Singing Gatherings • Lenten Songs

We invite you to a series of singing gatherings devoted to traditional Lenten songs. Passion songs are a pearl of Polish culture — singing together is a wonderful and most natural way to get to know them.

• The meetings are open – we welcome everyone, regardless of singing ability.
• We will sing together texts and melodies provided by the leaders; sometimes we will work with archival recordings of village singers. We will focus on melodic variants from Gałki near Rusinów and Zdzisławice in Roztocze.
• Old Lenten songs are today preserved by the oldest generation of rural singers and transmitted orally; they appear in dozens of variants, often differing between villages.
• These pieces were not the work of anonymous peasants but of the most outstanding poets and composers of the Polish Baroque, Renaissance and Enlightenment. They initially reached churches and manors, and then the countryside, where centuries of performance practice transformed them into local variants.
• Today, when there is no place for old Lenten songs in the church, we want to find a new space for them — this is not only a religious dimension, but also a unique fragment of Polish culture worth practicing and saving from oblivion.

Admission and registration:

• The cycle will consist of 5 meetings – the cost for all: 200 zł. Single meeting: 50 zł.
• REGISTRATION

Organizers:

• Witek Wojciechowski
• Antek Hasso-Agopsowicz

Organizational information:

• The Embassy of Traditional Music is supported by donations from patrons and the work of volunteers. Help the Embassy operate – support it too.
• The house No. 3/20 at Jazdów Street is used for cultural and social purposes by the “Dom Tańca” Association thanks to the support of the Capital City of Warsaw – Śródmieście District.