The Strategy of “Controlled Reception” in Witold Lutosławski’s Commentaries on his own Works

Witold Lutosławski’s commentaries on his own music are often defective in many regards. These defects could be explained as resulting from a strategy according to which the aim of a commentary is not to provide a truthful description of musical phenomena but to form a desired image of a composition or a musical style in the minds of the listeners. This idea of ‘controlled reception’ was clearly outlined by the famous Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz (whose writings Lutosławski knew and highly appreciated) and is especially noticeable in the composer’s remarks on “controlled aleatoricism”, “thin textures” and the connections between his music and the twelve-tone technique. The view of reception of art common to Gombrowicz and Lutosławski could be characterised in the writer’s own words: A style that cannot defend itself before human judgment, that surrenders its creator to the ill will of any old imbecile, does not fulfil its most important assignment. [...] the idiot’s opinion is also significant. It also creates us, shapes us from inside out, and has far-reaching practical and vital consequences. [...] Literature [art in general - note by M.K.] has a dual significance and a dual root: it is born of pure artistic contemplation [...], but it is also an author’s personal settling of accounts with people, an instrument in the battle waged for a spiritual existence.