Abstract

Piotr Salaber is a composer known primarily for creating theatre music, but his oeuvre also includes three works dedicated to Pope John Paul II. Although they were created many years apart from one another (from 2005 to 2017), they form a coherent whole. They include the Missa Mundana mass, the cycle of religious songs Let the lamps of our faith not go out and the oratorio Non omnis moriar – In me, there is a meeting place. Taken together, they make up the Papal Triptych. The author recalls the circumstances in which these works were created, as no publication treating them as a whole has been produced to date, but also highlights the fact that the specific conditions in which a work of art is created and presented affect its reception and the meanings it acquires. In the case of the work of Piotr Salaber, an alumnus of Karlheinz Stockhausen, these circumstances are largely planned and result from the importance he attaches to the space in which the music is performed. However, Łucja Demby also draws attention to the fact that, in the case of the Papal Triptych, its reception was heavily influenced by unforeseeable circumstances (for example, the Pope’s death). In conclusion, the author emphasises that to Piotr Salaber, the Papal Triptych was not only an artistic challenge, but also a musical
confession of faith.