Problems in the Renaissance Motet

The first part of this dissertation is about some chosen motets by Costanzo Festa (c. 1490-1545), the first important Italian renaissance composer, while the second is devoted to the anonymous six-voice motet Ave rosa speciosa in the manuscript VatC 234 (“Chigi Codex”). The aim of this study is to investigate the motets in liturgical, political, and artistic context as well as to raise some questions concerning their attribution and dissemination. Chapter one draws together the most important evidence from a variety of secondary sources in order to point to problems concerning genre definition, designation, function, and characteristics of the motet as cultivated in the Renaissance. Chapter two is devoted to Festa’s biography, as some facts from his life may help to understand the circumstances of his motets. Chapter three is a brief overview of the origin and development of polytextual motets because the following three chapters deal with three such motets; in chapter four I argue that Festa’s Super flumina Babylonis may have been written for the death of Heinrich Isaac; on the basis of some textual amendments and political context I will argue in the chapter five that Festa’s Dominator caelorum may have been written for the meeting between Charles V and Pope Clement VII in Bologna in late 1529 and early 1530; similarly, I suggest in the chapter six that the anonymous motet O altitudo divitiarum from the manuscript VatS 38, attributed to Festa by Llorens, may have been intended for the peace treaty in Nice in 1538. Chapter seven asks some provocative questions concerning stylistic context and authorship of two settings of Da pacemone from a manuscript BolQ 19 and another one, possibly written by Festa, from VatS 18. In chapter eight I suggest that although Festa’s motet Sancta Maria succurre miseris is assumed not to be based on chant material, it does seem to draw some melodic material from chant and shares it with some other works by Festa’s contemporaries. Chapter nine is mainly focused on Festa’s little setting of the text from the Song of SongsQuam pulchra es, which later became a model for Monteverdi’s motet included in the collection Sacrae cantiunculae of 1582. The subject of the part two of the dissertation is the anonymous Ave rosa speciosa from the Chigi Codex. The analysis of its meaning and purpose in the context of other motet traits permit us to suggest that the motet may have been intended either as the rosary motet or for the feast of the Immaculate Conception. A further chapter titled “Looking for a composer of Ave rosa speciosa” an attempt is made to find a composer for the motet and see the motet in a broad stylistic context

Therapy through art in an environment of people with intellectual disabilities. The Example of the “Skarbek” Association Helping People with Disabilities in Mysłowice

The long-term activity of the “Skarbek” Association Helping People with Disabilities in Myslowice has not, thus far, lived to see a comprehensive description. The few publications on this subject are scattered and fragmentary. This elaboration is an initial attempt to gather and systematize knowledge about the activities of the organization in the use of art in the treatment of people with intellectual disabilities. First of all, it is a presentation of developed forms and methods of treatment, and an indication of specific effects of the measures taken

Tożsamość kulturowa społeczności małomiasteczkowej

The problem of cultural identity has been presented on the basis o f the local community o f Sławków, a small town situated in the borderland between Silesia and the Małopolska Region. Its residents are marked by a strong feeling of internal and emotional bonds with the liv in g place. Sławków has never experienced bigger migration movements that is why it is a demographically stable town. The majority o f the residents constitute native people, which makes it possible to continue traditions. The historical past contributed to the development o f a specific atmosphere and colouring o f this town, both in terms o f its looks, and its socio-educational structure. The author aims to define and in v e s tiga te the main factors raising cultural awareness consisting in the sense o f belonging and local identification among the small-town community. He intends to have a look at the phenomenon of localness from the “internal” point o f view, taking into account, at the same time, the influence the objective phenomena have on the components o f social awareness. According to the principle o f a humanistic factor it was claimed that the town is a social fact which should be analysed the way it manifests its e lf in the awareness of the members of a given community. In other words, the attempts were made to construct the image o f a town within the sphere o f common experience and joint actions o f its residents. The attention was paid to a characteristic o f the culture transmission system which functions both in the intra-social relations, prominence being given to direct and informal interactions as well as its institutional activity. What was analysed constituted socio-cultural activity o f people l iv ing in this town, and its conditions, as well as the influence o f mass culture. It was evident that spacious closeness which characterises the community from Sławków, a specific type o f interpersonal contacts, and a clearly outlined internal system o f bonds and distances constitute the plane on which a specific local culture is being created and transmitted. It creates favourable conditions for the group membership, and roots for the community. It was established that the sense of social satisfaction and frustration, related to the experiences of town residents (in terms of socio-economic conditions, aesthetics, safety) as well as migration tendencies and the feeling o f stabilization, influences local identity. Also, the attention was drawn to the attitudes o f social a ctivity reflected in local enterprises. The main dimensions o f the cultural identity o f the small-town community were analysed. The emphasis was put on social experiencing and valorising the local space. The relationship with an ordered space o f a small town manifests its e lf in the form o f objective ecological relations, as well as depicts the sense of emotional attachment. The space as value constitutes the main integrative element. Residents from Sławków find their place in space owing to symbols as they are a part o f the identification plane. They refer to their “own history” , to their important group experiences. These are the element o f collective memory, and, as a means o f conveying essential information for the group existence, function as identity symbols. The local historical tradition functioning in the social awareness was discussed. What was being investigated constituted people’s deep thoughts and knowledge on their roots, the history of their own community, even though it is an anecdote or fiction-based legend. Thus, it is not the history understood as a follow up o f epochs and events, but the history which is being lived on, and mitologised in a peculiar way. The local historical tradition is an essential component o f the subjective awareness o f belonging to the local community, raising, at the same time, the feeling o f one’s own special value and old-fashionness among Sławków residents. I t is nobilitating in character, allowing for contrasting their own town with surrounding places o f a poorer and less colourful past. What was shown was a dimension o f “familiarity-alienation” , one o f the most important cultural categories playing a v ita l role in the process of shaping the cultural identity. Here, the answer to the following questions was searched: how do the members of the community under investigation define themselves in relation to strangers, how are “the others’ perceived, and what constitutes their “otherness” , which factors (norms, patterns of behaviour, opinions, evaluations) underlie the process o f shaping the sense of one’s own separateness. The research revealed a stable function o f negative stereotypes o f strangers (both in local and regional terms), and a stereotype o f “natives” being positive in the most. The awareness o f community and cultural separateness was visible in the nicknames given to the residents o f neighbouring towns and villages. Also, a strong distinction between “ the native” and “the foreign” was noticed, related to the a ttitudes o f sitting Sławków community to the people coming from other regions o f Poland

Ćwierćwiecze działalności naukowo-badawczej uniwersyteckiego ośrodka etnologicznego w Cieszynie

The academic center of ethnological research in Cieszyn has a clearly defined profile, which distinguishes it from other centers of this kind in Poland. Its specificity results primarily from the research interests of the staff, which focus on the issues of cultural and ethnic borderlands and on contemporary socio-cultural transformations, including the role of tradition in the life of postmodern communities. The rich and multifaceted achievements over the past twenty-five years of the center’s operation can be seen as an obligation on the part of the researchers encouraging them to make further consistent efforts to consolidate its position on the map of ethnological studies in Poland, to make their research more effective, and to enhance and broaden international cooperation. A materialization of the idea of creating a permanent ethnological research institution in Silesia, the center plays an important and admittedly unique role in integrating research on cultural phenomena and processes in Central Europe

Transformacja przestrzeni publicznej współczesnego miasta - na przykładzie mysłowieckiego centrum

The majority of aspects of the urban life concentrate in the public space, clearly separated from private spaces. The nature of the public space consists in the fact that it constitutes a joint urban space in the social sense, comprising different functions and meanings. It also constitutes the area where basically all inhabitants can feel free. The public space is a space of identity which makes it possible for the next generations of inhabitants to identify with the city. It makes the mutual communication and expression of people easier. It is a stage on which the mystery play of human life is played every day. In the public space, it is not only the past or the present that is coded, but also the new phenomena reflecting deep transformations sometimes in the humanistic dimension of the urban space. A traditional space is the centre of the city, the most significant element and basic form of which is a centrally situated market — the market square — essential for the existence of both an individual and given social groups. Currently, shopping malls and hypermarkets are more often becoming a substitute of the public space. However, they are not a public space, but a private area only publically used. As long as the public space is the sphere of freedom, it is the private space that usually undergoes numerous restrictions, control and social selection. Shopping malls usurp the right to “be the centre”, are a simulation of “the city in the city”. This way, they turn away a cultural code of the urban area — a traditional centre stops to exist or is the one only by name whereas the outskirts become “the centre”. In other words — a social life moves into the outskirts of the city. Such a situation is observed in Mysłowice — the city which was the subject of observations and inquiries. The opening of the Real hypermarket seven years ago has decreased the attractiveness of the city centre, especially the square market, as a trade, service, recreational or even cultural space. Real made, so to speak, an important reevaluation of an urban space of Mysłowice, decomposing its functional and symbolic dimension and determining human relations and behaviours in a direct way

Dziedzictwo kulturowe jako kluczowe pojęcie edukacji regionalnej : rozważania terminologiczne

It is impossible not to see consequences deriving from the lack of precision of the meaning of cultural heritage and notions connected to it in view of education called regional. It is easy to notice that cultural heritage both in ministry acts, publications on regional education and teachers’ and regionalists’ discourses is fairly freely used or even put in the form of imprecise generalities. An excessive inclination for differentiating between meanings ascribed to cultural heritage makes it very fluid and ambiguous. A characteristic of this phenomenon is a constant appearance of its new social and cultural features, which makes it difficult to predict its potential future specificity. If no significant processes of the destabilization of social life take place, we will witness the birth of a new content constituting cultural heritage. In this context, regional education is given a special role, whose one of the key tasks should be preparing the young for making a national evaluation of the cultural heritage content (yet it contains both the resources of the good and the evil), and making conscious choices therein in order to make them transform and adjust cultural heritage to the current needs in the future in a rational and reasonable way

Problemy integracji społecznej osób niepełnosprawnych intelektualnie

Living with learning disabilities means experiencing a range limitations in everyday life. Moreover, it often means having to deal with being labelled as a some sort of curiosum. The notion of excluding people with learning disabilities from the society is not utterly remote. This is associated with a range of cognitive attitudes, including negative stereotypes and prejudices. Three worrying social phenomena, occurring regarding this social group, have been distinguished, namely social distancing, low assessment of skills and isolation. In the context of research conducted in Poland in recent years, as well as everyday observations, it can be noted that these attitudes have a significant impact on the process of social integration of disabled people, especially in education, employment and involvement in the local community. There are numerous indicators that Polish policy of supporting people with disabilities is not fully effective; this leads to wasting labour potential of this social group

Restrukturyzacja ekonomiczna a tradycyjny porządek symboliczny górnośląskiej rodziny robotniczej : zmiana modelu

The traditional symbolic order of the Upper Silesian family, connected with the concept of a working man and a head of the family, and the concept of a woman – housewife acting only as a wife and mother, has transformed dynamically in the new socio-cultural conditions caused by economic restructuring and the deindustrialsation process related to it. The family model, considered to be the preferred one on the threshold of the transformation, turned out to be anachronistic and dysfunctional, giving way to the changing aspirations of women and the needs and opportunities generated in the labor market. Adaptation to the new reality has forced far-reaching modifications to the existing pattern of family life, education model and gender socialization. Basically, the attitude towards the education of the younger generation has changed. Thanks to that it has become fully appreciated in Silesian families as a way of social advancement and a dignified life. Education is a relatively new value in the axiological and normative system of Silesian workers’ circles. By acquiring an instrumental character, it has begun to be seen as a valued cultural capital on the labor market and therefore considered as an important family purpose

Postindustrialne dziedzictwo kultury materialnej w procesie rewitalizacjii (na przykładzie górnośląskich osiedli patronackich)

The consequence of transformations induced systemic transformation and restructuring of the economy is the degradation of the Upper Silesian estates patronage. The inversion of the negative changes involves conducting the integrated process of the revitalization. Such a program cannot be directed only to the architectural-spatial sphere. Since not the historic character of the degraded quarters predestinates them to the revitalization but the particular accumulation of the social and economical problems. While the initialization and the realization of the revitalization generally lie with the local authorities, it cannot be fully successful without the support and the participation of the inhabitants

Wielokulturowa przestrzeń społeczna miasta na przykładzie Mysłowic

Wielokulturowość to pojęcie niezwykle rozpowszechnione w dzisiejszym dyskursie kulturowym. Chyba najprościej można ją określić jako „współwystępowanie na tej samej przestrzeni (albo w bezpośrednim sąsiedztwie bez wyraźnego rozgraniczenia, albo w sytuacji aspiracji do zajęcia tej samej przestrzeni) dwóch lub więcej grup społecznych o odmiennych cechach dystynktywnych: wyglądzie zewnętrznym, języku, wyznaniu religijnym, układzie wartości itd., które przyczyniają się do wzajemnego postrzegania odmienności z różnymi tego skutkami”. Współcześnie skłaniamy się ku temu, aby wielokulturowość uznawać za wartość cenną i pozytywną, wzbogacającą odmienne kultury, poszerzającą horyzonty myślowe, przyczyniającą się do kształtowania postaw otwartych i tolerancyjnych. Nabiera ona realnego sensu jednak dopiero wówczas, kiedy jest praktycznie wykorzystywana w relacjach międzykulturowych. Dzieje się tak, gdy pomiędzy kilkoma współegzystującymi grupami zachodzą wzajemne interakcje, na bazie których dochodzi do nawiązania trwałych relacji międzykulturowych.(fragment tekstu