The National Independence Day is a time of reflection, providing an opportunity for joint celebration. On this occasion, the Main Hall of the NFM will resound with works of patriotic significance – starting with the 16th-century psalm by Mikołaj Gomółka, through traditional songs, to the composition by Józef Świder written to the words of an outstanding poet of the Romantic era, Cyprian Kamil Norwid.

Published in 1580, Melodies for the Polish Psalter by Mikołaj Gomółka is a collection of one hundred and fifty music settings of psalms, and at the same time the only currently known work by this composer. It is a musical setting of the Davidic Psalter in the translation of the greatest poet of the Polish Renaissance, Jan Kochanowski. Kochanowski’s psalter is in fact a poetic paraphrase of the biblical Book of Psalms and was published only a year before the musical version by Gomółka appeared. His melodies are a valuable historical source presenting, on the one hand, the richness of the musical language of the sixteenth-century composer, and on the other, the beauty of the old Polish language. During the concert, Psalm 47, O clap your hands, all ye people, will be performed. 

The main trend in the catalogue of Józef Świder’s work – a composer born in the interwar period – is choral music. Its wide range includes diverse pieces, which quickly and permanently entered the repertoire of numerous choirs in Poland. One of them is Moja piosnka (My Song) from the collection Ten Songs to the Words of Polish Poets for Mixed Choir, from 1983. Woven from warm, harmonious sounds, the piece reflects the Romantic nostalgia contained in Norwid's text.

The concert will be crowned by a number of well-known patriotic songs deeply rooted in Polish culture, such as O mój rozmarynie (O My Rosemary), Piechota (Infantry) or My, Pierwsza Brygada (We, the First Brigade) in the premiere arrangements by Michał Artur Wadowski.