Calvarian Singing in the Written and Oral Tradition in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska and Kalwaria Pacławska in the Context of Their Perception in Selected Parishes of South-Eastern Poland

Abstract

The aim of this article is to characterise the Calvarian singing in the written and oral tradition in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska and Kalwaria Pacławska in the context of their perception in selected parishes of south-eastern Poland. Pilgrimages to these Calvaries fostered the development of local singing. A comparative analysis has shown that, by coming into contact with the distinctiveness of pilgrimage performances, local singing became susceptible to their influence, and thanks to the perception of those believers visiting the Calvaries, such local singing spread to other regions of the country. The repertoire practised by pilgrims in their parishes was combined with local religious songs, becoming known as “Calvarian singing,” with rich melodies and content (we can also find contrafacta among them). The audio collection of the Music Archive of Religious Folklore of KUL contains recordings of 47 incipits of Calvarian singing from south-eastern Poland. Research has proved that, as a documented oral tradition, they show a variability (i.e. various types of transformations of their songbook notations) which is often regionally determined. Calvarian songbooks confirm the coexistence of written and oral traditions. It has been shown that songbook notation is identical to the oral tradition and it is merely a printed source functioning in parallel with the practice of this repertoire.