Chóralne wydania polskich kolęd na obczyźnie w czasach II wojny światowej
Choral Editions of Polish Christmas Carols Published Abroad during World War II

Summary/Abstract: Choirs and vocal ensembles sprang up in many places where Poles lived or stayed during the war and military occupation of Poland. It was for their needs that songbooks comprising arrangements of Polish Christmas carols for unaccompanied choir were published in exile. The present paper is dedicated to these songbooks.A Polish junior and senior high school named after Cyprian Kamil Norwid operated in 1940–46 at Villard-de-Lans near Grenoble. For the needs of the school choir, led by mathematician Ernest Berger (1904–58), the school’s director, his edition of ‘Zbiór pieśni kościelnych’ [A collection of church songs] was published in 1941 at Villard de Lans.Rudolf Rygiel (1910–86), a soldier in the 1939 Polish defensive war, reached France in 1940, where he became an active member of the resistance movement, as well as working as a conductor and composer. In 1941 he published the third fascicle of ‘Echo ojczyste’ [Fatherland echo], which comprised twenty-three carols for male unaccompanied choir.The Polish Army Choir, one of the main Polish ensembles in the UK, founded in 1940, collaborated with, among others, Henryk Hosowicz (1910–69), who published for the needs of this ensemble two collections of Christmas carols for 4-part male unaccompanied choir: ‘16 kolęd’ [16 carols] (1940) and ‘50 kolęd’ [50 carols] (1942). An extensive ‘Zbiór pieśni polskich’ [Collection of Polish songs] (ed. Juliusz Leo, 1901–62) was published in 1944 in Jerusalem under the imprint of the Polish Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education (in exile). It contains 180 works: 150 secular and 30 sacred pieces. In December 1945 the Second Polish Corps publishing section printed a collection of carols for male unaccompanied choir in pre-war arrangements by Kazimierz Garbusiński and Gerard Płachetko. Second lieutenant Feliks Kapała (b. 1909), veteran of the Battle of the Bzura and subsequently a POW at Oflag VIIA Murnau, is the author of ‘Kolędy polskie’ [Polish carols] (1945), a set of 25 variously scored carols. Composer Szymon Laks (1901–83), an Auschwitz prisoner during the war, had his ‘Pięć kolęd’ [Five carols] published, already after World War II, by the Union of Polish Music and Theatre Clubs in France.My discussion of the above-listed choral editions of Christmas carols is a contribution to the history of Polish music traditions.

• Details
• Contents