Reverend Professor Ireneusz Pawlak, musicologist, composer, teacher, expert in Gregorian chant associated with the Catholic University of Lublin, died on 15 July 2020 in Lubartów. In the years 1989-2017 he was the vice-president of the Lublin Branch of the Polish Composers' Union.
Reverend Professor Ireneusz Pawlak was born on 22 March 1935 in Września. In 1954-60 he studied philosophy and theology at the Archbishop's Ecclesiastical Seminary in Gniezno. In 1960 he was ordained a priest. In the same year, he began studies at the Institute of Church Musicology of the Catholic University of Lublin, which he completed in 1964 with his master's thesis Pallographic and musical analysis of the gradual of Poor Clares in Gniezno 1418 written under the supervision of Reverend Professor Hieronim Feicht. He also received a bachelor’s degree in theology.
After graduation, in 1965, he took over as the head of the Cathedral Choir at the Primate's Basilica in Gniezno. He also lectured at the seminary in the field of church singing. From 1970 to 2008, he was permanently associated with the Institute of Church Musicology at the Catholic University of Lublin. In 1976 he obtained a doctoral degree in humanities, presenting the work Hallelujah chants in the Maciej Drzewicki gradual of 1536, prepared under the supervision of Reverend Professor Karol Mrowiec. In 1989 he received the habilitation degree based on the dissertation Piotrków Graduates as a source of the Gregorian chant in Poland after the Council of Trent. In 2001 he received the title of associate professor on the basis of the dissertation Liturgical Music after the Second Vatican Council in the Light of Church Documents. In 2002 he was awarded the title of professor.
In 1974 he founded the "Schola Gregoriana KUL" ensemble, which he led until 2002. In the years 1989-1991 and 2003-2005 he was the director of the Institute of Musicology at the Catholic University of Lublin and in the years 1995-2002 he was the head of its Department of Gregorian Chant. From 1990, he headed the Department of Liturgical Monody. He belonged to renowned associations and scientific bodies: in 1970-1995 he was a member of the Subcommittee of the Polish Episcopate for Church Music, in 1988-1991 vice-president of the Musicologists’ Section of the Polish Composers’ Union, in 1989-2017 vice-president of the Lublin Branch of the Polish Composers' Union, in 2000-2007 president of the Association of Polish Church Musicians, and in 2003-2006 a member of the Committee of Theological Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He initiated the creation of the yearbook “Anales Lublinenses pro Musica Sacra” (2010). From 2001 he was the president of the Association of Polish Church Musicians. From 1977 he was a member-associate, and from 1995 a member-correspondent of the Scientific Society of the Catholic University of Lublin, from 2001 a member of the Consociatio Internationalis Musicae Sacrae and from 2003 a member of the Committee of Theological Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
In 2003, he received the Primate of Poland "Silver Pipe" award for his contribution to the development of church music in Poland, and in 2014, the honorary award of the Association of Polish Church Musicians "Per musicam ad fidem".
He specialized in the history of Gregorian chant in Poland. In his research work, he dealt with the Gregorian chant in Poland after the Council of Trent and the contemporary liturgical monody. He was the author of over 300 scientific and popular science publications. As a composer, he wrote around 100 church songs, vespers, hymns, psalms and 3 liturgical masses in Polish.
The Funeral Mass was celebrated by bishop Mieczysław Cisło on 17 July 2020 in the Academic Church of the Catholic University of Lublin. The Funeral Service took place on 18 July 2020 in Września in the Parish Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Stanislaus BM.
(zkpl)