Polish Musicological Research into Polychoral Style

Bartłomiej Gembicki

Abstract

Research into polychoral style in music (usually associated with the Italian term cori spezzati or cori battenti) is a vital part of the study of Renaissance and Baroque music. Polychoral music has also attracted much attention in the Polish musicological literature, especially in relation to works in polychoral style performed or composed in the territories of the First Polish Republic. In many cases, however, researchers’ remarks are of a general character, not confined to the specific historical and geographical context; hence the decision to refer in this article mainly to those very authors. They include Władysław Malinowski, Aleksandra Patalas, Barbara Przybyszewska-Jarmińska, Maria Szczepańska and Zygmunt M. Szweykowski.

The present article is devoted to selected views regarding polychoral style to have appeared in the writings of Polish musicologists. A brief survey of those views forms the starting point for an attempt to pinpoint how “polychoral style” has been defined by scholars (the context of Polish music serves here only as a background). Their views are then confronted with definitions found in the Western musicological literature. Special emphasis is placed on the so-called Italian schools of composition, especially the “Venetian polychoral school”. Another major issue discussed in the article is the inconsistent use of the term cori spezzati by scholars, who often treat it as synonymous with polychoral technique.