The “Extraordinary Music Workshop”: day one

Assumption Day and the Extraordinary Music Workshop offered by the Dominican Fathers in Kraków coincided with a major Dominican celebration of the Polish province’s 800th anniversary. Today’s Mass, therefore, was the first of a triduum leading to the feast of the province’s founder, St. Jacek Odrowąż, better known in English-speaking countries as St. Hyacinth.

Basilica of the Holy Trinity
Basilica of the Holy Trinity (interior)
Assumption Day Mass at the Basilica

The Mass was offered in Polish, and the church was filled with the generally young participants in the EMW.

Here is a sample of some of the music sung today. I think even the hymns with recently composed melodies have an impressive depth.

  • Już się anieli wiesielą (“Let angels rejoice”), a 15th-century hymn in a setting by present-day composer Paweł Bębanek
  • Kyrie VIII
  • Błogosławiona jesteś, Maryjo (“Blessed are you, O Mary”), a hymn written in 2004 by Fr. W. Kądziela
  • the Our Father
  • Bądźże pozdrowiona (“Hail, O living Host”), which augments a classic and familiar Christmas refrain with new verses to make it a Eucharistic hymn for any season