Музика при дворах Речі Посполитої ХVІІ ст. Потреба чи розкіш?

Abstract

The article analyses two texts from the period: 1. An anonymous poem from the 1620s– 1630s Description of the Music Presented as Gift to Master Stefan Przypkowski at His Wedding Feast, preserved in manuscript at the Kórnik Library (shelf number 95), written on the occasion of the wedding feast during which, contrary to general custom, there was no music, which the author aimed to compensate for with his poem, enumerating 38 different instruments (belonging to high western culture, folk and oriental instruments and even a comb) playing for the newly weds. 2. Exorbitanciae, or On Things Harmful in Every Kingdom […] by Piotr Widawski Wężyk (Cracow 1603), reprinted in 1640 and 1649 and propagated in anonymous copies particularly during the Chmielnicki Rebellion; this criticised the lifestyle of the wealthier groups of Polish society, particularly the gentry trying to imitate the magnates and wasting resources which could be used for the defence of the Commonwealth on the splendour, also music. The author suggests a need to introduce a special tax on luxury, this also including a band and particular instrumentalists.