Franziskusinventionen”, which take up stations in the life of St Francis in the form of an instrumental jazz trio; and a concert programme of spiritual jazz compositions for organ and saxophone together with Matthias Haarmann.

And now a Mass. Why, of all things, this strict liturgical form, for which there are already thousands of compositions, some of them outstanding? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that at a time in the Church’s history when the Church is going to change its face fundamentally, it does us good to put the centre of our faith at the centre. That which will not change: the healing and redeeming presence of God in this world and among us human beings, which he has given us in Jesus Christ and imparts to us ever anew in the transformation of bread and wine.

The musical setting reflects in a special way the universality of the Catholic Church, which is gaining an epochal cultural dynamism through the growth of the churches of South America, Africa and Asia. The individual parts are composed in different languages. The style of the music crosses the boundaries of jazz and takes in grooves of different origins, with a particular emphasis on “black” rhythmic elements.

For these reasons I am especially glad that the Mass will be heard for the first time in a liturgical setting on All Saints’ Day. On All Saints’ Day the bond between the earthly Church – in its cultural diversity, but also with its faults and deformations – and the Church of heaven, in which God will gather all things into a new unity in Jesus Christ, becomes especially clear.

Matthias Petzold

The texts of the compositions

Kyrie (ancient Greek)

Kyrie eleison
Christe Eleison
Kyrie Eleison

Gloria (Latin)

Gloria in excelsis deo.
Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.

Laudamus te.
Benedicimus te.
Adoramus te.
Glorificamus te. Gratias agimus tibi
propter magnam gloriam tuam.
Dominus Deo, Rex caelestis,
Deus Pater omnipotens.
Domine Fili unigenite, Jesu Christe.

Dominus Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris,
qui tollis peccata mundi,
miserere nobis.
Qui tollis peccata mundi
suscipe deprecationem nostram.
Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris,
miserere nobis.

Quoniam tu solus sanctus.
Tu solus Dominus.
Tu solus Altissimus:
Jesu Christe.
Cum Sancto Spiritu,
in gloria Dei Patris.

Halleluja (Hebrew)

Halleluja

We Believe In One God (English)

We believe in one God

the Father, the Almighty,
Maker of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
consubstantial of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made.

For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

Heilig (German)

Heilig, heilig, heilig Gott, Herr aller Mächte und Gewalten.
Erfüllt sind Himmel und Erde von deiner Herrlichkeit.
Hosanna in der Höhe.
Hochgelobt sei, der da kommt im Namen des Herrn.
Hosanna in der Höhe.

Agneau De Dieu

Agneau de Dieu qui enlèves le péché du monde, prends pitié de nous.

Agneau de Dieu qui enlèves le péché du monde, prends pitié de nous.

Agneau de Dieu qui enlèves le péché du monde, donne-nous la paix.

The texts in English

Kyrie

Lord, have mercy
Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy

Gloria

Glory to God in the highest
and peace on earth to people of his grace.
We praise you,
we bless you,
we adore you,
we glorify you and give you thanks,
for great is your glory:
Lord God, heavenly King,
God and Father, ruler of all,
Lord, only begotten Son, Jesus Christ,

Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
you take away the sin of the world:
have mercy on us;
you take away the sin of the world:
receive our prayer;
you are seated at the right hand of the Father:
have mercy on us.

For you alone are the Holy One,
you alone are the Lord,
you alone are the Most High:
Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of God the Father.

Halleluja

Praise the Lord!

Credo – We believe in one God

We believe in one God,

the Father, the Almighty,
who created all things, heaven and earth,
the visible and the invisible world.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages:
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one being with the Father;
through him all things were made.

For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit
and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered and was buried,
on the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures
and ascended into heaven.
He is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets;

and in one holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
We confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

Sanctus – Holy

Holy, holy, holy God, Lord of all powers and might.
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.

Agnus Dei – Lamb of God

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, grant us your peace.