Walenty z Brzozowa (EN)

Walenty z Brzozowa, *Brzozów (?) near Krosno, †ca. 1570, Polish Reformation activist, clergyman of the Czech Brethren; the approximate date of his death is repeated in the literature after E. Oloff. Inspired by the publisher, A. Augezdecki, Walenty translated the texts of songs from a Czech hymnal published by J. Roh: Písně chval božských…, Prague 1541. The publication was titled Cantional albo Książy chwał Boskych, to iest Pieśni Duchowne…, Königsberg 1554, and is dedicated by the publisher to King Sigismund Augustus. The translation is rich in Czechisms and errors in the contemporary Polish, and the literature suggests the translator’s Czech origins. The next two editions of the hymnal (1569 and 1611) were thoroughly revised. The Polish version of the collection differs from the Czech in terms of its detailed content. It includes 448 translations in which Walenty carefully preserved the form of the poems so that the melodies (292, not counting repetitions in different texts) could be repeated from the original without any changes; even their spelling in Gothic neumatic notation and nota quadrata or mensural black and white was preserved.

Literature: E. Oloff Polnische Liedergeschichte von Polnischen Kirchengesängen und derselbern Dichtern und Ubersetzern, Gdańsk 1744; L. Witkowski Kancjonał polski Walentego z Brzozowa wobec kancjonału czeskiego Jana Roha, «Zeszyty Nauk. Uniwersytetu M. Kopernika w Toruniu. Nauki Humanistyczno-Społeczne», book 1, 1957; P. Poźniak Polska „Stabat Mater” z połowy XVI wieku i dzieje jej melodii, in: Karol Szymanowski w perspektywie kultury muzycznej przeszłości i współczesności, ed. Z. Skowron, Kraków 2007.