Polish Mass Settings
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,500
    My choir has a need to broaden its Polish hymn repertoire (long story), so I brought out a Polish hymnal I had been given some years ago.

    In the front of the book there are a dozen or so settings of the Ordinary. Only--the words are different every time, and metrical. It is a series of metrical settings of paraphrased liturgical texts. I'd seen this sort of thing sung in German churches as well, but nowhere near as systematically. It goes well beyond what one might expect from Spanish metrical paraphrases.

    My first thought was of Pope John Paul II. He is remembered, I think correctly, as being extremely liturgically tolerant. For me, the thoroughgoing metrical treatments of the Ordinary helped illustrate why this would be so.
  • Ralph BednarzRalph Bednarz
    Posts: 489
    I have seen some of this too. I think we are dealing with grandfathered national traditions that are assumed licit becasue some of these appeared in missals that preceeded Trent by 200 years.
    Its not the text that is termed licit, but the tradition to modify that still continues.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    If they're metrical, they might not date back 200 years before Trent. The German Singmesse practice arose in the late 1700s.

    Historical context:
    The Hapsburg emperor Joseph II, trained in Enlightenment ideology, was inclined away from the ardent Catholic commitment of his mother Maria Theresa; yet as Holy Roman Emperor, he had the power to nominate bishops for approval by the cathedral chapters, and he compelled the acceptance of compliant bishops. He attempted a crash program of Enlightenment-inspired national reforms, including upon the Church. He secularized marriage, took over the seminaries, suppressed the monasteries, demoted the diocese of Passau in favor of Vienna, forbade the bishops to communicate directly with the Curia in Rome; and refused to turn back even when the Pope visited Austria.

    He also banned orchestral Masses. Paraphrased vernacular substitutes developed during that era became accepted enough as a custom to endure to this day. It's not surprising if a similar project was carried out in parts of Poland subjected to similar influence.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,500
    Growing up with these unusually "low" traditions might help explain why this Pope, who was so concerned with restoration, would let the liturgical side of things go on much as before.
  • Ralph BednarzRalph Bednarz
    Posts: 489
    The Polish language and culture create a sense of sacredness in everything so well that they are almost a de facto imprimatur and maintain a broad tolerance. Polish is linked more closely to the sacred, not political nationalism. This is how they persevered.
    JPII 's MO was to give the world a sacred culture too! A culture that just does not accept everything but refines it.
    Changing the language of the Mass from Latin to Polish was not really changing to the vernacular but from one sacred language to another. Something we could not experience with English.
  • advocatusadvocatus
    Posts: 85
    There is some evidence that the Singmesse had roots in earlier practices in Eastern Europe of singing metrical versions of the Mass Ordinary in the vernacular:
    http://www.npm.org/pastoral_music/issues/PM%20Vol%2021-3.pdf (pp. 11-15).
  • Aga
    Posts: 38
    Certainly, metrical paraphrases of Ordinarium in Polish did not appear in missals before Trent Council. It is well known that Poland has a long tradition of singing hymns in vernacular during para-liturgical services (like litanies, adorations, etc), but it is not documented that the same custom existed during the masses. During XIX century (under German and Austrian influence) there were introduced many paraphrases of Ordinarium in Polish (so called "pieśni mszalne" i.e. mass-songs), often the same melody was used for short texts prescribed for different parts of the mass (for Introit, Gloria, Credo, Offertory, Sanctus, Elevation, Agnus), texts and melodies sometime varied according to liturgical seasons.
    I do not think this compositions were popular, usually people sung hymns to Blessed Virgin Mary, Christmas songs, etc rather than paraphrased parts of Ordinarium. So, I doubt this tradition influenced directly Karol Wojtyła (John Paul II), rather - it is only my private opinion - his pastoral attitude made difficult for him to see the importance of good liturgy.
    As to sacredness of Polish language - well, it is my mother tongue which I use everyday and I do not think Poles treat it as sacred, vulgarity is rather common nowadays.
  • Ralph BednarzRalph Bednarz
    Posts: 489
    Aga: your comments are well informed! thank you. We are 2ND and third generation descendants of Poles and tend to romanticize about our culture and sometime begin to believe it.
    In regards to Trent : I was not so much referring to the actual scores but the practice of using variants having more acceptance.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    Thanks to advocatus for the link to Fr. Ruff's article (he's everywhere!); I added some material from it to the Wikipedia article on the Singmesse as historical background.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,500
    Hopefully Fr. Ruff will go back to scholarship full time soon. This kind of thing is enormously helpful.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,500
    Helpful, in a way that calling for a DERAILMENT is decidly not.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,500
    I'm taking this to be what you believe. Sorry if I misunderstood:

    "I'm concerned that he may be right on the merits: that the text worked out by ICEL and the bishops' conferences got modified at the request of Vox Clara (so he says), and that the results (a) were contrary to the stated policies that had guided the process (e.g., Liturgiam authenticam), and (b) introduced imperfections into a text that deserves to be as perfect as possible."
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    When I use expressions like "so he says", that tells you I am maintaining a prudent reserve about the narrative.

    Anyway, I'm off to sing for a Mass: ciao!
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