CHRISTMAS SONGS AS A CASE STUDY OF VARIABILITY OF LITURGICAL REPERTOIRE IN „DROGA DO NIEBA” AND „SKARBIEC MODLITW I PIEŚNI”

Singing Church songs is an important part of Silesian citizens’ religious life. Spiritual leaders wanting to help people in practicing this form of piety have started publishing songbooks containing songs performed in the area discussed. In the beginnings of 20th century, father Ludwik Skowronek, priest of the parish Bogucice made a prayer book called „Droga do nieba”. With time, this collection has become the most popular prayer book of Upper Silesia. Nowadays it is used in Dioceses of Opole and Gliwice. Some time later, „Skarbiec” is being created by priests of Upper Silesia. It is still used in Archdiocese of Kraków. Both prayer books since their beginnings have had many forms and have been published many times. In contemporary collections we can see many similarities in repertoire and versions of songs, but also some number of differences. The songbooks differ in position of sections, sometimes in songs and versions of a particular song as well. In „Droga do nieba” more songs and verses of them have been included. We have focused on Christmas songs in this article. Examining them it has been stated that 39 songs are identical, whereas 14 differ more or less. 22 songs connected with Christmas can be found only in „Droga do nieba”, while 6 only in „Skarbiec”. The melodic and rhythmic anylisis has shown that 39 songs are the same in both songbooks. In 12 of them melodic differences have been found, while in 10 of them - rhythmic ones. By analisying Silesian songbooks we can see thier role and importance in practicing Silesian tradition of carolling as well as the whole Church repertoire