Polish Music since Szymanowski

Looks at Polish music since 1937 and its interaction with political and cultural turmoil.

This book looks at Polish music since 1937 and its interaction with political and cultural turmoil. In Part I musical developments are placed in the context of the socio-political upheavals of inter-war Poland, Nazi occupation, and the rise and fall of the Stalinist policy of socialist realism (1948–54). Part II investigates the nature of the 'thaw' between 1954 and 1959, focusing on the role of the 'Warsaw Autumn' Festival. Part III discusses how composers reacted to the onset of serialism by establishing increasingly individual voices in the 1960s. In addition to a discussion of 'sonorism' (from Penderecki to Szalonek), it considers how different generations responded to the modernist aesthetic (Bacewicz and Lutoslawski, Baird and Serocki, Górecki and Krauze). Part IV views Polish music since the 1970s, including the issue of national identity and the arrival of a talented generation and its ironic, postmodern slant on the past.

List of musical examples; Preface; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Part I. The Captive Muse: 1. Szymanowski and his legacy; 2. The Second World War; 3. Post-war reconstruction; 4. Socialist realism I: its onset and genres; 5. Socialist realism II: concert music; Part II. Facing West: 6. The 'Warsaw Autumn'; 7. Engaging with the avant-garde; Part III. The Search for Individual Identity: 8. The pull of tradition; 9. Sonorism and experimentalism; 10. A significant hinterland; Part IV. Modernisms and National Iconographies: 11. Pursuing the abstract; 12. Music and symbolism I: sacred and patriotic sentiment; 13. Music and symbolism II: vernacular and classical icons; 14. Emigré composers; 15. Young Poland; Part V. Postscript: 16. After Lutoslawski; Appendices; Notes; Select bibliography; Index.

Since 1937, Poland's music has been influenced by violent political upheavals - World War Two, Stalinism, the 'thaw', the election of the Polish Pope and the rise and fall of Solidarity. Issues of how artistic freedom was exercised and how composers reacted to these upheavals form the core of this study.

Adrian Thomas is Professor of Music at Cardiff University.