Muzykalne anioły Hermana Hana

Abstract

Herman Han (1574-1626) was born in Nysa (Silesia) and he was "civis gedanensis" and "pictor regis" of Zygmunt III. He is considered to have been the most outstanding representative of international mannerism working in Polish territory. He performed commissions for the Polish Cistercian abbots from Oliwa and Pelplin. In the Pelplin catherdal church in the predella of the altar of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin there is a picture painted by this painter in 1618 and representing "The Adoration of the Shepherds". The present article is dedicated to this picture and to the musical scenes it represents. The iconological analysis proves that Han intended to express in pictorial form the following five problems, at the least: 1. The One God united in the Holy Trinity in His perfection and infinity, 2. Heaven and Earth as two different but connected places of the Universe. 3. The details of the glorious nature of the angels, 4. Earthly concord and finiteness, 5. The musical opposition of the sacred and the profane. In the top right-hand corner of the painting there is a group of several angels among clouds and a canon of three voices sings "In excelsis" in unison, with the words "Gloria in excelsis Deo" repeated two more times without the first word "Gloria". The notes of the composition are written down very carefully and with all the details. This is a three-voice canon in unison which ideally expresses three parts of unity. We are dealing here with the so called circular canon which is potentially infinite since it is enclosed in an infinite number of repetitions and is related to infinity. There is a mixolidian type of tonality where the canon corresponds to the atmosphere of joy. The terrestrial music takes up much more space in the painting, being situated at two opposite points in it. The musical subject is this time a fivepart composition with the canon in the octave between the cantus and tenor with the words "Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis". The counterpoint presented here proves that the composer was acquainted with polyphony. This common motto, repeated here, obviously refers to the beginning of the previous "celestial" canon and we have here also a common mixolydian tonality. The musical relation of the two compositions is obvious. The painting by Herman Han described above belongs to those paintings which can be "heard" and this "hearing" is meant to be a condition to a complete understanding of its contents, which are represented by an artist who knows both how to paint and how to describe sounds.