Melodies for the Polish Psalter
Melodies for the
Polish Psalter
Jan Kochanowski's Psalter of David
was printed in Cracow in 1579. Kochanowski had spent many years on the
translation of the masterpiece of Hebrew poetry perfecting and
transforming it. This special book of the Old Testament, filled
with prayers to God (it includes 150 psalms) and the spirit of a close
relationship between man and the Creator, exerted a strong influence on
him for a long time. For many centuries, including the 16th century,
David was thought to be the author of the psalms. At present only 73
psalms from the whole collection, compiled between the 11th and 4th
centuries BC, are attributed to him. Kochanowski spoke with a voice of
an inspired Jewish ruler as if were new David. A masterpiece of Polish
Renaissance was created.
Kochanowski did not translate the psalms from the Hebrew original but
from Latin.
However, it was not translated from the Vulgate, but from a
translation made by a Scottish Renaissance humanist, George Buchanan
(published in 1556), who in a much better way rendered emotional and
stylistic richness of the original text. And it was the splendour of
the psalms that was most important for the Polish poet. The Psalter
of David is a manifestation of private piety – so characteristic of
Jan Kochanowski – which focuses on intimate ties between the human
being and God (and which was described in 1932 by Jacques Langlade in
an undeservedly forgotten monograph of the poet). His piety reaches its
climax in threnodies published a year later and expresses the
Renaissance passion for speaking Christianity in this existential
dimension derived from human experience.
The Psalter of David is at same time a show of the master's
virtuosity. Being a 16th century classicist, Jan Kochanowski remembered
about the diversity of style and ...make references to the Roman
antiquity. The strophic form is very characteristic of the psalms:
although parallelism typical for Hebrew poetry can be observed, the
poet applies antique versification including the so called Sapphic
stanza. Indeed Renaissance knew how to combine these aspects.
A lyrical masterpiece was created. Kochanowski wrote with pride to the
bishop of Cracow, Piotr Myszkowski in the foreword that he "climbed the
rock of beautiful Calliope" holding "David's golden fiddle". He
addressed in this way the muse of epic poetry as he had created an epic
story about human deeds which are subject to the Creator's will.
Antoni Czyż
(Translated by Michał Górski)
Mikołaj Gomółka (ca. 1535–1591) has gone down in
history as a composer of Melodies for the Polish Psalter – one
of the most important achievements of old Polish music, published in
Cracow by the printing of Łazarz Andrysowicz in 1580. Gomółka was a
musician and played the woodwinds (fistulator) at the court of
Sigismund II August and later held the post of the family governor of
Sandomierz. Melodies… were dedicated to the bishop of Cracow,
Piotr Myszkowski, who was a patron and contributed greatly to the
creation of Melodies.
The idea to link Polish music with the Polish language derived from
humanistic ideas of Renaissance. Gomólka's psalms have made up for the
lack of such genres like madrigal or chanson in the Polish musical
tradition. Some of them, especially psalms no. 47, 97 and 103,
resemble dances popular at the time.
All 150 psalms were composed for four voices. Having in mind that at
the time it was possible for instruments to play music written for
voices. I worked out mixed vocal and instrumental and purely
instrumental versions of the psalms. The use of numerous Renaissance
instruments has created a good possibility of enriching the sound and
has made room for playing rich ornaments. Psalms sang by a soloist
accompanied by instruments created a possibility of putting even more
stress on the words and the expressive interpretation of the ingenious
text written by Jan Kochanowski. Performed in this way the
psalms have become a more personal and deeper way of expression.
Jacek Urbaniak
(Translated by Michał Górski)