Priest Idzi Ogierman-Mański SDB, musician composer, author of religious music

Abstract

50th anniversary of tragic death of father Idzi Mański in Tatry Mountains brings back the memories about this salesian, musician, composer, teacher and mentor. We remember his distinctive, complete personality, musical talent, someone with wide horizons looking at the world from perspective of humanist and priest. On that basis he appears above all as a composer of mostly but not only religious music. His unique charisma of artist – composer amazes and fascinates us being heirs to his talent, nobility, humbleness and transparent humanity. Father Manski’s work is in many ways a phenomenon on the scale of broad spectrum of publicly available artistic work in the area of religious music in Poland. Almost his entire artistic work is in the form of manuscripts, which he would loan, pass on or give them away, and some were lost. Predatory communist system was destructive for the culture. It would not only censure but downright not allow the publication of the work of writers, poets, musicians. Such was the reality that father Manski had to live in. Creative musical work: organ, choral – religious and secular on piano and other instruments belongs to a highly sublime creative work with characteristic workbench presenting ample contrapunctuate harmonics with perfect melodics embedded in harmonic constructions based on mathematical logic, in which we find charm, passion, and wide world of musical beauty.