Chorał gregoriański w polskich zwyczajach procesji niedzielnych i ku czci świętych na podstawie „Processionale” Andrzeja Piotrkowczyka z 1621r.

Abstract

The paper presents the variety of Polish liturgical and musical customs connected with Sunday and Holiday processions. The author shows the book Processionale published in 1621 in Andrzej Piotrkowczyk publishing house in Kraków. In the beginning, the book is presented as a specific genre of liturgical books. It is relatively late in the collection of the liturgical books of the Western Church. The repertoire of the Processional was originally in the Gradual. The increase of repertoire and the need of a smaller book useful during processions, resulted in creating different books used by cantors. Then the author presents the reasons for publishing such a book in Poland at the turn of 16,h and 17'h century. It was the time of spreading of Protestantism. There were more and more cases of organizing liturgy on the model of Lutheran services. Also the neglectance and ignorance of catholic clergy were the reason of holding the Sacrament services sloppily and wrongly. The lack of models of accurate and respectful celebration of the liturgy was clearly seen. That is why Polish bishops made efforts to publish proper books in the dioceses as a help for clergy to celebrate the liturgy. Later on, there was an idea to unify the services in the whole country. It was the role of Processionale. The book was the reflection of Roman services published in Processionale Romanum in 1614, but included also the customs typical for Poland. That is why there was a great number of processions and chants, which were no longer present in Roman practices. Then the author describes the ritual of Sunday and Holiday processions. He presents the connection with the Roman Station Processions and Liturgical Drama. In the next part of his paper, the author presents the book Processionale by Andrzej Piotrkowczyk. He shows its division and musical contents. The main musical part of the book consists of Responsories and Antiphons as well as Hymns and Sequences. There are 220 different chants in the book. It is characteristic for this Processional, that there are chants of worship of Polish Saints. The works are not purely Gregorian. The Responsories and Antiphons used there are taken from 13th century rhythmical offices. The last part of the paper presents a reception of the tradition included in Processionale in the next centuries. Apparently the customs survived in books until the 1960-ties, until the II Vatican Council. Unfortunately, in 19th and 20th century processions and especially Gregorian Chant were gradually disappearing, being replaced by songs in Polish. Till now there are still some processions (Procession on the Feast of Corpus Christi, Eastern Procession, Procession to the Tomb, Eucharistic processions to celebrate parish feasts) but the Gregorian repertoire was completely replaced by Polish songs. The author postulate to reach for the old customs and the repertoire which is not only the testimony of Polish musical culture, but also can be a valuable means helpful at pastoral work.