A rhapsody (pl: rapsod) is a work of lyric poetry or part of one, lauding a hero or an event. Its name is derived from rhapsodes – travelling performers of poetry and singers popular in ancient Greece during festivities. Rhapsodies were used in Polish Romantic era literature as a means of presenting the subject in an archaic and exalted manner. Cyprian Kamil Norwid mentioned this literary form in his 1851 poem A Funeral Rhapsody in Memory of General Bem. The poet contrived an exceptional, even sublime and truly symbolic image of the funeral of general Józef Zachariasz Bem, a national hero, engineer, political activist of the Great Emigration as well as active artillery commander in the Polish forces during the November Uprising. He led his units in a number of famous battles, such as those near Iganie or Ostrołęka. In 1848 during the Spring of Nations he arrived in Hungary where Lajos Kossuth put him in command of the Hungarian army. on the 9th of August 1849, Józef Bem was wounded at the Battle of Temesvár, the last battle of the Hungarian Uprising. The entire confrontation resulted in an annihilation of the Hungarian forces. Shortly after the Hungarian revolution failed, Bem, together with the last few remaining survivors of the uprising, managed to cross the Turkish border. There he joined the Ottoman army and continued to make good use of his leadership skills as a Murad Paşa (he had to convert to Islam to be allowed into the army). He famously defended Aleppo in 1850, contributing significantly to the Ottoman victory as an outstanding artillery commander. Unfortunately that was the last battle of the hero of three nations – Bem succumbed to malaria and died in Aleppo in 1850.
A hundred years down the line, Czesław Niemen used the lyrics of the poem I mentioned above. A Funeral Rhapsody in Memory of General Bem is a song on his fourth studio album Enigmatic. The title is spot on, alluding at something extraordinary and mysterious on the album. It includes four songs composed by Niemen on the basis of poetic works. The monumental A Funeral Rhapsody in Memory of General Bem is undoubtedly the most famous and significant piece on that album. The other three are: Sonnet (One Heart) based on a text by Adam Asnyk, National Flowers written by Tadeusz Kubiak and Keep talking to me by Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer.
Cover of Czesław Niemen's Enigmatic album, released in 1970 by Muza
According to the musician himself, Wojciech Młynarski was the inspiration behind A Rhapsody. He said the following words to Niemen during the festival in Sopot on August 24th 1968: "If you wrote the music to Norwid Bem's A Funeral Rhapsody in Memory of General Bem, that would be something". By the autumn of the same year, practically the whole track was ready. In December, it was performed for the first time at a concert (however, in an incomplete form). A year later, A Rhapsody went on an Italian tour and was recorded in October 1969. Church bells, Hammond's organ and the Gregorian choir repeating the motto by the famous Carthaginian chieftain Hannibal: Iusiurandum patri datum usque ad hanc diem ita servavi (The oath given to father I have kept even unto this day) build a sublime atmosphere, which culminates and reaches a climax in the second part of the piece. The choir, decorated with the sounds of bells, evokes associations with mysticism and spirituality. This part is an introduction to the main part, definitely rock – with vocals, drums and a real rock guitar. It stands for a certain contrast – the world of lofty sacred music has been juxtaposed with the new world of progressive rock. Niemen sings, while at the same time playing the Hammond organ, undoubtedly a key instrument in this song, present – like candles – on the album's cover and in the video itself. The artist managed to perfectly convey the atmosphere of the funeral ritual and perfectly illustrate Norwid's poem, using music. The main part of the piece does not lose its solemn, pathos-like sound nor its serious character. In the end, the choir returns and it is the choir that, by multiplying the listener's impressions, carries the final message "Onward-Onward".
The music video was shot by Polish film director Janusz Rzeszewski, who was deputy chief director of TVP at the time of the hit. In the music video to A Funeral Rhapsody in Memory of General Bem, Rzeszewski depicted Niemen among dozens of candles, which was an obvious reference to the cover of Enigmatic. The legendary video was produced in the Documentary and Feature Film Studio and premiered in March 1970 in the Congress Hall, located in Warsaw's Palace of Culture and Science. In November of the same year, the video was first aired on TV..
A Funeral Rhapsody in Memory of General Bem by Czesław Niemen
A Funeral Rhapsody in Memory of General Bem is undoubtedly one of the most important works by Czesław Niemen and in the whole Polish progressive rock history. Just as the famous Strange is this World gave Niemen the status of a real star, so A Rhapsody gave him the status of a "National Rock Singer". Through this song Cyprian Kamil Norwid has become a poet who is exceptionally close to our Polish rock. Niemen himself referred to it in songs such as Italiam, Italiam from the 1971 album Ungrateful Man I Am, or on Pilgrimage from the album Niemen Aerolit released in 1975. The Polish-Norwegian band De Press also mentioned it. Budka Suflera sang about it in A night over Norwid, from the 1976 album I walked amongst you.
Adam Bielecki
Sources:
- Jan Skaradziński, Konrad Wojciechowski, Piosenka musi posiadać tekst i muzykę. 200 najważniejszych utworów polskiego rocka, In Rock Music Press, Czerwonak 2017
- https://www.artrock.pl/recenzje/1310/niemen_czeslaw_niemen_enigmatic.html
- http://www.filmpolski.pl/fp/index.php?osoba=115401
- http://polskienagrania.com.pl/2016/05/24/niemen-czeslaw-niemen-enigmatic/
- https://wolnelektury.pl/katalog/lektura/bema-pamieci-zalobny-rapsod.html