Studia Pastoralne
Rocznik Wydziału Teologicznego UŚ

The role and meaning of ecclesial songs in making musical culture in parish community more widespread
Summary
Musical tradition of a whole church is invaluable, dominating over other artistic forms, mainly because church singing is connected withwords (lyrics) and is an integral part of a solemn liturgy. Sacral music has evaluated together with the whole Roman Catholic Church for over two thousand years. To enhance the effectiveness of prayers and liturgic activitives an emotional state of its faithful is essential and a perfect goal to achieve it is to choose a suitable music. Polish dictionary defines culture as a whole achievement of humanity created in historic development or in one particular epoch. In modern ethnology and anthropology as a main factor making a culture is human activity in a general context. Ecclesial song appeared in Poland onlywhen chorale stopped being considered as an elite phenomenon. It was then that the lower classes started to participate actively in a church mess and ecclesial music gained a huge popularity. Singing in Polish slowly and with difficulty made its way to a liturgy. Parishes, running different forms of cultural education, should provide for their believers’ needs, by professional preparations for liturgy where music and singing is an integral and inseparable part.

THE TEXT AND MUSICAL OVERTONE OF PENITENTIAL PSALM NO. 51 IN POLISH RELIGIOUS SONGS
In the reservoir of prayers and church songs, Psalm 51, briefly titled The Miserere Psalm or "Prayer of Repentance", has the role of being the most important and popular penitential psalm. Among the many translations of this psalm special meaning was given by the poetic paraphrase of Franciszek Karpiński, which begins with the verse: Bądź mi litościw, Boże nieskończony ("Have mercy on me, O God"). In the last two centuries many melodies were composed for this translation. The melody, published for the first time in 1878 in Krakow in the Śpiewniczek of Rev. Jan Siedlecki, gained a prominent place in songbooks and in oral tradition. Since then, this melody has, with minor changes, been consistently reprinted several times up to the present. The free translation of The Miserere Psalm was also used for a few other songs of penitential character. Among them are psalm songs which in structure and melodic pattern are based on Gregorian psalm tones. The main theological value of the teaching contained in Psalm 51 consists not only in its penitential character. This Psalm also expresses a trustful prayer for forgiveness and beseeches God's help in conversion.

ADAPTATIONS POLONAISES DE L’HYMNE AU SAINT ESPRIT.
Résumé
L’invocation au Saint Esprit – Seigneur et Donneur de Vie est présente de manière particulière depuis le Moyen Âge dans l’hymne liturgique Veni Creator. Dans des recueils de prières et de chants polonais mais aussi dans des discours poétiques on retrouve de nombreuses paraphrases de cet hymne, soit les paraphrases du texte soit celles de la musique. Au début c’étaient des adaptations assez fideles de nouveaux textes adaptés a la mélodie grégorienne, bien répandue dans la tradition des chants d’église en Pologne. Ensuite on cherchait progressivement a traiter avec un peu plus de liberté le texte latin et la mélodie du chant grégorien. Les oeuvres méritant notre attention particuliere sont les élaborations mélodiques du Chant du Saint Esprit de Franciszek Karpiński appartenant a son recueil Chants Pieux de 1792 mais aussi l’introduction d’une nouvelle traduction de l’hymne avec l’incipit: Viens Esprit Créateur. Dans la nouvelle Liturgie des Heures post-conciliaire on retrouve une traduction assez fidele de l’hymne: O, Esprit Créateur, viens! Ce texte adapté a la mélodie grégorienne est devenu une partie intégrale des recueils de chants, de rites et d’autres livres liturgiques. En Silésie il existe une tradition du chant hymnique Viens Esprit Créateur interprété lors des occasions et cérémonies différentes.
Mots clés: chant d’église, compréhension du chant, l’hymne Veni Creator

TRADITION OF SINGING BEFORE AND AFTER A SERMON IN COLLECTIONS OF CHURCH HYMNS IN UPPER SILESIA IN THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY.
Summary
The songs related to the proclamation of the word of God belong to the oldest ones in the Polish language and form a group of so-called „sermon songs”. They were helpful in the active participation in the liturgy of the Eucharist when it was celebrated in Latin. Especially in the XIX and XX centuries, the tradition of their performance, in and out of the liturgy, was very alive also in Silesia. The old Polish sources of Church songs show an extensive collection of songs intended to be sung before and after a sermon. In the actual repertory of Church songs there are more than a dozen of them. Regarding the theological content of these songs sung before the sermon are the beseeching prayers for the light of the Holy Spirit and God’s wisdom for the preacher and listeners. When they are sung after the sermon, they are a begging for God’s help for the fulfillment of the teaching. Nowadays, the importance of these songs is decreasing and this process is related to the Second Vatican Council’s liturgical reform which underlines the function of the homily and the continuity of the Liturgy of the Word. However, in these circumstances it seems to be still possible to maintain the tradition of singing and imploring the grace of the Holy Spirit.