On Saturday, March 26, together with the Dominican Monastery in Krakow, we organized a jubilee concert as part of the celebration of the 800th anniversary of the Dominicans in Poland, during which the premiere of “Requiem for Covid victims”, composed by Dawid Kusz OP.
The piece was commissioned especially for this occasion. The concert included the “Sancta Trinitas” Chamber Choir and the invited instrumentalists: Marek Pawełek (organ), Karolina Zielińska (drums), Maciej Adamczak (double bass).
The musical interpretation of Requiem combines various traditions: liturgical and prayer emphasized by the traditional cast (choir and organ), the use of modal church scales and traditional functional harmonics , and more modern, referring to classical music through the use of unconventional instruments (drums, jazz double bass). The piece carries a spiritual-emotional, contemplative dimension, but it is also an expression of helplessness and uncertainty in the face of the external situation in which the world is located.
These two antagonisms permeate the whole composition and fight each other in a musical battle: full of trust, cantilena, and at the same time complex in terms of texture and dynamics, opening the piece Requiem aeternam is contrasted by the sharp, dissonant sounds of the first dozen or so verses of the Dies irae Sequence. The breakout occurs in the last sections of the text of the sequence (Recordare, Lacrimosa), bringing back musical calm.
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Dawid Kusz OP – born in 1979 in Rzeszów. He entered the Dominican Order in 1998, and in 2005 he was ordained a priest. He graduated with honors from the Academy of Music in Krakow at the Faculty of Creativity, Interpretation and Music Education, majoring in artistic education in the field of musical art, specialization: leading vocal and vocal-instrumental ensembles and teaching music and theoretical subjects. In 2014, he defended his doctorate with honors at the Academy of Music in Krakow in the discipline of conducting. In 2012, he began studying composition, first in the class of prof. Zbigniew Bujarski (BA), and he graduated in 2016 in the class of prof. Józef Rychlik.
He was the conductor of the choir and orchestra during the World Youth Day in Krakow (2016) and during the Holy Mass. ending the 800th anniversary of the Order of Preachers under the leadership of Pope Francis in the Lateran (2017). Assistant professor at the Intercollegiate Institute of Church Music in Krakow and a member of the Archdiocese Committee of Liturgical Music.
Above, there is a recording of larger fragments of the concert, made by Maciej Dutczak (CinePictures) for the Dominican Liturgical Center, and photos by Kacper Montusiewicz. Information about the next concerts as part of the jubilee cycle will be published on our blog.
