O niektórych uwarunkowaniach i inspiracjach rozwoju religijnej pieśni polskiej

Abstract

The melodies of Polish religious songs are derived from Gregorian chant, lay folk music, professional music and the music of other nations. The practice of singing Polish texts (translated from Latin) to plainsong tunes, known already in the fourteenth century, became widespread in the subsequent centuries and is also familiar nowadays. For many centuries, religious songs displayed Gregorian motifs, church scales and plainsong rhythms. These connections with plainsong call for thorough study taking note for instance of the composition techniques characteristic of the various periods (e.g. the cento technique). It is also important that the monophonic religious song, regarded as belonging to „usus” rather than „ars”, was not in fact studied by musical theory. Lay, usually folk tunes have been the second major source of borrowing and inspiration for the religious song. In this area an important part was played by the techniques of parody (in polyphonic music) and imitation. The influence of lay music grew as plainsong receded. In the Baroque period pseudo-Gregorian melodies were made on both lay and religious motifs. The mutual influences had a varied nature and led to a variety of realizations, some of them marked by dilettantism and lack of theoretical reflection. The use of lay tunes in currently composed church songs is in poor taste and ought to be opposed. Instead, the Polish folk tradition of religious song should be drawn upon.