Erazm Parys, Józef Sikorski,: and Church Music in the Polish Lands in the First Half of the Nineteenth Centur

This article examines the testimony of the Revd Erazm Parys, a nineteenth-century parish priest in Sterdyń, Podlasie, published by Józef Sikorski in Pamiętnik Muzyczny i Teatralny in 1862 under the title ‘Głos jednego z proboszczów’. Particular attention is devoted to Parys’s efforts to establish and maintain a parish instrumental chapel composed mainly of peasant boys, his methods of musical education, the acquisition of repertory, and cooperation with local society. The study also analyses his reflections on musical life in the provinces, social inequalities in access to musical education, amateur music-making, and the circulation of repertory and pedagogical materials. The correspondence is thus presented as a rare ego-document recording the experiences of a rural priest and highly committed amateur musician. Finally, the study places Parys’s account in the changing context of church music in the mid-nineteenth-century Polish lands and considers Sikorski’s reply, especially his harsh criticism of Wacław Raszek’s Kancyonał muzyki kościelnej.