Women-Composers in Poland

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The present article reflects on the shortage of studies concerning music-composing women in the 18th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and focuses on one unique figure among those female musicians – Maria Antonia Walpurgis, an aristocrat of Polish descent, who demonstrated versatile talents. Thoroughly educated in her childhood, she was a poet, composer, singer, and director of her own stage works. This paper discusses the aristocratic artist’s most important experiences and achievements in the field of music, as well as analysing her earliest surviving work, the cycle of <italic>6 Arias for Soprano, Strings and Basso Continuo</italic> (1747), which Walpurgis may well have performed herself. The arias have been preserved in a manuscript kept at the Sächsische Landesbibliothek in Dresden, shelf mark Mus.3119-F-11. My analysis assesses their style and aesthetic.</abstract>

Music-Making Women-Aristocrats

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The article discusses the activities of selected women-composers who worked in Poland in the 19th century. They have been presented in a broad social-political context. Specific historical conditions have been taken into account, which have contributed to the perception of women’s creativity as a mission. The model of women’s activity discussed in the categories of social and political mission influenced the shape and forms of Polish women’s creativity in the first half of the century. In the second half of the century, women’s access to education increased and finally a milieu of professional women-composers emerged. Among them, we should distinguish the group of women born into musical families, due to the fact that some among them took up the profession of composer.</abstract>

Polish Female Composers in the Nineteenth Century

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Polish women-composers of the interwar period (1918–1939) have not been the subject of adequate research so far. We only have some contributory publications and general surveys dedicated to their output. This paper presents the initial results of a study that aims at creating a more multi-sided, in-depth picture of women-composers’ work, including their participation in local and international music life as well as their achievements in the field of composition, the styles and genres practised by selected representatives of this milieu. The paper also discusses the reception of these phenomena in the press of the period. My research leads me to the conclusion that, despite functioning in a kind of ‘parallel world’ in relation to the virtually all-male domain of music composition ‘proper’, the Polish women-composers did penetrate into that world, contributing to its dominant trends and tendencies, from Romantic inspirations to musical modernism, as well as popular music. Their contributions need to be taken into account if we wish fully to reconstruct and appreciate the Polish music created in that period.</abstract>

“Why Are Our Women-Composers So Little Known?”

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The paper is an attempt at a synthetic presentation of the Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz’s (1909–1969) musical output and artistic career, presented against the background of events in her personal life, and of major events in Polish and European history in the first seven decades of the 20th century. Bacewicz was called ‘the Polish Sappho’ already in the years between World Wars I and II, when there were very few women-composers capable of creating works comparable to the most eminent achievements of male composers. Her path to success in composition and as a concert soloist leads from lessons with her father, the Lithuanian Vincas Bacevičius, to studies at the Łódź and Warsaw Conservatories (violin with Józef Jarzębski, composition with Kazimierz Sikorski), and later with Nadia Boulanger at the École Normale de la Musique, as well as violin lessons with André Tourret. Her oeuvre has for many years been linked with neoclassicism, and folkloric inspirations are evident in many of her works. Her crowning achievement in the neoclassical style is the <italic>Concerto for String Orchestra</italic> of 1948, while influences from folklore can distinctly be heard in many concert pieces and small forms. The breakthrough came around 1958, under the influence of avant-garde trends present in West European music, which came to be adapted in Poland thanks to the political transformations and the rejection of socialist realism. In such pieces as <italic>Music for Strings, Trumpets and Percussion</italic> of 1958, Bacewicz transforms her previously fundamental musical components (melody, rhythm, harmony) into a qualitatively new type of sound structures, mainly focused on the coloristic aspects. Grażyna Bacewicz also applied the twelve-note technique, albeit to a limited extent, as in <italic>String Quartet No. 6</italic> (1960). Her last work was the unfinished ballet <italic>Desire</italic> to a libretto by Mieczysław Bibrowski after Pablo Picasso’s play <italic>Le désir attrapé par la queue</italic>.</abstract>

Grażyna Bacewicz – The Polish Sappho

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The paper presents in a synthetic way the phenomena characteristic of Marta Ptaszyńska’s music, and the key qualities of her output. I focus on those topics that have not been sufficiently explored in existing studies, and those that call for a polemical discussion. These include the ideas that underlie Ptaszyńska’s music, the inspirations of her creative process, problems of composition technique, sound language, her style and aesthetic, with particular reference to her supposed links to sonorism. Finally I present an attempt to define the place and significance of Marta Ptaszyńska’s oeuvre in 20th- and 21st-century music.</abstract>

Between Heart and Mind

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This article is a contribution to scientific research on this aspect of Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar’s musical output which concerns the connections between her music and other arts, primarily literature and the visual arts, as well as inspirations flowing from nature, religion, philosophy, and broadly understood culture. The article applies structuralist methodology. The starting point for the analysis of the phenomena in question is the musical work itself, its title and its structure, and in the case of vocal-instrumental works - the content and message of the literary text and the person of its author. In the part of the article which deals with the biography and artistic personality of Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar, as well as by quoting the composer’s own statements in the text, I draw on the personalistic method, especially highly valued in 20th-century philosophy; this method emphasises the role of the human person and personality in analytic work.In the musicological literature to date there exists no separate, large-scale study dedicated to the subject of non-musical inspirations in the works of Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar. This topic has been tackled, however, in scientific dissertations dealing with various aspects of the composer’s work. For example, inspirations from the sphere of the sacrum have been indicated by Marek Stefański (2011), whereas Ewa Mizerska-Golonek (1992) writes about inspirations derived from the Biblical text in Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar’s <italic>Song of Songs</italic>, and Hanna Kostrzewska (2012) discusses painting as a source of inspiration in the composer’s oeuvre. The main source of information on this subject, however, are the composer’s own statements: her ‘Autorefleksja kompozytorska’ [‘The Composer’s Self-Commentary’]<fn id="j_muso-2019-0006_fn_001_w2aab3b7c54b1b6b1aab1c14b2b3Aa" symbol="1">K. Moszumańska-Nazar, ‘Autorefleksja kompozytorska’ [‘The Composer’s Self-Commentary’], in K. Kasperek, <italic>Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar. Katalog tematyczny utworów</italic>, Cracow, Academy of Music, 2004, pp. 149–153.</fn> and interviews.<fn id="j_muso-2019-0006_fn_002_w2aab3b7c54b1b6b1aab1c14b2b5Aa" symbol="2">M. Woźna-Stankiewicz, <italic>Lwowskie geny osobowości twórczej. Rozmowy z Krystyną Moszumańską-Nazar</italic> [<italic>The Lviv Gene of Artistic Personality: Interviews with Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar</italic>], Cracow, Musica Iagellonica, 2007; M. Janicka-Słysz, ‘Z walcem w tle’ [‘With Waltz in the Background’], interview with Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar, <italic>Ruch Muzyczny</italic>, no. 18, 2004, pp. 8–9.</fn></abstract>

Literature and visual arts as a source of inspiration

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The paper presents a survey of the dominant aesthetic and technical qualities of Justyna Kowalska-Lasoń’s output of compositions. The composer’s interests focus on Oriental cultures, depicting nature, correspondences of arts, and on reflecting the sacrum in music. I have discussed her selected works (<italic>Sanctus</italic>, <italic>The Modern Man I Sing</italic>; <italic>These Phrases</italic>… <italic>These Songs</italic>... <italic>These Arias</italic>..., <italic>IMAGE 1929</italic>). On the basis of brief analyses of some of Kowalska-Lasoń’s compositions, I have defined her artistic stance and technique and postmodernist, neo-sonoristic sensualism. The distinguishing features of her music are: an open attitude to musical form, to the canon of narrative continuity, to aleatoricism and strict notation, as well as to the degree of correlation between chromatic and diatonic writing. The artist herself considers the epithet ‘nomadic’ as relevant to the character of her works, which are conceived as having a symbolic function.My composer portrait has been complemented with a list of Kowalska-Lasoń’s selected works, awards, performances, and her students’ achievements.</abstract>

Justyna Kowalska-Lasoń: A Portrait with a Caravan in the Background

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 20 (2023): Issue 1 (December 2023)

Volume 19 (2022): Issue 1 (December 2022)

Volume 18 (2021): Issue 1 (December 2021) Pasticcio. Ways of arranging attractive operas

Volume 17 (2020): Issue 1 (December 2020)

Volume 16 (2019): Issue 1 (December 2019) Women-Composers in Poland

Volume 15 (2018): Issue 1 (December 2018) Deconstructing the Myth of Polishness in Music

Volume 14 (2017): Issue 1 (December 2017) ‘Warsaw Autumn’ International Festival of Contemporary Music

Volume 13 (2016): Issue 1 (December 2016) [Polish] Musicology Today

Volume 12 (2015): Issue 1 (December 2015) The Musical Languages of Contemporary Polish Composers: Self-Reflections

Volume 11 (2014): Issue 1 (December 2014) Oskar Kolberg

Volume 10 (2013): Issue 1 (December 2013) Musical Historiography in Poland. New Sources – New Methodologies

Musicology Today

 ISSN - 1734-1663eISSN - 2353-5733  Musicology Today is a double-blind peer reviewed journal published since 2004 by the Institute of Musicology, University of Warsaw and the Union of Polish Composers, Poland.  The main objective of Musicology Today is to provide an intellectual platform for international scholars and to promote interdisciplinary studies in musicology. We publish articles in the fields of historical musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory, and other sub-disciplines of musicology. The journal is a forum for research in all areas of music scholarship, seeking to reflect the breadth and diversity of approaches and topics. Musicology Today distinctly promotes studies on Central and Eastern European music and aims to become a leading musicological journal in this part of the world. Special issues devoted to important topics within Central and Eastern European musicology are occasionally published.  Why read Musicology Today?   Musicology Today is a valuable source of information from different branches of musicology providing a wide array of high-quality original articles;  The journal is a platform for exchanging ideas among international scholars with a particular focus on musical culture in Central and Eastern Europe;  The articles cover a wide spectrum of scholarly activity, including works of young scholars;  The articles are published after a double-blind peer review provided by international experts on the subject and the Scientific Committee;  Musicology Today strives for high-resolution publishing quality.   Why submit your research to Musicology Today?   Musicology Today invites scholars to submit articles in all branches of musicology, including historical musicology, ethnomusicology, and music theory. We especially encourage submissions from scholars of Central and Eastern Europe;  The articles are published after double-blind peer review provided by subject experts;  The articles of both Polish and foreign authors are always up-to-date, original, have never been printed before in other academic publications, and reflect high academic standards;  Online indexing guarantees the worldwide distribution and promotion of the authors’ academic achievements;  Free language assistance is provided for authors from non-English speaking countries;  The editors provide a fast route through the publication process and full access to DeGruyter e-technology.   Polish Government Financial SupportCo-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund – a special purpose state fund.  Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process.   PREVIOUS ISSUESmusicologytoday.hist.plwww.imuz.uw.edu.pl/index.php/pl/2013-03-09-17-43-16/musicology-today

Volume 16 (2019): Issue 1 (December 2019) - Women-Composers in Poland

Musicology Today

Volume 16 (2019): Issue 1 (December 2019)

Women-Composers in Poland

Women-Composers in Poland

Music-Making Women-Aristocrats

Polish Female Composers in the Nineteenth Century

“Why Are Our Women-Composers So Little Known?”

Grażyna Bacewicz – The Polish Sappho

Between Heart and Mind

Literature and visual arts as a source of inspiration

Justyna Kowalska-Lasoń: A Portrait with a Caravan in the Background

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