„The idea for creating this set of mass songs appeared during my annual retreat, which I celebrated in the monastery of Dominican nuns in Radonie near Grodzisk Mazowiecki,” says the originator and author of the cycle’s melody, Father Wojciech Sznyk, OP. “The monastery is named after Our Lady of the Rosary. I turned to Dominican graduals to find melodies and antiphon texts related to this call. There I came across a votive mass on the rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Missa Privilegiata SS. Rosari BMV in the version from Cormier’s Graduale from 1907), which can be celebrated all year round. „I thought it would be possible to transcribe the melody into modern notation, harmonize it and add Polish lyrics.”

To complete this set, Father Wojciech needed permanent parts. He wrote them based on fragments of melody taken from the responsory in the fifth tone „Dilectus meus mihi, et ego illi” („My beloved is mine and I am his”). The set also included acclamations before the Gospel – Alleluia and Glory to You – which were based on fragments of the Alleluia singing from the antiphon at the Offertorium, as well as the hymn „Ave maris stella” suggested at the end of the mass in the Dominican melodic variant, with Polish text and rhythmized according to the current custom. in many of our musical circles. The harmonization of single-voice chants was developed by Urszula Rogala, a composer who has been cooperating with our Foundation for years.

The audio and video recordings were made
at the Dominican Museum in Krakow on September 13, 2023

Łucja Nowak – soprano
Weronika Melnychuk – alto
Wojciech Sznyk, OP – tenor
Łukasz Miśko, OP – bass

Recording: Mateusz Kucharski
Video: Błażej Hadro
Cover: Natalia Miazga