Uwagi o polskich, religijnych pieśniach narracyjnych

Abstract

Since 1970 the Institute of Church Musicology of the Catholic University of Lublin has been collecting all the Polish Catholic religious songs which have been preserved in the living folk tradition. The material gathered in rural areas during local research work is the basis for a more detailed study with a musicological character. The majority of the songs collected have never been performed as church songs. They function in the realm of folk religiosity which is beyond all the liturgical norms. The written texts of most of the songs can be found in songbooks, prayer books, in some pamphlets etc. while their melodies have been kept alive thanks mainly to the oral tradition. The narrative songs are one type of song, sometimes they are called "legendary songs" and they are still alive in all regions of Poland. They refer to bibilcal events in the form of a free paraphrase, they contain apocryphal motifs, stories and legends about visions of God's Mother or about the lives of the saints. Two- and four-verse strophs, or sometimes three-verse strophs, are the typical metre of these songs. The verses of the dystychs or fragments of them are usually repeated in the song refrains which seldom occur – they are fragments added in the later periods. Inspired by the new function of the song. The characteristic feature of this repertory is its new function or multiplicity of functions. A periodical structure is typical of the narrative songs, the melodies are usually of between 6 and 16 bars (less 24 bars). The melodies are usually constructed from shorter or longer phrases of a uniform character. These phrases can be repeated in sequence or subjected to variations. The rhythms are syllabic, the schematism of the rhythmical structures is sometimes modally formed, the melodious lines are fluid, all of which means that the narrative character of the songs is given precedence. The penta- and hexachordal scales, more often major than minor, are characteristic of the tonality of the songs.