A musical attic find
Music booklets with folk and military music by Franz Josef Jenni (1876-1959) provided the impetus for a biography and CD recordings.
Franz Josef Jenni spent his entire life in Entlebuch. He was a letter carrier in Wiggen for 40 years, conductor of the Escholzmatt church band for 51 years and a member of the supervisory board of the Escholzmatt-Marbach loan fund for 50 years, as well as a virtuoso musician and leader of various bands, captain of an army band and clarinettist in the Langnau orchestra for decades. The father of two sons and ten daughters was also a lifelong member of the Conservative Party and worked as a small farmer.
Years after his death, some of his daughters gave the then conductor of the Escholzmatt church music ensemble, Hermann Jenny, a box of handwritten sheet music. After a brief inspection, he put the box in the attic with the intention of taking a closer look at its contents after his retirement. Then, three years ago, came the big surprise: Franz Josef Jenni left behind six sets of handwritten sheet music from around 1900 to 1922 with folk music, a total of 350 pieces for various instrumental combinations (clarinet in E flat/B flat, trumpet in B flat, horn in E flat/F/B flat, trombone in C and tuba in E flat as well as flute in C, violin, accordion and double bass). In addition, three equally handwritten albums with military music.
Hermann Jenny began to record this music digitally. Professional musicians have now recorded some of the folk music compositions; the Bürgermusik Luzern under the direction of Michael Bach has recorded the military music that captain-corporal Franz Josef Jenni wrote into the personal music booklet of every single musician in his battalion Füs Bat 41 in 1902. Journalist and author Beat Straubhaar wrote the biography based on almost two years of research The musical treasure from the attic.
Beat Straubhaar: The musical treasure from the attic. Biography of Franz Josef Jenni (1876-1959), 204 p., incl. 2 CDs with folk and military music, Fr. 49.00 + postage, Verlag Entlebucher Medienhaus, Schüpfheim 2022, ISBN 978-3-906832-27-2
Order and further information:
https://jenni-musik.ch/
