Reconstructing the Text of the Song ‘Słuchaj, co żywo’ from the Kražiai Organ Tablature

Tomasz Jasiński

Abstract

Reconstructed in this article is the verbal component of the anonymous three-part song 'Słuchaj co żywo’ (‘Hark with all haste’), found without text in the seventeenth-century organ tablature from Kražiai, which has been published in facsimile form as part of the source edition series ‘Fontes Musicae in Polonia’ (Warsaw 2017). The song identifed as the basis for this piece is 'O Przyjściu Chrystusowym na Sąd' (‘On Christ’s coming to judgment’), with the incipit ‘Słuchaj, co żywo, sądu straszliwego’ (‘Hark with all haste to the terrible judgment’), included in Krzysztof Haberkant’s 'Nowo wydany Kancyonał Pruski' (‘Newly published Prussian songbook’) (Königsberg 1741, reissued there in 1772). Apart from presenting a transcription of the song and reconstructing its text, I discuss who could have written this composition, suggesting its potential attribution to Adam of Wągrowiec (d. 1629). Regardless of whether the composer’s identity will ever be established, it should be emphasised that thanks to the text reconstruction this previously unknown polyphonic song in the vernacular can now be added to the Old Polish repertoire, thus expanding the rather meagre collection of three-part songs with Polish texts.