Dembołęcki, Wojciech (EN)

Dembołęcki, Dębołęcki, Dembolencius Wojciech, *1585/86 (?) Konojady (near Brodnica), †ca. 1646, Polish preacher, man of letters and musician, OFM.  In 1598 he joined the Franciscan order in Krakow, took his vows in 1603, and from 1605 resided in Opole, where he was ordained a priest in 1611/12 (?). In 1615 he served as a preacher in Kalisz; in 1616 he was active in Lviv, notably as a kapellmeister. There, for the Franciscan general chapter, he prepared a musical setting of Benedictio Mensae, which was published in Toruń. In 1617, he was the guardian and custodian of the monastery in Chełmno; it is believed that at the end of 1617, he left for Rome via Venice to study theology. In Venice in 1617, he published Completorium Romanum. On his way back from Rome to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in 1619, he co-organised the Association of Christian Soldiers in Olomouc to ransom prisoners from Muslim captivity. In 1621–22, he was chaplain to the Lisowczyks. From 1623 to 1625, he stayed in Rome, where he first obtained a bachelor’s degree and then a doctorate in theology. In 1625, he was the provincial of the Polish Franciscans for less than a month, then in 1626 he moved to the Ruthenian province of the order and became the guardian in Kamieniec Podolski and the commissioner for the ransom of prisoners. In 1630–32, he stayed in Rome again; after his return, he continued to work in the Ruthenian province, serving, among other roles, as a preacher in Lviv. 

In his small surviving oeuvre, Dembołęcki employs polyphonic techniques, essentially respecting the principles of the Roman school, but not without Venetian influences (which manifest themselves, among other things, in the introduction of uneven metre for words denoting joy). The melodic material is drawn from Gregorian chant, treated either as a long- or equal-note cantus firmus or introduced into different voices. In the incompletely preserved Completorium romanum (with the Cantus and Bassus parts missing), Dembolecki was, after J. Brant, one of the first in Poland to use figured basso continuo of the basso seguente type. Feicht attributes to him the distinction of being the first to employ the modern C time signature on a wide scale in Polish sacred music. Dembołęcki’s output must have been greater, as attested by the titles of works listed in Franciscan music inventories from the second half of the 17th century.

Literature: H. Feicht W. Dębołęcki, kompozytor religijny z pierwszej połowy XVII wieku, Lviv 1926; Bibliografia literatury polskiej «Nowy Korbut», vol. 2, Warsaw 1964 (includes a list of works and bibliography); R. Sztyber “Skądże to zbłaźnienie świata?” Wojciecha Dembołęckiego “Wywód jedynowłasnego państwa świata” (studium monograficzne i edycja krytyczna), Zielona Góra 2012; A. Dacewicz Franciszkańskie inwentarze muzyczne z II połowy XVII wieku, “W Nurcie Franciszkańskim” 2012 No. 19.