The artistic landscape of pre-partition Poland, which inspires the concerts of the Music First cycle, was naturally filled with liturgical music. Under the direction of Maestro Andrzej Kosendiak, the artists of the Wrocław Baroque Ensemble will present the Resurrection Canon: a piece considered to be the greatest achievement of Mykola Dylecki. This seventeenth-century composer, was educated in Vilnius and probably also in Warsaw, with both cities being within the borders of our country at that time. We owe him the groundbreaking synthesis of Orthodox liturgical music with the Baroque vocal polyphony rooted in the Italian tradition.

All we know of the life of Dylecki, sometimes presented as the first Ukrainian composer of international fame, comes from his theoretical treaty Musical Grammar, edited several times and in several languages. The artist was born around 1630 in Kyiv, which at the time was part of the Polish Crown. After his stay in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, he moved to work in Smolensk and Moscow. In the aforementioned treaty, he formulated the principles of the polyphonic singing style known as partiesnoje pienije / partiesnyj spev (from the Latin partes, meaning “vocal parts, choral voices”), and he also explained the rules of polyphonic composition, including polychoral writing. In view of the later popularity of the Musical Grammar its role in spreading the Western art of composing throughout Eastern Europe is beyond measure. Equally significant is the importance of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a meeting ground of cultures and a mediator in the transmission of their accomplishments.

The solemn and joy-filled Resurrection Canon, which will be performed by the singers of the Wrocław Baroque Ensemble in the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius on Wrocław’s Piasek Island, was composed no later than the 1680s. Dylecki filled this eight-voice cycle with metrical and textural contrasts and lively rhythms that build a mood of rejoicing. The work was intended to be performed on Easter during the Paschal Matins service. The ensemble’s recording of this piece was included on the fourteenth album in the Music First. Music of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth series, devoted entirely to Mykola Dylecki.