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This exciting, programmatic, four-movement symphony for solo organ is based on beloved Polish Christmas carols, or kolędy. It is a rewarding challenge for the organist, and it has proven to be a thrilling experience for the audience!
More details about this piece:
The present four-movement Symfonia Kolęd is also intended to tell a story, using various kolędy as thematic content while cyclically interweaving the Gregorian Chant melody for the Introit of Christmas Day Mass—Puer natus est nobis—throughout the symphony as a binding agent. Each movement has been inscribed with a corresponding Scripture verse.
The First Movement, entitled “The Proclamation of the Birth of Christ,” is constructed in Sonata-Allegro Form. The slow introduction of the movement—reminiscent in its character of a North German Baroque organ praeludium—is a heralding proclamation of the birth of Christ. This later gives way to the body of the movement, in which the joyful tune, Pozdzymy Wszyscy do Stajenki, beckons the onlooker to make haste to the manger and see the newborn Christ-child.
The playful Second Movement, entitled “The Awakening of the Shepherds,” has musical characteristics that echo the genres of both the pastorale and the scherzo. It depicts the scenery of a quiet countryside in which sleepy shepherds are startled in the middle of the night by a mysterious event. Cast in a Ternary Form, the A section of this movement quotes Przybieżeli do Betlejem, a carol whose joyful character summons the shepherds to make haste to see the birth of the Lord. By contrast, the B section depicts the Virgin Mary lulling baby Jesus to sleep with the sweet tune of Gdy śliczna Panna.
The Third Movement, entitled “A Lullaby for the Christ Child,” is cast in a Continuous Variation Form, taking as its basis the tender Lulajże Jezuniu. This beloved tune is among the best-known of all kolędy, and Chopin incorporated it into his Scherzo in B minor, Op. 20. Though this lullaby begins and ends in keeping with the delicate character of the tune, this arch-shaped movement has an internal climax in dynamic and intensity, featuring a shift to the parallel key of E-flat-minor. This serves as a reminder of the reason for which the Divine Godhead assumed the form of a little child—namely to suffer and die for the redemption of the human race.
The Fourth (and final) Movement of the Symfonia is entitled “The Heavens and the Earth Rejoice Exultantly.” This explosive Christmas paean quotes Dzisiaj w Betlejem, and it is cast in a five-part Sonata-Rondo Form.