The ISCM World new Music Days 2013

Transcription

World New Music Magazine, edition 2014 Vol. No. 24
Polska Music Now, edition 2014 Vol. No. 2
Publishers:
International Society for Contemporary Music
Loevenhoutsedijk 301
3552 XE Utrecht, The Netherlands
www.iscm.org
Polish Society for Contemporary Music – the ISCM Polish Section
Mazowiecka 11
00-052 Warsaw
Poland
www.ptmw.art.pl
Co-publishers:
Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Wrocław Municipality
Acknowledgements:
Magdalena Lesiak, Robert Ciechanowski, Izabela Duchnowska, The Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC, Mieczysław
Kominek, Izabela Zymer, Tomasz Zymer, Polish Composers’ Union, Krystian Kiełb, Anna Granat-Janki, For Tune, Ryszard
Wojciul, Wrocław Opera, Anna Leniart, National Forum of Music, Andrzej Kosendiak, IMIT, Andrzej Kosowski, Ruch Muzyczny,
Beata Chłopecka, Dorota Szwarcman, Małgorzata Grudzień, Darek Komorek, Konrad Kalbarczyk, Arthur van der Drift, Croatian
Composers’ Society, Dubravko Detoni, Irena Lányiova, MusikTexte, Gisela Gronemeyer-Oehlschlägel, Rainer Nonnenmann,
Zygmunt Krauze, Michael Finissy, Richard Tsang, John Davies, Stefan Fricke, Nina Polaschegg, Bruno Strobl, Michał Szostało,
Cara Thornton, Hanna Stoppel, Nina Calopek, Odra Magazine, Mieczysław Orski
Editor-in-Chief: Anna Dorota Władyczka
Editorial Secretary: Magdalena Lesiak
Graphic Design: Agnieszka Ćwikła
Technical redaction and settings: Natalia Wielęgowska
Publisher of Polska Music Now
ul. Mokotowska 25
00-560 Warszawa
Poland
www.iam.pl
www.culture.pl
Polska Music Program Manager: Ewa Bogusz-Moore
Project Coordination: Zofia Barańska, Katarzyna Świętochowska
Texts: Filip Lech
Translation and Proofreading: Michał Szostało, Cara Thornton
Design: Marcin Łagocki
Cooperation: Joanna Peryt, Piotr Wrona
Copyright © 2014 by World New Music Magazine, the authors, photographers and translators.
All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without permission from the authors.
ISSN: 1019-7117
Calendar of Events 2013/2014
© Adam Mickiewicz Institute
ISBN 978-83-60263-09-4
Distribution: World New Music Magazine has been published annually since 1991 by the International Society for Contemporary
Music [ISCM]. The magazine is distributed worldwide by ISCM and via its member organizations.
First printed in Poland, 2014
Foreword
By Peter Swinnen, President, ISCM Executive Committee
This edition of the ISCM World New Music
Magazine takes as its theme the host city
and country for the 2014 ISCM World Music
Days Festival, Wroclaw, Poland. Not only
does it contain a fascinating description of
contemporary music life today, it also provides
a historical perspective on the long lasting
intensive connection between the Polish
music scene and the International Society for
Contemporary Music, since its early existence.
And it pays tribute to our Honorary Member
Reinhard Oehlschlägel, who passed away
this year. As such, it is a precious document,
testimony of the present as well as the past, for
future music enthusiasts to discover, for us all
to cherish.
I thank the team who compiled and contributed
to this collection, and wish you much pleasure
in reading it.
Riin Eensalu, Arthur van der Drift, John Davies, Peter
Swinnen and Alper Maral – Executive Committee of the
ISCM, during General Assembly - the ISCM World New
Music Days in Vienna, 2013 (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)
Peter Swinnen – composer, cellist, teacher of composition,
cello and theory of music. Education: Royal Conservatory of
Brussels (1983–1992) – “Premier Prix” for, among others, “History
of Music”, “Cello”, “Chamber Music”, “Practical Harmony” and
“Composition”; Queen Elisabeth College of Music in Waterloo
(Belgium) – master degree for Composition with Mr. A. Laporte
(1989–1992); Master Classes with Mr. M. Finnissy (1993) and Mr.
B. Ferneyhough (1998); VUB (2008–2009) – “Doctor in the Arts”
with Dr J.P. Van Bendegem. He is member of the Union of Belgian
Composers since 1993, vice president of the Componisten
Archipel Vlaanderen 2004–2011, founding member and
president of ISCM-Vlaanderen 2005–2013, member of the ISCM
Executive Committee since 2007, vice-president since 2008,
president since 2013. Compositions include solo works and
chamber music pieces for diverse instruments (incl. electronic),
lieder, tone poems for large orchestra, symphonies, concerti,
cantatas, ballets, films and music theatre. Many of them are
recorded (radio, TV and CD). First performances in Festival of
Peter Swinnen during the ISCM World New Music Days in
Vienna, 2013 (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)
Flanders, Ars Musica, Wien Modern, International Fryderyk
Chopin Festival, World Carillon Congres, SMCQ, ISCM WMD...
3
From the Editor
When will people finally understand that
art does not just appear out of nowhere, that all
artists are aristocrats who must have behind
them those 12 generations comprised of Bachs
and Beethovens (if they are musicians), Sophocles
and Shakespeare (if they are dramatic poets), and
if […] they deny their ancestors or don’t have any
at all, then despite even the greatest talent, they
will be at best idiot bunglers…2
Karol Szymanowski
The author of the above-cited words is Karol
Szymanowski, the first Honorary Member of
the ISCM. Many years ago, that quote impressed
itself deeply upon my memory, for it is not only
the quintessence of Szymanowski’s artistic
attitude, but also a superb point of reference
for a music historian’s view of contemporary
music. It also illustrates the editorial concept
of this year’s World New Music Magazine, in
which the past intermingles with the present,
and many issues touched upon in the past
continue to be amazingly current – starting
with the definition of contemporary music,
and ending with disputes concerning equal
representation of the individual ISCM Sections
on festival programs.
The entire international contemporary
music world knows such names as Karol
Szymanowski, Witold Lutosławski, Andrzej
Panufnik, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Krzysztof
Penderecki and Zygmunt Krauze. However,
Polish contemporary music is a lot more than
just that… And this is the truth with which we
would like to acquaint you more closely in our
magazine.
In it, you will find texts of historical
character, documentation concerning previous
ISCM festivals in Poland, a presentation of
certain musical institutions. Particularly
noteworthy is the presentation of programs to
support contemporary music – in particular,
one of the most spectacular and innovative
systems for commissioning compositions.
2 Karol Szymanowski, Korespondencja. Pwełna edycja zachowanych listów
od i do kompozytora [Karol Szymanowski, Correspondence. Complete
Edition of Surviving Letters from and to the Composer], vol. 1 1903–1919.
Collected and prepared for publication by T. Chylińska, PWM Edition,
Kraków 1982. Excerpt from letter of Karol Szymanowski to Zdzisław
Jachimecki in Kraków – Tymoszówka, 4 December 1910, p. 245.
4
World New Music Magazine 24 • Polska Music Now 2
The wealth of contemporary music being
written in Poland can be seen from the number
of meetings and festivals being organized, as
well of discs being released. The Polska Music
Now calendar is a program documenting the
everyday life of contemporary music in Poland.
We owe this section to our collaboration with
the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. The calendar
contains facts, data and information in brief
outline form. Examples of items released on
disc are to be found on two CDs appended to
the magazine, which represent a selection
from the catalogs of two labels – Polmic and
For Tune.
The lion’s share of our publication has
been devoted to the history of the Polish
Society for Contemporary Music and the
ISCM festivals in Poland. Without doubt,
particularly noteworthy is a translation of
excerpts from Anton Haefeli’s monumental
work Die Internationale Gesellschaft für
Neue Musik (IGNM). Ihre Geschichte von
1922 bis zur Gegenwart [The International
Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM): Its
History from 1922 to the Present], including
an extraordinary description of the efforts,
intrigues and scandals that accompanied the
organization of one of the first ISCM festivals
in Poland in 1939, as well as the boycott of the
1968, together with the boycott of the boycott.
Also to be found in the calendar are
mentions of those who have passed away.
I would like to draw your attention to the
person of Włodzimierz Kotoński, who died on
4 September 2014. This figure – a distinguished
composer, precursor of electronic music and
pedagogue – is particularly close to the heart
of the Polish Society for Contemporary Music.
He was president of the PSCM from 1982 to 1989
and, for many years, an Honorary Member.
The passing of Reinhard Oehlschlägel on
29 April 2014 is a painful loss for the ISCM.
For this reason, a considerable portion of our
magazine is a reminiscence concerning his
person and reflections, as well as the role he
played in contemporary music and in the life
of our association. But his credits also include
founding the World New Music Magazine and
editing it between 1991 and 2005.
An important part of the WNMM is
a discussion of last year’s festival. This year,
aside from the traditional reports, we are
publishing a short account prepared by the
festival’s organizers. It is a valuable historical
source and, I hope, encouragement to all future
organizers to prepare a similar document,
which was once standard for the ISCM. An
interesting example illustrating this thesis is
the reprinting of the organizers’ report from
the ISCM World Music Days in Warsaw in 1992.
I am very pleased that a bit of our Polish
history will reach you this year, when the next
festival is being organized in Poland, in my
hometown of Wrocław. It is for this reason
that the article about Wrocław composers
is so important. After the experiences of the
festival in Warsaw in 1992, I can say that
dreams do come true – my idea to organize this
year’s festival, in this place, has come true, for
which I would yet again like to thank the coorganizers, partners and friends of our festival,
in particular, Wrocław City Hall.
environmental protection consultant. She
holds a degree from the University of Warsaw
Institute of Musicology, having defended
a Master’s thesis written under the direction of
Prof. Zofia Helman, entitled Analiza związków
słowno-muzycznych w Trzech fragmentach
z poematów Jana Kasprowicza Karola
Szymanowskiego [An Analysis of Word–Music
Relationships in Karol Szymanowski’s Three
Fragments from Poems by Jan Kasprowicz].
The creator and co-creator of many important
artistic events, she has also served many times
as a juror at composition and performance
competitions. Since 1989, Anna Dorota
Władyczka has been secretary of the board
of the PSCM. From 2002 to 2004, she was
a member of the ISCM Executive Committee.
Translated by Cara Thornton
I would also like to very warmly thank all
who have contributed to the publication of this
periodical – the people and institutions who
have been involved in preparing materials. The
final form of the periodical is our joint work.
Anna Dorota Władyczka (photo from the Author’s private
collection)
Anna Dorota Władyczka (b. 1964) is
a musicologist specializing in and activist
on behalf of contemporary music, a person
responsible for programming and organizing
contemporary music events, and an
5
Table of contents
Foreword by John Davis 3
From the Editor
by Anna Dorota Władyczka 4
I
Polska Music Now
Calendar of Events 2013/2014 8
II
Contemporary music in Poland and in
Wrocław
De musica Silesiae. The Phenomenon of the
Wrocław School of Composition
by Anna Granat-Janki 40
IV
The ISCM festival in 2013
Music, cultural exchanges, and chandeliers,
Reflections on the ISCM World New Music Days
by Glenda Keam (New Zealand section) 102
The ISCM World New Music Days 2013
by Barbara Jazwinski 104
Demanding real transcendence – Report on the
World New Music Days 2013 in Košice, Bratislava
and Vienna
by Chris van Rhyn,
ISCM South African Section 107
For Tune – the publisher of ambitious music
by Ryszard Wojciul 48
The ISCM World New Music Days 2013
by Irena Lányiová and Bruno Strobl 110
POLMIC presents “Polish Music Today – An
Anthology”
by Izabela Zymer 54
V
Reinhard Oehlschlägel in memoriam
(1936–2014)
Between the Garden and the Kingdom
by Jacek Marczyński 61
On the Difficulty of Understanding Music from
Other Continents
by Reinhard Oehlschlägel 114
About a city that survived
by Dorota Kozińska 67
Composing commissions
by Maria Peryt 73
III
The ISCM festivals in Poland
Karol Szymanowski and the International Society
for Contemporary Music: 1923–1939
by Andrzej Chłopecki 78
Double live of the Polish Society for Contemporary
Music
by Dorota Szwarcman 86
Die Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik
(IGNM). Ihre Geschichte von 1922 bis zur
Gegenwart
[The International Society for Contemporary
Music (ISCM): Its History from 1922 to the Present]
– excerpts
by Anton Haefeli 88
The World Music Days Warsaw
Organizer’s Report 96
From my WNMD diaries Warsaw, May 1992
98
by Dubravko Detoni A Selfless Egocentric. Reminiscences of Reinhard
Oehlschlägel (1936–2014)
by Rainer Nonnenmann 117
My encounters with
Reinchard
by Zygmunt Krauze 123
Man with a mission
by Michael Finnissy 124
Remembering Rheinhard
by Richard Tsang 125
Reinhard and ISCM – some personal reflections
by John Davis 126
Reinhard Oehschlägel is dead
by Stefan Fricke 127
A Life Dedicated to Music –Reinhard Oelschlägel
(1936–2014)
by Nina Polaschegg 129
A Life Dedicated to Music –Reinhard Oelschlägel
(1936–2014)
by Bruno Strobl 130
VI
The ISCM information
About the ISCM 132
Ewa Bogusz-Moore © Radek Polak
The Polska Music program actively supports performances of Polish
classical music by renowned international artists worldwide,
aiming to increase its popularity across the globe.
As well as initiating international stage productions and concerts,
commissioning new work, and nurturing contemporary composers,
Polska Music also promotes recordings, books and events.
The Polska Music Now Calendar which you now have before you
contains the most important phenomena in Polish contemporary
music from the last twelve months. It is a resultant of various points
of view – we present events singled out by representatives of Polish
cultural institutions, NGOs, music critics, journalists, composers
and performers. This joint retrospective paints us a picture of the
tendencies, coincidences and relationships that are appearing,
as well as the directions in which Polish composers and artists
are currently moving.
I hope that the Polska Music Now Calendar – that, as it were,
musical almanac – will be an essential information source
acquainting you more closely with the dynamics and diversity
of today’s music scene in Poland.
Ewa Bogusz-Moore
manager
Polska Music program
Calendar
of Events
2013/14
2013
June
Marcin Masecki © Tomasz Dubiel
_concert
Lutofusions
organizers: Witold Lutosławski Society,
Muzyka jest dla wszystkich Foundation
curators: Marcin Masecki, Viola Łabanow-Jastrząb,
Tomasz Pokrzywiński
performers: Marcin Masecki (keyboards), Jerzy Rogiewicz
(drums), Marcin Lenarczyk (DJ Lenar), Tomasz Pokrzywiński
(’cello), Michał Górczyński (clarinet, saxophone), DJ Papa
Zura, DJ Envee, Fluidacje: Marcin and Tomasz Ebert
(analog visuals)
place: Lublin
marcinmasecki.com
Marcin Stańczyk © Aleksandra Chciuk
_award
Witold Lutosławski Scholarship
bit.do/fluidacje
Lutofusions was an attempt to update and popularize the
output of Witold Lutosławski. During the first concert,
musicians from the avant-garde and electronic scene played
a live act inspired by the music and thought of Lutosławski;
the second day, they put on a musical happening.
laureate: Marcin Stańczyk (composer)
founders: Lutosławski family, Witold Lutosławski Society
marcinstanczyk.com
lutoslawski.org.pl
listen: soundcloud.com/marcinstanczyk
Composer Marcin Stańczyk, born in 1977, received the Witold
Lutosławski Scholarship for a second time. In the academic
year 2011/2012, thanks to this scholarship, he participated in
music technology and acoustics courses run by the Parisian
IRCAM institute, which he continued in the 2013/2014 season.
_film
Wojciech Kilar. Credo
producer: TVP Katowice
director: Violetta Rotter-Kozera
wojciechkilar.pl
bit.do/culture-kilar
watch: bit.do/kilar-credo
The film Wojciech Kilar. Credo is an attempt to introduce
the viewer to the personality of an artist who did not look
to current movements or trends in music. The film utilizes
never-before-published materials from the composer’s
archives. The photos were taken at the Jasna Góra Monastery,
as well as in Lviv, Vorokhta, Paris and Seville.
10
Polska Music Now 2
July
_award
Orphées d’Or 2013
laureates: DVD Madame Curie (composer: Elżbieta Sikora),
DVD Manru (composer: Ignacy Jan Paderewski)
publisher: DUX
founder: Académie du Disque Lyrique (France)
place: Paris
bit.do/culture-orpheedor
dux.pl
listen: bit.do/ninateka-madamecurie
Manru (world première 1901) is the only operatic work in the
output of pianist, composer and Prime Minister of the Second
Republic of Poland Ignacy Jan Paderewski; furthermore, it
is the only Polish opera to have found its way onto the stage
of the Metropolitan Opera. The composer based his work on
gypsy and highland motifs. Elżbieta Sikora has presented
Marie Curie as a normal human being – extraordinarily
dynamic and strong, but torn by emotions, suffering from
severe depression.
Mikołaj Górecki © Mariusz Makowski/EUTERPE Music
Publishing House Archives www.euterpe.pl
_composition
Titanic
_festival
composer: Mikołaj Górecki
performers: Silesian Trio
commissioned by: Institute of Music and Dance as part of
the Collections – Commissioned Compositions program
première: 36th Karol Szymanowski Music Days
place: Zakopane
2nd LDZ Music Festival
mikolajgorecki.pl
curator: Wojciech Krasowski
organizer: LDZ Music Festival
place: Łódź
ldzfestival.pl
LDZ is a small festival whose aim is to promote Polish
independent music. The participants in the event’s 2nd edition
included Recognition Records founder Jacek Sienkiewicz,
visual artist and performer Wojciech Bąkowski, and the BNNT
group directed by Konrad Smoleński, the author of the design
that represented Poland at the 55th Art Biennial in Venice.
bit.do/ninateka-mgorecki-titanic
Titanic for clarinet, horn and piano is a piece inspired by
the tragedy of the British cruise liner. In Górecki’s work, we
hear the inspiration of American popular music from the
beginning of the 20th century, for example ragtime.
August
_festival
Polish Music at the BBC Proms
composers: Witold Lutosławski, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki,
Andrzej Panufnik, Krzysztof Penderecki, Karol Szymanowski
curator: Roger Wright
organizer: BBC Radio
place: Royal Albert Hall, London
bit.do/bbclutoslawski
This was the first such broad-scale presentation of Polish
music – above all, contemporary, but also Renaissance – to
take place at the BBC Proms. During last year’s edition, Polish
artists, among others the Warsaw Philharmonic under the
baton of Antoni Wit, also made their debuts.
polskamusic.iam.pl
11
_opera
Maria
composer: Roman Statkowski
director: Michael Gieleta
libretto: Roman Statkowski
conductor: Łukasz Borowicz
organizer: Baltic Opera in Gdańsk, Wexford Festival
place: Baltic Opera, Gdańsk
bit.do/culture-statkowski
listen: bit.do/ninateka-maria
Roman Statkowski is, aside from Karol Szymanowski, the
most important Polish composer from the turn of the 20th
century. The opera’s libretto is based on Antoni Malczewski’s
Romantic poem; its contemporary adaptation alludes to
the story of the martial law period. Thanks to support from
the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music
program, Maria was premièred at the Wexford Festival Opera
in 2011 in Ireland.
Katarina Głowicka © Mathis Nitschke
September
_festival
Gaudeamus Muziekweek 2013
_CD
Liliana Górska: Baird – Krauze
– Bruzdowicz – Łuciuk
composers: Tadeusz Baird, Zygmunt Krauze,
Joanna Bruzdowicz, Juliusz Łuciuk
performers: Liliana Górska (mezzo-soprano), Katarzyna
Bojaruniec (conductor), Dorota Dąbrowska (flute), Anna
Gadzińska (flute), Krzysztof Koziatek (’cello), Marcin
Kucharzewski (piano), Anna Mikolon (piano), Artur Milian
(violin), Mariusz Mruczek (’cello), Aleksandra Pyrcz (flute),
Piotr Sutt (percussion)
publisher: Acte Prealable
acteprealable.com
listen: bit.do/liliana-gorska
12
Polska Music Now 2
composers: Mikołaj Laskowski (Na), Dariusz Przybylski
(Chamber Concerto), Katarina Głowicka (Music in 3 Parts:
Wind, Ether, Fire)
performers: orkest de ereprijs & Orchestra of the
21st Century, International Ensemble Modern Academy
muziekweek.nl
listen: soundcloud.com/mikolajlaskowski/na
listen: soundcloud.com/kasiata/music-in-3movements-1
Na for orchestra and two voices is Mikołaj Laskowski’s
most recent composition. The composer is a member
of the sultan hagavik duo, the entire instrumentarium of
which is represented by tape recorders and Walkmans, on
which they mix and distort old tapes. Dariusz Przybylski’s
Chamber Concerto is a work scored for an ensemble of
15 instrumentalists, each of whom has received a part in
which s/he can display him/herself as a soloist. In the poetic
15-minute work Music in 3 Parts, written for the combined
forces of two orchestras, composer Katarina Głowicka plays
electronics together with renowned French DJ Philippe Petit.
56. Warszawska Jesień © Adam Dudek/Delikatesy Frykasy
_CD
El Derwid: Blots on the Sun
composer: Witold Lutosławski
performers / arr.: Andrzej Bauer (’cello),
Cezary Duchnowski (piano, computer), Agata Zubel (voice)
publisher: CD Accord
cdaccord.pl
elettrovoce.com
listen: bit.do/elderwid-elettrovoce
Derwid was Lutosławski’s pseudonym, used when the
composer wrote popular works. His songs have been
performed by the greatest stars of the Polish concert stage
– Mieczysław Fogg, Violetta Villas, Kalina Jędrusik – even
though the artist never spoke of his pseudonymous past.
The trio El Derwid has told this story in the language of
electroacoustic music.
_festival
56th Warsaw Autumn International
Festival of Contemporary Music
Agata Zubel © Tomasz Kulak
director: Tadeusz Wielecki
organizer: Polish Composers’ Union
place: Warsaw
bit.do/56-warszawska-jesien
_composition
IN
composer: Agata Zubel
preformers: Lower Saxony State Orchestra Hannover,
Karen Kamensek (conductor)
commissioned by: Hannoverschen Gesellschaft
für Neue Musik
première: Hannover Staatsoper, Hannover
zubel.pl
bit.do/culture-zubel
The program of the Festival’s 56th edition was guided by the
watchword of combining the past with youth. Representing
an important point of the program were three anniversaries:
Lutosławski’s 100th birthday (a performance of his Piano
Concerto by Krystian Zimerman, who had played it in the
same place exactly 25 years ago) and the 80th birthdays of
Górecki (a concert of quartets in the rendition of the Silesian
Quartet) and Penderecki (Passion under the baton of Antoni
Wit). Youth was presented by world premières (Woźny,
Wojciechowski, Adamek, Augustyn, Krupowicz) and the Little
Warsaw Autumn – a program prepared especially for children
(workshops and a sound installation by Lidia Zielińska).
I have a feeling that I have written one of the most important
pieces in my output to date.
— Agata Zubel
The composer has created two layers which, despite their
differences, coincide with each other and form a single
whole. ‘The events must be mixed, merge, absorb the listener.’
polskamusic.iam.pl
13
_festival
Musikfest Berlin
curator: Winrich Hopp
organizer: Berliner Festpiele
place: Berliner Philharmonie, Berlin
berlinerfestspiele.de
watch: bit.do/musikfest-lutoslawski
Do not think that we are playing Polish music here. This is
a festival of Lutosławski; for me, this is a composer whom
I would compare with Mozart.
— Winrich Hopp
Lutosławski’s music was juxtaposed with pieces by Bartók,
Janáček and Britten.
Wojciech Ziemowit Zych (photo: courtesy of the artist)
_composition
Symphony no. 3
composer: Wojciech Ziemowit Zych
performers: Anna Ciuła-Pehlken (soprano), Maciej
Straburzyński (bass-baritone), NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic
Orchestra, Szymon Bywalec (conductor), Lutosławski
Piano Duo
commissioned by: Wratislavia Cantans International
Festival, Institute of Music and Dance as part of the
Collections – Commissioned Compositions program
première: 48th Wratislavia Cantans International Festival
place: Witold Lutosławski Philharmonic in Wrocław
bit.do/generacja70-zych
listen: bit.do/ninateka-zych-symphony
Elżbieta Sikora (photo: courtesy of the artist)
_composition
Zych uses an entire array of instrumental techniques here,
often very subtle and barely audible: harmonics, glissandi
and all kinds of little sound vibrations. This effect is brought
out by the unusual spatial distribution of the orchestra in the
concert hall. Symphony no. 3 utilizes fragments of an essay by
Emmanuel Levinas entitled Totality and Infinity, devoted to
the Holocaust and to the encounter with the Other.
Sono-sphère 1 – Twilling
composer: Elżbieta Sikora
performers: Hélène Devilleneuve (oboe), Vincent Laubeuf
and Tom Mays (computers), Ensemble Court-Circuit,
Jean Deroyer (conductor)
comissioned by: Ensemble Court-Circuit
première: Auditorium Marcel Landowski, Paris
elzbietasikora.com
bit.do/culture-sikora
This work was commissioned and premièred in honor of the
composer’s 70th birthday.
14
Polska Music Now 2
_festival
Music on the Heights International
Chamber Music Festival
curators: Paweł Mykietyn, Maciej Negrey,
Jakub Sztencel, Tomasz Sztencel
organizer: The Mieczysław Karłowicz Association
in Zakopane
place: Zakopane
Robert Piotrowicz © Igor Krenz
_LP
Lincoln Sea
en.muzykanaszczytach.com
Numerous festival concerts are accompanied by recitals,
exhibitions and film showings with live music. All of this
takes place in the picturesque interiors of Zakopane, one of
the most beautiful cities in the Tatra Mountains.
composer: Robert Piotrowicz
publisher: Musica Genera
robertpiotrowicz.net
musicagenera.net
listen: soundcloud.com/rurokura
The recordings resemble the sound of an entire orchestra;
comparisons with Sonorism are a very frequently-recurring
trope in the disc’s reviews. This is all the more perverse
in that the only instrument used here was a modular
synthesizer.
_competition
7th Karol Szymanowski Composers
Competition
laureates: Grzegorz Duchnowski (1st Prize for Jéux
Varsoviens and 3rd Prize ex aequo for Symphony no. 3), Ignacy
Zalewski (2nd Prize for Ballada), Szymon Godziemba-Trytek
(3rd Prize ex aequo for Tre Episodi), Kamil Kosecki (Honorable
Mention for Illusions)
organizer: Polish Society of Authors and Composers ZAiKS
place: Warsaw
_festival
Unsound Festival
curators: Mat Schulz, Małgorzata Płysa
organizer: Foundation Tone – Music and New Art Forms
place: Kraków
unsound.pl
Unsound has branches in New York, Tbilisi and London;
the Kraków festival draws an international audience. Various
worlds come together here – academic and popular music,
noisy avant-garde and dance music. The Festival keyword in
2013 was ‘Interference’; the main rule applying to all listeners
was a prohibition on taking pictures. ‘We want to induce the
audience to focus on the moment at hand and respect other
people’s experiences,’ explained Mat Schulz.
October
_award
Koryfeusz Polish Music Award 2013
laureates: Piotr Beczała (Personality of the Year), Opening
of the European Penderecki Centre for Music in Lusławice
(Event of the Year), Jan Ekier (Honorary Award)
founder: Institute of Music and Dance
place: Warsaw
imit.org.pl
Jan Ekier, the winner of the honorary award, who celebrated
his 100th birthday in 2013, was one of the greatest experts
on Fryderyk Chopin’s legacy.
polskamusic.iam.pl
15
Musica Electronica Nova © Miłosz Wiercioch
_festival
8th Ad Libitum Festival
director: Krzysztof Knittel
organizer: Polish Music Council Foundation
place: Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle,
Warsaw
ad-libitum.pl
bit.do/culture-knittel
Ad Libitum is a celebration of improvised music.
The organizers attempt to answer the question: ‘What to do
in order to resist stylistic conventions and musical fashions,
to discover one’s own voice in the world of composition and
improvisation?’ This year, the answer was sought by, among
others, Piotr Damasiewicz, Maciej Garbowski, Wojciech
Błażejczyk, Tadeusz Sudnik and the legendary London Jazz
Composers Orchestra.
_festival
5th MUSICA ELECTRONICA NOVA
new commissions by: Wojciech Błażejczyk (LoPassHiCut),
Sławomir Kupczak (Edges), Krzysztof Knittel (Partita II
(Inuit)), Adrian Fołtyn (?@?), Ryszard Osada (For A. B.),
Cezary Duchnowski (MuzykaFormPrzestrzennych),
Anna Porzyc (we begin. we end), Adam Porębski (Ge(i)ms),
sultan hagavik (Tekturon)
commissioned by (among others): Institute of Music
and Dance as part of the Collections – Commissioned
Compositions program
curator: Elżbieta Sikora
organizer: National Forum of Music
place: Wrocław
en.musicaelectronicanova.pl
listen: bit.do/ninateka-lopasshicut
listen: bit.do/ninateka-edges
listen: bit.do/ninateka-inuit
Krzysztof Penderecki CC
_festival
2013 Beijing Music Festival
composer: Krzysztof Penderecki
curator: Yu Long
organizer: Beijing Music Festival Arts Foundation
bmf.org.cn/en/
krzysztofpenderecki.eu/en
Celebrations of Penderecki’s birthday took place all over
the world – among other places, in Beijing. His works were
performed by the China National Symphony Orchestra and
violinist Vera Tsu Wei-ling, as well as violinist and violist
Julian Rachlin.
16
Polska Music Now 2
listen: bit.do/ninateka-muzykaformprzestrzennych
listen: soundcloud.com/anna-porzyc
We want to introduce electronic music to spheres where
this type of music is rarely seen – such as opera, ballet,
installations and image actions.
— Elżbieta Sikora
The festival does not confine itself to music created by
academics; one can also hear noise and techno there. One
of the festival’s attractions was the Sound Cinema, where
a selection of acousmatic pieces was presented; they were
heard in a darkened hall, and the sound was played back
through high-quality speakers. The Opera Electronica Nova
series featured Pierre Jodlowski’s opera-oratorio L’Aire du dire,
which examines the issue of the influence of speech and
language on music.
Maciej Jabłoński © Łukasz Zakrzewski
_composition
Kwadrofonik Ensemble © Dariusz Senkowski
_composition
Faza N. Rem
composer: Agnieszka Stulgińska
performers: Kwadrofonik
commissioned by: Institute of Music and Dance as part
of the Collections – Commissioned Compositions program
première: Oskar Kolberg Świętokrzyska Philharmonic
in Kielce
stulginska.com
bit.do/culture-kwadrofonik
listen: bit.do/ninateka-fazanrem
In our sleep, we do not only see images; we also hear
sounds coming both from our surroundings and from our
imagination. Stulgińska has decided to transplant sleep
to a musical score – making use of brainwave frequencies
to change the rhythm, timbre and intensity of the sound.
The Möbius Strip
composer: Maciej Jabłoński
in Kielce
bit.do/culture-jablonski
listen: soundcloud.com/maciej_jablonski_1974
listen: bit.do/ninateka-themobiusstrip
The Möbius strip has only one side and edge – turning it right
side out is meaningless, because in this topology (discovered
by chance), there exists only a uniform space. Turning the
Möbius strip, we can reflect on whether the world is as we
really perceive it. In Jabłoński’s piece, the composer repeats
certain structures; however, he systematically introduces
disturbing changes.
_composition
Symphony in G minor
composer: Jarosław Siwiński
in Kielce
bit.do/culture-siwinski
listen: soundcloud.com/jaroslaw-siwinski
listen: bit.do/ninateka-siwinski-symphony
Siwiński’s piece evokes the sound of American Minimalism’s
best times. In its constancy and simultaneous variability,
it resembles the music of Steve Reich. The composition
develops slowly thanks to the application of techniques
involving repetition of the same motifs, as well as mutual
superposition of processes of differing duration.
polskamusic.iam.pl
17
bit.do/fitelberg
bit.do/culture-laks
bit.do/culture-weinberg
The instrumentalists of the ARC Ensemble examine music
written as a result of the tragic historical processes which
shook the world in the 20th century. Fitelberg, Laks and
Weinberg came from Poland, were Jews and (in various places
and by various means) survived the Holocaust. The works on
the program were written right after World War II.
Wojtek Blecharz © Aaron Mooth
_composition
DFRGMNTD β
composer: Wojtek Blecharz
in Kielce
bit.do/culture-blecharz
listen: soundcloud.com/wojtekblecharz
Ewa Kupiec © LAION
listen: bit.do/ninateka-dfrgmntd
DFRGMNTD β talks about memory; and the thing about
memory is that it fades – just like the sounds and performers
in Blecharz’s composition. At a certain moment, everything
begins to evaporate, and the listener is left with the echo of
single sounds in his/her ears – there is not even anyone left
for whom to applaud.
November
_concert
Poles Apart: Chamber Music from
the Garden of Exile
composers: Jerzy Fitelberg, Szymon Laks,
Mieczysław Weinberg
performers: ARC Ensemble of the Royal Conservatory
Toronto
organizer: Arizona State University
place: Zipper Hall in Los Angeles, Katzin Concert Hall,
Los Angeles
18
Polska Music Now 2
_CD
Witold Lutosławski: Complete Works
for Piano Solo
performer: Ewa Kupiec (piano)
publisher: Sony Classical
bit.do/culture-lutoslawski
ewakupiec.com
Ewa Kupiec offers sharply articulated, colourful
performances, with the just the right amount of metal
in the tone, and the full-bodied recording quality helps
make the disc eminently collectable for the Lutosławski
and/or 20th-century piano music specialist.
— David Fanning (gramophone.co.uk)
The disc was nominated for the Preis der deutschen
Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics’ Award).
Motion Trio © Jacek Poremba
_CD
POLONIUM
composers: Witold Lutosławski, Krzysztof Penderecki,
Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Wojciech Kilar, Janusz Wojtarowicz,
Jacek Hołubowski, Marta Ptaszyńska
performers: Motion Trio, Leszek Możdżer (guest artist)
publisher: Parlophone Music Poland (Warner Music Group
Company)
Andrzej Kwieciński © Jędrzej Sokołowski
bit.do/culture-motiontrio
Motion Trio has rearranged pieces by bigwigs in Polish
20th-century music for an ensemble of three accordions.
_composition
In listening to their most recent disc, it indeed difficult to
believe that one is dealing with just three accordions. For the
musical texture is created with orchestral panache, and the
material presented is executed at the highest level.
— Maria Zimny (Jazzpress)
composers: Andrzej Kwieciński
performers: Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra,
Wojciech Rodek (conductor), Gośka Isphording (harpsichord)
commisioned by: Łódź Philharmonic
première: Musica Moderna Festival
place: Łódź Philharmonic, Łódź
Concerto. Re maggiore
bit.do/culture-kwiecinski
Re maggiore – that is, in D major. Kwieciński has transformed
the harpsichord into a highly expressive, though slightly
stubborn mechanism resembling an accelerating player
piano.
After a certain time, we are having a great deal of fun with
it. Humor does not appear in contemporary music very
frequently, so it gives the piece additional flavor.
— Dorota Szwarcman (Polityka)
polskamusic.iam.pl
19
Maja Baczyńska © Marek Relich/PRESTO
_film
Composer-in-Residence
Paweł Mykietyn © Jacek Poremba
director: Maja Baczyńska
realization: MUDO Music Documentaries
producers: Institute of Music and Dance, Polish Musicians’
Association
_composition
Concerto for Flute and Orchestra
composer: Paweł Mykietyn
performers: Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra, Wojciech Rodek
(conductor), Łukasz Długosz (flute)
commissioned by: Łódź Philharmonic
première: Musica Moderna Festival
place: Łódź Philharmonic, Łódź
bit.do/culture-mykietyn
watch: bit.do/composer-in-residence
Maja Baczyńska’s film documents the process of a Composerin-Residence program; the director has recorded for posterity
conversations with composers and the performers who have
interpreted their works.
December
listen: bit.do/ninateka-mykietyn-concerto
The work sounds like a self-accelerating and self-decelerating
mechanism that is somewhat broken. Tension is created by
rhythmic changes that break up the work’s uniformity.
_CD
Lutosławski Opera Omnia vol. 4–6
performers: NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra, NFM
Wroclaw Philharmonic Choir, Stanisław Skrowaczewski
(conductor), Jacek Kaspszyk (conductor), Agata Zubel
(soprano), Garrick Ohlsson (piano), Tomasz Daroch
(‘cello), Ensemble Court-Circuit, Jean Deroyer (conductor),
Lutosławski Piano Duo
publisher: CD Accord
bit.do/culture-lutoslawski
cdaccord.pl
20
Polska Music Now 2
Marcel Chyrzyński © Ewelina Chyrzyńska
_publication
Generation ’70
composers: Marcel Chyrzyński, Mikołaj Górecki, Maciej
Jabłoński, Paweł Mykietyn, Aleksander Nowak, Sławomir
Kupczak, Wojciech Widłak, Maciej Zieliński, Agata Zubel,
Wojciech Ziemowit Zych
publisher: PWM Edition
generation70.pl
pwm.com.pl
‘There is one property common to Generation ’70 – that is the
freedom to choose one’s artistic path,’ says the entry in the
catalog published by PWM Edition which provides a guide to
the œuvre and acquaints the reader briefly with the profiles of
the most interesting Polish composers born in the 1970s.
_composition
La Follia
performer: Anne-Sophie Mutter
première: Anne-Sophie Mutter birthday concert
place: Carnegie Hall, New York
bit.do/culture-penderecki-mutter
La Follia was a present given by Penderecki to his favorite
violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter for her 50th birthday. The
composer alludes yet again to the Baroque era – this time,
to the chaconne form and to basso ostinato (a bass figure
repeated multiple times).
Jagoda Szmytka © Robert Schittko
_concert
Bloody Cherries: Jagoda Szmytka
monographic concert
composer: Jagoda Szmytka
performers: Ensemble Garage
place: Deutschlandfunk, Köln
jagodaszmytka.com
ensemble-garage.de
Szmytka has for years been forming her own musical
language, which has been departing more and more from
traditional forms and moving in the direction of theater and
conceptual art – she creates peculiar musical essays. In Köln,
we were able to hear her works written in the last four years.
polskamusic.iam.pl
21
2014
January
_CD
Cracow Duo: Dedications
composers: Zbigniew Bujarski, Maciej Jabłoński,
Bartosz Chajdecki, Jarosław Płonka, Marcel Chyrzyński,
Wojciech Widłak
performers: Jan Kalinowski (’cello), Marek Szlezer (piano)
publisher: DUX
cracowduo.com
dux.pl
The Dedications album features pieces written
by contemporary Kraków composers for this duo.
Esa-Pekka Salonen © Konrad Ćwik/IAM
_concert series
Woven Words: Music Begins Where
Words End
performers: Philharmonia Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen
(conductor), Krystian Zimerman (piano), Leif Ove Andsnes
(piano), Truls Mørk (‘cello), Matthias Goerne (baritone),
Jennifer Koh (violin), Hélène Grimaud (piano)
curators: Esa-Pekka Salonen, Steven Stucky
organizers: Philharmonia Orchestra, Adam Mickiewicz
Institute
place: Berlin, Dresden, London, Ljubljana, Madrid, Modena,
Paris, Roma, Tokyo, Udine, Vienna, Warsaw
woven-words.co.uk
Music begins where words end – this sentence uttered by
Witold Lutosławski became the motto for the Philharmonia
Orchestra’s spectacular project under the baton of one of
the world’s most important ambassadors for the composer’s
œuvre, Esa-Pekka Salonen. The endeavor was comprised of
symphonic concerts at the world’s most prestigious concert
halls, along with chamber concerts and panel discussions
devoted to Lutosławski, which took place between January
and September.
22
Polska Music Now 2
Eugeniusz Rudnik
(photo: still from 15 Corners of the World – press materials)
_CD
ERDada for tape
composer: Eugeniusz Rudnik
publisher: Requiem Records
bit.do/culture-rudnik
requiem-records.com
Eugeniusz Rudnik, a legend of the Polish Radio Experimental
Studio, released his debut album at age 82. He began as a
radio sound engineer, and shortly thereafter became an
independent composer. This man, who for over half a century
has been involved in cutting, rewinding and splicing tapes,
has never changed his instrument. His debut was created
from A to Z in analog conditions. Legend has it that his
technical brilliance enchanted Stockhausen himself, with
whom Rudnik also had the opportunity to work.
Rafał Blechacz © Felix Broede/Deutsche Grammophon
_award
Gilmore Artist Award
_CD
Białoszewski do słuchu
laureate: Rafał Blechacz (piano)
place: Kalamazoo, Michigan (USA)
bit.do/culture-blechacz
composers: Patryk Zakrocki, Marcin Staniszewski,
Mikrokolektyw (Kuba Suchar, Artur Majewski)
curator: Michał Mendyk
publisher: Bôłt Records
bit.do/culture-bialoszewski
boltrecords.pl
thegilmore.org
The Gilmore Award is an unusual prize; its granting is not
associated with any competition, and the jury’s deliberations
are held in secret. The jurors travel all over the world,
listening to pianists’ recitals, and select those that are in their
opinion the best. Blechacz received a prize in the amount
of 300 000 dollars to be devoted to the support of his
further career.
I bought myself a tape recorder for 4000. If you come to
Warsaw in May or June, we can have fun recording. It’s a good
thing to do. Of interest to everyone.
— Miron Białoszewski (1965)
He was one of the most interesting Polish poets of the second
half of the 20th century, the author of shocking memoirs from
the Warsaw Uprising. Miron recorded works by the Polish
Romantics, as well as his own prose and poetic works. About
100 hours of material was created, from which the Bôłt label
has selected the most interesting fragments.
polskamusic.iam.pl
23
February
Ignacy Zalewski (photo: courtesy of the artist)
_composition
Apollon Musagète Quartett © Marco Borggreve
_award
Polityka’s Passport
laureate: Apollon Musagète Quartett
founder: Polityka Magazine
Symphonic Variations
composer: Ignacy Zalewski
performers: Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra, Marzena Diakun
(conductor), Oskar Jezior (piano)
commissioned by: Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra as part of
the Institute of Music and Dance’s Composer-in-Residence
program
première: Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of Polish
Radio, Warsaw
apollon-musagete.com
bit.do/culture-apollon
The justification for the verdict read as follows: ‘for
consistent and effective building of a strong position in
European musical life, always including Polish music in
their repertoire, as well as for their brilliant album Multitude’.
The quartet was founded in 2006 by four Polish musicians:
violinists Paweł Zalejski and Bartosz Zachłód, violist Piotr
Szumieł and ’cellist Piotr Skweres. The artists are the winners
of, among other awards, 1st Prize at the ARD Competition
in Munich.
bit.do/wsm-zalewski
listen: soundcloud.com/ignacyzalewski
Zalewski has made use of the well-known symphonic
variation form, but – not wanting to bore the listener with
its traditional version – he has decided to give the work
emotional expression and a lively narrative.
_concert
_festival
Chain XI Festival
composers: Witold Lutosławski, Andrzej Panufnik, Wojciech
Kilar, Zbigniew Bargielski
organizer: Witold Lutosławski Society
place: Warsaw
lutoslawski.org.pl
Chain is a Lutosławski festival, and its 11th edition represented
a fluid transition from the 100th birthday of Lutos to the 100th
birthday of his friend Andrzej Panufnik. Among other works,
Variations on a Theme by Paganini – a work from the times
when Lutosławski and Panufnik performed together in the
cafés of occupied Warsaw – was performed. The event was
accompanied by the Little Chain mini-festival for children.
24
Polska Music Now 2
International Inauguration of the
Panufnik Centenary
composer: Andrzej Panufnik
performers: London Symphony Orchestra, Michael Francis
(conductor), Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin)
organizers: London Symphony Orchestra, Adam
Mickiewicz Institute, Boosey & Hawkes, Panufnik family
place: Barbican Centre, London
bit.do/inauguration-panufnik
bit.do/culture-panufnik
Two completely different works were heard: the spiritual
Sinfonia Sacra, beginning with the playing of four trumpets
placed at the corners of the stage, and Lullaby for 29 string
instruments which play at different tempi.
Andrzej Panufnik is a composer well worth getting to know
better, and 2014 is shaping up to be the ideal year to do so.
— Gavin Dixon (orpheuscomplex.blogspot.com)
_composition
Sinfonia ‘Luci nella notte IV’
composer: Andrzej Kwieciński
performers: Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra, Maciej Koczur
(conductor), Gośka Isphording (harpsichord)
comissioned by: Artur Rubinstein Philharmonic in Lódź
as part of the Institute of Music and Dance’s Composer-inResidence program
première: Łódź Philharmonic, Łodź
bit.do/culture-kwiecinski
goskaisphording.com
This is yet another work in which Kwieciński returns and
reinterprets classic forms of musical expression. This is
a sinfonia – in the Baroque, this was the name given to
introductions, which sometimes lasted even over 10 minutes.
I even think about this [work – ed.] as a sort of passacaglia: the
concept is the same, the whole work is based on a repeated
motif – only in the case of the Sinfonia, what is repeated are
not individual notes, but musical gestures.
— Andrzej Kwieciński
Tomasz J. Opałka (photo: courtesy of the artist)
_composition
Entrada Concertante
composer: Tomasz J. Opałka
performers: Kielce Philharmonic Orchestra,
Krzysztof Jakub Kozakiewicz (conductor)
commissioned by: Oskar Kolberg Świętokrzyska
Philharmonic in Kielce as part of the Institute of Music
and Dance’s Composer-in-Residence program
place: Oskar Kolberg Świętokrzyska Philharmonic in Kielce
tomaszjakubopalka.com
bit.do/culture-opalka
listen: soundcloud.com/tomaszopalka
Entrada Concertante – as the name itself indicates – is a sort
of concertante overture. It is a contemporary interpretation
of what we call a fanfare. The work has a tripartite structure;
the phases follow upon each other attacca (from the Italian
‘attack’), thanks to which the composition’s narrative cycle is
not disturbed.
March
_concert
Generations XVII series
new commissions by: Aleksander Nowak (Chicks and Robot
for accordion and orchestra), Tadeusz Wielecki (Reading for
orchestra), Paweł Sydor (Double Concerto for violin and ’cello)
organizers: Polish Composers’ Union, Polish Society
of Authors and Composers ZAiKS, Polish Radio Program 2
performers: Maciej Frąckiewicz (accordion), Dorota
Imiełowska (’cello), Tomasz Tomaszewski (violin), Szymon
Bywalec (conductor), Polish Radio Orchestra
place: Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of Polish Radio,
Warsaw
aleknowak.com
bit.do/culture-wielecki
polskamusic.iam.pl
25
_concert
Lamentations
composer: Paweł Łukaszewski
performers: Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Michael Zaugg
(conductor)
place: Trinity Wall Street, New York
lukaszewski.org.uk
bit.do/lukaszewski
Wojciech Błażejczyk © Paul Preusser
_festival
Łukaszewski dedicated his Lamentations to the victims of the
World Trade Center attack on its 10th anniversary. The work
was commissioned by the Wratislavia Cantans festival.
43rd Poznań Spring Music Festival
new commission by (among others): Wojciech
Błażejczyk (Trash Music)
Compositions program
curator: Artur Kroschel
organizers: Polish Composers’ Union. Poznań Branch,
More Than One Production
place: Castle Cultural Center, Poznań
wiosnamuzyczna.pl
bit.do/kroschel
Standing out among the works commissioned by the
festival is Wojciech Błażejczyk’s Trash Music, a work for live
electronics, voice and ’objectophones’ – so, an egg chopper,
a fragment of a gas stove, a clothes dryer etc.
Dariusz Przybylski © Mateusz Żaboklicki
April
Passio et Mors Domini Nostri Iesu
Christi Secundum Ioannem
_CD
Krzysztof Penderecki Works
performers: Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Warsaw
Philharmonic Choir, Polish National Radio Symphony
Orchestra, Antoni Wit (conductor), Olga Pasichnyk (soprano),
Rafał Bartmiński (tenor), Tomasz Konieczny (bass-baritone)
publisher: Naxos
krzysztofpenderecki.eu
bit.do/culture-penderecki
26
_CD
Polska Music Now 2
composer: Dariusz Przybylski
performers: Solistenensemble Phønix, Timo Kreuser
(conductor)
publisher: DUX
dariuszprzybylski.eu
bit.do/culture-przybylski
dux.pl
This multilingual Passion (Latin-Polish-German) Passion )
was edited by the composer himself. A monumental work,
it is at times very lofty and dramatic, though it also contains
moments of focus and contemplation.
_award
2014 Polonica Nova Award
laureate: Agata Zubel (composer)
organizers: City of Wrocław, Polish Radio Program 2
place: Wrocław
zubel.pl
Szymon Bywalec © IAM
_festival
MUSICA POLONICA NOVA
new commissions by: Agnieszka Stulgińska (Conversionis
for voice, percussion and piano), Dobromiła Jaskot (Slejpnir
for male voice, piano, percussion objects and amplification),
Karol Nepelski (Logical Shift for voice, percussion and
piano), Adrian Fołtyn (ReDim Q-Int for piano quintet and
electronic sounds), Ewa Podgórska (Pressante for eight
performers), Barbara Buczek (Primus inter pares for horn and
six instruments), Adam Porębski (Flow 3 for electric guitar,
bass clarinet and electronics), Arkadiusz Kątny (Disappearing
Whispers for electric guitar and electronics), Katarzyna
Dziewiątkowska-Mleczko (Just 4 four for electric guitar and
amplified clarinet), Jacek Sotomski (beautiful to me. Ah for
accordion, computers and strings), Dominik Lewicki (DIApreL
for string orchestra and electronics), Marcin Rupociński
(Horao for strings), Paweł Hendrich (Acanthus for accordion
and electronics), Sławomir Kupczak (Third Decimal Place
for clarinet, violin, ’cello, piano and percussion), Mikołaj
Laskowski (The Tiger Left Me Unsatisfied for violin, clarinet,
percussion, piano and Hammond organ), Dariusz Przybylski
(Abrenuntio for violin, clarinet, percussion, piano and
Hammond organ), Mateusz Ryczek (28 Days of Moon for
violin, clarinet, percussion, piano and Hammond organ),
Aleksander Kościów (Steam Punk Gear for percussion and
Hammond organ) and Adam Porębski (ReVerse 4 for violin,
clarinet, ’cello and piano)
Compositions program, City of Wrocław, Polish Society
of Contemporary Music
curator: Szymon Bywalec
organizer: National Forum of Music
place: Wrocław
musicapolonicanova.pl
bit.do/bywalec
bit.do/culture-zubel
NOT I, a work based on a monologue by Samuel Beckett,
received the Polonica Nova 1st Prize, awarded by the Musica
Polonica Nova Festival. This is yet another award won by this
piece – previously, it was chosen as a ‘selected work’ at the
UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers.
All resources associated with the vocal sound, instrumental
ensemble and electronic layer are subordinated here to the
telling of the dramatic story from Samuel Beckett’s monologue.
— Bartek Chaciński (Polityka)
Henryk Mikołaj Górecki © Jan Bebel
_composition
Symphony no. 4
composer: Henryk Mikołaj Górecki
performers: London Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrey
Boreyko (conductor)
commissioned by: London Philharmonic Orchestra
and Southbank Centre London
première: Southbank Centre, London
bit.do/gorecki-symphony
bit.do/culture-gorecki
This was the posthumous world première of a Symphony
by one of the most important 20th-century composers. The
subtitle reads: ‘Tansman Episodes’. Adrian Thomas observes
that Górecki does not cite Tansman’s music directly – he just
alludes to it. The world première of Górecki’s last Symphony
took place thanks to support from the Adam Mickiewicz
Institute.
Symphony no. 4 is an ambitious, hypnotic work, and, rather
movingly, it acts as a meditation by Górecki on the many styles
he adopted and developed during a long and successful career.
— Ben Lawrence (The Telegraph)
polskamusic.iam.pl
27
_composition
_opera
Ego sum pastor bonus
Project P: Victory over the Sun
performers: Ealing Abbey Choir, Christopher Eastwood
(conductor)
commissioned by: Ealing Abbey Choir
première: Kraków
composer: Sławomir Wojciechowski
libretto: Marcin Cecko
stage director: Krzysztof Garbaczewski
conductor: Marta Kluczyńska
commissioned by: Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera
première: Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, Warsaw
lukaszewski.org.pl
slawomirwojciechowski.blogspot.com
ealingabbeychoir.org.uk
bit.do/culture-wojciechowski
This work was written as a tribute to John Paul II, who was
canonized on 27 April 2014.
watch: bit.do/project-p-territories
Projekt P © Adam Żebrowski
The title was taken from an opera which today numbers
among the classics of the art, but previously was one of the
most perverse of musical works. We are speaking here of
Mikhail Matyushin’s Futurist show from 1913, the costumes
for which were prepared by Kazimierz Malewicz. It was
during his work on Victory… that the avant-garde prophet was
to happen for the first time upon the train of thought that led
him to create Black Square on White Background.
May
_award
61st International Rostrum
of Composers Awards
_opera
Project P: Solarize
composer: Marcin Stańczyk
libretto: Andrzej Szpindler
stage director: Krzysztof Garbaczewski
conductor: Marta Kluczyńska
commissioned by: Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera
première: Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, Warsaw
marcinstanczyk.com
listen: soundcloud.com/marcinstanczyk
laureate: Andrzej Kwieciński (Best Work by a Young
Composer for Canzon de baci, Recommendation in the
General Category, Commission of New Composition from
the International Music Council and Radio France)
founder: International Rostrum of Composers
co-organizer: Finnish Broadcasting Company
place: Helsinki
imc-cim.org
bit.do/culture-kwiecinski-rostrum
Andrzej Kwieciński uses elements of the Baroque and
of Spectralism in his music.
watch: bit.do/project-p-territories
The protagonist of Stańczyk’s opera is DJ Solarize, i.e. Leon
Botha, a visual and sound artist who died in 2011.
He attained fame thanks to his DJ displays on YouTube and his
participation in the video clip Die Antwoord, as well as the very
rare illness progeria, in which the body ages exceptionally fast.
My intention is to create music that inherits Modernist avantgarde idioms built on a repertoire of gestures performing
analogous functions to the musical gestures of the Baroque
era. My music is meant to be Baroque, not an imitation
thereof. The basis of this work is one of the most popular
Baroque forms – the ciaccona.
— Andrzej Kwieciński
He was a man and an artist who tried to be free in what he did,
regardless of the limitations to which everyone is subject.
— Marcin Stańczyk
28
Polska Music Now 2
_festival
28th Warsaw Music Encounters
Magdalena Lisak © Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina
new commissions by: Marcin Błażewicz (Kali-Yuga for
percussion solo, male voice and 28 instruments), Władysław
Słowiński (Charon’s Small Boat – 5 songs to poems by Tadeusz
Różewicz), Tomasz Jakub Opałka (Symphony no. 2 – Emerge),
Adam Sławiński (Music for Strings), Maciej Małecki (3 Songs
to Poems by Jan Kochanowski), Krzesimir Dębski (Altruitki,
Rajzefiberki and Others for mixed choir a cappella to poems
by Wisława Szymborska), Zbigniew Penherski (Four Pieces
Without Words for mixed choir a cappella), Alicja Gronau
(The Struggle Between Winter and Summer for mixed choir),
Anna Ignatowicz-Glińska (Skotopaska 1: Małmazja Shines for
mixed choir a cappella), Benedykt Konowalski (Pianist Fikus –
humorousballade for mixed choir a cappella), Jan Oleszkowicz
(The Beyond for mixed choir a cappella), Maria Pokrzywińska
(Cztery figliki for choir a cappella to poems by Mikołaj Rej),
The Mud Cavaliers (Trees, Birds, Gardens – Cavaliers in Eden.
Songs of Innocence and of Experience)
Compositions program, Polish Composers’ Union
organizer: Polish Composers’ Union, Warsaw Branch
place: Warsaw
_CD
Kisielewski: Works for Piano
composer: Stefan Kisielewski
performer: Magdalena Lisak (piano)
publisher: EMI Music Poland (currently: Warner Music
Group)
wsm.art.pl
Warsaw Music Encounters link the world of early music with
the most recent œuvre. Over a dozen pieces based on poems
by Polish poets have been written on commission from the
festival.
bit.do/kisielewski
bit.do/lisak
warnermusic.pl
For his entire lifetime, Kisielewski was faithful to one stylistic
language – Neoclassicism, with respect for Bach
and Baroque style, with a predilection for angular rhythms
and motoric drive, with tongue in cheek, as far removed
as possible from any kind of pomposity.
— Dorota Szwarcman (Polityka)
He is not averse to Baroque allusions, folklore stylizations,
even art song, though what definitely remains closest to
his heart is ‘pianistic hacking’. But then again, it’s quite
some ‘hacking’…
— Jacek Hawryluk (Gazeta Wyborcza)
polskamusic.iam.pl
29
June
Moby Dick © Adam Żebrowski
Jerzy Kornowicz © Małgorzata Kosińska
_festival
6th Festival of Traditional and Avantgarde Music ‘CODES’
new commission by: Lidia Zielińska (Missing Link)
curators: Jerzy Kornowicz, Jan Bernad
organizer: Crossroads Centre For Intercultural Creative
Initiatives
place: Lublin
bit.do/zielinska
codes-festival.com
CODES is a festival at which the world of traditional music
(dance music with local ensemble Czarne Lwy (Black Lions)
or lectures on Nō theater) exists alongside the Western
avant-garde (Kronos Quartet, Thurston Moore from Sonic
Youth). Sometimes, however, they meet together. This is what
has happened in Missing Link, a sound show by Zielińska in
which, alongside live electronics and amplified viola, we hear
traditional song and the hurdy-gurdy typical of the Ukrainian
bards. The show speaks of a peculiar type of silence – the
silence that follows after a horrible catastrophe.
_opera
Moby Dick
composer: Eugeniusz Knapik
director: Barbara Wysocka
libretto: Krzysztof Koehler
conductor: Gabriel Chmura
organizer: Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera
place: Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, Warsaw
bit.do/culture-knapik
bit.do/moby-dick
This is a tale about humanity’s relationship with God. […]
We are dealing here with a psychological attempt to examine
what suffering is, what triggers it, how easily it morphs into
hatred and a desire for revenge.
— Eugeniusz Knapik
In the musical plane, there are many references to the past
here: Szymanowski, Wagner, Górecki. We also hear Wacław z
Szamotuł’s prayer Już się zmierzcha [Sun Is Setting] – the same
one utilized many years earlier by H. M. Górecki, Knapik’s
teacher.
30
Polska Music Now 2
_competition
55th Baird Competition for Young
Composers
laureates: Paweł Kwapiński (Grand Prix ex-aequo for
Acoustic Spaces), Tomasz Szczepanik (Grand Prix ex-aequo for
Gangkhar II), Marek Grucka (Honorable Mention)
organizer: Polish Composers’ Union
zkp.org.pl
The concert of Barbara Kinga Majewska and the Kwadrofonik
ensemble was not an ordinary concert of premières, but
a two-hour show with precisely thought-out dramaturgy,
witty and light, full of distance and a lack of pretension –
thanks, likewise, to the discreet but truly spot-on staging by
Yulka Wilam. A very original event, aesthetically coherent,
musically valuable and – especially important – authentic,
i.e. originating as a ‘grass-roots’ initiative from artists
themselves, without the participation of institutions or
curators in the process of creating the concert concept.
— Monika Pasiecznik
Instalakcje 3 © Filip Zagórski
_opera
Fall and Musical Land
composer: Dariusz Przybylski
direction: Margo Zalite, Felix Seiler
conductor: Martin Nagashima-Toft
commissioned by: Deutsche Oper Berlin
place: Deutsche Oper Berlin
dariuszprzybylski.eu
bit.do/culture-przybylski
_festival
These operas were presented in the LoveAffairs series. The
main motif of Fall is chance, which also has its effect on the
musical plane – the work is inspired by aleatorism. Its plot
tells of two queens who fight for the attentions of a children’s
choir. Musical Land tells of the love drama of musical divas
(Evita, Maria and Annie); Arnold Schoenberg even appears in
the background.
Installactions. Music Festival
new commissions by: Aleksandra Gryka (W.ALTER’s (Z.))
for voice, two percussionists and two pianists), Andrzej
Kwieciński (non si puo fuggire), Sławomir Wojciechowski
(Machina zawiła), Wojtek Blecharz (September
(The Next Reading))
performers: Barbara Kinga Majewska (soprano),
Kwadrofonik, Robert Migas (sound design),
Yulka Wilam (stage director)
curators: Wojtek Blecharz, Paweł Mykietyn
organizer: Nowy Theater, Warsaw
place: Nowy Theater, Warsaw
_award
Orphées d’Or 2014
laureate: CD Łukaszewski: Missa de Maria a Magdala
publisher: DUX
founder: Académie du Disque Lyrique (France)
place: Paris
lukaszewski.org.uk
bit.do/instalakcje-3
bit.do/culture-blecharz
bit.do/culture-mykietyn
The works that we will be able to hear at Installactions are
a kind of documentation, a vivisection of corporeality. We
want the audience to be physically involved, to move around.
I don’t like the sterile approach to music performance and
listening in which the philharmonic hall is a sort of temple
where one cannot even take a deep breath.
— Wojtek Blecharz
dux.pl
This disc with the composition Missa di Maria a Magdala
has already won the ‘Choc de Classica’ of France’s Classica
magazine, as well as a 2014 Fryderyk nomination.
Łukaszewski composed this work in 2010 on commission
from conductor Marco Castellini of Bremgarten.
polskamusic.iam.pl
31
_concert series
Monotype Fest
composers/performers: Emiter, Komora A, Mirt + TER,
Jacek Sienkiewicz, T’ien Lai
curator: Jakub Mikołajczyk
organizers: 4.99 Foundation (Bôłt Records), Centre For
Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Monotype Records
place: Centre for Contemporary Art Laboratory, Warsaw
monotyperecords.com
boltrecords.pl
A festival run by the Monotype Records label, this is an
expanded form of the concert showcase that takes place
regularly at the Centre for Contemporary Art concert hall. The
Monotype Fest hosts not only representatives of Mikołajczyk’s
label, but also artists esteemed by him who are not associated
with the label.
Jacaszek © Kasper Glanz
_festival
SURVIVAL. Art Review
organizer: ART TRANSPARENT Foundation
curators: Michał Bieniek, Anna Kołodziejczyk, Daniel
Brożek, Bartek Lis, Magdalena Popławska, Magdalena Zięba,
Szymon Kobylarz, Antoni Burzyński
place: Wrocław
bit.do/survival
The 12th edition of the SURVIVAL Art Review was guided by
the watchword ‘City – Inflammation’, which directed the
curators’ and artists’ attention to problems associated with
illness and healing. The exhibitions and performances (a total
of 70 artistic actions of various kinds) were accompanied
by a Sound Stage (installations, concerts, DJ sets and a field
recording library) which posed questions concerning the
mechanisms of sound’s behavior in space – their intensity
and relationships with their surroundings.
Kwartludium © Szymon Brzóska
_CD
Jacaszek & Kwartludium Catalogue
des Arbres
composer: Michał Jacaszek
performers: Kwartludium
publisher: Touch Music
jacaszek.com
kwartludium.com
Michał Jacaszek and Kwartludium’s project was presented
for the first time at Kraków’s Unsound festival in 2013;
it was inspired by a love for nature and for the œuvre
of Olivier Messiaen.
Jacaszek [...] gains superb collaborators in the form of the
Kwartludium group, who are open and flexible, just as the
idea itself demands; they are able to move along the line from
subtle Sonorist sound language, to the amazing sounds of
harmonics, to the wild regions of contemporary improvised
music, but without distracting one from the big picture of
the sound – there is no place here for showing off.
— Bartek Chaciński (Polityka)
32
Polska Music Now 2
_CD
Krzysztof Penderecki: Chamber
Works vol. 1
performers: Maria Machowska (violin), Artur
Rozmysłowicz (viola), Jan Kalinowski (’cello), Roman
Widaszek (clarinet), Tadeusz Tomaszewski (French horn),
Marek Szlezer (piano)
publisher: DUX
bit.do/culture-penderecki
dux.pl
Chamber pieces are not the most frequently-performed of
Penderecki’s works. The pieces on the disc represent a crosssection of Penderecki’s entire œuvre: the oldest was premièred
in 1960 (Three Miniatures for clarinet and piano); the newest
was written by Penderecki in 2012 (Capriccio per Radovan
for French horn solo). It shows the change and development
of the composer’s style: from experiments with unusual
performance techniques to classic forms seeking
out beautiful harmonies.
July
_concert
Electronic Music of Łukasz Pieprzyk
composer: Łukasz Pieprzyk
perfomer: Łukasz Pieprzyk (electronics)
organizer: Karol Szymanowski Music Society
place: Hasior Galery, Zakopane
bit.do/ninateka-pieprzyk-ignition
szymanowski.zakopane.pl
polskamusic.iam.pl
33
Varia 2013–2014
ANNIVERSARIES
FA R E W E L L
2013
Zbigniew Karkowski 1958–2013
bit.do/karkowski
Witold Lutosławski
— 100th anniversary of birth
Jan Ekier 1913–2014
Henryk Mikołaj Górecki
bit.do/culture-ekier
— 80 anniversary of birth
th
Krzysztof Penderecki
— 80th birthday
Włodzimierz Kotoński 1925–2014
bit.do/culture-kotonski
Elżbieta Sikora
— 70th birthday
2014
Andrzej Panufnik
– 100th anniversary of birth
Bogusław Schaeffer
– 85th birthday
34
Polska Music Now 2
Włodzimierz Kotoński © Anna Dorota Władyczka
_record label
_new websites
BOCIAN RECORDS
founder: Grzegorz Tyszkiewicz
bocianrecords.com
Bocian Records’ activity centers around noise and free
improvisation. Bocian’s discography is dominated by
carefully-produced 12-inch limited-edition vinyl discs,
though we will also find compact discs there. Particularly
associated with Tyszkiewicz’s label are: Paal Nilssen-Love,
Mats Gustafsson and Kevin Drumm. Bocian also releases
Polish artists: Robert Piotrowicz, Wojciech Bąkowski,
Wolfram, Majk Majkowski and the Kapital group led
by Kuba Ziołek.
threecomposers.pl
baird.polmic.pl
panufnik.polmic.pl
panufnik.com
composers: Tadeusz Baird, Witold Lutosławski, Henryk
Mikołaj Górecki, Krzysztof Penderecki, Andrzej Panufnik
publishers: National Audiovisual Institute, Polish Music
Information Centre, Polish Composers’ Union, Institute
of Music and Dance
_record label
MONOTYPE RECORDS
founder: Jakub Mikołajczyk
monotyperecords.com
This label focuses on experimental music in all of its
variants. Among the artists it releases are such personalities
as: Zbigniew Karkowski († 2013, creator of noise who lived
for many years in Japan), Eugene S. Robinson (leader of cult
group Oxbow), Lydia Lunch (member of New York’s no-wave)
and Lionel Marchetti (one of the most prolific creators of
musique concrète). Recently Monotype has been opening
up to club music; their label has released three interesting
discs by Polish artists: fast techno by Wojtek Kucharczyk,
raw house by Jakub Pokorski, and the We Will Fail project,
which searches for interesting sound solutions.
_artists
#ENSEMBLE
hashtag-ensemble.com
The ensemble was formed as the result of combining several
smaller chamber ensembles performing new music. It has to
its credit 72 world premières of Polish works, on which it
focuses its attention. The musicians say that their initiative
has the character of a ‘cooperative’; collaborating on a regular
basis with the ensemble are an array of young composers:
Dariusz Przybylski, Wojciech Błażejczyk, Ignacy Zalewski.
_magazine
Glissando Magazine
(nos. 23–26)
editors: Dariusz Brzostek, Michał Libera, Antoni Michnik,
Krzysztof B. Marciniak
publisher: 4.99 Foundation
bit.do/glissando
Glissando – that is, the only periodical devoted in its entirety
to subject matter revolving around contemporary music – is
available for the first time (partially) in English. The theme of
no. 23 issue is the cassette tape – a musical instrument, part
of DIY mythology, a tool to aid in fighting with the regime, or
an element of pop-cultural nostalgia. A special addition to the
magazine is the cassette anthology The Sounds of Deep Poland.
polskamusic.iam.pl
35
The Polska Music program, launched in 2011 by the Adam
Mickiewicz Institute, actively supports performances of Polish
classical music by renowned international artists worldwide, aiming
to increase its popularity across the globe. Along with initiating
international stage productions and concerts, commissioning
new work, and nurturing contemporary composers, Polska Music
also promotes recordings, books and events. Polska Music has
collaborated with a host of high-profile partners around the world,
including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony
Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, English National Opera,
Royal Opera, Berliner Festspiele, Los Angeles Philharmonic,
Lincoln Center, Salle Pleyel, Deutsche Grammophon and Sony
Classical, to name but a few.
Further details on Polska Music program at
polskamusic.iam.pl
Culture.pl provides daily fresh information on the most
exciting Polish cultural events worldwide.
It is the biggest and most comprehensive source of knowledge about Polish
culture – apart from event listings for Poland and beyond, it boasts a wealth
of artist bios, reviews, essays, synopses and profiles of cultural institutions.
For over a decade now, the culture.pl website has been operated by the Adam
Mickiewicz Institute – a national cultural institution aiming to strengthen
Polish cultural impact and to benefit international cultural exchange.
Pursuing its mission, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute has been instrumental
in presenting Polish culture around the world at leading galleries, theatres,
clubs and festivals in cooperation with key partners: Brussels (Bozar,
La Monnaie), Edinburgh (Edinburgh International Festival), London
(Southbank Centre, Barbican Centre, National Theatre, Whitechapel Gallery,
London Design Festival), Berlin (Martin Gropius Bau), Madrid (Teatro Real),
Moscow (The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Golden Mask Festival) New York
City (Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center) and many more.
The 4 000 projects carried out by the Institute so far include major cultural
events in various countries, for example the Polish Year in Israel, POLSKA!
YEAR in the UK, the International Cultural Programme of the Polish EU
Presidency and Centenary of Witold Lutosławski 2013.
Moreover, the Institute has launched several exciting ongoing projects:
a programme promoting Polish design worldwide, the East European
Performing Arts Platform, the I, CULTURE Orchestra, Polska Music
and Project Asia to name but a few.
More information about Polish culture worldwide at
culture.pl
De musica Silesiae.
The Phenomenon of the Wrocław
School of Composition
1
By Anna Granat-Janki
Wrocław’s musical environment in 1945-2000
included a large group of composers2. Some of
them permanently resided and worked in that
city, while others left it after completing their
music studies. For this reason, it is not easy
to formulate the criteria that would define the
milieu of Wrocław composers. In my study I took
into account such elements as the composer’s
regular activity in Wrocław, in most cases
related to the fact of living in that city, as well
as having one’s works performed there. Another
criterion was the membership of the Polish
Composers’ Union’s (ZKP) Wrocław Branch or
the respective regional branches of the Polish
Association of Writers and Composers for the
Stage (ZAiKS) and the Association of Polish
Artists-Musicians (SPAM). These basic criteria
were fulfilled in the period in question by such
artists as: Rafał Augustyn, Marcin Bortnowski,
Ryszard Bukowski, Cezary Duchnowski, Piotr
Drożdżewski, Mirosław Gąsieniec, Zygmunt
Herembeszta, Zbigniew Karnecki, Ryszard M.
Klisowski, Tadeusz Natanson, Ewa Podgórska,
Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil, Radomir
Reszke, Jadwiga Szajna-Lewandowska, Janina
Skowrońska, Jan A. Wichrowski, and Leszek
Wisłocki.
However, Wrocław’s music environment has
also included other figures who ought to be
considered as Wrocław composers despite the
fact that some of the above listed criteria do not
apply to them. One of these is Lucjan Laprus,
a conductor by education and a composer,
whose extensive choral oeuvre has frequently
been published, awarded in competitions, and
continues to be performed. In this group we
should also discuss the works of Krystian Kiełb,
Tomasz Kulikowski, Robert Kurdybacha, as well
as Andrzej Tuchowski, a Wrocław Academy
graduate, who lives in Zielona Góra, but teaches
at his alma mater in Wrocław, belongs to the
PCU’s Wrocław branch and has had many of his
1 This article is based on my book Twórczość kompozytorów wrocławskich
w latach 1945-2000 [The Music of Wrocław Composers 1945-2000], published
by the Academy of Music in Wrocław, 2003.
2 My study does not cover film, jazz, rock and other forms of popular music.
40
works performed in the Lower Silesian capital.
Within the milieu of Wrocław composers, we can
distinguish four generations. Composers can be
ascribed to a particular generation on the basis of
peer friendships, the instinctive bond resulting
from the shared experience of historical time3,
and the community of ideas. Another important
factor is the date of the composer’s debut, which
means that composers born at different times
may be classified as belonging to the same
generation.
After World War II, there were two generations
active in Wrocław’s musical world. The first one
included Kazimierz Wiłkomirski and Ryszard
Bukowski, both of whom obtained their diplomas
in composition from Warsaw Conservatory
before the war (respectively in 1923 and 1939).
They both made their debuts between the two
world wars, but whereas the former had pursued
a career as a composer before World War II, the
latter began composing on a larger scale only
after 1949. Kazimierz Wiłkomirski, educated in
the tradition of the Russian school, in which his
professor of composition, Roman Statkowski,
was steeped, remained under the influence of
the post-Romantic style, though he also took
advantage of the neo-Classical developments
in music. Ryszard Bukowski followed the neoRomantic and neo-Classical models promoted
by his composition tutor, Kazimierz Sikorski.
In Bukowski’s early compositions (e.g. Prelude,
Chorale, Fugue), a neo-Romantic harmonic
language is combined with neo-Classical form.
After the war, his style was dominated by neoClassicism.
The second generation of composers active
in the first postwar decade consisted of:
Stanisław Michalek, Tadeusz Natanson, Radomir
Reszke, Jadwiga Szajna-Lewandowska, Janina
Skowrońska, and Leszek Wisłocki. What all these
artists had in common (despite the differences in
age – they were born between 1912 and 1931) was
the time and place of graduation (from Wrocław’s
3 Kazimierz Wyka, Pokolenia literackie [The Literary Generations], Cracow
1977, p. 59.
II
State Higher School of Music in the mid-1950s)
and a similar date of debut. The composers of
this second generation were students of Piotr
Perkowski, Stefan B. Poradowski and Tadeusz
Szeligowski and received similar artistic models
during their course of studies. Their shared
artistic views were also undoubtedly influenced
by the political atmosphere of the time4. Their
works mostly belonged to the neo-Classical style.
After 1956, in the period dominated by the socalled Great Avant-garde, the composers of
the second generation no longer formed such
a unified and cohesive group. First of all, not
all of them redefined their technique. Only two
composers – Tadeusz Natanson and Radomir
Reszke – declared themselves in favour of the
avant-garde. The second generation was joined
in that period by artists born in 1933–1935: Jerzy
Filc, Zygmunt Herembeszta and Lucjan Laprus,
all of whom graduated from music academies
in the late 1950s, but in disciplines other than
composition (teaching, piano), and later took
up composition studies. Only Lucjan Laprus
remained an autodidact as a composer. Of the
latter three artists, Jerzy Filc and Lucjan Laprus
composed in retrospective styles and drew on
the avant-garde only to a limited extent, whereas
Zygmunt Herembeszta took advantage of the
latest composition techniques.
The third generation of composers, which
appeared in 1956-1975, initiated the move away
from the avant-garde and the process of a great
synthesis of tradition and modernity. The
composers of this generation – such as Grażyna
Pstrokońska-Nawratil, Zbigniew Karnecki, Piotr
Drożdżewski, Rafał Augustyn - were born, for the
most part, already after World War II. Because
of a similar date of debut (the late 1960s or early
1970s) and similar artistic interests, we should
also include in this generation two slightly
older composers: Ryszard Klisowski (b. 1937)
and Jan Antoni Wichrowski (b. 1942). Some
younger artists, born in 1954-1957, belong to the
third generation as well. These are: Mirosław
Gąsieniec, Andrzej Tuchowski, Ewa Podgórska,
and Tomasz Kulikowski – composers who made
their debuts at the festivals in Stalowa Wola
(Gąsieniec, Podgórska) or absorbed the ideals
of the Stalowa Wola generation5 during their
4 The period of socialist realism. After World War II, communists seized
power in Poland and imposed their worldview on the Polish society,
interfering in every area of life, including arts [editor’s note].
5 The Festival “Young Musicians to the Young City” in Stalowa Wola was
held in 1975-80. It became a venue for the debuts of composers born in
the 1950s and associated with that city. The Festival has frequently been
related to the Polish “New Romanticism” [editor’s note].
education (Tuchowski), even though these ideals
did not always find a reflection in their own
music (Kulikowski).
The fourth and youngest generation was born
in the 1970s and began its artistic life in the
early 1990s. The music of these youngest
composers – Cezary Duchnowski, Krystian Kiełb,
Robert Kurdybacha, Marcin Bortnowski, Agata
Zubel, Sławomir Kupczak, and Paweł Hendrich
– demonstrates the influence of heterogeneous
stylistic trends and aesthetic concepts, and
reflects tendencies typical of the end of the
century. On the one hand, their works draw on
the broadly conceived music of the past; on the
other, they look forward to the future, toward
the 21st century.
Every researcher that sets out to discuss and
assess the achievements of Wrocław composers
must take into account the situation in Wrocław
after its incorporation into Poland in 1945. Unlike
Greater Poland, Silesia or Cracow, Wrocław had
no deep-rooted Polish musical traditions6.
Wrocław’s music environment was being rebuilt
from scratch, with no Polish roots to fall back on.
Artists faced the uneasy task of creating Polish
musical culture in that city.
The first Polish composers to have arrived
in Wrocław were Stanisław Skrowaczewski,
Kazimierz Wiłkomirski, and Ryszard Bukowski.
The key event for the formation of the city’s
composers milieu was the opening of a Section
of Composition in Wrocław’s State Higher
School of Music in 1952. Its staff consisted of:
Prof. Piotr Perkowski from Cracow and Prof.
Stefan Bolesław Poradowski from Poznań. These
two played a decisive role in the education of
Wrocław’s composers. Especially significant
was the influence of S. B. Poradowski – the only
professor of composition at Wrocław’s State
Higher School of Music in 1954-1967. After
his death, the subject was taught by Tadeusz
Natanson and Ryszard Bukowski, then from 1975
by Leszek Wisłocki and Zygmunt Herembeszta,
all of whom were Poradowski’s pupils. Thanks to
his work, Wrocław’s State Higher School of Music
had educated its own professors of composition.
The early 1970s saw the appearance of such young
talented graduates as Grażyna PstrokońskaNawratil, Zbigniew Karnecki, Ryszard Klisowski,
and Jan A. Wichrowski. Some of them continued
their education abroad, in such centres as Paris
6 From the 18th century onward, parts of present-day Western (including
Wrocław) and Northern Poland belonged to Austria and Prussia, then – to
Germany. At the Potsdam Conference after the end of World War II it was
decided that these territories would be handed over to Poland [editor’s note].
41
or Vienna, and their music has been presented to
the international audiences, also at the “Warsaw
Autumn” International Festival of Contemporary
Music. In the late 1970s they were joined by
Piotr Drożdżewski and Rafał Augustyn, and from
that moment on the milieu began to develop
more dynamically, systematically building its
reputation.
Despite the difficult circumstances in which the
Wrocław composers milieu came into being, its
members have always been open to new trends
and directions in music. All the tendencies
present in Polish music in the 2nd half of the 20th
century were creatively continued and developed
in that circle.
Considering the many transformations in Polish
music after 1945, I will now attempt to answer
the following questions: What does Polish music
owe to Wrocław composers? And what was their
contribution to Polish music in the 2nd half of
the 20th century?
The dominant style of the first postwar decade
was neo-Classicism, which left its mark on the
works of virtually all the composers of that time.
While accepting the basic premises of this neostyle, the composers also creatively developed
its concepts, both with regard to musical form
and technique. The music of Ryszard Bukowski
was characterised by a fondness for polyphony
and strict polyphonic forms (the fugue). He
combined Baroque with Classicist influences and
with folk music stylisations; his idiom included
elements of parody and the grotesque. The latter
elements can also be found in the compositions
of Jadwiga Szajna-Lewandowska, whose neoClassicism was light, graceful, refined, and full
of humour. Stanisław Wisłocki, in his turn,
enriched classical genres with elements of Polish
highlander folklore.
In its early years, the Wrocław composers milieu
cherished the ideas of Karol Szymanowski. The
composer’s artistic testament – his Symphony
No. 4 – became an inspiration for both Kazimierz
Wiłkomirski and Tadeusz Natanson.
The influence of normative aesthetics can best
be traced in the cantatas of K. Wiłkomirski and in
choral “mass songs”, written mainly for amateur
choirs. In other types of songs, as well as largescale vocal-instrumental forms, composers fell
back on stylisations of Polish folklore, also from
the region of Silesia, and on folk song texts. This
was in fact the only way to avoid the tyranny of
the new ideology. In the so-called “Recovered
42
Territories” in the west and north of Poland such
compositions also served a propaganda purpose:
folk music was to testify to the Polish-ness of
those regions.
In this period, some composers ventured to break
away from the principles of socialist realism.
One example is Ryszard Bukowski’s cantata My
Evening Song to a hymn by Jan Kasprowicz.
The new avant-garde trends quickly found their
way into the music of Wrocław composers. Their
first twelve-tone compositions were written as
early as 1957. Similarly as in other Polish centres,
horizontal (melodic) dodecaphony enjoyed the
greatest popularity in Wrocław. The composers
mainly used the tone row to construct themes,
and they treated the technique itself rather freely,
combining it with such different stylistic trends
as neo-Classicism (Reszke, Wisłocki, Natanson),
neo-Romanticism (Natanson), expressionism
(Bukowski), and jazz (Reszke). They applied
thematic dodecaphony in traditional genres
and forms, employing also such original ideas
as overlapping series (Natanson’s SymphonyConcerto), which created an archaicising effect.
Some composers associated with the Wrocław
milieu took up a less popular technique known
as total serialism. In his Symphony No.2, Tadeusz
Natanson applied the serial principle to melody,
rhythm, metre, dynamics and colour. Some
composers, rather than using the full twelvetone row, limited their series to just several
pitches (Wisłocki, Bukowski, Herembeszta),
which gave them more formal freedom in their
work on melody and harmony. An original way
of handling the series was proposed by Zygmunt
Herembeszta. It depended on defining an interval
structure which after several transpositions
yielded the full twelve-tone series (Varianti B-AC-H). In this way, the composer linked serialism
to intervallic structuralism and constructivism.
The serialist technique was also extended by
being combined with pointillistic textures
(Wisłocki, Reszke) and with more modern ways
of sound production (Herembeszta).
Sonorism attracted Wrocław composers’ interest
in the early 1960s. In that period (the 1st stage
of development), they combined a sonoristic
type of expression with traditional composition
techniques, as in Natanson’s Symphony No. 3,
though in this work (in Movement Two) he
already transforms the melody into horizontal
structures (Klangfarbenmelodie).
II
Example 1: T. Natanson, Symphony No. 3, Movement One
Sonorism came to be applied on a wider scale
in the late 1960s (the 2nd stage of development),
when it was seen as a principle of construction.
A characteristic feature of music by Wrocław
composers was that they treated the purely
sonorist technique in two different ways: as
an element applied only in some sections
and combined with traditional techniques of
composition or even with thematic thinking
(Bukowski, Natanson, Reszke), and at other
times – as a basic principle of construction,
determining the expressive quality of the entire
work (Herembeszta, Klisowski, Natanson,
Pstrokońska-Nawratil, Reszke).
Sonorism appeared in structuralist-constructivist
compositions (constructivist sonorism
– Z. Herembeszta); in works dominated by
movement (vitalistic sonorism – G. PstrokońskaNawratil); those marked by a bruitist aesthetic
emphasising aggressive types of sound
(bruitist sonorism – G. Pstrokońska-Nawratil);
characterised by refined, sublime sound colours
(impressionistic sonorism – J. A. Wichrowski)
or by “heightened expression” (expressionistic
sonorism – T. Natanson, R. Bukowski); by
Classical forms and composition techniques
(neo-Classical sonorism – T. Natanson) or
by the dominant neo-Romantic forms of
expression (neo-Romantic sonorism – T.
Natanson); in works following the principle of
static form (static sonorism – R. Reszke) and
those based on the principles of heightened
expression combined with the futuristic idea of
movement (expressionistic-futuristic sonorism
– R. Klisowski). The fact that sonorism appeared
in the music of Wrocław composers in so many
varieties testifies to their great creativity in the
treatment of the technique of “pure sound
colour”. Those numerous, simultaneously
developed stylistic proposals made up the rich
palette of Wrocław’s avant-garde in that period.
Wrocław composers experimented with
controlled aleatory techniques as well, making
them responsible for many different aspects of
the work’s form. The function of aleatorism could
be expressive, colouristic, motoric, or dramatic.
New colours and types of sound could be
produced not only by means of traditional
instruments, but also – electroacoustic devices.
In the Wrocław milieu, interest in the new
sources of sound developed relatively late. It
first manifested itself in 1974 in the works of
Ryszard Klisowski, and resulted in compositions
representing such genres as musique concrète,
electronic music, as well as works combining
traditional sources of sound with electronics.
Research into the music of Wrocław composers
in 1956-1975 has demonstrated that each of the
major trends appearing in Polish music in that
period found its reflection in works composed
in that milieu, which testifies to its members’
openness to new ideas, technical competence
and emotional-artistic sensitivity.
The onset of postmodernism manifested itself
in numerous individual solutions exemplifying
two variants of that trend: neoconservative
and poststructuralist. Each of the composers
understood the privilege of “cancelling all
necessity”7 – the differentia specifica of the
postmodern era – in a quite different fashion.
In Ryszard Bukowski’s oeuvre, the postmodern
period was one of consolidating his modern
musical language as presented in his greatest
works: the two Passions, Missa Profana, Symphony
of Threnodies, ballets, string quartets, violin
and piano sonatas). The essence of his style is
a fusion of neo-Classicism with expressionism.
7 E. Szczepańska, Postmodernizm a muzyka [Postmodernism in Music], in:
Encyklopedia kultury polskiej XX wieku [Encyclopaedia of 20th – Century
Polish Culture], Vol. 4: Od awangardy do postmodernizmu [From Avant-garde
to Postmodernism], ed. G. Dziamski, Warsaw 1996, p. 446.
43
Example 2: R. Bukowski, ballet Antigone – Prologue
The term “New Romanticism” best characterises
the works of Tadeusz Natanson, which reflect
a strong need for emotional self-expression
and the search for emotional contact with the
audience. The composer’s dialogue with tradition
manifests itself in the use of traditional elements
such as major/minor harmonies, quasi-Romantic
expression rooted in melodic forms, modal
structures, and the euphony of sound – all of
which return in his music as signs incorporated
into a modern musical language system.
The music of Jan A. Wichrowski is distinguished
by a sensuality of sound and an emotional charge.
The composer drew inspiration from poetry,
philosophy, religion, and nature. He addressed
the dilemmas of the modern man (The Rubáiyát,
The Megillot, Counterpoints), for which the remedy
can be found in love. He combined traditional
tonal harmonic and euphonic gestures with his
experience of sonorism, aleatorism, pointillism,
and impressionism.
Example 3: J.A. Wichrowski, Concerto for Violin and Symphony
Orchestra, Movement Two
Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil’s oeuvre,
dominated by humanist ideas, reflects a concern
about man’s fate and future, the restitution of
the sacrum and revival of religious attitudes,
a dialogue with nature, a union with the
natural world and the entire universe (Seven
Frescos). Seeking inspiration in nature (the sea)
influenced her composition technique (the
“shifting structures”) and the construction of
her palindrome-scales (neomodalism).
Example 4: G. Pstrokońska-Nawratil, Fresco VII “Uru Anna”,
Part 3, undulating musical structures
44
II
Ewa Podgórska’s idiosyncratic postmodernist
idiom is dominated by distinct emotionality and
logical construction, whereas Andrzej Tuchowski
focuses on universal values. Ryszard Klisowski’s
individual variant of postmodernism (in the
form of multi-planar, expressionistic sonorism)
bears a strong imprint of both the First and the
Second Avant-garde. The latter artist combines
the achievements of the avant-garde with
(frequently deformed) tradition in the form of
Gypsy folk, jazz, Austrian stylistic mannerisms,
quotations and allusions.
Example 5: R. Klisowski, Vau-Cluse, The Mystery of Creation
– The Mobile of Nine
The music of Rafał Augustyn reveals an intricate
system of musical symbols and depends on extraor supra-musical meanings and senses. The
composer draws on many different traditions,
hinted at by means of quotations, associations
or references (A Life’s Parallels, A linea, Mirois).
He never directly reproduces historical styles in
their entirety, but only revives selected symbolic
gestures, frequently submitting tradition to
a process of deconstruction.
Example 6: R. Augustyn, Carmina de tempore, Part Six, after
Hieronim Morsztyn (Corale)
These greatly diversified, individual responses
of Wrocław composers to the postmodernist
reality significantly enricheds the landscape of
Polish music in the postmodern era.
The above presented overview of the milieu’s
participation in the transformations of Polish
music in the 2nd half of the 20th century justifies
the claim that, even though the music of Wrocław
composers does not represent innovations going
beyond the conventions of system, technique and
aesthetic, it still contains many original technical
and aesthetic solutions proposed by individual
authors within the limits of the current trends.
These individual solutions formed a significant
contribution to the development of Polish music
in the period covered by my research.
No study of Wrocław composers’ output can
be complete without an attempt to define the
specific qualities of that milieu’s art and style.
An analysis of their combined oeuvre makes it
possible to distinguish the following qualities:
- the music is strongly rooted in tradition.
Even in the avant-garde era, the composers of that
milieu never completely broke away from tradition.
Powerful links with tradition are also confirmed
by the retrospective character of the music of such
artists as Wisłocki, Szajna-Lewandowska, Laprus,
Drożdżewski, Gąsieniec, or Kulikowski,
- the common feature of all these
composers’ work is its distinctly emotional
character,
- the ideas of Karol Szymanowski were
upheld and creatively transformed in each period
(Wiłkomirski, Natanson, Wisłocki, Klisowski,
Gąsieniec, Tuchowski),
- foreign influences were extensive and
diversified (Mahler, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Bartók,
Ravel, Italian futurists, Schönberg, Berg, Webern,
Messiaen, Ives),
- the composers also drew extensively on
Polish musical culture (Chopin, Szymanowski,
Baird, Serocki, Penderecki, Górecki, Szalonek,
Lutosławski, Krzanowski),
45
- techniques were greatly varied,
- the composers of this milieu cultivated
many forms and genres (solo and chamber
music; small and large-scale vocal-instrumental
and choral works; music for films and the stage,
including children’s operas; electroacoustic
compositions),
- the music was influenced by from many
different interests and inspirations, such as
poetry, philosophy, religion, science, nature
and the universe, Indian music, jazz and folk,
ancient and medieval cultures,
- the artists demonstrated humanist
attitudes, and an openness to new trends
resulting from the need for continued artistic
development.
We should finally consider the following
question: have Wrocław composers formed
a distinct school of composition?
When we study the master-pupil relations in the
Wrocław milieu, we discover that many of the
composers have presented a tendency to continue
their teachers’ experience both in the sphere
of technique and aesthetics. This continuity
can be observed over several generations.
It was Piotr Perkowski who sensitized his
pupils to colouristic qualities in music, and,
consequently, all of them – Tadeusz Natanson,
Radomir Reszke, Janina Skowrońska, Jadwiga
Szajna-Lewandowska and Leszek Wisłocki – have
demonstrated an excellent sense of sound colour.
It was also Perkowski who promoted in this circle
the ideals of Karol Szymanowski, such as an
openness to new trends combined with a rooting
in national tradition. The other original teacher
at Wrocław’s State Higher School of Music, Stefan
B. Poradowski, cherished such classical ideals
as order and moderation, balance of form and
content, a cult of the composer’s craftsmanship
and a love of chamber music (his passion was
the sound of the string quartet), all of which he
passed down to his pupil Leszek Wisłocki, and
the latter – to Piotr Drożdżewski.
Tadeusz Natanson inherited the technical
discipline, a predilection for traditional genres
and the polyphonic technique – from his
professor, Stefan B. Poradowski. He then enriched
this legacy by introducing such modern technical
solutions as dodecaphony, sonorism, aleatorism,
as well as powerful emotional expression. The
directions outlined by S. B. Poradowski and
T. Natanson were creatively continued in the
following generation in the works of Grażyna
46
Pstrokońska-Nawratil, characterised by technical
discipline, a respect for tradition, a neo-modal
type of tonality, constructivist thinking,
a strongly emotional quality and a lasting interest
in modern types of sound and expression.
Many of these elements can also be found in
the music of the youngest generation, educated
by Pstrokońska-Nawratil. Marcin Bortnowski
inherited her neomodal and constructivist
approach, while Robert Kurdybacha took over
her strong rooting in tradition, achieved through
the cultivation of traditional forms, genres and
selected technical means.
Another branch of the tradition established
by Tadeusz Natanson is exemplified by the
music of Ryszard Klisowski. In the manner
he lets expression shape his musical form,
and in the way he constantly revises his
technique in response to new trends, we can
trace distinct influences of his master’s art
and stance. Zygmunt Herembeszta, another
pupil of Poradowski, resembles his teacher
in his great technical discipline, manifested
in the extensive use of motivic development
and a structuralist-constructivist approach to
organising the sound material. A similar type
of thinking also characterises the music of
Mirosław Gąsieniec and Ewa Podgórska, as well
as that of Herembeszta’s younger pupil – Krystian
Kiełb.
A different branch of tradition is exemplified by
Ryszard Bukowski, whose trademarks are: strong
emotionality, attention to form combined with
a tendency to challenge traditional schemes,
a sensitivity to colour, contrapuntal thinking and
elements of the grotesque. The same elements
can be traced in the music of Bukowski’s
pupil – Jan A. Wichrowski, whose colouristic
imagination combined with a strongly emotional
expression make his music eminently sensual.
By analysing some of the master-pupil relations
listed above, we can demonstrate that over the
50 years of its existence, the Wrocław composers
milieu has creatively developed and cultivated
its own distinct tradition, passed down from
one generation to another, and enriched by new
elements characteristic of individual artists.
These new elements gradually transformed the
structure of the tradition, but the existence of
the shared legacy has guaranteed the continuity
of the milieu’s development and allows me to
interpret the work of Wrocław composers as
belonging to a particular “school of composition”,
whose founding fathers were Piotr Perkowski
II
and Stefan B. Poradowski, and the forerunners:
Kazimierz Wiłkomirski and Ryszard Bukowski.
The results of research presented here are the
product of many years’ work that I have conducted
with regard to the music of Wrocław composers
and the musical culture of that city. My study
ought to be considered as the first attempt at
a synthetic presentation of an extensive and
varied output. I did not research the music of
the youngest generation (Marcin Bortnowski,
Cezary Duchnowski, Krystian Kiełb, Robert
Kurdybacha, Agata Zubel, Michał Moc, and Paweł
Hendrich), which still awaits a proper study. This
is a dynamic generation that has already scored
spectacular successes both in Poland (e.g. at the
“Warsaw Autumn” festivals) and worldwide. It
combines the exploration of new areas, such as
computer music and multimedia spectacles,
with a strong rooting in the traditions of the
Wrocław milieu and of Polish music at large.
Their music aims to be European and national
at the same time, thus fulfilling the postulates
of Poland’s great 20th-century composer, Karol
Szymanowski.
Anna Granat-Janki (photo from the Author’s private
collection)
Anna Granat-Janki, professor at the Karol Lipiński Academy
of Music in Wrocław, head of the Chair of Music Theory and
the History of Silesian Musical Culture. She specialises in
20th–century music history and theory, the works of 20thcentury composers, in particular – from Wrocław.. Author of
two monographs: Forma w twórczości instrumentalnej Aleksandra
Tansmana [Form in the Instrumental Works of Aleksander Tansman]
and Twórczość kompozytorów wrocławskich w latach 1945-2000
[The Music of Wrocław Composers 1945-2000], as well as numerous
articles in Polish and foreign journals and encyclopaedias.
Translated by Tomasz Zymer
47
For tune – the publisher of
ambitious music
by Ryszard Wojciul
“The mission of FOR TUNE® Publishing
House is to salvage from oblivion the musical
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aeternatum is our motto and motive for
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we still find it worthwhile. All the more so that
we shun the policy of wholesale and assembly
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to all directions in geography and art.”
The above quote, taken from the For Tune’s
homepage (www.for-tune.pl), aptly describes
the mission of the new Polish record label
which took the world market of ambitious
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For Tune’s releases can be easily identified
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and, soon to come, rock music.
48
What makes the For Tune’s catalogue unique is
the courage displayed in the choice of repertoire,
the courage that allowed the labels’ founders to
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promoting of contemporary music. These largescale activities are carried out on a worldwide
level; For Tune’s catalogue not only presents
Polish creators, but also the greatest names in
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Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker, Trevor Watts, or
Viatcheslav Ganelin. The CD that comes with this
magazine issue presents 16 pieces from records
already released and a number of compositions
to be premierissned early next year.
The CD attached to this magazine issue contains
the following compositions published by For
Tune:
01. Lorent & Nerkowski – Kassandra (fragment)
Two remarkably talented performers – Leszek
Lorent (drums) and Maciej Bogumil Nerkowski
(baritone) – present pieces written by Polish
composers: Dariusz Przybylski, Ignacy Zalewski,
Miłosz Bembinow, and Ianis Xenakis (his
legendary ‘Kassandra). “Leszek Lorent and
Maciej Nerkowski create an ambience of joyous
II
solemnity and ecstasy, inviting us to experience
something poignant and beautiful”, reads a line
from a 36 pages long CD booklet containing all
lyrics in original versions and translation.
Explosion and tenderness, post-rock weight,
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the band’s leader is Dominik Strycharski playing
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02. Anthony Braxton – Composition 363b+
Fragment of the composition performed by
Anthony Braxton Quartet in 2012 during the
intuitive music festival “Ad Libitum”. The record
came out in the contemporary music series.
The musicians perform from a graphic score,
the sound effect of which locates the record, in
aesthetic terms, in a sphere that is closer to the
composed rather than jazz music.
04. Wojciech Błażejczyk – Sculpture 4
Wojciech Błażejczyk is a classically trained
composer, sound director, and electric guitar
player in one. The album features compositions
written between 2008 and 2012 for various
instrument combinations, each including
electric guitar – whether solo or with a traditional
orchestra of “classical” instruments. Sculpture
4 is a part of a larger musical form consisting
of compositions for solo electric guitar whose
sound is electronically processed.
03. Pulsarus – Isogriv 3
49
05. Evan Parker/Agusti Fernandez (fragment)
07. P.U.R. Collective – Duets (fragment)
Fragment of a concert played by two legendary
improvisers at the 2013 Art Of Improvisation
Creative Festival in Wroclaw. The album will be
released spring 2015.
This is a fragment of a recording session
produced on commission from For Tune, in
which the leader, Krzysztof Knittel (composer,
prominent musical activist, educationist and
proponent of contemporary improvised music)
was accompanied by two saxophone players from
estern Europe – Alexey Kruglov from Russia and
Yurij Yaremchuk from Ukraine. All musicians
fit the contemporary intuitive music scene
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the end of 2014.
06. Piotr Damasiewicz Quartet – Confab
Piotr Damasiewicz is a young trumpeter and
composer. He feels at home in the realm of
both composed and improvised music. His
talent has been recently appreciated with
numerous prestigious awards and honors. The
music presented on this album was created at
the Baptist Church in Wroclaw whose specific
acoustic conditions and ambience affected the
realization of the original compositional idea,
leaving a significant mark on the music.
50
08. Karin Helquist – Dominik Karski’s composition
“Certainty’s Flux” (fragment)
This album contains the recording of a concert
held in 2013 at the Warsaw Autumn International
Festival of Contemporary Music. It is worth
noting that the album was available for purchase
II
while the festival was still going, only four days
after the recording, with an impressive 32-page
booklet describing both the performed works
and the festival’s history lavishly illustrated with
pictures. Karin Helquist, a Swedish violinist,
performed compositions written by Dominik
Karski, Mauricio Pauly, Joakim Sandgren and
Malin Bang.
Recorded at the “Ad Libitum” Festival in Warsaw,
2013, this concert sparked the delight of the
audience. Watts and Weston, the musicians and
composers who have been exploring the world
of improvised music for nearly 40 years, have
once again surprised and mesmerized the public
with their unconventional approach to creating
a peculiar world of sounds and open forms. The
album will be released spring 2015.
09. Wacław Zimpel Quartet – Old Feet Feel Out The Path
It is the first album recorded by an international
quartet of Wacław Zimpel who is counted among
the most talented jazz clarinetists. Firmly set in
European tradition, the music on this record is
the result of a search for common roots, a fusion
of experiences of each member of the band,
bearing Zimpel’s distinct compositional style.
10. Trevor Watts/Veryan Weston (fragment)
11. Mateusz Ryczek - Europe’s Ocean (fragment)
This monographic album of a young Based-based
composer fascinated with science contains
compositions written in 2008–2012 for various
combinations of instruments. The track is
a fragment of an almost 10-minute long piece
for orchestra.
12. Mary Halvorson Trio – Deformed Weight of Hands (no. 28)
51
Trio recording with an already outstanding
although still young guitarist and student of
Mr. Anthony Braxton. This is a live recording of
a concert held in 2012 in Chorzow at the Jazz &
Beyond Festival.
15. Ganelin Trio Priority – Solution (fragment)
13. Gorzycki & Gruchot – Water Method
Violinist and drummer playing in a duo. The music
freely flows between styles, sometimes sounding
like a contemporary chamber music, at other times
like experiments in noise or quasi-jazz groove.
Fragment of a concert played by an avant-garde
trio of a Russian pianist who, in the words of
a famous German critic, Joachim Berendt, delivers
“the wildest and yet the best organized and most
professional free jazz I’ve heard in years”. Two
other members of this trio are Petras Vysniauskas,
a renowned Lithuanian saxophonist, and the
German drummer Klaus Kugel (also of Wacław
Zimpel Quartet we have mentioned before: see
09). The album will come out in 2015.
14. Keir Neuringer - How Do You Look Away (fragment)
The album has been already mentioned above (see
08). It is a fragment of a concert played at the Warsaw
Autumn International Festival of Contemporary
Music. Keir Neuringer is a saxophonist who
acquired the outstanding ability of playing with
circular breathing. Worthy of note is the fact that this
“breath” lasts nearly 24 minutes, i.e., throughout
the entire duration of this trance piece.
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16. Hunger Pangs – Love hp
Marek Kądziela, the leader of Hunger Pangs, uses
this ensemble as a ground for testing his ideas
and fascinations that go beyond the jazz zone.
There is room for such diverse aesthetic idioms
as punk rock and contemporary music.
Translated by Małgorzata Pawlikowska
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Ryszard Wojciul – musicologist, musician, journalist. In the
80’s, associated with the Polish independent rock scene. In the
90’s - co-leader a multimedia Grupa MM specializing in the
performance of Polish contemporary music. Since the early
90’s operate on commercial radio broadcasting market. Since
2004 active as a music producer, manager and musician. Leader
of The Intuition Orchestra specializes in performing intuitive
music. He is vice president of For Tune® Publishing House.
53
POLMIC presents
“Polish Music Today – An Anthology”
by Izabela Zymer, POLMIC
The Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC
is well known to musicians, music scholars and
audiences in Poland and all over the world.
Established in 2001 by the decision of the Polish
Composers’ Union (PCU) Management Board, it
took over the collections and continues the work
of the PCU Library, started almost directly after
World War II, as well as the Polish Contemporary
Music Documentation Centre, which operated
within the framework of that Library. The aim
of the new Centre has been to intensify the
development and implementation of stateof-the-art tools for information storage and
promotion which would live up to the demands
of the changing times, expectations and needs,
while upholding at the same time the more than
50-year-long tradition and spirit of the institution.
Hence the continued, unique and impressive
bidirectional character of POLMIC’s activity.
The Centre maintains the traditional extensive
Collection of scores, books, periodicals and
recordings, primarily documenting the
development of Polish contemporary music,
but also music from earlier periods and other
countries, as well as general music reference
books. Within the limits of available financial
resources and library space, we have aimed
to collect all the scores of Polish new music
published in Poland and abroad, as well as the
complete literature of the subject. In many
cases, they are the only copies available in
Poland. In recent years our resources have
been substantially extended by the addition
of online materials: musicological texts and
bibliographies (RILM, JSTOR and GROVE), which
we subscribe to and make available free of charge
to registered users. These resources have been
hugely popular among users from all over the
country. Apart from music scores, they include
a large collection of authorised copies of still
unpublished works, submitted directly by their
composers. Our recorded music stock consists
of editions available on the market now or in the
past, preserved on analogue records, compact
discs and other recently developed carriers, as
well as an immense collection of live recordings,
54
mainly of concerts and festivals organised by
the PCU – with the “Warsaw Autumn” taking
the pride of place – but also donated by our
individual and institutional collaborators. Apart
from these, those visiting our Library have access
to the Polish Composers’ Union’s archives, which
constitute a priceless resource for the study of
Polish music and musical life, primarily in the
2nd half of the 20th century.
Our guests from Warsaw and from all over
Poland and the world greatly appreciate the
Library’s location in one of the Polish capital’s
most attractive spots. The windows of our
(admittedly small) reading room overlook the
Old Town Square with the monument of the
Warsaw mermaid. This undoubtedly contributes
to the atmosphere of the place. It is here that
the world’s main publications on Polish and
East European music have been researched and
prepared by such authors as Adrian Thomas,
Ray Robinson, Cindy Bylander, Lidia RappaportGelfand, as well as younger scholars: David
Tompkins, Lisa Jakelsky, Lisa Vest, Andrea
Bohlman, Ruth Seehaber, and many others. Our
Library is frequented, and our resources used
by all those interested in Polish music, both
professionals and amateurs, from Poland and
all over the world.
The most recent challenges are related most of
all to the Internet and to database development.
Our website www.polmic.pl, wholly dedicated
to Polish music and music life in Poland, is
accessible to everyone with no restrictions or
fees. It contains reports, announcements of
future events and reviews, but also databases
of institutions, persons and works for more
specialised users. The database of contemporary
Polish composers makes it possible to select
compositions according to specific detailed
criteria. We also intensely develop the section
of web-streamed recordings and online music
scores. The information presented online is
backed up and supplemented by our on-site
collections and databases constantly updated
at POLMIC.
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The Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC
also actively contributes to music life and
the music publishing market. We publish
promotional CDs and books, organise concerts
and conferences, cooperate with cultural and
academic institutions on the local, national,
European and global levels. One of POLMIC’s
priorities is the participation in the activities
of the International Association of Music
Information Centres IAMIC, which brings
together similar centres from all over Europe
and the world and represents the best forum for
the promotion of our country’s culture and music
life among the international public, including
(though not exclusively) the countries of the
European Union. Our cooperation with IAMIC
was initiated in 1995, and since 1998 we have
been the Association’s only member from Poland
(originally – as the Documentation Centre).
The CD Polish Music Today – An Anthology,
available with this issue of “World New Music
Magazine”, presents several aspects of POLMIC’s
activity. It marks the culmination of POLMIC’s
partnership with the International Society for
Contemporary Music, Polish Section, connected
with the organisation of this year’s international
events: the IAMIC Annual Meeting and ISCM
World Music Days, held simultaneously in
Wrocław. The CD also represents a selection
from POLMIC’s most recent CD releases.
In 2013, in cooperation with the Polish Radio
SA and with the support of the Polish Ministry
of Culture and National Heritage, we released
10 compact discs, each dedicated to one
contemporary Polish composer. They present
artists belonging to different generations,
residing and working both in Poland and abroad.
Despite their considerable achievements and
substantial output, none of these composers
had previously had a CD dedicated exclusively
to his or her own music. In our series “Portraits
of Contemporary Polish Composers”, each CD
presented the work of one selected artist. For
the programme of this CD, we have selected one
composition by each of the ten.
The present CD is therefore intended to encourage
the festival guests and readers of the WNMM to
become acquainted with our “Portraits” series.
It also serves as a brief overview of the wealth,
stylistic variety and beauty of new Polish music.
While designing the CD programme, we have
aimed to create an artistic and dramatic whole,
so that, despite the great differences in formal
concept and the choice of sound material,
our selection can function as an aesthetically
satisfying musical experience and encourage
the listeners further to explore the repertoire.
[1] Lidia Zielińska
Graphic design: Jerzy Matuszewski,
photo by Anna Zielińska
Born in 1953, she graduated from the State Higher
School of Music (now – the Academy of Music) in
Poznań, where she studied composition with Andrzej
Koszewski. She has received commissions from e.g.
the Polish Radio, the Solidarity Trade Union, the
Eighth Day Theatre, Holland Dance Festival, orkest
de ereprijs, the “Warsaw Autumn” Festival and Adam
Mickiewicz Institute. Currently she holds the posts of
professor of composition and director of the Studio
of Electroacoustic Music at the Academy of Music
and teaches classes in sonology at the Academy of
Fine Arts in Poznań.
Rhapsody for violin and electronic sounds
(2004)
Commissioned by the Edmonton Composers’ Concert
Society (Canada).
Recorded live on November 21st, 2005 during the
15th Festival de Música Contemporánea Chilena,
Santiago; violin: Anna Zielińska, sound projection:
Lidia Zielińska.
55
[2] Anna Zawadzka-Gołosz
photo by Andrzej Szełęga
[3] Michał Talma-Sutt
photo from the Composer’s private collection
Born in 1955, she studied music theory and
composition with Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar
in the State Higher School of Music (now – the
Academy of Music) in Cracow. She continued her
composition studies with Wolfgang Hufschmidt in the
Folkwanghochschule für Musik, Theater und Tanz in
Essen-Werden and took part in Summer Courses for
Composers in Kazimierz Dolny, which she considers
as very important for her artistic growth. Since
graduation, she has worked in her alma mater as
a lecturer in composition and theory.
Born in 1969, he studied composition with Jerzy
Bauer in the Academy of Music in Łódź and continued
his composition studies in IRCAM, Paris, in the
Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst,
Stuttgart (with Ulrich Süße), and in the Zentrum
für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe. He
won two 1st prizes of the International Rostrum
of Electroacoustic Music: in 1998, in the category
of composers under 30 (for What Nostradamus has
kept only for himself) and in 2000, in the general
category (for Light and Shade). He has resided in
Berlin since 2001.
Cadenza for string quartet (2001)
Dedicated to Professor Mieczysław Tomaszewski on
his 80th birthday.
Recorded live on December 12th, 2001 at the PWM
Edition Concert Hall in Warsaw, as part of the concert
cycle “Composers’ Portraits”; Camerata Quartet.
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String’0’tronic for 21 string instruments and
computer (2005)
Recorded live on May 19th, 2007 during the 2nd
International Festival “Musica Electronica Nova”,
Witold Lutosławski Philharmonic, Concert Hall,
Wrocław; AUKSO Chamber Orchestra of the City
of Tychy conducted by Marek Moś; recording: Ewa
Guziołek-Tubelewicz, Polish Radio.
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[4] Tadeusz Wielecki
photo by Michał Nebelski
Born in 1954, he studied double bass and composition
(with Włodzimierz Kotoński) at the Academy of
Music (now – the Fryderyk Chopin University of
Music) in Warsaw. He continued his composition
studies with Isang Yun (Berlin) and Klaus Huber
(Freiburg). As a double bass player he focuses on the
contemporary solo repertoire. He is also active as
an improviser, playing with musical ensembles such
as Mud Cavaliers and Laterna. He is also involved
in the promotion of contemporary music and arts
education. He has served as Director of the ”Warsaw
Autumn” Festival since 1999.
Study of Gesture II for piano (1997)
Work dedicated to Witold Szalonek.
Studio recording: Studio of the Academy of Music
in Gdańsk, October 2013; piano: Małgorzata
Walentynowicz; recording: Anna Kasprzycka,
editing: Jacek Guzowski and Krzysztof Kuraszkiewicz,
Musicon.
[5] Ewa Trębacz
photo by Mark Haslam
Composer and media artist, born in 1973, currently
lives in Seattle, USA (since 2001). She comes from
Cracow, Poland, where she earned her master’s
degrees from the Academy of Music (composition
with Bogusław Schaeffer, 1999) and the Academy
of Economics (computer science and econometrics,
2000). In 2004 she joined the first program of
doctoral studies in new media in the USA at the
University of Washington Center for Digital Arts
and Experimental Media (DXARTS). In 2010 she
graduated with her Ph.D. and currently works at
DXARTS as Research Scientist.
things lost things invisible for ambisonic space
and orchestra (2007)
Work commissioned by the “Warsaw Autumn”
Festival in partnership with Adam Mickiewicz
Institute, Poland. Recommendation of the 56th
International Rostrum of Composers (Paris, 2009).
Electronic layer was realized in ambisonics by Ewa
Trębacz at DXARTS, University of Washington, Seattle.
Initial sound materials for the electronic layer were
recorded in ambisonics by Ewa Trębacz at the Dan
Harpole Cistern, Fort Worden, Washington, USA.
Virtual Soloists: Josiah Boothby – horn; Toby Penk
– trumpet; Colby Wiley – trombone.
Recorded live on September 22nd, 2007, at the
XXI International Expocentre, Warsaw, Poland, as
part of the 50th “Warsaw Autumn” International
Festival of Contemporary Music; Karol Szymanowski
Academic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo
Tamayo and Szymon Bywalec; sound engineering:
Ewa Guziołek-Tubelewicz and Barbara OkońMakowska; recording: Jacek Guzowski and Krzysztof
Kuraszkiewicz, Musicon.
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[6] Aleksander Kościów
Born in 1974; composer, violist, academic teacher
and novelist. He studied composition with Marian
Borkowski and viola with Błażej Sroczyński at the
Academy of Music (now – the Fryderyk Chopin
University of Music) in Warsaw. Presently – a lecturer
on the faculty of his alma mater. Author of novels:
The World of the Loon (2006), Say Sorry. A Player’s
Manual (2008), Whales Flying (2010), as well as short
stories, which have attracted huge public and critical
acclaim; ranked with such authors as Umberto Eco,
Italo Calvino, and Haruki Murakami.
Kyrie for mixed a cappella choir (1997)
Recorded live on May 8th, 2006 during the 20th
Warsaw Music Encounters “early music – new music”,
the Reformed Church in Warsaw; Choir of the Warsaw
Stage Society conducted by Ewa Strusińska; recording:
Zbigniew Kusiak and Ewa Guziołek-Tubelewicz,
Polish Radio.
58
[7] Magdalena Długosz
photo by Maria Wiktoria Hübner
Born in 1954, she graduated from the Academy
of Music in Cracow after studies with Krystyna
Moszumańska-Nazar (composition) and with Józef
Patkowski (music theory). Since 1979, she has
taught classes in the Electroacoustic Music Studio
in her alma mater, where she also prepared her first
compositions. Her later works were also produced
in the Polish Radio Experimental Studio in Warsaw,
EMS (Stockholm), EAS in Bratislava, the GRAME
Studio in Lyon and IMEB (Bourges). Since 1999,
she has been a member of the Repertoire Committee
of the “Warsaw Autumn” International Festival of
Contemporary Music.
Océan Cité – octophonic electroacoustic music
for the French ballet project by Pierre Deloche
(2007)
Commissioned by Pierre Deloche.
Sound material: Renata Guzik – flute.
Composed in the Electroacoustic Music Studio of
the Academy of Music in Cracow; Ewa GuziołekTubelewicz – stereo version.
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[8] Jarosław Siwiński
photo by Małgorzata Kołcz
[9] Zbigniew Penherski
photo by Ewa Rudzińska
Born in 1964, he graduated from the Academy of Music
in Warsaw (now – the Fryderyk Chopin University
of Music), where he studied piano with Kazimierz
Gierżod and composition with Włodzimierz Kotoński.
He writes chamber, symphonic and electroacoustic
music, music for the theatre, movies and computer
games. He has worked closely with e.g. Frederick
Rzewski, Michelangelo Pistoletto, the Viktor Lois /
Yin Peet duo, Azorro ensemble, Jan Lenica, and
Daniel Szczechura. He regularly collaborates with
the Children’s Art Centre in Poznań. Member of the
Managing Boards of the Polish Composers’ Union
and ISCM Polish Section.
Born in 1935, he studied composition with Stefan
Bolesław Poradowski at the State Higher School
of Music (now – Academy of Music) in Poznań and
with Tadeusz Szeligowski at the Academy of Music
in Warsaw (now – the Fryderyk Chopin University of
Music), as well as conducting under Bohdan Wodiczko.
As a holder of a Dutch government scholarship, he
studied at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht. His
music has been performed in Poland and abroad,
including Germany, France, Great Britain, Austria,
Italy, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway,
Mexico, and the USA.
Variation 25_12 from Chopin Elements for
computer or MIDI piano (2012)
Created with an artistic grant from the City of Warsaw.
Lamentations for baritone or male soprano
and string quartet, to selected fragments
from The Book of Jeremiah (2003)
Recorded live on May 13th, 2010 at the Royal Castle in
Warsaw, Great Assembly Hall during the 24th Warsaw
Music Encounters “early music – new music”; Jan
Jakub Monowid – voice, Wilanów Quartet; recording:
Marcin Guz, DUX Recording Producers.
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[10] Jacek Grudzień
Born in 1961, he studied composition with
Włodzimierz Kotoński and piano improvisation with
Szabolcs Esztényi in Academy of Music (now – the
Fryderyk Chopin University of Music) in Warsaw and
after graduation he obtained a scholarship funded by
Witold Lutosławski to study in London. His London
composition Lumen for choir and orchestra opened
the ISCM World Music Days in Warsaw in 1992. He
also composes music for the theatre and movies;
he has worked closely with e.g. Zbigniew Brzoza,
Grzegorz Jarzyna, Remigiusz Brzyk and Greg Zgliński.
Postlude for piano, violin and cello (1998)
Recorded live on December 11th, 2002 at the PWM
Edition Concert Hall in Warsaw, as part of the
“Composers’ Portraits” concert cycle; violin: Krzysztof
Bąkowski, cello: Justyna Rekść-Raubo, piano: Maciej
Grzybowski.
Izabela Zymer (photo by Anna Dorota Władyczka)
Izabela Zymer, b. 1967, graduated from the Institute of Musicology,
University of Warsaw. Her MA thesis, dedicated to the Requiem by
Roman Palester (Polish composer, d. 1989), was supervised by Prof.
Zofia Helman. After graduation she started to work at the Library of
the Polish Composers’ Union (since 2002 – Polish Music Information
Centre POLMIC).
60
II
Between the Garden and
the Kingdom
by Jacek Marczyński
The premieres of contemporary works staged by
the Wrocław Opera since 2003 must be looked at
from a distance. Juxtaposed together, they yield
a picture of events significant to Polish music
over a span of almost a hundred years.
For such an extensive period of time the word
“contemporary” becomes arbitrary, however
reaching back to music from the beginning
of the previous century belies a deliberate
intention. A timeline of Polish contemporary
opera should begin with the composer, who
broke the Romantic-Moniuszko tradition and
carried opera into the twentieth century, Karol
Szymanowski. The Wrocław Opera should
be credited for moving beyond the obvious
choice of King Roger and selecting his earlier
work Hagith. While writing this opera in 1912,
Szymanowski hoped to conquer the Viennese
audiences. However none of these plans came
to fruition. The opera is rarely performed – the
Wrocław premiere (23 February 2007, dir. Michał
Znaniecki) was only the fifth stage production
in the history of Hagith.
Hagith, Karol Szymanowski (photo: M. Grotowski)
Szymanowski Staged Differently
The reluctance of opera houses to perform
Hagith could be explained by the weakness of
Felix Dörmann’s libretto borrowed from the
Book of Kings, and by the excessive infatuation
felt by Szymanowski for the music of Richard
Strauss. The Wrocław performance confirmed
that Szymanowski used equally dense
instrumentation and the same overwrought,
ecstatic tone. At the same time however,
Tomasz Szreder led the orchestra in such a way
as to prove that straight from its instrumental
introduction Hagith also incorporates many
original ideas. Besides moments full of drama,
sharp, and almost aggressive phrases, there are
lyrical passages, such as the title character’s
song and her duet with the Young King.
Nevertheless, Hagith was also this time
overshadowed by King Roger. The Wrocław
premiere (30 March, 2007) must be counted
among the most successful efforts at staging
the opera. Despite its growing popularity in the
world it still poses formidable challenges for
directors. For director Mariusz Treliński it was
the second, yet different from the first production
crafted for the National Opera in 2000, attempt
at producing King Roger. This time he abandoned
the Byzantine-Sicilian scenery of the libretto,
which combined early Christianity with Arabic
and Ancient Greek culture. The action moved to
the present-day and portrayed a world of power,
though not hierarchised like the Middle Ages,
shown as equally authoritarian. The arrival of
the Shepherd, living according to alternative
principles, provokes aggression in the crowd.
The brutality with which the newcomer is treated
however, does not force him into submission,
instead the simpleton becomes a symbol for
revolt of the individual.
Treliński’s production also shows the tragedy of
the lonely Roger. Andrzej Dobber, who flawlessly
performed the title role, shows a firm but not
lacking profound and intense feelings, ruler.
A great part in creating the atmosphere of the
performance played the Wrocław Opera choir.
Ewa Michnik led the orchestra so as to conform
with the concept of the director, but at the same
time showcased the richness of music and the
building of emotional tension until the final
climax. The Wrocław staging – with small
modifications particularly in Act II – was shown
61
in 2008 at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg
and later at the Edinburgh Festival.
Satan and the Murderous Machine
Among the active composers following the
Second World War, Krzysztof Penderecki holds
a special position. The operatic oeuvre of this
artist is quantitatively modest, but qualitatively
significant. The Wrocław Opera chose to produce
his Raj Utracony (trans. Paradise Lost). The world
premiere took place in 1978 at the Chicago Lyric
Opera, and later was staged at La Scala, Stuttgart
and the Warsaw National Opera, however
contemporary theatres are still searching for
new ideas of how to portray Penderecki’s biblical
characters on stage. The Wrocław staging by
Waldemar Zawodziński (premiere May 9, 2008 )
was at the same time traditional and modern. The
director (and at the same time set designer), did
not construct a literal paradise on the stage, but
decided on an allegorical space. The costumes
added colour and life to the performance, and
vividly defined the characters. Zawodziński
used simple religious symbols, referring to
contemporary times as well as baroque era danse
macabre motifs, thanks to which he conjured
up a gripping performance. He magnificently
managed to capture the bitter tone of Milton’s
epic poem. It is Satan who causes the expulsion
of Adam and Eve, triumphs over the Creator
and decides the fate of the world. The musical
framing of the show paralleled the visual in the
sense of brilliance of execution. The large choir
ensemble matched the level of performance, and
Andrzej Straszyński conducted the orchestra
and choir with precision.
Raj utracony K. Penderecki (photo: M. Grotowski)
The Wrocław Opera deserves great merit for
rescuing from oblivion the only stage work by
Tadeusz Baird. His Jutro (trans. Tomorrow) staged
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in Warsaw in 1966, (dir. Aleksander Bardini)
made Polish theatre history. It was recorded
eight years later for television, and won the
Grand Prix at the festival in Prague and has since
been broadcast in several countries. In Poland
however, this did not affect the presence of Jutro
or almost any other works of the composer,
who died in 1981. Nonetheless, in recent years,
interest in his works has been gradually rising.
The Wrocław staging of Jutro (prem. February
15, 2008, musical dir. Tomasz Szreder) proved
it worthwhile to turn our attention to Baird’s
opera. The composer showed great intuition
for the grasp of the rules governing the stage,
and the libretto was written based on a short
story by Conrad (combining naturalism with
motifs characteristic for Greek tragedy) by Jerzy
S. Sito. After more than four decades that have
passed since the creation of Jutro, the work still
stirs the heart, due to a timeless and familiar
story. The score contains the best qualities of
Baird’s music: expressive tone, and colourful
and orchestrated harmonic twists. Perhaps the
romantic character speaks to contemporary
audiences more so than in, the dominated by
the avant-garde, late 60s. Ewelina Pietrowiak
making her debut as an operatic director in the
Wrocław production, presented a rather simple
version of the work, but therefore allowed for
audiences to appreciate the musical wealth and
dramatic value of Jutro.
Baird’s opera was grouped alongside Joanna
Brudzowicz’s, Kolonia Karna (Penal Colony),
whose world premiere was to be held in
1968 in Prague. After the suppression of the
Prague Spring, the piece (inspired by Franz
Kafka’s short story describing an oppressive
government system) could not be performed
in Czechoslovakia. Kolonia Karna saw the light
of day in 1972 in Reims, in a slightly modified
musically version and performed in French.
In 1995, the Grand Theatre in Warsaw staged
a production before the one in Wrocław.
The only things linking the two works is the
time they were written in. Tadeusz Baird called
Jutro a musical drama, which is not the only
reference made to Richard Wagner as the musical
structure is also based on the leitmotifs from
his operas. Against the backdrop of Baird’s rich
instrumentation, Kolonia Karna establishes
itself as a more intimate, and at times even
ascetic piece. Jutro has the timeless dimension
II
of a tragedy, while Kolonia Karna immediately
brings to mind events from contemporary history.
In 1914 Franz Kafka envisaged a machine carving
out the words of the judge’s verdict on the body of
the convicted. The twentieth century became the
era of political systems specializing in murderous
penal colonies and camps. And although at this
time many totalitarian regimes collapsed almost
before our eyes, democracy still hasn’t triumphed
everywhere. Mark Weiss attempted to remind us
about this in his production making references
to current events in Iraq.
into the world of the concrete, as the whole plot
took place in a uniform scenery, a small white
house with a garden. Bright colors dominated
the scenery, alluding to something positive, as
if Ewelina Pietrowiak wanted the audience to
realize that the disease is not something abstract
as it can affect anyone of us.
Foreign Commissions
Since the late 60’s Joanna Bruzdowicz has been
living outside of Poland. Hanna Kulenty has
also long been living between Warsaw and the
Netherlands, where she collaborates with Paul
Goodman. It is he who wrote – according to the
strict guidelines of the composer – the libretto
for the opera Matka czarnoskrzydłych snów
(The Mother of Black-Winged Dreams). The piece
was commissioned in 1996 and had its premiere
at the Münchener Biennale, a festival focusing on
the promotion of contemporary music. Fourteen
years later, on May 15, 2010, it was shown for
audiences on the stage of the Wrocław Opera.
The opera is a record of escalating schizophrenia,
an unrestrained story written for five voices.
The personality of the heroine, Clare, splits
into two sets of sisters: Click and Shears. There
are five women on stage sharing one life,
unrecognized fully by the spectator, as the
monologues and the dialogues often overlap. The
music, composed for a small ensemble with the
addition of electronic instruments, is intrusive
and taxing in its persistent repetitions, but it
magnificently symbolizes the hostile reality
that causes the descent into schizophrenia.
Conductor, Wojciech Michniewski emphasized
the roughness of the music with the subsequent
repetitions, increasingly violent, assailing the
ears of the views. It is striking the way in which
the composer uses the human voice. The parts
of Clara and the Shears sisters were written
as vocal charcters, while the Click sisters are
more emphasized as acting roles. The heavily
rhythmical music imposes a particular way
of using both singing and speech. Ewelina
Pietrowiak’s production was marked by
a determination to establish order on the stage.
She transferred the symbolic and oneiric story
Matka czarnoskrzydłych snów H. Kulenty (photo: M. Grotowski)
Thanks to a foreign commission the career of
Eugeniusz Knapik, who for years avoided contact
with that art form, considering it a “chapter of
history locked in its archaic conventions.”, was
also launched. However, in 1987, Jan Fabre,
a Flemish performer, director, choreographer,
set designer and writer became infatuated
with his music. The meeting of the two men
began their artistic journey together, the effect
of which would be the opera triptych, The
Minds of Helene Troubleyn. The first two parts
premiered in Antwerp (Das Glas im Kopf wird vom
Glas, 1990) and Kassel (Silent Screams, Difficult
Dreams, 1992). The final piece, La Libertà chiama
La Libertà, completed in 1995, had to wait until
the 16 October, 2010, when it was produced by
the Wrocław Opera.
La Libertá chiama la libertá E. Knapik (photo: M. Grotowski)
Jan Fabre created a trilogy about the danger of
dreams: alluding to the idea that one should not
live in an imaginary world, albeit it may appear
63
more beautiful than reality. It seems that in this
world one would have absolute power, but as
shown by the tragic death of Helena Troubleyn,
killed by characters she herself created, this is an
illusion. Fabre’s text is often pompous, but the
music composed by Knapik has many shades,
ideas and nuances and arises from the tradition
of the dramas of Richard Wagner. Kaspszyk
who has a great ear for such music, delivered
– together with the orchestra and four choirs
– a musically rich and complex performance.
Director Michał Zadara created an unhurried
rhythmically performance, adapting to Knapik’s
musical composition.
Contemporary Opera in the Last Decade
On February 7, 2003, the Wrocław Opera staged
Antigone by Zbigniew Rudziński (musical dir.
Tomasz Szreder) originally commissioned by the
Warsaw Chamber Opera, where it premiered one
and a half years earlier. The composer drew on
materials from Sophocles’s tragedy, and although
remaining faithful to the original, he interpreted
his libretto subjectively. He didn’t focus on the
individual’s revolt against heartless rulers but
became interested in the psychological portraits of
the two protagonists – therefore his opera should be
called Antigone and Creon. The first act is devoted
to Antigone ‘s struggle for the proper and respectful
burial of her brother. The second act, taking place
after her death shows the fate of Creon, who realizes
that he failed both as a ruler and as a father.
Such multifaceted characters are rare in
contemporary operas. They are not symbolic
beliefs or attitudes, but complex human
personalities. The stouthearted Antigone is
fragile and weak, and her death is deemed tragic
rather than heroic. Equally intricate and diverse
is the musical score of Rudziński’s work, with
a dramatic orchestral part and references to
Mozart in the form of a quote from Don Giovanni,
granting a metaphysical dimension to the story.
Despite this, Marek Weiss first and foremost
created a play about the wishing to justify the
cruelty of war by government, as well as about
society, finding enough reasons to accept the
explanations of the tyrant. The rebels are few
in number, and doomed to loneliness. At most,
after their death their heroism will be recognized
by the crowd. The director referred to the Polish
experience. Demonstrations of support for Creon
resembled the mass gatherings organized in
communist Poland after the events of March
64
and June, and the fratricidal war in Thebes – the
December uprising of 1970.
References to contemporary events can also
be found in Ester by young composer, Thomas
Praszczałek-Prasqual (b. 1981). The premiere on
February 23, 2006 was complementary to Hagith.
Just like the opera by Karol Szymanowski, Ester
is derived from the biblical story of the wife of
King Ahasuerus, who saved the Jewish people
from annihilation, but musically it occupies the
polar opposite to Hagith. The orchestral score is
delicate, but full of interesting developments.
Prasqual skillfully leads the soloists, assigning
each of them a different singing style. Ester is
given oriental embellishments – the King is
appropriately dignified, and the evil counselor
Aman is defined by grotesque Russian motifs.
Michał Znaniecki found an interesting conception
for the visual aspect of the show. The story of Ester
is told during a stop by Jewish exiles travelling
by a cattle-drawn carriage, perhaps, towards
death. The spectacle of the poor in a style half
resembling a village-fair gives them a fragment
of hope that extinction is not inevitable.
Marked by the stigma of the Holocaust is the hero
of Zygmunt Krauze’s Pułapka (trans. The Trap)
(prem. 17 December 2011, musical dir. Tomasz
Szreder). The composer wrote the libretto in
collaboration with Grzegorz Jarzyna, based
on a play by Tadeusz Różewicz – considered
as one of the most ambitious attempts to deal
with the spiritual and cultural heritage of the
twentieth century. Using a biography of Franz
Kafka – arranged not in chronological events
but in a series of images – Różewicz describes
the traps that ensnare the man of that epoch.
Some of these traps were set up by the history
of the twentieth century, others – by biology
and nature. The hero is thus impacted by the
stigma of death, his life waiting for it. In the
background lurks the specter of the Holocaust,
which Ewelina Pietrowiak, the director of the
opera production, represents less literally
than in the play itself, but just as suggestively.
Simultaneously, the performance was a story
made up of small, everyday occurrences and
ordinary objects that suddenly acquire symbolic
meanings. Zygmunt Krauze’s music does not
distort the words. Short orchestral interludes
before consecutive images and a few choral
passages are actually the only added values to
the original text by Różewicz. The rest is based
II
on dialogues supplemented with distinctive
monologues. The composer repeats the themes
assigned to different individuals, and constructs
the score like a set of blocks from obsessively
returning thematic threads.
Two events were an interesting supplement
to the series of contemporary operas. The first
being a rendition of Cezary Duchnowski’s Ogród
Marty (trans. Martha’s Garden) (prem. 15 May,
2011). The world premiere of this “chamber
opera for a female voice, an actor, electronic
media and instruments” took place in a radio
studio in Leipzig in 2006, and three years later
was presented to audiences as an operating
performance at the Warsaw Autumn festival.
Each time - even in Wrocław – the piece assumes
a slightly different musical shape. The composer
allows for the free choice of instruments, giving
artists a certain degree of freedom, but within
the limits set by the musical form determined
by programmed computers.
Ogród Marty C. Duchnowski (photo: M. Grotowski)
Ogród Marty is a poetic tale, in which a woman
and a man – she in a vocal part, he in speech
– reveal their dreams, thoughts and reflections
about love. Perhaps in direct contact they
would have never dared to confess this to
each other. It is a string of memories and
references to past and theoretical events; at
one point, the characters even transform into
their grandparents. A division can be made
into scenes advancing the plot forward on the
one hand, and into reflective arias on the other.
Both performers and musicians are present on
the stage. Especially arresting in Duchnowski’s
composition of the electronic layer that not only
enriches the colour of the music, but affects the
interaction between the characters.
The second event, the premiere of Rękopis
znaleziony w Saragossie (trans. The Saragossa
Manuscript), on 24 November 24, 2007 was
– as defined by Rafał Augustyn – an action
choreography in one act. From the famous
Chinese box narrative of an eighteenth-century
novel by Jan Potocki, where almost every story
is merged into another, thus multiplying the
threads and characters, the composer extracted
a libretto consisting of ten images. Despite
the highly complicated chain of events, the
structure of the ballet structure is lucid, and
the music vividly illustrates the characters of
the heroes. Rafał Augustyn supplemented the
orchestral score with electronic sounds blending
into a musical unity or functioning as separate
lines that clarify the place of action. The author
of the staging and choreography was Ewelina
Chojecka, and the musical director was Tadeusz
Zathey. The performance was followed by a oneact ballet Figle Szatana (the Devil’s Frolics) with
music by Adam Münchheimer and Stanisław
Moniuszko, to which Rafał Augustyn composed
the missing pieces and orchestrated the entirety.
Among the works prepared for the Contemporary
Opera Festival in Wrocław was also Legendy
o Maryi (the Miracles of Mary) by the eminent
Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů (prem.
October 1, 2010, musical dir. Tomasz Szreder).
This was the Polish premiere of the opera,
inspired by medieval music, the tradition of
mystery plays and nativity scenes. The director,
Jiří Heřman mixed religious folk symbols with
biblical and contemporary costumes, adding
his writing to the libretto and leading the
performers with precision. On October 23,
2011 in celebration of Tadeusz Różewicz’s 90th
birthday, the Wrocław Opera held a concert of
songs composed to the words of his poems.
Mariusz Godlewski accompanied by pianist
Justyna Skoczek performed Pięć pieśni na baryton
(trans. Five Songs for Baritone) by Zygmunt
Krauze, while Aleksandra Kubas performed Ein
Züge der Liebe, die besiegt dent Tod for soprano
and Udo Zimmermann’s chamber orchestra. The
world premiere of Pięć śpiewów z klatki (trans.
Five songs from the cage) for mezzo-soprano,
baritone, narrator, orchestra and electronic
sounds to the poems of Tadeusz Różewicz will
be in sorts a continuation of that concert. The
piece written by Prasqual on commission by
the Wrocław Opera that consistently seeks to
encourage composers to derive inspiration from
the works of the prominent poet, so strongly
connected with the city.
65
Jacek Marczyński – Journalist and publicist, permanent
music, opera and ballet critic for Rzeczpospolita. He previously
lectured in the Faculty of Journalism at the University of
Warsaw. He was editor-in-chief of the quarterly Scena Operowa,
as well as artistic secretary of the National Theatre. He is the
author of Przewodnik Operowy (2011) and Alain Bernard, wieczny
idealista, O czym śpiewa Wrocław, Dziesięciu tańczących facetów,
and co-authored Polskie symbole. He works for TVP Kultura, and
publishes the monthly Teatr and Ruch Muzyczny.
Translated by Ludmiła Makuchowska
Jacek Marczyński (photo: from the Author’s private
collection)
66
II
About a city that survived
by Dorota Kozińska
Seven hundred thousand civilians forced by
the Third Reich into an immediate evacuation
of the city – on foot, in utter chaos, in freezing
January temperatures which that year reached
minus thirty degrees. German demolition of the
city prior to the Soviet offensive, almost three
months of armed conflict during the Siege of
Breslau1 and following capitulation – deliberate
incineration of whole neighbourhoods whose
remains still smouldered for months. Nearly
a hundred thousand civilian casualties and
thousands of suicides. Seventy percent of the
town’s surface area destroyed. Eighteen million
square metres of rubble. After the war, Poles
drafted in to Wroclaw from literally everywhere
– not only from Kresy2, Lvov, Stanislawowo and
Vilnius but also from Greater Poland, Lodz,
the Province of Kielce and the post-Uprising
ruins of Warsaw – at first did not want to live
here. They were confronted with an inferno of
smouldering fires, a desert deprived of water,
hollow-eyed houses with no gas or electricity.
An alien city, incorporated into Poland by
a decision of the Potsdam Conference. They did
not believe Wroclaw would ever become Polish.
They feared its loss no matter what happened.
They embarked on its de-Germanisation and
re-Polonisation, and organized their lives as
best they could and rebuilt the city in their own
way, often with lamentable results. They loved,
hated, fed on hope and doubt. They became
acclimatized but were homesick. Whenever
the grandmother of a friend of mine took him
for a walk along the Rozanka Canal3 she would
compare its murky waters to the rapid current
of the Nemen4. It would take several generations
for the new Wroclaw residents to lay down
roots in their city. It would take many years
to build out of the debris of Festung Breslau,
a young and dynamic city, prepared to engage
1 Wroclaw was declared a fortress city (Festung Breslau) in August 1944. In
order to build an additional airfield, houses were purposefully destroyed
by fire, and half of the quarter around today’s Plac Grunwaldzki was
demolished. Moreover, carpet bombings caused massive destruction of
the city. [editor’s note]
2 Kresy (Borderlands) – the territory east of the present Polish border, part
of the Republic of Poland before World War II. [editor’s note]
3 Rozanka Canal – a sailing canal in Wroclaw, built from 1913-1917 as part
of the waterway off the city centre, used as recreational area. [editor’s note]
4 Nemen – a river flowing through Belarus, Lithuania and Russia
(Kaliningrad administrative district), before World War Two it flowed
largely through the Polish territory. [editor’s note]
in dialogue, at peace with its past, but above
all open to the future. It took a long time, but it
happened. Similarly it took some time to rebuild
Wroclaw’s position as an important centre of
music; and it was not by chance that the period
of great change in concert life during the 1960s
coincided with the coming of age of the first
generation of people born in the city. Hence
it is not surprising that contemporary music
gained such a unique position – allowing “alien”
Wroclaw to become accustomed to a fresh tonal
language, be receptive to a completely different
form of awareness and considering its lack of
emotional ties to the place and its history, build
a recognizable narrative in the present tense.
The first serious attempt of placing Wroclaw on
the map of contemporary music was undertaken
back in the days when the Wroclaw Philharmonic
was led by Radomir Reszke, conductor, instructor
of an amateur movement and from 1956 teacher at
the local State High School of Music. In 1962 – in
cooperation with the local division of the Polish
Composers Union and with the participation of
two composers, Tadeusz Natanson and Ryszard
Bukowski – the Polish Western Composers Music
Festival was established. It represented the third
consecutive cyclical revue of contributions by
composers of the latest music, preceded only
by the “Warsaw Autumn”5 festival founded in
the wake of the political thaw of 19566 and the
slightly younger “Poznan Music Spring”7. The
event initially programmed by a committee of
PCU8 composers and local musicians, in 1964
expanded its reach to include composers from
the entire country, since when it takes place
under the title of Polish Contemporary Music
Festival. A year later together with epic changes
in the directorship of the Philharmonic, the
Festival acquired a genuine artistic director and
soon advanced to the ranks of one of the country’s
most interesting musical events, not only in the
sphere of the latest creative endeavour. However
5 International festival of contemporary music organized by the Polish
Composers’ Union. [editor’s note]
6 After the death of J.V. Stalin (1953), a process of political changes began
in Poland. Over several years, Odwilż (Thaw) affected the internal policies
and the totalitarian political system became less severe. [editor’s note]
7 After the death of J.V. Stalin (1953), a process of political changes began
in Poland. Over several years, Odwilż (Thaw) affected the internal policies
and the totalitarian political system became less severe. [editor’s note]
8 Polish Composers’ Union. [editor’s note]
67
before we return to the history of the Festival,
which over the years experienced several
crises and several metamorphoses, let us dwell
a moment on Andrzej Markowski.
Markowski was such a distinguished musician,
such a complex personality that continuators
of his musical initiatives would sometimes get
lost in the multitude of strands he left behind;
they were unable to amalgamate them into
a cohesive whole, they tried so long and hard that
a revolution initiated in the 1960s finally spilt over
into several independent areas. Having in 1965
taken on the directorship of the Philharmonic
– fter numerous trials and tribulations of a formal
nature – Markowski embarked so to speak on
basic reforms, restructuring the orchestra and
radically expanding its repertoire to include
the still greatly neglected early music as well as
contemporary music, which he promoted with
honest conviction born of a deeply felt aesthetic
need rather than economic considerations like
many then conductors who treated contemporary
creativity as a historical inevitability. To ensure
ideal working conditions for his ensemble, he
did everything in his power to procure a new
place of residence for the Philharmonic, which
opened on 17th December 1968 and which to this
day functions in a building situated in Pilsudski
Street. He exploited the celebrations marking
the Millennium of the Polish State not only by
organizing the first Oratorio-Cantata Festival
“Wratislavia Cantans” but also by founding at the
Philharmonic the chamber ensemble “Cantores
Minores Wratislavienses”, whose directorship
he entrusted to the experienced chorus-master
Edmund Kajdasz. He also continued to run
the Polish Contemporary Music Festival and
moreover – augmented the Days of Organ Music
Festival’s repertoire with works for harpsichord.
He introduced the Wroclaw Philharmonic to the
boards of the “Warsaw Autumn” Festival and
organized its first genuine tours abroad.
The source of “Wratislavia’s” success relied on
focusing all aspects of the Festival around the
issue of the human voice – a specific and natural
bridging element for seemingly incongruous
aesthetics and performance formulas. Markowski
took great care when mixing water with fire;
from the outset he endeavoured to organize
early music concerts in historic venues and
introduced contemporary music by definition
68
associated with the spirit of modernist renewal
– to the Large Studio of Polish Radio, to the
BWA Gallery9 and to the new building of the
Philharmonic. He created a comprehensive
formula that was innovatory not only in terms
of Polish concert life, and instilled in Wroclaw’s
music-lovers a fresh approach to listening to
music in general, in this untoward manner
making them receptive to experiencing the
“alien” world of contemporary art.
29.08.1967 first performance of St Luke Passion by Krzysztof
Penderecki, Krakow Philharmonic Choir (photo: IFWC archive)
I once wrote in the pages of “Music in the City”
that Markowski “introduced me to the world
of the avant-garde so efficaciously that I never
again felt duty bound to defend it just because
it is the avant-garde”; and that the founder of
“Wratislavia” had an unerring instinct, based
on his love for contemporary music backed
by solid compositional skills, experience
in writing incidental music and pioneering
achievements in the field of shaping correlations
between the tonal sphere and elements of
a given work of film, theatre and visual arts.
The mentioned instinct protected Markowski
against the propaganda-driven intimidation
of modernism, enabling him to fish out real
pearls from among a sea of the then emerging
music: Penderecki’s early endeavours, works by
Serocki, Gorecki and Szalonka, not to mention
compositions by Lutoslawski whose greatness
he helped to establish at a certain stage of his
career. During the first years of “Wratislavia”
Markowski’s holistic vision had an effect on
the public’s perception of 20th century music
throughout the whole of Poland – already in the
Festival’s second edition in 1967, Markowski had
the courage to juxtapose Szymanowski’s Stabat
9 BWA (Biuro Wystaw Artystycznych – Bureau of Artistic Exhibitions),
Wroclaw, ul. Wita Stwosza 32, an institution of culture financed by the City
of Wroclaw, presenting contemporary artworks since 1962. [editor’s note]
II
Mater and Song of the Night with Bach’s Mass in
B minor, Monteverdi’s Vespers (under his baton)
with Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion (under the
direction of Henryk Czyz and a canonic cast of
Leszek Herdegen, Stefania Wojtowicz, Andrzej
Hiolski and Bernard Ladysz). For the first time
contemporary music came face to face with
history, revealed its contextual intricacies and
discarded its mask of incongruity.
Markowski’s worthy, albeit not as visionary
successor was Tadeusz Strugala, who in
successive years expanded the Festival’s
formula by including ethnic and sacred music
from outside the sphere of European culture;
he also enhanced its profile by introducing
academic seminars, film sessions and various
educational initiatives. However, the features
of contemporary music began to get somewhat
blurred in this multitude of events, new works
lost their position of equal partnership and were
further pushed to the background by successive
artistic directors (Ewa Michnik, Mariusz Smolij
and Jan Latham-Koenig under the general
directorship of Lidia Geringer d’Oedenberg;
Paul McCreesh and Giovanni Antonioni under
the present directorship of Andrzej Kosendiak)
who placed greater emphasis on works from
bygone eras, being as it were more “naturally”
suited to the original concept of “Wratislavia” as
a festival of vocal and vocal-instrumental music.
Contemporary art, drawn out of the shadows
by an audacious stroke of Andrzej Markowski’s
baton, had grown up, matured and no longer
fitted into the framework of the September
festival. Which does not mean it disappeared
from it altogether, nevertheless priority in this
field was assigned to other Wroclaw events.
30.8.1969 Krzysztof Missona (conductor), Zofia Rysiówna
(actress) – Niobe by Kazimierz Serocki (photo: IFWC archive)
Thus we return to the Polish Contemporary Music
Festival, which – in a formula established by
Markowski – was taken over in 1969 by Tadeusz
Strugala initially with the benefit of support
from the repertoire committee and from 1974
with independent responsibility for the event’s
programming. Although the then president of
the PCU, Jozef Patkowski expressed genuine
admiration for “the breadth of activity, ambitious
plans and faultless realizations” of 20th century
Polish works, Strugala stressed that the ensemble
of the Wroclaw Philharmonic “shows a marked
preference for romanticism and is best suited
to its style”. The new director achieved great
things: he enrolled “Wratislavia” into the ranks
of the European Festivals Association in Geneva,
consolidated the orchestra’s performance
level and initiated the establishment of the
“Leopoldinum” chamber orchestra. His masterly
interpretations of contemporary music – by
among others Palestra, Bacewicz, Kilar and
Maciejewski – remained nevertheless a step
behind his beloved Viennese classicism and
wealth of 19th century works. The doors opened
wide by Markowski were again slammed shut,
with contemporary music on the outside and
somewhat afraid to knock.
Not until the tenure of Wroclaw-born Marek
Pijarowski in 1980 as the youngest director
of any Philharmonic in Poland, did it knock
again on the door. It knocked loud and hard
demanding access. Pijarowski was destined to
lead the ensemble and its related events during
exceptionally difficult – and paradoxically
– creative times. A deep political crisis, shortlived euphoria following the August events, the
threat of martial law – all seemed to spur on
Strugala’s protégée, who made every effort to
maintain the prestige of the institution he was
entrusted with. And he made a very wise decision
by giving a greater voice to contemporary music,
which reflected a mirror image of the turbulent
realities towards the end of the century. He
began to collaborate with his contemporaries
like: Rafal Augustyn, one of Wroclaw’s most
interesting musical personalities with whom
he co-created the Polish Contemporary Music
Festival between 1984-94 and later with Grazyna
Pstrokonska-Nawratil, a studet of Poradowski
and Natanson at Wroclaw’s PWSM (Polish
Higher School of Music), a pupil of Boulez and
Messiaen, at the time already a professor at her
alma mater. Indeed it was during the tenure of
69
Pijarowski and Augustyn that in 1988 the Festival
changed its somewhat overbearing name to the
more cosmopolitan “Musica Polonica Nova”. It
acquired clearly defined programming features
focused on new native compositions that
challenged the canons of Polish modernism. The
Festival began to surprise and amaze – with its
concert-collages organized from 1984 onwards,
which soon became its hallmark; with the first
appearance of Witold Lutoslawski during martial
law; with the Polish premiere of his Partita;
the Polish premiere of Gorecki’s Quartet No.1;
premiere of Stefan Kisielewski’s Piano Concerto.
Pijarowski left the Philharmonic towards
the end of 2001, a few months earlier having
resigned as the institution’s director. There
followed in Wroclaw – as elsewhere – an era of
culture management by professional managers,
a reorganization of funding, a frantic search for
sponsorship and not always fortunate personal
career moves. The “Musica Polonica Nova”
Festival began to lose its impetus, fell into a trap
of parochialism, while the once meticulously set
programmes increasingly carried characteristics
of chance and a lack of distinct thematic trends.
From among festivals organized or co-organized
by the Philharmonic, presently known as the
National Forum of Music (since 2005 under the
directorship of Andrzej Kosendiak), the first to
recover was “Wratislavia”. In 2005 “MusPolNova”
– as it is affectionately known by artists and its
attendees – acquired a younger sibling in the
form of the “Musica Electronica Nova” Festival,
a multi-media event targeted at a public open
to the latest trends in contemporary music that
combined electronics with instrumental works,
elements of theatre, installations and the visual
arts. “Electronica” from then on organized every
other year in rotation with “Polonica”, offered
a long-awaited breath of fresh air instantly
appreciated by critics and animators of musical
life. From the outset the Festival programmed
by composers associated with electro-acoustic
creativity (Stanislaw Krupowicz, Michal TalmaSutt, Rafal Augustyn, Elzbieta Sikora) was de facto
destined for success: a prevalence of premiere
performances, an increasing participation of
composers and performers from abroad and
a distinct thematic profile of its successive
editions, making it necessary for the formula of
its twin “Polonica” to be reevaluated. In 2010 the
Festival’s directorship was entrusted to Andrzej
Chlopecki, a distinguished publicist, critic and
70
contemporary music theorist, who decided to
correct its “gaps in awareness” by juxtaposing
the works of young Wroclaw composers with
contributions of those from Upper Silesia,
Warsaw and Krakow, reveal unknown often
modest examples of 20th century Polish music
and set them in a wider cultural, historical
and political context. Although Chlopecki’s
plans were thwarted by his untimely death
in 2012, his legacy is admirably continued by
“Polonica’s” new director, Szmon Bywalec,
conductor of Katowice’s New Music Orchestra,
who – introduces foreign accents to the Festival,
discovers works of Polish avant-garde outsiders
(Barbara Buczkowna and Wojciech Nowak) and
pays tribute to undisputed titans. Add to this the
“Jazztopad” Festival initiated by Piotr Turkiewicz,
who since 2008 continues to persuade stars of
improvisational and new-sound music to bring
to Wroclaw something special conceived for
a particular visit – one can confidently state that
projects organized under the auspices of the
National Forum of Music guarantee the public
an increasingly coherent image of contemporary
music.
Andrzej Chłopecki – artistic director of MPN (photo: Joanna
Stoga, 2012)
Furthermore, over the last several years the
said projects have co-created this image. The
National Forum of Music has commissioned
over 40 works thanks to which premieres have
become a constant feature of Wroclaw festivals.
Works written for the NFM include those by both
Polish and foreign composers such as: Agata
Zubel, Pawel Mykietyn, Cezary Duchnowski,
Pawel Szymanski, Pawel Lukaszewski, Marcin
Markowicz, Slawomir Kupczak, Zygmunt
Krauze, Krzysztof Knittel, Aldona Nawrocka,
Wojciech Blazejczyk, Philippe Manoury, Marcin
Bortnowski, Pawel Hendrich, William Parker,
Christopher Hoffman, Tony Malaby, Charles
II
Lloyd, Heo Yoon-Jeong, Wojciech Ziemowit Zych,
Terje Rypdal, Kenny Wheeler, John Surman,
Agnieszka Stulginska, Dobromila Jaskot, Karol
Nepelski, Adrian Foltyn, Jacek Sotomski, Eunho
Chang, Mikolaj Laskowski, Mateusz Ryczek, Erik
Freidlander, Wadada Leo Smith, Nathan Wooley,
Rafal Augustyn, Michal Moc, Marek Pasieczny,
Jaroslaw Płonka and Jakub Sarwas.
In 2007 during “Wratislavia” we listened to the
premiere performance of Song of Songs by Agata
Zubel – a singer sensitive to every aspect of the
human voice, a composer with masterly skills
of building a narrative’s tensions and releases.
A year later in the Philharmonic Hall we heard for
the first time Pawel Mykietyn’s St Mark Passion,
one of the most commented on and controversial
compositions of the last few seasons, about
which I then wrote: “we rubbed shoulders with
a work, which may well be beyond our reach;
a phenomenon which we are unable to appraise
by hitherto known criteria. It could be a case
of ‘the king is bare’. It could be a masterpiece”.
Long remembered will be the concert of
16th September 2011 whose hero was Pawel
Szymanski. On that occasion Camerata Silesia
under the direction of Anna Szostek presented
two exceptional compositions: Miserere written
in 1993 and the premiere of Phylakterion for
choir and instrumental ensemble – a work of
amazing multi-layered textures, in every inch
proving how Szymanski continues his practice
of deconstructing music and building each new
value from existing elements, by the same token
extending the range of musical interpretation.
Pawel Hendrich. Younger critics marveled at
the fresh approach to workmanship and brilliant
solutions in works by Kupczak (Rucola), Hendrich
(Liolit), Wojtek Blecharz (Hypopnea) as well as
Warsaw-based Dariusz Przybylski and Krakowbased Wojciech Ziemowit Zych and Karol
Napelski (PRIMORDIUM; Encephalon). Older
critics admired the continuity of tradition in
the works of a younger generation of composers
from Katowice, Andrzej Nowak and Jaroslaw
Mamczarski. Writing about Augustyn’s Hintapalinta, Monika Pasiecznik expressed regret that
“before the listener had time to sample its dense
harmonies, after a minute (?) it came to an end”.
The organizers of this year’s Festival could not
stop singing the praises of its performers: the
unusual Nordlys Ensemble quartet (clarinet,
violin, cello and piano), the phenomenal
vocalist-improviser Phil Minton and the
“Polityka” Passport-awarded TWOgether Duo,
who perform in the unusual combination of cello
and accordion. Next year’s “Musica Electronica
Nova” promises a wealth of impressive events
under the slogan FILM/CINEMA/SOUND.
Rafal Augustyn in conversation with Grzegorz
Chojnowski assured us that in music he does
not seek wallpaper, a background for frying eggs
or doing the gardening and that maybe this year
he will be available. As a composer of course!
actionCONTRactionREaction , commission of MEN, 19.10.2013
(photo: Slawek Przerwa)
Krzysztof Knittel during the first performance of Partita II Inuit,
Opening concert of MEN, 19.10.2013 (photo: Slawek Przerwa)
During recent editions of the “Musica Polonica
Nova” there was much lively debate regarding
premieres by composers associated with
Wroclaw: Agata Zubel, Marcin Bortnowski,
Cezary Duchnowski, Slawomir Kupczak and
Wroclaw rose like a Phoenix from the ashes.
Where once stood Festung Breslau has been
transformed into an open and generous expanse
of experiencing music in every shape and form.
As well as – or perhaps above all – contemporary
music. Times of besieging fortresses are gone,
foreign or domestic cities no longer exist.
Eighteen million square meters of rubble have
been assigned to oblivion. Time to open a new
chapter.
71
Dorota Kozińska studied Latin and is a music critic and theatre
critic, translator and author. For many years she worked for “Ruch
Muzyczny magazine”. She is a lecturer in music history with
Instytut Badań Literackich PAN, where she teaches postgraduate
students. Dorota Kozińska translates poetry, fiction, essays and
popular science works. She enjoys long-standing co-operations
with Polish Radio Channel Two as well Tygodnik Powszechny
and Teatr magazines. She is also an author of programmes for
children and young people. A lover of cultures and histories of
the East, she often travels to Asia. Dorota Kozińska co-organizes
and participates in volunteer activities in and outside Poland.
Dorota Kozińska (photo: by Anka Palusińska szuflada.net)
Translated by Anna Kaspszyk
The National Forum of Music (NFM) is an institution born
from the merger of the two pillars of culture in Wrocław: the
International Wratislavia Cantans Festival and the Wrocław
Witold Lutosławski Philharmonic. With its technologically
innovative concert venue and a modern organizational structure, The National Forum of Music
serves as a platform for Lower-Silesian and national cultural initiatives and offers almost unlimited
possibilities for developing artistic projects.
The ultra-modern building of the National Forum of Music houses four concert halls, a recording
studio, rehearsal rooms, conference and office rooms, and an exhibition space. The facility was designed by professor of architecture Stefan Kuryłowicz’s APA (Architectural Design Studio) Kuryłowicz & Associates, while the excellent acoustics were designed by the New York-based Artec Consultants, Inc., specialising in the planning and engineering of concert halls. Located in the heart of
Wrocław, the building perfectly blends in with the space of the historic center of the city. It is built
on today’s Wolności Square, the former Royal Forum, where a hundred years ago there were plans
to construct an Art Forum – a place for holding state and military ceremonies. Originally, it was Andrzej Kosendiak who put forth the idea of a National Forum of Music and the Mayor of Wrocław Rafał
Dutkiewicz has been lending his support for the execution of the construction work.
The National Forum of Music also recalls the ancient idea of the forum: it is a space for dialogue and
artistic dispute, as well as a civic centre, radiating across the entire city and the region, a national showcase. As a hub of cultural activity, it organises the work of eleven artistic ensembles: the NFM Symphony
Orchestra, the NFM Choir, the NFM Leopoldinum Chamber Orchestra, the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, the
Polish National Youth Choir, the Lutosławski Quartet, the NFM Boy Choir, the LutosAir Quintet, the NFM
Ensemble, the Polish Cello Quartet, and the NFM Leopoldinum Soloist String Trio. Most of these groups
were created thanks to the foundation of the NFM. The tremendous opportunities this new institution
opens up in the cultural life of Wrocław have resulted in the establishment of attractive festivals – the
NFM currently coordinates seven international events: Wratislavia Cantans Jazztopad, Musica Polonica
Nova, Forum Musicum, the Leo Festival, Musica Electronica Nova, and the Academy of Ancient Music. The
National Forum of Music is also the editor of the monthly magazine, Music in the City. The NFM activity
includes numerous educational projects for children and youth, as well as initiatives directed at adults
to promote their participation in cultural life. Along with the National Forum of Music, four new music
schools have been set up over the past few years, a fact that distinguishes Wrocław from other Polish
cities in terms of the development of art education. The creation of the National Forum of Music has
generated a number of new jobs, both in the artistic ensembles formed as part of NFM projects, as well as
in educational institutions. Bringing the National Forum of Music to life is also reflected in a significant
increase in the attendance of Lower Silesian residents at cultural events, especially of the residents of
small towns, thanks to the NFM projects which facilitate their attendance at Wrocław concerts.
In one year’s time, the National Forum of Music building will welcome about four hundred thousand guests
to a variety of artistic events. As a reliable partner theNFM is one of the most important institutions that
form the programme of the European Capital of Culture – Wrocław 2016. The National Forum of Music is
a brand name which is recognised worldwide and which represents Poland on the international arena.
72
II
Composing Commissions
by Maria Peryt
A project that brings together creative energy
and passion, social needs, prudent cultural
policies and best practices borrowed from the
West… Sounds impossible, but isn’t. Over the
first few years of its implantation, Composing
Commissions, one of the newest initiatives
launched by the Minister of Culture and National
Heritage of Poland, has proved all sceptics wrong,
while revolutionising the realities of Polish
contemporary music.
When the first call for grants from the
Collections – Composing Commissions priority
programme was announced in 2012, Poland’s
music community reacted with a mixture of
hope and worry. The programme took a long
time to design, and while it’s assumptions
were never questioned, doubts would arise
whenever details of it’s implementation
were discussed. How to strike a compromise
between the different needs of artists, the
society, performers, governmental and nongovernmental organisations? How to evaluate
the submissions received? Finally, how to build
a transparent financial mechanism, considering
that it will standardise artists’ fees, also of those
working outside of the scheme?
Composing Commissions were devised with
a wider objective than merely satisfying the needs
of the artistic community. The programme was,
first and foremost, put in place to address the
society’s need to experience latest art, to make it
more available and accessible to audiences, and
give the widest possible account of its diversity.
Composing Commissions were to bring about
numerous new pieces and their performances.
The programme’s creators worked hard to ensure
that the scheme is pluralistic, objective, and
includes incentives for follow-up actions once
the works are developed. They also had to make
sure that the pieces are made more accessible, the
programme facilitates and inspires collaboration
between the mechanism’s beneficiaries, and is
equipped with a set of norms and principles that
govern the selection and evaluation process,
taking into account how difficult it is to judge
a sensitive material such as contemporary music –
not to mention music that hasn’t been written yet.
One of the most controversial issues was the
break-up of funds granted. The majority was
to be used for the new work’s development,
yet in some cases the remainder of the grant
was not enough to cover the costs of the piece’s
performance. Consequently, the maximum grant
total as well as the maximum amount that may
be allocated to performance were increased,
e.g. in the case of opera pieces. To reach the
widest possible group of potential beneficiaries,
the scheme was made very flexible. Its daringly
open formula proved a success. Currently, we are
seeing works being commissioned by renowned
ensembles, soloists, orchestras, state-funded
cultural institutions (including philharmonic
halls), as well as small non-governmental
organisations, religious communities, and,
starting from the third edition, musical schools
and colleges.
Once the overall idea was established, time came
to tackle a very delicate issue. The matter of
composers’ fees and free circulation of scores
and recordings proved very contentious. How
to compare the work of a prominent, worldrecognised artist and that of a talented emerging
composer? How, on the other hand, not to
create gaping disproportions in artistic fees?
The mechanism now in operation was worked
out together with the music community and
stipulates precise criteria for calculating fees.
As a result, the sum suggested by the applicant
73
is cross-checked using concrete guidelines,
not groundless speculation. This makes the
fund allocation scheme transparent and truly
inclusive, with a large and diverse group of
composers benefiting from the opportunities
offered. The matter of free circulation of scores
and recordings of the works’ premieres is still
under discussion. The majority of composers
and performers agree to grant a two-year license
al lowing free circulation of their works, yet
some are bound by restrictive contacts with their
publishers, which hampers their participation
in the programme. There has been cases when
the commission was altered in the face of the
composer’s or performer’s lack of consent for
the recording of premiere to be made and then
circulated. Although these have been rare
instances, the problem reoccurs and may be
discussed further in the future.
As shown above, the Composing Commissions
programme was a complex mechanism to devise
and to implement. We have also presented an
overview of the changes introduced. As the
project has already seen a few editions, we will
now focus on its implementation in practice.
The operating principles
Composing Commissions is a programme
launched by the Minister of Culture and
National Heritage of Poland in 2012. From the
very beginning the scheme has been operated by
the Institute of Music and Dance in Warsaw. To
date, three calls have been put in place (2012/13,
2013/14, 2014/15). The following statistical
data give an overview of the programme’s
scale and measurable effects. Overall, more
that 600 applications have been submitted in
response to the three calls announced, with
280 projects having been completed. Successful
applications have been submitted by 136 eligible
entities. Almost 300 new works of music have
been developed (or will have been developed
by the end of 2015), premiered and presented
publicly (including as many as 56 symphony
works, 85 chamber pieces, 45 vocal and vocal and
instrumental pieces). The works are available to
the public in the form of scores and recordings on
the website of the Institute of Music and Dance.
74
The scheme welcomes artistic collaborations, and
gathered 291 composers altogether. Commissions
were made mostly by Polish entities, and a big
majority of the works debuted in Poland. Five
international projects have been implemented,
including one in Darmstadt. The list of
beneficiaries includes, first and foremost, nongovernmental institutions (more that 150 projects
developed) and local cultural institutions (over
70 projects implemented). Eligible applicants are
state-funded cultural institutions, local cultural
institutions, non-governmental organisations,
churches and religious communities, businesses,
public and non-public art schools and colleges.
Each edition’s budget reached about 2 million
Polish zloty.
Eligible candidates may apply for grants to
gel them commission works of music, pieces
incorporating music and choreography, or
music and text, as well as multimedia pieces,
including pieces developed for the scene, vocal
(and instrumental) pieces, symphony, chamber,
solo, and electroacoustic works, as well as pieces
incorporating improvisation, or any other works
whose primary element is music. Once the
funding is granted, the creative process starts
along with preparations for the new work’s
II
Audiovisual Institute – www.ninateka.pl.
A work’s story would be incomplete without an
account of its reception. The Institute of Music
and Dance collects and publishes reviews of the
pieces developed under the scheme. They are
published i.e. in “Ruch Muzyczny” (the oldest and
the most prestigious Polish magazine dedicated to
classical music) and in “Presto” (colour magazine
popularizing classics to wider audience).
premiere and its recording in a format that
facilitates it’s further circulation.
Implementation of a composing commission
in practice
Having received the commission, the composer
sets out on the creative work. Throughout the
process, the author uses a digital score in line
with guidelines stipulated by the Institute
of Music and Dance. This way all the scores
available on the institute’s website meet high
editorial standards. The entity in charge of the
project’s implementation is responsible for the
preparation and organisation of the premiere,
as well as the event’s promotion. The premiere
must be recorded, either in an audio, or audio and
video format. The institute also ensures that the
pieces are publicly available and promoted: all
of the works are available for free for watching,
listening to, downloading, and performing for
two years from the day of their publication.
Short bios of composers are also available at
Polish Music Information Center website – www.
polmic.pl.
Intuitive and accessible
What do you have to do use the scores? You
simply need to go to www.imit.org.pl and select
“Resources” in the top menu. Once you click on
“To Perform”, you will be able to browse through
the pieces using different filters (composer’s
name, programme edition, genre). When you
click on a selected piece, you will find a set
of basic information about the work, and will
be able to listen to it and see the score’s title
page. Registered users may download the full
score. The recordings are available courtesy of
NINATEKA and in association with the National
Translated by Monika Tacikowska
Maria Peryt (photo: Tomasz Opałka)
Maria Peryt – musicologist, journalist, Manager of Classics
at Warner Music Poland, Head of Promotion for Transatlantyk
Festival Poznań 2014 – holds degrees in musicology and public
relations from the University of Warsaw. Besides working in the
record industry and in classical music promotion, she also does
journalistic and academic work. Her research work is devoted
to contemporary music viewed in the broader sociocultural
context. She is currently working on a book-length publication
entitled Postmodernizm się skończył [Postmodernism Has Ended].
Translated by Michał Szostało
75
77
Karol Szymanowski and the
International Society for
Contemporary Music:
1923-1939
(The Polish original was printed in “Ruch Muzyczny”
No. 26 of 23rd December 2007)
by Andrzej Chłopecki
The most important contemporary music
event of international significance in Poland
before World War II, and before the foundation
of the “Warsaw Autumn”, was the festival of the
International Society for Contemporary Music,
held in Warsaw and Cracow by the ISCM Polish
Section in April 1939. The political situation
that accompanied the 17th ISCM World Music
Days1 in Poland could hardly be more tense.
The strong historical links between the first
two international music festivals in Polish
history – the ISCM World Music Days in 1939
and the first “Warsaw Autumn” in 1956 – seem
undoubtable. Already the first paragraph of the
commentary printed by the Polish Composers’
Union in the “Warsaw Autumn” programme
book stressed that connection: “Contemporary
music festivals in Poland would most likely
have developed a fine tradition by now, had
it not been for the tragic years of World War
II. The 1939 Festival organised in Warsaw by
the International Society for Contemporary
Music opened – or so it seemed to us at that
time – a new splendid era in the history of
contacts between contemporary music in
Poland and worldwide.” Considering the time
when it was published, its authors, and its
official context (the preface to the programme
of the first edition of an international festival)
– this statement was of unique significance.
It is common knowledge that the “Warsaw
Autumn” would have been impossible in 1951
or 52, in the Stalinist era and under the dictates
1 ISCM World Music Days is the official the name of the ISCM festival used
since the 1970s [editor’s note].
78
of the official socialist-realist doctrine. In
a communist state in the mid-1950s, presenting
the “bourgeois” tradition of 1930s Poland (the
“Sanation”2) in a positive light and declaring
the will to take up and continue a project from
that rejected past – was clearly an ideological
sensation.
We should remember that the Polish Section of
the ISCM resumed its activity in 1946, hoping
to legalise its status in communist Poland,
which was officially achieved in April 1949,
but – as it soon turned out – only for a few
months. Already before the end of that year,
after the National Conference of Composers
and Music Critics in Łagów Lubuski, where the
doctrine of socialist realism was announced
and embraced – the official activity of the ISCM
Polish Section was suspended. The political
thaw of 1957 made it possible to resume it
for a while, but in May 1960 the Internal
Affairs Office of the Presidium of Warsaw’s
National Council announced the liquidation
of the Polish Section (registered as a separate
society – the PTMW). For twenty years (until
1980) it was the Polish Composers’ Union that
maintained contacts with the International
Society for Contemporary Music.
One should note that the 17th ISCM World
Music Days in 1939, the 1st “Warsaw Autumn”
in 1956 and the 42nd ISCM World Music Days
2 This is the popular term describing the political movement that ruled in
Poland in 1926–1939. Sanation took its name from Marshal Piłsudski’s call
for a “moral sanation” (healing) of public life in Poland. For ideological
reasons, the politics and public realities of that period were condemned
and rejected by the authorities of communist Poland after World War II
[editor’s note].
III
held again in Poland in 1968 (jointly with the
12th “Warsaw Autumn”) were all historically
and politically ill-fated. In 1939 heavy clouds
gathered over the country as war was more
and more often considered inevitable. The
participation of many German, Austrian and
Czech musicians was cancelled under the
pressure of Nazi propaganda (e.g. the planned
European premiere of Anton Webern’s String
Quartet Op. 28 did not take place). In 1956 the
political crisis in Poland and the manoeuvres
of the Soviet army heading for Warsaw – but
soon turning toward Budapest instead – did not
disrupt the festival, but artistic raptures were
accompanied by extreme political emotions
oscillating between hope and despair. In 1968,
the participation of Polish troops in the Warsaw
Pact’s August invasion of Czechoslovakia led
to a partial boycott of the festival, also by the
ISCM authorities, which moved the conference
traditionally accompanying the festival to
a different time and place (Baden-Baden).
In his foreword to the combined 1968 “Warsaw
Autumn” – World Music Days3 programme
book, Heinrich Strobel, President of the
ISCM, wrote: “The ‘Warsaw Autumn’, with its
comprehensive programmes, has for years
decisively contributed to the high esteem that
Polish new music is held in. I am happy that
the Festival of the International Society for
Contemporary Music is held this year jointly
with the “Warsaw Autumn”. I would like to
give my heartfelt thanks to all those who have
contributed to the organisation of the festival.
I wish the delegates to, and guests of the ISCM
Music Days a wonderful and inspiring stay
in the Polish capital.” Later, however, Strobel
decided to boycott the festival, creating
a storm in the international contemporary
music circles.
One of the initiators of “boycotting the
boycott” was Per Nørgård, guest of both the
12th and the recent 50th edition of the “Warsaw
Autumn”. He protested against the boycott of
the 1968 World Music Days, and thus also – of
the “Warsaw Autumn”, in an open letter where
he explained that Lutosławski, Penderecki
and the Polish Composers’ Union certainly
did not attack Czechoslovakia and did not
conspire to kill the hopes of the Prague Spring.
Thus the Polish music world should not suffer
3 The official name of the festival in Warsaw in 1968 was: the 42nd World
Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music” [editor’s note].
because of the military decisions of the state
authorities. The intention of the Polish music
world, as every year, was to open the door for
music from various parts of Europe and the
world, so that all groups in the audience could
mutually become familiar with one another’s
aesthetic ideas and achievements. Eventually
Heinrich Strobel announced that he could
not come to Warsaw due to… ill health. It was
only the third edition of World Music Days
organised in Poland (in 1992, held separately
from the “Warsaw Autumn”) that could
peacefully proceed without the ominous cloud
of political discord hovering over concert halls
and over the minds and hearts of organisers,
critics and audiences alike.
We should add one more “critical” date to
this list: the ISCM Polish Section, in response
to a query from the Society’s authorities
concerning the possibility of holding the World
Music Days in Poland, offered to organise
them in our country in 1927, and protested
against ISCM’s decision to grant this honour
to Frankfurt-am-Main. After the May Coup
of 19264, however, the Polish proposal was
rejected and Frankfurt won the competition.
This was chronologically the first of so many
instances in which politics had an impact on
the work of the Society.
*
The 1910s saw the rise of the first initiatives
aiming to save contemporary music from
sinking into social oblivion. The aim was
to salvage the long observed natural course
of musical evolution despite pressure from
the now enriched bourgeoisie – who only
liked those songs that they could learn by
heart – notwithstanding the fact that the
philharmonic halls and opera houses, the
chandeliers and all that sham did in fact
belong to the bourgeoisie. In order to preserve
the sense of musical culture – one that History
could uphold – special contemporary music
concert series and festivals were organised.
The same also concerned early music. Arnold
Schönberg’s Society for Private Musical
Performances was set up in 1918, and in 1910
Maurice Ravel initiated the concerts of the
Société Musicale Indépendante. In 1917 Alfredo
Casella established the Società Italiana di
4 The armed coup d’etat carried out by Marshal Józef Piłsudski in Poland (in
Warsaw) on 12th-15th May 1926. It was related to the country’s poor economic
and political situation [editor’s note].
79
Musica Moderna. It was out of these concert
projects that the national sections of the
arose (more or less directly) in the early 1920s
– first in Austria, France and Italy.
In August 1922 in Salzburg, Universal, the
Viennese publisher of Karol Szymanowski’s
music, held a series of contemporary chamber
music concerts which became a major artistic
event and an impulse. The composer and
music theorist Rudolf Réti and the composermusicologist Egon Wellesz together came
up with the idea of creating an International
Society for Contemporary Music, indicating
London as its most appropriate seat. They
proposed that festivals of new music (similar
to that presented in 1922 in Salzburg) be held
annually in different European cities; that
national sections be established in each
country, and thus form a kind of network
uniting Europe and the world in the mission
of, and enthusiasm for, contemporary music.
A composers’ League of Nations encompassing
the entire world… As early as 1922, sections of
the Society were set up in Denmark, Germany,
Great Britain and France, while the new music
society founded in 1920 in Czechoslovakia
naturally merged with this network. 1923 saw
the establishment of the ISCM’s sections in
Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden,
Switzerland, Spain, the United States, and
Italy, 1924 – in Argentina and the Soviet Union
(the latter was banned in 1933 – in the same
year as the German section). The Polish and
Romanian sections officially became part of
the ISCM structures in 1925.
*
In an article entitled Notes in the Margin of the
Prague Festival, printed in the literary magazine
“Wiadomości Literackie” of 13th July 1924, Karol
Szymanowski wrote:
“The Society, which – as its very name indicates
– is concerned exclusively with contemporary,
not with ‘the most extreme’ music, aims to
organise international concerts and support
especially those young talents whose life in their
national environments has been made miserable
due to the fact that their music is seen as not
quite ‘correct’. Naturally, it does not mean that
well known and widely recognised names do
not appear in the Society’s concert programmes,
especially with regard to works which for one
80
reason or another have rarely been performed.
The Society’s ‘international’ nature – though the
epithet ‘internationale’ may sound unpleasant to
our ears – has in fact nothing to do with its political
counterpart. It reflects the dream, possibly
a futile one, about a panhuman (or at least panEuropean) art, which is a dream of the highest
and most noble sort as far as the genuine spiritual
brotherhood of nations is concerned. Ironically,
however, each successive ISCM festival belies
these hopes, creating an ever greater gap between
the fundamental ideals and aims of the various
racial groups: German, Romance, and Slavic. This
could become the starting point for far-reaching
generalisations and characterisations, which we
will deliberately pass over in silence, unwilling to
wave the (reputedly) red rag of ‘new art’ in front
of the ‘proper’ and orthodox artistic groups in our
society.”
In 1933 in Madrid, Szymanowski delivered
a speech entitled The Future of Culture:
“The foundation of the International Society
for Contemporary Music, and its excellent
organisation, has made it possible to present
all the most outstanding achievements selected
from each country’s music during annual
festivals. This confrontation of different styles
and trends provides an overview of all the wealth
of new music, and allows us to pass informed
judgments. I believe there is no danger of this
leading to any form of new ‘universalism’, that
is, to a unification of musical language into
some sort of bland and colourless ‘Esperanto’ to
be used by the future generations of composers.
Today it seems obvious to us that interpersonal
understanding does not depend on blurring the
natural differences resulting from environment
and race, but on doing away with those
‘spiritual trade barriers’ that result from a false
concept of national interests. Those barriers are
an obstacle to the mutual communication and
agreement of different peoples.”
*
We know from Karol Szymanowski’s
correspondence that initially he was far from
enthusiastic about the idea of the new Society,
especially as the first person in his circles to
become interested in the subject was Stefania
Różycka, wife of the composer Ludomir
Różycki. Half a year after the foundation of
the ISCM, she addressed Adolf Chybiński (in
a letter of 5th March 1923):
III
“An international movement on an immense
scale has begun in the music world. Are you
aware that an international music committee
set up in London has called upon all the nations
of the world to create their own national
committees, which will maintain permanent
contact with the central committee in London?
The mission of each national committee is to
inform London about music events, to send
scores, magazines, etc. Each year a congress
and a music festival will be held in a different
city, and each section is to send its delegate,
each nation being given just one vote. Cesar
Soerschinger, editor of the ‘Musical Courier’
and the American representative in the
committee, has addressed me with a request
to set up such a section in Poland. At the same
time London presses me to send as many
materials as possible concerning the most
recent Polish music.
Apart from Jachimecki’s brilliant article in
the ‘Musical Quarterly’, I have nothing on
Szymanowski by Polish musicologists, and
nothing about current Polish music. About my
husband’s works I have plenty of materials and
articles, but they are all in foreign languages!
And there are no texts about Karłowicz. It is
unforgivable negligence on the part of our
music society, showing a disregard for our own
music.
Rather than dwelling on the causes of this
state of affairs, we should try to change it as
quickly as possible. Today we are the strongest
Slavonic state, and we must claim the position
that we deserve – not by servile praise of other
nations’ art, but by imposing our own values
on the world. Members of the international
committee (Profs Weissmann, Soerschinger,
Dent, Gatti and others) know and appreciate
Polish music, which they have frequently
stressed. The attitude of our musicologists
appears the more painful and inexplicable in
this context. [...] I would be extremely grateful
if you took this matter in your hands. I am
reluctant to entrust it to anyone else, lest this
important task should be mishandled. I am
afraid that our delegates to the congresses,
rather than discussing our own music, will
go on about Wagner and Schönberg! The
committee is to include our most eminent
musicians. I hope you will also join our
efforts.”
On 8th March, Adolf Chybiński informed Karol
Szymanowski:
“Różycka sent me a letter, too important
to ignore or make light of. For the sake of
our friendship, I want to know your view,
categorically and immediately. Reply at once,
as even a day’s delay may prove decisive. You
must join the Polish section if you care for the
good of our country. I offer you the presidency
of our committee, for your own sake and
because of your foreign connections. Do not
worry about that weasel doing something of
her own accord! I will not accept petticoat rule,
or the dictates of Różycki and the Jews. You
will be in charge! But something must be done
at once.”
Karol Szymanowski replied on 14th March:
“…I have received that famous letter from the
Polish Cosima! […] And I am not really sure
what to advise you. Judging by the names
you gave me (Gatti – an old fool, Soerschinger
– a common swine, etc.), all this committee is
some kind of sham and the ‘Society’s’ makeup puts me off making any closer contacts. […]
I am very curious what you are going to write to
that woman?...”
*
Despite his initial distrust, Karol Szymanowski
soon came within the orbit of the ISCM’s
activity and began his active collaboration
with the Society as one of Europe’s major
composers and the most important figure in
the ISCM’s Polish Section, named the Polish
Society for Contemporary Music (PTMW).
At the ISCM festival in Prague (1924), Karol
Szymanowski – jointly with Grzegorz Fitelberg,
Mateusz Gliński and others – set up the Polish
Section of the ISCM and became its President
until the time of formal registration. It was this
event that Szymanowski commented upon in
his (above-quoted) article Notes in the Margin
of the Prague Festival. In September 1924 an
assembly of the PTMW members was held in
Warsaw and elected Szymanowski President
of the Board, though officially the Society was
registered in Poland only in the following year.
He was re-elected as President of the PTMW in
1928, and two years later, “in recognition of his
outstanding contribution to the promotion of
modern music in Poland in general and to the
Society’s work in particular”, he was granted
81
the titles of honorary member and honorary
president of the Polish Section.
Karol Szymanowski’s letters do not reveal
much enthusiasm for his work in the Society.
On the contrary: he expressed concern, makes
reservations and presents critical remarks. On
the other hand, what is evident is his desire
to reconcile care for his own affairs with the
need to curb personal ambitions for the sake
of properly representing all Polish composers,
which his function in the Society obliged him
to do:
“The Polish Section of the ISCM and my
elevated post of President have turned out to
be the scourge of my life, and I am positive
about it! I have already had to deal with a great
many letters (including one to Casella), which
my secretary presses me to sign or reply to
(I hate him: he seems to have nothing else to do
in his life but to plague me with the Section’s
current business!)” (from a letter to Helena
Kahn-Casella of 6th August 1924).
“Naturally I am always in the public eye as
head of the ISCM’s Polish Section, also now
when of all the Polish works again only my
Quartet has been accepted. You can imagine
how fondly my dear ‘colleagues’ talk about me”
(from a letter to Zofia and Paweł Kochański of
20th March 1925).
“I am not sure if I should submit my Stabat
Mater to the jury of this year’s international
music festival! I recently talked to Casella and
it may be more appropriate that I – as President
[of the ISCM’s Polish Section] – do not send in
any of my compositions!” (from a letter to Emil
Hertzka of 21st December 1926)
“As concerns Piotr [Perkowski’s] composition
not being sent to our jury: I am not in the jury
of our Section (which, frankly, hardly does
anything at all). I gave Gliński some advice as to
the kind of compositions that ought to be sent
to London. Our jury acted against my advice
and I can see they made some boobs again (they
are sending Różycki, Karłowicz, etc. all the
time). I believe that in this state of affairs it was
a proof of my great sensibility and friendship
for Piotr to send his works directly to London,
‘bypassing’ our Polish jury – and honestly they
should stop sulking over this decision. As for
the Stabat Mater, it was submitted against my
will!” (from a letter to Helena Kahn-Casella of
24th February 1927)
82
“During the festival in Frankfurt, the jury
rejected my Stabat Mater, choosing instead
some little known composer whose name I do
not recall. This is of no import to me, but it
is very characteristic of the SIMC jury” (from
a letter to Helena Kahn-Casella of 21st March
1930, after a performance of his Stabat Mater
in Paris).
It should be noted in this context that
Szymanowski criticised the presentation to the
international public of music that he himself
disdained (e.g. Różycki), and also protested
against sending Karłowicz, whom he classified
in the same historical-aesthetic category with
Noskowski’s The Steppe. He was right to believe
that Mieczysław Karłowicz’s works might not
attract the attention of the ISCM jury selecting
works for the successive festivals, and that
by proposing such repertoire the Polish
section presented itself in a very unfavourable
light. Even though Karłowicz’s music was
recommended for the ISCM festivals several
times, none of his works was ever accepted by
the international jury.
*
In all fairness, it must be stressed that from
the very beginning of the ISCM’s activity
Szymanowski’s music clearly had a privileged
position. Already on 13th June 1923, even before
the first ISCM festival in Salzburg, the French
Section of the Society held a concert of works
by Szymanowski and Manuel de Falla in the
Parisian Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier. During
this concert, Maria Freund, Paweł Kochański
and Mieczysław Horszowski performed the
Violin Sonata Op. 9, Myths, Masks, three of the
Four Songs to Lyrics by Rabindranath Tagore,
one of the Three Lullabies Op. 48 and one of
the Four Songs to Words by Tadeusz Miciński
Op. 11. In the same year in December, the
ISCM’s Austrian Section presented the song
cycle Słopiewnie during a concert in Vienna.
Neither the presence of Szymanowski’s works
in the programmes of these concerts, nor their
performances at the Society’s first festivals in
Salzburg and Prague were in any way inspired
by the Polish section, which had not started
its activity by that time. Interestingly, Karol
Szymanowski also served on the jury of the
composer competition accompanying the 8th
Summer Olympics in Paris in 1924.
III
The task of the ISCM Polish Section’s first
national jury, appointed in 1924, was to
recommend compositions to the international
jury programming the 1925 festival in Venice.
The Polish jury submitted works by Mieczysław
Karłowicz (Stanisław and Anna Oświecim),
Łucjan Kamieński (Sonata for violin and
piano), Ludomir Różycki (Piano Concerto), and
three pieces by Karol Szymanowski (Symphony
No. 3, String Quartet No. 1, Słopiewnie).
From this list, the international jury chose
Szymanowski’s String Quartet Op. 31. In the
following year (1926), Karol Szymanowski
took part in the programming of the Zurich
Festival as a member of the international
jury. From among the works proposed by the
Polish Section (again Karłowicz’s symphonic
poem Stanisław and Anna Oświecim,
compositions by Ludomir Różycki, Ludomir
Michał Rogowski, Łucjan Kamieński, Tadeusz
Jarecki and Aleksander Tansman) – the
jury selected for performance a fragment
of Tansman’s ballet Le Jardin du Paradis,
which garnered highly favourable reviews
at the festival. Szymanowski supported this
choice: “I reluctantly stood up for Tansman”,
he confessed, and criticised the other Polish
recommendations as artistically ill-advised.
For the 1927 Frankfurt festival, the Polish
section sent in works by Mieczysław Karłowicz
(A Sorrowful Tale), Łucjan Kamieński,
Henryk Melcer, Ludomir Michał Rogowski,
Ludomir Różycki, Aleksander Tansman and
Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater. Szymanowski’s
claim, expressed in a letter to Alfredo
Casella’s wife, that the latter composition
was not accepted for performance – is not
quite accurate, as from the Polish list the jury
selected precisely this single work, which was
then – for technical and organisational reasons
– put on a “standby list” and recommended
for future performance. Those “technical
reasons” may have had something to do with
the difficulty of including a large-scale vocalinstrumental work in the programme of one
of the concerts, though this excuse did not
sound very convincing. The recommendation
of the jury – consisting of Alois Hába, Philipp
Jarnach and Walther Straram – proved
effective, however, as at the 8th World Music
Days in Liège (organised jointly with the 1st
Congress of the International Musicological
Society) the Stabat Mater was performed at
a fringe concert, under Grzegorz Fitelberg and
with Stanisława Szymanowska as one of the
soloists.
This is what Henry Prunières wrote in a review
in “La Revue Musicale” (of 1st September 1927)
about the absence of the Stabat Mater from the
festival programme:
“The oratorio by the Croatian composer Božidar
Širola took nearly three hours to perform. After
the second part the hall nearly emptied and
one could not help feeling regret at the thought
that for the sake of this oratorio, the jury left
out of the programme Karol Szymanowski’s
magnificent Stabat Mater, one of the greatest
religious works in today’s art.”
For the 1928 festival in Siena Poland did not
recommend any works. The festival, however,
gave rise to a heated controversy between Polish
and Czech music circles, and also within the
Polish music world itself. The dispute mostly
took place in the “Muzyka” monthly, whose
editor was Mateusz Gliński, secretary of the
ISCM Polish Section. After the festival, Stefania
Łobaczewska sharply criticised the total
absence of Polish music from its programme
and accused the Czech Section of organising
a separate concert dedicated exclusively to
their music, which supposedly proved that
they put their own particular interests first, at
the expense of international solidarity. This
is not the right place to describe the details of
the debate between Warsaw and Prague, but
it should be emphasised that for the Polish
Section, which kept organising concerts and
maintained very active regional branches
(e.g. in Lvov), this was the critical moment in
its relations with the International Society.
ISCM’s Board in London interpreted the lack
of any Polish recommendations for the Siena
festival as a boycott, provoked by the omission
of Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater from the
previous year’s festival in Frankfurt. Mateusz
Gliński explained that the jury simply did not
meet as composers did not propose any music
for the jury’s consideration.
In the same 1928, Karol Szymanowski was
re-elected as President of the ISCM Polish
Section. The whole affair reflects rather badly
on his ability to handle crises. Instead of
acting as a mediator (when open letters were
exchanged between Prague and Warsaw, and
83
Gliński attempted to block the publication of
the Czech Section’s statement in the “Muzyka”
monthly), he chose the role of a critic stressing
the values of new Czech music and exposing
the crisis in the Polish Section, which he
himself presided. Another crisis occurred in
1934, when the international jury did not select
any of the Polish compositions recommended
for the festival in Florence, and in protest, the
Polish delegation to the festival refused to take
part in the ISCM’s General Assembly.
Owing
to
Szymanowski’s
informal
intercession, the programme of the 1929 ISCM
festival in Geneva included a performance
of Jerzy Fitelberg’s String Quartet No. 2. After
Tansman’s ballet and, naturally, the works of
Szymanowski himself, this was another Polish
score presented during the World Music Days.
For the next edition, held in 1930 in Liège,
where the Stabat Mater was also performed,
the international jury selected Karol Rathaus’s
Sonata No. 2 and Jerzy Fitelberg’s Divertimento.
For the following year’s festival in London
and Oxford, the Polish Section recommended
Szymanowski’s Harnasie and Kurpie Songs as
well as pieces by Michał Kondracki (strongly
supported by Szymanowski), Roman Palester
(already an active collaborator of the PTMW),
Stanisław Wiechowicz, again by Jerzy Fitelberg,
Jan Maklakiewicz, Ilza Sternicka-Niekrasz,
Józef Koffler, and Alfred Gradstein. “I was really
surprised that they chose those little choruses
of mine,” wrote Szymanowski, referring to the
cycle of Kurpie Songs, translated into English
by Zofia Rościszowska, which was performed
by London Select Choir under Arnold Fulton.
Altogether, apart from Szymanowski’s music,
eleven works by other Polish composers had
been performed at the ISCM festivals by 1939:
three by Jerzy Fitelberg (1929, 1932 and 1937),
three by Józef Koffler (1931, 1933 and 1938),
two by Roman Palester (1931, 1936), two by
Karol Rathaus (1930, 1938), two by Bolesław
Woytowicz (1932, 1935), one by Aleksander
Tansman (1926) and one by Jan Maklakiewicz
(1931).
*
In 1926 Karol Szymanowski was invited to serve,
together with Arthur Honegger and Hermann
Scherchen, on the international jury selecting
works for the 4th ISCM festival in Zurich. Two
years later he was appointed principal deputy
84
chairman of the jury preparing the programme
for Siena (1928). In 1935, along with Béla Bartók,
he was granted an honorary membership of
the ISCM, previously awarded only to Richard
Strauss, Igor Stravinsky, Maurice Ravel and
Manuel de Falla. He became a prominent figure
in the Society.
*
The inclusion in the programme of the 1st
“Warsaw Autumn” in 1956 of Szymanowski’s
Stabat Mater
– also performed during the
ISCM World Music Days in Poland in 1939
– can be considered as a symbolic gesture. The
composition acted as a bridge between the two
festivals. The Kurpie Songs cycle, previously
presented at the 1931 ISCM Festival in London,
was another work by Szymanowski featured in
the programme of the 1956 “Warsaw Autumn”
– and another important bridge…
It only seems natural nowadays that the
personality (and therefore also the views,
statements, diagnoses) and artistic output
(musical works, aesthetic standpoint and taste)
of Karol Szymanowski are now regarded as a key
factor that provided Polish music – and culture
in general – with a long-time perspective and
a broad horizon. Szymanowski was constantly
at grips with himself and with Polish culture…
His success was not as obvious in his lifetime
as that of Igor Stravinsky; his concepts were
not as fundamental and prophetic as those
of Arnold Schönberg; he was not as radically
dogmatic as Anton Webern, not as powerfully
colourful in his use of ethnic traditions as
Manuel de Falla, and not as confused in his
aesthetic (and other) choices as Richard
Strauss. Contrary to the Polish myth about the
composer being “underestimated”, however,
Szymanowski’s work was fully recognised and
appreciated in the international scene already
during his lifetime. Until recently Polish
authors used to complain that the world does
not see the composer of King Roger as a “20thcentury classic”, on a par with others. But then
– with whom? With Stravinsky, Hindemith
or Ravel? It seems now, from the specific
perspective of the 21st century, that the “three
just men” among the 20th-century “classics”
were: Karol Szymanowski (meandering,
restless, indecisive), Alban Berg (longing,
hypochondriacal, neurasthenic, who wrote
his Violin Concerto “To the Memory of an Angel”
III
with his eye fixed on Szymanowski’s Violin
Concerto No. 1) and Béla Bartók (vital, feeding
on the national sentiments of his South-EastCentral Europe, tamed by the rationalism of
the “pan-European” form).
We should reject the grim view of Karol
Szymanowski – “our Karol” of Tymoszówka5
and the Villa Atma6 – as a composer
underestimated, unnoticed, and ignored by
the world in his lifetime. We should not believe
the complaints about the world’s indifference,
of which so many can be found in his letters.
He was noticed and appreciated, and the world
did not remain indifferent to his work. A major
crisis in the reception of his music came only
later – in the 1940s and 50s. One of the contexts
in which his work has been restored to life and
revitalised was – and somehow still is – the
“Warsaw Autumn”. Had he lived to see the
1950s, he would probably have complained
in his letters of difficulties and of excessive
workload, but in 1956, at the age of just 74, he
would undoubtedly have become… one of the
initiators of the “Warsaw Autumn”.
In preparing this article, I have drawn on
such publications as Anton Haefeli’s Die
Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik
(IGNM). Ihre Geschichte von 1922 bis zur
Gegenwart. Zurich 1982; Dorota Szwarcman 60
lat Polskiego Towarzystwa Muzyki Współczesnej.
Kalendarium działalności 1924-1984 [60 Years
of the Polish Society for Contemporary Music in
a Chronological Perspective: 1924-1984]. Warsaw
1987; Karol Szymanowski Writings on Music,
Correspondence. Ed. Teresa Chylińska, Cracow,
1984-2002.
The article is an extended version of a paper
delivered during the international conference
“The Warsaw Autumn as a Realisation of
Karol Szymanowski’s Vision of Modern
Polish Music”, organised by the Polish Music
Information Centre POLMIC at the Institute of
Musicology, University of Warsaw during this
year’s “Warsaw Autumn” festival.
Sitting, from the left: ALBERT ROUSSEL, KAROL
SZYMANOWSKI and ARNOLD BAX. Standing, from the left:
GRZEGORZ FITELBERG, KAREL B. JIRAK (composer), STEPAN
CHODOUNSKY of Národní Divadlo, GEORGES M. WITKOWSKI
(conductor from Lyon), FRITZ REINER (conductor), JOSEF
SZIGETI (violinist), R. KASTNER (musicologist from Berlin)
Tanslated by Tomasz Zymer
Andrzej Chłopecki during World Mussic Days in Germany,
1995 (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)
Andrzej Chłopecki (1950–2012) – musicologist and music
theorist, music critic and writer, organiser of musical events.
He graduated from the Institute of Musicology, University
of Warsaw. In 1975–1981 and 1991-2012 he worked for the
Polish Radio. From 1994 he programmed the Polish Radio’s
contributions to the International Rostrum of Composers
in Paris. President of the “Friends of the Warsaw Autumn”
Foundation; head of the Programme Board of Polish Audiovisual
Publishing House (now NInA), the Repertoire Committee of
the “Warsaw Autumn” Festival and the Programme Board of
the periodical MusikTexte – Zeitschrift für Neue Musik in
Cologne. He designed concert and festival programmes as well
as composer commissions. In the last years of his life, he was
the artistic director of the Musica Polonica Nova festival.
5 The composer’s birth place [editor’s note].
6 A historic chalet in Zakopane where Szymanowski lived in 1930-36,
currently: the Karol Szymanowski Museum, branch of the National Museum
in Cracow [editor’s note].
85
Double live of the
Polish Society for
Contemporary Music1
by Dorota Szwarcman
Within two years after the International
Society for Contemporary Music has been set
up, its Polish Section came into being. It was
founded by Karol Szymanowski (whose music
was performed at the ISCM international
Festivals since the very outset of its existence)
with Zbigniew Drzewiecki, Mateusz Gliński
and Felicjan Szopski’s. The initial seat of the
Polish society for Contemporary Music was at
the editorial office of the Muzyka magazine,
edited and published by Mateusz Gliński.
Up till 1930 the ISCM Polish Section was
successfully involved mainly in exporting
Polish music. Polish composers repeatedly
had their seat in the International Jury of the
ISCM World Music Days2 or in the presidium of
the ISCM board; moreover, Szymanowski was
appointed an honorary member of the Society.
In 1930 the Polish Society for Contemporary
Music began to put more efforts in popularizing
contemporary music in Poland. In many Polish
cities the branches of the Polish Society for
Contemporary Music were established. Their
work boiled down to organizing concerts,
broadcasts, lectures; it took 9 years to build
a firm foundation for organizing the ISCM
World Music Days3.
The fact that they were held in April, 1939 seems
from our today viewpoint, quiet shocking.
During the Second World War the Polish
Society for Contemporary Music activity was
banned. But at the first postwar World Music
Days festival in London (one of jury members
was Grzegorz Fitelberg) four pieces by Polish
composers were performed.
The following vicissitudes of the Polish
Society for Contemporary Music mirror the
vicissitudes of the country itself.
1 Reprint from article firstly published in Bulletin of the ISCM World Music
Days Warsaw 1992. [editor’s note]
2 Before the World War II – official name of the event was Festival of
International Society for Contemporary Music. [editor’s note]
3 See footnote No. 2. [editor’s note]
86
1946 – resuming intensive work and submitting
an application to be registered
1949 – registration
1950 – dissolution
1950-56 – a period of formal non-existence
1957 – attempt to resume work;
1960 – liquidation by the Interior Affairs Office
of the Warsaw National Committee Presidium
1961-77 – the Polish Society for Contemporary
Music as a part of the Polish Composers’ Union
Only in 1977 after two years of endeavors was
the Polish Society for Contemporary Music
registered again and it has been working since
then.
There are two postwar histories of the Polish
Society for Contemporary Music – official and
unofficial. The latter one includes broadcasts
organized when the Society remained
formally non-existant, at first in forties,
latter in the sixties. Taking into account this
non-existence, the unofficial history scores
many success of Polish composers abroad.
The ambiguity of this situation entailed the
ambiguity of the ensuring Warsaw ISCM World
Music Days4 in 1968 in connection with Warsaw
Autumn. The Festival was boycotted by foreign
activists musicians and the ISCM General
Assembly Members due to the Invasion of
Czecho-Slovakia.
This year for the first time the Warsaw
ISCM World Music Days takes place in an
unambiguous situation. And let it be like this
for good.
Translated by Małgorzata Grudzień
4 Official name of the event was World Festival of International Society
for Contemporary Music. [editor’s note]
III
Dorota Szwarcman is a music critic writing for “POLITYKA”
weekly magazine. She studied composition at The Frederic
Chopin Univesity of Music in Warsaw. She is author of many
books, included last one – Czas Warszawskich Jesieni (Warsaw
Autumn’s Time).
Dorota Szwarcman (photo from the Author’s private
collection)
87
Die Internationale
Gesellschaft für Neue
Musik (IGNM). Ihre
Geschichte von 1922 bis
zur Gegenwart
[The International Society
for Contemporary Music (ISCM):
Its History from 1922 to the
Present] - exCErpts
by Anton Haefeli
The monumental book by Anton Haefeli
on the history of the International Society
for Contemporary Music includes some
fragments describing festivals, which took
place in Poland, in the years 1938 and 1939.
The book was issued in 1982 by Atlantis
Musikbuch – Verlag AG. Here are some
quotations from this book.
Description of the festival in Warsaw in
1939 – a bit bitter tale of the festival in
Warsaw 1939
The participation in the Warsaw Festival (1421 April 1939) required significant sacrifice
from non-Polish performers and visitors. The
refusal of some of them was caused by fear (eg.
Sacher, Sanzogno, Rivier and Sigurd M.)
Rascher, the famous saxophone virtuoso,
reasoned that it was mad to go to Warsaw and
to perform in the ISCM festival and he refused
in the last moment possible. Partially, he was
forced by the situation (the Czechoslovak
and Italian sections of ISCM had been
disbanded1; the ban on the participation of
the Czechoslovak composers and performers
had been imposed, which alone caused the
impossibility of performing six pieces, among
1 By note. 39 it becomes understandable why a work of a jury member has
been played (otherwise, of course, prohibited by the rules).
88
them the European première of the Weber
String Quartet 2).
According to the story, told by Sten Borman,
those, who courageously arrived in Warsaw,
had to experience, among others, shelling of
their train! Well, it is not difficult to understand
those, who remained at home. It seemed
somewhat a miscarried idea to think about a
trip to take a part in an event in Warsaw, let
alone to go there just weeks after the invasion
to Czechoslovakia, after the German ultimate
claims on Poland and the following rejection
by the Polish government.
Jemnitz started his review of the Warsaw festival
accordingly: An international music festival?
Now? In Warsaw? Politically oriented readers,
and who does not belong to them nowadays?,
would take it perhaps with incredulity shaking
their heads. – Is this possible? And this land,
which we may suppose, having been fully
taken in claim, is just experiencing hard times,
and in exactly the same time is organising the
festival partly in Warsaw, partly in Krakow and
is preparing hard to conduct this music week
with such a dignity as only possible.
How easy and convenient it would it have been
for Poland, if the country had given up their
2 sequel commitment of 1968, cf. note 39
III
commitments made a year ago and, in this
situation, had simply cancelled the event. Its
argument (due to unforeseen circumstances
unfortunately it was not in the position to do
so) would perhaps have not made anybody
angry, everyone had to take it in. But Poland
did not choose the easier way of cheap retreat,
quite the contrary: they kept their promise
earnestly and fulfilled its task in the critical
moment of history with full delight and love
of the European spiritual culture, which is
typical in the most beautiful way for the Slavic
peoples3.
Since this festival certainly had little
propaganda value for the new music
(remember that in newspapers and magazines
issued outside Poland, only two reviews of the
seventeenth ISCM festival have been found!),
the contacts between Poland and foreign
visitors (because of their small turnout)
were very limited, besides the debates of the
locals were overshadowed by far more urgent
problems and therefore they took place only in
a perfunctory way”4, it seems at a first glance
that they were commented only tersely.
The festival
On the other hand, it must not be forgotten
that the ISCM had to take over more and more
functions during the late thirties, which
led to its establishment, as almost the only
institution performing new music (whether
with section concerts or music festivals)5. And
that they fulfilled this task, can be proved by
a comparison of the Warsaw programs with
those of the seventh festival of the “Permanent
Council” in Frankfurt am Main (June 1939).
Such people as Maasz, Sutermeister, Flor Peters,
Weismann, Holenia Lualdi, Georg Schumann,
Wiren, Dohnanyi, Kornauth, Pfitzner, Richard
Strauss, Labroca, Leif and Paszthory were taken
into account6, so the ISCM put in Warsaw a
new work by Vladimir Vogel, his “wonderful,
richly inventive” (dodecaphonic based) Violin
3 The requirements of Pierre Boulez were decisive to program this special
event by the BBC. Some excitement arose when Holliger was already present
with the same work as in Hamburg (1969) again. Most would have probably
missed the fact that Schoenberg’s Variations had already been officially
programmed three times, and were also played a few more times in section
concerts (also during the ISCM festivals)!
4 This English work was submitted by the English section and selected
by the international jury
5 In Bulletin No. 4 / June 1971, p. 16, it is duly noted that the British section
was allowed to select one composition from three proposed by the jury
authors. The other two proposals were as follows: Arvo Pärt and Boris
Tishchenko, both the Soviet Union.
6 Filed from the German section Zimmermann’s ‘Stille und Umkehr’
(Bulletin, supra).
Concerto, and “captivating by their conciseness
and expressive scarcity “Five orchestral Pieces
Christian Darntons “who first introduced the
Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique into the
English music”.
Next, (Bading, Ketting, Roos) the remarkably
dense musical production of the Netherlands
showed, with particularly famous and highly
praised Robert de Roos’ Five Etudes for piano
and small orchestra and Piet Kettings grand
piano fuga. Both turned out to be (along
with the English, Elisabeth Lutyens and
Darnton) a remarkably successful début on the
international music scene.
Finally, the ISCM once more presented for
discussion a work of Andre Souris, perceived
commonly as a surrealist, the Rengaines for
wind quintet, which itself sticks too deep
“in the worn out material - even liberating
its listeners – to make fun“. True humour
assumes the inner distance: the superiority
of those who can already be observed from a
higher standpoint “ It is hard to think that even
one of the above ISCM Composers would come
across in a program of “Permanent Council7”
Of course there were some annoying works
in Warsaw too - the jury (Clark, Defauw, G.
Fitelberg, Gerhard and Vuckovic) was not
immune to blunders. Jemnitz was worried,
in this context, especially about the mania of
non-European composers showing too much
eagerness to take over the European models
and deny their own tradition: “in the fourth
string quartet of the same evening, in the twomovement work of Japanese Kojiro Kobune
we had to do with a already self imposing
Euro-Japanese style, which arose quickly,
already closer to commercialisation of art
than to art itself. All this seems almost as if
many Japanese composers composing in the
European way looked for the connection path
for Puccini’s japanised music just to bring the
Western armour. Songs by Alberto Hemsi from
Egypt and an Argentinian Honorio Siccardi
remained in the already conjured music world
of Puccini’s exoticism8.”
Nevertheless, he could establish that,
“although the music festival discovered neither
fundamentally new nor boldly personal
7 The first was programmed by Xenakis: Eonta.
8 I owe this piece of information to former President Jurres. - The intention
to reenact at least the works by Thommessens and Gandini at the next
festival was not carried out. As usually, all five works were added to the
89
masterpieces, ... it brought nevertheless much
good, even some very good cross-section and
once again it should be recognised (Hess ) that
we are in an era that is marked by ingenious
procedural request of individual pioneers to
process the gained values and encouragement
to absorb them. After unclouded days spent in
a friendly mood one is engrossed by grateful
thoughts of a recording that spared no sacrifice
and gained not only nominal, but active
patronage of President Ignacy Mościcki with
his glossy appraisal. The Polish state had the
opportunity to stand up for its music culture,
perceived and used in exemplary manner9.”
[Haefeli 1982: 258-260]
The issue of the boycott of the festival in
1968
The third major political commitment of
the ISCM 1968 was the boycott of their own
festival in Warsaw. The society itself rebuffed
their own arguments which they had put
forward a year earlier in the case of a protest
concerning Isang Yun, the hypocrisy; refuted
during almost 45 years of emotional claims
that they had nothing to do with politics and
should not deal with political proclamations,
and went especially hard on their self-imposed
issue, of the help to the artist, “in the middle
of an almost naturally hostile environment “10
It was a grotesque situation indeed to tolerate
sections such as the South African and yet in
1965, when the Spanish Government (unlike
Poland) massively supported World Music
Festival in Madrid in order to enhance the
image of Franco; but then Polish composers
cancelled their participation, to protest
against Poland’s participation in the military
occupation of Czechoslovakia. Despite their
relative leeway and pretences of freedom
Poles had difficulties in maintaining personal
international contacts (except the festival
“Warsaw Autumn”), so the boycott was
damaging them so irresponsibly, endangering
most sections and many performers two weeks
before the end of September.
9 The fact that the previous Jury had been replaced by a Program Committee,
had not only linguistic, but also programmatic background as well:
according to the competition rules, autocratic operating panel is replaced
by a program committee, which is not lead by the core question “the
‘best-worked work “, but the” What should today be played at a festival
of new music,“ which also causes the need to bring in consultants and,
further, “their work with the end of the session, not considered as finished”
(Bulletin No. 4, p 11.).
10 Cf. die Resolution von 1935; cited under note 30.
90
To put it briefly, the carrying out of the Madrid
festival and the associated propaganda effect
for Franco was as negative as the boycotting
of the Warsaw Festival and the following
isolation of the Polish artists. Quite apart
from it, it mocked this action, considering
the organizational effort of Polish composers
before and especially after the boycott, it
denied human decency. At the same time it did
not happen, what is the initiator of the action,
the Swedish section, hoped: “Nevertheless, we
are fully aware of the weight of the arguments
concerning international contacts; finally, the
primary aim of the section is international
- but the choice concerns priorities: which
international connections in the current
situation will have the priority.
The degree of possible drawbacks must be
balanced for a need to weigh the potential
benefit for the other party, and we felt that
the Czechoslovak music life would be more
supported than that it could harm our opinion
on the drawback for the Polish party11”. Indeed,
the damage to the Czechoslovakian artists was
probably greater than the benefits12.
However, the Swedish section was now aware
that their action, which had been sparked with
a telegram launched late August to all sections
for support (about half of which promised to
do so)13:
„Further consideration of this matter at the
meeting of the Swedish Section on the 16th
of September has resulted in a decision not
to participate in this year’s World Music
Festival. This decision involves a break
with the previous general approach of the
Section an will influence future decisions
in similar situations. The Swedish Section
proposes that future World Music Festivals
be held only in countries which are generally
regarded as respecting basic human rights
11 Bucht, ISCM skiljevägen vid? (The ISCM at a crossroads?), P. 46 The
translation owes this to the author of the article.
12 How Bucht, supra holds, it were mainly West German music circles,
who were of the opinion: “that with such actions they can not help the
Czechs, but bring only harm.”
13Argentina, Australia, Finland, Greece, the Netherlands, Iceland, Israel,
Norway, Austria, Switzerland and Yugoslavia. shared the approach of the
Swedish section. The attitude of sections of Denmark, Japan and the United
States waqs still condemning, but for the benefit of the Polish cleeeagues
renouncing the boycott.Great Britain waited to see what the Bureau would
decide to do (documentation by the Archives of the Swedish section).
The first, the boycott activating telegram the Swedish section was: «Due
to actual European Situation ordinary general assembly Swedish ISCM
section considers ISCM festival taking place in Warsaw questionable stop
Swedish Section asks you to join us in convincing Presidential Council
ISCM and Polish Section that cancellation is desirable» (to the sections)
and«.. .stop Swedish section asks you to reflect seriously on cancellation»
(to the presidium).
III
(! author’s remark). The Section wishes to
stress vigorously the importance of forms
of contact other than the official ones being
maintained with countries which would
thereby be excluded from the task of arranging
World Music Festivals, and requests that these
matters be dealt with at the extra General
Assembly in Baden-Baden14.”15
The Swedish section anticipated the difficulties
that might have emerged when carrying out
the third section of this explanation. The
former President of the section, Gunnar Bucht
commented: “As you can see, the statement
does not say much about the reason for
transferring neither about the consequences
themselves. In a narrow scope, the problems of
the ISCM have long been the same, the problem
of forgiveness of world music festivals, the
resistance to the organization of an ISCM
festival in a country of dictatorship, which was
broken not earlier than in 1965 in Madrid.
In those days the whole thing ran without
complications, but in 1967 in Prague, so before
the liberalization began, the Israeli section
withdrew its work after Czechoslovakia,
as well as the other Eastern Bloc countries
severed diplomatic ties with Israel as a result
of the Six-Day War. The Swedish declaration
was not only limited to dictatorship countries;
also democracies are known to violate
human rights, which trims the choices in the
forgiveness of world music festivals.
It was not likely that the problem would be
of any importance whatsoever within the
next two years, in Hamburg and Basel 1969,
and 1970 would take over the event, so cities
in countries that do not rather belong to the
category meant in the statement. But the
broad view prevails that the endeavour of
the Swedish section to the consequences can
create difficulties.”16However, because of these
strict measures, which the Swedish section
wanted to apply rightly to all democracies,
hardly any section nor the organization of
a festival could be transferred!
The positive in the Swedish proposal,
however, was, what can be duly assumed,
that the responsibility of the ISCM forced
14 The delegates’ meeting in Baden-Baden decided to treat the extraordinary
assembly as an ordinary one (Protokol 1968).
15 Swedish Section, To the Presidential Council (Gunnar Bucht, 11.10.1968),
Archive of the Swedish Section.
16 Bucht, ISCM vid skiljevägen?, p. 46.
to consider the political implications of the
ISCM festivals. The dimension of international
unifying of such events would have brought
these considerations to their real proportion
in reality. However, the delegates meeting in
Baden-Baden did not deal with the Swedish
resolution, although the Swedish section
withdrew the third paragraph, in which they
threatened the Assembly17, proving the same
once more the ostrich policy of the ISCM .
Only the Swiss delegate Constantin Regamey
attacked the boycott of the Warsaw Festival and
gave the following statement for the minutes:
“Mr. Constantin Regamey (Switzerland) said it
was better to forget the past, but on behalf of
the Swiss Section, he asked if the absence of
a Swiss delegate at the Warsaw Festival would
be considered and consequently interpreted as
a gesture of solidarity and sympathy towards
Czechoslovakia, but it should not, by any
means be taken as to act of hostility toward our
Polish colleagues. 18
The French delegate Henri Martelli noted that
this attitude corresponded with the one of his
own section19, and President Strobel cut the
brief discussion by thanking Regamey who
had tackled the hot iron in a refined way: «The
President .. . wished particularly to thank Mr.
Regamey for his Statement which reflects
the attitude of one and all. He expressed his
appreciation to the Polish musicians who
had gone to such great trouble in organizing
the Warsaw Festival. Despite the exceptional
circumstances, the Society has proved to be
a great and functioning Community (?,author’s
remark).»20
17 Cf. Strobel’s statement in Baden-Baden: «Le president en evoquant la crise
tres penible que la SIMC venait de passer a demande aux sections de ne
plus parier des evenements passes, mais de s‘occuper des problemes futurs
et de se tenir strictement ä l’ordre du jour prevu pour l‘Assemblee generale
de Varsovie dans la circulaire No 3 du 20 aoüt 1968» (Regamey, Rapport des
delegues de la Section suisse ä l’Assemblee generale extraordinaire de la
SIMC ä Baden-Baden, le 22 octobre 1968; STV-Archiv XV). Then Bucht, as well,
ISCM vid skiljevägen?, p. 45: In connection with this decision, a declaration
was acclaimed, sent later to all the sections and laid on the table of the
general assembly in Baden-Baden, without recommending anu necessary
measures.“ - The withdrawal of the third section cf. Regamey, supra
18 Regamey, in: Protokoll 1968, p. 8; cf. Martelli.
1956 Strobel, supra, p. 9 well as cover-up elected a year later Lutoslawski
(the spelling of Polish <1> vide p. 16) a Honorary Member of the Society ...
20 This was also the argument of those who opposed the boycott. Bucht,
supra, p. 46, asserts, that the Polish government had paid for the World
Music Festival. It might have been like this: that was by no means caused
by the great interest. - - Jan Fischer, Czech and member of the board at that
time, claimed , after all, that it had triggered some benefits of action for
the Czechoslovakian artists: „Mr. Jan Fischer .. .thanked Sections for their
sympathy and their solidarity, and highlighted the extreme importance of
Their support „(protocol 1968, p. 9).
91
The boycott, performed in such a way, meant
virtually hostility to the Polish composers,
even worse: it endangered their activities21.
The antithesis of the Swedish attitude was
formed in Warsaw, and was composed of the
representatives of those sections22, who were
not involved in the boycott and adopted a clear
“protest against boycott of the ISCM festival”,
the aforementioned Denmark and Japan as
well - as the whistle blowers of protest - West
Germany, who had partly23 warned from the
very beginning against any disruptive action:
“The members of the ISCM gathered in Warsaw
well and truly regret that some Western
country sections of this society threatened with
a boycott of the 42nd World Music Festival in
connection with the events in Czechoslovakia.
They express their appreciation and full
recognition to the Polish section and the
Polish Composers’ Union, that they have not
let themselves be put off in the preparation and
carrying out of the World Music Festival.
The cause of international understanding
among all those who are interested in the fate
of contemporary music was better preserved
through the initiative and sacrifice of the
Polish section than by jingoistic proclamations
and disruptive action of voluntarily absent
members who missed truth to their addressees.
The fact, that no member of the Praesidium
board of the society was present in Warsaw,
was understood as a real affront. The relocation
of the Assembly of Delegates of Warsaw, the
site of the World Music Festival, Baden-Baden
was a dirigiste act, which evoked the vehement
protest of the Company members present in
Warsaw. Warsaw, 24 September 1968 Otto
Tomek, Ulrich Dibelius, Heinz Sink, Günther
Becker (all Germany); Svend Erik Werner, Per
Norgärd, Light R. Norgärd (all Denmark); Reijo
Jyrkiäinen (Finland); Liliana Poli (Italy); Rob du
Bois (Netherlands); Hiroaki Minami, K. Ozawa
(both Japan)24
Otto Tomek, the first signatory of the protest,
explains, “All of us, who were in Warsaw at
21 This included the USA section, although they did not send any
representants to Warsaw.
22 Also President Fortner, arguing against its own members, had signed
the boycott call against the Eastern Bloc as the highest representative of
the German section “Rafael Kubelik as Czech had evoked understandable
indignation” (Kruttge in a letter to d. Avail., 1972 ).
23 The protest against the boycott of the ISCM Festival, was (originally)
announced as a dpa notice from 26.09.1968. (I owe the copy of the protest
to the first signatories, Dr. Otto Tomek.)
24 Tomek in a letter to the author(1972).
92
that time, included myself, could soon see
that the cancellation of the ISCM festival
was absolutely wrong. It was not possible to
meet anybody from those circles, who were
responsible for the invasion to Czechoslovakia,
but the position of those people, who created
and achieved, against all odds, the Warsaw
Summer as a forum for international meetings
became immeasurably more difficult. This
very forum was seriously jeopardized by the
refusal of the ISCM. In this critical situation,
the present ISCM members decided to express
openly their opinion.”25
Tomek comments also the reaction to the
text, which was handed over to the German
Press Agency (only a few newspapers decided
to printed it)26, and the a Strobel’s attitude in
this matter: “An official response to the protest
has never been issued. In an interview later on,
professor Strobel assured me, that personally
he did not object holding of the ISCM festival
in Warsaw but he was compelled by a large
number of country sections, particularly
the Scandinavians which insisted that the
cancellation take place.”27
One cannot take it from the authoritarian
Strobel, that he knuckled down before the
sections. This alleged coercion was probably
an excuse like the one spread by Hess about his
absence in Warsaw: He did not come because
of serious illness!2864 But later, in the General
Assembly in Baden-Baden, he announced
that the Committee was not intentionally
represented in Warsaw and that it was fully
justifiable...29
Eigel Kruttge, who was a prominent ISCM
member, like Sten Broman, who came to
Warsaw regardless of the boycott (“my trip
to Warsaw so soon after the Prague mayhem
was a personal protest against the Western
boycott“)30 expressed his attitude towards the
25Cf. Regamey, Rapport, a.a.O., p. 3: «Seuls deux journaux allemands
de l’Ouest
26 Cf Kruttge, Warsaw Autumn 1968, p. 474 Ulrich Dibelius confirmed d.
Avail., That Strobel’s details were excuses only. His aversion to <Warsaw>
dated quite large before the invasion!
27 Cf Protocol in 1968 and Regamey, Rapport, supra, p. 1 - By the way,
that the boycott did not work and the festival was carried out the boycott
notwithstanding, was based on the fact that the Polish section could not
be banned to organize the festival. Any legal basis for such a prohibition
lacks in the statutes. Moreover, these was also a decision of the General
Assembly that it would not have been put aside shortly and without the
recent decision of the General Assembly.
28 Kruttge in a letter to the author(1972).
29Kruttge, Warschauer Herbst 1968, p. 474.
30 In 1939, the saxophonist Rascher, the only specialist of his instrument for
new music at that time, did not come; only he could have played Concertino
of Poland Palester chosen by the jury. Therefore, in 1968, Continuum by
III
Committee: “When it was finally known that the
Warsaw festival would take place: was it not in
the own interest of the sections to express their
respect for the Charter of an internationally
functioning, artistic targeted company by way
of participation, which would allow to avoid
any false consideration (aesthetic tendencies,
nationality, race, religion or political opinions
of composers)? Was it not short-sighted to
torpedo the legal meeting of the delegates
in Warsaw and to demand an extraordinary
assembly of delegates elsewhere , referring
to some paragraphs of the statute not used
before?
Well, according to the democratically
established social charter, no one can be forced
to
participate in any festival. Besides, in the light
of a severe illness of the Chairman, should
not at least some member of the council be
considered as legitimate, by the very fact of
their presence?
– Missed opportunities”31
In reality: Warsaw in 1968 was a real festival
of missed opportunities. First, one lost the
occasion in the situation, where, in order to
carry through the discriminative statute of
the ISCM, (previously it was always a good
excuse to avoid any commitment), one
could overcome serious resistance and allow
tolerance to overpower the emotions – instead,
the inertia of ISCM after 46 years of silence in
the worst and most uncomfortable moment on
their political mandate will be remembered.
Not that they should not have condemned the
invasion to Czechoslovakia in a resolution;
it was absolutely wrong that they wanted to
punish a country that had participated in
the invasion, moreover, by discriminating
artists; and they held solidarity, respect of
political views twice as important, but they
left out the neutrality of the international
music itself. Secondly, the ISCM missed the
opportunity to make amends enabling them to
take the unconditional responsibility for the
Warsaw Festival 1968 like thirty years earlier,
when facing major problems which severely
impaired the first Warsaw Festival – in 1939,
Serocki had to be cancelled because the Danish “Timpana ensemble” failed
their participation. (Conversely, the Polish section ensure that a Swedish
work was performed despite the cancellation of the performance of the
Swedish artist!)
31 Broman in a conversation with the author.
a few weeks before the German invasion and
pogroms in Poland.
The heroic performance of the organizers had
obviously been badly rewarded by various
interpreters and delegates who did not go
to Warsaw partly from fear, partly duress
(Czechoslovakia) and so boycotted or had to
boycott the festival. Ironically, among the
fearful ones there were many Scandinavians,
Swedes and Danes in particular, and facing the
refusal of the Scandinavian artists, the Polish
works in1939 and 1968 had to be deleted from
the programme32. (At both festivals, however,
the courageous Sten Broman took care that the
Swedish section would be represented and thus
their reputation was to some extent defended
Incidentally, as Broman told, the train journey
to Warsaw in 1939 was a real adventure. The
train was repeatedly shelled 69!)
Things have not changed much: the Western
aggression interfered with both Warsaw
festivals. It is more than irony that the Strobel’s
preface can be read in the official program
pamphlet of the 1968 festival (the boycott
statement came long after the printing the
program booklet), in which he recalls the
indirect threat of the 1939 festival by Nazi
terror and is overwhelmed with joy that he can
come to Warsaw this year ... 70 Such memory
should have suffocated in bud each thought of
a boycott (although the boycott of 1968 cannot
be by any means compared with with the Nazi
threat in 1939). [Haefeli, 1982: 201-206]
XVII. Festival 1939 Warsaw
-Kraków33 (14:21. April 1939)
Jury: Edward Clark, Desire Defauw, Gregor
Fitelberg, Roberto Gerhard, Vojislav Vuckovic.
Concerts:
Josep Valls, symphony; Christian Darnton
Five Pieces for Orchestra; Marcel Poot Legende
Epique; Slavko Osterc Passacaglia and Chorale;
Wladimir Vogel Scherzo and Finale of the
Violin Concerto; Jean Rivier Symphony in D
major. Conrad Beck Chamber Cantata (after
32 Strobel, in: Festheft 1968, p. 7: «Quand le festival de la SIMC se tenait, en
1939, ä Varsovie, - peu avant l’agression d’Hitler contre la Pologne, quand
l’Europe sombrait dans la nuit - ( . . . ) . Je suis heureux de voir que notre
festival de la SIMC se tienne, cetteannee, dans ses cadres (de <l’Automne
de Varsovio, d. Verf.).»
33 The third concert of the ISCM and the church music concert took place
in Krakow.
93
sonnets of Louise Labe); Knudäge Riisager
Concerto for Tromp and String orchestra34.
Francis Poulenc Mass in G major for chorus
a cappella; Luigi Dallapiccola Tre Laudi for
soloist and small orchestra; Andre Souris,
Rengaines for Bl.quintett;: Robert de Roos Five
Etudes For Piano and Orchestra", concert of the
Polish section: Stanislaw Wiechowicz Kantata
Romantyczna for piano, choir and orchestra;
Michal Kondracki Cantata for choir and
orchestra Ecclesiastica; Karol Szymanowski
Stabat Mater Elizabeth. Lutyens (w)35, String
Quartet No. 2,. Eugen Suchon Sonatina for
violin and grand piano, Kojiro Kobune String
Quartet No. 1, Alberto Hemsi Coplas Sefardies
for Ges and grand piano; Honorio Siccardi
Two Songs (Amado Villarreal) for Total and
grand piano; Henk Bading String Quartet No.2,
Demetrij Zebre Trois poemes lyriques for
violin and grand piano; Joaquin Horns String
Quartet No. 2,. Piet Ketting Fuga for grand
piano* Concert with Old Polish Church Music
in Krakow.
Suzanne Suter-Sapin, Richard Zika, Stanislaw
Jarzębski. Grand piano, I. Blochman, Marcelle
Meyer, Rudolf Macudzinski, Jerzy Lefeld, Piet
Ketting. T .: Arvid Degn. Ens.: Stratton Quartet,
Quartet of the Polish Radio, Warsaw Quartet,
Winds of Warsaw. Orchestra: Philharmonic
Orchestra Warsaw, Orchestra and Choir of the
Polish Radio.
Conductors: Stanley Chapple, Andre Souris,
Kazimierz Hardulak, Tadeusz Wilczak,
Stanisław Nawrot, Robert de Roos, W.
Raczkowski, Grzegorz Fitelberg, Mieczysław
Mierzejewski. [Haefeli, 1982: 497-498]
Ballet evening at the Warsaw Opera: Works by
M. Kondracki, R. Palester and K. Szymanowski
(Harnasie). Bolesław Woytowicz Twenty
variations in the form of a symphony; Gaston
Brenta Le et le Financier Animal Save for Bar
and Orchestra; Lars-Erik Larsson Ostinato
for Orchestra; Marcel Mihalovici Prelude and
Invention for String orchestra; Alan Rawsthorne
Symphonic Studies; Antoni Szalowski Overture.
Proposed works which were omitted36: Roman
Palester Concertino for Saxophone and chamber
orchestra; Milan Ristic Suite for four trombones
(quarter-tone system); . Anton Webern
String Quartet, op 28 (would have been EE);
Jerzy Fitelberg String Quartet No. 4. Jozef
Zavadil Little Suite for violin. and grand piano;
Vladimir Polivka String quartet; Karol B. Jiräk
Przebudzenie, cycle A. and Ens.
concerts:
Ton de Leeuw, Symphonies for wind
instruments; Krzysztof Penderecki Capriccio
for violin and Orchestra; Friedrich Cerha I
mirror for orchestra (among others); György
Ligeti Requiem for soloists, chorus and orchestra.
Agustin Bertomeu, Pantalän for orchestra;
Günther Becker Stabil-Unstabil for orchestra;
Augustyn Bloch Ailet, opera-mystere, for reciter,
soloist, Baritone, Choir and orchestra (among
others). Per Nørgård Iris for orchestra; Hiroaki
Minami S. and Banka for orchestra; Klaus Huber
Tenebrae for orchestra, Roger Reynolds Quick
are the Mouths of Earth for chamber orchestra;
Gerardo Gandini Cadencias II for chamber
orchestra; Tadeäs Salva Canticum Zachariae for p.
and chamber orchestra (among others); Carmelo
Alonso Bernaola Musicas de camara; Harrison
Birtwistle Tragoedia for comb. Orchestra; Stanko
Horvat Rondo for string quartet; Miklos Kocsär
Due Lamenti soloist and grand piano; Karl-Erik
Wehn Manzit for clarinet, Trombone, cello and
grand piano; * Viadan Radovanovic Spheroon for
tape. Proposed works, which were cancelled38":
Main artists:
Ges.: Ginevra Vivante, Valeria Jędrzejewska,
Janina Hupertowa, M. Andrien. violin:
34Slonimsky, supra, p. 467, enlists with Riisager mistakenly the Concertina
for Saxophone by R. Palester, which was not played
35 This event was conceived by putting together of the third and fourth
concerto, which was caused by the cancellation of many provided works
(see note. 24).
36 Many artists were afraid to travel to Poland, on the one hand because of
the uncertain political situation, on the other hand because of the pressure
of the invaders (Czechoslovakia,Austria) and rulers (Italy, Germany). Besides,
many were simply not allowed to come. The absence of Ondricek Quartet
alone caused the cancellation of three works. Slonimsky, usually careful,
accepted almost always the official program without marking failures. The
two indices mention these works without further description (main sources
for the exact program: Regamey; SMZ 79/1939, p 265-267.).
94
XLII. Festival, Warsaw 1968 21 to 29
September 1968
(joined together with the XII. International
Festival of Contemporary Music “Warsaw
Autumn)37
Jury:
Cristobal Halffter, Miloslav Kabeläc, Ingvar
Lidholm, Witold Lutosławski, Ivo Malec.
37 The data include the whole “Warsaw Autumn”; the actual ISCM concerts
finished on 26 September. The concerts of the “Warsaw Autumn” are not
mentioned here.
38 Vide main text. The failures were all the fault of the boycott of ISCM
sections. In the first four works, the relevant sections did not follow their
obligations: (artists, money, technical aid); the remaining four works had
to be canceled because the ensembles which should have performed them
(the Danish “Timpana ensemble”, the Czech Ens. “Musica Viva Pragensis”)
did not come to Warsaw. The Polish section which was not capable of
III
Antonio Tauriello Canti for violin and orchestra;
Jacques Guyonnet, The Approach to the Hidden
Man for mezzosoprano and chamber orchestra;
Fausto Razzi Improvvisazione III for two
soloists, B. and chamber orchestra; Karl-Birger
Blomdahl Altisonans (film); Olivier Messiaen
Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum for
orchestra; Kazimierz Serocki Continuum,
Sextet for percussion; Jacob Gilboa Crystals
for chamber orchestra (among others); Zbynek
Vostfäk cantata for chorus, wind instruments
and percussion.
Main artists:
Ges .: Liliana Poli, Anna Malewicz-Madey,
Halina Łukomska, Adam Hanuszkiewicz,
Andrzej Hiolski, Ayako Kato, Irena TorbusMierzwiakowa, Erika Sziklay.
grand piano: Adam Fellegi.
violin: Wanda Wiłkomirska.
Ensembles: Warsaw String Quartet, Warsaw
Ensemble “Musical Workshop” – Orchestra and
choir. Choir and Symphony Orchestra, Polish
State Philharmonic Orchestra Of Katowice,
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Polish
Radio Choir Krakow, The Symphony Orchestra
of Polish Radio Katowice, Chamber Orchestra
of Polish Radio Katowice.
Conductors: Andrzej Markowski, Karol Stryja,
Mario di Bonaventura, Gianpiero Taverna.
[Haelfi, 1982: 526-527]
für Neue Musik von 1922 bis zur Gegenwart,
Zürich 1982; Vom musikpädagogischen Eros.
Die Kunst, das Musiklehren lieben zu lernen,
Aarau 1998; Jacques Wildberger oder die Lehre
vom Andern, Zürich 1996 (Hrsg.); Der Grad
der Bewegung. Tempovorstellungen und
-konzepte in Komposition und Interpretation
1900–1950, Bern 1998 (Mithrsg.). Der
Musikwissenschaftler, der sich früher auch
als Dirigent und Vokalist betätigte und
weiterhin auch Musikkritiker und Autor ist,
veröffentlichte unter anderem kürzlich eine
umfangreiche Arbeit zum Thema Bruckner
und Celibidache (NZZ, 16.12.00).
Geboren 1946 in Brugg, Schweiz. Nach dem
humanistischen Abitur Ausbildung 1966–71
an der Universität Zürich (Musikwissenschaft
bei Kurt von Fischer sowie Geschichte und
Kunstgeschichte) und an der Musikhochschule
Zürich (unter anderem Klavier, Schulmusik
und bei Rudolf Kelterborn Musiktheorie).
Dort Promotion zum Dr. phil. und Erwerb
des Diploms für das Höhere Lehramt. Hier
Diplome unter anderem als Schulmusikund Musiktheorielehrer. Seit 1984 Dozent
für Musikgeschichte und zusätzlich seit
1987 Sachbereichsleiter Ausbildung in der
Musikhochschule der Musik-Akademie Basel.
Forschungsschwerpunkte: Musik des 20.
Jahrhunderts und Musikpädagogik. Bücher: Die
Geschichte der Internationalen Gesellschaft
taking over these eight works, had still to make an enormous effort to
perform four more works, which were threatened with cancellation, as
their performers did not appeared in Warsaw. These were the works of
Ligeti, Salvatore, Wehn and Horvat. The cost of these performances and
new dispositions, according to the rules, were taken over generously by
the Polish section too. Four works were replayed at the Hamburg Festival
1969 (Blomdahl, Serocki, Gilboa and Vostfäk). The others were, as usual,
added to the ISCM-list (source: STV archive XV / 1968).
Cover of the festival book – XLII World Festival of the
– Warsaw Automn 1968 by Waldemar Świerzy
95
The World Music Days
Warsaw
Organizer’s Report
In 1992 the ISCM World Music Days took place
in Warsaw, Poland. The International Jury
consisting of Martin Bresnik (USA), Michael
Finnissy (Great Britain), Toshi Ichiyanagi
(Japan), Alejandro Iglesias Rossi (Argentina),
Dieter Schnebel (Germany) and Zygmunt
Krauze (Poland) selected sixty pieces from
648 scores sent in by National Sections and
individual entries. The programme was
completed with the pieces chosen by the
Artistic Committee of Tadeusz Wielecki
(chairman), Wojciech Michniewski and Lidia
Zielińska.
The festival proceeded in numerous trends:
from big instrumental forms, chamber music,
music for installations, ethnic trend to jazz
and rap.
During the festival twenty-seven concerts were
held at sixteen places in Warsaw and at Pultusk.
Ninety pieces from forty three countries were
performed including thirteen ones by Polish
composers. Moreover, the musical Hyde Park
presented twelve programmes. All the pieces
selected by the jury were performed with the
exception of Hifumi Shimoyama’s (singer’s
indisposition). The festival was accompanied
by the exhibition of musical and sound
installations.
The festival was attended by sixty-one
composers, numerous journalists and
observers from thirty-five countries as well
as the delegates representing over thirty
countries, who carne to participate in the
annual ISCM Assembly (being held throughout
the festival). The opening ceremony was
honoured by the presence of the Polish
Prime Minister, Jan Olszewski. The President
of Poland, Lech Wałęsa handed over to the
organizers a message which was read during
the opening ceremony.
The festival promoted the premieres of the
choreographical arrangements to three works
selected by the Jury (ballet performance by
the Polish Dance Theatre ) and five awarded
minioperas for children (two performances of
96
the Lodz Opera House), which subsequently
have been included in the Opera’s repertoire.
On the occasion of the World Music Days, the
organizers announced the All Polish twentieth
Century Music Competition for Young
Performers, intended for high school and
under graduate Students of music. Forty-nine
participants were selected for the final stage
of the competition. The winners appeared at
the concert which took place in the framework
of the festival. The compact disc of the pieces
performed by the winners was released.
Another exceedingly successful item of the
programme was a day at Pultusk, a small town
sixty kilometers from Warsaw. This “concert
for town”, apart from electronic music for
children, musical installations, chamber and
organ music also included a multimedia event.
We succeeded in inviting the following
outstanding performers: Ensemble Modern
of Frankfurt on the Main, Amadeus Chamber
Orchestra, Ensemble 20. Jahrhundert of
Vienna, Łódź Grand Opera, Polish Dance
Theatre from Poznan, Warsaw National
Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, Silesian
String Quartet, Jane Manning, Jane’s Minstrels
Ensemble from London, Ewa Podles, Stanisław
Skrowaczewski, Yves Prin, Louise Bessette and
many others. The festival was accompanied
by the ISCM General Assembly and ISCM-IMZ
Forum, an event organized in cooperation with
the Reiner Moritz R. M. Associated London,
dedicated to the promotion of contemporary
music in mass media.
Due to the long lasting promotion of
contemporary music and wide festival
publicity (in mass media, at schools during
important cultural events, in town, et cetera),
the average attendance amounted to circa
sixty per cent. For many concerts tickets had
been sold out to the last seat.
Within two weeks and a half the festival
commercial produced by the Polish Society for
Contemporary Music was broadcasted on TV
(Channels I and II). Throughout a month short
III
promotional films produced by the Polish TV
Education Programmes were shown. Before in
course of and after the festival several dozens
of interviews, critiques and programmes about
the festival were presented on Polish TV, Polish
Radio (Programmes I and II), Radio ZET, Radio
S and Radio Wawa broadcasted World Music
Days spots for two weeks, forty five times a day.
Polish Radio (Programme II) presented twentynine programmes about the World Music Days,
Programme 11-15, Programme 1-10.
Gazeta Wyborcza published five festival
adverts before the festival and regular reports
during the event. Furthermore, the daily
press and magazine published over ninety
festival interviews and articles. Besides, the
Polish Society for Contemporary Music Days
published five Festival Bulletins.
All the concerts were recorded by the Polish
Radio and a Majority of these recordings will
be accessible to the international exchange
within the European Broadcasting Union
(EBU). Polish TV registered two concerts.
The opening concert was broadcasted live.
A part of St. Hyacinth’s Church concerts
was rebroadcasted. Moreover, Polish TV
(Programme II) presented five reports from the
festival.
The festival was also recognized by
International music circles, which was proved
by the nomination for the International
Classical Music Awards in the category of the
best festival or concert series of the year.
The ISCM World Music Days Warsaw 1992 – the ISCM-IMZ
Forum (photo: Konrad Kalbarczyk)
The ISCM World Music Days Warsaw 1992 – General
Assembly of the (photo: Konrad Kalbarczyk)
The ISCM World Music Days Warsaw 1992 – concert of Prize
Winners for young performers (photo: Konrad Kalbarczyk)
97
From my WNMD diaries1
Warsaw, May 1992
by Dubravko Detoni
In the darkness below deck of the Church of
the Holy Cross, Chopin’s heart swings and
tinkles, in the form of a miniature piano. And
in the church, in the middle of the Old Town,
a shattering, deadly lucid self-requiem by
Tomasz Sikorski is being played; always the
same words of swear-prayers of strings are
lamenting, always unimportantly different
barking of the camp guards-winds, everything
is a bleak, sorrowful whirl of everyday life. In the
overall crackling and the flickering of candles,
in the irremovable bad odour of weakness or
fear, the burning wooden cross from the altar
is constantly bending and hovering above us,
the crucified, dead Tomek himself, wrapped
in all of his misfortunes, ugliness and
impudence that have occurred from wisdom
and inspiration. This tiny piece defeats and,
at the same time, makes all of its musical
surroundings unnecessary and cloying. Today
I have succeeded, after many hours of doubt,
wrangling, scraping off the sediments of
crestfallen scorn and malevolence: Croatia is
a regular member of ISCM. Congratulations,
smiles, temporary fame. On the topic of the
Croatian triumph I start a diagonal quarrel
with a respected Swiss colleague who, in the
final discussion at the congress, almost ruined
everything by making some inappropriate
political allusions to the current position of
Croatia. After the victory everything seems
better: shop windows wave at me, pavements
are pliably springy, parks bounce screamingly
around the monuments that benignantly
lean forward and roguishly spin around
like brandished carousels. I am intercepted
by a joyful gentleman who, bending and
enthusiastically gesticulating, rushes towards
happiness; it is I! At the estuary of the Krakow
Suburbs and the Old Town the sun is turning
on and off like an artificially sped-up traffic
light. Here in the valley lies the royal castle
like a fed sow and hides beneath it nameless
royal piggies that suck its lukewarm juice of
history until the very last drop. The Amadeus
orchestra is sitting across the festival square
and fixing compositions like a debauched
gypsy tinker. Silence does not even work on
Sundays. Great stone echo is galloping over the
square of Warsaw rebels; it is my stone lion that
has escaped from the torn down wall in the
Stanisław Moniuszko Street, where two and
a half decades ago, during windy nights, it was
swinging over the head of a provincial stroller
like a dramatically shivering, Chopin-like
nocturnal harmony. Churches still stand like
neurotic percussionists before a premiere, in
a solemn orchestra of the city, announcing the
crucial change of melodies by the clattering
of the mountain bells. Hotels stick out like
during an escape scattered petits fours glacés
in a broken shopwindow of a magnificent
pastry shop; vehicles joyfully drive o” from
the loop into the underground; a better world
awaits them there.
Dubravko Detoni during the ISCM World Music Days Hong
Kong 2002 (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)
1 Fragment of the article From my WNMD diaries firstly published in “World
New Music Magazine” No. 21, 2011
98
III
Dubravko Detoni during the ISCM World Music Days in
Mexico, 1993 (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)
Dubravko
Detoni
(Križevci, 1937)
graduated in piano (Svetislav Stancic) and
composition (Stjepan Šulek) from the Zagreb
Academy of Music, and continued with
further studies in Siena (Guido Agosti, Alfred
Cortot), Warsaw (Witold Lutosławski, Grażyna
Bacewicz, the Experimental Studio of the
Polish Radio), Darmstadt (György Ligeti and
Karlheinz Stockhausen), and in Paris (John
Cage). His oeuvre includes 133 orchestral,
chamber, soloist, vocal, and electronic
works, a number of multimedia projects and
experiments, nine books of fiction and essays,
series of radio and television programmes, as
well as numerous commentaries on concerts
and sound recordings. He has received many
awards and honours in Croatia and abroad. His
works have been performed on all continents
and at the most important international
festivals, they have been published in Croatia
and abroad and released on 50 recordings.
The author writes his music drawing on both
classical instruments and electronic music
devices, whereas his efforts to enrich the sound
and expand the expressive potential result in
his combining of the two sources of sound.
With the ACEZANTEZ ensemble, of which he is
the founder (1970) and artistic director, Detoni
performed in most European countries as well
as parts of America and Asia.
Translated by Karolina Rugle
99
EDITION MUSIKTEXTE
Bilingual Editions
John Cage/Morton Feldman: Radio Happenings I–V
Conversations / Gespräche 1966–1967
Chris Newman: Eugene Dubnov
Poems / Gedichte 1979–1990
Alvin Lucier: Reflections / Reflexionen
Interviews – Scores – Writings / Interviews – Notationen – Texte
Christian Wolff: Cues / Hinweise
Writings and Conversations / Schriften und Gespräche
Robert Ashley: Music with Roots in the Aether
Interviews with and Essays about Seven American Composers
Frederic Rzewski: Nonsequiturs / Unlogische Folgerungen
Writings and Lectures/Schriften und Vorträge
Morton Feldman: Words on Music / Worte über Musik
Middelburg Lectures/Vorträge
Robert Ashley: Outside of Time / Außerhalb der Zeit
Ideas about Music/Gedanken über Musik
Giacinto Scelsi: Die Magie des Klangs
Gesammelte Schriften (German/French/Italian)
www.musiktexte.de
101
Music, Cultural exchanges,
and chandeliers
Reflections on the ISCM World New
Music Days
by Glenda Keam (New Zealand section)
The World New Music Days in 2013 were launched
from Košice, with its charming old town and an
array of lovely performance venues new and
old. I found it extremely interesting to see East
Slovakia, so many cultures have traversed that
part of the world and left their stamp. Slovakia
has until recently been much less affected by
tourism than other parts of Europe, so there
are fewer clues for visitors from afar who don’t
speak the language – sometimes with interesting
results in the supermarket. On my first attempt
at shopping there I attempted to buy a small
container of milk, and despite reading and
thinking quite carefully, my selection turned
out to be cultured buttermilk - which is pretty
unusual with tea.
As in previous ISCM festivals, it was very
stimulating to meet new member representatives
as well as rekindling friendships and networks
with others met in previous years. There are, for
example, plans afoot to develop a collaborative
composer project between New Zealand,
Sweden and Bolivia, as a direct result of one
such meeting.
ISCM in Slovakia and Austria offered an almost
overwhelming array of amazing performances,
and I was reminded that it often feels qualitatively
different to hear music performed close to
where the works were composed – which, in
New Zealand, is only true of our own music.
However the breadth of the international
array was equally compelling. During the
first days in Košice, I enjoyed VENI ensemble/
THReNSeMBle’s concert offering Giacinto Scelsi’s
Kya (1959) through Christian Wolff’s Bratislava
(1995) to some 21st century works from Tatarstan,
Japan and Portugal. I was also delighted by Veni
Academy’s highly energetic performances of
Louis Andriessen’s Workers Union (1975) as well as
some vibrant local music, and Daan Vandewalle’s
piano recital of mostly American music was
superb.
102 World New Music Magazine 24 • Polska Music Now 2
We were also treated to a significant number of
special culinary treats throughout the festival, as
well as some local beverages; after Vandewalle’s
recital the Belgian Embassy presented
a comprehensively tasty array of Belgian food
and beers, and Košice also treated us to a tasting
of «Vana Tallinn», which is an Estonian rumbased liqueur. The most astounding performance
of this part of the festival for me was Milan
Pal’a’s violin/viola concert entirely comprising
ISCM entries that demanded enormous vitality
and virtuosity. Our time in Košice ended with
a whirlwind performance of le Sacre in which the
strings were so together they seemed connected
to a single superbrain.
After Košice we took a five-hour train journey
across central Slovakia to Bratislava, for my
first glimpse of the Danube. What a wonderful
city, a cultural palimpsest with so many
fascinating corners. Monuments to history
abound, although it was somewhat sobering
to find a plaque indicating the spot where
a Bratislavan witch was first burned to death in
1602. ISCM delegates were fortunate to enjoy
a partial overlap with the IAMIC conference in
Bratislava (in combination with the Melos Ethos
festival), although it was disappointing that
IAMIC events sometimes clashed with other
ISCM events as well as running through some
of the dates during which ISCM delegates were
in either Vienna or Košice.
IAMIC guest of honour Kaija Saariaho was
interviewed and offered thoughtful and
impressive insights into her life as a composer,
some of the challenges she has faced, and the
supportive people and organisations that have
made a difference to her career path. This was
after the previous evening’s spine-tingling
performance by the Slovak Philharmonic
Orchestra of her Aile du Songe (2001) as well as
her compatriot Jukka Tiensuu’s Vie (2007). By the
time we entered the Concert Hall of the Slovak
IV
Philharmonic it was dawning on me that I had
never in my life seen so many chandeliers as
I did through this festival.
One of my personal highlights in Bratislava was
the opportunity to attend a late night concert
of music for flute and cimbalom (my favourite
instrument, rarely – if ever – played in New
Zealand). The venue, the Slovak Radio building,
takes the shape of an upturned pyramid, and its
lobby is an extensive display of old recording
and broadcasting equipment.
After all this I returned to New Zealand with
my ears full of many languages and accents, an
overwhelming array of musical input, and a taste
for Slovakian wine and Viennese ‘gansl’. I still
find myself marvelling at the extent to which so
many nations with long and complex histories
can coexist and mingle so richly through music
in the space of just ten days.
From Bratislava we travelled by bus over the
Austrian border to Vienna, where our first day
offered four concerts. Our first musical treat here
was part of a reception at the Ministry of Culture,
and a short concert of impressive student works
performed by students from the Academy in
the room where performers would entertain
the Prince, and which is now the Audienzhalle.
That is also the room in which the ISCM was first
conceived of 90 years ago. Glenda Keam (photo: Stephen Compton)
Glenda Keam is a composer, teacher and music analyst from
New Zealand. She was awarded a PhD in Music by the University
of Auckland in 2006 for her analytical thesis Exploring Notions of
National Style: New Zealand Orchestral Music in the Late Twentieth
Century. More recently, she co-edited and contributed a chapter
to the 2011 Pearson publication Home, Land and Sea: Situating
Music in Aotearoa New Zealand. Since 2007 Glenda has been
President of CANZ (the Composers Association of New Zealand).
The ISCM World New Music Days
Bratislava 2013 - “Family photo”
(photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)
Many concerts in the Viennese portion of
the ISCM WNMDs were part of Wien Modern
2013 held in the various Saals of the Wiener
Konzerthaus (many more chandeliers!),
including ensemble reconsil’s performance
of the New Zealand representative composer
Neville Hall’s lifeless air become sinewed (2009).
This part of the festival also offered a two-day
Symposium hosted by the Konservatorium
Wien Privatuniversität under the title
“Intercultural Modernity and Contemporary
Music – a Paradox?” whose speakers were by
turns stimulating and provocative. Late night
events were held in the music club “Porgy and
Bess”, including performers Stump/Linshalm,
and the Low Frequency Orchestra with their
strangely impressive large wind instruments.
103
The ISCM World New Music
Days 2013
by Barbara Jazwinski
The ISCM World New Music Days 2013 took
place in Košice and Bratislava in Slovakia
and in Vienna, Austria. The events in both
countries were generally very well organized
and well attended. Some of the performances
were exceptional. Among the most impressive
and inspired performers were the Fama
Quartet, pianists Marcela Beatriz Pavia, Peter
Adriaansz and Daan Vanderwalle, violinist and
violist Milan Pal’a, flutist Camilla Hoitenga,
vocal group Camerata Silesia, and Ensemble
Reconsil.
In my opinion, the most striking characteristic
of the WNMD, widely discussed by the
participants, was the stylistic focus of the
music presented at the festival. While the
works heard during the course of the festival
were selected and submitted by the various
member sections of the International Society
for Contemporary Music and the organizers
and represented different countries and
different continents, these submissions
surprisingly were, with few exceptions,
stylistically uniform, generally disjunct and
featuring harsh sonorities. It almost seemed
that the majority of the works deliberately
avoids compositional techniques that might
hint at any connections with the past.
Even though the concert audiences were
generally
guardedly
enthusiastic
and
supportive, there were voices heard that
referred to several artistic productions as very
well done but not “user friendly”. These voices
included both members of the public and the
delegates themselves. It also is important to
add that on quite a few occasions delegates
representing different countries made public
comments that the music selected to be
presented at the festival did not represent their
artistic and creative interests. This, and the
fact that there is unquestionably a great divide
among the listeners, with some individuals
expressing a great deal of enthusiasm for
contemporary art music and others an equal
measure of apprehension towards its overall
sound and its general direction, would suggest
that there is a pressing need for a further indepth discussion in order to make an attempt
to address a series of very important questions,
which may turn out to be very difficult, if not
impossible, to answer for a variety of complex
reasons.
The issue of style and esthetics permeated
the entire festival and was addressed, at least
to some degree, during the course of the
symposium entitled Intercultural Modernity
and Contemporary Music – a Paradox? organized
by the Austrian chapter. Most controversial,
albeit of considerable interest, were the
presentations by Sandeep Bhagwati regarding
the state of contemporary music in general and
by Kyle Gann discussing the state of American
music. Moderators Nina Polaschegg, Sebastian
Kiefer and Christian Utz provided a general
commentary regarding both topics.
Sandeep Bhagwati considers new music in
Germany to be a part of a giant social reengineering project, an atonement for the
collective guilt post WWII. His opinion is very
clearly expressed in the following quote from
one of his interviews (CEIArtE 2008):
“Funded by abundant state-subsidies,
institutionalized to a very high degree, new
music is seen both as a continuation of the
great German tradition – and as an obligation
to constantly re-affirm the break with this
great tradition, by fostering music that aims
to eternally avoid conventional concepts of
beauty.”
Kyle Gann, well known to many New Yorkers
for his contributions to the Village Voice, an
alternative newsweekly, gave a presentation
on American music which, to those of us who
currently live outside of New York seemed
to focus primarily on the music played or
presented in New York and particularly in
Manhattan and in Brooklyn. A lot of discussion
IV
followed his reference and commentary on
American music as stylistically diverse - a term
that he seems to have used in this particular
case in a pejorative sense – and often political.
In his talk, Gann also seemed to imply that
there currently is no primary “style” that can be
referred to as American music and that this is
not a desired development. The latter assertion
met with skepticism from several delegates
representing the Americas, Australia and New
Zealand but was embraced by quite a few of
the Europeans including some members of
the panel who consider the concept of stylistic
unity as a sine qua non requirement for the
expression of the national psyche and some
of whom feel that the enforcement of stylistic
requirements is desirable.
Considering the diversity of musical sound
intended for many different audiences which
is so characteristic of the music in the United
States in the XXI century as well as the
existence of many new works that successfully
merge jazz or popular music with art music
or even the stylistic hybrids that include
elements from different parts of the world
and different cultures, I find the concept of
stylistic unity and the “American” style neither
relevant nor even possible to entertain. The
attribute that continues to strike me when
I listen to contemporary American music
is individualism and the desire on the part
of many composers to write music that is
very personal, non-conformist, unique, and
expressive in a distinctive way. In short, music
that has something specific to say, with the
understanding that the message might not be
fully understood and that the work might be
judged purely on the basis of its sound and its
appeal to a particular audience as, quite often,
there is a very specific audience for which the
work is primarily intended. In fact, the issue
of an audience is very important to consider
bearing in mind the diversity of musical
interests in the US populations and their desire
to express their psyche in a unique way.
In view of the above, I deeply regret that the
discussion of American music during the
course of the symposium seemed to focus
on a very narrow geographic area and did not
address any significant musical developments
in the South or on the West Coast of the United
States, or the influence of such developments
on American music in general. Needless to
say, there are countless examples of musical
influences in the United States that originate
from other parts of the world and that have
been integrated to various degrees and in
various ways by American composers.
The spirited discussion following the
presentations and the symposia clearly
indicates that there is a considerable
chasm between European and American
philosophies and expectations regarding
music and its function within society. It seems
that a continued discourse on this particular
topic would be of significant value and might
provide some clues that would eventually
result in our better understanding of the issues
mentioned above.
As far as music compositions presented at the
festival, there were three works that I found to
be of particular interest: the concerto for flute
Aile du Songe (2001) by the Finnish composer
Kaija Saariaho, Piano Quintet by Zygmunt
Krauze from Poland and Paestum by a young
American composer Eric Nathan.
Aile du songe derives its inspiration from
the poetry of Saint-John Perse and was
exceptionally well performed by the American
flutist Camilla Hoitenga and The Slovak
Philharmonic. The work is intriguing and very
subtle and uses the flute with a great deal of
imagination and flair.
Krauze’s Piano Quintet (1993) is another elegant
and beautifully conceived work. The Quintet
consists of five independent instrumental
songs linked by interludes to form a sort
of lyrical suite consisting of images and
promenades with each part of the quintet
representing a different lyrical style. The Fama
Quartet with Daniela Varinska at the piano
gave an inspired performance of this work.
Paestum (2013) by Eric Nathan, is influenced
by an Italian site settled by the Greeks in 700
B.C. He states in his notes that the shrines and
the ruins of an ancient city fired his musical
imagination. Paestum is an interesting and
highly energetic work that was very well
performed by the members of the Melos Ethos
Ensemble.
While there were intriguing and original works
presented at the festival, I felt, just like many
105
other members of the audience, that there also
were a few works that were very difficult for me
to relate to, works that sounded disengaged,
limited in their scope, almost unmusical in the
traditional sense of the word. This again begs
the question of what is music, what is the role
of music in different societies and what music
actually means to individual composers and
members of the audience. It is clear that these
questions may have to be answered in very
many different ways and that the answers may
vary depending on one’s nationality, heritage,
age, political inclinations, etc. It might even
prove impossible to address some of these
issues in a logical, coherent and artistically
satisfactory manner. Still, there clearly is
a need to at least verbalize our various artistic
concerns.
Personally, I would very much welcome further
discussion on the subjects mentioned above
and would like to see a much more varied
contemporary music repertoire at the future
festivals which, after all, should represent – to
the extent possible - the creative interests of its
entire diverse membership.
Barbara Jazwinski studied composition and theory at the
Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland. She
received her M.A. degree in composition and piano from
Stanford University and her Ph.D. in composition from the
City University of New York. Her teachers included Mario
Davidovsky, Andrzej Dobrowolski, Gyorgy Ligeti and John
Chowning. She is the recipient of numerous commissions,
grants and fellowships. Currently, she is Head of the
Composition Program at the Newcomb Music Department at
Tulane University in New Orleans.
Dr. Jazwinski has also been active as a performer, conductor and
promoter of contemporary music. Since 1988, she has served
as Music Director of Spectri Sonori, an award-winning concert
series that specializes in performances of contemporary music.
Barbara Jazwinski also serves on the Board of Directors of the
League of Composers ISCM, US section, and on the Board of
The ISCM World New Music Days Košice 2013 - “Family
photo” (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)
Governors of the American Composers Alliance.
IV
Demanding real
transcendence
Report on the World New Music Days
2013 in Košice, Bratislava and Vienna
by Chris van Rhyn, ISCM South African Section
It was whilst starting at the copy of Gustav
Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907)
above the bedpost in my hotel room in Vienna
that I was reminded of one of my favourite
theories: Baudrillard’s simulacrum (its apparent
ad infinitum applicability never fails to be
a source of amusement).1 The simulacrum,
in the words of Deleuze, is ‘an image without
resemblance’.2 It is different from a copy in
that a simulacrum is a purposefully dissimilar
image of the original, and is void of the original’s
essence, the Idea, the transcendence-seeking
impulse. A copy – the Klimt painting being
the working example here – does not pretend
to be anything but a copy. The elaborateness
and grandeur of Adele Bloch-Bauer transplanted
onto a hotel room wall is meant to resemble the
original Idea. It is an exact model of the original.
The reason for my brief exposition of this theory
here is its usefulness in trying to make sense
of a trend I noticed in a large number of works
programmed for the 2013 World New Music Days:
the persistence of a twentieth-century avantgarde aesthetic, and by extent, musical material,
gestures and styles. (It is at this point where I beg
for the reader’s patience, as my experience of this
festival was indeed an overwhelmingly positive
one). This is perhaps not surprising, as we found
ourselves at, or in close proximity to, the origin
of the Austro-German tradition of modernism,
where such as aesthetic may possibly be viewed
as the promotion of ‘tradition’ in a regionalist
sense. The trend was, however, not restricted
to submissions from this geographical area.
This may be symptomatic of a new wave of both
European and non-European composers having
gone through the mill of a kind of Eurocentric
music education of days gone by, and seeking
entry into the aforementioned (perhaps heavily
managed?) ‘tradition’. Egos originating in this
context may then have followed suit (‘if I don’t
write a zillion notes and insert a few unnecessary
sound effects, how will people know how clever
I am?’, or, ‘if it’s not ridiculously atonal, too many
people will like it, which means it can’t be good’).
The prestige value of this type of music being
inversely correlated with comprehension and
public response had already been an issue years
ago, as was pointed out by Susan McClary in the
late 1980s:
Figure 1: Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907)3
(photo: Chris van Rhyn)
1 Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulations, Translated by Sheila Glaser,
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press 1994.
2 Gilles Deleuze: Plato and the Simulacrum, in: October 27 (1983): pp. 4556: p. 48.
3 Gustav Klimt: Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907), http://www.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Adele_Bloch-Bauer_I#mediaviewer/
File:Gustav_Klimt_046.jpg (9.7.2014).
Ironically, the avant-garde no longer identifies with
the new: institutionlized as it is in the universities,
it has become the conservative stronghold of
the current [late 1980s] music scene, as it holds
stringently to difficulty and inaccessibility as the
principal signs of its integrity and moral superiority.4
The question is therefore: why am I still saying it
twenty-five years later? Has the notion of letting
4 Susan McClary: Terminal Prestige: The Case of Avant-Garde Music
Composition, in: Cultural Critique 12 (1989): pp. 57-81: p. 67.
107
the institutions of art music ‘survive’ remained
so strong that it has kept music in a state of
stagnation?5 Despite the technical brilliance
on display, this left me cold. The problem is
not the use of twentieth-century avant-garde
musical material, gestures and styles as such
– after all, the ever-expanding postmodern pallet
is free for all and not exclusive of anything.
The problem is that when these historicallymediated elements are not properly placed or
contextualised in contemporary use, it leads to
the creation of simulacra. I will use Christopher
McAteer’s words to explain why I am pointing
the simulacrum out as a problem:
… to unmask phony claims of transcendence is to
demand and fight for real transcendence. To give up
the quest for transcendence is to erect a halo around
one’s own stagnation and resignation …6
Compositional successes at the 2013 World New
Music Days were, however, numerous. I can
only refer to a few representative examples here.
Unlike in other works with similar acoustic aims,
the string effects in Sabine Kezbere’s subtle,
minimalist Monologue (Latvia, 2010) for double
bass did not appear gimmicky. The soprano
part in Otto Wanke’s Magic and Loss (Czech
Republic, 2013) floated effortlessly above the
guitar and saxophone accompaniment. Taking
the movement to a tonal chord at a strategic
moment also into account, the modernist
tendencies in the accompaniment sounded wellplaced in this instance. The sparse material in
Peter McNamara’s Distorted Waters (Australia,
2007) for flute and cello vividly recalled the
Australian landscape, and spoke of a highly
developed individual identity. Dissonance
was employed strategically in Anna Pidgorna’s
Light-Play through Curtain Holes (Canada, 2010)
for accordion, a sonic experiment with limited
modal material. Bernd Richard Deutsch’s Dr
Futurity (Austria, 2013), a chamber piece for in
a free-atonal idiom, displayed a strong sense of
narrative and humour, and had an attentiongripping rhythmic vigour. Toru Nakatani dared to
repeat, whilst avoiding both minimalist clichés
and the clichéd modernist use of dissonance and
string gimmicks in his 2_1/128_1+1/2 for viola and
piano (Japan, 2011). The successful negotiation
of an intercultural identity is not easy. Add a good
technique that appears effortless to this, and
5 This idea is taken, in part, from Christopher McAteer: Postmodernity
and Cultural Stagnation (2011), http:www.christophermcateer.
com/2011/11/30/postmodernity-and-cultural-stagnation/ (10.7.2014).
6 ibid.
what you have is Yasunoshin Morita’s The History
of Songs and Words (Japan, 2008) for choir, for
which he was awarded the ISCM (in partnership
with Music on Main) Young Composer’s Award.
The performances of works by composers of
the more ‘famous’ variety were a thrill for the
present author (an academic at a provincial
South African university). Ligeti’s Drei Stücke
für Zwei Klaviere (1976) sounded positively
fresh and contemporary compared to newer
works programmed for the same concert. The
invigorating performance of Louis Andriessen’s
Workers Union (1975) for any group of loudsounding instruments impressed – how easily
a limp orchestra could have made a repetitive
piece like this flop! Kaija Sariaaho’s recognisably
Finnish, yet entirely individualistic Aile du
Songe (2001), a concert for flute and orchestra,
left the audience mesmerised, not least due to
Camilla Hoitenga’s masterful playing. Saariaho’s
advice to developing composers in a television
interview the day after the performance is worth
mentioning here. She ascribes her success to
her collaboration with good performers of her
own generation, and warned against running
after famous performers because you think
that that will make you a famous composer.
According to Saariaho the only way to advance
is to compose: you have fight for your time and
concentration. She was a teacher for only one
year, and never a promoter or administrator.
Upon hearing this I couldn’t help to think of
a statement made by the British-based South
African composer Robert Fokkens regarding
the reason for good composers leaving Africa,
and which may be seen as the reason for many
composers from developing nations leaving their
countries in order to go and practice their art in
Western Europe and North America: you have
to spend too much time and energy creating
a culture of composition, which prevents you
from composing.7
Some issues raised at the International
Symposium Intercultural Modernity and
Contemporary Music – a Paradox? are worth
revisiting in the future. Sandeep Bhagwati’s
proposition that contemporary ‘eurological’
art music composers should, instead of seeing
themselves as artists who look for new ways of
expression, rather see themselves as researchers
who look for new tools, concepts and techniques
7 Stephanus Muller: Unpublished interview with Robert Fokkens (2007).
IV
that serve as neutral mediation spaces for
intercultural encounters, will surely be hard
to swallow for many. His reasoning is that this
perspective may help to solve the dilemma posed
by socially irrelevant music produced in this
paradigm and presented at new music festivals:
could it be a new raison d’être for eurological
composition: to provide the conceptual and
technological infrastructure and contact zone
for today’s and tomorrow’s global cultural flows
and aesthetic transformations in inter-cultural
musicking?8
The proposition does not, however, serve to
mobilise contemporary composition in the
eurological paradigm in any way. It is rather
a philosophical last resort for dealing with
a practice that is seen as ‘un-mobilisable’. Kyle
Gann’s interesting discussion on the ‘Uneasy,
Unarticulated State of American [New] Music’
struck me as being more widely applicable than
merely to the United States, especially where he
referred to the difference among stylistic trends
being driven by difficulties presented by writing
autonomous music in a corporate dictatorship,
rather than being aesthetically or ideologically
driven.
The organisers of the 2013 World New Music
Days should be congratulated for the extremely
smooth running of the festival from beginning
to end. The almost consistently high standard of
performance should also be mentioned – the high
level of playing by student ensembles especially
is unlike anything I have witnessed before.
The ISCM assembly saw the reinstatement of
NewMusicSA as the ISCM South African section.
I am happy to report that I was made to feel
most welcome, and witnessed a true interest
in the plight of non-European and developing
nation members. One can only hope that
more established members will be able to fight
feelings of futility and exercise persistence
when proposing collaborations with their less
established brethren, who continue to be plagued
by a lack of infrastructure and resources.
Chris van Rhyn (photo: Andrew Barry)
Chris van Rhyn holds a PhD from Stellenbosch University. He
is a lecturer at the North-West University School of Music in
Potchefstroom, South Africa, and a board member of the ISCM
South African Section.
The ISCM World New Music Days Vienna 2013 - “Family
photo” (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)
8 Sandeep Bhagwati: New Music as Service – from Universal Expression
to Conceptual Infrastructure (Abstract), in: Programme Booklet for the
International Symposium Intercultural Modernity and Contemporary
Music – A Paradox? (November 12-13, 2013).
109
The ISCM World New Music
Days 2013
Organisers reflections
by Irena Lányiová and Bruno Strobl
The festival in 2013 was a celebration of
contemporary music and of what has already
become musical legacy of the 20th century.
It represented the largest event in the field of
contemporary music in Košice ever, and an
emotional return to the roots (as John Davis,
then still president of ISCM, correctly pointed
out), to central Europe, to the musical territory
so significantly influenced by the distress of
World War I and the resulting endeavours to
rekindle artistic relations between the single
nations. The 90th year of the ISCM World New
Music Days began in Košice, then transferred to
Bratislava and later completed in Vienna. The
cooperating/hosting festivals were ARS NOVA
Cassovie (Košice), Melos-Ethos (Bratislava) and
Wien Modern (Vienna). Altogether the festival
lasted 10 days, with the General Assembly
sessions taking place in all 3 cities.
During the 4 days in Košice more than 80
guests from different countries of the world
gathered, either ISCM representatives, or
composers whose works were featured in the
programme, or performers. Two new members
of ISCM were welcomed in Košice: New
Music on Main (Canada) and the Tongyeong
Int’l Music Festival (Korea). In Bratislava the
festival guests met their colleagues from
music information institutions, as the annual
IAMIC conference was taking place there over
several days. Bratislava General Assembly
programme saw the election of the new ISCM
president, Mr. Peter Swinnen, who took over
the presidency at the last GA session, leaving
the seat of the vice-president to the newly
elected Henk Heuvelmans.
Large portions of the Viennese GA programme
were dedicated to the exquisite conference
“Intercultural Modernity and Contemporary
Music: a Paradox?” During the two mornings,
an average number of 100 participants followed
interesting contributions of speakers form the
110
USA, Canada, Germany, Korea and Austria.
The conference virtually closed a circle of
questions the festival in 2013 had been posing
(after the centenarian Rite of Spring was heard
in Košice): what are the new musical prophets
of the future, what we do or don’t know about
the music of other nations and what are the
new contexts and criteria contemporary
music should develop in? Sometimes, in the
course of discussion, some very controversial
standpoints arose, however, the shortage of
time did not allow for discussion of all these
issues. There is some hope and also intent, to
continue these talks on music and all related
subjects during the next World Music Days.
The ISCM World New Music Days Vienna 2013 – conference
(photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)
The festival “travelled” a lot this year: not
only did it take place in three different cities,
it was also presented in many different
venues. In Košice the benefits of the recently
rebuilt premises were enjoyed in the Kasárne/
Kulturpark complex (military barracks in
the past) and in Kunsthalle, a former public
swimming pool, both repurposed in the
framework of the European Capital of Culture
2013 project. The concert of the Košice
Philharmonic was staged in the House of Arts,
which is a synagogue turned into concert
hall with great acoustics. In Bratislava the
venues were even more manifold: concert
IV
halls of the Reduta, Slovak National Theatre,
concert hall of the Academy of Performing
Arts and of the Slovak Radio. Alltogether, the
symphonic programme was presented by 3
symphony orchestras in Slovakia. In Vienna
we appreciated the halls of the Konzerthaus
and Radiokulturhaus, the modern premises
of Museumsquartier and Urania Observatory,
and the chamber atmosphere in Porgy&Bess
and Palais Kabelwerk. The three installations,
which were presented at the Museumsquartier,
evoked high interest amongst the visitors
there.
Out of the works submitted during the Call for
scores we were able to perform 70. Twelve of
them were individual entries, the major part
came in the submissions by ISCM members.
The ISCM-IAMIC Young Composer Award
was given to Yasunoshin Morita (JP) for his
work The History of Songs and Words which
was presented by the Polish chamber choir
Camerata Silesia Katowice. The audience
(especially the ICSM guests) highly appreciated
the exquisite level of the performing musicians
and of the performances – the latter had a huge
influence upon the work of the jury! Previous
year’s laureate, Eric Nathan (USA), composed
a new work for the Melos Ethos Ensemble,
called Paestum. The work was presented during
the Bratislava stretch of the festival.
The festival saw many charming performances,
such as the children’s opening concert or
the concert of the conservatory students in
Vienna; the strongest memories were left
probably by Fama Quartet, VENI ensemble/
THReNSeMBle, Miki and Nora Skuta, Milan
Paľa and Daan Vandewalle (Košice), Melos
Ethos Ensemble, Enikő Ginzery, Monika
Štreitová and österreichisches ensemble für
neue musik (Bratislava), and Ensemble PHACE,
Klangforum Wien, Camerata Silesia Katowice,
Webern Symphony Orchestra and the two
short opera programmes produced by sirene
Operntheater and progetto semiserio (Vienna).
The freshly composed short-opera productions
with composition contributions proved to
be extremely popular. They were generally
conceived by young composers, the lion’s
share of which arrived in Vienna from
overseas (Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Croatia,
Switzerland and Australia). There were 8 short
operas/first performances, composed and
performed by the opera companies sirene
Operntheater and progetto semiserio. These
performances were also sold out in advance.
A pleasant part of the festival was the visit of
the Federal Minister of Culture, Dr. Claudia
Schmied; this event was in connection with
a concert (performed by the students of the
Conservatory of the Private University in
Vienna) in the Vienna town hall and in the
Konzerthaus.
For the Slovak part of the organising team
the ISCM World New Music Days 2013 were
a long-time dream come true: to organise the
festival for the very first time in Slovakia.
For the Austrian part it meant the return to
Vienna after 50 years, which also represents an
important milestone.
Concerts in Košice: 10 concerts
Children’s opening concert
Solos: Daan Vandewalle, Milan Paľa
Duo: Piano duo Miki and Nora Skuta
Ensembles:
Quasars
Ensemble,
Fama
Quartet, THReNSeMBle/VENI ensemble, VENI
ACADEMY,
group of Košice Conservatory students
Orchestra: The Slovak State Philharmonic
Košice
Venues in Košice:
Kasárne/Kulturpark,
The House of Arts (seat of the Slovak State
Philharmonic Košice),
Kunsthalle Košice
111
VENI ACADEMY concert in Kunsthalle Košice (photo:
Lukáš Gál)
Fama Quartet and Daniela Varínska, piano (photo: Lukáš
Gál)
VENI ensemble/THReNSeMBle (photo: Lukáš Gál)
Eric Nathan with Daniel Gazon, conductor of Melos Ethos
Ensemble (photo: Peter Brenkus)
Concerts in Bratislava: 6 concerts
Solos and duo: Enikő Ginzery and Monika
Štreitová (with electronics)
Ensembles:
Melos
Ethos
Ensemble,
österreichisches ensemble für neue musik
Orchestras: The Slovak Phliharmonic, Slovak
Radio Symphony Orchestra
Opera production: Slovak National Theatre
Venues in Bratislava:
Reduta (seat of the Slovak Philharmonic),
Historical Building of the Slovak National
Theatre,
Slovak Radio,
Dvorana Concert Hall (concert hall of the
Academy of Performing Arts)
Concerts in Vienna: 12 concerts with 11
formations:
Solo
Chamber Music
Ensembles: Klangforum Wien, Ensemble
Platypus, Ensemble Phace, Ensemble die Reihe,
Ensemble Reconsil, European Bridges Ensemble
Orchestra: Webern Symphony Orchestra
Electronics: Low Frequency Orchestra,
European Bridges Ensemble, Soloists
Venues in Vienna:
The Konzerthaus,
Radiokulturhaus,
Urania,
Porgy&Bess,
Palais Kabelwerk
The Festival had been widely advertised in
the press and on air, the audiences were very
curious and the concerts were all sold out right
from the start.
112
IV
113
On the Difficulty of
Understanding Music from
Other Continents1
by Reinhard Oehlschlägel
For a European, it is not exactly easy to deal with
the culture and identity of other continents,
quite independently of the part of Europe
in which s/he lives or even of which other
continent is being discussed in a given case.
(Indeed, Alfred W. Crosby’s thesis presented in
his book Ecological Imperialism: The Biological
Expansion of Europe, 900–1900 (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1986) – according
to which the not-exactly-simple ability to
investigate foreign languages and cultures has
determined the European’s superiority since
the Renaissance – is certainly not entirely
false.)
The only thing that is truly simple is the tourist
type of contact with foreign countries which
is fulfilled by finding at one’s destination
the standard of language and everyday life to
which one is accustomed at home. (Morton
Feldman’s comment in one of his Middelburg
Lectures – that if one goes to China, and
Chinese is spoken there rather than English,
something is wrong – is not out of place in this
context.)
Already a bit less simple is the so-called
romantic contact with the archaic aspects
of that which is foreign: to yield to the desire
for an untouched natural environment, for
uncivilized culture at the farmhouse, in
the Hallig Isles off the Schleswig-Holstein
coast, with the Sami or the Eskimos, with
the aborigines or with an Indian tribe in the
Brazilian rain forest. With this kind of tourist
trips, the return ticket home is included in
the price. Artistic or scientific excursions of
this type can last months, years or an entire
lifetime, until finally the person or his/
her artifact returns to Europe with his/her
research results. Adventurers and collectors as
well – domestic forms of the trophy-collecting
1 This article was written by Reinhard Oehlschlägel as an editorial for volume 43
of MusikTexte, published in February 1992, which was devoted to Latin America.
114
conqueror and, at the same time, the early form
of the learned person – belong in this context.
And attempts to deal with foreign culture,
foreign music in a non-tourist, non-exotic,
non-romantic manner turn out to be yet
more complicated. International politics
– as laid down, for example, in the UN and
its Charter – has developed, and indeed has
been developing since the French Revolution,
a sort of ethic of acceptance and respect for the
sovereignty of foreign states. In a less binding
manner, there also exist this type of rules for
forms of cultural expression, for languages,
religions, monuments and objets d’art. But
this type of norms is naturally in no way an
immediate reality. Something similar also
applies to universal human rights, such as
the verdict against genocide, as well as with
regard to murder and manslaughter. The more
a composer, scientist or artist – a composer
or musicologist gets involved in the culture,
the music of a foreign continent or country,
the more the political, scientific and general
context of life also comes into view and
the more certain limits of perception and
understanding become apparent.
If one hears – for example, during the ISCM
World Music Days – the music by Latin
American composers accessible here in
Europe, one reads the composers’ program
notes, tracks down their biographies and
other accessible sources, then a picture also
familiar from other contexts emerges: a search
for identity, a working out of peculiar stylistic
languages connected with the country, with its
culture, its language, its landscape and natural
environment, while avoiding clichés, trivial
displays, tried-and-true systems of stylizations
on the one hand and characterizations the
other, as they have been developed in Europe
and the United States. However, many Latin
American composers have studied in Europe
V
or – in the younger generation – live for
a while in Europe after their studies and, later
as well, remain involved or at least interested
in European development. But at the same
time, as in Europe, the United States and, for
example, in Japan as well, there is also an
eclectic aesthetic language. In Latin America,
one could speak of a macunaima or mestizo
culture where all is possible – a mixture of
styles and manners of writing, of traditions
and clichés of Indian-, Ibero- and AfroAmerican provenance. Naturally added to this,
in the case of composers of Latin American
origin living for a longer time or their entire
life in Europe, are mixtures with European
composition schools, as well as the gentle
pressure to succeed, to remain a recognizable
Latin American in Europe – or, on the contrary,
a distanced, playful handling of Latin
America’s dependence trauma: for instance,
the question of what would have happened
if Latin America’s original inhabitants had
conquered and suppressed Europe 500 years
ago, as Mauricio Kagel took up the subject in
his stage composition Mare nostrum.
For European ears and imagination, the
perception and deciphering of this type of
differences is naturally influenced a priori
by the background of European Modernism
and of eclectic, Postmodernist and, recently,
multicultural tendencies as well. This also
applies to the thoroughly fluid boundaries
between composition in the narrower sense
and such commercial enterprises as industrial
music production. The civilized form of
colonialism and imperialism – now that Latin
American countries have liberated themselves
from direct dependence on European royal
houses and colonial administrations – applies
to this reigning commercial sector of the
cultural scene, the entertainment industry
which itself is becoming more and more
entangled in international structures. But in
Latin America, artistic composition is also
often conceived as dependent on developments
in Europe and the United States – likewise
in the sense that composed music in itself is
viewed as a European phenomenon.
On the other hand, European cultural and
music history is also marked by numerous
dependencies. And the pre-eminence or peak
of the development in question has always
shifted from country to country – from
a Latin American viewpoint, one could
speak of a succession from Athens to Rome,
Madrid and Lisbon, to London and all the
way to Paris – indeed, for some time now, it
has no longer even been limited to Europe;
during the German National Socialism that
usurped power over almost all of Europe,
it emigrated all over the world and thereby
involuntarily became a part of the Postmodern
and multicultural scenery in the United States
and elsewhere. Both despite and because of
the trend towards global networking, cabling
and satellite connections for all of all of this
world’s regions, places and houses, there is
an undiminished dependence of all culture
consumers connected to this network on
metropolises and production centers in the
United States.
It is not at all a foregone conclusion from
all of this that there is or will be for all time
an unbroken pre-eminence of Europe, or
that Latin America must remain inalterably
dependent on Europe. Already today, European
countries are dependent on the United
States and Asian industrial countries in key
production sectors. This also applies for the
segment of electroacoustic composition with
the aid of mainframe computers and so-called
workstations.
These kinds of power, decision and availability
questions are still not without influence in
the creative field, though by no means the
deciding factors. The search for a continental,
national and regional identity for the founding
of continental, national and regional schools
of writing, painting or composition, as well,
are important steps for the self-image of
a continent, nation or region; indeed, they
are also a necessary background for the
emancipation of the artistic individual, whose
work, whose individual composition is in the
end the deciding factor. Viewed in such a way,
the search for identity goes yet a step further
than the search, perceptible in his/her work,
for an artist’s individual identity in his/her
cultural and societal context. As far as Latin
America is concerned, one can find this type
of individual personalities whose relevance
is generally agreed, for example, in Heitor
Villa-Lobos, Carlos Chávez, Silvestre Revueltas
and Alberto Ginastera. Or is the radical
115
individualization of compositional work
only a European view of things, a narrowing
of artistic productivity – as is unknown, for
example, in the old Asian, European, African
and American cultures where they are to this
day continuously traditional?
Reinhard Oehlschlägel, with Gisela Gronemeyer – ISCM World Music
Days Manchester 1998 (photo: Makoto Shinohara)
Thomas Simaku and Reinhard Oehlschlägel, ISCM World Music Days
Yokohama 2001 (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)
And here we come full circle. In virtually
all attempts to deal with the music of other
continents and countries, one can perceive
Eurocentric, subtly imperialist or post-
colonialist motives. Even a Latin American
issue of MusikTexte can be misunderstood in
such a manner. For it is not exactly simple for
Europeans to deal with other cultures that are
understood as dependent on Europe, without
being misunderstood. Perhaps, on the other
hand, the step of consciousness-raising,
insight into this difficulty, will help in taking
the next step.
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V
A Selfless Egocentric
Reminiscences of Reinhard
Oehlschlägel (1936–2014)
by Rainer Nonnenmann1
‘what is obtained in the kingdom of truth
by one is won for all’
Friedrich Schiller
With composers who have succeeded in creating
something musically unique and new, and
who have talked extensively about it, one may
say casually: Their works still live today, their
words will pass away. But what remains of the
lifework of a music journalist, which consists
mainly of words about music – and that, of
ones hastily spoken and written in lectures,
panel discussions, radio broadcasts, reports
and articles for daily newspapers? The œuvre
of Reinhard Oehlschlägel, who died on 29 April
2014 in his Köln apartment after a severe
illness, includes countless essays, critiques,
commentaries, interviews, radio broadcasts
and editorships, as well as MusikTexte, the new
music journal which he co-founded in 1983 and
published for thirty years, above all, in tandem
with his second wife, Gisela Gronemeyer. All
of this is recorded in extensive bibliographies
and kept in libraries for contemporary society
and for posterity. But does that exhaust the
significance of Reinhard Oehlschlägel’s lifelong
examination of new music? After all, there are
no large monographs or even standard works
on the list of his writings. Plans for a book
on Dieter Schnebel (as the composer himself
wanted) and one on John Cage (long-awaited
by many) remained mere ideas and, in the end,
were scattered over many individual articles
on the aforementioned and other composers.
Reinhard was no musicological worker bee
who was always occupied with sources from
some past era or other. With every fiber of his
being, he was contemporary. His insatiable
curiosity applied to current music events
whose multitude of voices, vigor and variability
fascinated him and thereby, evidently, closed
the door to a monographic approach for him.
Nevertheless, what made him one of the most
present and formative personalities in the
younger generation of music history from
the mid-1960s onwards was, aside from his
energetic publishing endeavors, an incredible
amount of other activities by means of which
he had a lasting influence on musical life.
Criticism out of Passion
Born on 18 July 1936, in the town of Bautzen in
Saxony as the fourth son of a lawyer, by age four,
he had already lost his mother. After the family’s
escape during the Dresden bombardment in
1945, he grew up in the village of Triangel (near
Gifhorn, in Lower Saxony) on the estate of his
grandfather Will Vesper, who was by profession
an author of Nazi blood-and-soil literature. How
much of an influence Reinhard Oehlschlägel
considered his background to be, he confessed
in 2004 during a workshop event of the Köln
Society for Contemporary Music (KGNM). Aside
from his decisive rejection of Nazism, he then
singled out, above all, his sibling situation:
‘I had to “fight” against three older brothers.
I think those were the hours when the critic
in me was born. You could also understand
it this way: Brute force didn’t work, so I had
to use my head.’ Immediately after finishing
high school in Wolfsburg, during which time
he wrote his first music criticism pieces, he
studied – at the behest of his father, who didn’t
want to let his son become an unemployed
musician – music education at the music college
in Hannover, though already at that time with
the resolution never to become a music teacher).
Up until his state examination in 1962 (with
a major in recorder performance and a thesis on
Schoenberg’s String Quartet no. 2), as chairman
1 The author became more closely acquainted with Reinhard Oehlschlägel in January 1997 at the 2nd Young People’s Forum of the German ISCM section
in Frankfurt am Main, remained in contact with him from that time onwards, in 2007 became initially editor and finally, in 2012, co-publisher of
MusikTexte, the new music journal co-founded by Oehlschlägel.
117
of the Student Council (AStA), he was involved
both in college politics and in the organization
of concert excursions and a bulletin board for
new music. Subsequently, he transferred to the
University of Frankfurt to study philosophy
and sociology with Max Horkheimer, Theodor
W. Adorno and Jürgen Habermas, as well as
musicology with Rudolf Stephan in Göttingen
and recorder performance with Gerhard Braun
at the Academy of Music in Darmstadt, where
he passed the private music teacher’s exam.
Reinhard became an influential personality
in new music initially as a critic for the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from 1965 to
1969 and then for the Frankfurter Rundschau
in 1970/71, as well as, from 1972 onwards until
his retirement in 2001, above all as new music
editor at Deutschlandfunk Köln (DLF). The way
and manner in which he was able to fulfill this
position within the radio station by virtue of
his character and intellect, against repeated
challenges, he owed to that same intellectual
and economic independence which allowed
him to become a critical authority whose
words and judgments held weight. Every
day anew, he fought for the foundations of
critical journalism: the ability to recognize
backgrounds and contexts, to thoroughly
research objectively verifiable circumstances
and facts, to interpret them correctly, to freely
and openly experience and comment upon
them autonomously with confidence in one’s
own sensibilities and experience, without any
definition by others or falsifying influences
from outside, in order to finally also take
responsibility with all of one’s being for the
judgment formulated on this foundation. In
this matter, no doubt, Frankfurt critical theory,
and then also the student protest movement
against unquestionable authorities and the
establishment, was good training for him. With
all his love and passion for new music, Reinhard
also always kept the necessary critical distance.
Despite his personal contribution to the life
and work of many musicians, he extricated
himself from the partialities of persons and
entities often entangled with each other by
mutual dependencies: composers, ensembles,
interpreters, presenters, producers, publishers,
labels, associations, institutions, agencies… At
all times open to worthwhile cooperative efforts,
he reacted allergically even to the slightest
suspicion of the current ‘one hand washes
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the other’ business model, not least because
he always saw this type of arrangements as
associated with conflicts of interest which
shifted the weight in favor of the already
financially or politico-culturally stronger,
instead of selflessly serving an endeavor found
to be good but requiring support, for the most
part because it is not finding any backing.
Cosmopolite of New Music
Reinhard Oehlschlägel also reacted skeptically
vis-à-vis the all-too-obvious thanks to his broad
horizons. Unlike the often locally, nationally
or Eurocentrically limited perspective of music
journalism, he was as international as new
music itself. For nearly five decades, like almost
no one else in the entire world, he attended new
music concerts and festivals and discussed
them in articles and broadcasts. Not rarely, such
reports were written after strenuous travel, late
into the night for the next day. Everywhere,
he met people whose works, experiences,
views and information he publicized all over
Germany, many of them for the first time, in the
Music Journal and New Music Studio broadcast
series for which he was responsible at the DLF.
In this manner, he broadened the horizon
focused, for a long time yet after 1950, on the
West German avant-garde centers of Darmstadt,
Donaueschingen, Bremen, Hamburg, Köln and
Munich. In particular, the cosmopolite opened
eyes and ears to experimental music from the
United States and Canada at that time – and
often even today – largely unknown in Europe
as well as in its own homelands, as well as to
music from Scandinavia, East Germany, Eastern
Europe, Asia, Latin and South America. To his
global scope of activity and state of knowledge,
events closer to home, as well as composers
and interpreters celebrated here in our country,
showed themselves in an at times different,
sometimes also paler light. On the other hand,
he saw as shining larger and brighter such
more distant fixed stars as John Cage, Morton
Feldman, David Tudor, Conlon Nancarrow,
Pauline Oliveros, Graciela Paraskevaídis, José
Maceda, Chou Wen-chung and – toward the
end of his life – Ben Johnston: significantly, all
composers of his generation.
In 1970, Reinhard Oehlschlägel also demanded
greater international openness for the
International Summer Courses for New Music
in Darmstadt. At that time, as a reporter for the
V
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, he stood together
with the protest of the course participants,
who were accusing the leadership of a lack
of transparency and experimentation in the
program concept and invitation of lecturers.
Also typical is the fact that Reinhard, unlike
the Darmstadt protagonists of the 1950s,
wrote ‘new music’ not with capital letters, but
rather always with small letters, because he
wanted to consciously include all possible
ways of playing contemporary music, expressly
also those on the other side of avant-garde
demands, however legitimate or illegitimate
those demands might be. The international
dimension of his thought and work also showed
itself in his involvement on behalf of societies
and associations. In 1968, he became a member
of the German section of the International
Society for Contemporary Music. In 1972, he
worked with this organization’s statute revision
commission, and from 1982 to 1985, he was its
vice president. From 1989 to 1993, he was on
the board of the ISCM, where he initiated the
annual World New Music Magazine, of which
he was in charge as co-publisher and editor
from 1991 to 2005. He regularly traveled to
the World Music Days. On the occasion of the
2005 festival in Switzerland, for his services
to new music, he was elected by the plenary
assembly unanimously – a historical first –
as an honorary member. Also international
were his information channels. When on
some occasion, for time or financial reasons,
he was not able to travel to some festival, he
brought himself up to date via radio, newspaper,
telephone calls and personal meetings. After all,
he was not only a passionate radio broadcast
maker, but also a fanatic radio listener and
newspaper reader.
As a radio editor, he looked through half a dozen
daily newspapers a day. By his retirement in 2001,
this obligation had grown into an obsession for
him. As he continued to cut out articles daily
and sort them into different categories, by and
by stacks of newspapers weighing tons, which
swayed ominously if you came near them and
from time to time had to be disposed of, piled
right up to the ceiling in the corners of his Köln
apartment. It is also in Reinhard Oehlschlägel
and Gisela Gronemeyer’s household that the
new music journal MusikTexte founded by the
two of them, together with broadcast editors
Ulrich Dibelius and Ernstalbrecht Stiebler, has
been produced since 1983. Its existence would
hardly have been possible without the music
journalist couple’s worldwide contacts and
information channels. Reinhard Oehlschlägel
liked to describe this magazine, offered at cost
without profit motive, as a ‘self-help project’: on
the one hand, because at the time, there was no
longer any journal devoted exclusively to new
music in the German-speaking sphere (Melos
had been discontinued five years previously
and reappeared for a few years only in 1984);
on the other hand, because the publication of
radio manuscripts – appropriately modified by
the authors or editorial staff – was supposed to
prevent valuable and often lavishly-researched
information from disappearing irretrievably
into the ether after one-off broadcasts. But
beyond this ‘self-help’ motive, the 140 issues
that appeared in Reinhard’s lifetime are far
more: they are an archive covering 30 years
of current music history – present in many of
the world’s private and public libraries, and via
the journal’s homepage, easily researchable
– with innumerable key texts, trailblazing
analyses, profound commentaries, theoretical
developments, discussions and important
première publications. Quite a few of the essays
and interviews later have been incorporated
into the composers’ writings series and other
anthologies which have appeared since 1993 in
the Edition MusikTexte.
Ear and Door Openers
In putting together the MusikTexte issues,
Reinhard Oehlschlägel – together with Gisela
Gronemeyer and the editorial and publication
team, from 2007/08 onwards farsightedly
rejuvenated with Frank Hilberg and Rainer
Nonnenmann – paid constant attention to
the journal’s international character, as well
as to information about female composers
and young talents. Over the years, Reinhard’s
consistent demand to care about things which
others do not do – in broadcasting, newspaper
and the volumes of composers’ texts published
in MusikTexte – contributed decisively to
promoting the acceptance of composers at first
unknown, little-appreciated or even openly
rejected within the music scene and elsewhere.
In the case of several artists, Reinhard was
ahead of the game – for instance, with such
figures as Alvin Lucier, Robert Ashley, James
Tenney, Gordon Mumma, Christian Wolff,
119
Younghi Pagh-Paan, Giacinto Scelsi, Luc Ferrari,
Louis Andriessen, Per Nørgård, Henri Pousseur,
Alexander Knaifel, Galina Ustvolskaya, Klaus
Huber, Nicolaus A. Huber, Helmut Lachenmann,
Dieter Schnebel and Mathias Spahlinger.
More remarkably, many of these composers
– despite great stylistic differences – take up
the challenge to understand music politically
in the broadest sense, and to connect it with
societal concerns. And it was for this, as well,
that Reinhard’s heart beat most passionately.
Later, the focus also shifted to such younger
composers as Peter Ablinger, Mark Barden,
Carola Bauckholt, Antoine Beuger, Markus
Hechtle, Bernhard Lang, Michael Maierhof,
Jörg Mainka, Harald Muenz, Chris Newman,
Sergej Newski, Samir Odeh-Tamimi, James
Saunders, Martin Smolka, Manos Tsangaris,
Jennifer Walshe and many others. In recent
years, these people included Annesley Black,
Clemens Gadenstätter, Lars Petter Hagen, Robin
Hoffmann, Gordon Kampe, Johannes Kreidler,
Brigitta Muntendorf, Enno Poppe, Martin
Schüttler, Simon Steen-Andersen, Chiyoko
Szlavnics … Again and again, there were also
emphases in MusikTexte on countries, as well
as fields otherwise treated as off-beat, such as
improvisation, performance and sound art.
Of lasting effect was, above all, Reinhard’s
commitment to new initiatives and young
talents, which he promoted wherever he
possibly could. Ensemble Modern, comprised
of members of the German Youth Philharmonic
federal student orchestra, owes him its existence
and its inaugural concert in 1980 at the then-new
DLF Köln chamber music hall, along with which,
simultaneously, a new music concert series
was founded. In the 1990s, it was combined
with early music for the annual NovAntiqua
festival and, from 2000 onwards, continued as
the New Music Forum. Through DLF recordings,
Reinhard also promoted concerts in Walter
Zimmermann’s Beginner Studio, which was
active from 1977 to 1984 in Köln. And in 1981,
he helped in the re-establishment of the Köln
Society for Contemporary Music (KGNM); from
1981 to 1984 and again from 1990 to 1993, he was
active as a board member of this organization in
order to – as a complement to the Westdeutscher
Rundfunk music program, perceived as onesided – arrange alternative concerts and music
festivals, publish a bimonthly calendar with
new music dates in the region, and organize
exchange events with new music institutions
in the Benelux countries.
Also indebted to Reinhard’s initiative was
the Young Composers’, Interpreters’ and
Musicologists’ Forum, which the Society for
Contemporary Music – together with Ensemble
Modern and the MusikTexte journal – organized
for the first time in January 1996. Organized
by Gisela Gronemeyer, five more such forums
took place up until 2002, which then also
provided the impetus for the founding of the
International Ensemble Modern Academy
(IEMA). Many young musicians are indebted
to the Young People’s Forum for their first
important performances and contacts providing
entrée into public musical life; and young
musicologists (including the author of these
words), their first opportunity to put results
from seminar papers or master’s theses to
discussion and publish them in MusikTexte.
Whoever was curious, open and keen on
discussion at these meetings (which lasted
several days and included seminars, lectures,
panel discussions and concerts) could in short
order (even without any music journalism
experience) be entrusted by Reinhard with
further journal and radio contributions.
When Reinhard saw that someone was ready
to gain their own musical experiences and
reflect upon them verbally, then as far as he
was concerned, the two most important basic
requirements of critical music journalism were
already sufficiently fulfilled. He then showed
novices much invigorating trust, combined
with exhortation encouraging them towards
independence and criticism: ‘Every judgment
is possible, but it must be well-founded.’
Dialectical Idealist
In his own , Reinhard Oehlschlägel proceeded
equally clearly and pragmatically. In a first
step, sources and facts were tested in order to
initially – on the most secure information basis
possible, without unnecessary speculations
– measure the appropriate works, theories
or events immanently against their own
perspectives and, if need be, slip the divergence
of claim and reality into the assessment. In
a second step, the facts and circumstances were
then tested from outside through comparisons,
antitheses or alternatives. Reinhard had this
dialectical method fully and completely
internalized. In discussions, he played the
V
devil’s advocate – sometimes willingly,
sometimes under duress – as he tested the
validity of an argument or a conviction with
appropriate objections and contradictions. To
his conversation partners, he often appeared as
a Mephistophelian spirit who always negates
everything. The bluntness and firmness
with which he – without regard for person
or position – argued, probed, engaged in
criticism, took a stand and demanded the
taking of a clear position, was experienced
by some as a personal attack. Meanwhile, the
point for this unconventional thinker (not
malcontent) was always the cause of new
music, i.e. the most appropriate view and
assessment for a phenomenon – so, in the
end, ‘truth’.
What was helpful to him in sorting out
circumstances and facts was his absolutely
encyclopedic knowledge. Reinhard Oehlschlägel
was a walking Who’s Who in international
new music. Whoever just casually mentioned
a name to him, was promptly cut off and all
they could do was to, first of all, listen to an
exhaustive lecture on this personality, and then
draw attention to themselves at best with short
interjections – which would then for their part
be interrupted, though, with a ‘May I too say
something now?’ Corresponding to this man’s
insatiable thirst for knowledge was just simply
an equally great and regularly overflowing
need to communicate. Misunderstood by
some fellow travelers and companions-inarms as an arrogant know-it-all, the fact of
the matter is simply that with every fiber
of his being, he experienced a genuine and
selfless need to educate and impart knowledge.
Reinhard simply wanted to let other people
participate in his experiences and knowledge.
In conversations and debates, however, he
showed no consideration for personal states
of mind or conceits. He openly expressed
criticism, demanded explanation, completed,
set straight, inquired, insisted. Not infrequently,
those affected saw themselves as personally
attacked and injured by his objectively-meant
interventions. Some, indeed, felt intimidated
already just by his striking appearance, which
from the 1970s onwards featured long hair and,
to the very end, a full, bushy beard. Reinhard’s
direct and open manner was polarizing. With
some, it created enduring friendships; with
others, it led to aversion and antagonism.
This idealist was least of all calculating or intent
on his own interests. How little pomposity,
smugness or desire to ‘make a name for
himself’ came into play with him – despite
all the undeniable mania and egocentrism of
his character – is shown by the fact that after
his retirement as DLF editor, he refused pointblank to agree to an interview on ‘critical music
journalism’ as part of a workshop of the Köln
Society for Contemporary Music in 2004. Only
as part of a ‘double portrait’ (together with
Mathias Spahlinger) did he show any interest
in it, because now not only he (the ‘unimportant
music journalist’) would be questioned, but on
the contrary, he too would be able (and this is
what he saw as his real task) to interview this
‘important composer’. Based on the transcription
of this double portrait, the conversation, text
and document volume Mit Haut und Haaren
[Hook, Line and Sinker]2 appeared later – in 2006
– on the occasion of Reinhard’s 70th birthday.
As it was to be ceremonially presented to
him after the inaugural concert of that year’s
Donaueschinger Music Days, he stole quietly
out of the applauding circle and immediately
passed the book on to the also-present Mathias
Spahlinger – and this was no higher form of
coquetry.
A Loss
With Reinhard Oehlschlägel, new music has now
lost one of its most independent, pugnacious,
creative and striking faces. But with all of his
enduring credits as a music journalist, he is
now missed also – and above all – as a husband,
father and lovable human being. In the heat of
debate, it was often forgotten: Reinhard was
not only the sharp intellectual and at times
merciless discussion participant; he was also
sincere, sensitive, emotional, humorous,
ironic and capable of self-irony. He and Gisela
were also wonderful hosts. Many musicians
– especially those with precarious finances
– are indebted to their generous, friendly room
and board for shorter or even longer stays in
Köln. Quite a few guest performances and
meetings with artists – who would otherwise
have needed a hotel room – would have probably
otherwise hardly taken place in Köln. In general,
what is illuminating is this couple’s household:
Rainer Nonnenmann (ed.): Reinhard Oehlschlägel: Mit Haut und Haaren.
Gespräche mit Mathias Spahlinger – Texte und Dokumente zur neuen Musik
[Reinhard Oehlschlägel: Hook, Line and Sinker. Conversations with Mathias
Spahlinger – Texts and Documents on New Music], Saarbrücken: Pfau,
2006.
2
121
Whoever entered this large apartment in the old
building at Gladbacher Straße 23, immediately
experienced the fruitful symbiosis of work and
life reigning here. Here, all of life was – and will
continue to be! – lived with and for new music
to the very last dregs. Already half a floor down,
on the staircase landing, piles of books and
boxes of journals inform one of the productive
chaos further upstairs. Inside, every room is
a library, stuffed full of books, sheet music,
journals, newspapers, concert programs,
advertisements, event announcements, photos,
manuscripts, notices, letters, printouts, galley
proofs, records, CDs. Manic enthusiasm for
collecting and work has taken possession of
every available surface. Every square centimeter
of desk, bookcase and even floor serves the
making of journals and books. Only the large
kitchen table is successfully defended against
encroachments of the paper proliferating
everywhere. It is reserved for guests, relatives,
friends, authors and musicians, for latte,
fresh fish, wine, exciting conversations and
– aturally also here – heated debates. Now one
person has gotten up from the table and will
not come back again: Reinhard Oehlschlägel
is missed – in every sense of the word.
Rainer Nonnenmann (photo: Kathrin Bongartz)
Rainer Nonnenmann, born 1968 in Ludwigsburg (Germany),
studied Musicology, Philosophy and German Philology at the
Universities in Tübingen, Cologne and Vienna. In 1997 he
made his M.A. with Peter Gülke und 1999 his Doctor with
Dietrich Kämper. Based in Cologne he is honor professor at the
Hochschule für Musik und T anz Köln and also docent at the
Music Academies in Düsseldorf and Freiburg. He was a board
member of the Cologne Society of Contemporary Music (KGNM)
and the network ON – Neue Musik Köln. 2007 he became editor
and finally 2012 co-publisher of the magazine MusikTexte. He
gave a lot of lectures at international conferences and published
many essays on music and aesthetics of the 19th, 20th and 21st
century and also books on Helmut Lachenmann (2000), Nicolaus
A. Huber, (2002), Reinhard Febel (2004), Winterreisen (2006),
Reinhard Oehlschlägel und Mathias Spahlinger (2006), Johannes
Fritsch (2010), Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik (2010)
and Helmut Lachenmanns Begegnungen mit Luigi Nono (2013).
122
V
My encounters with
Reinchard
Zygmunt Krauze, President of the ISCM 1987-1990
Honorary Member of the ISCM
It has been almost forty years of our mutual
contacts. Our meetings were usually short,
up to some days only, at festivals which were
organised in numerous locations: Paris, Cologne,
Berlin, Hong Kong, Oslo, Bucharest, Frankfurt,
Reykjavik, and many more. I liked him and
admired him for his knowledge, intelligence,
his own opinion, for his ironic attitude on many
topics, but also for his benevolence. I respected
his radical views, which some time ago were in
the blatant opposition with the general attitude.
Later on, he put off the steam but, nonetheless,
his views were always original and independent.
I liked Reinhard for his smile and because he
was always present. He was one of the most true
members of the ISCM family.
I know that he knew my music, but I doubt he
always agreed with it. I liked him however,
respected and I looked forwards to seeing his
black beard on the next festival...
Zygmunt Krauze is an important artist of his generation – composer,
pianist, organiser of musical events and teacher. Krauze’s compositions
include five operas, instrumental forms, from miniatures to symphonic
works engaging hundreds of musicians, music for theatre, choral pieces
and songs. His artistic achievements and efforts in the promotion
of music have been recognised with many awards and distinctions,
including the French National Order of the Legion of Honour (2007), the
Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1984) and Doctor honoris
causa of National Music University in Bucharest (2014). In 1987 he was
elected President of the International Society for Contemporary Music
and has been an honorary member of the organization since 1999. In
2002, he was appointed as a Professor of Composition at the Academy
of Music in Łódź and from 2006 he has been lecturing at the Fryderyk
Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. Exceptionally important in the
list of Krauze’s work is unitary music, which theoretical base comes
from the paintings of Władysław Strzemiński. In his compositions,
piano is the instrument given the highest priority.
Zygmunt Krauze, Izabela Kauze and Jan Oleszwski, Prime Minister of Poland, opening ceremony the ISCM World Music
Days Warsaw 1992 (photo: Konrad Kalbarczyk)
123
Man with a mission
Michael Finnissy, President of the ISCM 1990-1996
Honorary Member of the ISCM
Reinhard was a man with a mission, something
which is undoubtedly a necessity in our uncaring
world. He was both a wonderful, thoughtful
and stimulating person, and – in all honesty
– a provocative, angry, pugnacious and
occasionally obstructive colleague!
Having experienced the apparently innocent
resurgence of new music post 1945, in what was,
actually, a devious and manipulative political
and economic climate, it must have been difficult
for Reinhard to remain focussed and idealistic.
But he did, and not least through the constant
stream of publications, not just the initiative of
an ISCM journal, but also through the pages of
MusikTexte, and doubtless much else in other
spheres. Much of his clarity, of course, stemmed
from a volcanic passion.
A man of such immense character transcends
Life, he was active and truly heroic when so much
else remains passive and truly pathetic. He will
be missed, and he will always be remembered
and cherished.
Michael Finnissy, opening ceremony of the ISCM World
Music Days Warsaw 1992 (photo: Konrad Kalbarczyk)
Michael Finnissy is outstanding British composer, pianist
and teacher. His principal teaching has been at the an Royal
Academy of Music (London), Winchester College, the Katholieke
Universiteit of Leuven (Belgium), and at the Universities of
Sussex and (currently) Southampton.
Reinhard Oehlschlägel, Richard Tsang, Michael Finnissy, Chris Walraven, Ana Lara and Nicolae Brîndus – Executive
Committee of the ISCM during General Assembly – the ISCM World Music Days Warsaw 1992 (photo: Konrad Kalbarczyk)
V
Remembering Reinhard
Richard Tsang, President of the ISCM 2002-2008
Reinhard Oehlschlägel, a really very special man
and colleague in the community of the ISCM.
As a contemporary music expert, both in the
music critique and in the music broadcasting
fields, he has always been a corner-stone of the
ISCM family.
I remember that he has fought hard to support
the case of Hong Kong applying to join the ISCM
back in the 1980s (while still being a colony at the
time), albeit barred by Statutes restrictions at the
time. He has shown true insight and vision in
pushing for reforming the ISCM Statutes to allow
for greater flexibility and more inclusiveness for
the organization, resulting in today’s healthy
diverse membership make-up of the Society.
Reinhard has been an “old-guard”, himself
a personification of the post-war modernism
ideals which permeated the historical glories
of the ISCM in its heydays in the 1950s through
1970s. This aesthetic ideal of his has often led to
heated debates and arguments with composers
from different cultural backgrounds – all in
a healthy and memorable context when viewed
today. Reinhard has been a true believer of his
ideals and for this I admire him whole-heartedly.
He also had a big heart, a truly compassionate
person. As our Society’s Honorary Member
and one of the oldest regular participants (in
whatever capacity he might be), he has been
very much a part of ISCM and ISCM owes much
to him.
I am saddened by his passing away and will
always remember my good friend Reinhard and
the unique life that he has led.
Richard Tsang has been active as a composer, conductor,
broadcaster and music administrator in Hong Kong and abroad.
He founded the First Chinese Composers’ Festival in Hong Kong
in 1986 and was the chief organizer of the 1988 & 2002 ISCM
World Music Days Festivals in Hong Kong. Richard Tsang and Reinhard Oehlschlägel - the ISCM World Music Days 2002, Hong Kong (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)
125
Reinhard and ISCM – some
personal reflections
John Davis
President of the ISCM Executive Committee 2008-2013
I had the privilege of coming to know
something of Reinhard Oehlschlägel through
his involvement with ISCM, although I am very
aware that his life and work were, and could
never be, defined by the boundaries of an
organisation, or a particular community.
but I recall being particularly moved. Reinhard’s
election as an ISCM Honorary Member in 2004
was no surprise, and richly deserved, given his
service and dedication over years.
May his spirit remain with us!
One word that I think well describes him is
“passionate”. He was a passionate about many
things, first and foremost about music. His
championing of composers and works that
presented an alternative viewpoint, composers
who represented the “cutting edge”, or who
pointed in new directions, was something that
I greatly admired. I think that this is very clear
in the editions of the ISCM World New Music
Magazine editions that he edited between 1991
and 2005, in the choice of materials representing
music activity in a particular place or region,
always presenting a unique and incredibly
valuable viewpoint.
I greatly respected he and Gisela’s championing
of women composers, and the passion that
they both invested in documenting the work
of women composers. Justice and equity were
always themes dear to his heart.
Reinhard’s passion was no clearer than on the
floor of the ISCM General Assembly, where his
passionate and fierce advocacy for those things
dearest to him was often made very clear, and
he was fearless in expressing, in no uncertain
terms, a point of order, or a particular point
of view. I don’t think that anyone begrudged
him if he was ever being unreasonable – and
indeed, Reinhard sometimes was unreasonable.
If one attends ISCM General Assemblies over
some decades, one deserves respect, and ISCM
is blessed to (still) have such citizens amongst
its members who care deeply about ISCM and
what it does.
John Davis (photo by Bridget Elliot)
John Davis is CEO of the Australian Music Centre, a position
he has held since July 1995. He has an extensive knowledge of
Australian contemporary music, and has worked as a performer
(jazz and classical), composer, and administrator. He holds
a Master’s degree in Creative Arts (Music Composition) from
Wollongong University.
I recall his passionate contributions at ISCM in
Hong Kong in 2007, where his love for ISCM was
also very evident, where accompanying his fierce
words there was also tears. I think this surprised
him as much as it surprised the rest of us present,
126
V
Reinhard Oehschlägel
is dead
by Stefan Fricke
It happened in the fall of 2001, in Yokohama,
during the „World Music Days“ of the International
Society for Contemporary Music. At the General
Assembly delegates were debating whether or not
to exclude one particular section that failed to pay
its membership fee. The officials all agreed that
according to the statutes this country – I believe
it was a South American one – could not remain
a member of the ISCM. This is when Reinhard
Oehlschlägel rose to speak, pointing out that
for precisely such situations „our“ statutes,
dating back to the Seventies, had provided the
so-called „Emergency Fund“, its designated
purpose being to prevent sections in financial
hardship, especially sections from Third World
and emerging countries, from losing their ISCM
status. The discussion took a turn thanks to
the incentive taken by „Oehli“ – as his German
friends used to call him in his absence. The
insolvent section remained an ISCM member.
A perhaps innocuous enough incident from the
New Music biotope. Not however for Reinhard
Oehlschlägel, an ISCM board member from 1989
to 1993, who in 2004 was pronounced Honorary
Member. Moreover he founded and edited the
„World New Music Magazine“ on behalf of ISCM
in the years from 1991 until 2005. Over and
above he was actively engaged in the German
section. Reinhard’s head and heart belonged
to New Music in all its facets. Its underlying
social structures were of particular interest and
concern to him, and so were the conditions under
which it came about and existed. Forever well
informed about the birth or imminent demise
of New Music incentives all over the world, he
committed himself to their cause wherever
he saw the need. He did it professionally
– from 1972 to 1991 he was chief editor for
contemporary music at the Cologne based radio
Deutschlandfunk; he did it also privately – active
in local, national and international networks
alike. He fostered and furthered numerous
projects as much as his realm of possibilities
allowed, focussed his gaze on Central Europe,
on South and North America, reported on the
development of New Music on the other side
of the Iron Curtain and in regions far off the
well-to-do colleges. The founding of Ensemble
Modern in 1980 was owed substantially to his
efforts. Ten years prior he was among those who
protested against the deadlocked structures at
the Darmstädter Ferienkurse and who demanded
from the management of the Internationales
Musik Institut Darmstadt a say in the design
of the courses. With the result that in 1971 the
Ferienkurse, founded in 1946, were skipped and
henceforth took place biannually. At the time,
Oehlgschlägel was active as a music critic for
„Frankfurter Rundschau“, where he also reported
on the state of affairs at Darmstadt. Previously,
from 1965 to 1968, following the completion
of his studies in school music and recorder in
Hannover, he had been writing for „Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung“. In 1983 he initiated in
Cologne the German magazine „MusikTexte“
without which the public discourse about New
Music would certainly be poorer. In close
collaboration with co-editors, most notably the
music journalist Gisela Gronemeyer, his partner,
he signed responsible for 140 comprehensive
magazines, about 20,000 pages in print.
Thanks to their commitment – intellectual as
well as financial – this medium invaluable to
the scene was able to exist and provide critical
information, navigating through the maze of the
New Music world. The yellow cover quarterly
„MusikTexte“ – as publisher also editing the
writings of Morton Feldman, Klaus Huber,
Giacinto Scelsi – are undoubtedly Oehlschlägel’s
most visible legacy, referred to by some with
respectful irony as the „yellow danger“. This
journalistic warning and disruption will live
on, as made sure by Reinhard Oehlschlägel, the
curious, alert and committed champion for the
cause of New Music, who passed away on April
29th 2014 at the age of 77 in Cologne. For this,
too, we should be grateful to him, who always
struggled to accept a word of thanks, and take
it as an occasion to critically question ourselves
as to our own dedication to the cause.
127
Stefan Fricke during General Assembly – the ISCM World
Music Days Yokohama 2001 (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)
Stefan Fricke with Wolfgang Liebhart and Marcel Wengler
during General Assembly - the ISCM World Music Days
Yokohama 2001 (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)
Stefan Fricke Born in Unna/Germany, after his civil service
studied musicology and German literature at the Universität
des Saarlandes in Saarbrooklyn. In 1989 he founded the PFAU
Press together with Sigrid Konrad. Teaching appointments and
workshops regularly lead him to various academic institutions.
He is an author and editor of numerous publications on
contemporary music.
Translation: Barbara Eckle
The ISCM World Music Days Yokohama 2001 – “Family photo”, (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)
128
V
A Life Dedicated to Music –
Reinhard Oelschlägel
(1936–2014)
by Nina Polaschegg
He would have written one book or another, he
told me, but his journalistic job did not allow
time for this. He seemed to be quite resigned
to this. However, Reinhard Oehlschlägel wrote
numerous texts, in which with boldness and
agility, he asked frank questions about the
music industry and music as such, when music
seemed to be on the verge of veering off track,
he questioned and investigated.
Reinhard Oehlschlägel was very critical,
quarrelsome and, doubtlessly, not exactly an
easy partner in discussion. But what would
musical, journalistic and musicological life be
without one who dared to ask straightforward
questions, scrutinise different methods, and,
last but not least, discover new things, present
them and make them audible and discernible?
This is exactly what Reinhard Oehlschlägel
relentlessly and consistently did. As cofounder of
‘Ensemble Modern’, as a critic for the Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung and Frankfurter Rundschau,
as an editor of New Music for the national
broadcasting company Deutschlandfunk in
Cologne (1972–2001) , and as the founder of the
magazine Musik Texte, its yellow colour shining
in post boxes, not only in the German speaking
world.
publishers Reinhard Oehlschlägel and Gisela
Gronemeyer, together with their team, gave
up discussing fashionable topics, and instead
featured composers from all over the world.
There was also much improvising and many
experiments.
One must not forget their numerous books for
the publisher Edition MusikTexte, collections of
written works by composers such as Christian
Wolff, Alvin Lucier, Robert Ashley and Frederic
Rzewski, which they supervised with their
respective coeditors. The last to be issued
(2013) was two tomes on Giacinto Scelsi - the
full collection of his written works and also his
autobiography.
Yes, he was pretty sure in the course of our last
meeting and conversation, that he had said and
written all the important things which he had
wanted to say.
Reinhard Oehlschlägel passed away on 26
April as a result of advanced cancer. He was
accompanied in his last months by his partner
Gisela Gronemeyer, who will henceforth lead
their common project.
Nina Polaschegg is a musicologist, musical journalist and
double bass player living in Vienna.
She is specialized in contemporary music, improvised and
electronic music, as well as contemporary jazz. As a performer
she is above all dedicated to (free) improvisation.
Translation: Robert Ciechanowski
Nina Polaschegg (photo from the
Author’s private collection)
Last January, when I visited him in his flat in
Cologne, I knew that it was the last time we
would meet each other. He lay on the sofa,
heavily marked by his illness. And, insofar as his
ailment allowed, he was willing to talk, asking
about the World New Music Days in Vienna, and
discussing music topics.
The magazine he created the contents for was
black and white, with a yellow cover and a couple
of photos and sheet music examples inside,
totally without frills. Albeit this format, without
doubt, was considered to be one of the most
important magazines discussing contemporary
music. As for the contents, the founders and
129
A Life Dedicated to Music
– Reinhard Oelschlägel
(1936–2014)
by Bruno Strobl
The music journalist Reinhard Oehlschlägel,
seen through his numerous and universal
activities, as well as contacts and acquaintances
with composers, seems to be a part of the
history of music and a formative and influential
personality in the world of modern music.
As a long-time member of the German Section
of the ISCM and temporary member of the
executive board of the German Section, he was
also a delegate for the General Assembly of the
ISCM, which assembles each year at the time of
the ISCM World Music Days, consisting nowadays
of over sixty delegates from all over the world.
He was one to face a challenge: putting forward
all his enormous knowledge, accosting problems
with accuracy and demand, not running away
from any controversies which may have arisen,
always attentive and critical.
He was also a member of the ISCM Executive
Committee from 1989 to 1993. Thanks to his
initiative, the World New Music Magazine
was created (an annual magazine of the ISCM
with contributions from the whole world). He
was in charge of editing and publishing the
magazine from 1991 to 2005. In 2004 he was
elected by the General Assembly of the ISCM as
an Honorary Member, in recognition of his work
and contribution to this international society.
130
130 World
World New
New Music
Music Magazine
Magazine 24
24 •• Polska
Polska Music
Music Now
Now 22
Bruno Strobl (photo from the Author’s private collection)
Bruno Strobl is composer and ensemble conductor, organiser
and promoter, living in Vienna. He is president of ISCM-Austria
and chairman of the Carinthian branch of the IGNM (ISCM).
Translation: Robert Ciechanowski
V
131
About the ISCM
The Internat ional Societ y for
Contemporar y Music (ISCM) is
a premier forum for the advancement,
dissemination and interchange of
new music from around the world.
Through ISCM, our members promote
contemporary music in all its varied
forms, strengthening musical life in
their local contexts and making their
music and its creators known to world.
ISCM Executive Committee
Peter Swinnen, President
Henk Heuvelmans, Vice-President
Arthur van der Drift, Secretary General
Lars Graugaard, Treasurer
Nina Calopek, Member
Riin Eensalu, Member
Alper Maral, Member
Franz Eckert, Legal Counsel
The annual ISCM World Music Days
festival is the principle vehicle through
which we pursue our mission. Organized
each year by a different host, the festival
presents music from each of our member
sections, showcasing the incredible
diversity of musical practice in our time.
Recent festivals have taken place in Hong
Kong, Lithuania, Sweden, Australia,
Croatia, Belgium, Slovakia and Austria.
ISCM Secretariat
Loevenhoutsedijk 301
3552 XE Utrecht
The Netherlands
Tel: +31-6-29069173
info@iscm.org
www.iscm.org
Since our founding in 1922, our network
has grown to include more than 60
organizations in over 50 countries, on
every continent.
The Internat ional Societ y for
Contemporary Music was founded on
11th August, 1922 in Salzburg by Rudolf
Reti and Egon Wellesz during The
International Performances of Chamber
Music in the presence of among others:
Webern, Bartók, Hindemith, Honegger,
Kodály, Milhaud, Poulenc and Grosz.
Since the founding of the Society, its
basic obligatory rules and objectives
have been carried forward in precise
way: the International Society for
Contemporary Music gathers composers,
performers, music admirers interested in
contemporary music, which represents
all styles and trends without any racial,
political, religious, territorial prejudices.
Since 1923, individual ISCM sections have
organized the annual festival. The ISCM
is affiliated with the UNESCO.
Activities of the ISCM are among others:
• Publishing of the World New Music
Magazine since 1991
• ISCM Young Composer Award
• VICC Composer in Residency
ISCM Members
SECTIONS
ISCM – ARGENTINE SECTION
Fundacion Encuentros
www.aliciaterzian.com.ar
ISCM – AUSTRALIAN SECTION
Australian Music Centre
www.australianmusiccentre.com.au
ISCM – AUSTRIAN SECTION
www.ignm.at
ISCM – BEIJING SECTION
Beijing Modern Music Festival, China
www.bmmf.org.cn/en/index.html
ISCM – FINNISH SECTION
Society of Finnish Composers
www.composers.fi
ISCM – FLEMISH SECTION
ISCM-Vlaanderen VZW
www.iscm-vlaanderen.be
ISCM – FRENCH SECTION
Futurs Composés
www.futurscomposes.com
ISCM – GERMAN SECTION
Gesellschaft für Neue Musik
www.ignm-deutschland.de
ISCM – GOTLAND SECTION
Visby International Centre for Composers
www.vicc.se
ISCM – GREAT BRITAIN SECTION
Sound and Music
www.soundandmusic.org
ISCM – GREEK SECTION
Greek Composers Union
www.eem.org.gr
www.iscm.gr
ISCM – HONG KONG, CHINA SECTION
Hong Kong Composers’ Guild
www.hkcg.org
ISCM – BULGARIAN SECTION
Union of Bulgarian Composers
www.ubc-bg.com
ISCM – HUNGARIAN SECTION
Hungarian Composers’ Union
ISCM – CANADIAN SECTION
Canadian League of Composers
www.clc-lcc.ca
ISCM – ICELANDIC SECTION
Society of Icelandic Composers
www.mic.is
ISCM – CHENGDU SICHUAN SECTION
Sichuan Conservatory of Music, China
www.sccm.cn
ISCM – IRISH SECTION
c/o IMRO
www.composers.ie
ISCM – CHILE SECTION
Sociedad Chilena del Derecho de Autor
SCD
www.scd.cl
ISCM – ISRAELI SECTION
The Israeli Composers’ League
www.israelcomposers.org
ISCM – CROATIAN SECTION
Croatian Composers’ Society
www.hds.hr
ISCM – DANISH SECTION
SNYK: Secretariat for Contemporary
Music
www.snyk.dk
ISCM – ESTONIAN SECTION
Estonian Composres Union
www.helilooja.ee
132
ISCM – FAROE ISLANDS SECTION
Faroe Islands Faroese Composers
Association
http://heima.olivant.fo/~summar/
composers.html
ISCM – ITALIAN SECTION
Società Italiana Musica Contemporanea
www.novurgia.it
ISCM – JAPANESE SECTION
Japan Society for Cont. Music
www.jscm.net
ISCM – SOUTH KOREAN SECTION
www.iscm.or.kr
ISCM – LATVIAN SECTION
Latvian Composers Union
www.komponisti.lv
VI
ISCM – LITHUANIAN SECTION
Lithuanian Composers Union
www.mic.lt
ISCM – TURKEY SECTION
Borusan Kocabiyik Vakfi, Kultur ve Sanat
Isletme
www.borusansanat.com
ISCM – LUXEMBOURG SECTION
Luxembourg Society for Contemporary
Music
www.lgnm.lu
ISCM – UKRAINE SECTION
Association New Music
www.anm.odessa.ua
ISCM – MEXICAN SECTION
SACM
www.sacm.org.mx
ISCM – USA SECTION
League of Composers
www.leagueofcomposers.org
ISCM – NETHERLANDS SECTION
Gaudeamus Muziekweek
www.muziekweek.nl
ISCM – WALLONIAN SECTION
Le Forum des Compositeurs
www.compositeurs.be
ISCM – NEW ZEALAND SECTION
Composers Association of New Zealand
www.canz.net.nz
FULL ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
ISCM – NORWEGIAN SECTION
Ny Musikk
www.nymusikk.no
ISCM – POLISH SECTION
Polish Society for Contemporary Music
www.ptmw.art.pl
ISCM – PORTUGUESE SECTION
Miso Music Portugal
www.misomusic.com
ISCM – ROMANIAN SECTION
Union of Romanian Composers &
Musicologists
www.cimec.ro/Muzica/SNR/default.htm
ISCM – RUSSIAN SECTION
Intl. Association of Composers
Organizations
www.iscmrussia.ru
ISCM – SERBIAN SECTION
Union of Serbian Composers
www.serbcompo.org.rs
ISCM – SLOVAK SECTION
www.iscm-slovakia.org
ISCM – SLOVENIAN SECTION
Society of Slovene Composers
www.dss.si/?spada=1&lang=en
ISCM – SOUTH AFRICAN SECTION
NewMusicSA, South Africa
www.newmusicsa.org.za
ISCM – SPANISH SECTION
Musica Moderna – c/o Grup Instrumental
de Valencia
www.grupinstrumental.com
ISCM – SWEDISH SECTION
www.iscm.se
ARFA, Romania
http://www.cimec.ro/muzica/inst/arfa
E E C M S,
European
Eg y ptian
Contemporary Music Society, Egypt
www.eecms-ebdaa.eu
Florida International University – The
School of Music, USA
www.fiu.edu/~garciao/Miami_ISCM_
Information.html
JFC, Japan Federation of Composers,
Japan
www.jfc.gr.jp/contents/jfc/AbouttheJFC.
html
M ACM, Malta Association for
Contemporary Music, Malta
www.maltacontemporarymusic.org
Music on Main, Vancouver, Canada
www.musiconmain.ca
New Music USA
www.newmusicusa.org / www.
newmusicbox.org
Roger Shapiro Fund, Mid Atlantic
Associate Member, USA
www.rogershapirofund.org
Society for Contemporary Music – c/o
Centre for Contemporary Music, Russia
www.ccmm.ru
Stephen F. Austin State University –
School of Music, Texas, USA
www.sfasu.edu
Soc. Venezolana de Musica
Contemporánea, Venezuela
www.musica.coord.usb.ve/svmc/
ISCM – SWISS SECTION
nicolas.farine@bluewin.ch
Tongyeong International Music Festival
Foundation, South Korea
www.timf.org
ISCM – TAIWAN SECTION
http://taiwanesemusic.blogspot.com
ALLIED ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
ISCM – TATARSTAN SECTION
Tatar Union of Composers
www.rashidkalimullin.com
ISCM HONORARY MEMBERS
Louis Andriessen (b 1939)
Milton Babbitt (b 1916; d 2011)
Béla Bartok (b 1916; d 2011)
Sten Broman (b 1902; d 1983)
Ferruccio Busoni (b 1866; d 1924)
John Cage (b 1930; d 1922)
Elliott Carter (b 1908; d 2012)
Alfredo Casella (b 1883; d 1947)
Friedrich Cerha (b 1926)
Chou Wen-chung (b 1923)
Edward Clark (b 1888; d 1962)
Paul Collaer (b 1891; d 1989)
Aaron Copland (b 1900; d 1990)
Luigi Dallapiccola (b 1904; d 1975)
Edward Dent (b 1876; d 1957)
Franz Eckert (b 1931)
Oscar Espla (b 1886; d 1976)
Manuel de Falla (b 1876; d 1946)
Michael Finnissy (b 1946)
Sofia Gubaidulina (b 1931)
Vinko Globokar (b 1934)
Alois Hába (b 1893; d 1973)
Ernst Henschel (b 1878; d 1969)
Paul Hindemith (b 1895; d 1963)
Arthur Honegger (b 1892; d 1955)
Klaus Huber (b 1924)
Sukhi Kang (b 1934)
Zoltán Kodály (b 1882; d 1967)
Charles Koechlin (b 1867; d 1950)
Zygmunt Krauze (b 1938)
Ernst Krenek (b 1900; d 1991)
György Kurtág (b 1926)
André Laporte (b 1931)
Doming Lam (b 1926)
György Ligeti (b 1923; d 2006)
Witold Lutoslawski (b 1913; d 1994)
Walter Maas (b 1909; d 1992)
Gian Francesco Malipiero (b 1882; d 1973)
Yori-Aki Matsudaira (b 1931)
Arne Mellnäs (b 1933; d 2002)
Olivier Messiaen (b 1908; d 1992)
Darius Milhaud (b 1892; d 1974)
Conlon Nancarrow (b 1912; d 1997)
Arne Nordheim (b 1931; d 2010)
Per Nørgård (b 1932)
Viteslav Novák (b 1870; d 1949)
Reinhard Oehlschlägel (b 1936; d 2014)
Krzysztof Penderecki (b 1933)
Goffredo Petrassi (b 1904; d 2003)
Willem Pijper (b 1894; d 1947)
Maurice Ravel (b 1875; d 1937)
Hans Rosbaud (b 1895; d 1962)
Hilding Rosenberg (b 1892; d 1985)
Albert Roussel (b 1869; d 1937)
Antonio Rubin
Kaija Saariaho (b 1952)
Paul Sacher (b 1906; d 1999)
Hermann Scherchen (b 1891; d 1966)
Arnold Schönberg (b 1874; d 1951)
Roger Sessions (b 1896; d 1985)
Jean Sibelius (b 1865; d 1957)
Igor Stravinsky (b 1882; d 1971)
Karol Szymanowski (b 1882; d 1937)
Toru Takemitsu (b 1930; d 1996)
Chris Walraven (b 1931; d 1996) ?
Ralph Vaughan Williams (b 1872; d 1958)
Iannis Xenakis (b 1922; d 2001)
Joji Yuasa (b 1929)
Isang Yun (b 1917; d 1995)
Festival l’Art pour l’Aar, Bern, Switzerland
www.jean-luc-darbellay.
133
ISCM WORLD MUSIC DAYS – LIST OF
PAST FESTIVALS
1923 Salzburg
1924 Prague/Salzburg
1925 Venice
1926 Zurich
1927 Frankfurt
1928 Siena
1929 Geneva
1930 Liege/Brussels
1931 Oxford/London
1932 Vienna
1933 Amsterdam
1934 Florence
1935 Prague
1936 Barcelona
1937 Paris
1938 London
1939 Warsaw
1941 Unofficial meetings organized in
New York
1941 Unofficial meetings organized in
San Francisco
1946 London
1947 Copenhagen
1948 Amsterdam
1949 Palermo/Taormina
1950 Brussels
1951 Frankfurt am Main
1952 Salzburg
1953 Oslo
134
1954 Haifa
1955 Baden-Baden
1956 Stockholm
1957 Zurich
1958 Strasbourg
1959 Rome
1960 Cologne
1961 Vienna
1962 London
1963 Amsterdam
1964 Copenhagen
1965 Madrid
1966 Stockholm
1967 Prague
1968 Warsaw
1969 Hamburg
1970 Basel
1971 London
1972 Graz
1973 Reykjavik
1974 Rotterdam
1975 Paris
1976 Boston
1977 Bonn
1978 Stockholm/Helsinki
1979 Athens
1980 Tel-Aviv
1981 Brussels
1982 Graz
1983 Aarhus
1984 Toronto/Montreal
1985 The Netherlands
1986 Budapest
1987 Cologne/Bonn/Frankfurt am Main
1988 Hong Kong
1989 Amsterdam
1990 Oslo
1991 Zurich
1982 Warsaw
1993 Mexico
1994 Stockholm
1995 Ruhrgebiet, Germany
1996 Copenhagen
1997 Seoul
1998 Manchester
1999 Romania & Republic of Moldavia
2000 Luxembourg
2001 Yokohama
2002 Hong Kong
2003 Slovenia
2004 Switzerland
2005 Zagreb
2006 Stuttgart
2007 Hong Kong
2008 Vilnius
2009 Visby/Växjö/Göteborg
2010 Sydney
2011 Zagreb
2012 Belgium
2013 Slovakia (Kosice, Bratislava) /
Austria (Vienna)
2014 Wroclaw (Poland)
VI
Acknowledgements
ibis Styles Wrocław Centrum

The ISCM World new Music Days 2013

Transcription

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