Kochanowski, Jan (EN)

Kochanowski Jan, *1530 Sycyna (Radom region), †22 August 1584 Lublin, Polish poet. He studied at the Kraków Academy and at the universities in Königsberg and Padua. He stayed in Italy three times and also visited France, where he came into contact with P. Ronsard. In the 1560s he became secretary to King Sigismund Augustus, and later, having abandoned active court service, settled in Czarnolas. The greatest poet of the Polish Renaissance, creator of the Polish poetic language („I wdarłem się na skałę pięknej Kalijopy,/ Gdzie dotychmiast nie było znaku polskiej stopy” [“I climbed the rock of fair Calliope,/ Where s no Polish foot had yet set its mark]”); author of poems (Zgoda, Szachy, Muza and others), 2 books of Pieśni (Songs) 1586, 3 books of Fraszki (Epigrams) 1584, Treny (Laments) 1580, the psalm translation Psałterz Dawidów (David’s Psalter) 1579, and Latin lyric poetry (Lyricorum libellus 1580, Elegiarum libri IV 1584, Foricoenia 1584). Kochanowski established the canon of lyric genres in Polish poetry (song, psalm, lament, epigram), created the Polish humanist tragedy (Odprawa posłów greckich [The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys] 1578), and a model of the satirical poem (Satyr 1564); he “finally crystallized strict syllabism” and “laid the foundations for Polish imitation of ancient meters and Polish syllabotonic verse” (M. Dłuska); moreover, he enriched the repertoire of forms and stanzas of Polish verse, introduced blank verse into drama (Odprawa posłów greckich, Alcestis); he continued the style of colloquial speech and the psalter-biblical style, and implanted the classical style based on Greco-Roman poetry, the style of court poetry, and the style of folk song (Pieśń świętojańska o Sobótce [Song of the Midsummer Sabbath]).

Kochanowski’s views on music were not theoretically formulated; analysis of his texts shows that his knowledge of and attitude toward music were typical of a humanist moving within a courtly milieu with a developed musical culture. Kochanowski devoted two Polish epigrams (Do Marcina, O Bekwarku) and a Latin epigram (In Bacuarum Cytharaedum) to esteemed court lutenists; he knew numerous musical instruments and vocal voice types, and also referred to the Pythagorean concept of the music of the spheres (Do Marcina: “Filozofi, co nad nas uszy lepsze mają,/ O dziwnie wdzięcznych głosiech w niebie powiadają” [Philosophers, who have better ears than we,/ speak of wondrously pleasing sounds in heaven]; Do snu). From the classical tradition derives the identification poet = Orpheus, poem = song, poetic creation, talent = lute, which takes over the role of the lyre, the attribute of the patrons of poets – Apollo, Orpheus, and Amphion. The lute, as the most popular secular instrument of the 16th century, is in Songs and Epigrams a symbol of the pleasures of life – dance, singing, entertainment, feasting (Pieśń 16 from Book 2: “Lutnia – wódz tańców i pieśni uczonych,/ Lutnia – ochłoda myśli utrapionych” [The lute – the leader of dances and learned songs,/ the lute – the solace of troubled thoughts]). In the Psalter, music and singing serve to express the glory of God (Psalms 33, 45, 47, 92, 146, 150). During Kochanowski’s lifetime, his poetry was rarely set to music, which is connected on the one hand with the mismatch between poetic and musical genres cultivated in Poland, and on the other – with the specificity of the themes he addressed (publicistic threads in poems, philosophical-moral in songs, lack of conventional and simple courtly love lyric). The diversity of strophic forms indicates that even the work most readily associated with music – the Psalter translation – was not conceived with this aim, although just a year after publication it was entirely set to music (M. Gomółka, Melodie na Psałterz polski 1580). Melodie… consists of 150 four-voice psalms, which earned Gomółka the status of one of the leading Polish composers of the 16th century. Kochanowski’s opinion of Gomółka’s psalms and the nature of their relationship are unknown; they were probably connected only through their patron, Bishop P. Myszkowski. In the 16th and 17th centuries, individual psalms and songs (Czego chcesz od nas, Panie, Przeciwne chmury) appeared in 26 hymnals, most often only with an indication of melody; polyphonic settings were rare. As religious songs, works with traditional strophic structures functioned most widely. It is known that Kochanowski’s Latin poetry was performed as secular songs (Epinicion and Epithalamion, sung by Klabon with lute accompaniment during the wedding of Jan Zamoyski and Gryzelda Batorówna in 1583). Kochanowski is also the author of a now-lost translation of Latin texts on the Passion of Christ, which were performed in church together with Polish translations of psalms even before the latter were published (J. Mańkowski, A. Skolimowska).

Kochanowski’s poetry inspired Polish composers, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries, though they usually limited themselves to individual texts or compilations of fragments: psalms – H. Jarecki, W. Żeleński, Z. Noskowski, F. Nowowiejski, W. Lachman, B. Wallek-Walewski, W. Frieman, S. Wiechowicz, K. Sikorski, T. Szeligowski, W. Rudziński, K. Penderecki, J. Świder (Psalm 8 Wszechmocny Panie for mixed choir a cappella), F. Wyka, D. Zimnicki; laments – S. Moniuszko, B. Wallek-Walewski, R. Palester, S. Prószyński, W. Rudziński, R. Twardowski, P. Moss; songs – Z. Noskowski, B. Wallek-Walewski, P. Rytel, W. Frieman, A. Kurylewicz, J. Świder, F. Wyka; epigrams – E. Pankiewicz, B. Wallek-Walewski, J. Fotek, M.P. Górecki (Gościu, siądź pod mym liściem [Traveller, come! Enter under my leaves] for mixed choir a cappella). The only larger musical forms are Pieśń świętojańska o Sobótce (A. Malawski, radio music; J. Fotek, dance performance), Odprawa posłów greckich (dramatic music by H. Jarecki, 1884, and the opera by W. Rudziński, 1962), as well as works connected with the poet himself (K. Kurpiński, comic opera Jan Kochanowski w Czarnym Lesie, 1817; M. Kucharski, Suita czarnoleska).

Literature: K. Budzyk Jan Kochanowski – twórca wersyfikacji narodowej, in: Studia z zakresu nauk pomocniczych i historii literatury, vol. 2, Wrocław 1956; M. Perz M. Gomółka. Monografia, Warsaw 1969, Kraków 21981; B. Szydłowska-Ceglowa Staropolskie nazewnictwo instrumentów muzycznych, Wrocław 1977; J. Bobrowska Kultura muzyczna w świetle literatury staropolskiej XVI i XVII wieku, “Muzyka” 1977 no. 2; W. Weintraub Rzecz czarnoleska, Krakow 1977; M. Dłuska Studia z historii i teorii wersyfikacji polskiej, 2 vols., Warsaw 21978; M. Perz Melodie na Psałterz polski M. Gomółki. Interpretacje i komentarze, Krakow 1988; J. Mańkowski, A. Skolimowska, Polskie śpiewy o Męce Pańskiej – nieznana cząstka twórczości Jana Kochanowskiego, “Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce” 1994 vol. 38.