Kolęda – Christmas Carol – originally a joyful New Year’s song, which today has generally adopted the form of a Christmas song (referring to Christmas). Most often it is kept in a religious convention, initially derived from the folk tradition, later it is also composed by many eminent composers. The variety of a carol with threads taken from everyday life is called a pastoral, which, unlike a carol in the contemporary colloquial meaning of the word, is not used in Christian religious services due to its secular nature
This term is also used to describe a folk rite related to the Slavic Mating Festival, and then to Christmas, consisting of the celebration of carolers by carolers.
Every year in Poland there are numerous reviews and carol festivals, the largest of which, gathering several dozen thousand performers, is the National Festival of Christmas Carols and Pastorales in Będzin.
A little of History
The oldest preserved Polish Christmas carol, dating from 1424, begins with the words Zdrów be, king of the angel. Originally, at the beginning of the 15th century, Christmas carols from Latin and the songbooks of the Czech brothers were translated into Polish. The genre’s popularity grew at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries when the term Christmas carol was established in the sense of a Christmas song. At that time, one of the most important Polish Christmas carols was created, In the manger Lies, attributed to Piotr Skarga – to the melody of the coronation polonaise of King Władysław IV. Another very popular Christmas carol, God is born, to a melody in the rhythm of a polonaise, was written by Franciszek Karpiński. The authors of Christmas carols were also, among others, Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński and Andrzej Morsztyn, in the 19th century Zygmunt Noskowski, and at the beginning of the 20th century – Feliks Nowowiejski. The carol Lulajże, Jezuniu Fryderyk Chopin quoted in the middle part of the Scherzo in B minor, Op. 20. Witold Lutosławski composed contemporary carols.
There are over five hundred Christmas carols and pastorales in the Polish cultural heritage. In the nineteenth century, the collection of Christmas carols and pastorales began on a larger scale, and the reference point is the collection of Pastorales and Christmas carols with melodies published in 1843, i.e., songs that are happy of the people during Christmas, sung at home by priest Michał Mioduszewski.
Today, carols are still performed in folk practice in villages during the Christmas and Wedding periods, and churches, schools, during nativity plays, and in homes during Christmas Eve. Polish Christmas carols, as one of the few in Europe, are a living element of the so-called caroling around houses.
New Christmas carols are also created, composed by contemporary artists whose popularity rivals that of traditional carols, such as the 1930s Christmas carols.
In their stage practice, they perform carol programs and release albums by stylized folklore groups: Mazowsze, Śląsk; choirs, e.g., Poznań Nightingales, as well as performers of various musical genres.
Even though we all know and love all of the American Christmas songs there is a huge tradition in Poland, of the traditional, and more religious sounding Carrols. You can call it old-fashioned, but they are part of our traditions and upbringing. They are a lot more religious, with a much serious tone. No matter that I live so far away from my home in Poland, I still like to listen to them around Christmas time.
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„Adeste Fideles”
(Latin: Come the Faithful) – a medieval Catholic hymn for the Christmas season by an unknown author.
The only certain information about the song’s origin is the name and surname of the copyist who wrote down the text and melody of a popular Irish song – Sir John Francis Wade (1711-1786). This author made a copy of the hymn between 1743-1744 for the Catholic choir in Douai in the north of France (Nord-Pas-de-Calais Region). In the 18th century, Catholics persecuted by Protestants in the British Isles took refuge in the town.
This hymn has been translated into many languages and is one of the most popular and famous Christmas carols in the world. The English version, O come all ye faithful, is most often performed alongside the original.
John Francis Wade is believed to be the author of the music for this carol, but there are also opinions that its author could have been John Reading or his son, or even Handel or the Portuguese composer Marcos Antonio da Fonesca. The fact is that in the years of this Christmas carol’s creation, many similar musical themes were encountered around the world. The oldest surviving manuscript of John Francis Wade contains both sheet music and text. It was published in 1760.
„Anioł pasterzom mówił”
One of the famous Polish Christmas carols. The words come from the 16th century; they are a translation of a fragment of a Latin medieval piece for Christmas Dies est laetitiae (Angelus pastoribus). In the Kórnik manuscript (1551–1555) there are seven stanzas without notation of a melody.
The melody has been preserved in the organ tabs from the second half of the 17th century. Only Mioduszewski included the exact sheet music in his collection Church Songbook, i.e., devotional songs with melodies used in the Catholic Church in 1838.
„Bóg się rodzi, moc truchleje”
A song about the Lord’s Birth – a piece by Franciszek Karpiński, popularly known as “God is born”, sometimes called the queen of Polish Christmas carols.
The text of the song was written in Dubiecko on the San, at the request of Duchess Izabela Lubomirska née Czartoryska (1736–1816). The carol, along with other pieces that make up Pious Songs, was first performed in 1792 in the Old Parish Church in Białystok. In the same year, she and other “Pious Songs” were published in the first edition in the monastery. Basilians in Supraśl.
The song consists of five stanzas, each with eight eight-syllable verses. A piece so serious in content significantly distinguished it from the then-popular folk carols. The author managed to combine the sublime with the everyday.
„Cicha noc”
One of the most famous Christmas carols in the world was first performed during the Midnight Mass in 1818 in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. The words of Stille Nacht were written by Joseph Mohr, Franz Xaver Gruber composed the melody. The words of one of the versions in Polish were composed around 1930 by Piotr Maszyński.
It has been translated into over three hundred different languages and dialects
Stille-Nacht-Kapelle (Chapel of Silent Night) in Oberndorf near Salzburg
The text of the song was written as a poem as early as 1816. The poem’s author, Joseph Mohr, was then (1815-1817) a vicar in Mariapfarr in the Lungau region (south-eastern part of Salzburg).
The melody was written two years later, on December 24, 1818. Joseph Mohr, in the years 1817–1819 vicar in the newly established parish of St. Nicholas in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, asked Franz Gruber to write music for his poem. From 1807 to 1829, Franz Gruber was a church teacher and organist in Arnsdorf, and from 1816 to 1829 he was also an organist in the new parish in nearby Oberndorf bei Salzburg. The composition was to be for two solo voices with choir and guitar accompaniment. It is believed that the church in Oberndorf bei Salzburg had only an old, defective positive and therefore a song with a guitar accompaniment was needed. It was written in the key of D major, in 6/8 time.
The song was performed on the same day during the Midnight Mass. Mohr sang the tenor part and played the guitar, Gruber played the bass part. Gruber described the carol as a “simple composition” and did not attach any particular importance to it.
The people of Oberndorf bei Salzburg liked the carol and it was soon also known in the area. This is evidenced by the preserved copies of the songs (the oldest from 1822 from Salzburg). However, they do not provide the names of the authors. The royal court band in Berlin got interested in the song, which in 1854 sent a question to Salzburg about the composer of the carol. On December 30, 1854, Franz Gruber described the circumstances of the work’s creation. In its native Salzburg, the Christmas carol was not included in the official church song until 1866.
Gruber’s original sheet music from December 24, 1818, is lost, as is the next one, from around 1830, for two solo voices, choir, and organ.
The church songbook by Blasius Wimmer (organist and teacher from Waidring in Tirol), in which the song “Silent Night” was recorded on July 22, 1819, and consisting of seven stanzas, was also lost.
„Dzisiaj w Betlejem”
Polish Christmas carol. The author of the words and the melodies are unknown. Its text can be found in the songbook of Fr. Siedlecki from 1878.
Based on this carol, numerous occasional pieces were written, incl. the so-called patriotic carols, like one of the songs of December 1970 on the coast.
The Protestant version of the carol is called Today in Bethlehem and its text is included in the last few editions of the Pilgrim Songbook (and earlier in the songbook Harp Zionska, Wydawn. Społeczności Christjańska in Cieszyn, 1958).
A carol with similar melodies and text also exists in the Ukrainian and Belarusian tradition under the title “Небо і земля нині торжествують” (Nebo I zemlia nyni torżestwujut).
„Gdy się Chrystus rodzi”
The modern melody in some sources is referred to as Old French. The printed text can be found in Pastorałki and Christmas carols with melodies by Fr. Michał Mioduszewski from 1843. The song is printed in contemporary collections of church songs and songbooks used in both Catholic and Protestant liturgy. The Latin translation of the Christmas carol When Christ is born is known by the Polish Latinist Ryszard Ganszyniec – Nascitur cum Christus, German translation Als die Welt verloren translated by Gustaw Kucz, and Swedish Nu har Kristus kommit translated by Sven-Erik Pernler.
„Gdy śliczna Panna”
Polish Christmas carol. The author of the words and the melody is unknown. The words and the melody date from the beginning of the 18th century. It was often included in 18th-century manuscripts, and later in 19th-century prints. This song was very popular in its time, especially in female monasteries. The oldest surviving manuscript from the beginning of the 18th century is in the collection of the Jagiellonian Library.
„Lulajże, Jezuniu”
A Polish carol in the form of a lullaby, most probably written in the second half of the 17th century.
The earliest surviving version of the text comes from a collection from 1705, kept in the Archdiocese Archives in Poznań. The carol’s text is also recorded in, among others, in the manuscripts kept in the Benedictine nunnery in Staniątki: two Gąsiorowska cantionals from 1754 and 1758 and the so-called Kiernicka’s cantionale from 1754 (the carol itself was dated there in 1738). It was also included in two 18th-century handwritten Franciscan cantionals and one Carmelite nuns’ manuscript from the end of the 18th century with the second part of Chybiński’s canticle. The text of the carol was published in print by the Szlichtynów publishing house in the collection of kantyczki, first in 1767 and then in 1785.
The notation of the melody Lulajże, Jezuniu, slightly different from today’s, appeared in print in the anthology of Fr. Michał Marcin Mioduszewski Fri. Pastorales and Christmas carols with melodies, that is, songs that are happy of the people during Christmas, sung around the houses and collected by X. M. M. M.
The Christmas Carol was an inspiration for many artists, incl. Fryderyk Chopin used her motif in the middle of his Scherzo in B minor, Op. 20. The quotation from the carol also appeared in Jacek Kaczmarski’s piece Christmas Eve in Siberia. In the third act of Bethlehem by Polish Lucjan Rydel, the choir of angels sings Lulajże, Jezuniu.
The Christmas carol Lulajże, Jezuniu is associated with Polishness, so new, patriotic texts were often composed to its melodies in connection with current events. There are, among others its legionary version by Ludwik Markowski or a modification of Kajetan Sawczuk, Podlasie poet and independence activist, inspired by the school strike in Września.
The Christmas carol Lulajże, Jezuniu is also known outside Poland. In France it was translated into Nuit de lumière.
„Przybieżeli do Betlejem”
Polish Christmas carol from the 17th century.
The text of the carol appeared in Jan Żabczyc’s “Angelic Symphonies” (1631) as the thirty-first symphony. In terms of the rhythm of the text, it differed from the modern version, there was no part (refrain) starting with the words “Glory …”. On the other hand, the last word of each stanza was repeated four times: for example, on the leura, on the leura, on the leura.
Żabczyc did not include the melody for the carol, temporarily proposing the notes of ordinary dances in Poland, i.e., in the case of this carol, the melody “Otóż Tobie, Pani mother” or “Otóż Tobie war, girl”. None of these melodies survived in the notation.
Over the centuries, the carol has undergone numerous changes, therefore its current shape differs from the original. The melody underwent certain modifications, as evidenced by the quotation of a fragment of the melody of this carol in the 18th-century Christmas instrumental piece Symphonia de Nativitate (1759).
The text, including the melody, appeared for the first time in a publication by Fr. M. Mioduszewski in 1843 the collection “Pastorals and Christmas carols with melodies”. The current entry in the church was included in the “Songbird” by Fr. Jan Siedlecki from 1878.
„Słuchaj, brzmi aniołów pieśń”
Hear, sounds the angels a song or hear! Hark! The Herald Angels Sing is already a popular English carol. The text was composed by one of the founders of the Methodist Church, Charles Wesley. It was first published by Pastor Wesley in his collection: Hymns and Sacred Poems in 1739. The original beginning was “Hark! how all the welkin rings ”. Today’s version is the result of many changes. One of the versions of “Hark! How all the welkin rings ”was sung with the same melody as that of the Scottish hymn, Miracle of God, composed in 1772. In the 18th century, many hymns only existed as lyrics without melodies, so hark … was sung to many melodies. Wesley himself recommended that it be sung to the same tune as his other Easter-themed hymn: Christ the Lord rises today. In the nineteenth century, the carol began to be sung to a melody by Felix Mendelssohn, taken from his composition Festgesang WoO 9 from 1840 (part 2, song Vaterland, in deinen Gauen). Currently, it is the only melody used in practice (it can be heard, among others, in several films).
„Tryumfy Króla Niebieskiego”
Polish Christmas carol was created in the middle of the 18th century. The oldest record of the text and the melody was made by Anna Kiernicka from the Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters and is in the cantionale from 1754. The text of the carol was published by Fr. Michał Marcin Mioduszewski in the Church Songbook in 1853, while the melody is recorded in the Songbook containing church songs by Rev. Jan Siedlecki published in Krakow in 1879.
„W żłobie leży”
One of the very popular Polish Christmas carols, created in the 17th or 18th century.
It is probably the work of the famous royal preacher, Piotr Skarga, and its melody refers to the coronation polonaise of Władysław IV Vasa.
The Christmas Carol consists of four stanzas with separate choruses. The first stanza asks who will come to Jesus Christ lying in the manger, while in the chorus the lyrical subject calls the shepherds to come and play for our Lord. The second stanza with the refrain announces the following of the shepherds of all people who also want to console the weeping Jesus. In the third stanza, emboldened by the presence of angels, all the people at the manger can praise God born in the form of a Child. In the fourth stanza, we greet Jesus and believe that thanks to our love, he was born in a poor stable.
„Wśród nocnej ciszy”
Polish Christmas carol was created at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. It was first published in 1853 in an appendix to the Church Songbook by Fr. Michał Marcin Mioduszewski, who dedicated it to singing mass. It was already widely known at the beginning of the 19th century. It was usually sung right after the Song of the Angels, which started it.
In the nineteenth century, the carol was reworked many times, and patriotic songs were sung to its melody.
“Jezus malusieńki”
Little Jesus. Another very popular Polish religious song, an anonymous pastoral, was sung during the church’s Christmas season.
The origin of the work is difficult to determine due to the substantial number of variants of the text. The text is missing from the printed 18th-century song collections. It appears in 18th-century manuscripts from the convents of Carmelite nuns from Kraków (Kantyczki Karmelitańskie) and Benedictine nuns from Staniątki. The unprinted text is called Kommizeracyja and has 12-13 stanzas. The text printed in Michał Mioduszewski’s songbook Pastorałki and Christmas carols from 1843 hardly differs from the carols performed today. There is a well-known Latin translation of the Christmas carol Jesus tiny by the Polish Latinist Ryszard Ganszyniec – Jesus Minimulus”.
“Mizerna Cicha”
Poor, quiet. A Polish Christmas carol, the words of which were written by Teofil Lenartowicz. The text of the carol was first published in Szopka in 1849. The original melody was written by Fr. Jakub Wrzeciono, but the most famous version is Jan Gall’s. The original text consisted of eleven stanzas.
“Mędrcy świata, monarchowie”
Wise men of the world, monarchs – a Polish Christmas carol, the sources of which date back to the 17th century. The content of the carol refers to an event from the childhood of Jesus Christ, described by Saint Matthew (Matthew 2: 1-12).
The words were written by Stefan Bortkiewicz, the melody was composed by Fr. Zygmunt Odelgiewicz (1820–1899).
“Pójdźmy wszyscy do stajenki”
Let us go all the stable. A Polish Christmas carol, the origins of which date back to the 17th century.
The text of this carol comes from the 18th century and the melody from the 19th century. It has a marching character. We know the verse fourteen text with a different melody recorded in the Carmelite cantines from the 18th century. The author is unknown.
