Struktura semantyczno-formalna XVII-wiecznego zbioru Symfonije anielskie Jana Żabczyca

Symfonije anielskie mentioned in the paper’s title is a very popular collection of carols by an early Baroque court poet Jan Żabczyc. This rather small volume (36 compositions) became a part of the tradition of Polish religious song, and also, more broadly –history of Polish culture and is regarded as one of the most interesting phenomena in Polish Baroque religious lyric poetry. The aim of the present article is to analyse the following semantic and formal questions: the title, organization of the entire volume and its individual texts with the help of frame segments (the initial and final) as well as the fundamental section developing the plot. The presence of the abovementioned compositional elements determines the rudimentary organizational principles of the entire collection. Moreover, the indicated determinants of the collection or its sections provide information about more detailed questions: the form of presentation and the category of the sender and recipient. Careful composition of the entire collection and also every individual carol text demonstrates that while creating Symfonije Żabczyc pursued a predetermined structure, both in the selection of motifs as well as formal elements. The repetition of several structural models, similar arrangement of content and the use of the same set of stylistic and linguistic means provides compositional and stylistic transparency to Symfonije, which is especially significant for the collection due to the fact that all texts, according to the author’s intention, were primarily meant for singing. As it turned out, the collection of carols by Żabczyc enjoyed great popularity through ages, and several songs have been performed until today.