The Te Deum is a hymn of praise to God that exemplifies the meaning of the Holy Trinity. It is sung as part of the canonical hours and is customarily performed as a hymn of thanksgiving on particular solemnities: it is typically a year’s end rite. And this is the reason why this popular hymn became the natural choice when it came time to commission a sacred composition with which to celebrate the end of the century (and of the millennium) and the coming of a new one. Even so, in this time of easy and rhetorical feasting, our merrymaking should always be chiming with historical memory, so that our awareness of things past can be made to underlie the way we shape the future.

On these premises a libretto was put together in which the traditional text of the Te Deum is sided by the texts of some "laic" authors: these latter verses are nonetheless informed by a deep spirituality, a strong ethical drive, and a proud renouncement of the difficult human condition. Evincing the originality worked into this project is the significant presence of poets of Sardinian tongue: Jazz Te Deum was born in Sardinia and can be nurtured only through Sardinian culture. This culture is also in the common elements of ethnical music, and these are the elements the composers have used to write the score. Or should we say scores (plural): for even if the work was born of the same literary text and is shaped by some shared musical themes, the three composers involved belong to different generations, so it makes sense that they should draw on different cultures and sources and the outcome be perceptibly variform. The language of jazz is ideal in this sense: this music is naturally inclusive and eclectic, it changes its form and style, and is capable of taking in the most disparate experiences: African polyrhythm and European polyphony, ethnical singing and band music, pop tunes and the boldest forays into experimental music.

This highly experimental work is forerun by only a handful of endeavors like it.

The program is made complete by another composition performed here for the first time: the Sacred Concert, written by Giorgio Gaslini for Polifonica Santa Cecilia and for Sardinia’s Orchestra Jazz to mark the Jubilee. This work pays homage to similar compositions by Duke Ellington; it is also a heartfelt and moving statement of faith which Gaslini, this master of contemporary jazz, is submitting to us.