Joanna Słowińska - Zielnik Polski

​

"Zielnik Polski" ["Polish Herbarium"] is a concert album by Joanna Słowińska, the Sinfonietta Cracovia orchestra and the Stanisław Słowiński Quartet - recorded at the Krzysztof Penderecki European Music Center in Lusławice. A composition by Stanisław Słowiński - a young composer, violinist, laureate of Grand Prix Jazz Juniors 2015 and Audience Award of the 1st International Competition of Z. Seifert - to the lyrics by Jan Słowiński. The herbarium in the literary layer is a calendar of coexisting seasons and annual customs (Zielone Świątki, Zielna, Siewna), interpretations of hagiographic and apocryphal themes rooted in tradition.

​

Varied forms: from a jazz ballad ("Kolęda polarna"), through ascetic ostinated string textures ("Zofia", "Stanisław ze Szczepanowa"), to an extensive harmony of an orchestra and a jazz quartet ("Via Dolorosa", "Zielna") - they contribute to the natural coloring of "Herbarium": a full range of musical, interpretive colors, shades and references to the surrounding and inevitably intertwining signs of the sacred and profane spheres.

​

• a musical calendar of inextricably coexisting seasons, annual customs and the space of the sacred: the need of spirituality in the secular and religious dimension

 

• original vocal, musical and textual interpretations of sacred themes, rooted in folk customs

 

• new hagiography: contemporary reading and interpretation of the biographies of saints and patrons (including Saint Stanisław of Szczepanów, Saint Sophia, Saint Brother Albert Chmielowski)

 

• new compositions and instrumentations combining the sound of ethnic and electronic instruments and a string quartet

 

The premiere concert took place in August 2013 at the Abbey of the Benedictine Nuns in Staniątki as part of the CRACOVIA SACRA Festival.​​​​​

​

​

Track listing:

​

1. Wiosenna

​

2. Człowiek znaczy święty

​

3. Stanisław ze Szczepanowa

​

4. Siewna​

​

5. Zofia

​

6. Zielone świątki

​

7. Brat Albert

​

8. Burzowy

​

9. Dorota

​

10. Kolęda polarna

​

11. Via Dolorosa

​

12. Zielna

​

​

Performers:
Joanna Słowińska - vocals, violin
Stanisław Słowiński - violin, electric violin, keyboards, electronics, flutes
Justyn Małodobry - double bass, electronics
Jan Słowiński - viola, hurdy-gurdy
Adam Stępniowski - percussion instruments
String quartet:
Dominik Matczak - violin I
Agata Front - violin II
Aleksander Frankiewicz - viola
Dominik Frankiewicz - cello

 

Lyrics: Jan Słowiński and traditional
Music: Stanisław Słowiński, Joanna Słowińska and traditional
Music arrangement: Stanisław Słowiński

Album cover project: Zofia Słowińska

​