CYSTERSKA POEZJA LITURGICZNA – OFICJUM RYMOWANE LAETARE GERMANIA

• Authors: JASIEWICZ JAN JERZY

Title variants

EN

CISTERCIAN LITURGICAL POETRY – A RHYMED OFFICE LAETARE GERMANIA

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

PL

WSTĘP. 1. ANALIZA TEKSTU. 2. PROBLEMATYKA MUZYCZNA. ZAKOŃCZENIE.

EN

One of the fundamental sources serving to carry out research on the development of chorale composing in Poland, belonging to the mediewal liturgical poetry, are productions devoted to Saint Jadwiga. Almost all of these compositions were created in the circle of Silesian Cistercians, and they were most likely first introduced where the Saint Bernard’s monasteries existed. Due to the frequend devastations of the Oliwa monastery the oldest liturgical books did not survive. We may suppose that the texts about Saint Jadwiga were insert into Oliwa Cistercians’ liturgy at the end of the 13th century and they later spread all over the Pomerania region, especially in Gdańsk. The religious worship of Saint Jadwiga reached Gdańsk at the a test in the 14th century, as the earliest preserved manuscripts, containing among other works also texts concerning Saint Jadwiga, go back to these times. The source basis of this article, were source records which are a part of the special collection departments of both the Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Pelplin Theological Seminary. The literary text of Laetare is of purely cultic character. All the antiphons and responsories are in a poetic form, whose basic constants are isosylabisms and rhymes. Only in the lines of the responsories prose is used in most parts. The melodies of antiphons and responsories are characterized by numerical succession of modi, which was in accordance with the rule almost absolutely observed in the 13th century. The Saint Jadwiga Office, representing the mainstream of the then common practice, shows, however, richer diversity in this matter. The melodies of the antiphons recorded in Laetare are not entirely original and they do not contribute to chorale composing any new elements. The incipit of the chants are in accordance with the melody formulae encountered in today’s Vatican edition. Apparently, this means that melodies of already known compositions were used with new texts. The architectural structure of the majority of the compositions is faultless and some of them, from the point of view of Gregorian aesthetics, cam be acknowledged as extremely valuable. The relation between the literary text and music of these compositions do not reveal any serious irregularities. The composer is aware of the character of the tonic language, and it seems that the casus of moved accentuation that appear in the work result from the author’s desire to subordinate the word stress to the logical emphasis of the whole sentence. The aesthetic value of the compositions, being a part of the above discussed office, is significant, and the work done by the anonymous author is praiseworthy. In accordance with the requirements of a liturgical monody, remaining under the influence of the tendencies prevailing among the then European composers, the anonymous author created a work of art, whose level did not diverge from the form of this kind encountered in other countries.

• Publisher: Gdańskie Seminarium Duchowne, Kuria Metropolitalna Gdańska
• Journal: Studia Gdańskie
• Year: 2007
• Issue: 21
• Pages: 271-284

Contributors

author

JASIEWICZ JAN JERZY

• GDAŃSKIE SEMINARIUM DUCHOWNE