The freemason music collection in the University Library of Poznań

Magazine édité par le LE CENTRE REGIONAL D'ETUDE FRANC - MAÇONNIQUE PARIS - BUCAREST

THE FREEMASON MUSIC COLLECTION IN

THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF POZNAn

Iuliana GRAZYNSKA

La Bibliothèque Universitaire de Poznan

Le Département de la Collection Maçonnique

Polonie

I w o u l d l i k e t o p r e s e n t a s p e c i a l p a r t o f t h e M a s o n i c C o l l e c t i o n o f t h e P o z n a n U n i v e r s i t y L i b r a r y - t h e s e c t i o n o f m u s i c p u b l i c a t i o n s . O u r v a s t c o l l e c t i o n e n c o m p a s s e s a b o u t 80.000 b o o k s , p a m p h l e t s a n d p e r i o d i c a l s . T h e p a r t o f t h e c o l l e c t i o n t h a t h a s a l r e a d y u n d e r g o n e full l i b r a r y p r e p a r a t i o n i n c l u d e s 67,000 v o l u m e s . T h e p r o c e s s o f m o d e r n i s a t i o n o f t h e M a s o n i c C o l l e c t i o n i n t h e U n i v e r s i t y o f P o z n a n s t a r t e d i n y e a r 2000, b y c a t a l o g u i n g t h e v o l u m e s i n t h e H o r i z o n P r o g r a m m e . A m o n g t h e p r e c i o u s v o l u m e s , t h e r e a r e h u n d r e d s o f m u s i c s c o r e s a n d t e x t s r e w r i t t e n a n d p r i n t e d . G e n e r a l l y , t h e t e x t s a r e i n G e r m a n a n d m o s t o f t h e m h a v e n o t b e e n p r o c e s s e d y e t . O n t h e o c c a s i o n o f t h e A M M L A C o n g r e s s i n 2014, h a v i n g t h e M a s o n i c B o o k C o l l e c t i o n o f t h e U n i v e r s i t y L i b r a r y as r e f e r e n c e basis, o u r c o l l e a g u e , t h e m u s i c o l o g i s t A n d r z e j J a z d o n s e l e c t e d a series o f t e x t s i n G e r m a n , English, a n d F r e n c h as w e l l as several s c o r e s for a g r a n d c o n c e r t o f M a s o n i c m u s i c w h i c h w a s i n t e r p r e t e d e x q u i s i t e l y b y t h e m u s i c g r o u p Nemrod, f r o m P o z n a n , s p e c i a l i z i n g i n 18th a n d

19th c e n t u r y h u n t i n g m u s i c (five i n s t r u m e n t s a n d five a m a z i n g v o i c e s ) . As a c o n s e q u e n c e o f t h a t

fascinating c o n c e r t , t h e r e a r o s e t h e i n t e r e s t for c o l l e c t i n g Polish t e x t s a n d s c o r e s w h i c h w o u l d c o n t r i b u t e t o t h e r e v i v a l o f t h i s t y p e o f m u s i c . As a r e s u l t , w e m a n a g e d t o a q u i r e t h e b o o k s w e h a v e b e e n s e e k i n g for a l o n g t i m e :

O n e o f t h e m it w a s Frank-massonia mezczyzn i kobiet symboliczna. It is a t r a n s l a t i o n i n Polish o f t h e b o o k Religious Ceremonies and Customs e d i t e d i n Paris i n 1809 ( o r i g i n a l t i t l e C e r e m o n i e s e t c o u t u m e s r e l i g i e u s e s ) . T h e b o o k tells u s a b o u t t h e r i t u a l s d u r i n g t h e i n i t i a t i o n p r o c e s s e s , a b o u t d i f f e r e r e n t c e r e m o n i e s a n d b a n q u e t s b o t h in t h e m a l e a n d t h e female l o d g e s b u t also r e g a r d i n g t h e i m p o r t a n c e o f m u s i c a t l o d g e m e e t i n g s . T h e t e x t is h i g h l y i m p o r t a n t for t h e Polish M a s o n i c h i s t o r i a n s a n d t h e e d i t i o n w a s a c t u a l l y o u t o f p r i n t a t t h e v e r y t i m e o f its p u b l i c a t i o n i n 1820-1830. T h e s e c o n d r e p r i n t is a c o l l e c t i o n o f lyrics f r o m p o l i s h l o d g e s s o n g s a c c o m p l i s h e d w i t h t h e h e l p o f t h e N a t i o n a l L i b r a r y i n W a r s a w a n d o f t h e J a g i e l l o n i a n L i b r a r y i n K r a k o w . T h e t i t l e o f t h e b o o k is Piesnik wolnomularski. Edited in 1818 by Tadeusz

Wolanski. This is a n e x a m p l e o f significant E u r o p e a n c u l t u r e .

This p u b l i c a t i o n is e x t r e m e l y i n t e r e s t i n g r e g a r d i n g t h e i m p o r t a n c e o f m u s i c i n t h e m e e t i n g s o f t h e l o d g e s b e c a u s e it r e p r e s e n t s a b a s i c r e s o u r c e for t h e k n o w l e d g e . T h e t e x t w a s also o u t o f p r i n t a t t h e v e r y t i m e o f its p u b l i c a t i o n i n 1818. It w a s u n a v a i l a b l e e v e n i n a u c t i o n s . T h e U n i v e r s i t y L i b r a r y i n P o z n a n c o m m i s s i o n e d t h e U n i v e r s i t y L i b r a r y i n W a r s a w t o s c a n t h i s v o l u m e . D u r i n g t h e p r e p a r a t i o n o f t h e r e p r i n t , t h e c o p y p r o v e d t o h a v e missing p a g e s a n d w e e x t e n d e d o u r r e s e a r c h . T h a n k s t o o u r c o l l e a g u e s a t t h e J a g i e l l o n i a n U n i v e r s i t y L i b r a r y i n K r a k o w , w h e r e a n o t h e r c o p y w a s d e p o s i t e d , w e m a n a g e d t o r e c e i v e a scan o f t h o s e p a g e s . This w a y , t h e D e p a r t m e n t for D i g i t a l i s a t i o n i n o u r l i b r a r y s u c c e e d e d i n c o m p l e t i n g a n d p r i n t i n g t h i s p r e c i o u s v o l u m e . This a n t h o l o g y o f p o e m s w a s c o n c e i v e d a n d p u b l i s h e d b y b r o t h e r I. P a p r o c k i . T h e lyrics b e l o n g t o T a d e u s z W o l a n s k i , Br. A d a m c z e w s k i , Br. P e k a l s k i , Br. D m u s z e w s k i a n d t o o t h e r a u t h o r s w h o r e m a i n e d a n o n y m o u s . T h e t h e m e s o f t h e a n t h o l o g y a r e : Banquet Song

The Journey of the Brothers who Have the Degree of Fellows of the Craft Encouragement for Virtue

Our Newly Initiated Brother To the Sisters

Magazine édité par le LE CENTRE REGIONAL D'ETUDE FRANC - MAÇONNIQUE PARIS - BUCAREST

Mourning Song

Hope

Ode to Joy

To the Leader of the Polish Army, Brother Poniatowski.

Starting from the eighteenth century,

Polish music publications appeared at the lodge

meetings. Poems, hymns and symbolic cantatas

have cyirculated a r o u n d in the enclosed group.

They wrote from the desire of their hearts or by

the order of the brothers.

Some of the themes alluded to the

political events of the period heyday of

liberalism, to the time of the Congress of Vienna

or the fall of Napoleon and the liquidation of the

Duchy of Warsaw.

Starting from 1821 Tsar Alexander I

dissolved the Masonic Movement in Russia and

in its dependent countries. With the edict issued on 25 September 1821 by Józef Zajaczek,

Prince-Steward of the Kingdom of Warsaw, Masonic activities were suspended.

The masons began to destroy the documents by themselves meaning that the poetic and

artistic literature was gone as well. In Poland, after the 18

th

/19

th

century there is still 1/5 of the poetic

literature missing. Roughly estimated that's a r o u n d 300 poem titles.

The scores for those songs were published separately in other books.

The researcher of Masonic Literature, Małahowski — Lempicki listed more than 80 - names of

Polish musician a r t i s t s . The most active mason composer was Józef Antoni Franciszek Elsner

(1769 — 1854) (member sand Master in Halle der Beständigkeit), - the creator of about 400 musical

compositions. Among them w e mention t w o lost operas:

Die seltenen Brüder oder Die vier Zauberkugeln, opera in 2 acts (1795);

http://culture.pl/pl/tworca/jozef-elsner

Iskahar, król Guaxary, melodrama in 3 acts (1796) — libretto by Wojciech Bogusławski

http://culture.pl/pl/tworca/jozef-elsner

Józef Elsner brought u p many musicians famous in the XIX century, including Fryderyk Chopin.

Another great composer was Karol Kurpinski. He made his debut in 1810 with the Cantata in h o n o r

of Napoleon, and also dedicated t o him a symphony connected with the battle of Borodino.

Elżbieta Wichrowska signalled the appearance of the first musical texts in the article:

Polish Freemasonry Poetry in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Between 1811-1821

several anthologies of Masonic Polish songs w e r e published. The first volume entitled Masonic

song- books gathered 24 Polish songs, 3 French ones and 3 German ones. The last anthology Masonic

book-cantatas had 166 pages.

Nowaday, in Poland, on the occasion of the 250th birthday of Mozart, a new masonic musical

g r o u p was born: Mozart's Group of Basset Horn. It consists of musicians and pedagogues of the

Philharmonic and the Academy of Music in Gdansk, Katowice a n d Cracow. Three of them played on

basset h o r n (clarinets d'amour). In Poland w e have only five copies of this unique instrument.

Directors everywhere compete with each other staging The Magic Flute.

After the very unique presentation of Zauberflotte in Beyreuth, by Anna Klinge, on "Hands

a n d feet", the Mozart's masterpiece is represented n o w in the Poznan Opera, in a u n i q u e

inscenisation too.

Director Sjaron Minailo created in highly visual Site-Specific production style, that break the

boundaries of the traditional opera space and experience. The version of this stage is the fourth

from 1968.

Nota bene, our library resources were used for the previous representation of The Magic

Flute.

In the spirit of this important anniversary, t h e 300th celebration of Freemasonry, I w o u l d like

t o invite the researchers and the musicians interested in History of masonic music, to visit us and to

find brilliant musical masterpieces among the Masonic Music Collection in Poznan.