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Music fit for a king. Discover the crown jewel of Polish polyphony
2025-03-13
Musicologists commonly call it “Kras 52” – after the former reference number it was given in the Krasiński Library. It is the most valuable Polish source of medieval polyphonic music, which shaped the soundscape of the court of the first Jagiellons and Kraków at that time. The manuscript is gaining new life now, thanks to a performance edition by Agnieszka Budzińska-Bennett and Marc Lewon. “Krasiński Codex” has just been published by PWM Edition with the support of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
The Kras 52 manuscript was created in the second quarter of the 15th century, during the reign of Władysław II Jagiełło – King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania and founder of the Jagiellon dynasty. The inconspicuous manuscript is, in fact, evidence of the presence of then current (or even innovative) stylistic trends in the musical life of Kraków. In this way, it places the seat of the new dynasty on the international cultural scene. In addition to works by famous European composers such as Antonio Zachara da Teramo, Johannes Ciconia and Estienne Grossin, we will also find compositions by native masters, such as Mikołaj of Radom (Radomski) and Nicolaus de Ostrorog. The manuscript contains sacred music intended to be performed during the liturgy, as well as secular compositions – including works related to the royal court or the city of Kraków.
The history of the manuscript itself is also fascinating. It used to belong to the collection of the Krasiński Estate Library; during World War II, it was considered destroyed in a fire started by special Brandkommando units. In reality, however, the manuscript was stolen by the Nazi occupiers and taken to Germany. After the war, art historian Karol Estreicher accidentally found it in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich. The identified manuscript was returned to Poland; today, it is one of the most valuable treasures of Polish culture, and it rests in a fireproof safe in the National Library in Warsaw.
The first monumental edition of the Kras 52 repertoire, prepared by Mirosław Perz, was published in the 1970s. It was of a documentary nature and was created primarily with musicologists in mind. The enormous progress in research on 15th-century music that has occurred over the last 50 years has led to the need to prepare a new edition. The challenge was taken up by two researchers associated with the famous early music centre Schola Cantorum Basiliensis: Agnieszka Budzińska-Bennett – vocalist, harpist, musicologist and founder of the Ensemble Peregrina – and Marc Lewon, German lutenist and musicologist.
Photo: Angelika Barnowska-Nawara (c) PWM
The new edition combines the advantages of a critical and performance edition. Musicologists will find information on the latest state of knowledge about the manuscript’s repertoire, including several previously unpublished discoveries. Musicians and performers will appreciate the reconstructions of incomplete pieces and the musical text prepared with their convenience in mind. The authors of the study have also included two previously omitted pieces among the transcriptions, noted in the margins of the manuscript. Each transcription is accompanied by a translation of the text and a short essay that explains the most important aspects of the given composition. The edition is entirely in Polish and English, thanks to which this priceless monument of Polish musical culture has a chance to also exist in the minds of foreign researchers and performers of early music.
The “Krasiński Codex” is one of the results of an interdisciplinary project devoted to the Kras 52 manuscript, carried out by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in cooperation with the PWM Edition. The project also included a complete recording of the repertoire notated in the manuscript, performed by Ensemble Dragma and Ensemble Peregrina under the direction of Agnieszka Budzińska-Bennett (‘The Krasiński Codex,’ Raumklang 2024), a series of concerts – among others in Switzerland and Lithuania – as well as lectures and workshops. In December 2024, the ANAKLASIS label, a brand of the PWM Edition, released the album LAETA MUNDUS, on which 15th-century polyphony and contemporary jazz intertwine into a completely new harmony of spheres. The pieces included in the Kras 52 manuscript became an inspiration for the composer and violinist Adam Bałdych, who was partnered in this musical marriage of two worlds by Ensemble Peregrina – led by Agnieszka Budzińska-Bennett – and double bass clarinettist Michał Górczyński.
From 20 March 2025, the “Krasiński Codex” can be purchased in the stationary PWM bookstore, as well as online bookstores: pwm.sklep.pl and musicshopeurope.com.
Co-organiser: Adam Mickiewicz Institute. Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
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