[Polish] Musicology Today

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Some of Fryderyk Chopin’s letters were published individually or in groups already in the 2nd half of the 19th century. With the passage of time, more letters from and to Chopin were printed in monographs dedicated to his life and work. The first editions of Chopin’s collected letters come from the 1st half of the 20th century (by Scharlitt and von Guttry in Germany, Henryk Opieński – in Poland). B.E. Sydow’s <italic>Fryderyk Chopin’s Correspondence</italic> of 1955 continues to be used as the basic source edition by Chopin biographers. It has many strong points, but has become largely outdated.The research project dedicated to the new source edition of Chopin’s correspondence is implemented at the Institute of Musicology, University of Warsaw by Zofia Helman, Zbigniew Skowron and Hanna Wróblewska-Straus. It aims to edit and publish all the preserved letters written to and from Chopin. As a result of many historical cataclysms in the 19th and 20th centuries, some of Chopin’s letters have been lost or dispersed. Our edition consists of 3 volumes (Vol. I – Warszawa 2009, Vol. II – in print, Vol. III – in preparation). All the letters have been edited from sources: the preserved autographs by Chopin and other persons, autograph reproductions in various publications (if the original is now lost or inaccessible), and if reproductions are also unavailable – on the basis of a selected edition (not necessarily the first). Our edition is also the first to include summaries of lost letters to Chopin (based on Karłowicz’s publication of 1904). In comparison with earlier editions, the number of published letters has increased, and we added descriptions of the autograph sources that we used as the basis for our edition. Earlier dating of letters which contain no date in the manuscript has been verified, and some dates – changed or established for the first time. Commentaries and notes accompanying the letters are significantly more extensive in this edition than in any previous one, and they include: remarks on text edition, biographical notes for persons mentioned in the letters, explanations concerning places, identification of musical and literary works, theatrical plays and other works of art referred to in the letters; historical commentary on the events described; information concerning cultural life (concerts, opera and theatre performances). We have frequently had to confront confabulated material repeated for many years in musicological studies and deeply rooted in collective awareness. We have also corrected numerous misspelt surnames and thus pointed to the true identity of many hitherto unidentified figures.Our research on the letters has made it possible to establish or confirm some facts from Chopin’s life, such as new details of his stays in Munich and Stuttgart on the way to Paris in 1831, the exact date of his arrival in Paris (5th October 1831), details of Chopin and Hiller’s trip to Aachen to the music festival of the Lower Rhine, to Düsseldorf (in May 1834), as well as the definite date of the Polish concert in the Parisian Théâtre-Italien (4th April 1835).</abstract>

The New Edition of Chopin’s Correspondence

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This paper presents the results of the most recent research concerning Witold Lutosławski’s artistic self-awareness, based on critical source editions of Lutosławski’s writings (publ. 2007–08). In the first part I discuss the edition of the composer’s ‘official’ writings contained in the collection <italic>Lutosławski on Music</italic>. These writings provide us with knowledge of the key elements of Lutosławski’s compositional technique and aesthetic principles, his attitude towards new music, and also to various problems of contemporary music culture in Poland and abroad. The second part of the article concerns Lutosławski’s notes contained in what is known as the <italic>Notebook of Ideas</italic>. Written in a characteristically personal tone, they illustrate the transformation of the composer’s artistic self-awareness that took place in the late 1950s and the early 1960s, when Lutosławski’s individual musical language was taking shape. The <italic>Notebook of Ideas</italic> sheds light, amongst other things, on the circumstances of composing <italic>Jeux vénitiens</italic> – the first work that puts into practice Lutosławski’s vision of twelve-tone harmony and controlled aleatorism.</abstract>

On Witold Lutosławski’s Artistic Self-Awareness. A Survey of Very Recent Research

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The paper presents the research project coordinated by the University of Warsaw and financed by the Minister of Science and Higher Education as part of the “Tradition 1a” module of the National Programme for the Development of Humanities. The main task of this research project is the documentation of the Jesuit music repertory produced and disseminated on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.The results of the project work will be published in a new editorial series, which will include catalogues of sources and music iconography, monographs, databases and critical editions of music-related sources of Jesuit provenience. The publications will appear in print and on-line.The expected research results will serve not only musicologists, but also representatives of other fields of humanities. The work of the international research team is hoped to restore to the national heritage the forgotten monuments of Jesuit musical culture and should lead to a reliable assessment of their historical value.The results of the research of the international team of scientists will influence the present-day sense of identity of the countries which in the past jointly formed the literary culture our Commonwealth.</abstract>

The Music Repertoire of the Society of Jesus in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1565–1773)

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Research on 18th-century music has been one of the key areas of interest for musicologists ever since the beginnings of musicological studies in Poland. It initially developed along two distinct lines: general music history (with publications mostly in foreign languages) and local history (mostly in Polish). In the last three decades the dominant tendency among Polish researchers has been, however, to relate problems of 18th-century Polish musical culture to the political history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and more generally – to the political history of Central Europe at large. The most important subjects taken up in research on 18th-century music include: the musical cultures of the royal court in 18th-century Warsaw (primarily in the works of Alina Żórawska-Witkowska) as well as Polish aristocratic residences (e.g. studies by Szymon Paczkowski and Irena Bieńkowska), the ecclesiastical and monastic circles (publications by Alina Mądry, Paweł Podejko, Remigiusz Pośpiech and Tomasz Jeż); problems of musical style (texts by Szymon Paczkowski); research on sources containing music by European composers (e.g. by Johann Adolf Hasse); the musical culture of cities (of Gdańsk, first and foremost); studies concerning the transfer of music and music-related materials, the musical centres and peripheries, etc.</abstract>

Research on 18th Century Music in Poland. An Introduction

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The paper is a survey of research on music in territories of occupied Poland conducted by the author in recent years, as well as a review of selected existing literature on this topic. A case study illustrates a principal thesis of this essay according to which music was used by the German Nazis in the General Government as a key elements of propaganda and in appropriation of conquered territories as both physical and symbolic spaces.</abstract>

Music in Nazi-Occupied Poland between 1939 and 1945

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The following dances are most commonly considered nowadays as national dances (or emblems of Polish national culture): the polonaise, the mazur, the krakowiak, the oberek and the kujawiak. These dances form the cultural canon as defined by Andrzej Szpociński (i.e. a constantly revised part of tradition which carries significance outside the domain of dance and is obligatory for all the community members). In Polish musicological studies it has been emphasised that the phenomenon of stereotypisation of native folklore has played a major role in the formation and emergence of emblematic national phenomena. However, some of the phenomena and processes that have taken place during the formation and revision of the national canon cannot be reduced to the idea of creating a stereotype. The author of this paper draws on Maria Janion’s treatment of the categories of myth and phantasm, which can be much more useful for the interpretation especially of borderline or clearly alien phenomena that have frequently found their way into the Polish national dance canon and played a very important role in that canon. The author also discusses the changing functions of dances from the canon, which resulted from external circumstances determined by political events and social processes.</abstract>

National Dances in the Canon of Polish Culture

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The article presents a survey of research on popular music carried out at the Institute of Musicology, University of Warsaw. It discusses the contents of valuable studies undertaken at the Institute but still unpublished and kept at the Library of the Institute of Musicology. The authors’ aim has been to facilitate the exchange of ideas with other musicological centres conducting research on popular music, as well as providing other musicologists and scholars working in the field with an overview the research undertaken to date.Popular music will be defined here as music composed in the 20th and 21st centuries, circulating in mass distribution in the form of various types of recordings, as well as performed in music clubs and at outdoor events; music that has its roots in jazz on the one hand and the youth revolution of the 1950s (the rise of rock and roll) on the other. We present a survey of B.A. and M.A. theses discussed under a number of key headings (jazz, folk, rock/pop, and electronic music, as well as works dealing with popular music in the context of research into musical culture at large). We also describe the University’s study framework, which was the original context for those texts.Our survey of the library holdings reveals an unexpectedly large body of writings on popular music submitted for a degree at the Institute of Musicology, University of Warsaw. The research has already opened many doors, defined and more than outlined many fields of study, describing them in quite a detailed manner. This is obviously good news: the existing works pose new questions, highlight areas of controversy, and suggest new research methods. In due course, the research has also begun to yield PhD dissertations written on this subject at the Institute.</abstract>

Research on Popular Music conducted at the Institute of Musicology of the University of Warsaw in 1953–2015

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This paper describes the process of establishing rock and roll styles and genres (as defined by Allan F. Moore) in Polish musical culture. My Ph.D. research has revealed three phases in this process. Phase 1: imitation (1957-1962), phase 2: Polonisation (1962-1967) and phase 3: artistic re-interpretation (1967-1973). I present the detailed characteristics of each phase (i.e. their socio-political context, the phenomenon of cover versions, the fusion of rock and roll with local folk music, the development of original artistic language) as well as providing musical examples (mostly from Czesław Niemen’s recordings, which remain one of the most interesting examples of Polish popular music).</abstract>

Rock and Roll Styles and Genres in Poland (1957–1973)

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

Musicology Today

Volume 13 (2016): Issue 1 (December 2016)

[Polish] Musicology Today

[Polish] Musicology Today

The New Edition of Chopin’s Correspondence

On Witold Lutosławski’s Artistic Self-Awareness. A Survey of Very Recent Research

The Music Repertoire of the Society of Jesus in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1565–1773)

Research on 18^th Century Music in Poland. An Introduction

Music in Nazi-Occupied Poland between 1939 and 1945

National Dances in the Canon of Polish Culture

Research on Popular Music conducted at the Institute of Musicology of the University of Warsaw in 1953–2015

Rock and Roll Styles and Genres in Poland (1957–1973)

Chercher

Tous les volumes et éditions dans cette revue