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В‘MYSTICAL SPACEВ’ IN PAWEL LUKASZEWSKIВ’ SACRAL MUSIC

K. Szymanska-Stulka

Abstract

Pawel Lukaszewski (Polish composer born in 1968) [1] belongs to the leaders of contemporary choir and religious music. His music is widely known not only in Poland but also abroad. It gained special recognition in Britain, where prestigious vocal ensembles perform it regularly. This music can be treated as the area of a special sounds space evoking the mystical space. Mystical space is built here upon the modern musical language using the elements of musical drama. This music also refers to the forms known form the Renaissance period and developed to the later sacral music in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries. In my paper, I discuss the idea of mystical space in music with regard to Pawel LukaszewskiВ’s composition Luctus Mariae [Zalosc Maryi, The grief of Mary] for soprano, mezzo-soprano, harpsichord and string orchestra written in 2010, published in 2013 and recorded on CD in 2017. The theoretical background of my study goes from the concept of mystical visions in humanities related to music. I describe the mystical space of Luctus Mariae in connection with composerВ’s comments about the work. The second perspective is the theatre concept in music, developed from the 17th and the 18th centuries in madrigals and oratorioВ’s tradition in Italy. It is also found in Luctus Mariae as PergolesiВ’s Stabat Mater inspired the work. In LukaszewskiВ’s composition, the mystical or also human space is created by a specific combination of vocal and instrumental layers, the religious text and the sacral meaning as well as the contemplative musical narration. In the textual layer, the musical piece relates to the sequence Stabat Mater dolorosa from the 13th century. Stabat Mater became popular as the late medieval sequence and hymn sung in its monodic form in the Lent Period of the Roman Catholic Church. In the textual sphere, Luctus Mariae refers to Stabat Mater but possible relations appear in a new form as the poem Luctus Mariae is a contemporary work. Some patterns of the 18th century stage music may be seen in the compositionВ’s background. A kind of imitations and neo-rhetorical figures appear here. But above all, modern forms of expressions like expanded tonality, combinations of voices and non regular rhythmical structure in instruments layers are involved in the work. The musical theatreВ’s convention with its origins of the late madrigal style can be classified in the following areas: dramatic content of the text regarding the contemplation of the St. Mary's grief, stage component of music and text, display of musicians, musical action and the specificity of the air/aura of the mystical space.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/SWS.ISCAH.2019.2/S07.041

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