Musicology Today Poland in Europe. Imitation or Interaction of ...

Musicology Today2005 ⋄ Musicology Section of the Polish Composers’ UnionPoland in Europe.Imitation or Interaction of Musical Models?Institute of MusicologyUniversity of Warsaw

EditorProf. dr hab. Zofia Helman (Institute of Musicology, University of Warsaw)Associate EditorsProf. dr hab. Ludwik Bielawski (Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences),Dr hab. J. Katarzyna Dadak-Kozicka (Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University of Warsaw),Prof. dr hab. Alicja Jarzębska (Iagellonian University of Cracow),Dr hab. Alina Żórawska-Witkowska (University of Warsaw),Dr hab. Ryszard Wieczorek (Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań)SecretariatDr Iwona Lindstedt (Institute of Musicology, University of Warsaw)ConsultantsProf. dr hab. Anna Czekanowska-Kuklińska, Ks. Prof. dr hab. Karol Mrowiec,Prof. dr hab Jadwiga Paja-Stach, Ks. Prof. dr hab Ireneusz Pawlak,Prof. dr hab. Mirosław Perz, Ks. Prof. dr hab Jerzy Pikulik,Prof. dr hab. Irena Poniatowska, Ks. Prof. dr hab. Ks. Józef Ścibor,Prof. dr hab. Andrzej Rakowski, Prof. dr hab. Mieczysław Tomaszewski,Prof. dr hab. Elżbieta Witkowska-Zaremba, Prof. dr hab. Sławomira Żerańska-KominekEnglish Language ConsultantZofia Weaver, Ph.D.c○ Copyright by the Musicology Section of the Polish Composers’ Union 2005ISBN 83-903753-8-9ISSN 1734-1663Publication funded by the State Committee for Scientific Research(Ministry of Education and Science)Typeset by Iwona LindstedtPrinted and bound by Drukarnia – Janusz Bieszczad, Warsaw, ul. Moszczenicka 2Editorial Office: Institute of Musicology Musicology SectionUniversity of Warsaw of the Polish Composers’ Union00-927 Warsaw 00-272 WarsawKrakowskie Przedmieście 32 Rynek Starego Miasta 27tel/fax: (22) 552-15-35 tel/fax: (22) 831-17-41e-mail: imuz@uw.edu.pl e-mail: zkp@zkp.org.pl

Contents1 Ideologies of Progress and Nationalism and the Concepts ofSupranational and National Music Alicja Jarzębska page 52 The Evolution of Cosmopolitan Attitudes in Polish MusicalCulture of the Twentieth Century Magdalena Dziadek 253 From Spiš to Royal Prussia — the Creative Development ofJohannes Celscher Agnieszka Leszczyńska 374 Importation or Participation? Remarks on the Reception andAdaptation of the Genre musica more antiquo mensurata inSixteenth-Century Poland Elżbieta Zwolińska 495 From the Lutheran Selection: the Surviving Repertory ofVocal-Instrumental Religious Music of the Musicians of thePolish Vasas Barbara Przybyszewska-Jarmińska 596 The Comici Italiani Ensemble at the Warsaw Court of AugustusIII Alina Żórawska-Witkowska 727 The Development of Twelve-Note and Serial Techniques inthe Music of Polish Twentieth-Century Composers IwonaLindstedt 1068 The Orpheus-Type Myth in Turkmen Musical Tradition SławomiraŻerańska-Kominek 1253

1Ideologies of Progress and Nationalism and theConcepts of Supranational and National MusicAlicja JarzębskaInstitute of Musicology, Iagellonian University of CracowThe subject of the conference § challenges one to define the semantic boundariesof such categories as “Europeanism” and “nationality” and their mutualrelations; another purpose is to highlight the historical changes which influencethe ideology of progress with its new, supranational vision of culture andart on the one hand, and the ideology of nationalism with the related ideaof national art, on the other. The decline and fall of the idea of progress,discernible since the end of the twentieth century, intensified interest in theproblems of nationality, which stresses that which is separate, regional, differentand which can be interpreted through the postmodern concept of ontological“différance” 1 . At the same time, as we witness the growth of theEuropean Union, with the accession of a number of new countries, and theremarkable speed of transfer of information on a global scale, this may wellmake us reflect on the role of the artist in the shaping of understanding andsolidarity between people. However, the question of art (including music)being “national” (“Polish”) and/or “European” poses the challenge of tryingto find an answer to the basic question: should culture, and works created byartists, serve to bind people together into a universal community, to enrichand widen their “spiritual world”, or, on the contrary, should they evoke andstrengthen divisions, raise barriers, fuel grievances, create ghettoes and bringisolation, all under the pretext of the cult of originality?§ This paper was presented a the XXXII Polish Musicological Conference in April 2003.5

6 Alicja Jarzębska1.1 The idea of a universal or cosmopolitan culture as anattribute of “Europeanism”Igor Stravinsky in his Poetics of Music 2 distinguished such concepts as universality(linked to the acceptance of an order based on an oppositional systemof values), and cosmopolitanism, associated with building a world “beyondgood and evil”, and also “beyond beauty and ugliness”. He identified the term“universality” with a feeling of community, with richness of cultural traditionand variety of artistic devices; in other words, with a harmony of diversitygoverned by the idea of beauty, goodness and truth. On the other hand, theterm “cosmopolitanism” was associated for him with a lack of sense of communityand the rejection of cultural tradition, with anarchy brought aboutthrough the “monster of originality”, which would not respect an order basedon a general agreement on the existence of opposing values. He applied thisterm to the so-called progressive art, which made a radical break with thesystem of values traditional in European culture, and which negated culturaltradition and regional distinctiveness. He thought that, in spite of the declarationsof diversity linked to the postulate of being avantgarde, progressiveart seemed one-dimensional and, in reality, devoid of the richness of culturaldiversity; it also encouraged the breaking of all ties of understanding betweenpeople. In his Harvard lectures, given at the onset of the Second World War,he mourned the fact that:“It just so happens that our contemporary epoch offers us the example of a musicalculture that is day by day losing the sense of continuity and the taste for a commonlanguage. Individual caprice and intellectual anarchy [...] isolate the artist from hisfellow-artists and condemn him to appear as a monster in the eyes of the public; amonster of originality. [...] Whether he wills it or not, the contemporary artist iscaught up in this infernal machination. There are simple souls who rejoice in thisstate of affairs. There are criminals who approve of it. Only a few are horrified at asolitude that obliges them to turn in upon themselves [...]. The universality whosebenefits we are gradually losing is an entirely different thing from the cosmopolitanismthat is beginning to take hold of us. Universality presupposes the fecundityof a culture that is spread and communicated everywhere, whereas cosmopolitanism[...] induces the indifferent passivity of a sterile eclecticism. Universality necessarilystipulates submission to an established order. [...That is] a hierarchy of values anda body of moral principles.” 3

Ideologies of Progress and Nationalism... 7Thus, the concept of Europeanism, and the associated concept of thatwhich is supranational (universal or cosmopolitan), has “many faces” and isgenerally identified with:(i) the Biblical vision of reality, built on the Pythagorean-Platonic traditionand classical culture (linked with, among others things, the mythof Apollo), and such concepts as Christianitas and latinas;(ii) the optimistic humanism and Cartesian rationalism, and with the conceptsof Ars Gallica and Respublica Litteraria, i.e., “the commonwealthof learning”, which proclaims the values of brotherhood and tolerance(based on the Christian tradition), cultivates the poetic culture ofantiquity and cherishes the myth of Orpheus 4 (stressing the magicalpower of music), and(iii) the modernist vision of a reality subject to historical necessity, theideology of progress and the concept of the “Faustian man”, who realizesthe Promethean myth of divine power of creation and the freedomof action unlimited by any (traditional) norms, that is, beyond goodand evil, truth and falsehood, and also beyond beauty and ugliness 5 .This modernist vision of art has been associated with the concept offreedom and cosmopolitanism (in relation to avantgarde art, both Europeanand American).The mutation of European culture into its modernist shape had a doubleaspect. On the one hand, the changes resulted from the fact that educatedelites no longer entrusted their judgments, their thoughts or their poetryto a single medium — Latin — which was in general use in the sixteenthcentury. As a consequence, many new national languages became the acceptedmedium, and their status raised to that of a medium of literature 6 . On theother hand, these changes involved a gradual movement away from the idea ofa universal culture based on the Bible, the antique tradition and elements ofregional cultures, and an attempt to replace it with a humanistic but secularvision of culture. Since the Enlightenment, this has also implied a conceptionof art as being subordinate to the ideology of progress, with a radical rejection

Ideologies of Progress and Nationalism... 9The ideology of progress and nationalism, as well as the myth of Slavism 9 ,had a significant influence on the development of modern culture and art.The latter functioned as a cultural index common to many (Slavic) nations,opposed to the tradition associated with the concept of the “courtly Europeanculture”. Both ideologies, and also the idea of a mythical (folk and pagan)Slavism, rejected equally the vision of reality presented in the Bible, and thecultural heritage of antiquity, regarded until then as the basis of Europeanculture. The popularization of the Slav myth in the nineteenth century contributedto the splitting of the concept of Europe into Western Europe andEastern Europe, the latter associated with the ideas of Russian Slavophiles 10 .The introduction of the term “Central Europe”, promoted by Milan Kundera 11constituted an attempt to destroy the Slav myth. The term refers to the areaoccupied by countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary,whose cultural tradition over many centuries has been linked with theconcepts of latinas and Christianitas. Modern terminology thus knows: (1)a Europe without an adjective, simply Europe, which is understood to referto the non-Slavic West, and (2) a Europe which has to be defined furtherby an adjective, most frequently “Eastern”, and sometimes “Central” (due tothe publicity given to Kundera’s well-known article). For example, for thehistorian of culture, Peter Rietbergen, author of a book recently publishedin Poland entitled Europe: A Cultural History , the concept of “Europe” isassociated mainly with the culture of Romance and Germanic countries, i.e.the countries of Western, non-Slavic Europe 12 .Twentieth-century conceptions of supranational music are thus coloured byarguments over the idea of progress in art on the one hand and, on the other,by the myth of anti-European Slavism and by nationalist ideology. The latteralso stimulated French-German antagonisms, linked to the desire for culturaldominance and the status of being the centre of Europe 131.1.1 Twentieth-century ideas about supranational musicAs we know, belief in progress was one of the fundamental ideas of theeighteenth-century Encyclopaedism and nineteenth-century positivism. It

10 Alicja Jarzębskawas associated with the development of science and technology, improvementin economic conditions, and also belief in the historical necessity ofrevolutionary social changes. This ideology, adopted by twentieth-centuryartists, including musicians, contributed to the change in the system of values,and the rejection of the link between a work of art and the idea of beauty,which was traditional in the European culture. The most fundamental valuebecame that of being “avantgarde”, of experimenting, and of adopting a rebelliousposture towards the heritage of the past 14 . In music, this meantaccepting as “historical necessity” the emancipation of dissonance, elevationof rustles and noises, employing the avantgarde idea of precompositional series,and experiments designed to undermine the concept of a work of art asan opus perfectum. Avantgarde music, regarded as elitist, achieved the statusof supranational, cosmopolitan art, and appropriated for itself the name ofcontemporary art. An institutional symptom of this tendency was, amongother things, the creation in 1923 of the International Association of ContemporaryMusic, regarded as a kind of musical League of Nations 15 , on theinitiative of a Viennese publishing house called Universal Edition. Soon after,a number of branches of this association were created in different countries(e.g. England, Germany, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Poland).Twentieth-century discussions linked the “supranational”, “cosmopolitan”current with the call for emancipating dissonance, and for experimental workby avantgarde artists who cultivated the romantic postulate of originality;another aspect of this current was support for Schönberg’s postulate of usingscore notation subordinated to the idea of precompositional series of pitchclasses. During the inter-war years this trend was coloured by Marxist ideologyand associated with “bolshevism” or the communist International. It wasalso linked with the ideology of German nationalism. For instance, Schönberg,an enthusiastic proponent of progressive art, felt himself to be heir and continuatorof the great tradition of German music, representing the greatest andthe most masterly in musical achievement, and therefore — European 16 . Hemade a frequently quoted statement that the idea of the 12-note Grundgestaltwould ensure the domination of German music for the next century 17 .

Ideologies of Progress and Nationalism... 11During the inter-war years the concept of supranational music was alsoassociated with that of neoclassicism, which defined the aesthetic attitude andcompositional devices aspiring to being the most valuable, the most universal,and thus European. This concept, coloured by French nationalism, stressedthe superiority of a culture linked to the idea of “Ars Gallica” over Germanicculture, inspired by philosophical idealism and also Nietzschean nihilism. Atthe same time, neoclassicism was regarded as a form of opposition againstthe nationalistic programme of Slavic nations. In the words of Zofia Helman,composers,“by entering into the current of neoclassicism, then a general trend, [...] declaredthemselves to be on the side of universal values of European culture, and at the sametime defended [...] the art of music from the tendentiousness and utilitarianism ofnationalistic programmes 18 .”Under the influence of Theodor Adorno’s book Philosophy of Modern Music19 , the idea of neoclassicism as an aesthetic proposal for establishing asupranational, European musical culture, became less popular. Adorno’s philosophy,disseminated after the Second World War, was adopted by the new,international generation of musicians. The ideology of progress came to dominatethe activities of artistic avantgarde, whose work was regarded as theproduct of cosmopolitan liberalism characteristic of the countries of whatwas known as the West 20 .1.2 Nationalism and the concepts of national musicAccording to the well-known anthropologist and philosopher Ernest Gellner:“Having a nation is not an inherent attribute of humanity, but it has now come toappear as such. [...] It is nationalism which engenders nations, and not the otherway round. Admittedly, nationalism uses the pre-existing, historically inheritedproliferation of cultures [...], though it uses them very selectively, and it most oftentransforms them radically. Dead languages can be revived, traditions invented,pristine purities restored.[...] The cultures it claims to defend and revive are oftenits own inventions...” 21 .

12 Alicja JarzębskaThe concept of supposedly biologically (genetically) conditioned “nationality”,linked to Herder’s idea of Volksgeist and widely accepted in Europeanculture of the nineteenth century (and implicitly assumed also in the twentieth),is thus undermined by contemporary anthropology and sociology. Theideology of nationalism, which awakens conflict between human communitiesusing different languages, stimulated the creation of national stereotypes andthe cult of the nation, through, among other things, promoting the idea of“national art.” According to Gellner, nationalism is:“primarily a political principle, which holds that the political and the national unitshould be congruent. Nationalism as a sentiment, or as a movement, can bestbe defined in terms of this priciple. Nationalist sentiment is the feeling of angeraroused by the violation of the principle, or the feeling of satisfaction aroused by itsfulfilment. A nationalist movement is one actuated by a sentiment of this kind. [...]the nationalist principle as such [...] has very very deep roots in our shared currentcondition, is not at all contingent, and will not easily be denied.” 22 .Gellner is diametrically opposed to Herder’s philosophy of history andclaims that:“Nations as a natural, God-given way of classifying men, as an inherent thoughlong-delayed political destiny, are a myth; nationalism, which sometimes takes preexistingcultures and turns them into nations, sometimes invents them, and oftenobliterates pre-existing cultures: that is a reality, for better or worse, and in generalan inescapable one” 23 .Musical nationalism thus found support in nineteenth-century philosophicalaestheticviews, in the political-economic situation, and also in the implicitassumption that it is every composer’s duty to create “national music”, whichdisplays distinctive and exceptional characteristics of his nation. The nationalismshaped during the nineteenth century, motivated either by imperialismor the desire to achieve independence as a state, aimed to create culturalhomogeneity which would ensure political unity against what was “foreign”.Complex educational systems were created, with the purpose of forming theimage of a given national culture, distinct from the culture of a “foreign”nation or a national state. The task of defining both what was typical andessential for a given national identity, and what was emphatically foreign to

Ideologies of Progress and Nationalism... 13it, became highly significant, especially for creative artists. An importantrole in the shaping of the stereotype of national identity and distinctivenesswas also played by critics, musicologists, and composers making statementsabout the idea of “national music” and “national style” 24 .***A number of ideas shaped the understanding of such concepts as “nation”,“state”, “the people”, “race” (Pol.“naród”, Fr. nation, Eng. nation, Ger. volk,Ital. natione, stato), among them the philosophy of history of Johannes G.von Herder (1744–1803) 25 , with its concept of an enduring Volksgeist, theSlav myth (claiming true folk origin for Slav culture), and the philosophy ofart of Hippolyte Taine (disseminating a biological model of culture, using theconcepts of race, nation and art). According to this view of reality, thereexists an inborn connection, independent of human will, between each humanbeing and his “national spirit”, and a primeval antagonism and differentiationbetween these philosophical “national spirits”. The latter make it impossibleto achieve any universal understanding between peoples. Thus differences inthe understanding of the concept of a “nation” influenced the various waysin which “national character” was interpreted in music. In general, one candistinguish five types of interpretation.First, a nation is an ethnic-territorial entity, which communicates usingits “national” language. Its members (above all its educated elites) emanatein their artistic creations a common, stable, “spirit of the nation”. Nationalidentity and characteristics of a given composition are here decided by thebiological-racial origin of the composer of that work in relation to a givencommunity. On this basis, the mere fact of a biological link between theartist and a given community (described as nation or state) is the decidingfactor in ascribing to his work the features of “national music”. For instance,Karol Szymanowski was convinced that there was a “dependence of the creativeindividual on the characteristics of his race, the enduring foundation” 26 .In the Third Reich, the criterion of “that which is German” was defined notin terms of specifically musical features, but in terms of the “racial purity” ofa given composer. The Nazis thus aimed in their cultural policy to “cleanse”

14 Alicja JarzębskaGerman musical life of “racially alien” works and people, mainly of Jewishorigin, through such means as the infamous Lexikon der Juden in der Musik(1941) 27 . At the same time, there were constant references to the great “Germanmusical tradition.” Of significance are the views of Joseph Goebbels onthe exceptional musicality of the German nation, formulated in the 1930s. Inhis speech at Reichsmusiktagung he claimed:“The musical talent of the German nation is known and famous throughout theworld. It is something unique. It has enabled Germany to bestow on humanitythe gift of happiness through its wonderful works of true music. Without Germany,without its great masters, who with their inspiring symphonies and splendid operashave come to dominate the musical repertoires of all peoples and all nations, worldmusic would be unthinkable [...]. In fact, we are the chosen people of the world,not only because of our musical compositions, but also in view of our talent forresponding to that music. The German nation has a rare gift, an inborn, natural,self-generating, absolute musicality” 28 .It is no accident that the contemporary Faust, Adrian Leverkühn — thehero of Thomas Mann’s novel Doktor Faustus (1947) is a composer. Theauthor believed that if Faust is to represent the German soul, he should bemusical, because German attitude to the world is abstract and mystical, andthat means — musical.Second, the “spirit of the nation” is expressed by prominent (and educated)individuals of genius, who belong to the given ethnic-territorial community.According to this view, the characteristics of “national music” are shaped bymusical devices employed by prominent musicians who belong (biologically)to a given nation, over a number of generations. In the words of Dalhaus:“Because of Richard Wagner, the ‘Bach-Beethoven’ formula takes on a nationalistichue. While Wagner considered Beethoven’s symphonic work [...] to be the essence ofmusic, in the article Was ist deutsch — with its main part written in 1856, althoughnot published until 1878 — he places Bach, as the representative of the ‘Germanspirit’, next to Beethoven. [...] The ‘Bach-Beethoven’ formula [...] mutated into the‘myth of German music’. [...] There have also been various ideas as to who mighthave been called upon to represent these ’new, poetic times’. Bülow supported Bach,Beethoven and Brahms; Nietzsche — Bach, Beethoven and Wagner; August Halm— Bach, Beethoven and Bruckner. [. . . ] The canvas they shared was the idea of anera of German music” 29 .

Ideologies of Progress and Nationalism... 15This approach to the idea of national music is adopted by, for example,the French musicologist Jean Chantanvoine; in his volume De Couperin àDebussy he suggests to the reader that the identity of French music is determinedby some deeply hidden links between “the rationality of Rameau, theinspiration of Berlioz, the tenderness of Gounod, the sensuality of Massenet,the refinement of Saint-Sa´’ens, the dogmatism of Vincent d’Indy, the subtleimagination of Debussy” 30 . A similar manner of conceptualizing the “spiritof the nation” can also be found in Polish literature. For instance, StefaniaŁobaczewska came to the conclusion that “the spirit of Poland” was expressedwith clarity and perfection in the works of Chopin:“Polish national spirit does not awaken again until around 1850. It is only whenChopin, far away from his unfortunate country, takes up the magnificent traditionsof our music, in order to testify to the whole of Europe that the spirit of Poland,although in captivity, can still unfurl its wing and take creative flight, — it is onlythen that, slowly, an understanding awakens of the native elements of our cultureand art” 31 .This approach to the idea of national music is realized in works such asPanufnik’s Hommage a Chopin or Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin.Third, the “spirit of the nation” is evoked by the dances and songs of the(uneducated) multitude — the people. The link between a given compositionand the idea of national music is created by a reference to the dances andsongs associated with the stereotype of a given nation 32 . The idea of, forinstance, national Polish music was therefore realized when a musical compositioncontained the rhythms of a polonaise, a mazurka or a cracovienne, orfolk melodies sung in the area recognized as the “cradle” of the nation.Fourth, a nation is associated with a state, extolled by (national) anthemsand patriotic songs which urge the people to struggle for political independence.According to this approach, national music should create associationswith the melody of the state anthem, or patriotic songs reminding the peopleof past struggles for political independence 33 . Such solutions have beensuccessfully employed in instrumental, symphonic music 34 . However, compositionsby “foreign” composers may also have the character of a dedicationto “the Polish nation” fighting for its political independence; such is the na-

16 Alicja Jarzębskature of, for instance, Edward Elgar’s symphonic prelude Polonia (Elgar wasa friend of I. J. Paderewski), where one can hear the melody of the Polishsong Z dymem pożarów 35 .Fifth, the identity of a nation is defined by the language and melodies of(folk) religious songs (sung in its national language). We can find the idea ofnational music interpreted in this way in, for instance, Szymanowski’s StabatMater, Penderecki’s Polskie Requiem, Te Deum, or Łuciuk’s Litania polska.What characterizes both musicologists’ approaches and composer’s declarationsabout “national music” in the first half of the twentieth century is,firstly, the belief in the existence of an impersonal and enduring “nationalspirit”, which manifests itself in folk art 36 ; secondly, a conviction that one’srelation to a particular “national spirit” is determined by being born into aparticular community; and, thirdly, the assumption that this “spirit” is an aspectof a primeval, wild, (pantheistic) Nature, filled with fiery creative force.It was thought that Nature understood in this way manifests itself most fullyand in a “pure” manner in some mythical, archaic, proto-(folk) music of a givennation, and also in the dissonant, avantgarde and progressive contemporary(artistic) music. For this reason musicologists in their discussions began toemploy the concept of “modern national style” in relation to music whichwas both national and “European”, i.e. associated with the main current ofmusical output. This term was contrasted with “old national style” — a nineteenthcentury term associated with music whose main aim was not so muchto achieve compositional perfection, but to act as a reminder of the nationaldistinctiveness of the given community against a “foreign” nation which hadpolitical power. In his articles, Szymanowski wrote:“There is a plethora of large and small, more or less worthy works, based on authenticmelodies and rhythms. These birds, which sang freely in woods and meadows, feltawkward [...] in intricately built cages of academic forms, against a background ofsuch naturally alien “learned” things, in a stylish parade of progressing consonanceand dissonance harmonies” 37 .“What a multitude of roles did “National Art” have to play in the period of captivitythat has passed! Immersing oneself hopelessly in the depths of a splendid past,raising spectres from the dead, fearfully closing one’s eyes when faced with theswift, roaring current of the life of contemporary art flowing nearby around us —

Ideologies of Progress and Nationalism... 17that was called “National Art”; it was also “going among the people”, almost ahypnotic trance of mazurkas and carols, of collecting dreadful raspberry-colouredcutouts and green ribbons; it was the academic-German fugue on the subjects offolk songs such as Niedaleko Krakowa or Chmielu, chmielu zielony — at times iteven became a treacherous poisoned tip of a foil, to be aimed suddenly at the heartof an “ideological” opponent” . . . 38 .This manner of employing folk melodies, of which Szymanowski was soscornful, was referred to by musicologists as “folklorism”, or “superficial colouration”.When commenting on Szymanowski’s mazurkas, Adolf Chybiński claimed,for example, that the composer“[...] rightly rejected all “folklorism”, knowing that pure art refuses all compromise,which both constrains the artist’s rights, and blurs the character of folk art” 39 .On the other hand, Józef M. Chomiński came to the conclusion that Szymanowski’smusic (composed after the First World War) is characterized notso much by a superficial “national colouration”, but a deep immersion in the“spirit of the nation” (also associated with its vital “force”), and that folkmelodies are for him the source of novel compositional solutions and the basisof “modern national style”. In his studies of Szymanowski’s work he wrote:“For Szymanowski, national elements are not used to add colour, but are an expressionof penetration into the inexhaustible power of the nation; they are the base fromwhich grows a complete work, combining into one organism the past, the presentand the future; lastly, they bear witness to the unshakeable faith in the culturalmission of the nation” 40 .“Folk melody becomes an inexhaustible source of new ideas; it inspires new formal,harmonic, sound solutions. Szymanowski not only breaks with the original folkmodel, but enriches it, brings out that which is the most essential and the mostlasting. Without abandoning the language of contemporary music, he also createsthe basis of a modern national style” 41 .***The idea of “national music” provokes further questions, such as whether acomposer (described in biographical dictionaries as Polish, Russian, German,French, American etc.) has to use only the melodies (folk or patriotic ones)

18 Alicja Jarzębskacultivated within his own national community? How is one to interpret thesituation when composers reach out for dances (folk or courtly) and songswhich “bind” people who belong to other nations, for instance Stravinsky’sFour Norwegian Moods [1942] or Penderecki’s V Symphony [1992] 42 ? Shouldone view them in terms of the categories “native-foreign”, “familiar-exotic”,or simply regard them as a gesture of friendship and a kind of dedicationby the composer to a given community which identifies itself — as a unit— with some well-known folk or patriotic melody? Another question whichremains open relates to the output of emigré composers who take citizenshipof other countries and collaborate in creating their musical culture, such asStravinsky, Schönberg, Panufnik. Should they be regarded through the prismof ethnic-national or state-national categories? Stravinsky, as a French citizen(from 1934) turned out not to be “French” enough to become a member of theFrench Academy (in 1936); this honour, as we know, went to a composer of a“lesser calibre” but born in France, Florent Schmitt. As a citizen of the UnitedStates of America, where he had been contributing to the culture of that statefor nearly 30 years, Stravinsky also turned out to be insufficiently Americanto count as a composer of American music 43 , Nowa muzyka amerykańska[The New American Music], Kraków: Musica Iagellonica, 1995. On the otherhand, as an emigré Russian, he was not allocated the position he deserves inthe State Central Museum of Musical Culture in Moscow.* * *The interpretation of history of music through the idea of national musicis thus contaminated by the opposition “native-foreign”, and the desireto emphasize group (national) domination or to be free. One has to agreewith Stravinsky who claimed that “everyone should have his passport” 44 andthat it is wrong to try to erase traces of one’s origin. However, at the sametime he was of the opinion that an artist cannot make a fetish of his nationality,because art should strive for universal values and link all peopleinto one community, embracing the idea of beauty and a search for eternaltruth and common good. In Stravinsky’s view, we all have our one and onlybirthplace, “our roots”, the original language in which we communicate and

Ideologies of Progress and Nationalism... 19say our prayers. For him, in spite of the formal changes of citizenship, thiswas Russian and the traditions of Russian culture, but also the traditions ofMediterranean culture and the world of values preached in the Gospel. Suchan understanding of national art, as an art which makes use of cultural traditionsand regional elements, but at the same time strives for artistic mastery,does not conflict with the idea of universal (European) art — an art whosefundamental value is the richness of diversity subordinated to the traditionalidea of beauty as unity in diversity. As John Paul II said in his letter toartists: “Beauty is the key to mystery and a call to transcendence. It encouragesmankind to get to know the taste of life, and to learn to dream of thefuture” 45 .Notes1 See Zdzisław Krasnodębski, Upadek idei postępu [Fall of the Progress Idea], Warszawa:PIW, 1991 and Narody i stereotypy [Nations and Stereotypes], ed. Teresa Walas,Kraków: MCK 1995.2 Igor Stravinsky, Poetics of Music(1942), transl. A.Knodel and I.Dahl, Cambridge,Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1947; Poetyka muzyczna, transl. S. Jarociński,Kraków: PWM, 1980.3 Igor Strawiński,Poetyka muzyczna, op. cit., p. 53, 54. [Poetics of Music, op. cit.,pp. 73–75.]4 See Mit Orfeusza [The Orpheus Myth] , ed. Sławomira Żerańska-Kominek, Gdańsk:Słowo/Obraz Terytoria, 2003.5 The term “Faustian man” was used by O. Spengler in his book Zmierzch Zachodu(1918) [The Decline of the West], where he identified the “Faustian spirit” with the“spirit of the West”, limited, however, to the German Reich. According to W. Szturc(Faust Goethego; ku antropologii romantycznej [Goethe’s Faust: Toward RomanticAnthropology], Kraków: Universitas, 1995, p. 27) “the idea of Faustism appearsalready in the work of Schopenhauer (as realisation of total freedom) and Nietzsche(in the doctrine of ); [...] the Faustian man is identified with a personwho is beyond the principles of good and evil.”6 Undoubtedly this gradual literary multilingualism aided the shaping of the ideology ofnationalism, and made it more difficult for social elites to communicate. TheReformation movement, which started in the sixteenth century, encouraged literaryformulation of thoughts in national languages, and their spread was aided by theinvention of print. For instance, it is a significant fact that at the beginning of theeighteenth century, at a book fair at Frankfurt — the largest event of that kind inEurope towards the end of the fifteenth century — only four per cent of books were inLatin, which at one time was the common language of social elites; see: Peter

20 Alicja JarzębskaRietberger, Europa. Dzieje kultury (1998) [Europe: A Cultural History], transl.Robert Bartołd, Warszawa: Książka i Wiedza, 2001, p. 292.7 The sixteenth-century English poet Samuel Daniel was one of those who referred tothe ideas constituting Respublica Litteraria: It be’ing the proportion of a happiePen,/Not to b’invassale’d to one Monarchie,/But dwell with all the better world ofmen,/Whose spirits are of one communitie;/Whom neither Ocean, Desarts, Rockesnor Sands/Can keepe from th’Intertraffique of the minde,/But that it vents hertreasure in all lands,/And doth a most secure commencement finde. A.B. Grosart(ed.), The Complete Works In Verse and Prose of S. Daniel, I, London 1885, p. 106,quotation from P. Rietberger, Europa. Dzieje kultury, p. 284. [Europe: A CulturalHistory, London: Routledge, 1998, p. 285.] Later historiography defined RespublicaLitteraria as “A [...] culture, recognizable in the whole of Europe... though limited tothe upper classes, in the long run [it] did not fail to have a more widespread influenceon very diverse areas of life. Obviously, many lived this culture only as a superficiallifestyle, but specifically the intellectual elite began to direct itself to the values whichappeared to guarantee the more fundamental ideals of unity, civilization and, it washoped, the resulting peace: Christianity in its original, universal form and classicalculture. These values became internalized through common educational norms andpractices and therefore were considered Europe’s collective inheritance even if [...] thiswas now felt to be Christian-European, European-Christian, or perhaps justEuropean, without any clear religious connotation.” Peter Rietberger, Europa. Dziejekultury, op. cit., pp. 283–4 [Eng. pp. 284–5]8 See Tabor Klaniczay, Renesans, manieryzm, barok [Renaissance, Mannerism,Baroque], transl. Elżbieta Cygielska, Warszawa: PWN 1986; Andrzej BorowskiRenesans [Renaissance], Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie 2002; TeresaKostkiewiczowa, Polski wiek świateł. Obszary swoistości [The Polish century of Lights.Domains of Peculiarity], Wrocław: Wyd. Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, 2002.9 Ethical and social factors played a fundamental part in the construction of the mythand stereotype of European-Slavic antithesis. The moral purity and religiosity of Slavs(linked to the myth of the “Holy Rus”’ and the idyllic Slav with a heart of gold) werecontrasted with the decadent and increasingly secular culture of the “corrupt” West.Since the culture of Europe was perceived as elitist and cosmopolitan, the Slav mythboth raised the status of lower social classes, and deepened anti-gentry andanti-bourgeois phobias. The Slav myth thus influenced not only what might be calleda national regeneration, but also contributed to defining the concepts of the nation andthe people, while not differentiating between the concepts of nationality and tribalism;see Maria Bobrownicka, Narkotyk mitu. Szkice o świadomości narodowej i kulturowejSłowian zachodnich i południowych [The Narcotic of a Myth. Sketches on National andCultural Consciousness of Western and Southern Slavs], Kraków: Universitas 1995.10 See Maria Bobrownicka, Narkotyk mitu. Szkice ..., [The Narcotic of a Myth.Sketches...], op. cit.; Andrzej Walicki, Rosja, katolicyzm i sprawa polska [Russia, TheRoman Catholic Church and Poland], Warszawa: Prószyński i S-ka, 2003.11 Milan Kundera, ‘Zachód porwany albo tragedia Europy Środkowej’ [‘The Stolen Westor the Tragedy of Central Europe’], Zeszyty Literackie II, 1984, issue.5. See Peter M.Stirk (ed.) Mitel Europa. History and Prospects (Studies in European Unity),Edinburgh 1994.

Ideologies of Progress and Nationalism... 2112 The author excuses himself in these terms: “Although there are sound scholarlyreasons, besides considerations of a politically correct nature, to induce an author toinclude the cultures of central and eastern Europe in the text, I have chosen not to doso. First of all, I lack the language skills necessary to delve into the relevant literature.More important, however, I believe that this non-inclusion can be defended on thebasis of the past itself; with its many ‘accidents’, it has forged links between a numberof regional cultures in western Europe which increasingly have shown a comparablehistorical development, resulting in a more widely experienced culture that, howeverdiverse in many of its elements, yet has grown towards an overall unity.” PieterRietberger, Europa. Dzieje kultury, op. cit., p. 12. [Europe: A Cultural History,op.cit., p. xxi.]13 See Alicja Jarzębska, Spór o piękno muzyki. Wprowadzenie do kultury muzycznej XXwieku [Debate on the Beauty of Music. An Introduction into 20th-century MusicalCulture], Wrocław 2004.14 Adopting the ideology of progress in artistic activity presupposes a belief in one, apriori determined direction of change, which is beyond any influence of individualartists; they can only be “ahead” of it, and confirm their “creative powers” by shockingthe audience (to a lesser or greater degree) by producing something novel, which hasnever been presented before. Critics emphasize such features as “the desire to breakaway”, “awareness of being in the vanguard”, and activities which are implicitlydirected towards creating a new art, and through new art — a new society and a newman.15 See Adolf Weissmann, ‘Międzynarodowe Towarzystwo Muzyki Współczesnej’[‘International Society for Contemporary Music’], Muzyka 1925 No. 1, pps. 15–19.16 See Arnold Schönberg, National Music 1931, in: Style and idea. Selected Writings ofA. Schoenberg, ed. L. Stein, London 1984, pp. 169–74.17 This statement by Schönberg is mentioned by, among others, Hans H.Stuckenschmidt, (Arnold Schönberg, transl. S. Haraschin, Kraków: PWM 1965, p. 75)and William Austin (Music in the 20th Century, London 1966, p. 295).18 See Zofia Helman, ‘Dylemat muzyki polskiej XX wieku — styl narodowy czy wartościuniwersalne’ [‘The Dilemma of Polish Music in the 20th Century: National Styles orUniversal Values’], in: Anna Czekanowska (ed.), Dziedzictwo europejskie a polskakultura muzyczna w dobie przemian [European Heritage and Polish Musical Culture inthe Period of Transformations], Kraków: Musica Iagellonica 1995, pp. 184–85.19 Theodor W. Adorno, Philosophy of Modern Music (1949), transl. Anne G. Mitchelland Wesley V. Blomster, London: Sheed & Ward, 1973; Filozofia nowej muzyki(1949), transl. F. Wayda, Warszawa: PIW, 1974.20 See Jan Maklakiewicz, ‘Z zagadnień współczesnej twórczości muzycznej w Polsce’[‘Some Problems of Modern Musical Oeuvre in Poland’], Muzyka 1934 No. 1,pp. 33–37; Maciej Jabłoński, Janina Tatarska (eds.), Muzyka i totalitaryzm [Music andTotalitarism], Poznań: Ars Nowa, 1996.21 Ernest Gellner, Narody i nacjonalizm, Polish transl. Teresa Hołówka, Kraków: PIW,1991, pp. 15, 72. [Nations and Nationalism, Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publisher Ltd,1983, pp. 6, 55–6]22 Ernest Gellner, Narody i nacjonalizm, op. cit., p. 9 [pp. 1, 56]23 Ernest Gellner, Narody i nacjonalizm, op. cit., p. 64. [pp. 48–49]

22 Alicja Jarzębska24 See, among others, Mirosław Perz, ‘Uwagi o treści pojęcia ’ [‘Noteson the Content of the Concept’], Muzyka 1971 No. 3, pp. 23–26;Anna Czekanowska, ‘Do dyskusji o stylu narodowym’ [‘Studies in National Style inPolish Music’], Muzyka 1990 No. 1, pp. 3–17; Jan Stęszewski, ‘Polski charakternarodowy w muzyce: co to takiego?’ [‘Polish National Character in Music: what isit?’], in: Narody i stereotypy [Nations and Stereotypes], ed. Teresa Walas, Kraków:MCK 1995, pp. 226–231; Małgorzata Woźna-Stankiewicz, Recepcja muzyki francuskiejw Polsce w II połowie XIX wieku [Reception of French Music in Poland in the SecondHalf of the 19th Century], Kraków: Musica Iagellonica, 2003 (Chapter Stereotypynarodowe w kulturze XIX w. [National Stereotypes in the Culture of the 19th Century],pp. 327–433; Anna G. Piotrowska, Idea muzyki amerykańskiej w ujęciu kompozytorówamerykańskich pierwszej połowy XX wieku [The Idea of American Music by AmericanComposers of the First Half of the 20th Century], Toruń 2003.25 Johann G. von Herder in his philosophy of history presented it as history of nations,which he regarded as being endowed with a “spirit”. The distinctiveness of these“spirits” was supposed to be based mainly on the different languages of humancommunities, and the different mythical primeval sources of their cultures. Herder’sviews, contained in works such as Abhandlung ´’uber den Ursprung der Sprache (1772),Myśl o filozofii dziejów [Ideas on the Philosophy of the History] (2 vols, 1784–91,Polish edition 1962) had an enormous influence on the later development of the idea ofa nation and the philosophy and history of culture.26 Karol Szymanowski, ‘Zagadnienie “ludowości”, w stosunku do muzyki współczesnej’(1925) [‘Question of “Popular Character” in Relation to Modern Music’], in: Pisma[Writings], vol. 1: Pisma muzyczne [Musical Writings], ed. Kornel Michałowski,Kraków: PWM, 1984, p. 172.27 Jan Stęszewski, ‘ z perspektywy współczesnej ipolskiej’ [‘ from the Modern and PolishPerspective’], in: Maciej Jabłoński, Janina Tatarska (eds.), Muzyka i totalitaryzm[Music and Totalitarism], op. cit., pp. 47–60.28 Quoted from: B. Drewniak, Kultura w cieniu swastyki [Culture in the Shadow ofSwastika], Poznań 1969, p. 10.29 Carl Dahlhaus, ‘O trzech kulturach muzycznych’ [‘On the Three Cultures of Music’],in: Idea muzyki absolutnej [The Idea of Absolute Music], transl. Antoni Buchner,Kraków: PWM, 1988, pp. 128–29. In the second half of the nineteenth centuryGerman composers became actively involved in demonstrating nationalistic,anti-French emotions. For instance, Wagner composed an ode in honour of theGerman army and a comedy Capitulation to celebrate the victory of Sedan, whileBrahms wrote an occasional work entitled The Song of Triumph, in which he impliedthat he regarded Paris as synonymous with the degenerate Babylon. From its firstperformance (7 IV 1871 in Bremmen) the song always accompanied state celebrations,and for this reason the public opinion associated Brahms with that which was German.See Danuta Gwizdalanka, Muzyka i polityka, Kraków: PWM, 1999, pp. 103–123.30 Jean Chantanvoine, De Couperin à Debussy, Paris 1921; quoted from: MałgorzataWoźna-Stankiewicz, Muzyka francuska w Polsce w II połowie XIX wieku [FrenchMusic in Poland in the Second Half of the 19th Century], Kraków: Musica Iagellonica,1999, ps. 190.

Ideologies of Progress and Nationalism... 2331 Stefania Łobaczewska, Muzykologia polska [Polish Musicology], in: Mateusz Gliński(ed.) Muzyka polska [Polish Music], Warszawa 1927, p. 44.32 Zbigniew Bokszański, Stereotypy a kultura [Stereotypes and Culture], Wrocław, 2001.33 See Irena Poniatowska, ‘ w symfonii polskiej początku XXwieku’ [‘ in the Polish Symphony of the beginning of the 20thcentury’], in: Complexus Effectuum Musicologiae. Studia M. Perz Septuagenariodedicata, ed. T. Jeż, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Rabid, 2003, pp. 403–412.34 This interpretation of the idea of national music was alluded to by, among others,Zygmunt Noskowski in his composition entitled Odgłosy pamiątkowe (1905)[Commemorative Echoes], which was a kind of medley of “patriotic songs” (hymns,marches and Polish songs with links to join them); Ignacy Paderewski in his Symfoniah-moll, zw. Polonia (1903) [Symphony in B minor, the so-called Polonia] (a workcomposed to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the January uprising; in the finalethere appear the motifs of the song Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła [Polish NationalAnthem “Poland is not dead yet”]); Emil Młynarski in his Symfonia F-dur, zw.Polonia, which uses the melody of Bogurodzica [The Mother of God] — associated (inthe printed programme) — not so much with its religious meaning, but with thefunction of a patriotic song, encouraging faith in victory on the battlefield.35 See Robert Anderson, ‘Paderewski and Elgar’s Polonia’, Musica Iagellonica, 1995,pp. 141–146.36 Szymanowski, for instance, wrote: “in our understanding, that which belongs to the demonstrates clearly the deepest original features of a given race in relation tothe sphere of aesthetic experiences [. ..it exists — A.J.] as an unchanging constant, asuprahistorical and most direct expression of the spiritual properties of a race”; KarolSzymanowski, ‘Zagadnienie “ludowości” w stosunku do muzyki współczesnej’[‘Question of “Popular Character” in Relation to Modern Music’], w: Pisma[Writings], vol. I, Pisma muzyczne [Musical Writings], ed. K. Michałowski, Kraków:PWM, 1984, pp. 172, 169.37 Karol Szymanowski, ‘Zagadnienie “ludowości” w stosunku do muzyki współczesnej’,op. cit., p. 171.38 Karol Szymanowski, ‘Uwagi w sprawie współczesnej opinii muzycznej w Polsce’[‘Notes on Modern Music Opinion in Poland’], in: Pisma muzyczne [MusicalWritings], op. cit., p. 39.39 Adolf Chybiński, ‘Mazurki Karola Szymanowskiego’ [‘The Mazurkas of KarolSzymanowski’], Muzyka 1925 No. 1, p. 12–15.40 Józef M. Chomiński, ‘K. Szymanowski a Strawiński i Schönberg’ [‘K. Szymanowski inrelation to Stravinsky and Schönberg’], Muzyka Polska 1937 No. 5 p. 232; also in:Studia nad twórczością Karola Szymanowskiego [Studies in Karol Szymanowski’sOeuvre], ed. M. Tomaszewski, Kraków: PWM, 1969, p. 36.41 Józef M. Chomiński, ‘Chóralne ’ [‘ for Choir’],Kwartalnik Muzyczny 1948 No. 24, also in: Studia nad twórczością KarolaSzymanowskiego [Studies in Karol Szymanowski’s Oeuvre], op. cit., p. 335.42 In this work the composer used a Korean melody, which for that community was asymbol of their struggle for national independence.43 See Zbigniew Skowron44 In one of his press interviews Stravinsky pointed to Scriabin as an example of a

24 Alicja Jarzębskacomposer “without a passport”, whose music is not rooted in his native tradition. SeeBoris de Schloezer, ‘An Abridged Analysis’ (1928), Engl. transl. Ezra Pound, in:Edwin Corle (ed.), Igor Stravinsky; A Merle Armitage Book, New York: Duell, Sloan& Pearce, 1949, p. 33.45 Jan Paweł II, List Ojca świętego do artystów. Do tych, który z pasją i poświęceniemposzukują “epifanii” piękna, aby podarować je światu w twórczości artystycznej [Letterof His Holiness Pope John Paul II to Artists. To all who are passionately dedicated tothe search for new “epiphanies” of beauty so that through their creative work as artiststhey may offer these as gifts to the world], quotation taken from: TygodnikPowszechny, No. 22 (2603), 30 V 1999, p. 9.

2The Evolution of Cosmopolitan Attitudes inPolish Musical Culture of the Twentieth CenturyMagdalena DziadekThe Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music, WarsawThis paper aims to examine the varieties of programmes for expanding Polishmusical culture beyond Poland’s boundaries in the twentieth century. Theseprogrammes were based on specific ideas about the place of Polish culturewithin Europe, and these, in turn, were shaped by discussions involving longperiods and generations of participants. They were committed to defining theideological foundations of these programmes, as well as to planning or investigatingtheir practical premisses. To start with, I would like to explain why,out of the rich selection of terms used in the last two hundred years to indicateexpansionist tendencies in cultures, such as expansionism, Europeanism,supranationalism, suprapatriotism, I have chosen the somewhat dated andseemingly pejoratively laden word “cosmopolitanism”, associated in commonusage with lack of patriotism and a submissive imitation of Western culturalmodels. One should recall here that this kind of approach, which characterizedthe ideas prevalent in Polish Enlightenment, was very persistent evenlater, and, in the nineteenth century, became on a number of occasions aweapon in the discussions about the desired shape of Polish culture, as forinstance when Seweryn Goszczyński used it in a total condemnation of theworks of Fredro which, according to him, were of little use to the nation.The pejorative understanding of the term “cosmopolitanism” lasted untilthe beginning of the twentieth century. The entry for “cosmopolitanism” inSamuel Orgelbrand’s Encyklopedia powszechna provides us with a model ex-25

26 Magdalena Dziadekample of the general understanding of this term as the opposite of patriotism.It reads: “Cosmopolitanism means a feeling of love for the whole of humanity,and not for a single nation. It is thus wider than patriotism, but should notexclude it”. This is followed by a discussion of the conditions under which thecosmopolitan attitude is a noble one, in line with the thesis of a natural lawof “looking after those closest to one first”. If this condition is not met, cosmopolitanismbecomes, according to the author of the entry, “a reprehensiblesentiment or theory”.However, by the end of the nineteenth century, there begins a trend inPolish scientific literature and journalism towards using the word “cosmopolitanism”without the nationalist complex coming into play, and even towardscontrasting its connotations positively with patriotism. This approach wastaken by some of the most prominent positivist writers: Bolesław Prus, whosuggested that it was necessary to civilize “wild” patriotism by contact withthe high culture of the whole of humanity 1 , Aleksander Świętochowski who,in a study in 1882, made “progress of one’s own culture” dependent on “thepossibility of participating in general civilization”, and put this even aboveaspiring to independence 2 , and Eliza Orzeszkowa, who, in an excellent paperentitled Patriotyzm i kosmopolityzm in 1879 sketched a vision of a cosmopolitanEurope, founded on the awareness of “the equality of all nations in theface of truth, knowledge about it, labour, and free use of its fruits” 3 .The positivist concept of “good” cosmopolitanism, based on accepting theprinciple of participation in the development of civilization as a means and acondition of preserving national existence 4 , fits in well with the use of the term“cosmopolitanism” in Western European thought which was contemporary topositivism. Nineteenth-century Western understanding of cosmopolitanismrefers simply to the coexistence of many nationalities or national features.In France, in the 1880s, the intense and growing fascination for literaturesyounger than the Western ones (Russian , Scandinavian, Belgian, Slavic) andregarded as “alien”, was referred to as “literary cosmopolitanism”. Paris andLondon were described as cosmopolitan centres, as they provided a refuge fora mosaic of nationalities from the South, the North and the East. Westerncultural thought of the nineteenth century does not have the categorical oppo-

The Evolution of Cosmopolitan Attitudes in Polish Musical Culture... 27sition between cosmopolitanism and patriotism. Such entries do not appearin subject encyclopaedias or lexicons devoted to culture. La Mara (Maria Lipsius),who conscientiously recorded linguistic customs of German literatureat the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in her book about Lisztdescribes one of her heroines, Maria Kalergis, as a “cosmopolitan”, referringto her mixed racial origin and her character 5 . However, her popular collectionGedanken berühmter Musiker über ihre Kunst, from 1873, has no chapters oncosmopolitanism or patriotism, while the word “nationality”, used a numberof times, is part of a discourse about the universal influence of musical affects(p.13, quotation from Liszt), the project for creating a universal musical language(p. 144, quotation from Gluck, p. 193, quotation from Ambrose) , orreflection on the theory of national styles, interpreted in a manner commonin the nineteenth century (p. 190, quotation from Wagner, p. 204, quotationfrom Mendelssohn).It is now time to explain why I attempt to introduce the concept of cosmopolitanisminto the discussion of the programmes and diagnoses relatingto Polish musical culture of the twentieth century. Clearly, it is not sufficientto do so just as a reminder that it used to be a constant element ofthe language of cultural discussions in the period of interest to me: it wouldbe difficult to demonstrate that the effectiveness of analysis of the content ofwhat is said in a discussion depends on whether we conduct it in the languageof the participants. Let us say then that my plan stems from a convictionthat it is necessary to use with greater care than has been the case so far,a term which has for some time now been the leading concept in our nativediscussions about the position of Polish musical culture. This is the conceptof universalism, which now functions as the counterbalance of nationalism.Universalism used to be understood as an ethical-religious notion of society,according to which – to quote an economist from Kraków, FerdynandZweig, who wrote before the Second World War – “a society represents acertain spiritual whole [...] based on the solidarity of all its members andstriving towards spiritual self-improvement” 6 ; or it could be understood asan elitist social order based on this principle, realised in the Latin-Hellenicworld and in Western Christian Middle Ages, or it could be the economic sys-

28 Magdalena Dziadektem shaped under this social order, which respected the principle of strivingfor the common good in the ethical and religious sense, and which regardedspiritual matters as a higher good than material riches, and attempted tobuild a system for limiting one’s needs and the field of activity in the nameof moderation 7 . Contemporary Polish discussion about culture also uses theconcept of universalism to refer to a set of tendencies or ambitions defined bythe need for artists and participants of a culture to go beyond the particularismand separatism of a national culture in its traditional understanding.Moreover, the term “universalist” is applied to the attitudes and achievementsof artists who represent greater breadth of interests, and this includesthe totality of current ideological and practical proposals deriving from theopinion-forming cultural centres of the world.If we apply the categories used to define the phenomena described above asgenerally as possible, it allows us to reconstruct the development of a cultureas a complementary chain of domination of one of the two key tendencies:nationalism and “supranationalism”; it also allows us to create transitions betweenthe two, on the principle that a given tendency may “colour” the other todifferent degrees (nationalism may be more or less “European” and vice versa,up to the final melding of the two elements). The great majority of authorsof analyses of national and supranational culture which have been publishedso far have made use of these transitions. They assume precisely such a complementarytreatment of native and European or world values, and promotethe idea of building one’s own culture both on the patriotic elements andon contact with the greatest achievements of the world/Europe. AleksanderGrzymała-Siedlecki’s postulate-aphorism, formulated in 1910, offers the finalconclusion of the generalised discussion about Polishness and Europeanism:“there should, as soon as possible, be the certainty: a work is great, and thereforePolish, and therefore also European. Polishness and Europeanism muststop being opposites, they must become synonyms” 8 . The following decadesbrought only further proposals for repeating this thesis, with many variantsintroduced by the ideologies of particular generations and political systems.The flaw in the view of universalism or Europeanism of Polish culture, formulatedboth in the quoted postulate and its initial formulations from the

The Evolution of Cosmopolitan Attitudes in Polish Musical Culture... 29beginning of the nineteenth century, is that its perspective on the totality,the whole, is a perspective on a myth, and not a historical fact. Constructinga myth of a whole in order to use it as a counterweight to particularism robsthe discussion about the position of a native culture on the global map of concretecontent, while its key words become mere labels covering an unidentified“product”, which often turns out to be a fake. In order to be able to answerthe question: what is a national culture in relation to European or worldculture, one should first investigate the historical content of the concepts ofuniversalism and Europeanism, and recognize their limitedness and changeability.These undermine the validity of using a universal (total) perspective,which results from regarding the totality called “the world” (or Europe) as thenorm for national cultures; its aim and fundamental potential, by definitionof universalism, would determine the status of these cultures as actualizationsof the whole.When Orzeszkowa was writing her study of cosmopolitanism, she was familiarwith the concept of historical universalism, shaped during the Middle Agesunder the rule of Western christianity. However, she did not base her holisticvision of Europe on that — on the contrary, she emphasised the diversity ofnational realisations of christianity. As a daughter of positivism, she opted forscience as a force much stronger and effective in promoting the developmentof general human culture than religion; she regarded it as the only fact whichreflects world order. The need to oppose the vision of medieval Europeanuniversalism, which levelled out (in her view, unsuccessfully) the differencesbetween cultures, to that of “modern” cosmopolitanism had, for Orzeszkowa,a deep methodological basis: fascinated by scientism, which promoted analyticalmethod, useful in investigating particular phenomena separated out ofthe wider reality as facts structured into causal chains, either objective onesor created by the investigator, she followed a route typical for the thinking ofher time, here quoted from an article by Antoni Złotnicki: “in order to knowthe whole, one has to get to know its various parts” 9 .The above aphorism remains relevant in twentieth-century discussion aboutthe position of national cultures on a holistic map, not so much as an objectivemethodological argument (the possibility of embracing the whole is today a

30 Magdalena Dziadekmuch more distant and less defined goal than in the days of the the ferventpromoters of scientism), but as a point of departure for historically accurateobservation of the course of events.The reason for this is that national culture had never been a part of, or theopposite of, the whole, for those who created programmes for its development,regardless of whether they were proponents or opponents of universalism. Itwas an element of a complicated system, with selectivity and hierarchicalstructuring — both opposites of the whole — as superordinate features.The necessity of selecting, and then identifying with a particular part ofthe whole, resulted at first from the awareness of the complexity of the actualnational interests overlaying the existing political structures. An excellentexample of this state of affairs is provided by pre-partition and postpartitionPoland, which represented a type of expansionism far removed fromthe mythologised universalism, but was close to cosmopolitanism as a systemcapable of reacting to political nuances. These nuances included the need tosafeguard one’s own separate identity by seeking alliances beyond the camp ofthe states participating in the partitions; furthermore, the necessity of meetingthe challenge of the peculiar geopolitical position in the great “tectonicridge” between the traditionally understood and accepted Latin Europe, andRussia, which, even if at times ostentatiously aligning with the West (its civilizationor aristocracy), remained Asiatic. Maps of European culture, drawnby analysts of Polish culture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, tookinto account the depth of the “ridge” which divided European West from theEast, and its influence on the climate in the other parts of the continent. Inthe view of Polish observers, this climate was cooled by a number of imperialistdoctrines being formulated in nineteenth-century Russia, headed by theideas of Mikhail Danilevski who, in his work Russia and Europe presenteda vision of the future domination of a Slav empire unified under the Russiansceptre over a Romano-Germanic civilization. The greater the perceivedthreat from the imperial ambitions of the tsars, the more intense were theattempts of the Poles to have their claims of belonging to the “real” Westrecognized by that West.Awareness of the uniqueness of the native culture and its place in Europe

The Evolution of Cosmopolitan Attitudes in Polish Musical Culture... 31was also shaped through the pressure of knowledge of how Europe perceivedPoland’s place within its organism. This, as we know, was the awkward positionof being the “middle”, where variously perceived proportions of Westernand Eastern influences were intermixed. Many important diagnoses formulatedby German-language authors judged the latter to be predominant. Itis enough to refer here to the fragments of the memoirs of Ernst TheodorAmadeus Hoffmann, where Warsaw is described as a typical Byzantine city,full of contrast and bazaar hubbub, or the monograph on Chopin by Liszt,who on a number of occasions draws comparisons between Polish and Arabcultures and customs. The “oriental nature” of Polish culture, intuited byWestern authors, made it in their view similar to Russia. Russia, as we know,was regarded by them as outside Europe, together with the Balkans, Romaniaand Bulgaria — countries whose links with Latin and Christian roots wereweak. In the eyes of the West, Russia was an alien and a young culture; OswaldSpengler claimed to have witnessed its birth to independent existence,describing in his Twilight of the West its cultural distinctiveness, using theimage of the passive Russian soul, suffering from a lack of the “Faustian”impulse to expansion and to building a living space for itself; a soul which“tries to lose itself — anonymously, submissively — in a horizontal world ofbrotherhood” 10 .The concept of the “real” West, which made the creators and observers ofthe development of Polish culture favour “limited universalism” (this terminologicalparadox appears in many works in the area of cultural geographystill today, thereby demonstrating the limited applicability of the term “universalism”),did not, in the nineteenth century, include either Russia or theother predatory conqueror — Prussia. The Europe of the positivists consistedmainly of Paris and London; it was a Europe of the Czartoryski clan, who, attheir court in Puławy were building a model (obligatory in the nineteenth century)of understanding the features and obligations of national culture whichprogrammatically excluded Russia from its boundary. The library collectionat the Gothic House at Puławy did not contain a collection of Russian literature,in spite of the fact that Prince Adam Czartoryski had spent a long timein St Petersburg 11 . During the second half of the nineteenth century, resis-

32 Magdalena Dziadektance against contacts with the partitioning states was a permanent feature ofthe social-political programme, and continuing nurture of spiritual ties to the“old” West as a way of preserving national identity was its significant part.The “old” West was now identified as the area within the boundaries closeto those of the nineteenth-century grand tours — journeys undertaken byPoles to breathe in the air of the civilized world and to learn to identify withit. Europe thus included Dresden, Munich, Vienna, Paris, London, Venice,Rome, Naples, sometimes Zurich, Genevea or Madrid. However, within theframework of a grand tour one did not visit Russian, Balkan or Greek cities.Bohemian lands were only travelled through, with cursory observations aboutthe character of their inhabitants and culture.This system began to change after the 1905–1907 revolution. As a resultof the weakening of the Russian state and the simultaneous intensification ofdemocratic tendencies, Poles became increasingly interested in the possibilityof establishing contacts with countries of Central-Eastern Europe. They werereferred to symbolically as Slavdom, although they also included non-Slaviccountres: Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. The beginnings of independentcultural contacts with those countries came from the grass-root initiatives ofsocial activists, writers, journalists, who independently established contactsand put into motion cultural exchanges. The original fora for “Slav” contactswere very often provided by women’s organisations, on principle interested inhelping those poorer than themselves, and Slav relatives were regarded as suchin Poland. The Slav movement before the First World War obviously foundsupport in the political ideologies of that time, and these, by necessity, hadto take into account the protection which the erstwhile hegemons: Russia,Austria or Germany, could give to the independent activities of Europe’s“lesser brethren”.The political situation which arose after 1918 threw new light on the ideasabout Poland and its culture’s entry into Europe. The main, most widespreadversion of the project brought back the traditional affection for France, Englandand sometimes also Italy, and renewed hostility towards the previouspartitioners. This hostility intensified as a result of observing the changes inthe political systems of Germany and Soviet Russia, which were perceived as

The Evolution of Cosmopolitan Attitudes in Polish Musical Culture... 33being opposed to humanism and traditional values. The permanent politicalcorrespondent of Kurier Warszawski, Stanisław Szpotański, made the followingstatement, which summed up those diagnoses and discussions of Europeanplans current in Poland between the wars and of interest to us here: “We cannotbe bolsheviks or followers of Hitler; we carve our way forward accordingto different engineering principles, and our fellow engineers are elsewhere” 12 .By “fellow engineers” Szpotański of course meant the French. The journalistpoliticianhad many predecessors in debates of this kind, politicians whocame from the circles embracing national democracy and its sympathisers,such as for instance Władysław Jabłonowski, who published a number of essaysabout the spiritual kinship of Poles with the representatives of Latin-Christian West, even before 1914.However, not all commentators found this vision convincing. The samenewspaper published in 1936 an article by I. Pannenkov with the provocativetitle: “Does Europe exist?”The author took the view that Europe was not the central focus of thepost-war world. It lost the status of being the main, the only centre becauseof demographic and economic changes, as well as the fact that Latin-Christianroots were no longer the universal point of self-identification for the Europeancommunity.The article referred to here, both in its title and its content, smuggled inelements of a new geographical-cultural awareness which denied the obligatorinessof previous limits, above all those which, only recently, had beendecisive in adopting the attitude, today called “colonial”, by the creators andanalysts of Polish culture. As we know, it is in a sense convergent with theold, “bad” cosmopolitanism. This attitude contains an element of dependence,even submissiveness, towards the opinion-making centres; it places itsown interests within these centres, while demonstrating total indifference towardsthe aspirations of those centres which share its colonial status or, touse another term — are regarded as peripheries.A significant part of the idea being developed in inter-war Poland, of movingaway from the position of a colony, was the renewal, consolidation and expansionof the existing, still very weak, ties with the other European “colonies”

34 Magdalena Dziadek— the countries of Central and North-Eastern Europe. It had little to dowith the old plan of creating a Slav empire under a Russian, Austrian oreven Polish sceptre (even though there was a strong feeling of the powerfulposition and leading role of Poland among the countries included in theidea of expansion). The essence of inter-war aspirations in the area of establishinga network of contacts between countries was the awareness of theirmutual equalisation in political and cultural interests (“Slavs can talk to eachother on equal terms” – is an anonymous quotation from a reporter at thecongress of the Association of Slavic Tourist Societies in Sofia in 1936 13 ),followed by more active concrete initiatives ensuing from adherence to theidea of contacts. Poland’s example abounds in such initiatives. They concern,most prominently, the official policy of leading musical institutions, forinstance Warsaw Philharmonia, which in the 1930s organised on its premisessystematic reviews of the music of the countries which shared common politicalinterests with Poland, or simply shared the location in the area ofEurope which appeared blank when looked at from the Western perspective.In 1936 the board of directors of the Philharmonia declared officially that“one of the plans of the board of directors of Warsaw Philharmonia is toprovide the opportunity of at least a cursory acquaintance with the currentachievements of these particular countries” 14 . The countries in question wereCzechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia,— almost the full complement of countries which used to lie “on the otherside” of Europe’s boundary. Organisers of pre-war musical competitions hadsimilar aspirations, openly regarded by the public and the critics as internationalcompetitions with political significance; similar aspirations can be seenduring the inter-war years in the initiatives of many other Polish institutionsrepresenting both high and popular musical culture, and those of individualartists who enthusiastically penetrated the young markets of Slavic countries,creating a new cosmopolitanism, with a different direction in relation to thetraditional one, but in fact not oppositional but complementary to it. Thisnew cosmopolitanism seemed to bode well for the future at the outbreak ofthe Second World War. However, political and regime changes which tookplace after 1945 stopped its development and, moreover, led to the question-

The Evolution of Cosmopolitan Attitudes in Polish Musical Culture... 35ing of the usefulness of maintaining contacts with countries whose cultures,in their constrained form, became again typical colonial cultures. Discussionsof the postcolonial status and self-identification as cultural peripheries 15 ofthe cultures of Central Europe, usually refer to the consequences of captivityunder totalitarianism. Maria Delaperérre, who specializes in modern Slavicliteratures, points to such consequences in her study Jak się wydobyć z partykularyzmu?[How to overcome particularism?], devoted to a descriptionof cultural pluralism born in the two decades between the wars among therepresentatives of literary avantgarde in the “peripheral” countries. “It couldnot withstand the pressure of history” – she claims, adding that the rebirth ofsuch an attitude after the war was hampered by the fashion, persistent in theWest, for actively politically committed creative work 16 . It would be difficultmechanically to extend her conclusions to cultural reality outside literature;nevertheless a reference to the pressure of history may explain a lot when itcomes to the attitudes of those who create Polish musical culture today. After1989 there has not been one single attempt to shake off post-colonialismand to reach back to the achievements of the inter-war period in the areaof modernising cosmopolitan attitudes, in the sense of harnessing contactswith the old and new neighbours in creating an image of culture and plansfor its development. Eloquent evidence of this is provided by the policies offestivals of contemporary music being organised in Poland. The leader in thefield in this respect is the “Warsaw Autumn” festival, whose decision-makersdeclared some years ago the need to “reach down” to the contemporary “lesserbrethren” of musical culture, but limited themselves to penetrating Scandinaviancountries, which today are generally perceived as belonging to the“old” West. The cosmopolitanism of modern Polish musical culture is notvery different from the nineteenth-century cosmopolitanism, althought thepremisses for choosing the contact points have changed — from political toeconomic. The Europe of a musical Pole is the Europe in which flourish therefined programmes of Beethoven Easter Festival, arranged according to theprescriptions of pre-war German concert guides. To what extent are they, andcan they be, the “universal” guides for us? The answer to this question cannotbe another easily-made declaration. It demands new directions in research,

36 Magdalena Dziadekwhich would create the opportunity of bringing back to the general awarenessthe relevant events from the more and less distant past, among them thosediscussed in this paper.Notes1 Bolesław Prus, Kronika Tygodniowa [Weekly Chronicle] [1897] Quoted after:Publicystyka okresu pozytywizmu 1860-1900. Antologia [Publicism of the PositivismEra 1860-1900. Anthology], ed. Stanisław Fita. Warszawa 2002, p. 202.2 Aleksander Świętochowski, Wskazania polityczne [Politic Indications] [1882]. Quotedas above, p. 191.3 Eliza Orzeszkowa, Patriotyzm i kosmopolityzm. Studium społeczne [Patriotism andCosmopolitism. Social Study], Warszawa 1879, p. 123.4 Orzeszkowa’s framework includes also “bad” cosmopolitanism, to which she refers as“antipatriotism”, and which she associates, very innovatively, with, among otherthings, “the distancing of members of society from taking on public roles and tasks”(as above, p. 230).5 La Mara [Maria Lipsius], Liszt und die Frauen, Leipzig 1919, p. 145.6 Ferdynand Zweig, Cztery systemy ekonomii. Uniwersalizm – nacjonalizm – liberalizm– socjalizm [Four Systems of Economics. Universalism – Nationalism – Liberalism –Socialism], Kraków 1932, p. 50.7 See Ferdynand Zweig, Cztery systemy... [Four Systems...], op. cit., pp. 51–54.8 Adam Grzymała-Siedlecki, ‘Polskość i europeizm’ [‘The Polish Character andEuropeanism’], Tygodnik Ilustrowany 1910 No. 13, p. 248.9 Antoni Złotnicki, Człowiek, istota jego i przyszłość [The Man, his Being and Future],Warszawa 1902. Quoted after: Barbara Skarga, Porządek świata i porządek wiedzy[The Order of the World and the Order of the Knowledge], in: Z historii filozofiipozytywistycznej w Polsce. Ciągłość i przemiany [Some Problems of the History ofPositivism Philosophy in Poland. Continuousness and Changes], eds. AnnaHochfeldowa and Barbara Skarga. Wrocław–Warszawa–Kraków 1972, p. 29.10 Oswald Spengler, Zmierzch Zachodu [The Decline of the West], transl. Józef Marzęcki.Warszawa 2001, p. 193.11 See: Alina Aleksandrowicz, Izabela Czartoryska polskość i europejskość [IzabelaCzartoryska — the Polish Character and European Character], Lublin 1998, pp. 22–23.12 Stanisław Szpotański, ‘Polska w świecie łacińskim’ [‘Poland in the Latin World’],Kurier Warszawski 1935 No. 122.13 ‘IX Kongres Związku Słowiańskich Towarzystw Turystycznych’ [‘The 9th Congress ofthe Union of Slavs Tourist Societies’], Kurier Warszawski 1936 No. 253.14 Bis [[Leopold Binental?], ‘Z muzyki’ [‘Some Music Problems’], Kurier Warszawski1936 No. 338 (the excerpt quoted is a quotation from Przewodnik Koncertowy[Concert Guide] published by the Filharmonia).15 See Maria Delaperiérre, Dialog z dystansu [ Dialogue from Distance], Kraków, p. 226.16 Ibid., p. 228.

3From Spiš to Royal Prussia — the CreativeDevelopment of Johannes Celscher §Agnieszka LeszczyńskaInstitute of Musicology, University of WarsawJohannes Celscher is a composer who is absent from modern music lexicons 1 ,and his work, preserved, with one exception, in incomplete form, has becomea subject of research only recently. It seems, however, that this musician,who lived at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and whosecareer has links with regions such as Spiš, Ducal Prussia, Lithuania and RoyalPrussia, deserves a greater degree of attention. He was a composer who,throughout his life, was in search of a permanent position, never tied to anyinstitution for long, composing above all to the orders of current sponsors.There were many such itinerant musicians in the Europe of that time; some ofthem eventually found employment as court or church kapellmeisters, othershad to be satisfied with less profitable appointments. Celscher was amongthe latter. The reconstruction of his creative development relies above all onthe dedications in his works, and some (scant) mentions in archives. Someperiods of his life are completely unknown, others can only be the subject ofhypotheses.Johannes Celscherus Cepusius – this name, indicating that the composer’sroots should be sought in Spiš, can be found on the title pages of early printsof his compositions (1596, 1600). Other versions of his name can also be foundin archival documents. Most probably it was he who was entered as a pupil§ This paper is a revised version, incorporating new data, of the author’s article ‘Johannes Celscher— kompozytor środkowoeuropejski’ [‘Johannes Celscher — a Central European Composer’],Polski Rocznik Muzykologiczny III, 2004, pp. 11–20.37

38 Agnieszka Leszczyńskaat the Gdańsk [Danzig] Gymnasium under the name of Johannes Czelischer,Novocomensis, Sepus 2 . According to this note, he had his origins in SpišskáNová Ves. He was probably born around 1565, as on 13 May 1585 he matriculatedat the University in Königsberg. This fact was noted as follows in theuniversity lists: Johannes Czolscheius, Cepusius, Musicus, ex commendationeM. Christophori Pannonij gratis receptus 3 . The description musicus indicatesthat Celscher must have arrived at Königsberg already as an educated artist.Of interest is the person of his patron, owing to whom the entry fee, obligatoryfor every student, was waived in Celscher’s case. Christophorus Preiss,also known as Pannonius (1515–1590), a humanist educated at Wittenberg,came from Bratislava. In 1579 he became a professor at the University ofKönigsberg; earlier he spent 14 years at Toruń [Thorn] 4 . Pannonius was theauthor of an epigram in praise of the lute, printed at the beginning of the tablatureof Benedict de Drusina from 1556, which may be taken as evidence thathis links with musicians were not simply sporadic. He probably supportedthe candidature of the student, motivated by a feeling of solidarity with ayoung man from his own homeland. We do not know whether Celscher tookthe opportunity of being educated at a university which was one of best inthis part of Europe, because only a few weeks after matriculation, in June1585, he was entered as a pupil at the Gdańsk [Danzig] Gymnasium 5 . Thiseducational establishment was very highly regarded, and in higher years offeredcourses at university level; many among its pupils had already startedstudies at some university or had even obtained magister’s diplomas 6 . In thiscontext it is worth adding that Wenceslaus Pannonius, son of Christophorus,who earlier studied at Königsberg university, entered the Gdańsk school atthe same time as Celscher 7 . It is probable that both young men together tookthe decision to study at the Gdańsk Gymnasium, and it is also possible thatChristophorus Preiss vel Pannonius influenced their choice in some way.We know nothing about the course Celscher’s education took. The nextmention of him comes from 1596, when the musician sent to Gdańsk a motetdedicated to its councillors, which has not survived to the present day. Cityaccounts books describe him then as “des Herrn Saphior litauischen CanzlersMusicus” 8 , which means that at that time he must have been in the service of

From Spiš to Royal Prussia... 39Lew Sapieha. The name of Johannes Celscher is not among those of musiciansemployed at the court of the Chancellor of Lithuania discovered by IrenaBieńkowska in the archives of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. However,since the majority of musicians were described there only by name, one cansuppose that, for instance, references to the singer Jasiek, employed duringthe years 1593–1597 (with an interruption during 1595), relate to Celscher 9 .Assuming that the musical ensemble accompanied Sapieha on his varioustravels, one could hypothetically reconstruct the places in the Kingdom ofPoland which might have been visited by Celscher. The Jasiek in questionreceived payment two or three times a year: in 1593 he was paid on 12 January,24 April and 16 July 10 . In that year Lew Sapieha carried out his office mainlyin Vilnius, but in March he went for a short cure to Sandomierz, and thenhe attended the Sejm [Polish parliament]. He then returned to Lithuania,where he and his entourage probably stayed for long periods at his estates inSłonim or Mołodeczno 11 . In 1594 Jasiek received payment on 4 January and31 March. In February of that year Lew Sapieha moved to Poland and spentquite a long time there, mainly in Międzyrzec Podlaski 12 . Jasiek’s name thendisappears from the payroll for the next two years, reappearing only on 24June 1596 and later on 23 October. In the summer of that year Sapieha stayedalternately in Warszawa or in Kraków, maintaining continuous contact withKing Sigismund III and the king’s aunt, Anna Iagellon. In November he waspresent at her funeral at Wawel and earlier, in mid-October, he travelled as theking’s delegate to the synod at Brześć 13 . The last references to Jasiek comefrom 1597: from 16 January, 6 April and 4 September. With the Januarypayment he, like the other musicians, received additional monies for a furcoat 14 — perhaps the Chancellor’s treasury decided on this additional expensebecause of the desire to enhance the appearance of the Chancellor’s courtduring the sitting of the Sejm, attended by Lew Sapieha at the beginningof that year 15 . If Johannes Celscher could really be identified as the Jasiekmentioned in the accounts, then he probably had the opportunity not only ofvisiting many cities in the Kingdom of Poland, Kraków and Warszawa amongthem, but also of encountering royal musicians, such as Krzysztof Klabon.

40 Agnieszka LeszczyńskaSending the motet to Gdańsk in 1596 was the first in a series of Celscher’sunsuccessful attempts to find work in that city. Jasiek was one of the lowestpaid among Lew Sapieha’s musicians, so it is not surprising that he may havelooked for more profitable employment. Gdańsk, which he probably knewfrom his student days, would attract him because of its affluence and thehigh standards of its cappellas, but not every musician was lucky enough tofind work there. Perhaps Celscher was encouraged in making such attemptsby the fact that a year earlier, in 1595, Michael Toltzmann 16 , who also camefrom Spiš, found employment there as a singer in the Marian church 17 .1596 saw the beginning of Celscher’s career as a composer, not only becauseof the motet composed for Gdańsk, but also three other works (Gesänge),which have not survived, published in Königsberg by Georg Osterberg: twofor six voices and one for seven 18 . In the same year, during a visit to Elbląg[Elbing], Celscher was accepted, like Johannes Eccard, as a member of thelocal St Martin fraternity or marksmen’s society 19 . Being introduced into thefraternity must have been a mark of distinction for persons who came fromoutside the city. The composers probably owed this privilege not only to theirstanding as artists, but also to appropriate shooting skills. Both musiciansare likely to have met earlier in Königsberg, where Eccard was employed asdeputy kapellmeister, and later as kapellmeister to the Duke, during 1580–1604. Their paths crossed again during a later period.By 1600 Johannes Celscher was working as a cantor in Kwidzyn [Marienwerder]— we find the description chori musici Insulomariani moderator nextto his name on the title pages of prints from that period. He probably heldthis position at the local school 20 , although there is no mention of him in localdocuments. The duties of the Kwidzyn cantor included not only teachingsinging and theory of music, but also basic mathematics within these lessons.The classes took one hour each day 21 . The cantor was also obliged to actas choir conductor during Masses and funerals; the choir consisted of pupilsand adult singers belonging to the elite association Convivium musicum. TheMass was performed either chorally with the addition of a motet, or all of itwas sung polyphonically. Sunday vespers also had a more or less elaboratemusical framework 22 . We do not know what the repertory was and whether

From Spiš to Royal Prussia... 41Celscher played any part in its creation. However, two prints containing hiscompositions, but not belonging to the religious repertory, date from thattime (1600):Der erste Theil Kurzweiliger Deutscher Weltlicher Liedlein, mit4 Stim. lieblich zu singen, und auff Instrum. zu gebrauchen, nach Villanellenart... published by Osterberg in Königsberg 23 , and Echo in honorem nuptiarum... Dn. Henrici Strobandi junioris & ... Reginae ... D. AnthoniiTrosten, Senatoris olim Insul. relictae filiae .... octo vocibus compositae,published in Toruń by Andreas Cotenius 24 . Both these prints, as well as thelater editions, provide interesting evidence of the composer’s contacts withmore or less prominent figures of contemporary Prussian society.The first print contains 23 secular strophic songs with German texts. Celschergave this collection the following dedication: Dem Bestrengen Edelenunnd Ehrenvesten Herrn Hanns Albrecht Borcken auff Fredenaw u. Erbsassenund meinem günstigen Herrn und Patronen. The addressee of this dedication,probably a gentleman from Frednowy near Iława, was described by thecomposer as “kind master and patron”, and later as a “friend”, which seems toindicate that Celscher might have benefited from his generosity for a while.One of the songs, Im grünen Wald (No. 13), was dedicated to nobili viro Dn.Iohanni a Höhl, Musarum patrono colendo; it has not been possible to identifythis personage, but it was probably another of the composer’s benefactors.Another work — Friedlich wil ich (No. 17) — was given the inscription Symbolumvere nobilis ac strenui viri Dn. Friderici à Dobeneck. The addresseeof this dedication was a lawyer practising in Prabuty 25 . In the text of thissong we find the acrostic FRICH VON DOBNECKER. This type of devicewas frequently used in German songs, but was usually limited to the presentationof the first name. It can be found in a few other compositions fromthis collection, for instance in the song Von der Fortun (No. 2) we find theacrostic VALENTINUS. Interestingly, the same text was used by ValentinusHausmann in one of the compositions published in 1602 in Venusgarten, acollection which resulted from his travels in Ducal Prussia and Royal Prussiaduring 1598–99 26 . One cannot exclude the possibility that both artistsmay have then met and had opportunity to discuss their experiences. It isnot known who was the first to use this text, but Celscher’s reason for it

42 Agnieszka Leszczyńskawas probably a desire to honour the famous lutenist. The edition Der ersteTheil Kurzweiliger Deutscher Weltlicher Liedlein starts with two epigramsby Georg Reimann and Balthasar Timaeus. The latter was the rector of theschool in Kwidzyn 27 , while Reimann, who came from Silesia, was a professorof philology at Königsberg University and a friend of Johannes Eccard, whocomposed music to his texts 28 . The second of Celscher’s prints from 1600is the composition Echo in honorem nuptiarum, written for the wedding ofHeinrich Stroband the younger. His father, also Heinrich, was at that timethe Mayor of Toruń, highly regarded for his service to this city, while hehimself was a councillor 29 . The bride was Regina, the only daughter of AntonTrost, a councillor of Kwidzyn, by then deceased. It was probably thebride’s family who commissioned the composition for the wedding ceremonyfrom the local cantor; the text was written by Adam Volland, conrector ofthe Kwidzyn school, who came from Szprotawa [Sprottau] in Silesia 30 . It ismore than likely that, when writing a piece for the elite of Toruń patricians,Celcher eagerly took the opportunity to demonstrate his skill as a composer.For the first time he wrote a composition for eight voices and, althoughtonly its tenor survives, we can suppose that there was appropriate musicalarrangement to emphasize the echo effect used in the text. This is indicatedby the distribution of pauses in the extant part. A composition employingsuch an effect, unlikely to have been known to the local listeners at that time,must have sounded very impressive.One cannot exclude the possibility that it was partly because of this workthat as early as the next year, 1601, Johannes Celscher became a cantor inToruń (chori musici Thoruniensis moderator). During the same year he wrotetwo further wedding compositions, both printed by the Toruń printer AndreasCotenius. The first of them was Votum nuptiale ... Dn. Lucae Krigeri ...et ... Margaretae ... Dn. Alberti Dorpowski, Iudicij terrestris in districtuCulmensi Assessoris ... filiae for 5 voices 31 . Lucas Kriger probably belongedto a prominent Toruń family, which produced many town councillors 32 . Hisbride Margareta was the daughter of Albert Dorpowski, an assessor fromChełmno [Kulm]. Celscher’s second composition during 1601 was Harmoniain honorem nuptiarum ... Dni Johannis Knipkau inclytae urbis Vratislaviensis

From Spiš to Royal Prussia... 43Pharmacopolae Industrii ... & ... Mariae, ... Dn. Ludovici Guttheteri aPlanowitz pie defuncti relictae filiae for 6 voices 33 The Latin text of thiscomposition was prepared by Matthias Nizolius, a professor at the ToruńGymnasium and also author of legal dissertations and rhetorical texts 34 . Theaddressees of the composition were a Wrocław [Breslau] apothecary, JohannesKnipkau and Maria, daughter of Ludwik Guttheter from Planowitz (it hasnot been possible to identify this location).It is not clear why a wedding composition for a citizen of Wrocław [Breslau],a city with strong musical traditions, should have been commissioned from anartist in Toruń. The reason may lie in Celscher’s personal contacts, or perhapshis fame as a specialist in musical epithalamia spread as far as Silesia. In thewedding compositions written in 1600 and 1601 the musician followed thesixteenth-century convention of using Latin poetical texts, usually written byteachers from the gymnasium, and the form of these compositions was similarto that of the motet. Later ones took the form of German strophic songs.In 1602 it seemed as if a new opportunity opened before Celscher. NicolausZangius, who followed Johannes Wanning as kapellmeister at the Marianchurch in Gdańsk, ran away to Prague trying to save himself from the plaguewhich was sweeping the city. Hearing of the vacant position, Celscher sentanother of his compositions to Gdańsk — a 14-voice motet (now no longerextant) 35 . Such a cast was a new departure in the compositional practice inthe Royal Prussia of that time 36 , and the composer probably hoped that hiswork would beat the competition and thus secure him the desired position.His hopes were not realised, but next year he received from the Marian churchan honorarium worth 7.8 Marks 37 . This might have been payment for themotet referred to above, or some other composition.In 1604 Andreas Cotenius published in Toruń another wedding compositionby Celscher — Hochzeit Lied ... Jacob Koy dem Jüngern und Barbara...Christiani Strobands seligen...Widwe [...] 38 . It was addressed to Jacob Koye,who in that year became the Mayor of Toruń and Barbara, widow of ChristianStroband (died in 1601), the brother of the then mayor, Heinrich. It issignificant that the title page no longer describes Celscher with the modest appellationof chori musici moderator, but refers to him as bestellter Componist

44 Agnieszka Leszczyńskain Thorn. This seems to provide evidence that Toruń councillors appointedhim as the city’s composer.The last known date from Celscher’s life is 1608, when Osterberg’s printingworks in Königsberg published Epithalamium zu Hochzeitlichen...JohanniAm Ende Churf. Drbt zu Preussen u. Ambtschreibern auff Marienwerderund...Margarethae...Andreae Schefflers Ertz Priesters und Pfarres der Thumkirchenin Marienwerder...Tochter for 6 voices 39 . This time both bride andgroom were citizens of Kwidzyn: Johann Am Ende was the town clerk, andMargareta Scheffer was the daughter of the local parson. Celscher’s name onthe title page is not accompanied by information about his position. Thismay mean that he was no longer Toruń’s composer and that he returned toKwidzyn, having left the city some years previously. An Epithalamium by JohannesEccard with identical addressees was published at the same time andby the same printer. Both works seem to be not so much the effect of rivalrybetween the composers, as collaboration based on many years’ acquaintance.Johannes Celscher’s output was not limited to printed works. Manuscript4005 of Biblioteka Gdańska of the Polish Academy of Sciences, written for thechurch of St Bartholomeaus, contains a Mass Domine quid multiplicati suntfor 6 voices, comprising Kyrie and Gloria parts 40 . This is the only work ofthe composer preserved in full. It is a parody of the 6-voice motet by Orlandodi Lasso, published in the collection Motetta sex vocum... in Munich in 1582— a copy of this print was held at the library of the Marian church in Elbląg.The fact is significant in so far as Celscher’s second Mass, also a two-part one,entitled Angelus ad pastores and preserved in an incomplete state (out of thefive voices only the tenor and quintus remain) at Biblioteka UniwersytetuMikołaja Kopernika in Toruń, also originates from the collection of the samechurch in Elbląg 41 . The attribution of this work is not unquestionable, sinceit only carries the initials JCC; however, in view of Celscher’s links withElbląg referred to above, and the fact that these initials do not correspondto the initials of any other composer of that time, it seems highly probablethat he is the author in question. The Mass Angelus ad pastores was basedon a motet by Orlando di Lasso from the collection Sacrae cantiones quinquevocum (Nürnberg 1562), a print which was also held in the collection of the

From Spiš to Royal Prussia... 45Marian library in Elbląg 42 . These facts seem to confirm Celscher’s strongties with this city. Finally one should also mention the song Kein Elfenbeinwie schön for 5 voices (two are extant) from the manuscript Bártfa 16 heldat the Budapest National Library (Országos Széchényi Könyvtár), originatedfrom the church of St Egidus in Bardejov in Spiš 43 . The collection began tobe compiled at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and the presence ofCelscher’s compositions in it may be regarded as evidence that the musiciandid not totally break off contact with his homeland.It is difficult to assess the works of Johannes Celscher, since only a tiny proportionhas survived. However, a comparison of two compositions — the completeMass Domine quid multiplicati sunt and the nearly complete Harmoniain honorem nuptiarum Dni Johannis Knipkau, gives one the impression thatthe composer felt more comfortable when creating in secular style. Harmoniashows greater mobility of voices, has a richer structure, employs imitation,while the Mass is dominated by almost recitative melodics, the voices movingin the nota contra notam technique. The Mass Angelus ad pastores seemsmore intricate, but this is difficult to ascertain with confidence on the basis ofthe two extant voices. Songs from the collection Der erste Theil KurzweiligerDeutscher Weltlicher Liedlein belong to the current typical of secular Germanmusic of the second half of the sixteenth century. At least 13 out of the 23texts used in them can also be found in the works of such composers as: JacobRegnart, Leonhard Lechner, Gregor Lange, Otto Siegfried Harnisch andValentin Hausmann. Celscher consciously referred here to the villanella form,as did many other composers writing German songs.The dominance of epithalamia in the composer’s output point to his linksto the culture of the Baltic basin, where this genre was highly popular. Boththese compositions, in view of their addressees, and the other ones, dedicatedto specific persons, link Celscher’s works to his “little homelands”. Therelatively small number of sacred compositions does not necessarily indicatethat Celscher tried to avoid them. Religious compositions written for the useand the needs of a particular church usually remained in manuscript form,and this meant that their chances of being preserved were lower than thoseof prints. One should also remember that the composer was probably never

46 Agnieszka Leszczyńskapermanently connected with any church; his position as cantor was probablyin a school, which might also have influenced the proportions of sacrum toprofanum in his output. Had he obtained employment at the Marian churchin Gdańsk, the proportions would probably have been different. Celscher wasundoubtedly a reasonably accomplished composer, who skillfully employedthe devices developed within Western European music, such as the techniqueof parody. However, he was not one of the prominent composers of his time,his works were predominantly of local significance, and his reputation did notspread beyond the boundaries of Central Europe.Notes1 Robert Eitner has a short note about him in: Biographisch-BibliograhischesQuellen-Lexicon der Musiker und Musikgelehrten, vol. 2, Leipzig 1900, p. 390, aone-sentence mention of him is also included in Slovenský Biografický Slovnik, vol. 1,Martin 1986, p. 36.2 Zbigniew Nowak, Przemysław Szafran (eds.), Księga wpisów uczniów GimnazjumGdańskiego [Book of Entries of Gdańsk Gymnasium Students], Warszawa 1974, p. 46.3 Georg Erler, Die Matrikel des Albertus-Universität zu Königsberg, vol. 1, Leipzig 1910,p. 85.4 Slovenský Biografický Slovnik, vol. 4, Martin 1990, p. 535 .5 Z. Nowak, P. Szafran, op. cit., p. 46.6 Z. Nowak, P. Szafran, op. cit., p. 10–12.7 See Z. Nowak, P. Szafran, op. cit., p. 56, G. Erler, op. cit., p. 68.8 Hermann Rauschning, Geschichte der Musik und Musikpflege in Danzig, Danzig 1931,p. 67.9 See Irena Bieńkowska, ‘Muzycy Lwa Sapiehy’ [‘Lew Sapieha’s Musicians’], Barok.Historia – Literatura – Sztuka V/2, 1998, pp. 43, 45. ‘Jasiek’ is the diminutive of thePolish name ‘Jan’ = ‘Johannes’.10 Vilnius, Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, ms. F 17–106 f. 56. Otherinformation given here about the dates of payments is based on the same document.11 See Henryk Lulewicz, ‘Sapieha, Lew’, in: Polski Słownik Biograficzny [PolishBiographical Dictionary], vol. XXXV/1, Warszawa-Kraków 1994, pp. 84, 86, 87.12 H. Lulewicz, op. cit., p. 87.13 H. Lulewicz, op. cit., pp. 87, 88.14 I. Bieńkowska, op. cit., p. 45.15 H. Lulewicz, op. cit., p. 88.16 H. Rauschning, op. cit., p. 60.17 Ms. 477 (f. 17v) of Biblioteka Gdańska of the Polish Academy of Sciences describeshim as Michael Tolzmannus Czepusius.18 The only copy of the print, now lost, was held before the Second World War at Elbląg

From Spiš to Royal Prussia... 47St. Marienbibliothek, see R. Eitner, op. cit., Theodor Carstenn, ‘Katalog der St.Marienbibliothek in Elbing’, Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch XI (1896), p. 42.19 George Grunau, Axel Grunau, Die St. Georgen-Brüderschaft zu Elbing, Marburg –Lahn 1955, pp. 12, 250–251.20 The annual salary of the Toruń cantor in 1585 amounted to 80 marks, while theteacher was paid 90, and the organist 60. See Hans Dühling, Das GymnasiumMarienwerder, Würzburg 1964, pp. 20–21.21 H.Dühling, op. cit., pp. 23–28.22 Erich Wernicke, Marienwerder. Geschichte der ältesten Stadt der ReichsdeutschenOstmark, Marienwerder 1933, p. 189.23 From a copy which came from the University Library in Königsberg only the alto partis extant at the Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. My grateful thanks goto Elżbieta Wojnowska, who drew my attention to the presence of this and otherprints of J. Celscher’s work in Vilnius.24 Only the tenor is preserved at Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek atGöttingen.25 Erich Wernicke, Kreis Marienwerder, Hamburg 1979, p. 68.26 Valentin Hausmann (1565/70-ca. 1614): A Thematic-Documentary Catalogue of HisWorks With a Documentary Biography, ed. by Robert B. Lynn, Klaus-Peter Koch,Stuyvesant, NY 1997, pp. 10–11, 126.27 H. Dühling, op. cit., p. 57.28 Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, vol. 27, Leipzig 1888, pp. 701–702.29 Henryk Rietz, ‘Stroband, Henryk’, in: Słownik biograficzny Pomorza Nadwiślańskiego[Biographical Dictionnary of Vistula Pomerania Region], vol. IV, ed. by ZbigniewNowak, Gdańsk 1997, p. 283.30 H. Dühling, op. cit., p. 57. To celebrate the same event there also appeared the printAmores Henrici Strobandi [...] et Reginae with poems by Toruń authors, published byCotenius.31 The only surviving ones now are the alto and quinta vox at the Library of theLithuanian Academy of Sciences. They come from a copy which belonged to theUniversity Library at Königsberg before the Second World War.32 See Marian Gumowski, Herbarz patrycjatu toruńskiego [The Armorial of ToruńPatriciate], Toruń 1970, pp. 101, 102.33 A nearly complete set (without sexta vox) is held at the Iagellonian Library, fourvoices from the second copy are distributed among the libraries of the CatholicUniversity in Lublin, The Society of the Friends of Science in Legnica, and NationalLibrary.34 Stanisław Salmonowicz: ‘Kultura umysłowa Torunia’ [‘Intellectual Culture of Toruń’],in: Historia Torunia [History of Toruń], vol. II, part. 2: W czasach renesansu,reformacji i wczesnego baroku (1548–1660) [In the Times of Renaissance, Reformationand Early Baroque (1948-1660)], ed. by Marian Biskup, Toruń 1994, p. 228.35 H. Rauschning, op. cit., p. 67.36 But, for instance, a compatriot of Celscher, Adam Plintovitz from Žilina, composedduring more or less the same period a Mass for 14 voices, which has also not survived.See Richard Ribarič, ‘Hudba’, in: Slovensko, vol. IV: Kultúra, Bratislava 1979, p. 524.37 H. Rauschning, op. cit., p. 67.

48 Agnieszka Leszczyńska38 Only the alto voice survives from the copy held at the University Library inKönigsberg before the Second World War; it is now held at the Library of theLithuanian Academy of Sciences.39 As in footnote 38.40 See Danuta Popinigis, Danuta Szlagowska, Musicalia gedanenses. Rękopisy muzycznez XVI i XVII wieku w zbiorach Polskiej Akademii Nauk. Katalog [MusicaliaGedanenses. Musical Manuscripts from the 16th and 17th century in Collection ofPolish Academy of Sciences Library in Gdańsk. Catalogue], Gdańsk 1990, p. 55.41 See Agnieszka Leszczyńska, ‘Późnorenesansowe fragmenty mszalne z dawnej bibliotekielbląskiego kościoła Mariackiego’ [‘Late Renaissance Mass Fragments from the FormerLibrary of Marian Church in Elbląg’], in: Źródła muzyczne. Krytyka — analiza —interpretacja [Musical Sources. Critics — Analysis — Interpretation], eds. LudwikBielawski, J. Katarzyna Dadak-Kozicka, Warszawa 1999, pp. 194–195.42 More details about these Masses are given in my article ‘Technika parodii wtwórczości renesansowych kompozytorów kręgu gdańskiego’ [‘The Technique of Parodyin the Oeuvre of Renaissance Composers from the Gdańsk Circle’], Polski RocznikMuzykologiczny 4, 2005 (in press).43 Róbert Árpád Murányi, Thematisches Verzeichnis der Musiksammlung von Bartfeld(Bártfa), Bonn 1991, pp. 59, 366.

4Importation or Participation? Remarks on theReception and Adaptation of the Genre musicamore antiquo mensurata in Sixteenth-CenturyPoland §Elżbieta ZwolińskaInstitute of Musicology, University of WarsawOne of the thematic requirements of this year’s conference was to “...presentthe phenomena under discussion from their external perspective, i.e., theirimportation into the area of Poland. [...] The subject of the conference presupposespresentation of research into Poland’s place on the historical map ofmusical culture in Europe”. This paper attempts to develop the theme definedby this framework through a discussion of selected specific material, but alsoto take up a position in relation to the main subject of the conference. Thetitle of the conference employs concepts which are, to an extent, consensual(it would be difficult to provide unambiguous definitions of “national boundaries”or “religious boundaries”), and largely determined historically. Both theexpression “European musical repertory” and its context 1 also in my opinionrequire a brief commentary, since we are dealing here with a relationship ofa part to a whole: the musical repertory of Europe (or, more generally, themusical culture of Europe) represents the whole, while its part is that sectionof the repertory which was known in Poland, including native, non-imported,compositions (after all, the music composed in Poland is also unquestionablya part of the European repertory!). The expression “the presence of the repertory”also seems rather general (or even ’static’), and when used in relation§ This paper was presented at the XXXII Polish Musicological Conference Beyond Borders ofNations and Religion. Presence of the European Musical Repertoire on the Territory of Polandand its Border Lines in April 2003.49

50 Elżbieta Zwolińskato the subject of my paper may be supplemented by the concepts of receptionand adaptation.The issues raised at this conference refer largely back to themes discussedon earlier occasions, such as the Warsaw symposium Staropolszczyzna muzycznain 1996, which included an important discussion attempting to definethe essence of our cultural heritage also in the wider, European context 2 . Thesame issues were taken up at a closed session Musique en Pologne et la cultureeuropéenne at Radziejowice in 1990 3 , and even at a conference which tookplace over 30 years ago — the fourth Polish Musicological Conference of theMusicology Section of the Polish Composers’ Union in 1970 in Poznań. Thelatter was devoted to ‘Zakres przedmiotowy historii muzyki polskiej’ [‘TheSubject Area of the History of Polish Music’] 4 , and I mention it mainly inorder to quote a few selected theses, formulated then by Mirosław Perz duringthe discussion. These had a significant influence on the research and interpretationof sources of history of musical culture in Poland, and, indirectly,perhaps also on the issues being discussed at the present session. The thesesin question are: *it is not possible to distinguish Polish music as a separatecategory in European music as a whole; it is, however, possible to define thepart shaped with the participation of Poland; * that participation was not aparticular and exceptional feature of Poland’s musical situation, but a permanentand organic one, resulting from Poland’s presence in the Europeanformation; *the feature of this participation, not just by Poland but by everyother national and state group within this formation, was a full entitlementto draw on the generally accepted standards (which are not identical withparticular influences) 5 . I have repeatedly underlined the word “participation”and used it in the title of my paper in order to emphasise its role as an alternativeto the concept of “importation”, chosen by the conference organisers;“participation” is a wider concept, which allows one to interpret phenomenabelonging to the period under discussion in the context of European universitasand its fundamental factors: latinitas and christianitas.Within latinitas we have the genre of musica more antiquo mensurata (Ifollow Professor Giuseppe Vecchi 6 in using this name). It is a concept relatingabove all to the phnomenon described in musicological literature as

Importation or Participation?... 51the so-called ’humanistic ode’ or ‘metric ode’ (Odenkomposition in German),but its range is wider. The humanistic ode is a vocal genre (which might besupported by instruments) for classical Latin (above all Horace) or later (Medievaland Renaissance) texts; the rhythm in those works had to be totallysubordinated to the length of the poetic feet in the given genre of strophe.Thus, in order to reflect the poetic meter in melody, it was sufficient to usetwo rhythmic values as equivalents of the long and short syllables. The onesusually selected were breve and semibreve or semibreve and minim (the set:longa — brevis is encountered less frequently). The rhythmic values oftenarrange themselves here into configurations which, from the point of view ofthe principles of mensural theory, are illogical and lack cohesion. Althoughcompositions in this genre constitute an important aspect of the questionabout the influence of the ideas of Renaissance humanism on music, there isno uniform judgment regarding its position. For instance, Ludwig Finscherdescribes the polyphonic ode using the epithet “Halbmusik” 7 . He bases thisdescription on the argument that the composer has no voice in the rhythmicshaping of the work; he has been deprived of half the devices employed incomposition (the humanistic ode is usually for four voices and the genre demandsthat all the voices have the same rhythmic course, kept within the notacontra notam counterpoint). On the other hand, Giuseppe Vecchi has this tosay: “Musica more antiquo mensurata (first tried in the German gymnasia,then transported to France and Italy) gave the composer an opportunity ofcreating new, more segmented rhythmic organisations, breaking the boundsof perfectio-imperfectio and following the suggestions of classical metres.” 8Among those who composed in this genre were both musicians whose significancewas merely local, whose skills barely enabled them to try their hand atcomposition, and prominent composers such as Hofhaimer, Senfl, Judenkunigor even the great Orlando. The initiation of the genre of metric ode is usuallyascribed to Konrad Celtes (vel Celtis, 1459–1508). Without deprecating theachievements of the famous humanist one should mention that the genre hadits antecedents not only in choral episodes in the slightly earlier humanistdramas (comedies), but also in the well-known practice of singing (monodic)hymns rhythmicised in accordance with the kind of strophe employed 9 . How-

52 Elżbieta Zwolińskaever, in the case of Celtes we are dealing with a clear programme — poetalaureatus assigned to this genre a particular, humanistic commentary, basedon the idea of antique latinitas: the ode form was to make the learning ofclassical Latin poetry more pleasant, and to bring students closer to an understandingof the essence and beauty of the antique culture; the didacticaim (“ad iuventutem exercendam”) was combined here with popularising thehumanistic attitude of being open to art and to passing time in a worthwhilemanner. This is emphasised by the sophisticated graphic presentation of thefirst publication of this genre: Horatian odes “musicalised” by Peter Tritoniuswith the cooperation of Celtes, published for the first time in 1507 by theAugsburg printer Erhard Oeglin 10 (engravings showing antique gods, amongthem Apollo with his lyre on the Parnassus with the Muses, the text of thetitle page arranged in the shape of a goblet — crater Bachi — with the centreof the composition taken up by a Sapphic strophe 11 ).Polyphonic metric odes were composed throughout the sixteenth century inthe countries of Central Europe; we have printed collections of such compositionsfrom Germany, Bohemia and Hungary. Of course, the genre was alsoknown in Poland; there are extant — admittedly not numerous — sourceswhich confirm its familiarity in educational circles (an excellent text on thissubject was published in 1984 by Ryszard Wieczorek 12 ). It is generally assumedthat this was an import, but this assumption is no longer obvious whenone examines it in the context of the life story of Celtes. The highly colourfulKraków episode in his biography (years 1487–1489) includes not only the famousaffair with Hasilina, the mathematical and astronomical studies at theUniversity [sic!] or his own lectures on poetics; it also covers the foundingof Sodalitas Litteraria Vistulana — The Vistula Literary Society — wherethe poet encountered, among others, Wawrzyniec Korwin and Filip Buonacorsi,i.e. the famous Kallimach 13 . This allows us to pose the question aboutthe extent to which the idea of “musicalizing” classical poetry, formulated byCeltes a few years later in his Ingolstadt lectures (1494) and disseminated inother literary societies, represented a new departure, as opposed to maturingduring his earlier peregrinations (among other places, to Kraków). Thus

Importation or Participation?... 53the question “importation or participation?” seems justified in this context,although the answer will not necessarily be clearcut.Among the sources of music composed to the metre of Latin texts one candistinguish a number of groups. One could regard as “imports” the printedpolyphonic odes preserved to this day in Polish libraries 14 (for example, theMelopoiae by Celtes — Tritonius 15 referred to earlier, or Grefinger’s Cathemerinonto the texts of Prudentius, published by Wietor in Vienna in 1515 16 ),as well as texts about literature with examples of single melodies (monodies)rhythmicised appropriately to the presented poetry (for example, Korwin’sDialogus carmine et soluta oratione conflatus, Leipzig 1516 17 ). A separategroup of sources are non-musical prints containing manuscript musical glosses.In this case we are most probably dealing not only with “reception of an idea”,but also local creative activity in this field. One can mention as examples thecopies of incunabula De consolatione philosophiae by Boethius (Nuremberg1495) — one held at the Cathedral Library in Gniezno (polyphonic glosses),the others at Warsaw University Library (monodic glosses), and other itemsheld at Gniezno Cathedral Library, where single polyphonic compositionshave been written in — the incunabulae with Ovid’s poetry (Leipzig 1492),or the print of Korwin’s Latinum ydeoma (Rotenburg 1503) 18 .It is worth emphasising that, apart from texts of classical antiquity, religioustexts also come to serve as the basis of metricalised musical settings (Prudentius,Boethius); the genre we are discussing is thus an example of humanisticcombination of antique and Christian latinitas. An important (and perhapsthe most frequently quoted) example of this phenomenon is the contrafactumof the Sapphic verse from Tritonius’s Metopoiae collection, written intomanuscript 2616 in the Iagellonian Library collection. The Horatian ode Iamsatis terris has been replaced here by the Marian text O parens salve superitonantis (the authorship of this text has been ascribed to Paweł of Krosno 19 ).It is also a known fact that Jerzy Liban was interested in the genre, and inhis treatise De accentum ecclesiasticorum he confessed that, with the teachingof Latin in mind, and in particular the length of syllables, he “ornamentedwith the four-voice” 26 verses of Boethius and Horace 20 . Ryszard Wieczorekhypothesises that the musical glosses in the Gniezno copy of Boethius’s De

54 Elżbieta Zwolińskaconsolatione philosophiae are copies of these compositions by Liban 21 . However,this interesting idea cannot be accepted without reservations in viewof certain difficulties in creating satisfactory transcriptions of the preservedmaterial. For the moment, what can be regarded as examples of local polyphoniccompositions in this genre are still those referred to earlier, i.e. thevoices preserved in the sources from Gniezno Cathedral Library, as well asmusical choruses in Reuchlin’s comedy Henno, preserved in manuscript in theArchdiocese Archive in Poznań 22 .The problem of “the presence of European musical repertory in Poland”(ceterum censeo: in European Poland!) allows one to pose a question relatingnot only to the importation (participation), but also to the consequences ofthis presence. In the case of the genre under discussion here, its educationalaspect was certainly of great importance 23 . It was described very preciselyby Jerzy Liban:“Since for prosody, or accentus, it is essential to know the length of syllables, I regardit as a highly beneficial thing that everyday in all schools young people are beingread the verses of some great poet, for instance Virgil or Horace, and have themsung to a melody. In this manner the pupils may become thoroughly familiar withgrammar, learn Latin and also the length of syllables, which is clearly shown by thepoets. Owing to systematic and frequent reading of this kind the pupils will getused to the proper and correct pronunciation through singing, — one might evensay through play. We did this with the verses of Boethius and Horace: we haveornamented twenty six of the most elegant kinds of verses with the four-voice, thatis melodies for four voices [. . . ] 24 .One could add that the musical sources referred to earlier originate undoubtedlyfrom academic or school circles (areas of Kraków and Wielkopolska)and must have served there to realise the aims postulated by Liban.Another important phenomenon was the adaptation of the principle of‘metricality’ to non-Latin poetry, transferring it from the area of latinitasinto that of modern languages (as I have mentioned already, the range ofthe term musica more antiquo mensurata is wider than that of ’musicalised’Horatian ode); it is a known fact that in the area of secular music the Italiansdid it in the early frottola, the French in the intricate chanson mesurée, whilein Poland the most frequent example in this context is Krzysztof Klabon’s

Importation or Participation?... 55Pieśni Kalliopy Słowieńskiej. Of greater importance, however, seem to be thephenomena relating to religious works: to the songs of the Reformation communities,and in particular translations of psalms (the psalter), which weregiven forms patterned on the Horatian (pure or slightly modified) models 25 .In the Polish song repertory, both polyphonic and monodic, one can pointto examples of the conscious manipulation of metric feet or using particularkinds of verses (among the best known poly-voice works: the song Ach mójniebieski Panie or the psalm Alleluia Chwalcie Pana by Wacław of Szamotuły,the psalm Zaniechaj towarzystwa by Cyprian Bazylik; the anonymoussong Przestrach na złe sprawy ludzkiego żywota). The question has not yetbeen investigated in depth; the attention of those researching song repertoryhas been directed to the problem of stress (and even that in the context oftoday’s norms) and not length 26 .Finally, one other possible aspect of the issue under discussion should bementioned. It results from the fact that some kinds of strophes and metric feetof the genre in question became more popular and remained for a longer periodwithin the song repertory. This concerns above all the Sapphic verse andthe ionic metre. The problem has been noted by, among others, Hungarianmusicologists, in the context of the influence on folk music of the sixteenthcenturyrepertory discussed here (for example, Laszlo Dobszay: Der Weg einersapphischen Melodie in der Volksmusik; Bence Szabolcsi: Über das Fortlebenantiker Metren in der ungarischen Lied- und Tanzmusik) 27 . In Poland scholarshave been paying attention to the metre ionicus a minore (which appearsin, among others, the already mentioned Przestrach na złe sprawy by Rej, thesong Wesel się polska korona, some carols from that period) which, however, isin general anachronically described through the concept of “Masur rhythms”and interpreted as evidence of the existence of these rhythms at that time.It seems that, when discussing the origin of this phenomenon, one cannotignore the documented presence and role of metricalised music more antiquoin the culture of the sixteenth century. It is also worth adding that KonradCeltis advised young people, when singing Horatian odes, to accompany thesinging not only by the playing of a lyre or a lute, but by rhythmical bodymovements 28 .

56 Elżbieta ZwolińskaNotes1 The organizers included in this context Italian, French, German and Bohemian music;they also proposed a discussion of “supranational regions”.2 See Staropolszczyzna muzyczna, Księga konferencji Warszawa 18–20 października 1996[Musical Old Polish. Conference Book. Warsaw 18-20th October 1996], eds. J.Guzy-Pasiakowa, A. Leszczyńska, M. Perz, Warszawa: Neriton 1998.3 Materials presented at that conference have not been published.4 The papers and discussion were published in the quarterly Muzyka 1971 No.3.5 M. Perz, ‘Uwagi o treści pojęcia ’ [[‘Notes on the Content of the Concept’], Muzyka 1971 No. 3, pp. 23–27.6 G. Vecchi, ‘ Asprilia Pacellego’, Pagine vol. 5, Kraków-Warszawa1989, p. 1877 L. Finscher, Zum Verhältnis von Imitationstechnik und Textbehandlung in ZeitaltersJosquin, in: Renaissance-Studien. Helmut Osthoff zum 80. Geburtstag, Tutzing 1979,p. 66.8 G. Vecchi, op.cit., p. 187.9 See comments by G. Vecchi in his introduction to the edition: Petri Tritonii 1507, AMIS, Bologna 1967, p. 5 (CorpusMensurabilis More Antiquo Musicae, I). It is also worth adding that J. Černý does notexclude “experiments with metric patterns of antique prosody” in the compositions ofPetrus de Grudencz (cf. Petrus Wilhelmi de Grudencz Magister Cracoviensis operamusica, ed. J. Černý, Kraków: PWM 1993, p. 9, footnote 29). Some analogies mayalso be looked for in other earlier output, for instance, in the anonymous works fromŚpiewnik głogowski (dactylic Alga iacet, iambic Surrexit) or the manuscript Kras(trochaic Cristicolis fecunditas); cf. E. Zwolińska, Musica mensuralis in Polish MusicalSources up to 1600, in: Notae Musicae Artis, Musical Notation in Polish Sources,11th-16th Century, ed. by E. Witkowska-Zaremba, Kraków: Musica Iagellonica 2001,pp. 461–463; Sources of Polyphony up to c.1500. Transcriptions, ed. by M. Perz,Warszawa-Graz 1976, pp. 280–181 (Antiquitates Musicae in Polonia, vol. XIV).10 See P. Tritonius, Melopoiae sive harmoniae tetracenticae ..., Augsburg 1507 (RISMA/I T 1249, TT1249).11 Crater Bachi is a frequently used element of humanistic publications.12 R. Wieczorek, Boezio e l’ode umanistica in Polonia, in: Sodalium Voces, AMIS,Bologna 1984, pp. 85–100 (Miscellanee Saggi Convegni, vol. XXIV).13 M. Walicki repeats after H. Barycz that it was Kallimach who inspired Celtes with theidea of creating literary sodalitates, but this hypothesis seems doubtful (M. Walicki,Polskimi śladami Kulmbacha. 1. Hans Kulmbach jako ilustrator krakowskichwspomnień Celtisa [On Polish traces of Kulmbach. Hans Kulmbach as illustrator ofCracovian memories of Celtis], in, by the same author: Złoty widnokrąg [GoldenHorizon], Warszawa: Wyd. AiF 1965, p. 119).14 The fact that a source has been preserved in a library located in a particular region isof course only a supporting argument here.15 The copy of this work held at the Iagellonian Library, referred to at one time by J.Reiss, unfortunately disappeared during or after the Second World War. TheUniversity Library of Wrocław holds a copy which can be made available (cf. RISMA/I:TT1249).

Importation or Participation?... 5716 Copy held in the Ossolineum collection in Wrocław. See S. Łobaczewska, ‘Przyczynkido dziejów humanizmu w muzyce. I. Wolfgang Grefinger’ [‘Contributions to theHistory of Humanism in Music’], Kwartalnik Muzyczny II (1913), issue 1, pp. 3–23.17 My attention was drawn to this item by K. Jasińska, and I would like to take thisopportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to her. Copies of Korwin’s Dialogue arepreserved at, among others, the National Library and the University Library inWrocław.18 See R. Wieczorek, op.cit., passim; E. Zwolińska: op.cit., pp. 473–477.19 See J. Reiss, Najpiękniejsza ze wszystkich jest muzyka polska [The Most BeautifulAmong All Music is the Polish Music], Kraków 1984, p. 47; E. Witkowska-Zaremba,‘Czym była muzyka? W kręgu krakowskiej myśli o muzyce w XVI wieku’ [‘What WasMusic? In the Circle of Cracovian Thought about Music in the 16th Century’], in:Tradycje muzyczne katedry wawelskiej [Musical Traditions of The Wawel Cathedral],Kraków: PWM 1985, pp. 45–7.20 Jerzy Liban, Pisma o muzyce [Writings about Music], edition and translation E.Witkowska-Zaremba, Kraków: PWM 1984, p. 113 (Monumenta Musicae in Polonia,series C: Tractatus de Musica, I).21 R. Wieczorek, op, cit., pp. 96–97.22 See A. Nowakowska, ‘Aspekt muzyczny komedii humanistycznej w Polsce’ [‘MusicalAspect of the Humanistic Comedy in Poland’], Muzyka 1992 No. 2, pp. 29–64.23 This aspect in its relation to German schools is discussed mainly in the works of K.W.Niemöller (cf. his ‘Die Musik im Bildungsideal der allgemeninen Pädagogik des 16.Jahrhunderts’, Archiv für Musikwissenschaft XVII (1960), pp. 243–257; also by thesame author, ‘Zum Einfluß des Humanismus auf Position und Konzeption von Musikim deutschen Bildunssystem der ersten Hältfe des 16. Jahrhunderts’, in: Musik inHumanismus und Renaissance, hrsg. von W. Rüegg, A. Schmitt, Weinheim 1983,pp. 77–97.24 Jerzy Liban, op.cit., p. 113; the quotation is from the treatise De accentumecclesiasticorum exquisita ratione. Translated from the Latin by ElżbietaWitkowska-Zaremba.25 See J. Pelc, Europejskość i polskość literatury naszego renesansu [The European andPolish Character of Literature of our Renaissance], Warszawa: Czytelnik 1984, p. 194.26 See P. Poźniak, Repertuar polskiej muzyki wokalnej w epoce Renesansu [Repertoire ofPolish Vocal Music in the Period of Renaissance], Kraków: Musica Iagellonica 1999,p. 167 and the following. Poźniak, to whom we are also indebted for valuable editionsof polyphonic old Polish songs, assiduously changes the metre in the transcriptions inthe course of a composition, in order to ‘rein in mensurally’ the characteristic chainsof long and short notes. However, adopting the course based on length and giving upbar lines might perhaps result in a better musical text. In this context the questionmight also naturally arise of the ‘metricity’ of Gomółka’s Melodie na Psałterz Polski[Melodies to Polish Psalter] — after all, Kochanowski used a variety of classicalstrophes in his inspired translation. However, in Gomółka’s psalms we are dealingwith a different shaping principle; although we find here examples of using particularmetric feet (but mainly as an illustration — for example, the dance trochee in psalmXLVII), the pattern of the strophe is not reflected in a consistent manner by therhythmic devices (sequential lines with idential poetic metre are given different

58 Elżbieta Zwolińskarhythmic settings, and at times even the strophe arrangement is disturbed — see howthe model of the Sapphic verse is realised in psalm XXVIII, with the adonic versebeing shortened).27 L. Dobszay, ‘Der Weg einer sapphischen Melodie in der Volksmusik’, StudiaMusicologica Academiae Scentiarum Hungaricae, XIII (1971), pp. 203–213; B.Szabolesi, ‘Über das Fortleben antiker Metren in der ungarischen Lied- undTanzmusik’, in: Festschrift Heinrich Besseler zum sechzichsten Geburtstag, Leipzig1961, pp. 15–19. The subject of ‘insinging’ of the melody of the sixteenth-centurysetting in the Phalaeceus metre of Martialis’ hymn Vitamque faciunt beatiorem wasdiscussed by I. Ferenczi (‘"Adjunk hálát az úrnak, mert érdemli!" Egy metrikusdallam többszólamú, hangszeres és népi változatai’, Magyar Zene XXVIII (1987,No. 1, pp. 17–20).)28 “[. ..] Affectusque animi gestusque in corpore pulsant [...]” (Chonradus Celtis adMusiphilos, in P. Tritonius, Melopoiae, op.cit.).

5From the Lutheran Selection: the SurvivingRepertory of Vocal-Instrumental Religious Musicof the Musicians of the Polish VasasBarbara Przybyszewska-JarmińskaInstitute of Arts, Polish Academy of SciencesIn 1984 Anna and Zygmunt M. Szweykowski published in the quarterly Muzykaan article about the patronage of the Sobieski family, inspired by a musicalmanuscript held at the Biblioteka Akademii Sztuk Pięknych in Kraków (ref. HD 1528/1–3), written in 1733 in Żółkiew 1 . This incomplete collection of partbooks,written by an anonymous copyist and containing vocal-instrumentalreligious compositions from the first half of the eighteenth century (partiallyidentified by the authors of the article), drew my attention because of theparchment covers used to bind particular parts. Both sides have embossedon them the coat of arms of the Polish Vasas, framed by a double chain ofthe Golden Fleece. The Szweykowski paper established beyond doubt thatthe covers came from the collection of the royal court of the Vasas. Perhapssome decades earlier they were used to bind compositions performed by thefamous Vasa cappella. Perhaps these were works composed by famous Vasamusicians. Perhaps...According to our current state of knowledge, there are no surviving musicalmemorabilia of the cappellas, apart from possibly these covers. We do nothave the actual copies of prints which had belonged to the royal library,nor any musical manuscripts which we know to have been used by the courtplayers. All the music from the collection of the royal ensemble have been lost— printed and handwritten, secular and religious, vocal, vocal-instrumentaland instrumental, those composed abroad, or in the Commonwealth of Poland59

60 Barbara Przybyszewska-Jarmińskaand Lithuania, or at the court itself by the members of the cappella. Wedo not know of any copies of musical prints dedicated to Sigismund III orto Władysław IV 2 , which we could claim to have been their property. Wehave no surviving autograph records of works composed by the royal cappellaplayers, nor their copies which would have been used by the Vasa musicians.As we know, religious compositions constituted the great majority of worksknown to us today which were written by composers working at the Polishroyal court, and thus probably forming a part of the repertory of the cappellaof the Vasas. These are partly accessible through printed versions (authorialcollections of Vincenzo Bertolusi, Asprilio Pacelli, Giulio Osculati, TarquinioMerula and Marco Scacchi, and the incomplete anthology of Vincenzo Lilius 3 .However, vocal-instrumental religious music composed towards the end ofthe reign of Sigismund III and during the reigns of his sons, Władysław IVand Jan Kazimierz, has survived almost exclusively in handwritten copiesproduced for the needs of particular cappellas — in Gdańsk or abroad, wherethey were more numerous: in the vassal Ducal Prussia, in Silesia, Moravia,in the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, and in Sweden. It is significantthat, apart from the cappella of Bishop Carl Liechtenstein-Castelcorno inKromieryż (Moravia), for whom were produced copies of two compositionsby Marcin Mielczewski, all the other manuscripts were destined for the useof Protestant, or, more exactly, Lutheran, communities.One could thus claim that we owe almost all of the repertory of religiousvocal-instrumental music composed at the Catholic, or even ultra-Catholic(particularly during the reign of Sigismund III) court of the Polish Vasas —defenders of Roman Catholic faith, destined in Papal plans to play a great partin bringing Sweden back to Catholicism and spreading Roman Catholicismto Russia, regarded as the bulwark of Christianity against the Turks — tothe Lutherans.The words “we owe” is appropriate, because, in the absence of any othersources, we owe our gratitude to those who preserved part of the legacy of themusicians of Polish kings. However, we also need to realize that the repertorywhich is available to us now had been selected by the Lutherans to satisfytheir needs, as well as being changed in order to adapt it to their doctrine and

From the Lutheran Selection: the Surviving Repertory... 61liturgy. Because of this, when we evaluate vocal-instrumental religious musicat the courts of the Vasas, we need to remember that this environment mustalso once have produced such compositions which, in view of their immanentconnection with the doctrine and liturgy of the Roman Catholic church, werenever copied by Lutheran copyists, or were copied in a significantly changedform. (We know for certain that it was usual to copy only the first two partsof the five-part Mass cycle, but changes were also introduced within particularparts of the cycle 4 ; we also know that, in a number of compositions with textsdevoted to the Virgin Mary and the saints of the Roman Catholic church,contrafactum texts with different content were introduced, sometimes even ina different language — here, above all, German words were used to replaceLatin 5 ).Owing to the Protestant copies we now have, in total, handwritten manuscriptsfrom that period of over 100 religious vocal-instrumental works, composed bythe musicians of the Polish Vasas (this includes over 80 church concertos, 7Biblical dialogues, a few arie spirituali, and 8 Masses, with fragments of afew further ones). This extant repertory might have been partially createdat the time when the composers had already left the Vasas’ cappella; thisapplies particularly to the compositions of Franciszek Lilius. There are goodgrounds to suppose that these works, preserved in the manuscripts of copyistsfrom Silesia and Ducal Prussia, were written at the time when Lilius wasalready maestro di cappella at Wawel (he was appointed in 1630). This alsoapplies to the works of Kaspar Förster Jr., known from the copies made inSweden, Schleswig-Holstein and Saxony and composed, as it seems, mainlyduring his employment as maestro di cappella at the court of the king ofDenmark Frederick III (i.e. during the 1650s and 1660s). Among the preservedcompositions I have also included 36 works signed with the monogramM.M., preserved in copies of Silesian provenance, whose authorship I ascribeto Marcin Mielczewski.Apart from manuscripts written in Gdańsk, which transmit 9 works fromthis repertory known to us today (among them 6 Masses) 6 , all the other extantcompositions were copied by foreign copyists for the needs of cappellasworking in foreign communities. These were both court and church cappel-

62 Barbara Przybyszewska-Jarmińskalas. Among the court ones there was the Swedish royal ensemble, for whichrepresentatives of consecutive generations of the Düben family 7 created theircollection (this collection contains over 30 religious works of Kaspar Förster,and a few compositons each by Marco Scacchi and Bartłomiej Pękiel); therewas also the Duke’s ensemble from the Gottorf castle in Schleswig, for whichthe repertory was collected by Georg Österreich 8 (items in this collectionwhich have survived to this day include copies of two church concertos byMarcin Mielczewski, Bartłomiej Pękiel’s dialogue Audite mortales, one Massby Marco Scacchi, and a few compositions by Kaspar Förster). Silesian copiesfrom the Emil Bohn 9 collection (the repertory of vocal-instrumental religiousmusic preserved there includes, apart from the 36 compositions by M.M.,church concertos by Franciszek Lilius and concertos and fragments of oneMass by Marco Scacchi) were made for the needs of church cappellas — thechurches of St Elżbieta and first of all St Maria Magdalena in Wrocław 10 .An analysis of the contents of particular collections of Lutheran musicalmemorabilia which hold surviving compositions of the Vasas’ musicians showssignificant differences regarding the presence or absence of works conflictingwith the Lutheran doctrine. In the case of the Düben and Bokemeyer collections,the copies were probably based on originals from Lutheran communities;thus only those compositions had been copied which could functionin Protestant churches and there was no need to adapt them any further.The earlier “filtration” and possible adaptation of the compositions to theLutheran doctrine might have been done in Gdańsk and in Copenhagen. Theformer town had constant and close contacts with the Polish royal court. Theservices of the cantor from the church of St Katarzyna there, Crato Bütner,were probably particularly valuable. In the latter Kaspar Förster was employedas royal maestro di cappella. He may not only have made his owncompositions available for copying, but he may also have promoted the worksof other composers from the repertory of the cappella of Władysława IVand Jana Kazimierz, familiar to him from the days when he was one of itsmembers. Matters were different in Silesia, where the copied compositionswere probably obtained directly from the Catholic community (which wouldhave been aided by contacts with the entourage of the Bishop of Wrocław,

From the Lutheran Selection: the Surviving Repertory... 63a position occupied at that time by Karol Ferdynand Vasa, the son of SigismundIII and stepbrother of Władysław IV, patron of Marcin Mielczewski).A part of the repertory obtained in this way did not conform to the needs ofLutheran cappellas and thus had to be adapted, mainly by the introductionof contrafacta in place of doctrinally unsuitable texts (Marian texts and textsabout saints). The process of adaptation is visible in extant sources whichcontain original versions into which changes were introduced, or where theoriginal Latin titles were preserved in the case of some compositions whichtoday are only known in versions with German texts 11 .The repertory transmitted through Lutheran collections does not allow usto imagine the sound of the musical ornamentation provided for the mostimportant church-state celebrations which took place during the times of theVasas at Wawel cathedral or the collegiate church of St John the Baptistin Warsaw. I have in mind royal coronations, weddings and funerals. Theexception is Missa omnium tonorum by Marco Scacchi 12 , preserved in theBokemeyer collection. This is a composition for two choirs and a third inripieno and 2 violins, 2 viols, bassoon and basso continuo, which was copiedwhole, probably because of Schacchi’s fame, strengthened by his debate withPaul Siefert, and also because of its interesting compositional solution 13 . ThisMass was probably performed on 17 January 1649 at Wawel cathedral duringthe coronation of Jan Kazimierz 14 . It may be hard to believe, but the Massdid not draw any comment from a participant in this ceremony, a well-knownconnoisseur of music, Albrycht Stanisław Radziwiłł; in his memoirs, Pamiętniko dziejach w Polsce [Diary of the History of Poland], he dismissed thecoronation of the last Vasa on the Polish throne with the following words:“What can one say about these ceremonies, which do not change in anything butnames; coronations of a Sigismund, or a Władysław, or a Kazimierz, follow eachother like an echo. It took place on that day [17 January], and then there was afeast, without the presence of a single foreign delegate, with less splendour than atother ceremonies, growing less as the world grows older and the Commonwealth ofPoland and Lithuania grows old” 15 .And what could one say about the works which were of no interest tothe Lutheran music directors, cantors and organists, and which were being

64 Barbara Przybyszewska-Jarmińskacomposed in accordance with the Roman Catholic liturgy and in a new styleby the royal musicians and performed by the royal cappella? We can say withcertainty that they did exist at one time. Evidence for this is provided bythe inventories of musical collections of monastic cappellas, recorded in thesecond half of the seventeenth century. I am thinking of the inventory of theFranciscans from Przemyśl 16 , the Carmelites from the Kraków monastery atPiasek 17 and the Piarist brothers from Podoliniec and Prievidza in Slovakia 18 .All these inventories introduce a classification of compositions according tothe type (content) and liturgical purpose of the words. Each of them hasa rich section of Masses (the surviving adaptations of Masses known fromthe Lutheran copies — and they are comparatively few when one takes intoaccount the volume of Masses enumerated in monastic inventories — giveus, with some exceptions, only the first two parts, Kyrie and Gloria); alsoextensive sections of litanies (of which none composed at the court of theVasas survive, since they were of no use to the Lutheran ensembles); then,usually a small section containing “missae pro defunctis” and other funeralworks (mainly Marian antiphones, among them Salve Regina and Dies iraesequence), and further, in some inventories (Piarist and Carmelite), sectionsof motets, concertos and hymns “de Beata” and motets and concertos “deCommuni Sanctorum”. Sometimes there are sections of “vesperae”, but moreusually very extensive juxtapositions of arrangements of psalms and canticles,among which there might also have been works identical to those we knowtoday from the Swedish, German or Silesian copies (I say “there might havebeen” and not “there were” because the information given in the inventoriesis obviously insufficient to identify the compositions).The great majority of compositions in the inventories is given anonymously,but some titles have against them surnames or abbreviations of surnames, firstnames or monograms, which have allowed scholars looking at these sources toidentify the composers of a part of the listed repertory. Among the composersof religious vocal-instrumental music (I specify this in view of the subject ofthis paper, since the inventories also list vocal works without instrumentsor purely instrumental ones) there are, among others, the royal musicians:maestri di cappella Marco Scacchi, Bartłomiej Pękiel and Jacek Różycki, also

From the Lutheran Selection: the Surviving Repertory... 65maestro di cappella of Bishop Karol Ferdynand Vasa, Marcin Mielczewski,and artists who were singers at the court of the Vasas but maestri di cappellain foreign ensembles: Kaspar Förster and Vincenzo Scapitta da Valenza, organistTarquinio Merula, violinist Aldebrando Subissati, whose works, as wefind from the Podoliniec inventory, were not limited to instrumental compositionsbut included vocal-instrumental ones; and, lastly, Franciszek Lilius, whountil 1630 was a musician of Sigismund III, but whose work is representedin the inventories by compositions which were probably written later, at thetime when he was maestro di cappella at Wawel cathedral, and Jan Krener,connected to the court of Jan Kazimierz during the final stage of his reign 19 .The inventories tell us a number of things: they tell us that the contributionof the musicians of the Polish Vasas in the area of Mass arrangements “inconcerto” was much greater than is known today; that among the works ofBartłomiej Pękiel and Jacek Różycki litanies represented a numerically substantialsection, and that litanies were also being composed by Marco Scacchiand Aldebrando Subissati, and that, apart from the compositions known fromthe Bohn collection and adapted for the Lutheran doctrine through changeof texts, Marcin Mielczewski and Franciszek Lilius wrote other concertos “deBeata” and “de Communi Sanctorum”. The lists which have been analysed donot, however, allow us to decide whether the Requiem arrangements writtenby the Vasa musicians (more exactly by Marcin Mielczewski, referred to asM.M.) which they mention belonged to prima or seconda pratica 20 . Since theLutherans did not copy any of the realisations of missa pro defunctis, as theirfuneral services did not use Requiem, we do not know which and whose compositionswere performed during the ceremonies accompanying the funeralsof members of the royal family.We can be certain that a Requiem performed by the royal cappella accompaniedthe funeral ceremony of Sigismund III and his wife Konstancja on4 February 1633. The ceremony ended with the king’s body being placedin the famous silver sarcophagus ornamented with instruments in bas-relief.Albrycht Stanisław Radziwiłł wrote in his memoirs that at that point “thearchbishop began a sung Mass accompanied by sweetly-sounding music whichinclined one to tears” 21 . We have no other details concerning this event. We

66 Barbara Przybyszewska-Jarmińskaknow even less about the music performed during the funeral ceremony afterthe death of Władysław IV, on 15 January 1649 at Wawel. We do, however,have witness accounts of the performance of a polychoral, vocal-instrumentalRequiem at Kraków on 22 September 1667, during the solemn funeral of LudovicaMaria Gonzaga, wife first to Władysław IV and then to Jan Kazimierz.The queen’s funeral was attended by delegates from various states, whoexpected to persuade Jan Kazimierz to take up one of the marriage proposalspresented to him. We know from numerous descriptions of the ceremony 22that the queen’s body was brought from Warsaw on 16 September and placedon a bier at St Florian’s church. After a few days’ delay, pending the arrivalof the ambassador of Emperor Leopold, on 22 September, the funeral cortegeset out from the church, with a scarlet hearse drawn by eight white horsespreceded by a hundred carriages full of senators and followed by another hundred.The queen’s remains were also accompanied by a hundred noblemenon beautiful steeds, two hundred grooms in black, twelve trumpeters and twoguard regiments. An attack of gout prevented Jan Kazimierz from accompanyinghis wife on her final journey, but he watched the procession from thewindow of the house of Canon Jan Romiszowski in Kanoniczna Street, andwhen the mourners reached Wawel he was carried to the cathedral in a litter.The body of Ludovica Maria was carried into the church and placed on thecatafalque, to the accompaniment of funeral music. After the distinguishedparticipants in the ceremony took their places in the cathedral:“Monsignor Primate [archbishop Mikołaj Prażmowski] put on his vestments to conductthe Requiem Mass, which was sung by two choirs, with an excellent concertoof voices and instruments, by the best musicians selected out of the whole of Europe— many of whom, having at one time served at this court, returned especially topay their last respects to the Great Queen”. 23Unfortunately we do not know who the musicians were or where they camefrom to Kraków to make their last farewells to their queen. The most likelysupposition is that the majority of them were imperial musicians. Some ofthe musicians who might have come from Vienna at that time included thecastrato Baldassare Ferri (employed by Emperor Leopold from 1655–1675),adored at the courts of all of Poland’s three kings from the Vasa dynasty; he

From the Lutheran Selection: the Surviving Repertory... 67might have been accompanied by the virtuoso violinist Aldebrando Subissati,since we know that he also served Leopold in Vienna, after leaving the Commonwealthof Poland and Lithuania in 1654 and a Roman period spent atthe court of Queen Christina 24 . It is possible that the delegates of the GrandPrince of Tuscany were accompanied by those Italian musicians who wentback to Italy. It is also possible that the queen’s funeral was attended bymusicians working in France, German duchies or Denmark; Kaspar Förster,at one time the alto in the cappella of Władysław IV and Jan Kazimierz,might have been one of them. He then became the maestro di cappella of theking of Denmark, but in 1667 25 he left the court of Frederick III and, afterspending some time in Hamburg before returning to his native Gdańsk, hetravelled south (he is supposed to have visited Dresden, and he might alsohave come to Kraków) 26 . However, all these are suppositions.Our current knowledge of the sources does not allow us to answer thequestion: who conducted the royal cappella of Jan Kazimierz, strengthenedby the visiting European “stars”, and probably by local musicians from thevocal-instrumental cathedral ensemble, during the funeral Mass? Two nameshave to be considered, as this task is likely to have been entrusted either toJacek Różycki, or — which seems more probable in view of the compositionof the ensemble — to Bartłomiej Pękiel, formerly maestro di cappella to JanKazimierz and at the time in question in charge of the cappella of Krakówcathedral. He never lost contact with the king and, according to documentsrelating to the Wawel ensemble, a few years earlier (in 1664) left Kraków foran indefinite period in order to go to the court of Jan Kazimierz 27 .And, lastly, one would like to know just what polychoral, two-choir, vocalinstrumentalRequiem was heard on 22 September 1667 in the royal necropolis?This question is also unanswerable at the current stage of research. Thereis no work of this kind among the surviving compositions from the repertoryof the seventeenth-century Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania; whileamong the lost compositions of the Vasa musicians, whose existence is indicatedby the inventories, there is only one funeral Mass which may correspondto the Italian account, namely the Requiem by Marcin Mielczewski for 8voices — copies of which existed in the 1680s in the collections of the Kraków

68 Barbara Przybyszewska-JarmińskaCarmelites from the monastery at Piasek 28 and the Franciscans at Przemyśl 29 .However, it is hardly likely that the output of musicians working in this areaand in this style in the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania at that timewould be limited to one composition. A polychoral vocal-instrumental funeralMass might easily have been composed by Bartłomiej Pękiel or JacekRóżycki; it was also possible that the work performed had been composed bya musician unconnected with the court of the Polish Vasas.In these circumstances we can only regret that, because of their redundancyin the Lutheran liturgy, adaptations of the texts which made up MissaRequiem did not enter the repertory common to Christian churches. Our currentstate of knowledge of the sources allows us to state that, almost withoutexception, the only religious works in seconda pratica composed by musiciansof the Polish Vasas to survive to the present day through Lutheran transmissionswere those which corresponded to the doctrine and had their place inthe liturgy of both Catholic and Lutheran churches. The surviving inventoriesof monastic music collection of Slovakian provenance, a few compositionspreserved in the Catholic Moravian collection, and the close cultural ties betweenthe court of the Vasas and the imperial one (which included exchangeof musicians and repertories) allow one to hope that some day we will alsodiscover at least some of the compositions by the musicians of Polish kingsfrom the Vasa dynasty. They may not have been of interest to Protestants,but at one time they were part of the repertory performed in Roman Catholicchurches throughout Central Europe.Notes1 Anna i Zygmunt M. Szweykowscy, ‘W kręgu mecenatu rodu Sobieskich’ [‘In the Circleof Sobieski’s Dynasty Patronage’], Muzyka 1984 No. 3, pp. 3–23.2 For instance, editions of the works of Vincenzo Bertolusi, Pietro Lappi, AsprilioPacelli, Giovanni Valentini, Giulio Osculati, Tarquinio Merula, Marco Scacchi, thetreatises of Francesco Rognoni Taeggio and Marco Scacchi, as well as the scores andopera librettos by Italian authors dedicated to the princes Władysław and AleksanderKarol.3 See Anna i Zygmunt M. Szweykowscy, Włosi w kapeli królewskiej polskich Wazów[Italians at the Royal Orchestra of the Polish Vasas], Kraków: Musica Iagellonica1997, pp. 231–253.4 See for instance Elżbieta Wojnowska, ‘Zwischen Druck und Handschrift: Ein

From the Lutheran Selection: the Surviving Repertory... 69“abschreibender” Danziger Musiker des 16./17. Jahrhunderts’, in: Die Musik derDeutschen im Osten und ihre Wechselwirkung mit den Nachbarn. Ostseeraum —Schlesien — Böhmen/Mähren — Donauraum, vom 23. bis 26. September 1992 inKöln, ed.: Klaus Wolfgang Niemöller, Helmut Loos, Bonn 1994, pp. 37–60. (DeutscheMusik im Osten, 6).5 On the subject of such transmissions of the compositions of Marcin Mielczewski (themonogramist M.M.) and other composers preserved in Emil Bohn’s collection (ofSilesian provenance), see Barbara Przybyszewska-Jarmińska, ‘Nieznany zbiórreligijnych utworów wokalno-instrumentalnych Marcina Mielczewskiego’ [’UnknownCollection of Religious Vocal-Instrumental Works by Marcin Mielczewski’], in:Staropolszczyzna muzyczna. Księga konferencji. Warszawa 18–20 października 1996[Musical Old Polish. Conference Book. Warsaw 18-20th October 1996], eds.: JolantaGuzy-Pasiakowa, Agnieszka Leszczyńska, Mirosław Perz, Warszawa: Neriton 1998,pp. 196–197; see also by the same author, ‘Marcin Mielczewski — katalog tematycznyutworów’ [‘Marcin Mielczewski — Thematic Catalogue of Works’], in: MarcinMielczewski. Studia [Marcin Mielczewski. Studies, ed. Zygmunt M. Szweykowski,Kraków: Musica Iagellonica 1999, pp. 27–65.6 See Otto Günther, Katalog der Handschriften der Danziger Stadtbibliothek, Teil 4: Diemusikalischen Handschriften der Stadtbibliothek und der in ihrer Verwaltungbefindlichen Kirchenbibliotheken von St. Katharinen und St. Johann in Danzig,Danzig 1911; Danuta Popinigis, Danuta Szlagowska, Musicalia Gedanenses. Rękopisymuzyczne z XVI i XVII wieku w zbiorach Biblioteki Gdańskiej Polskiej AkademiiNauk. Katalog [Musicalia Gedanenses. Musical Manuscripts from the 16th and 17thcentury in the Collection of Polish Academy of Sciences Library in Gdańsk.Catalogue], Gdańsk 1990 (Kultura Muzyczna Północnych Ziem Polski, 4) [(MusicalCulture of Northern Lands of Poland, 4)].7 The Düben collection is now held at Universitesbibliotek in Uppsala. See BrunoGrusnick, ‘Die Dübensammlung. Ein Versuch ihrer chronologischen Ordnungs’, partsI–III, Svensk Tidskrift för Musikforskning XLVI (1964) pp. 27–82, XLVIII (1966)pp. 63–186; Davidson, ‘Die Dübensammlung in der Musikforschung’, in: Festschrift fürBruno Grusnick zum 80 Geburtstag, eds.: Rolf Saltzwedel, Klaus D. Koch, Stuttgart1981, pp. 42–50; Barbara Przybyszewska-Jarmińska, ‘Katalog tematyczny utworówKacpra Förstera jun.’ [‘Thematic Catalogue of Works by Kasper Förster Junior’],Muzyka 1987 No. 3 (insert); by the same author, Kasper Förster junior. Tekst imuzyka w dialogach biblijnych [Kasper Förster Junior. Text and Music in BiblicalDialogues], ed. Hanna Samsonowicz, Warszawa 1997 (Studia Instytutu Sztuki PAN, 1)[(Studies of the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences)].8 Eventually he passed a part of the collection to Heinrichi Bokemeyer; the collectionheld in Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin is named after him (seeHarald Kümmerling, Katalog der Sammlung Bokemeyer, Kassel–Basel–Paris–London1970).9 From the old Stadtbibliothek in Wrocław, now in Staatsbibliothek PreussischerKulturbesitz in Berlin. See Emil Bohn, Die musikalischen Handschriften des 16. und17. Jahrhunderts in der Stadtbibliothek zu Breslau, Breslau 1890; BarbaraPrzybyszewska-Jarmińska, ‘Ocalałe źródła do historii muzyki w Polsce XVII stuleciaze zbiorów dawnej Stadtbibliothek we Wrocławiu’ [‘Remaining Sources of Music

70 Barbara Przybyszewska-JarmińskaHistory in the 17th Century Poland from the Former Stadtbibliothek in Wrocław’],Muzyka 1994 No. 2, pp. 3–10; Richard Charteris, Newly Discovered Music Manuscriptsfrom the Private Collection of Emil Bohn, American Institute of Musicology, HänsslerVerlag 1999 (Musical Studies & Documents, ed. Ursula Günther).10 More information about the works of the composers linked to the court of the PolishVasas held in these three collections can be found in: BarbaraPrzybyszewska-Jarmińska, Twórczość kapelistów królów Polski z dynastii Wazów wzbiorach Bohna, Bokemeyera i Dübenów [Oeuvre of Musicians of Polish Kings fromthe Vasa Dynasty in the Collections of Bohn, Bokemeyer and Düben], unpublishedpaper given at the Polish-Russian musicological conference at the Institute of Art ofthe Polish Academy of Sciences in 1996.11 One such case is described in: Barbara Przybyszewska-Jarmińska, ‘Ave florum flosHyacinthe Marcina Mielczewskiego. Problemy z rekonstrukcją oryginalnego kształtukompozycji zachowanej z tekstem niemieckojęzycznej kontrafaktury’ [‘MarcinMielczewski’s “Ave florum flos Hyacinthe”. Problems with Reconstruction of theOriginal Form of the Composition Preserved with the Text of Contrafacture inGerman’], Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska, Sectio L Artes, vol. I(2003), pp. 109–127.12 Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin — Preusischer Kulturbesitz, Mus. ms. 30307.13 See Aleksandra Patalas, ‘Marco Scacchi’s Characterisation of the Modes in his ’, Musica Iagellonica II (1997), pp. 103–129. The author’ssuggestion (p. 105) that the manuscript of the Mass is of Polish provenance and mayhave found its way into the Bokemeyer collection because the royal musical collectionwas transported to Dresden after August II became king of Poland, does not seemcorrect to me. The watermarks on the paper, although hardly legible, resemble thosefound on manuscripts from northern Germany held at the Bokemeyer collection. It isalso difficult to suppose that a Polish copyist would make a mistake with the year inwhich Jan Kazimierz was elected as king of Poland, being incorrect be 15 years, andthat is the case in the title inscription of the work: “Pro electione Regis Polon.Casimiri 1664”. I think it possible, although I have no evidence for it, that Missaomnium tonorum was among Kasper Förster’s papers when he was travelling toDenmark, and through contacts between the court at Gottorf and that of the king ofDenmark, Frederick III, it might have reached Georg Österreich and then HeinrichBokemeyer.14 The title page gives the election of Jan Kazimierz as king of Poland as the occasion forwhich the work was composed (see footnote 13).15 Albrycht Stanisław Radziwiłł, Pamiętnik o dziejach w Polsce, Trans. and publ.: AdamPrzyboś, Roman Żelewski, Warszawa: PIW 1980, vol. 3: 1647–1656, p. 171.16 Mirosław Perz, ‘Inwentarz przemyski (1677)’ [‘Inventory of Przemyśl (1677)’], Muzyka1974 No. 4, pp. 44–69; by the same author, ‘Na marginesie polskich inwentarzymuzycznych z II połowy XVII wieku oraz traktatu M.H. Schachta ’ [‘At the Margin of Polish Musical Inventories from the Second Half of the17th Century and Treaty by M.H. Schacht ’], Muzyka 1977 No. 3,pp. 75–83.17 Tadeusz Maciejewski, ‘Inwentarz muzykaliów kapeli karmelickiej w Krakowie na

From the Lutheran Selection: the Surviving Repertory... 71Piasku z lat 1665–1684’ [‘Inventory of Musical Notes of the Carmelite Orchestra inKraków at Piasek for Years 1665–1684’], Muzyka 1976 No. 2, pp. 77–99.18 Jana Kalinayová und Autoren Kollektiv, Musikinventare und das Repertoire dermehrstimmigen Musik in der Slowakei im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert, Bratislava 1995;Aleksandra Patalas, ‘Polonica w inwentarzach słowackich z lat 1581–1718’ [‘Entries ofPolish Origin in the Slovak Inventories for Years 1581–1718’], Muzyka 2002 No. 2,pp. 97–107.19 The inventories also mention works by many other musicians who are known to haveworked in Poland, or about whom nothing is known from other sources but who havePolish-sounding surnames. I ignore all those here, since at present we know nothingabout their relation to the Polish Vasas.20 As we know, Marcin Mielczewski was the author of Missa Requiem (Missa di Morto)in prima pratica (for alto, 2 tenors and bass), performed in the seventeenth century atthe collegiate church in Łowicz, see Przybyszewska-Jarmińska, Marcin Mielczewski —katalog... [Marcin Mielczewski — Catalogue...], No. 89 (pp. 50–51).21 Radziwiłł, op. cit., vol. 1: 1632–1636, p. 278.22 See Tadeusz Wasilewski, Ostatni Waza na polskim tronie [The Last Vasa on the PolishThrone], Katowice 1984, p. 260.23 Manuscript with the ref. Barb. Lat. 5259 in Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in Rome:Relatione de funerali celebrati in Cracovia alla Maestŕ di Ludovica Maria, Regina diPolonia e Svezia [no author or date]: “...Monsig[no]r Primate si parň per celebrare lamessa di Requie[m], che era cantata a due chori con esquisito concerto di voci e diinstrom[enti] dai musici piů scelti dell’Europa, molti de quali che altre volte havevanoservito in questa corte erano ritornati a posta a rendere l’ultimi ossequii a questa GranRegina...”.24 Raoul Pacciaroni, ‘Skrzypek kapeli Jana Kazimierza Aldebrando Subissati’ [‘Violinistat the Royal Orchestra of Jan Kazimierz Aldebrando Subissati’], Muzyka 1980 No. 3,pp. 118–122.25 Precisely in May of 1667 “mit der fahrenden Hamburger Post”; see Jens HenrikKoudal, ‘Mobility of Musicians in the Baltic in the 17th and 18th Century’, in:MusicaBaltica. Interregionale musikkulturelle Beziehungen im Ostseeraum. KonferenzGreifswald–Gdansk 28. November bis 3. Dezember 1993, ed. Ekkehard Ochs, NicoSchüler, Lutz Winkler, Sankt Augustin 1996, p. 141 (Deutsche Musik im Osten, 8).26 Barbara Przybyszewska-Jarmińska, ‘Kacper Förster junior. Zarys biografii’ [‘KasperFörster Junior. Biografy outline.’], Muzyka 1987 No. 3, pp. 17–18 (the musician’s stayin Dresden, which the author dates there to about 1668, would thus have taken placein 1667).27 Zofia Dobrzańska-Fabiańska, Introduction in: Barłomiej Pękiel, Opera omnia[Bartłomiej Pękiel, Opera omnia], vol. 1: Utwory wokalno-instrumentalne [VocalInstrumental Works] ed. Jerzy Morawski, Kraków 1994), p. 9 (Monumenta Musicae inPolonia, seria A: Twórczość Kompozytorów Polskich, ed. Zygmunt M. Szweykowski)[(Monumenta Musicae in Polonia, series A: Oeuvre of Polish Composers)].28 Maciejewski, op. cit., No. 340 (p. 88): “Missa Martini Mielczewski a 8”.29 Perz, Inwentarz... [Inventory...], No. 247 (p. 62): “Missa pro Defunctis a 8 M M”.

6The Comici Italiani Ensemble at the WarsawCourt of Augustus IIIAlina Żórawska-WitkowskaInstitute of Musicology, University of WarsawThe comici italiani troupes, which were active both in their native land andin many countries of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe, specializedin performing commedia dell’arte and, at a later stage, Italian literarycomedies, but only rarely included strictly musical works in their repertory.However, since in their comedies, both the improvised and the authored ones,music, singing and dance played a significant part, and since the intermezziand the operas presented by these companies constitute very interesting andcharacteristic variants of the genre, the growing interest in their activities andtheir repertory by musicologists seems fully justified 1 .This paper aims to deal with the subject from this specific, musicologicalpoint of view, but we also hope to provide a handful of minor details to add tothe excellent research achieved in this area by Polish theatrologists — BohdanKorzeniewski, Karyna Wierzbicka-Michalska, Julian Lewański, MieczysławKlimowicz and Wanda Roszkowska 2 .Tommaso Ristori’s ensemble of comici italiani, engaged by the court of AugustusII in 1716, appeared in Warsaw for the last time on 10 December 1730.The artists spent 1731 in Moscow, at the court of Tsarina Anna Ivanovna,“on loan” from the King, who did not need the Italian theatre at that timeand who, moreover, came to regard it as quite superfluous. Thus, after theirreturn from Russia to Warsaw, in April 1732, six actors (half the ensemble),among them Tommaso Ristori, the leader or the principale, were dismissed72

The Comici Italiani Ensemble... 73from their service to the King-Elector. Thus the many years of extremelyfruitful activity during the ensemble’s employment in the royal service ofPoland-Saxony came to an end. Some artists returned to Italy; others, however,remained either in Warsaw or in Dresden, hoping for a change of fortuneand in the meantime managing to support themselves in a variety of ways 3 .Augustus III, as the new King of Poland, in the years 1734–36 was engagedin consolidating his hard-won power in the Commonwealth of Poland andLithuania, and was spending this period with his wife, Maria Josepha, in hisadopted homeland. The band of little princelings, by then quite numerous,remained without its parents in Dresden. (In the carnival of 1734 the oldestof the six children, Frederick Christian, was not quite 12, Maria Amalia wasalmost 10, Maria Anna — 5.5, Franz Xaver — 3.5, Maria Josepha — 2.5and the youngest, Carl — only 6 months.) In order to ease the long periodof separation for the children, the parents agreed that during the carnivalthe youngsters should have some worthy entertainment, in the form of theatreperformances. Thus on 27 February the children were able to see anItalian puppet performance, the only one that season 4 . Towards the end ofthe year Tommaso Ristori and those of his colleagues from the former troupeof Augustus II who remained in Dresden declared their willingness to preparefor the forthcoming carnival a series of suitable, i.e. edifying, comedies 5 .The organisation of the performances was undertaken by the Ristoris, whoby that time were of quite advanced age: Tommaso was about 75 in 1735,his wife Caterina about 10 years younger. They even covered the expensesof these spectacles out of their own, quite modest, means, counting on beingreimbursed by the royal treasury 6 . Apart from Tommaso Ristori, whospecialised in the part of Coviello, undoubtedly the former members of theroyal troupe who remained in Dresden also took part: Andrea Bertoldi – Pantaloneand his wife Marianna Bertoldi – Rosetta, Natale Bellotti – Arlecchino,Carlo Malucelli – Dottore. They must have done so, since during the carnivalof 1735, at 10 theatrical evenings, a total of 10 Italian comedies (withthe title roles of Coviello and Arlecchino undoubtedly played by TommasoRistori and Natale Bellotti) and 9 French comedies were performed, as wellas 5 ballets which were added onto the French spectacles 7 . August ô Byrn,

74 Alina Żórawska-Witkowskathe author of the first monograph devoted to the Dresden-Warsaw troupe ofcomici italiani, claimed, not very precisely, that the carnival repertory for1735 contained not only a string of various comedies, but also “small divertissementsand intermezzi” 8 . Although there is no doubt that dancers fromthe then 25-strong ballet ensemble of Augustus III took part in the ballets,we have no clear idea as to the cast of the French comedies. By that time theruler was no longer maintaining a Comédie Française ensemble, although hepaid pensions to a dozen or so former members of such an ensemble from thedays of Augustus II. According to Moritz Fürstenau it may have been those“pensionnaires” who performed in the plays in question 9 . Whether that wasthe case or not, the oldest Prince, Frederick Christian, thanked his parentswarmly for these spectacles 10 . The Prince thanked his father on another occasionfor a performance on 8 December 1735 (the birthday and nameday ofMaria Josepha), at the same time expressing his gratitude for the promise ofItalian and French spectacles in the carnival of 1736 11 . Indeed, during thatseason there were 12 theatrical evenings, when the children saw at least 12Italian and as many French comedies, and the latter were, as before, combinedwith ballet performances 12 . Moreover, in 1736 the royal children themselvestook part in a one-act French pastoral comedy Ridendo docemur, designedfor all, even the youngest princelings, “pour exercer la mémoire de L[eurs]A[ltesse]s R[oyal]s, pour apprendre à lire, prononcer et à parler parfaitementle françois” 13 .The Dresden spectacles from the years 1735–36, designed, as has beenmentioned, mainly for the royal-electoral children, were received extremelyfavourably at court, and increased the appetite of the rulers, Augustus III andMaria Josepha, for regular Italian theatre, especially as the political situationin the Commonwealth had by that time clarified and stabilised. Thus, in theautumn of 1737, Andrea Bertoldi (who was a lot younger than TommasoRistori) was sent to Italy in order to recruit new actors. Together with theremains of what was previously the troupe of Augustus II they were to forma comici italiani ensemble to cater for the needs of Augustus III in Dresdenand Warsaw. In July 1737 the Polish treasury paid Bertoldi 1375 thalers forthe journey to Italy 14 . He was helped in this task by Count Emilio de Villio,

The Comici Italiani Ensemble... 75the Venetian delegate at the Polish-Saxon Court. And so, by the beginning of1738 Dresden had a new, 10-strong Italian comedy ensemble, which included:1) four actors referred to earlier from the troupe of Tommaso Ristori: AndreaBertoldi – Pantalone and also the manager (principale) of the new ensemble;Marianna Bertoldi – Rosetta; Natale Bellotti – Arlecchino; Carlo Malucelli– Dottore; 2) six newly engaged actors, among them three from the recentlydissolved Tsar’s ensemble of Pietro Mira: Giovanna Casanova – Rosaura,seconda donna; Bernardo Vulcani – primo amoroso, Celio; his wife IsabellaVulcani – prima donna (prima amorosa), servant; three actors recruited inVenice: Antonio Franceschini - secondo amoroso, previously the principale ofthe troupe of the Venetian Teatro S. Luca, his wife Girolama Franceschini– terza amorosa, soubrette; Paolo Emilio Caresana – Brighella. As can beseen, Tommaso Ristori himself and his character Coviello no longer figuredin the cast and the repertory of the ensemble, which was being looked afterby two permanently employed servants 15 . The terms of the contract betweenthe royal-electoral court and Bertoldi obliged the entrepeneur to support a10-person strong troupe with the following characters 16 :1. Pantalone [Andrea Bertoldi]2. Arlecchino [Natale Bellotti]3. Dottore [Carlo Malucelli]4. primo Amoroso [Bernardo Vulcani]5. primo e secondo Amoroso [Antonio Franceschini]6. Brighella [Paolo Emilio Caresana]7. prima donna, Rosaura [Isabella Vulcani]8. seconda donna [Giovanna Casanova]9. tertio [terzia!] amoroso [amorosa!], qui [Girolama Franceschini]servira en méme temps de soubrette10. Rosetta [Marianna Bertoldi].The complement of actors was thus 2-3 characters fewer than in TomasoRistori’s ensemble in the days of Augustus II. It is therefore hardly surprisingthat in a very short while (and certainly before June 1738) Bertoldi’s

76 Alina Żórawska-Witkowskatroupe expanded by employing Rosa Grassi, who specialised in the roles ofColombine 17 .The first performance of Bertoldi’s ensemble took place on 12 May 1738 inPillnitz and was part of a cycle of celebrations accompanying the marriage(per procura) of Princess Maria Amalia and Charles III, the King of TwoSicilies. The comedy performed in Pillnitz was entitled La maggior gloria d’ungrande è il vincer se stesso, ossia L’invidia alla corte and was accompaniedby a ballet 18 .The ensemble comici italiani of Augustus III was maintained out of themodest — in comparison with the potential of the Saxon accounts — means ofthe Polish treasury (“Polnische Reise-Cammer-Cassa”). However, the trouperesided in Dresden and accompanied Augustus III during his sojourns in Warsawonly from time to time. Beginning from 1 January 1738, 5500 thalers(=2000 ducats) a year were spent on the upkeep of the Italian actors. In thefirst two years of the existence of the company this sum was collected on itsbehalf by Andrea Bertoldi in monthly instalments of 458 thal. 8 gr. 19 . In1740–1748 this sum was increased to 6000 thalers a year (because the complementwas increased with the addition of Rosa Grassi?) and after the deathof Andrea Bertoldi (who probably died in 1739) the appropriate instalmentswere collected by the new principali — Marianna Bertoldi and BernardoVulcani 20 . The company’s salary rose only once more, in 1748, when the sumpaid reached 7975 thalers per year (= monthly 664 thal. 14 gr) 21 . This timethe rise was probably caused by engaging as members of the troupe two starsof Venetian theatre — Marta Focari and Francesco Golinetti, about whommore will be said later. However, the number employed by the company didnot change at that time.THE FIRST VISIT OF THE ENSEMBLE TO WARSAW:SEPTEMBER 1738 — MID-FEBRUARY 1739During that time the whole 11-strong complement of the ensemble stayed inWarsaw 22 . Passports for the actors’ journey, with their families and servants,from Saxony to Poland, were issued in Dresden on 29 August 23 . In September

The Comici Italiani Ensemble... 771738 Andrea Bertoldi collected 700 thalers from the Polish treasury to coverthe actors’ travelling expenses from Saxony to Poland, and for the transportof their costumes 24 . Together with the actors there also arrived in WarsawTommaso Ristori, perhaps accompanied by his wife, and the husband of theColombine, Florio Grassi, who seems to have been a dancer. The very highsum of money paid to Ristori out of the Polish treasury for his journey, 550thalers 25 , is somewhat puzzling. Perhaps this 78-year-old and still, clearly,indefatigable artist transported to Warsaw elements of a portable theatre,similar to that which he had to construct in 1731 in Moscow, to cater forthe needs of the Tsar’s court 26 ? At that time the capital of Poland lacked apermanent stage and until 1748 theatrical performances took place in variousrooms of the Royal Castle and Saxon Palace, which were adapted to theimmediate needs.The first Warsaw appearance of the ensemble took place on 7 October 1738to add splendour to the celebrations of the King’s birthday. At 5 o’clock inthe afternoon, on a stage built in one of the apartments of the Royal Castle (inthe room which usually contained the Marshal’s table during feasts), and inthe presence of the royal couple and Princess Maria Anna, two comedies wereperformed: Pantalon impresario d’opera in musica and Arlechino cavalierefrancese 27 . This is the only mention of the Warsaw theatre relating to theautumn 1738 which is known to us; what we do not know is whether this is theresult of the authors of the court diaries 28 being insufficiently diligent withtheir note-keeping, or whether, for some reason (perhaps it turned out to beimpossible to adapt the chosen room to function as a comfortable theatre?),performances were halted until the carnival of 1739. In any case it was notuntil 16 January 1739 that a rehearsal of an Italian comedy took place in theQueen’s audience room. Its premiere “in the theatre now built in the SenateRoom” added lustre to the celebrations of the anniversary of the coronation 29 .During the carnival of 1739 (from 17 January to 10 February) performancestook place regularly, twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, unless of coursethis regularity was interrupted for higher reasons (days of Court Galas, theanniversary of the death of Augustus II) 30 . Judging by the presence in Warsawof a large group of royal dancers, the comedies must have been accompanied

78 Alina Żórawska-Witkowskaby ballets. Each spectacle was attended by the royal couple, sometimes withthe princesses staying in Poland — Maria Josepha and Maria Anna.At one time Mieczysław Klimowicz, while mentioning some dates of thespectacles from that season, wrote: “unfortunately we are unable to reconstructthe repertory of those days” 31 . Today we are in a position to achieve aslightly better approximation and indicate 6 titles performed during six outof the ten theatrical evenings 32 :• Pantalon impresario d’opera in musica and Arlechino cavaliere francese, 7October 1738;• Le Petit-maître (original title Il Paronzino veneziano fatto comico per amore),20 and 23 January 1739 (later performed in Warsaw on 28 October 1748and in Dresden during the carnival of 1751); this comedy must have beenparticularly popular at the court of Augustus III 33 ;• Arlequin le prince (original title probably Arlechino finto principe), 27 January1739 (repeated in Dresden on 3 February 1742, 6 February 1744 and3 January 1747);• La Pauvreté di Rinaldo (original title probably La povertà di Rinaldo), 30January 1739 (an Italian comedy with this title was performed in Londonin 1727, when Giovanna Casanova was working there, so it is probable thatshe was responsible for ensuring that the work was presented in Warsaw);• Il Costantino, dramma ridicolo per musica, 10 February 1739, author ofthe libretto unknown, music composed by Giovanni Verocai 34 .The event of greatest interest to us is undoubtedly the performance on thelast day of that Shrovetide of the satirical opera Il Costantino, which had 6vocal parts, out of which 5 were male (Costantino, Ottone, Massimo, Fabio,Trottolo) and 1 female (Irene). The extant libretto does not mention thenames of performers, and so we have to find them by looking more closely atthe artistic profiles of the members of the troupe.It seems that all of them (the only one whose artistic past is unknown isRosa Grassi) were earlier linked with the Venetian, and therefore most avantgardevariety of Italian comedy. The most interesting of them appears tobe the then 30-years-old Giovanna Casanova (Rosaura), the mother of the

The Comici Italiani Ensemble... 79famous seducer and adventurer, cavalier Giovanni Jacob Casanova de Seingalt.Before entering the service of Augustus III Zanetta, as she was known(Venetian diminutive of the name Giovanna) was an actress and singer inLondon, Venice and St Petersburg. In Venice during 1733–35 she belongedto the famous troupe of Giuseppe Imer, with whom Carlo Goldoni collaboratedwith great success. The famous comedy writer remembered the artistin the following terms: “In that troupe [i.e. Immer’s ensemble] there were twoactresses playing intermedia [musical intermezzi]. One of them was a verypretty and able little widow, Zanetta Casanova, who played the charactersof young lovers in comedies. These two women [the other one was AgneseAmurat] did not know one single note, neither did Imer. However, they allhad taste, good pitch and great performing ability, and so the audience likedthem”. Goldoni, who created the main part in his intermezzi a tre voci LaPupilla for Zanetta, wrote also regarding it: “I took the subject of this shortplaylet from the private life of the director [Imer], as I noticed that he wasdefinitely attracted to his widowed colleague. I could see that he was jealousof her, and I made him play himself” 35 . The sympathetic view of Goldonicontrasts with the clearly malicious description of the actress written in 1750by an anonymous critic and published in a Stuttgart periodical managed byGotthold Ephraim Lessing and Chrystian Mylius. The critic wrote aboutthe actress, who was then 40 years old, in a highly inelegant manner and, itseems, not quite objectively: “Her body is fat and gross, and her face old,in spite of theatrical magic! She would be better as a wicked woman, a truefemale incarnation of the devil, than a young lover. Her part is Rosaura.For the part of a young lover her voice is too hoarse” 36 . At any rate it wasundoubtedly Casanova who played the part of Irene in Il Costantino, andWarsaw was probably indebted to her for the presence in the repertoire ofa genre as rare as the satirical opera (another example from this area is LeContese di Mestre e Malghera per il trono, performed in Warsaw in 1748).She was probably also the one who introduced the comical genius of Goldonito the Polish-Saxon court of Augustus III.Among the men, the 53-year-old Carlo Malucelli (Dottore) must have beenone of those who performed vocal parts. At the beginning of his career he

80 Alina Żórawska-Witkowskabecame known in Italy as a singer of bass comical parts in a number of operas(1710 Bologna and Forlì, 1713 Padua). Malucelli himself, when requesting toremain in the service of the Polish-Saxon court ca. 1733, this time as an operaprompter, emphasised that he was a musician by education 37 . He obtainedthe post of prompter, and remained in it until about 1742 38 .Another possible singer was the then 28-year-old Bernardo Vulcani, as from1744 he worked as the opera prompter in addition to his other duties 39 , which,clearly, must have required, some musical qualifications. In 1750 he wasdescribed as follows: “he has a good appearance, handsome, of medium height,swarthy complexion and fiery manner; his enunciation is most excellent. [...]Eyes, facial expression, hands and legs, all speak to his appearance” 40 .The other two performers of Verocai’s opera should be sought among theremainder of the male complement of the troupe. Perhaps Paolo Emilio Caresana,who specialised in the part of the servant Brighella, might also haveplayed the part of the facetious servant (“servo faceto”) named Trottolo in IlCostantino.THE SECOND VISIT OF THE ENSEMBLE TO WARSAW:SEPTEMBER — NOVEMBER 1740Although this time the Royal Court stayed in Warsaw for only a very shorttime (just over a month and a half), the comici italiani were taken to Poland.After all, 7 October was the birthday of Augustus III, and Maria Josephaexpected to give birth in Warsaw (on 10 November 1940 she gave birth inWarsaw to her last child, Maria Kunigunde). As we know, the Queen, whenwith child, attached particular importance to musical entertainments 41 .And thus 11 comici italiani (and 2 servants) travelled to Warsaw, but thistime the complement was somewhat different. These were 42 :Antonio PivaAntonio BertoldiNicoletto ArticchioBernardo Vulcani[Pantalone][Arlecchino][Dottore][primo amoroso]

The Comici Italiani Ensemble... 81Antonio FranceschiniPaolo Emilio CaresanaIsabella VulcaniGiovanna CasanovaGirolama FranceschiniRosa GrassiMarianna Bertoldi[secondo amoroso][Brighella][prima donna][seconda donna][terza donna][Colombina][Rosetta]The list of comici italiani travelling to Poland in the autumn of 1740 includesalso Alessandro Vulcani 43 , the son of Isabella and Bernardo Vulcani.We know that he was a dancer and that this was probably to be his role inthe Warsaw comedies, similar, it seems, to that of Florio Grassi duiring anearlier period.The changes in the ensemble concerned the casting of the main parts: AntonioPiva replaced Andrea Bertoldi as Pantalone after the latter’s death, AntonioBertoldi (the son of Andrea and Marianna Bertoldi) became Arlecchinoafter Bellotti was pensioned off, while Nicoletto Articchio was engaged asDottore in place of Malucelli (whose only remaining function was that of theopera prompter). Little is known about Articchio apart from the fact thathe disappeared from the scene before 1748. On the other hand, Antonio Pivajoined the ensemble as an already famous Pantalone, and brought with himexperience gained on the stages of northern Italy and at the St Petersburgensemble of Pietro Mira. Piva’s stay (until 1746) with the troupe of AugustusIII was only a short episode in his career. However, Antonio Bertoldi linkedhis whole acting career with the royal troupe. He is supposed to have been theQueen’s favourite Arlecchino, and his skill in that part has been emphasisedby the fastidious author quoted earlier (1750): “[that] short, slim and agileman [...] speaks many languages and is witty. He is destined for and born tothe part of Arlecchino” 44 . This was just one of Antonio’s talents, as in 1748he was singing in another satirical opera performed in Warsaw (more aboutthis later), and during the war he acted as Court secretary.

82 Alina Żórawska-WitkowskaThe Polish treasury paid out 750 thalers for the travelling expenses of theensemble from Dresden to Warsaw 45 . Moreover, 150 thalers for the expensesof this journey, and a further 294 thalers for their stay in Warsaw from 3October 1740 to 26 February 1741, were paid out of the Polish treasury toCosimo and Margherita Ermini 46 , excellent singers, bass and alto, who specialisedin the intermezzi genre and were already well known to audienceswho used to attend the Warsaw theatre of Augustus II (1730). The presenceof the Erminis seems to indicate that on this occasion the Italian comediesperformed in Warsaw would be accompanied not by ballets (as happened previouslyand was to happen in future) but by intermezzi. In spite of this italso turned out to be necessary to bring the ballet master Antoine André,whose role was probably to arrange the dance sets to be performed in thecomedies by Alessandro Vulcani and the actors. The accommodation rentedfor a year from taylor Gottfried Switzki (137 thal. and 15 gr) was sharedby André with the violinist Augustin Uhlich 47 . The majority of the actorsand one of the servants of the troupe were housed close to the Market Squareon two floors in a house belonging to the merchant Duchain (annual rent of164 thal.) 48 . The three Vulcanis were given three rooms there, the largest ofwhich also served as the place for rehearsals of the troupe. The Francheschinicouple were given two rooms, while the remaining actors were assigned oneroom each. Moreover, one of the rooms in the building was designated as thetheatre wardrobe 49 . Marianna and Antonio Bertoldi together with one of theservants were given accommodation in two rooms at the house of someonecalled Romaironi in Piwna Street, while Giovanna Casanova and Rosa Grassiwere housed in Krakowskie Przedmieście at Antoni Chevalier’s 50 . Mr andMrs Ermini at first lived in the house of Maciej Siarowski in the Old MarketSquare (16.5 ducats per quarter), and then at the house of a wine merchantcalled Kurowski (45 thal. for the next quarter) 51 .The return journey of the troupe from Warsaw to Dresden was cheaper by100 thalers than the journey out, as it only cost 600 thal. 52 . It may be thecase that a saving was made on the transport of the theatrical wardrobe byleaving it in Warsaw to await the next season.

The Comici Italiani Ensemble... 83This time the venue adapted for theatrical performances was most probablythe former Ballroom of the Saxon Palace 53 . The first and, significantly, theonly performance of that season which we know about took place on 7 Octoberand lasted two hours. It was one of the elements of the celebrations for theKing’s birthday 54 . The play was a comedy previously unknown to researchers,Arlichino muto per spavento, with the following cast 55 :Pantalone, Celio’s fatherCelioColombina, a servantDottore, Eleonora’s fatherEleonoraLeandro, a bachelor of BolognaArlecchino, a servantRosaura, in love (reciprocated) withCelioEularia, her motherBrighella, an ordinary servantand supernumeraries – innkeeper,porter, sbirri etc.[Antonio Piva][Bernardo Vulcani][Rosa Grassi][Nicoletto Artichio][Isabella Vulcani][Antonio Franceschini][Antonio Bertoldi][Zannina Casanova][Marianna Bertoldi][Paolo Emilio Caresana]It does not seem possible that the whole operation of moving the theatrefrom Dresden to Warsaw, which was logistically quite complicated, expensiveto the court and burdensome to the artists, would have been carried out onlyfor the sake of this gala performance. However, it is evident from the lack ofrelevant notes in all the four (!) court diaries which were kept in parallel thatno further performances took place that season 56 . The reason for halting thetheatre’s activities could not have been mourning for Emperor Charles VI, ashe died on 20 October and a ban on public performances of music was notissued by the Crown Marshal Józef Wandalin Mniszech until 29 October 57 .We cannot tell today what could have been the reason for the professionalinactivity of what after all was a sizeable group of first-class artists who werethen staying in Warsaw. Perhaps it was they who “rebelled”, being unable tofully demonstrate their talents in halls which were always being adapted adhoc for the needs of the theatre?

84 Alina Żórawska-WitkowskaTHE THIRD VISIT OF THE ENSEMBLE TO WARSAW:MAY 1748 — FEBRUARY 1749This was undoubtedly the most interesting period for Warsaw performancesof the comici italiani of Augustus III. Of undoubted relevance here was thefact that the King at last decided to build a proper theatre in Warsaw. Itwas thus both possible and necessary to prepare a rich repertoire, aimed ata much wider audience than hitherto. The theatre, designed for an audienceof about 540, had to accommodate one more than twice this size in the firstmonth after it opened 58 .The ensemble which arrived in Warsaw at the end of May had a complementof 12 59 :Antonio BertoldiGiovanni Camillo CanzachiFrancesco GolinettiPaolo Emilio CaresanaBernardo VulcaniGioacchino LimpergherAntonio Focari vel FocherPietro MorettiMarta FocariGiovanna CasanovaIsabella VulcaniRosa GrassiArlecchinoDottore [also Tabarino]PantaloneBrighellaAmorosoAmorosoAmorosoAmoroso[prima donna, Aurelia][Rosaura][Eleonora, and thus also probablyprima donna]ColombinaAs usual, the actors were accompanied by two servants.Clearly, the personnel of the troupe had undergone significant changeswhen compared to the complement of 1749. Those who left included Mr andMrs Franceschini 60 , Antonio Piva, Nicoletto Artichio and Marianna Bertoldi.Their places were taken by six new and highly acclaimed artists: GiovanniCamillo Canzachi – Dottore, Francesco Golinetti – Pantalone, three amorosi– Pietro Moretti, Gioacchino Lindberg and Antonio Focari vel Focher, whilethe ladies were joined by the brilliant star Marta Focari vel Focher, called La

The Comici Italiani Ensemble... 85Bastona, who displaced the then current primadonna Isabella Vulcani andovershadowed Giovanna Casanova.Marta Focari joined the ensemble of Augustus III just before her arrivalin Warsaw. Earlier (in 1736) she played seconda donna in the ensemble ofAntonio Franceschini in the Venetian Teatro San Luca, and then for quite along period (1736–48?) she was the primadonna of the ensemble of GiuseppeImer in the Venetian Teatro San Samuele. Goldoni wrote of her that shewas an actress “of great excellence, full of intelligence [...], noble in seriousplays, delightful in comedies” 61 . The anonymous critic from 1750 did nothave any doubts about her talent either, writing: “She is undoubtedly thebest actress. Her figure, her voice, all combines to serve her. She pleasesalso when playing the most repulsive characters. She has royal demeanour.She is not of the youngest. [...] Her look, her expression, the way she movesher head, hands, legs, in short her whole body helps her to act with perfectbeauty” 62 . Francesco Bartoli described her as follows: “She was the absoluteruler in the theatre, and when she spoke she knew exactly how to start andhow to finish a speech to the full satisfaction of her listeners. Her eloquence,her veiled wit, and at times sharp and clever mockery caused her to be in greatdemand on theatre stages. Her fame spread beyond Italy and [Focari] wassummoned by the Elector of Saxony [i.e. Augustus III]” 63 . Perhaps PrinceFrederick Christian was directly involved in arranging this engagement, sinceduring his stay in Venice in the carnival of 1740 he had the opportunity toget to know the actress well 64 . However, the one attribute Focari lacked wasmusicality. Whatever the reason, she was not included in the cast of thesatirical opera performed at that time in Warsaw.La Bastona was not the only valuable acquisition in the regenerated ensembleof the royal-electoral comici italiani. In a letter to her daughter-in-lawMaria Antonia (the wife of Frederick Christian), the Queen declared thatanother one to distinguish himself among the newly arrived actors was Pantalone,or Francesco Golinetti 65 . He also was previously (from 1738) associatedwith the Venetian Teatro San Samuele and with Carlo Goldoni, andundoubtedly Frederick Christian must have also met him during his stay inVenice. Goldoni, enthusiastic about the actor’s talent, wrote the following

86 Alina Żórawska-Witkowskaabout him: “Golinetti was not bad in Pantalone’s mask, but he was excellentwithout the mask as a youthful, illustrious and merry Venetian gentleman,particularly in the commedia dell’arte which was entitled Il Paroncin. [...] Iobserved him closely on the stage, I examined him yet more carefully at thetable, during conversation, while walking, and I came to regard him as one ofthose actors I was looking for [for a novel genre of comedy of characters]” 66 .Goldoni expressed similar sentiments elsewhere: “I remarked Golinetti’s Pantalone,not, however, in order to use him in a masked part, which hides thephysiognomy and does not allow a sensitive actor to express his feelings inhis face. I did, though, attach a lot of importance to his manner in company,where I watched him closely. It occurred to me that I might make him intoa magnificent creation — and I was not mistaken” 67 . In Golinetti, Goldonithus found the ideal actor to play the main character in his first comedy ofcharacters, Momolo cortesan (performed in Warsaw on 11 September 1748 asMomolo disinvolto). In its original version (1738) only the part of the heroof the title was written, while the other roles were improvised in Venetiandialect. Goldoni was very pleased with Golinetti’s creation and declared thatthe actor performed his part “with all the required veracity” 68 . The writer’snext comedy of characters, Il Prodigo (performed in Warsaw on 18 October1748 as Momolo prodigo su’la Brenta), from 1739, was also created with Golinettiin mind as the hero of the title, and the play was again enormouslysuccessful. Even the German critic wrote in 1750 about the actor’s potentialwith approval: “A tall, well-built man. His part is that of Pantalone, whomhe depicts in a most natural manner. He portrays a gambler, a merry bonvivant,with equal cleverness. He has a refined, bright face and knows theobligations of a good actor” 69 .One of the very useful acquisitions of the royal ensemble was also GiovanniCamillo Canzachi, not only as an actor but also as a dramatist. Previouslyhe worked mainly at the Vienna court of Emperor Charles VI, where heappeared in the mask of Dottore and played a part which he himself created,that of an Italianized Frenchman called Monsieur de l’Appetit. Apparentlyhe was thought highly of by Apostolo Zeno himself. After the death of theEmperor, Canzachi probably left for Venice, where in 1740 he appeared —

The Comici Italiani Ensemble... 87seemingly without success — in the Teatro San Luca. One of the documentsof the Polish-Saxon court describes the actor as Dottore 70 , but in Warsawand Dresden he portrayed mainly Taberino (= father of either the leadingmale lover Celio or one of the female lovers – Aurelia, Eleonora, Rosaura; orhusband of Colombine) or the already referred to Monsieur de l’Appetit. Ouroft-quoted critic from 1750 depicted him as follows: “a short, thickset man.In spite of the fact that he limps he is an excellent actor. He can adapt toevery part; he can also portray a marquis; however, he appears most oftenas Taberino” 71 . No less importantly, Canzachi turned out to be extremelyimportant as a dramatist, since about 15 of his comedies were performed inWarsaw and Dresden, 10 of them during the years 1748–49, i.e. in the firstyear of his employment at the court of Augustus III.Out of the three newly engaged amorosi (Pietro Moretti, Gioacchino Limpergherand Antonio Focari vel Focher) one of them, according to the Queen,was unsuited for that part 72 . It seems that the one she had in mind wasFocari, who later on only played third-rank roles.In any case, the royal ensemble of comici italiani in that complement undoubtedlybelonged to the best of that kind of troupe in Europe. The Germancritic wrote that these actors “would be equally famous in a French theatre” 73 ,which was extraordinary praise. Moreover, on or about 10 June, Warsaw sawthe arrival of Pietro Mira, called Pedrillo, who received the title of commissar(Hoff-Commisarius) at the royal court, but in fact fulfilled the function ofjester and a universal comic artist, useful as an actor or singer or violinist.Earlier, as has been mentioned, Mira worked at the Russian court, mainly as avirtuoso violinist, but he also won recognition there as an organiser of ensemblesof Italian opera and comici italiani. He was the one who found in Veniceand brought to St Petersburg such actors as Giovanna Casanova, Bernardoand Isabella Vulcani, Antonio Piva, Antonio Costantini and Francesco Ermano,who were later engaged by the Polish-Saxon court. In Warsaw PietroMira made a guest appearance not only in the comedy inaugurating the newtheatre, but also sang in a satirical opera Le Contese di Mestre e Malgheraper il trono, performed on 4 November 1748, and moreover appeared as ajester during the King’s nameday (see below).

88 Alina Żórawska-WitkowskaPietro Mira stayed in Warsaw in Trębacka Street, at the house of someonecalled Nick 74 , but we have no data regarding the accommodation of the actors;perhaps they had the same quarters as during their previous visit to Warsaw.We only know that, as a rule, persons accompanied by spouses or children,and those were the majority of the ensemble, occupied 2 rooms, while singlepersons had to be satisfied with one room each. An exception was PietroMoretti, who with his wife occupied one room, and Giovanna Casanova who,although single, was distinguished by being assigned 2 rooms. The large roomnext to the quarters of the Vulcanis still served as the place for rehearsals,and one room was occupied by the two servants of the ensemble 75 .It was the comici italiani who inaugurated the activities of the new Warsawtheatre, perhaps the first freestanding theatre in Poland. The opening tookplace on 3 August 1748, on the King’s nameday combined with celebrationsof the day of the Order of the White Eagle. The performance started at about8 o’clock, and the comedy enacted then was entitled Gli torti immaginari. Itfeatured a guest appearance by Pietro Mira, which was remarked on by theKing in his letter to his daughter-in-law Maria Antonia: “one of the actorswas M.[onsieur] Petrillo, and the resolution of each act ended as usual witha bastonda, which all falls on him” 76 . The summer-autumn theatre seasonlasted until Advent (it ended on 28 November) and comprised 22 comedyperformances and one opera, in spite of the fact that after the inauguralperformance there was a 26-day break in the work of the theatre, caused,according to a letter from Heinrich von Brühl, by an extraordinary heatwave.The Minister was informing Maria Antonia that the new Pantalone (Golinetti)had the ambition of showing his skills on the stage, but since the comedy hallwas excessively hot, it was decided to postpone performances until the firstrain 77 . In his next letter to the Prince’s wife Brühl complained about thisstate of affairs, but with some hope of an improvement in the situation: “Welive here as purely as in a monastery, [in terms of entertainment] there is onlytirage au blanc twice a week, but it is probable that comedies will restart andI think that the first of them will be presented on Thursday [29 August] bythe new Pantalone [Golinetti] and that it will be entitled Mercante fallito” 78 .

The Comici Italiani Ensemble... 89In fact, the extraordinary heatwave abated giving way to a slight frost, and29 August, the birthday of Princess and wife of Bavarian Elector, Maria Anna,saw the performance of Pantalone mercante fallito. The third consecutiveperformance took place to celebrate the birthday of Prince Friedrich Chrystianon 5 September, and the play was Canzachi’s Li due gemelli veneziani,acclaimed as an excellent performance 79 . The next three performances stilltook place at more or less weekly intervals; however, from 1 October the frequencywas doubled, and the days designated for performances were Mondaysand Fridays 80 . This rule was not adhered to in cases when court galas fellon other days of the week, since theatre performances had to be part of thecelebrations as a matter of course. The issue of free tickets for performancesbegan on 29 August, as the great popularity of Italian comedies meant thatthe numbers of those wanting to see them exceeded the space available in theauditorium. Evidence of this is provided by the constantly growing numberof distributed tickets. Thus, 1144 tickets were issued on 25 October, which ismore than double that which was expected by the theatre designers 81 . Thenext day Brühl wrote to the Prince’s wife in his usual style, maliciously sarcasticabout Poles: “I am desolate that Your Royal Highness cannot havethe pleasure of seeing [the inhabitants of] the Commonwealth at an Italiancomedy which, according to their response and conviction, is superior to allthe spectacles in the world. The whole [theatre] is always so overfilled thatthere are often more than 20 people in one box [boxes were designed for 6or 8 people]. They don’t laugh like other people at the smallest gesture, butscream with joy, like people who are being vigorously tickled. Usually they donot speak about the favours received [from the King], but about the fact thatthe King ordered the comedies to be played for them. It is highly probablethat the whole of our carnival will rely on this one kind of entertainment” 82 .Of particular interest here seems to be the remark about the different understandingof the role of the performances. The court treated them as akind of favour shown by the monarch to his subjects, while the haughty Polesperceived it as entertainment due to them from the King.The closer to Advent, the greater the number of society persons who leftWarsaw, and at the end of November the town emptied. The next influx

90 Alina Żórawska-Witkowskaof guests to Warsaw came only at the end of the year, with the approachof the carnival season. The theatrical season in the carnival began on 8January and ended on 31 January 1749. There were 11 performances, thistime as many as three each week — on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.If we include the performances from 1748, this visit of the troupe to Warsawresulted in 33 comedies and 1 opera. This achievement becomes all the moreimpressive when we take into account the fact that — judging by the presenceof the dozen or so ensemble of royal dancers — each comedy must have beenaccompanied by ballets (at least that is what happened in 1754), which makesthe total number of individual productions significantly larger.Two-language arguments of the comedies were printed in Warsaw for thesuccessive performances: Italian and French, Italian and German, Italian andPolish, French and German. Thus all members of the multinational audiencehad an opportunity to acquaint themselves with an outline of the plot of thosestill, at least in part, improvised plays 83 . However, the correspondence ofMaria Josepha, who enclosed arguments of the Warsaw comedies with letterssent to Dresden, shows that the ballets, whose existence we are guessing at,also had their arguments printed in Warsaw 84 ! Today we know of only twosuch prints, and those from not earlier than 1761, when ballets accompaniedopera performances 85 .Thus the documented repertoire shown in Warsaw during the period inquestion looked as follows:17483 VIII - Gli torti immaginari29 VIII - Pantalone mercante fallito Tommaso Mondini?5 IX - Li due gemelli veneziani G.C. Canzachi11 IX - Momolo disinvolto C. Goldoni18 IX - Il francese studente in Venezia con Aurelia sua competitriceG.C. Canzachi25 IX - La donna di garbo C. Goldoni1 X - Taberino smemorato, o sia Il marito di tre moglie

The Comici Italiani Ensemble... 914 X - Pantalon amoureux de sa belle fille7 X - L’impostura vendicata G.C. Canzachi11 X - La donna creduta maschio15 X - Taberino mezzano per necessità della propria moglie18 X - Il prodigo C. Goldoni22 X - L’ubriaco G.C. Canzachi15 X - Le trentatre disgrazie ridicole d’Arlechino C. Goldoni?28 X - Il paronzino veneziano fatto comico per amore (= LePetit-Maitre) [the author might have been Antonio Piva?]8 XI - Monsieur de l’Appetit, nobile per opinione, o il poverofrancese G.C. Canzachi11 XI - Quanto sia difficile il custodire una donna15 XI - Il diavolo maritato G.C. Canzachi19 XI - Momolo bullo22 XI - Taberino bacchettone Flaminio Scala25 XI - Prima di tutto la mia donna, o sia Gl’ ecquivoci delnastro28 XI - Aurelia maga17498 I - Colombina maga10 I - Le allegrezze in casa d’Arlechino per la nascita del suoprimogenito C. Goldoni13 I - Gli eventi fortunati prodotto d’un amor infelice15 I - Pantalone speciale Giovanni Bonicelli?17 I - L’innocente rivale con Arlechino finto Bacco20 I - Arlechino sicario ed assassino per onore e credutoprincipe per arte magica22 I - Aurelia gelosa di se stessa24 I - Il disertore francese G.C. Canzachi27 I - Pantalone geloso29 I - Colombina ortolana creduta contessa31 I - Il ponte di Mantible

92 Alina Żórawska-WitkowskaMusic and dance were present in at least the five following comedies 86 :• Pantalone mercante fallito (29 August), in which, according to the argument,“il soggetto è morale, ma per esser mescolato con varii divertimentidi gioco, ballo e canto, f’à che esce del tutto ridicolo e piacevole”;• L’impostura vendicata (7 October), which was accompanied by “a dreadfulsymphony, dances of Hate and Fury, pastoral Ballet. After the comedy,ballet heroique pantomime” (in translation from Polish argument), that is“une fête theatrale, avec de machines, ballets et decorations”, libretto byG.C. Canzachi, choreography by A. Pitrot;• Il Paronzino veneziano fatto comico per amore (28 October), which comedy“est ornée de Chansons venisiens & des masquerades, c’est ce que la rendfort amusante”;• Momolo bullo (19 November), also this one “ornée avec des chansonettes &bals à la venisienne”;• Pantalone speciale (15 January), although in this case the argument is notextant, Kurier Polski from that day informed its readers: “At Court oncertain days comedies and operas are performed, with which His RoyalHighness in frequentia is in the habit of adesse the senators, the ministers,the magnates and other distinctioris status persons of both genders, andthese performances continuami are to be until the royal departure. Alsotoday an opera is being performed”. We think that the term “opera” employedhere by the journalist — at that time used very imprecisely butalways in connection with music — also in this case underlined an unusualpreponderance of songs and dances.Of particular interest, however, is the satirical opera Le Contese di Mestree Malghera per il trono (4 November 1748), which has been referred to anumber of times already. Its libretto was written by Antonio Gori, the musiccomposed by Salvatore Apollini, and the performers were: Rosa Grassiin the part of Mestre, Giovanna Casanova as Malghera, Antonio Bertoldi– Ballotta, Girolamo Focari – Strigheroch, Pietro Mira – Bottenigo, and amusician from the Polish cappella of Augustus III, Franz Seydelmann, as

The Comici Italiani Ensemble... 93Carpaneo. Although this opera has already been the subject of research byJulian Lewański 87 , Piermario Vescovo and Maria Giovanna Miggiani 88 , it willbe worthwhile to examine it again, and we intend to do this in the near future.THE FOURTH AND LAST VISIT OF THE ENSEMBLE TOWARSAW: JUNE — DECEMBER 1754We do not know why, after such successful seasons — the autumn of 1748 andthe carnival of 1749, — it took 5 years before the comici italiani paid Warsawaudiences another visit. Although in 1752 the court spent one month of theirfourteen-week stay in Grodno, where there was no theatrical stage, there donot seem to be any reasons why the five-month stay of the court in Warsawshould not have brought this noble entertainment with it, for the amusementof the inhabitants of the Commonwealth.Whatever the reason, the autumn of 1754 was the next, and the final seasonof the ensemble of Italian comedy in Warsaw. At the end of July there arrivedfrom Dresden the troupe of comici italiani, this time 14-strong — five ladiesand nine gentlemen (accompanied by two servants). They were 89 :Marta FocariGiovanna CasanovaIsabella ToscaniIsabella VulcaniPaulina FalchiCesare D’ArbesAntonio BertoldiCamillo CanzachiAntonio CostantiniBernardo VulcaniGiovanni Battista ToscaniGioacchino LimpergherPietro MorettiGirolamo Focari[prima donna, Aurelia][seconda donna, Rosaura][amorosa, Lucinda][servant, Argentina][servant, Colombina][Pantalone][Arlechino][Taberino][Gradelino, the cook Parpagnac][primo amoroso, Celio][amoroso Ottavio, Cassandro][amoroso Florindo][Brighello’s servant, Mingone][third-rank parts]

94 Alina Żórawska-WitkowskaThus, also on this occasion, the complement of the ensemble was differentfrom the previous one. The place of Rosa Grassi (who died probably in 1749)as Colombine was taken by Paulina Falchi, and Isabella Toscani was a newaddition among the ladies. Among the gentlemen, Cesare D’Arbes, the bestPantalone of that era, took the place of Francesco Golinetti, Paolo EmilioCaresana was replaced by Pietro Moretti, previously one of the amorosos, inthe part of Brighella’s servant, and new additions were Antonio Costantinias Gradelino, and Giovanni Battista Toscani – Ottavio, Cassandro. Variousextras also appeared in the comedies and, depending on the need, they playedpeasant girls (the only parts played by female extras), or peasants, porters,servants, guards, soldiers, coalmen, bowmen, sailors etc. (earlier, in the years1748–49, the supernumeraries usually represented such “professional” groupsas: bandits, peasant men and women, footmen, porters, evil spirits, monsters).We do not know from what group of artists, or amateurs, these wererecruited.This time the most valuable addition to the troupe was Cesare D’Arbes,previously (1747–50) a member of the famous northern Italian troupe of GirolamoMedebac. D’Arbes became famous as the hero of three works by Goldoniin which he played without a mask — which was still a novelty in the caseof an actor specializing in the part of Pantalone — parts written especiallywith his abilities in mind. The first of these was Tonin Bella Grazia (autumn1747, another title Il Frappatore). It did not bring him success andGoldoni, who judged the play as an inferior product of his talent, explainedD’Arbes’s fiasco in the following words: “The Pantalone of the ensemble hadso far been well received and greeted with warm applause in the part of hisemploi. However, he did not appear with uncovered face, and this is where hecould have been particularly brilliant. He did not dare to act in plays which Iwrote for the Pantalone of Golinetti from the Theatre of San Samuele” 90 . Inorder to compensate the actor for this failure, Goldoni wrote another play forhim — L’uomo prudente (1748), which was a great success, due, accordingto the writer, to D’Arbes himself: “Pantalone had the best opportunity todemonstrate his excellent talent for expressing a variety of emotional shades,

The Comici Italiani Ensemble... 95and this was enough for him to be generally proclaimed as the most excellentactor to appear on stage at that time” 91 . Goldoni observed carefully theartists for whom he wrote his plays, and he did the same with D’Arbes, withthe following results: “I had enough time and a sharp enough eye to observethe various personal characteristics of my actors. In him, I noticed two contradictoryfeatures characteristic of his movements and his face. At times hewas a man of the world, extraordinarily merry, lively, witty; at other times hewould adopt the tone, expression and manner of speaking of a fool, a boor,and these changes took place in him quite naturally and unintentionally. Thisdiscovery inspired in me the thought of showing him in one play with the twoaspects” 92 . The play mentioned is I due gemelli veneziani, the hit of theVenetial carnival of 1750, and the work’s success was “due above all to theincomparable performance of the Pantalone, who found himself at the heightof fame and popularity” 93 . It was then — writes Goldoni — that, “D’Arbes,that splendid Pantalone, one of the pillars of the ensemble, was called awayfrom the Republic of Venice to the service of the Polish king. He had toleave immediately, and left the theatre at once to prepare for the journey.Medebac’s loss was enormous, all the more so that we could not see anybodybeing able to replace him, and during Shrovetide we found that people werenot buying boxes for the next year” 94 . It was also a great loss for Goldonihimself, as it was D’Arbes who produced the positive change in his career 95 .In Warsaw D’Arbes not only appeared many times as Pantalone, but alsodiscounted his fame of the stage twin, presenting himself to the audience on18 October in his own play about three brothers — Li tre fratelli gemelli.Another extremely valuable acquisition was Antonio Costantini, the stepbrotherof the famous Angelo Costantini, at one time Mezzetino, who workedfor the Paris Théâtre Italien and at the court of Augustus II 96 . Before enteringthe service of the Polish-Saxon court, Antonio was also an actor at thatsame Théâtre Italien, where he delighted audiences as a singer, dancer andinstrumentalist. Later he was active in Florence; he also belonged to the StPetersburg ensemble of Pietro Mira, and during the carnival of 1753 he triedhis luck, without success, as a member of the ensemble of opera seria in theRoman Teatro Argentina. After the premiere there of the opera Andromaca

96 Alina Żórawska-Witkowska(libretto by Antonio Salvi, music by Antonio Aurisicchio), a merciless Romanreviewer informed his readers that Costantini (in the third-rank role ofClearto) and one Giovanni Marchetti (in the part of Ermione, and thus undoubtedlya castrato), “ashamed of their piercing screeching and the uproarof the public, withdrew from the stage to their eternal glory, surprised thatthey were engaged by the impresarios, although they had no courage to showthemselves in a comedy theatre” 97 . It seems that the offer from the courtof Augustus III came just in time for Costantini, although this run of goodfortune did not last long, as the actor died soon after the ensemble returnedfrom Warsaw to Dresden.Isabella Toscani was a young, tall, shapely and talented actress, but entrustingher with the part of Colombine after the death of Rosa Grassi, whoexcelled in this emploi, was criticised in 1750 98 . The reviewer’s criticismswere taken into account and Toscani arrived in Warsaw as an amorosa. However,her talent was only employed rarely, as can be seen from the lists ofcharacters appearing in the plays being performed at that time. These lists— and we have arguments for nearly all the Warsaw comedies for 1754 99 —show that three female characters were particularly popular here: Aurelia —played by Marta Focari, Rosaura — still played by the somewhat advanced inyears Giovanna Casanova, and Colombina — performed by the new memberof the ensemble, Paulina Falchi. To play Colombine, according to Lessing“one needs to be born to it”, i.e. to have the right physical characteristics,like a slight build, liveliness and flexibility of movement 100 . Paulina Falchimust thus have had these attributes, but we know nothing else about herapart from the fact that for a time she was one of the actors employed byAugustus III. On the other hand, Giovanni Battista Toscani was describedby that reviewer as “a young, gracefully built man, with a swarthy face, darkhair and eyes, [who] walks and talks in a refined manner. He plays the part ofamoroso quite naturally and gives the impression that it suits him well” 101 .This was the complement of the royal comici italiani with which at thattime a Pole called Muzierko appeared twice in Warsaw, a fact previously unknownto researchers. He was a dwarf from the court of the Grand Chancellorof Lithuania, Prince Michał Fryderyk Czartoryski. According to one of the let-

The Comici Italiani Ensemble... 97ters from the Queen to Frederick Christian, Muzierko appeared as Arlecchinoon 11 October and was “charmant à manger”; he had been taught this smallpart by Costantini 102 . On that day, 11 October, the play was the comedyTaberino ortolano, but its argument does not mention Muzierko-Arlecchino inthe cast 103 . One could conclude from that — and this conclusion is supportedby the information from the Queen about the performance on 30 October —that the plots of the improvised comedies given in the printed argumentsmay have in reality varied quite a lot from the original script. In any case,emboldened by the friendly reception, Mr Muzierko appeared for a secondtime, and on 30 October, in the comedy Le sfide di furberie tra Gradelino edArlechino he even played two parts. He played a Polish Arlecchino, owner ofan inn (“Arlechino di Nazione Polacco, locandiere” 104 ) and one of four Pantalones.Although the argument of the comedy mentions only one Pantalonein the cast, the Queen wrote to her son that, in that comedy, the multiplied,quadrupled part of Pantalone was played by three professionals — D’Arbes,Bertoldi and Costantini, and an amateur — Muzierko. Maria Josepha at thesame time expressed the opinion, probably reflecting the general response ofthe Warsaw public, that the comedy was charming, “owing to the roles ofMuzierko who played Arlecchino and Pantalone (in this role he emerged fromthe belly of our little Arlecchino Bertoldi, also dressed as Pantalone, as well asCostantini and together with D’Arbes there were 4 Pantalones on the stage),which the little dwarf did in an extraordinary manner” 105 .The season began on 18 September (on a Wednesday) with the comedy Ilgoffo inganna il furbo, with 10 out of the 14-strong complement appearingin the cast: Bastona as Aurelia, Celio’s beloved; Casanova – Rosaura, thebeloved of Florindo; Falchi – Colombine (a servant); D’Arbes – Pantalone;Canzachi – Taberino; Vulcani – Celio; Limpergher – Florindo; Moretti –Brighella; Costantini – Gradelino; Focari – the notary Etcetera; also Taborino’sservant, probably a non-speaking part (so-called “muto”) 106 . Eachact had the additional entertainment of a ballet; in the first act this was theBallet des matelots performed by a pair of solo dancers (Antoine Pitrot andMimi Favier), in the second act – Ballet des païsans galants danced by adifferent pair of soloists (François Ferrere and Marie Rivière), while the third

98 Alina Żórawska-Witkowskaact ended with a ballet générale L’Amusement champêtre, comprising a pasde trois (Pitrot, Favier and Rivière) and a pas de deux performed by six pairsof dancers. The demand for theatre tickets was apparently enormous; a 1000tickets were issued even though the highborn nobility had not yet arrived inWarsaw 107 . In Brühl’s view, Italian comedies were an alternative at court foranother form of entertainment pursued with great enthusiasm, i.e. tirage aublanc. On 3 October, after the first three performances he informed MariaAntonia: “the performances are going very well; our Poles are charmed byItalian comedy and the delegates [to the Sejm, the Polish parliament] havesent a delegation to the last one [of them] in order to have all the tickets”.Brühl himself kept a patronizing distance from this enthusiasm, and wrote:“I could swear that all comedies here seem like tragedies to me” 108 .During the season, which lasted from 18 September to 26 November, therewere13 performances of Italian comedies, each accompanied by three ballets.The comedies were originally to be performed on Tuesdays and Fridays 109 ,but from 7 October, i.e. from the premiere of the first dramma per musicain Warsaw for over 100 years — L’eroe cinese (libretto by Pietro Metastasio,music by Johann Adolf Hasse), which became a sensational hit of those days,the comici italiani performed irregularly and on various days of the week. Atthat time the arguments were published in three languages: Italian, Polishand French.The repertoire presented then was as follows:18 IX Il goffo inganna il furbo24 IX Il marito tormentato dalla gelosiadella moglio27 X Momola sposa malcontenta G.Focher1 X Gradelino furbo senza saperlo4 X Il marito di quattro mogli9 X La congiura de’ carbonari C.Goldoni?11 X Taberino ortolano18 X Li tre fratelli gemelli D’Arbes25 X title unknown 110

The Comici Italiani Ensemble... 9930 X Le sfide di furberie tra Gradelino edArlechino 1114 XI La vedova scaltra C. Goldoni14 XI L’Equivoco di due gemelli Arlechini26 XI Le Metamorfosi di GradelinoAs to what part music played in this repertory, — apart, of course, fromthe ballets which accompanied all the plays — we can guess at its presence inthe comedy performed on 24 September, Il marito tormentato dalla gelosiadella moglie, since on that day, according to one of the court journals, “inWarsaw their Royal Highnesses were present at an Italian opera” 112 . Thearguments (Italian and Polish), however, say nothing about music being interwovenwithin the plot of this play. It is thus possible that the journalisticnote simply reflects incompetence and helplessness when attempting to usethe highly imprecise vocabulary relating to theatrical-operatic genres.***After leaving Warsaw in December 1754, the comici italiani ensemble wasactive in Dresden until the outbreak of the seven-year war (the last performancehad its place there on 26 February 1756). Obviously, military actionwas a deciding factor in the artists’ departure from occupied Saxony, butin any case the golden age of that kind of ensemble was coming to an end,together with the decline of the genre of commedia dell’arte. The Warsawrepertory presented here, often similar to that which the troupe performed atthe electoral court of Augustus III in Dresden, clearly shows the beginningsof a conflict between improvised comedy and literary comedy, represented,among others, by the great achievements of Goldoni. It is also worth emphasizingthat the theatres of Augustus III, both in Warsaw and in Dresden, wereamong the first to disseminate the works of this dramatist and his imitatorsnorth of the Alps.The problem of music in the comedy repertoire of comici italiani still remainsan open question, and the reason for this is the absence of extantmusical sources. The contribution of these artists to the flowering of theintermezzi genre already has already been described in the literature of the

100 Alina Żórawska-Witkowskasubject, and a closer examination of the two satirical operas performed inWarsaw will be, as mentioned earlier, our project for the near future.Notes1 See, for example,. Ortrun Landmann, Quellenstudien zum Intermezzo comico permusica und zu seiner Geschichte, vol. I-II, Rostock 1972, manuscript of doctoral thesisheld at the Sächsischen Landesbibliothek – Staats – und UniversitätsbibliothekDresden; Nino Pirotta, Commedia dell’arte and Opera, in: Nino Pirotta, Music andCulture in Italy from the Middle Ages to the Baroque. A Collection of Essays,Cambridge 1984; Alina Żórawska-Witkowska, Muzyka na dworze Augusta II wWarszawie [Music at the Court of Augustus II in Warsaw], Warszawa 1997.2 Bohdan Korzeniewski, ‘Komedia dell’arte w Warszawie’ [‘Commedia dell’Arte inWarsaw’], Pamiętnik Teatralny 1954 No. 3–4; Karyna Wierzbicka-Michalska, Teatrwarszawski za Sasów [The Warsaw Theatre at the Saxon Times], Wrocław 1964;Julian Lewański, [‘Komedia dell’arte w Warszawie’] [‘Commedia dell’Arte in Warsaw’],also ‘Miscellanea czasów saskich’ [‘Miscellanea of the Saxon Times’], in: PamiętnikTeatralny 1965 No. 1; Mieczysław Klimowicz, ‘Teatr Augusta III w Warszawie’ [‘TheTheatre of Augustus III in Warsaw’], Pamiętnik Teatralny, as above; MieczysławKlimowicz – Wanda Roszkowska, La commedia dell’arte alla corte di Augusto III diSassonia (1748–1756), Venezia 1988.3 Żórawska-Witkowska, op. cit., pp. 198–9.4 Sächsisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden (later referred to by the abbreviation SHSA),OHMA O IV Nr 116, record from 27 II 1734: “Abends gegen 5. Uhr spielte einMarionetten-Spieler auf hiesigen Schloße [...] eine Italiänische Comedie, welche biß 7.Uhr dauerte [...]“. The performance in question was probably prepared by TommasoRistori, as already at the time of the famous wedding celebrations of Augustus III(1719) he entertained guests who came to Dresden with a puppet theatre.5 SHSA, Loc. 676 Lettres et relation au Roi, à la Reine, à Mr le Comte de Sulkowski, deBruhl, depuis Leur départ de Dresde, ou depuis le 6 Novembre, à la fin 1734, letterfrom August Christoph von Wackerbartha to Józef Sułkowski, Dresden 25 December1734.6 SHSA, Loc. 3524 vol. VI, fol. 167, petition by Tommaso Ristori dated 27 April 1737(written by his son, the composer Giovanni Alberto Ristori) and addressed toAugustus III, in which the aged maestro wrote: “il y en a quattre [ans] que ma femmene reçoit point des Gages ayant pourtant travaillé au Théâtre trois ans de suite pourdivertir la Familie Royalle pendant l’absence de Leurs Majestez. [...] Pendant les troisCarnevals que l’on a diverti la Familie Royale avec des Marionettes et des Comédiesitalienes j’ai fait pluesieurs dépenses dont j’en conserve une exacte memoire”. FriedrichAugust ô Byrn ‘Giovanna Casanova und die Comici italiani am polnisch-sächsischenHofe’, Neues Archiv für Sächsische Geschichte und Alterthumskunde Bd.I, Dresden1880, pp. 295–6.) gives information about such performances only in the carnival of1735, and maintains that they were organised by Andrea Bertoldi.7 SHSA, OHMA O IV No. 117: 18 January – Le roi imaginaire; 21 January – L’infinitefurberie di Coviello, Arlichino finto Cupido and Dama francese per amore; 27 January

The Comici Italiani Ensemble... 101– Il dottore ingannato dalle astuzie di Coviello and Arlichino finto barone tedesco; 3February — La maestra di scuola pazza, ubriaca e spiritata per forza della magia andLa casa del dottore abitata da un spirito maestro di musica e di ballo; 10 February –Coviello finto capitano dei granadieri, L’esercizio dei granadieri and Arlechino fintomoretto e sergente per amore; 14 February — Jean-François Regnard Les foliesamoureux and by the same author La sérénade, ballet as the finale; 17 February –Coviello soldato, arme e bagaglio con l’apparecchio della tavola and Arlichino fintostropico e finta statua per amore; 20 February — Florent Carton Dancourt Colinmaillard, by the same author L’eté des coquettes and Le charivari, for the finale Balletsérieux; 26 February – F.C.Dancourt Le tuteur and Ballet sérieux, Marc-Antoine LeGrand Le nouveaux desbargues and Ballet comique, F.C. Dancourt Les vendanges duSurenne and Ballet de Tambourin. Mieczysław Klimowicz (‘Teatr Augusta III wWarszawie’ [‘The Theatre of Augustus III in Warsaw’], op. cit., p. 25) on the basis ofthe same source mentions only the performances presented on 21 January and 10February.8 August ô Byrn, op. cit., pp. 295–6. The author also informs us that the performanceswere then directed by Giovanni Alberto Ristori (the composer); however, the person inquestion was undoubtedly his father, that is, Tommaso Ristori.9 Moritz Fürstenau, Zur Geschichte der Musik und des Theaters am Hofe zu Dresden,vol. II, Dresden 1862, reprint 1971, p. 198. The claim by M. Klimowicz (op.cit., p. 25)that it was a special French troupe with a ballet, engaged by the Prince FrancisXavier, does not seem probable (the Prince was then 4 years old!).10 SHSA, Hausarchiv Frederick Christian, No. 2a, letter from the Prince to his father,Dresden 12 January 1735, and Hausarchiv Friederick Christian; No. 4a, letter fromthe Prince to his mother, Dresden 22 January 1735.11 SHSA, Hausarchiv Frederick Christian, No. 2a, letter from the Prince to his fatherdated 14 December 1735; No. 4a, letter from the Prince to his mother dated 14December 1735.12 See OHMA O IV No. 118. The source mentions both the titles and — in the case ofthe French comedies — the names of the authors. We will omit this data here.13 The Sächsische Landesbibliothek — Staats — und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden,Msc R. 16 and Msc R. 17.14 SHSA Loc. 3524 vol. VI, fol. 108 and 116.15 Königl. Polnischer und Churfürstl. Sächsischer Hoff- und Staats Kalender auf das Jar1739 (later abbreviated to: “Kalender” for the relevant year).16 HSA, Loc. 383 Acta. Die Engagements einiger zum Theater gehöriger Personen u.s.w.betr. Ao 1699 [-1766], fol. 252. Also quoted by Kazimierz Konarski, ‘Teatr warszawskiw dobie saskiej’ [‘The Warsaw Theatre in the Saxon Era’], Pamiętnik Teatralny 1952No. 2/3, p. 24.17 See ô Byrn, op.cit., p. 302. The “Kalender” for 1739, printed somewhat ahead of time,still gives the 10-strong complement of this ensemble, ie. without Rosa Grassi. Theactress’s name is mentioned for the first time only in the 1743 “Kalender”, although asearly as September 1738 her name can be found on the list of 11comici italianitravelling from Dresden to Warsaw; see SHSA , OHMA I No. 59, fol. 30.18 See ô Byrn, op. cit., pp. 301-2.19 SHSA, Loc. 3524 vol. VII, fol. 29, royal rescript from 4 June 1738.

102 Alina Żórawska-Witkowska20 SHSA, for example Loc. 3524 vol. IX, fol. 62.21 Among the extant documents of the Polish treasury we encounter this sum only inSHSA, Loc. 25190 [unnumbered fol.]. and it concerns December 1749.22 SHSA, OHMA I 59 fol. 30.23 SHSA, OHMA I No. 74., fol. 255.24 SHSA, Loc. 3524 vol. VII, fol. 75.25 SHSA, Loc. 3524 vol. VII, rescript from 19 September 1738.26 The circumstances of this particularly interesting visit were presented by Robert-AloysMooser, Annales de la musique et des musiciens en Russie au XVIIIme siècle, vol. I,Genève 1948, pp. 65–84 and by Jaroslaw Bužga, ‘Moskauer Gastspiel DresdnerMusiker und Schauspieler im Jahre 1731’, Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 1984 H. 2.27 “Kalender” for 1740, record for 7 October 1738. The titles of these comedies were notpreviously known to researchers. Also SHSA, Loc. 3499, vol. V.28 At times a number of various diaries were being kept in parallel, manuscript records inFrench and German, and also German reports published in the volumes of “Kalender”.29 SHSA, OHMA O II No. 2, record from 16 January 1739: “ist diejenige italiänischeComoedie, welche Morgen auf dem Senatoren Saal nunerbauten Theatro soll gespieletworden, in Ihro Majt. der Königin Audienz-Zimmer probiret worden.”30 SHSA, Loc. 3499 vol. VI, record from 28 January 1739: “Les comédies Italiennes, quela Cour fait représenter, continuent a eter jouées les Mardi et les Vendredi”. M.Klimowicz (op. cit., p. 26) is thus mistaken in claiming that Wednesdays andThursdays were the designated performance days; the dates of performances alsocontradict this claim.31 Klimowicz, op. cit., p. 26.32 SHSA, OHMA O II Nr 2; OHMA O III Nr 2.33 However, one should bear in mind that both the Warsaw and Dresden repertories arenot known in full, and therefore there may have been significantly more bothrepetitions and new titles.34 The libretto printed in Warsaw (no place or date of publication, nor name of printer)is preserved in SHSA, OHMA G No. 35, fol. 296 and the following.35 Carlo Goldoni. Pamiętniki [Memoires], Warszawa 1958, pp. 142–3 (quoted in transl.by Z. Weaver).36 ‘Nachricht von dem gegenwärtigen Zustande des Theaters in Dresden’, Beyträge zurHistorie und Aufnahme des Theaters 1750, Bd. I sub IV, p. 278 and following, quoted(in transl.) after: ô Byrn, op.cit., p. 308.37 SHSA, Loc. 383 Varia, das Theater, die Italienische Oper, die musikalische Capellaund die Musik betreffend 1680–1784, letter without a date (ca 1733–34), fol. 242.38 “Kalender” for the relevant years.39 As above.40 See endnote 36, quoted (in transl.) after ô Byrn, op. cit., p. 307.41 See Alina Żórawska-Witkowska, Podróże królewiczów polskich. Cztery studia z dziejówkultury muzycznej XVII i XVIII wieku [Trips of Polish Princes. Four Studies from theHistory of Musical Culture of the 17th and 18th century], Warszawa 1992, p. 89.42 SHSA, OHMA I No. 76, fol. 27.43 As above.44 See endnote 36, quoted (in transl.) after ô Byrn, p. 307.

The Comici Italiani Ensemble... 10345 SHSA Loc. 3524 vol. IX, fol. 124.46 As above, and Loc. 3524 vol. XI, fol. 4.47 SHSA Loc. 3524 vol. IX, fol. 121.48 SHSA Loc. 3524 vol. IX, fol. 120 and OHMA I No. 76, fol. 263.49 SHSA OHMA I No. 76, fol. 32, 40.50 SHSA OHMA T III No. 7, decision from 24 September 1740.51 SHSA OHMA I No. 76, fol. 263 and Loc. 3524 vol. IX, fol. 121.52 SHSA Loc. 3524 vol. XI, [unnumbered fol.], rescript from 27 I 1742 and Loc. 3526Jahres Rechnung [...] vom 1. January bis mit ult. o December: 1741, fol. 99.53 SHSA OHMA O II No. 2, record from 7 October 1740: “in demjenigen Saal, desKönigl. Palais, wo ehedem bey Festins und solennen Tagen getanzet worden”. Same inOHMA T III No. 6, fol. 25. On the other hand, another source indicates a certainpavilion belonging to the Saxon resiedence, see OHMA T III No. 61a, fol. 277.54 SHSA, records from 7 October 1740 in: OHMA O II No. 2; OHMA T III No. 6;OHMA O III No. 3.55 A programme of this comedy, undoubtedly printed in Warsaw in 1740, has beenpreserved, see SHSA, OHMA T III No. 6, fol. 49.56 SHSA, OHMA O II No. 2, OHMA O III No. 2, OHMA O III No. 3 and “Kalender”for 1742. M. Klimowicz (op. cit., p. 27), who did not know these sources, maintainedthat “the Italians played in Warsaw until November 1740, as that month the Court leftfor Dresden.” He regards it as possible that the comedies performed in Dresden duringthe carnival in 1740 were repeated in Warsaw and mentions 7 such supposed titles.57 SHSA, OHMA O II No. 2, record from that day.58 See Alina Żórawska-Witkowska, ‘Opera w Warszawie w drugiej połowie XVIII wieku.Od dworskiego teatru Augusta III do publicznego teatru Stanisława AugustaPoniatowskiego (organizacja i repertuar)’ [‘The Opera in Warsaw in the Second Halfof the 18th Century. From the Court Theatre of Augustus III to the Public Theatre ofStanislaus Augustus Poniatowski (organization and repertoire)’], in: Opera polska wXVIII i XIX wieku [The Polish Opera in the 18th and 19th Century], eds. MaciejJabłoński, Jan Stęszewski, Janina Tatarska, Poznań 2000.59 SHSA, OHMA I No. 120, fol. 18; OHMA T III No. 31, [unnumbered fol.]; OHMA TIII No. 33, [unnumbered fol.]60 By royal rescript dated 2 May 1748 they received from the Polish treasury 100 thal.severance pay — Loc. 3525 vol. XIII, fol. 127.61 Goldoni, Pamiętniki, op. cit., p. 164 (quoted in transl.).62 See endnote 36, quoted (in transl.) after ô Byrn, op. cit., p. 308.63 Quoted (in trans.) after Luigi Rasi,I comici Italiani. Biografia, bibliografia,iconografia, vol. I, Firenze 1897, p. 301.64 SHSA, Nachlass Friedrich Christian No. 4c, letter from Maria Josepha to FrederickChristian, Warsaw 23 October 1748, in which the Queen wrote: “la Bastoni [sic!]comedienne que vous avez bien connue aussi a Venise”. It thus appears that theactress brought up her Venetian acquaintance with the Prince in conversation withMaria Josepha. See also A. Żórawska-Witkowska, Podróże królewiczów. .., op. cit., p.52 and the following.65 SHSA, Nachlass Maria Antonia No. 17, letter from Maria Josepha to Maria Antonia,Warsaw 4 September 1748.

104 Alina Żórawska-Witkowska66 C. Goldoni, Opere Complete, Introduction to vol. XV in edition by Pasquali, quoted(in transl.) after L. Rasi, op. cit., p. 679.67 Goldoni, Pamiętniki, op. cit., p.165.68 See endnote 67.69 See endnote 36, quoted (in transl.) after ô Byrn, op. cit., p. 307.70 SHSA, OHMA T III No. 31, [unnumbered fol.], document relating to the Royal Gala 3August 1748.71 See endnote 36, quoted (in transl.) after ô Byrn, op. cit., p. 307.72 SHSA, Nachlass Maria Antonia No. 17, Letter from Maria Josepha to Maria Antonia,Warsaw 4 September 1748.73 See endnote 36, quoted (in transl.) after ô Byrn, op. cit., p. 307.74 SHSA, OHMA I No. 120, fol. 91.75 SHSA, OHMA I No. 120, fol. 18.76 SHSA, Nachlass Maria Antonia No. 16, Letter (in transl.) from Augustus III to MariaAntonia, Warsaw 7 August 1748.77 SHSA, Nachlass Maria Antonia No. 70a, letter from Heinrich von Brühl to MariaAntonia, Warsaw 14 August 1748.78 As above (in transl.), Warsaw 24 August 1748.79 SHSA, OHMA O II Nr 5, record from 5 September 1748.80 SHSA, OHMA O II Nr 5, record from 11 October 1748.81 Lists of persons collecting tickets, tickets for particular performances and arguments ofthe plays being performed at that time are preserved in OHMA G 57 b.82 SHSA, Nachlass Maria Antonia No. 70a, letter (in transl.) from Heinrich von Brühl toMaria Antonia, Warsaw 26 October 1748.83 An impressive collection of arguments (part of them quoted after BohdanKorzeniewski, op. cit.) has been published by Mieczysław Klimowicz and WandaRoszkowska (op. cit.). This edition could be supplemented today in relation to theWarsaw theatre from the years 1748–49 by five new arguments preserved in SHSA,OHMA G No. 57b. These are plays performed on 29 August, 5 September, 5 October(until now only the Polish argument was known), 28 October and 19 November. Seethe repertory index given in the main text.84 SHSA, Nachlass Maria Antonia No. 17, letter from Maria Josepha to Maria Antonia,Warsaw 23 October 1748: “L’après midy nous L’avons celebrée [la gala] avec lacomedie dont voycy joint le billet de l’argument et des ballets de même que de celle devendredy.”85 See Zbigniew Jędrychowski,‘Imieniny króla. Libretta baletowe z 1761 roku’[‘Name-day of the King. Ballets librettos from the year 1761’], Notatnik Teatralnysummer 1994 (8).86 Quotations below come from the printed arguments preserved in SHSA, OHMA G No.57 b, and OHMA G No. 61 b.87 Julian Lewański, ‘Buranella e l’opera “Le contese di Mestre e di Malghera per il trono”(1748)’, in: Vita teatrale in Italia e Polonia fra Seicento e Settecento, ed. MichałBristiger, Jerzy Kowalczyk, Jacek Lipiński, Warszawa 1984.88 We received the as yet unpublished version of their paper, for which we are verygrateful to the authors: Piermario Vescovo, Mestre e Malghera, da Venezia a

The Comici Italiani Ensemble... 105Varsavia, Maria Giovanna Miggiani, “Zà canta el quagiotto”. Sei attori in cerca di unpoeta e di un musicista.89 SHSA, OHMA G No. 61b (Polish arguments with the cast given), OHMA T III No.46, fol. 18, Loc. 3525 vol. XIV. M. Klimowicz (op. cit., p. 32) does not mention theladies Toscani and Vulcani as members of this ensemble.90 Goldoni, Pamiętniki, op. cit., p. 216 (in transl.).91 As above, p. 217.92 As above, p. 218.93 As above, p. 219.94 As above, p. 234–235.95 Krzysztof Żaboklicki, Carlo Goldoni, Warszawa 1984, p. 115.96 See Żórawska-Witkowska, Muzyka na dworze... op. cit., passim.97 See Fabrizio Della Seta, ‘Il Relator sincero (Cronache teatrali romane, 1739–1756’,Studi Musicali, 1980 No. 1, p. 101 (in transl.).98 See endnote 36, quoted (in transl.) after: ô Byrn, op. cit., p. 30899 The arguments of these comedies are to be found in, among others, SHSA, OHMA GNo. 61b. M. Klimowicz – W. Roszkowska, op.cit., fig.71–83/1 included photographicreproductions of the arguments from the collections held at the SächsischenLandesbibliothek Dresden, now the Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats – undUniversitätsbibliothek Dresden.100See endnote 36, quoted (in transl.) after: ô Byrn, op. cit., p. 308.101As above, p.307.102SHSA, Nachlass Friedrich Christian No. 4c, letter from Maria Josepha to FrederickChristian, Warsaw 14 October 1754.103See M. Klimowicz – W. Roszkowska, op. cit., fig. 78–78/1.104As above, fig 81.105SHSA, Nachlass Friedrich Christian No. 4c, letter (in transl.) from Maria Josepha toFrederick Christian, Warsaw 4 November 1754.106The cast is given in the Polish summary of the comedy, reprinted in: B. Korzeniewski,op. cit., p. 45.107SHSA, OHMA G No. 61b, fol. 60 and OHMA T III No. 46, fol. 231, letter from A.Svabe to the secretary, Warsaw 18 September 1754.108Nachlass Maria Antonia No. 70d, Letters of H. von Brühl to Maria Antonia, Warsaw3 and 7 [October 1754].109OHMA T III Nr 46, fol.233, letter from A. Svabe, Warsaw 21 September 1754. Thedates of the performances confirm this.110SHSA, OMHA T III No. 46, fol. 272: letter from A. Svabe, Warszawa 24 October1754: “Morgen ist Comedie”.111According to M. Klimowicz–W. Roszkowska (op. cit., p. 89) 30 X was L’Equivoco didue gemelli Arlechini and 14 XI was Le sfide di furberie tra Gradelino ed Arlechino.112“Kalender” for 1756.

7The Development of Twelve-Note and SerialTechniques in the Music of PolishTwentieth-Century Composers §Iwona LindstedtInstitute of Musicology, University of WarsawIssues relating to the influence of twelve-note and serial techniques in culturalareas other than Western Europe are usually relegated outside the main focusof research in the world historiography of music. If they are discussed at all,they are regarded as a secondary and mostly belated reflection of ideas shapedin artistic and cultural centres of the West, providing a “fascinating assemblyof ” 1 . Polish musicological literature has also not dealtadequately with these issues so far 2 . The established view that came intoexistence is that after the period during which Józef Koffler was active as acomposer there was a significant gap in the history of Polish dodecaphony,followed by a short period of general interest in serial techniques, which wasa part of the cultural ‘thaw’ of 1956. This was regarded as a temporaryphenomenon, leading to the period of domination of sonorism 3 and aleatorytechniques.The reasons why this view became prevalent relate both to the lack of availabilityof documented sources, and the evolutionary approach to analysingchanges in musical language. However, a fundamental change of perspectiveis needed in order to encompass the true extent and manner of influence ofthe twelve-note and serial techniques on the works of Polish twentieth-centurycomposers. Firstly, there is a need to take into account the works of Polish§ The main theses presented in this paper are taken from my Dodekafonia i serializm w twórczościkompozytorów polskich XX wieku [Dodecaphony and Serialism in the Output of PolishTwenthieth-Century Composers], Lublin: Polihymnia, 2001.106

The Development of Twelve-Note and Serial Techniques... 107emigré composers, which had been ignored in the approach adopted previously.Secondly, the widely adopted paradigm which analyses music in termsof genesis and development needs to be abandoned in favour of an approachwhich allows one to capture the variety of discontinuities, and the multiplicityof alternative solutions and processes of creative innovation.The reason for this is that the history of the reception of twelve-noteand serial techniques into the output of Polish composers is a discontinuousand non-organic phenomenon. It does not repeat the cause-and-effectchain of events which led to the development of Schönberg’s classical twelvenotemethod, followed by overcoming the idea of total serialism, until itsbreak-up in the perspective of open form and sonorism. Strong interest inapplying twelve-note and serial techniques by composers after 1956 did notconstitute a straight continuation of pre-war achievement of such composersas Józef Koffler, Tadeusz Majerski and Konstanty Regamey, but was, rather,a natural consequence of political and cultural changes.A distinctive feature of the discussed reception is, moreover, a peculiarreconfiguration of the original models, linked to a critical and selective readingof the programmes of Western musical avantgarde. Dodecaphonic and serialtechniques, interacting with other aspects of a musical composition, createda number of stylistic idioms of high originality. The re-evaluation of thefunction of serial rules in shaping musical material was mainly brought aboutby a strong need for preserving aesthetic identity — a point frequently stressedin the statements of indivudal composers 4 .The chronology of the reception of twelve-note and serial techniques in theworks of Polish composers can be divided into three phases, embedded ina general descriptive model of “fluctuations of modernism” (see Table 7.1.).This temporal structure is defined both by the dates when external conditionschanged abruptly because of historical events (Second World War years, yearsof dominance of socialist realism aesthetics (1949–1956)), and by the internalregularities in the process of change in the musical language of the twentiethcentury. However, the main demarcation lines in the periodic division adoptedhere are constituted by dates of composition of particular works created inaccordance with the serial principles.

108 Iwona LindstedtThe first phase (see Table 7.2.) includes, primarily, all the compositionsof the Lvov pioneers of the twelve-note technique Józef Koffler, whose pianocomposition Musique de ballet op. 7 from 1926 marks the introduction of thedodecaphony to Poland, and Tadeusz Majerski, whose artistic achievementsdating to the mid-1930s (Four piano preludes and Two etudes for orchestra(1936)) provide an interesting supplement to the phenomenon which mightbe described as the “Lvov school of dodecaphony”. Koffler’s works emphasiseabove all the Schönbergian aspects of the twelve-note technique relating tothe thematic treatment of the series and assigning to it the function of themain regulator of the course of the music. They also contain experimentswith cyclical permutations of twelve-note rows (yet in Musique. Quasi unasonata op. 8 (1927)) which are forerunners of Alban Berg’s achievements(e.g. Aria Der Wein (1929)) 5 . Moreover, one can find in Koffler’s outputsome interesting attempts at incorporating of a purely tonal material in arigorously serial structure of the work (as in his II Symphony op. 17 wherethe melodies of Polish folk songs Pije Kuba do Jakuba and Miała baba kogutaare quoted) (see Figure 7.1.).On the other hand, the twelve-note works of Tadeusz Majerski are based onexperiments with the building of a series, which consist in marking in it manyinternal connections (above all homologous groups and palindromes) in themanner of Webern’s highly prestructured twelve-note rows (e.g., Symphonyop. 21, Concerto for 9 instruments op. 24) (see Figure 7.2.).The early 1940s saw the debut as a composer of Konstanty Regamey, whobrought into this phase a new stylistic and technical quality. At concertsarranged in secret in occupied Warsaw he presented highly original attemptsat assimilating the twelve-note technique in his V Persian Song for baritoneand orchestra (1942–43) and his Quintet for clarinet, bassoon, violin, celloand piano (1944). Regamey’s Quintet is an example of creative adaptationof dodecaphony of the Bergian type, which contains elements of major-minortonality and which opens the possibility of permutational treatment of twelvenoterows (see Figure 7.3.).The first phase of the history of dodecaphony in Poland ends in 1944 withthis work. It also constitutes the lower boundary of a four-year gap in its

The Development of Twelve-Note and Serial Techniques... 109G-MajorD flat-Majorflcl11 10 911 10 97F-MajorB-Majorobtr11 10 911 10 97E flat-MajorA-Majorcrfg11 10 911 10 97P1 P11 P9 P7 P5 P3 P1 P11 P9vn 1vn 2vlvccbFig. 7.1. Józef Koffler, II Symphony op. 17, mov. IV, b. 171–179, Miała baba kogutamelody.assimilation, when Polish musical culture was being reconstructed during theearly post-war years.The second phase (see Table 7.3.) starts in 1948, with the compositionof the string trio Ricercari by Roman Haubenstock-Ramati. The need forre-evaluating this period by taking into consideration the output of Polishcomposers working abroad is particularly apparent. The few instances of interestin modern compository techniques, mainly in the works of BogusławSchaeffer and Kazimierz Serocki, constitute only part of a much wider assimilationof the twelve-note technique during that phase. This trend, originating

110 Iwona LindstedtMajerski’s palidromic row (Four piano preludes)P 0 >< P 6PRRR1 1 3 4 1 6 1 4 3 1 1Webern’s palindromic row (Symphony op. 21)P >

The Development of Twelve-Note and Serial Techniques... 111Lento source row1 2 3 4permuted rowP 09 10cl1 5P 5con sord.vn5 6 7 8fgLento9 10 11 123 4 8 12ftp2 6 7 11Fig. 7.3. Konstanty Regamey, Quintet for clarinet, bassoon, violin, cello and piano,mov. II., b. 1–5.idea of “variation through repetition”, which in the composer’s later works ledto a totally new form — the mobile. On the other hand, Bogusław Schaeffer’sTwo Piano Compositions (1949–1950) and the piano Composition (1954) expressfascination with the interval as the main carrier of the melic contentin music. For Schaeffer, the adoption of the rules of dodecaphony was fromthe beginning linked with attempts to go beyond Schönberg’s classical modeltowards serializing musical parameters other than pitch.The compositions of Roman Palester (IV Symphony (1948–52), Passacaglia(1953) and Variazioni (1955) for orchestra, Preludes for piano (1954)), ofKonstanty Regamey (Musique pour cordes (1951–53), Cinq etudes pour voixde femme et piano (1955)) and Karol Rathaus (V String quartet (1954))employ the dodecaphonic technique which is most closely linked to Berg’stwelve-note writing. They emphasize norms secondary to Schönberg’s classicaldoctrine (in particular permutation and the weaving of tonal elementsinto the structure of the series), while on the aesthetic plane it is the issuesof expressiveness which come to the fore. The unorthodox use of the series in

112 Iwona Lindstedtthe works of Regamey and Rathaus means that dodecaphony is treated thereas a kind of “auxiliary technique”, complementary to other, non-serial waysof organising pitch.To complete the overview of the use of the twelve-note technique by Polishcomposers in the years 1945–1955, one needs to refer to an example of its usein a composition which cannot be assigned to either of the above groups —the Suite of preludes(1952) for piano by Kazimierz Serocki. For a long timethis work was, without foundation, regarded as the first Polish twelve-notecomposition written after the war. 6 However, both Roman Palester’s IV Symphonyand Bogusław Schaeffer’s piano compositions, whose “dodecaphonicity”is much more advanced, were composed earlier. What does distinguish theSuite of preludes is the rudimentary character of the twelve-note technique;this venture into the area of the sound space being taken over by chromaticseries, which might be described as “exploratory” (twelve-note but non-serial‘aggregates’), is merely the point of departure for Serocki’s later achievementsusing the twelve-note and serial techniques 7 .The political upheavals which took place in October 1956 resulted in socialand cultural changes in Poland, and this date marks the beginning of thethird phase of the reception. In music, the watershed was the performance ofTadeusz Baird’s Cassazione per orchestra at the first International Festival“Warsaw Autumn”. With cultural pluralism being re-established, acceptanceof modern technical and aesthetic ideas was so widespread, that it would beeasier to provide an index of composers who showed restraint in their attitudeto twelve-note and serial techniques, than to mention all those who activelymade use of the possibilities they offered.The high degree of differentiation in the manifestations of twelve-note andserial techniques during this phase means that they are best analysed systematically(see Table 7.1.). The issue concerns the links between serialismand other aspects of a musical work. The most important ones are problemsof musical syntax (thematicism), structure (pointillism), sound aspects(sonorism) and form (aleatorism). Other aspects include Polish attempts attotal serialization (see Table 7.4.), and ideas for controlling musical spaceusing the row, present in the works of Witold Lutosławski and Zygmunt My-

The Development of Twelve-Note and Serial Techniques... 113cielski, and independent of Schönberg’s classical doctrine. In the majority ofcases the interest in the twelve-note technique is not related to one, chosennon-serial method of shaping music. Theme/motif-based dodecaphonic approachescoexist with emphasis being placed purely on the sonorous aspectof the music; post-Webernian pointillism does not automatically imply totalserialism, and aleatorism does not preclude the use of the strictest forms ofserialisation or sonoristic devices.From the early 1960s one can observe the tendency towards widening thesearch by the avantgarde for new concepts in textural, timbral and formalsolutions; however this does not in any way imply a total abandonment ofserial techniques. It is therefore most difficult to decide on a point where thehistory of dodecaphony and serialism in the music of Polish composers comesto an end. One can propose 1976 as a symbolic boundary 8 , when a numberof important works were composed (such as, for example, Henryk MikołajGórecki’s III Symphony) which had clearly moved away from the avantgardeachievements of the past and were looking forward to the attractions of postmodernism.On the other hand it should be remembered that the period after1976 showed many compositions which made use of the possibilities offered bythe twelve-note technique and which introduced creative modifications intoit. Among them one finds not only works influenced by modernist aesthetics,but also compositions in which dodecaphony is used as an equally valued elementof postmodern multiplicity and synthesis (e.g., Bagatelle für A. W. byPaweł Szymański (1995)).The basic regularity which can be discerned in the chronological approachto the development of serial works of Polish composers is the dynamic growthof interest in these techniques — from the singular examples of its adoption inthe first phase, through sporadic and dispersed manifestations in the secondphase, until its general acceptance in the third phase. However, the actualmechanisms of their reception are revealed only in the synchronic perspective,through defining the relations between a particular musical-aesthetic model,and the manner in which it is adopted in compositional work. The receptionof these most influential compositional doctrines of the twentieth century byPolish composers is safeguarded both by the principle of creative develop-

114 Iwona Lindstedtment of their elements, and the process of creating on their basis totally new,original qualities within the constant search for “new music”. The transformingmechanisms of assimilation include thus a wide spectrum of phenomena,from the unprecedented fusion of Schönbergian thematic dodecaphony withneoclassical stylistics in the works of Koffler, described in detail by MaciejGołąb 9 , to the extreme widening of the total serialism model in Antoni Prosnak’sconcept (Composition with a Universal Series (1964)). In contrast tothe attitude of Western avantgarde centres, where serial techniques were increasinglyregarded as having exhausted their potential, Prosnak points tothe possibilities of their further development by linking all musical and nonmusicalelements within a synthetic art with a higher numerical model — a“universal differences series” 10 . Exemplary (see Figure 7.4.) universal row:-q, -2q, -2q, -q is applied to texture, rhythm, meter, and intervals. For thetexture the value of q is a single part, for rhythm it is hemidemisemiquaver,and in case of interval structure the value of q is a semitone. Serializedstructure departs from seven-part structure and becomes gradually thinner(7–6–4–2–1), while metric series starts from 4/8 and changes to 31/64, 29/64,27/64 and 13/32. Prosnak composed also four durational rows, starting fromquaver (8–7–5–3–2), crochet (16–15–12–11–10), dotted crochet (24–23–21–19–18) and minim (32–31–29–27–26). Finally, three interval rows are unfolded:7–6–4–2–1, 9–8–6–4–3 and 11–10–8–6–5.The move away from ideas inspired largely by the Western avantgarde,towards individual, separate searchings and concepts can be seen in compositionsinspired by pointillism. Their most significant feature is the separationof pointillist technique from its serial origin, and even considerable looseningof the dodecaphonic norms themselves. However, the most important consequenceof such attitudes has been the coexistence in the works of Polishcomposers of transformatory procedures derived from dodecaphony (retrogrademotion, inversion, permutation) with other technical solutions. Combiningserial formulae with sonorism, which was the distinguishing mark ofthe so-called Polish school of composition in the 1960s, and with elements ofindeterminacy, came to reflect within the Polish tradition in its own specificway Stockhausen’s conviction that “serial thinking is something that’s come

The Development of Twelve-Note and Serial Techniques... 115IIIIIIVVVIVIIFig. 7.4. Antoni Prosnak, Composition with a Universal Series.

116 Iwona Lindstedtinto our consciousness and will be there forever: it’s relativity and nothingelse” 11 .Totally new qualities arose either as a result of applying serial regulationof pitch onto a layer of modern “purely sonorous effects”, or — more fundamentally— through applying reflexive numerical transformations and permutationsto sonoristic structures, so characteristic of the works of KrzysztofPenderecki (Quartetto per archi, Dimensions of time and silence), HenrykMikołaj Górecki (Genesis cycle) and Wojciech Kilar (Diphtongos). Thus,although the aesthetic awareness of these composers concentrated aroundaspects of musical sonorism, this did not mean a total rejection of serial techniques.For example, in the initial fragment of Penderecki’s Quartetto asidefrom the pitch row several numerical rows are used 12 . The series of odd(1–3–5–7–9) and natural (1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9) numbers, a series of pairs ofalternately odd and even numbers (1–3–2–4–5–7–6–8) and a Fibonacci seriesof numbers (2–3–5–8–13) function here to order the so-called ‘ligatures’ —groups of extraordinary articulated notes joined by a single full beam.However, an attempt was made at working out a compromise betweentotal serialism and aleatory technique, by putting forward proposals to freesome musical elements from strict distribution, while preserving serial pitchregulation (e.g., Varianti per due pianoforti and Metamorphoses by RomanPalester) and by attempts to employ serial techniques within the framework of“open” formal concepts (e.g., Three diagrams for solo flute by Henryk MikołajGórecki, Rotazione by Adam Walaciński).The discussion of serial techniques in the works of Polish composers wouldnot be complete without taking into account two other significant phenomena,characteristic of the third phase of development. They concern, firstly, theworks of Witold Lutosławski and Zygmunt Mycielski, which developed onthe basis of a clearly stated rejection of links with the traditions of Viennaor Darmstadt. The fundamental impulse for both these original solutionswas criticism of those aspects of serialism which were imperceptible aurally,and the desire to move the centre of gravity to issues of musical perception,through reference to the expectations and habits of the listener. The twelvenoteseries was treated as a purely introductory, abstract regulator of the pitch

The Development of Twelve-Note and Serial Techniques... 117material, which later was subject to structuring methods independent of theSchönbergian doctrine. Lutosławski turned the series into a complementaryelement of a set of devices for ordering sound-space structures (includingtwelve-note chords and the so-called “assigned notes”) 13 , and Mycielski in his“matrix system” included it in the area of “modulatory” procedures, conceivedof in his own individual manner, and techniques of elimination and choice ofspecific elements from a twelve-note potential 14 (see Figure 7.5. 15 ).The second phenomenon concerns regarding dodecaphony and serialismas points of departure for the search for increasingly innovative artistic solutions.It manifests itself in the works of Bogusław Schaeffer and RomanHaubenstock-Ramati. New formal, timbral, notational and structural deviceswere linked to the achievement of the serial doctrine as the most stimulatingcompositional concept of last century, without which they simply couldnot have come into being. In this interpretation, works such as Schaeffer’sTertium datur or Azione a due, and Haubenstock-Ramati’s Mobile für Shakespeareare manifestations of the heritage of dodecaphony, understood in thewidest possible sense.The story of dodecaphony and serialism in the works of Polish twentiethcenturycomposers is undoubtedly a turbulent process of interest to researchers.The true significance of these areas of creative activity of Polish composers,neglected in Western historical research, lies in the specific, exceptionallycreative development of the two related artistic doctrines. One should thusemphasise that serial techniques played a much more significant part in thehistory of twentieth-century Polish music than has been traditionally accordedto them. Such a varied and artistically valuable heritage should also becomea permanent part of the history of European music, especially when regardedfrom the perspective of a united Europe.

118 Iwona LindstedtTablica Aa b cFig. 7.5. Zygmunt Mycielski, twelve-note matrix with highlighted groups.

The Development of Twelve-Note and Serial Techniques... 119Phases ofassimilationPhase IModernism I(1926–1944)Phase II“outlawed” modernism(1948–1955)Phase IIIModernism II(1956–1976) (∞)Composersandproblems“Lvov school of dodecaphony”:• Józef Koffler• Tadeusz MajerskiKonstanty Regamey“dodecaphonic diaspora”:• Roman Palester• Roman Haubenstock-Ramati• Konstanty Regamey• Karol Rathaus• Bogusław Schaeffer• Kazimierz Serockiserial techniques in relation to:• thematicism• pointillism• sonorism• aleatorism• total serialismideas independent of Schonberg’sclassical doctrineTable 7.1. Serial techniques in the works of Polish twentieth-centurycomposers — periodization.

120 Iwona Lindstedt1926 J. KofflerMusique de ballet1927 J. KofflerMusique. Quasi unasonataJ. Koffler15 Piano Variations1928 J. KofflerTrio for strings1930 J. KofflerI SymphonyJ. KofflerPiano Sonatina1931 J. KofflerCantata ,Die Liebe’1932 J. KofflerPiano concertoJ. KofflerAlles durch M.O.W1933 J. KofflerII Symphony1934–1936 T. MajerskiSuite for cello and piano1935 J. KofflerIII SymphonyJ. KofflerQuattre PoèmesJ. Koffler20 PianoVariationsT. MajerskiFour pianopreludesT. MajerskiFour songsfor voice andpiano1936 T. MajerskiTwo symphonic etudesJ. KofflerCapriccio for violinand piano1940 J. KofflerIV Symphony1940–1942 K. RegameySeven Persian songsfor baritone and piano1942–1944 K. RegameyQuintet for clarinet,bassoon, violin, celloand pianoTable 7.2. Twelve-note compositions in the output of Polish composers inthe years 1926–1944.T. MajerskiFour pianocompositions

The Development of Twelve-Note and Serial Techniques... 1211948 R. Haubenstock-RamatiRicercari for string trio1948–1950 R. PalesterIV Symphony1949–1950 B. SchaefferTwo piano compositions1950–1951 R. PalesterThrenodies for voice and instrumentalensemble1951 R. Haubenstock-RamatiBlessings for soprano and 9instruments1951–1952 R. PalesterThree sonnets to Orpheus1951–1953 K. RegameyMusique pour cordes1952 K. SerockiSuite of preludes1953 B. SchaefferMusic for strings – NocturneR. PalesterPassacaglia for orchestra1954 R. PalesterPiano preludesB. SchaefferPiano compositionR. Haubenstock-RamatiRecitativo ed aria for harpsichordand orchestra1955 R. PalesterVariazioni for orchestraK. RegameyCinq etudes for voice and orchestraTable 7.3. Twelve-note compositions in the output of Polish composers inthe years 1948–1955.K. RathausV String quartet

122 Iwona Lindstedt1957 B. SchaefferModel II for the piano1958 K. SerockiMusica concertanteR. Haubenstock-RamatiSéquencesfor violin and orchestraR. Haubenstock-RamatiMobile für Shakespearefor voice and instruments1959 H. M. GóreckiThree diagrams for solo fluteW. KotońskiStudy on one cymbal stroke1959–1969K. RegameyElectronic Hymn from theoperaDon Robott1960 H. M. GóreckiScontri for orchestraB. SchaefferConcerto per seia tre1961 B. SchaefferModel III for the pianoB. SchaefferAzione a duefor piano and instruments1962 B. SchaefferFour compositions for stringtrio1964 A. ProsnakComposition with a universalseriesTable 7.4. Totally serial compositions in the output of Polish composers inthe years 1957–1964.

The Development of Twelve-Note and Serial Techniques... 123Notes1 Detlef Gojowy, ‘Russia and Eastern Europe, 1945–70’, in: Modern Times. From WorldWar I to the Present, ed. Robert P. Morgan, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall,1994. , p. 307.2 See: Józef Michał Chomiński, Muzyka Polski Ludowej [Music of People’s Poland],Warszawa: PWN 1968; Krzysztof Baculewski, Polska twórczość kompozytorska1945–1984 [Polish Composition 1945–84], Kraków: PWM, 1987.3 The term sonoristics or initially rather its adjectival form — ‘sonoristic technique’ —was introduced into Polish musicological literature by Józef Michał Chomiński, ‘Zzagadnień techniki kompozytorskiej XX wieku’ [‘Some Problems of 20th-centuryCompositional Technique’], Muzyka 1956 No. 3; see also: J. M. Chomiński, ‘Technikasonorystyczna jako przedmiot systematycznego szkolenia’ [‘The Sonoristic Techniqueas a Subject of Systematic Training’], Muzyka 1961 No. 3 and J. M. ChomińskiMuzyka Polski Ludowej [Music of Peoples’s Poland], op. cit.). It refers to “placing thevalues relating purely to the sound aspect in the forefront as the main means ofexpression, and thus a structural factor” (Chomiński 1968, p. 127).4 See: Zbigniew Skowron, ‘Recepcja postaw i programów awangardowych w powojennejmuzyce polskiej’ [‘Reception of Vanguard Behaviors and Programs in the Post WorldWar II in Polish Music’], in: Muzyka polska 1945–1995 [Polish Music 1945-1995].Materiały z sesji naukowej 6–10 grudnia 1995 w 20-lecie Zakładu Analizy iInterpretacji Muzyki [Notes from the Science Session 6-10th December for the 20thAnniversary of the Analysis and Music Interpretation Department at the Academy ofMusic in Kraków], eds. K. Droba, T. Malecka, K. Szwajgier, Kraków: AkademiaMuzyczna, 1996, p. 75.5 These are exhaustively described by Maciej Gołąb in: Józef Koffler, Kraków: MusicaIagellonica, 1995, p. 38.6 Such data is provided by, for example, Baculewski, op. cit., p. 170, and indirectly alsoChomiński, op. cit, p. 113.7 The second phase of assimilation of serialism includes also compositions of TadeuszMajerski, not listed in Table 7.2. The postwar output of this composer testifies toattempts at preserving artistic independence under conditions of extreme pressure toconform to socialist realism aesthetics. Dodecaphony functions here as a relic,camouflaged in non-serial but twelve-note complexes (Piano Concerto (1946–47); FourOrgan Compositions (1953)) and returns as a distant echo in structures based oninterval-serial models employed in earlier compositions (Cello Sonata from 1949,which is a new version of the Cello Suite from 1934–36).8 This date is treated as a watershed in the postwar history of Polish music byKrzysztof Baculewski. Cf. his Polska twórczość kompozytorska... [PolishComposition...], op. cit., p. 280.9 See Maciej Gołąb Józef Koffler, op.cit., pp. 186–201.10 See Antoni Prosnak, ‘Kompozycja serią uniwersalną’ [‘Composition with a UniversalSeries’], Muzyka 1964 Nos. 1–2, pp. 84–100.11 Jonathan Cott Stockhausen: Conversations with the Composer, New York: Simon &Schuster, 1973, p. 100.12 See Krzysztof Bilica, ‘Pozaekspresyjne porządki w ’[‘Beyond Expression in the String Quartet (no 1)’], in: Współczesność i tradycja w

124 Iwona Lindstedtmuzyce Krzysztofa Pendereckiego [Modernity and Tradition in Krzysztof Penderecki’sMusic], eds. R. Chłopicka, K. Szwajgier, Kraków: Akademia Muzyczna 1983, p. 75.13 The fullest description of the system of pitch organisation together with theforeground role of twelve-note series is to be found in Martina Homma’s WitoldLutosławski. Zwölfton-Harmonik – Formbildung – “aleatorischer Kontrapunkt”.Studien zum Gesamtwerk unter Einbeziehung der Skizzen, Köln: Bela Verlag, 1996.14 See: Zygmunt Mycielski, ‘Jeszcze o wyborach wysokości dźwięku’ [‘More about theChoices of Sound Pitch’], Res Facta Nova nr 1(10), Poznań 1994, pp. 12–16.15 In the original matrix, the given groups of notes were indicated with different colors.As only a black and white photocopy of the table has remained, in the above examplethe “coloring” has been reconstructed through increasing the shape of the adequatenote-heads.

8The Orpheus-Type Myth in Turkmen MusicalTraditionSławomira Żerańska-KominekInstitute of Musicology, University of WarsawIntroductionFew figures from Greek mythology have played such a significant role in Europeanculture. An heroic voyager into the underworld, the most faithful oflovers, a priest, the mutilated victim of female jealousy, a teacher of humanityand an inventor, Orpheus was first and foremost a musician and poet,the embodiment of the artist. The countless reinterpretations of the ancientlegend which have arisen over the centuries in the minds of musicians, philosophers,poets and painters have sought in the image of the Thracian singer theessence and the sense of artistic creativity, linked most closely to religiousexperience. The divine gift of music and poetry enable him to attain levelsof consciousness that are inaccessible to ordinary humans and connect himto the supernatural world. As the ‘translator of the Gods’, the poet revealsto people spiritual truths, he is the conduit of sacred mysteries which areaccessible to the chosen few alone. In sacrificing his life, Orpheus becomesthe First Artist to transmit to future generations the secret of his art.The image of a mythical poet-musician who dies of love while seeking immortalityin art is not the exclusive property of European culture. A remarkablysimilar figure can be found in the tradition of the peoples of Central Asia.Görogly (Son of the Grave) is an initiated singer, a soulful poet, who, in treadingthe path of love, vanquishes death, restores harmony to the universe andbrings cultural goods to mankind. Tales of Görogly (Son of the Grave) or125

126 Sławomira Żerańska-KominekKörogly (Son of the Blind Man), arranged in an epic cycle, have a vast territorialrange, and are known among Turkmen, Uzbeks, Karakalpaks, Kazakhsand Turks, as well as Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Georgians, Kurds and Tajiks.In Turkmenistan, a huge popularity is enjoyed by the voluminous tale 1 fromthis cycle entitled Harman Däli, which tells the story of the love between abeautiful princess and the brave djigit Görogly. In many respects, this workreminds one of medieval courtly romances, of which, from the fourteenth centuryonwards, Orpheus was not infrequently the hero 2 . Only two romantictranspositions of the myth have survived to our times: the anonymous SirOrpheo, from the fourteenth century, and Robert Henryson’s 3 Orpheus andEurydice, from the fifteenth century. Henryson’s ballad of Orpheus and Eurydiceshares with the Turkmen tale of the Son of the Grave and Crazy Harmanstriking similarities in terms of substance and ideas, as well as an astoundingdepth to the spiritual kinship of their protagonists: musicians, poets andlovers.Orpheus and EurydiceThe account of how Orpheus’ love for Eurydice led him to venture into theworld of the dead — a tale universally familiar in European tradition —was formerly but one of the elements of a considerably richer mythologicalcomplex, of which only a small part has survived to the present day. Notwithout a certain surprise does one note here that this extraordinary feat,which constitutes not only the most familiar element, but above all the mostdeeply, if one may say, mythologized and interpreted fragment of the old myth,aroused no greater emotion among Hellenistic authors. Orpheus’ romancewas of considerably less interest to classical writers than were his deeds in themasculine world of the Argonauts. Yet, it is precisely the journey into Hadesfor the love of a woman which dominated the imagination of later generationsof artists and philosophers, for whom Orpheus personified the dilemma of thecreative artist in his search for the sense of life and death, the sense of loveand of art.

The Orpheus-Type Myth in Turkmen Musical Tradition 127The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as told by Robert Henryson, in a romanticconvention, in his poem Orpheus and Eurydice 4 differs quite substantiallyfrom the classical version of the legend. Here, Eurydice, the magnificent andpowerful Queen of Thrace, summons to her land Orpheus, son of Calliope andPhoebus, a knight and singer celebrated throughout the world, and offers himher hand in marriage. When Orpheus arrives, Eurydice greets him as her lordand King of Thrace. They soon wed, and spend the most pleasant of times in‘mirth and blithness’, but the marital bliss is short-lived. Eurydice is bittenby a snake and falls into a ‘deidly swoun’; Proserpine, Queen of the Fairies,takes Eurydice to her realm. The desperate Orpheus picks up his harp andwanders into the forest, where his laments are so bewitching that even thetrees dance to the rhythm of the music, moved by his grief. Here, he giveshimself up to ascetic practices, which culminate in his experiencing an initiationdeath; freed from his body, his soul rises along the Milky Way up to theheavenly spheres, first wandering through the spheres of Saturn, Jupiter andMars. Not finding Eurydice there, Orpheus in spiritual form proceeds to ameeting with Phoebus in the sphere of the Sun, and then travels downwardsto Venus, the most powerful goddess of love, in order to pay her tribute, asbefits the foremost pupil in love. Since here, too, he fails to encounter hislost love, he travels lower to Mercury, and then on through the Moon to theEarth 5 .Henryson may have drawn his model from Chaucer’s House of Frame, orfrom The Kingis Quair by King James I, where the hero journeys throughthe planetary spheres to the home of Venus, enquiring about a beautifulyoung girl whom he has never seen 6 . It also seems possible, and perhaps evenmore likely, that Henryson reached for the works of Macrobius 7 or MartianusCapella 8 , which elucidate the sense of the magical journeys into the heavensin the context of Hellenistic theories of cognition and salvation 9 . In hermeticphilosophy, the path of the soul to the world of ideas led through the orbitsof the seven visible spheres — the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars,Jupiter and Saturn — which are understood as seven coverings around theEarth. Entering the world by the will of the Highest God, man, as a spiritualbeing, first passes through the seven heavenly spheres to the moon, and

128 Sławomira Żerańska-Kominekthus receives the powers of each. Next, he joins the material world, whichrepresents the consummate evil. Salvation can only be achieved through theliberation and separation from matter that occurs at the moment of death,when man discards his material body, and his soul, rising through the heavenlyspheres, gradually relinquishes the powers which he received from themand, as with Orpheus in Henryson’s poem, reaches eighth heaven, which ispure ether. There, it joins with the Divine Powers, and on itself becoming aDivine Power it ultimately enters the Godhead.However, man does not have to wait for physical death in order to be nearerto God. For it is possible for him to be reborn, when he frees himself fromnegative and evil forces to such a degree that he detaches himself from hisbody, thus purifying his mind and, thanks to divine grace, becoming one inecstasy with the mind of God. The means by which this liberation can berealised is profound cognition (gnosis). European literature’s first portrayalof the ascension of Orpheus 10 , who ‘returns’ from the highest heaven throughthe spheres of the seven planets to earth can therefore be interpreted both asa symbol of man’s birth and also of his spiritual rebirth in one with God.On his stellar voyage, Orpheus contemplates the universe as musical harmony;passing among all the planets, he heard all the heavenly melodies andsounds 11 . There, he learned the proportions between notes such as duplare,triplare, emetricus, enolius, quadruplait and epoddeus 12 , which make up theconsonant chords ‘sweet’ fourth and octave, double octave and fifth, and doublefifth. 13 In the ecstatic experience of his journey through the planetaryspheres, he acquired a profound knowledge of harmony, became an initiatedsage and grasped the essence of the cosmic order, which is musical order.Furnished with the supreme wisdom gained in the Heavens, he can now fulfilhis most important mission: to pit himself against the world of the dead.On his return to earth he roams around cemeteries for twenty-one days and,unable to find Eurydice, descends underground, reaching Hades, that deepestand most terrifying place, where reign the dark ruler Pluto and his wife Proserpine.There, he finally discovers Eurydice, and implores the royal coupleto restore life to his beloved. The king and queen agree to release Eurydiceunder that familiar condition, which Orpheus can not or will not fulfil. Eury-

The Orpheus-Type Myth in Turkmen Musical Tradition 129dice remains in Hades forever, whilst the wretched lover returns alone to theworld of the living.In juxtaposing the two journeys, one to Hades, the other up to the stars,Henryson refers to the classical version of the myth, at the same time manifestinghis knowledge of Hellenistic cosmology, transmitted, inter alia, by thework of Macrobius, which was widely familiar during the Middle Ages. TheScottish poet thus combined ancient images of journeys to the underworldwith the Neoplatonic journey to the stars, leading through death to spiritualtransformation. Orpheus’ descent into Hades is conditioned by his knowledgeof the musical proportions of the cosmos, which explains, at least in part, thesuccess of his mission: the Thracian singer reaches the lowest depths of hellonly thanks to his prior ascent into the Highest Heaven. It was there thathe learned the secret of musical harmony, which is why his song possessesan exceptional, magical power, to which the royal couple that rule over theunderworld succumb.The Son of the Grave and Crazy HarmanThe magical journey between the Underworld and the heavens constitutes thegoal and the sense of the life of Görogly in the tale of Crazy Harman (HarmanDäli), which is entirely devoted to the poetico-musical initiation of the hero,who sets out on the path to initiation in order to attain the mastery of themusician and poet, known in Turkmen tradition as bakhshi or ashik. HarmanDäli holds a special place in the rich epic repertoire of the Turkmen, as it isdevoted entirely to music, described through the symbolic language of mythand poetry. The poet-musician is the principal hero of this mythical-fairy taleromance, and music is one of the creative forces behind the half-real, halfunrealworld presented by the narrator of the events. In Turkmen literature,one can find countless love stories similar to that of Harman Däli. Yet, it isHarman Däli that Turkmen narrators and their audiences value most highly,since the great love for a beautiful woman is here intertwined with a greatlove for poetry and music.

130 Sławomira Żerańska-KominekThe dessan Harman Däli enjoys huge popularity above all in the Turkmenpart of Chorasmia, where it belongs to the stock repertoire of the vastmajority of narrators. The full version of the tale lasts some 5–6 hours, butif necessary the bakhshis remove a number of episodes or render fewer versifiedsongs, which vary in number among different performers from 11 to29. Among the most splendid Chorasmian versions of Harman Däli currentlyknown are the recitations of Magtim Guli bakhshi and Pälvan bakhshi, whichstand out for the great care taken over the elaboration of individual episodesand the enormous wealth of vocabulary and means of poetical depiction.The tale relates the story of the taming of the beautiful and valiant, butcruel, princess Harman Däli, who has sworn to give her hand and half herrealm to the djigit who is able to defeat her in wrestling and in song. Bakhshiknightsride from across the land to take up the fight with the Princess, butnone passes the trial of strength and musical talent; they all lose their headsin combat with the girl. So, Harman Däli summons the brave djigit Görogly,a brilliant singer and musician, in order to measure up to him in wrestlingand in music. Görogly takes up the challenge, but loses the fight. However,Harman Däli does not behead him, as was her custom, but promises himmarriage once the young hero has perfected his musical skills. In order toreceive the gift of wisdom and creative inspiration, Görogly sets off to findthe spiritual master, poet and musician, pir Ashik Aydin, and steps ontothe path of initiation. After passing through the long and painful initiationprocess, he defeats his betrothed in a musical dual, and she keeps her wordand marries him.Within the tale of how the Son of the Grave wins the hand of the beautifulprincess Harman Däli one can distinguish three mutually complementarylayers of content, which place the events and the figures of the narrative onthree planes of reality. In the ordinary dimension of ‘this’ world, the narrativeof Pälvan bakhshi, full of popular humour and elements of theatrical performance,portrays the amorous adventures of the young pair of lovers, theirquarrels, fights and separations, ending with a happy reunion and marriage.The plot of the dessan was based on the scenario of a wedding ceremony which,in spite of its epic stereotyping, is essentially extremely close to the ethno-

The Orpheus-Type Myth in Turkmen Musical Tradition 131graphically documented customs of the Turkmen relating to the contractionof marriage. The main role in the creation of the emotional atmosphere of thetale is played by poetico-musical monologues and dialogues, which commenton the sequence of events, but above all deepen the psychological traits of thecharacters and elucidate the motives for their actions. Music and poetry alsoconstitute the indispensable weapon in the incessant, impassioned song duals,which at times transform themselves into a humorous society game or intothe poetic love-suits of the protagonists. The bakhshi, at once both singerand instrumentalist, thus represents the central figure of the tale, which impressesone with its wealth of the most crucial information, albeit of a generalnature, on the musical life of the Turkmen. From this point of view, Pälvanbakhshi’s narrative can, without any great exaggeration, be referred to as anepic treatise of Turkmen musical tradition and of its creators: the singers,poets, musicians, bakhshis.The second plot of the dessan is not immediately accessible in its literal,narrative layer. The pithy language of Pälvan bakhshi, which might oftenappear rather unrefined, turns out to be a subtle device in an artful poeticalgame, thanks to which the words and images take on the quality of symbolicsigns, disclosing the deeper meanings of the narrative. In the amorous adventuresof the Turkmen hero one may discern the representation of the socialand mental process of the maturing of a young man, seeking the existentialfullness of his humanity. The initiation into the sphere of love and eroticismis a magical-religious initiation par excellence, since it leads the hero into thedivine secrets of life, death and immortality. The numerous symbols referringto the dualism of night and day, darkness and light, life and death playa central role in the Turkmen tale, as they express at once the existential,religious and artistic experiences of the hero, musician and poet.Görogly is born in the grave immediately after the death of his mother.Hydyr, the Green Prophet, and the hero’s patron saint, gives him the nameRövshen. The Persian word rövshen denotes ‘luminosity’, ‘brightness’, andindicates that the newborn child belongs to the luminous world of pure spirituality.At the opposite pole of reality are the darkness of the grave and thedepths of the earth, and the hero’s other name carries just such a meaning:

132 Sławomira Żerańska-KominekGörogly, the name that he receives from the Furies, the protective spirits, asa sign of the fulfilled initiation of the warrior. Gör is a Turkicized form of thePersian gur — ‘grave’; ogly means ‘son’. The hero’s second name is therefore‘Son of the Grave’. The double name ‘Luminous / Son of the Grave’ constitutesa metaphor for the hero’s fortunes and fate, containing the programmeof his existence, which is enclosed within the circle of life, death and rebirthin the world of Supreme Wisdom and Truth. Görogly issues from the earth,and the beginning of his life, wrapped in darkness, is at the same time his firststep on the great pathway leading to luminous eternity, there where the soulimprisoned in the tomb of his earthly body achieves the longed-for liberation.The attribute of the Luminous/Son of the Grave is a black, magical dutar(a long-necked, two-string lute), symbolising the notion of movement betweenopposite regions of reality. The black of the instrument indicates the world ofdarkness and death, the subterranean land of demonic powers, with which, inmany mythologies and in folklore, music is associated. At the same time, thedutar of the Son of the Grave belongs to the celestial world, as it was sent tothe hero from Heaven. It should be noted here that the musical instrumentis the anthropomorphic equivalent of the body of the hero, and the musicwhich it produces represents the equivalent of his soul. One is not surprised,therefore, that the dutar passes through identical experiences of initiation tothose undergone by the Luminous / Son of the Grave. It experiences death bybeing smashed into pieces, and is subsequently put back together, is reborn,resurrected. The destruction and subsequent reconstitution of the musicalinstrument in the tale of Harman Däli is the central symbol of the death andresurrection of the musician treading the Path. The dutar — black, yet sentdown from Heaven — reflects the polarisation of reality, whilst at the sametime remaining an instrument that serves the reintegration of opposites.One of the most distinct symbols of the religious and artistic initiation ofthe Son of the Grave in Harman Däli is the process of the transformationand maturing of his animal alter ego. Görogly is born as a posthumous childand his animal counterpart is a dog:A foal will be born, which will grow into a horse. At the age of seven itwill fly across the river. He fed the mare, watered her, took care of her. And

The Orpheus-Type Myth in Turkmen Musical Tradition 133lo the time had come and one day she gave birth to a foal resembling a tazi[bitch] puppy 14 .The dog, which lives on carrion and its own faeces, and which in manymythologies is assigned to the underground world of the dead, joins with thechthonic deities of death, earth and Moon. Born in a dark grave, the childdogchanges into a man with extraordinary powers at his disposal, and hisanimal equivalent is a winged horse. The transformation of the dog into ahorse is filled with hardship. The hero spends eighty days beneath the earth:Dig out a soily chamber, cover it well and keep the foal there for forty days.For forty days he fed and watered the foal. On the forty-first day the old manlooked at him and said: the sun’s rays have fallen on him. Cover the dug-outeven better and for another forty days you must keep the foal underground.On the forty-first day he ordered the foal to be brought before him and said:he is now faultless 15 .The horse symbolises the ecstatic journey, the departure from the body,the ‘mystical death’, the passage from this world to other levels of reality.The winged horse, conversant in human speech, is the Turkmen equivalent ofPegasus, the envoy of the sun and herald of the day, the mount of the Muses,which on Helicon opened the source of inspiration with a blow from its hoof.The decisive musical ‘joust’ between Harman Däli and the Son of the Gravetakes place at night in a cemetery. The heroine brings to her beloved the horseSulchun Däli as a sign of journeying, as an image of the ‘ecstatic madness’ ofthe Moon, which, as a shaman, dies and resurrects. Sulchun Däli, which inTurkmen means ‘crazy soul’, is a gift for the traveller symbolising the maturityand spiritual might that he has attained. It also signifies the poetico-musicalinspiration and wisdom received by he who has learned how to tread thePath, in order to vanquish death. The crazy horse symbolises the madnessof the Luminous/Son of the Grave himself, who must pass through a stageof possession and death in order to overcome death and attain the state ofmusician, poet, bakhshi.Görogly, transformed from Kerem Däli, is an initiated bakhshi and sage:‘...He who renders such melodies is most clearly capable of much.’ He isKing of the Beggars, in other words master of the Sufi brethren, who has

134 Sławomira Żerańska-Kominekacquired extensive musical knowledge and the magical power of mastery overthe sounds of ‘all’ instruments:The dervishes had thirty-two instruments at the same pitch: the karnayand surnay, balaman, ghijak, dutar, chinnira, bab and arghul. In a corner,one of the dervishes was beating a nagora. Görogly spotted in a corner atar, picked it up and beat the strings five-six times. He looks: on the otherside lay a karnay, he picked it up and blew five-six times. The inebriateddervishes took fright and fled. They stood on the street cursing: ‘What isthis misfortune that heaven has sent us?’ They fled, and he continued to play:after the karnay he took up the surnay, then the balaman, the ghijak, andfinally the dutar. 16 He played wondrously: the dutar in his hands sang likea nightingale. His playing pleased the dervishes — one after the other theybegan to return. They sat [in silence] as if blood was coming from their noses.He stopped singing and the dervishes were delighted: Oh, oh how he plays,how he sings of the flying cranes. No singer can equal him. Hey, friends, wewill not find another such bakhshi-knight, another youth of the like 17 .On the level of subjective reality, Pälvan bakhshi reveals to his audiencethe deeper dimension of the music as corresponding to human consciousnessand turned towards sacred spirituality. In his unceasing quest to discoverthe secrets of being and to become united with God, man hones his artisticsensitivity and imagination, gradually reaching the state of the musician andpoet. Symbolising the Path of love and music, along which the narrator leadshis hero-bakhshi, it would appear to indicate some Central Asian system ofSufic initiation of Iranian origins.In traditional cultures, based on a religious outlook on the world, man as amicrocosm reproduces within himself the laws of a living, thinking and feelingmacrocosm. Thus, one is not surprised by the third, cosmic, dimension to thelove story of Görogly and Harman Däli, who are the personifications of twoheavenly bodies: Venus and the Moon. The fortunes of the protagonists, theirreactions, behaviour and attributes, constitute a projection of the astronomicexistence of these stars, and also of the emotional properties ascribed tothem in many mythological and astrological traditions. She is the capricious,unpredictable, menacing and crazy Moon. Her attribute is a khanjar, with

The Orpheus-Type Myth in Turkmen Musical Tradition 135which she reaps her mortal harvest — human souls. He represents Venus.The journey of this planet in the heavenly firmament, its transformation fromEvening Star to Morning Star, symbolises the hero’s journey into the depthsof his own psyche, the experience of death and resurrection. She challengeshim to an amorous contest, indicating to him the path of love. He takes upthe challenge and sets off on his great journey under the protection of theMoon — the patron of travellers. The expedition to the mythical land forthe hand of the princess and the riches of her father is equally, or primarily,the search for wisdom and poetic inspiration, since the Moon — the lordof the waters, of rebirth and vegetation — in astrological symbolism is theplanet that sends down knowledge and inspiration, is the source of spiritual,metaphysical reality. Thus, Harman Däli’s promise constitutes a promise notonly of the fulfilment of love, but also of poetic inspiration and wisdom.In passing over successive thresholds in his journey towards the lunar mysteriesof the universe, the Venusian Son of the Grave is presented with the masteryof the poet and musician, becomes a true partner for the lunar princess, asuitor worthy of her regal talents. In astrology, both Venus and the Moon arepatrons of music, 18 which explains why their earthly personifications appearin the roles of unrivalled singers, poets and bakhshis. In the poetico-musicalcontest with the Moon, the Luminous Son of the Grave carries off a greatvictory, crowned with the marriage of the sparring couple of lovers. Let usnote, however, that Venus’ triumph crucially does not signify the defeat ofthe Moon, but only brings the harnessing of her malevolence and cruelty —a subjugation of benefit to the world. In accordance with astrological tradition,the conjunction of Venus with the Moon contributes to the mellowingof the lunar forces and the accentuation of their desirable properties. Defeatedin the musical dual, Harman Däli suddenly meekens, changing from anintractable shrew to a gentle and cheerful bride.The cosmological thread to the narrative ultimately reveals the wealth ofits symbolical meanings, complements the image traced by Pälvan bakhshi ofa world resounding, as in the Pythagorean vision, with the most beautiful anddelicate sounds, which only poets gifted with divine inspiration can hear andwhich escape the grasp of the uninitiated. At the end of his musical journey,

136 Sławomira Żerańska-Kominekthe Turkmen hero — he who offered his life to the Moon — is united with hisbetrothed, and finds the highest wisdom and immortality. In the paradisiacalgarden of Harman Däli, Love is united with Wisdom, Venus with the Moon.The two planets of plenty, of love and contentment, the patrons of natureeternally reborn, join together in musical harmony, which is the source of allexistence.ConclusionThe deeds of Orpheus and the Son of the Grave have for centuries shapedthe models of European and Turkmen artists. Their religious and artisticexperiments have focussed on the opposition between that which is brightand spiritual, and that which is material, dark, lying in the depths. Oneis not surprised, therefore, by the association of the two protagonists withthe planet Venus, whose mythology was built around the opposition betweeneast and west, evening and morning, light and darkness, life and death. Theseoppositions are reflected in the dual name of the Luminous / Son of the Grave,who journeys between life and death. 19 In the ballad of the Scottish poet,Orpheus, as the knight of the planet Venus, travels up to the stars 20 anddescends into the world of the dead, in order to find love, wisdom and artisticinspiration by experiencing death. The two protagonists thus embody theVenusian triad of love, art and immortality, which in the culture of the OldWorld appears to delimit the eternal mission of the Artist as a mediatorbetween death and life, between night and day:The myth of Orpheus is the myth of the ultimate seriousness of art. Itis the myth of art’s total engagement with love, beauty, and the order andharmony of nature — all under the sign of death. It is the myth of the artist’smagic, of his courage for the dark, desperate plunge into the depths of theheart and of the world, and of his hope and need to return to tell the rest ofus of his journey 21 .

The Orpheus-Type Myth in Turkmen Musical Tradition 137Notes1 The epic narrative is defined in Turkmenistan by the word dessan, which is theTurkmen equivalent of the Persian dastan.2 John Block Friedman, Orpheus in the Middle Ages, Harvard University Press 1970,p. 146.3 Robert Henryson, Scottish poet, one of the most outstanding of the ScottishChaucerians. Born c.1420–1430; died c.1500. His origins, place of birth and place ofstudies are all unknown. It cannot be excluded that he studied at a foreign university,e.g. in Paris or Louvain. Nothing is known of his later life. He was probably a teacherat the Benedictine school in the abbacy of Dunfermline. In 1462, he probably becamea lecturer at the newly founded university in Glasgow. Henryson’s output comprisesthe two long poems Testament of Cresseid and Orpheus and Eurydice, a translation ofAesop’s fables (Morall Fabillis of Esope) and numerous shorter poems. The greatestartistic achievement of Robert Henryson is the pastoral poem Robene and Makyne.4 H. Harvey Wood (ed.), The poems and fables of Robert Henryson schoolmaster ofDunfermline. Edited from the earliest manuscripts and printed texts. Edinburgh,London, New York 1968.5 Ibid., p. 136.6 John Block Friedman, Orpheus in the Middle Ages..., op. cit., p. 2057 Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius, Commentary on the Dream of Scipio. Translatedwith an Introduction and Notes by William Harris Stahl. Columbia University Press.New York 1952.8 Martianus Capella and the Seven Liberal Arts, vol. II The Marriage of Philology andMercury. Translated by William Harris Stahl and Richard Johnson with E.L. Burge.Columbia University Press. New York 1977.9 H. Harvey Wood gives yet another possible source of Henryson’s knowledge in thisarea, namely Lyndsay’s work Dreme. H. Harvey Wood, The poems and fables ofRobert Henryson..., op. cit., p. 260.10 Cf. John Block Friedman, Orpheus in the Middle Ages..., op. cit., p. 204.11 H. Harvey Wood (ed.), The poems and fables of Robert Henryson..., op. cit., p. 26312 Duplare = 2:1; triplare = 3:1; emetricus = 4:3; enolius = 3:2; quadruplait = 4:1;epoddeus = 9:813 H. Harvey Wood (ed.), The poems and fables of Robert Henryson..., op. cit., p. 136.14 Sławomira Żerańska-Kominek; Arnold Lebeuf, The Tale of Crazy Harman Dali. Themusician and the concept of music in the Turkmen epic tale ‘Harman Däli’, Warsaw:Dialog 1997, p. 21715 Ibid., p. 21816 Only two of the instruments enumerated by Pälwan bakhshi are currently known inTurkmen musical tradition: the dutar (a two-string, long-necked lute) and the ghijak(fiddle). The remainder can be found in neighbouring cultures, mainly in Uzbekistanand Karakalpakstan.17 Sławomira Żerańska-Kominek; Arnold Lebeuf, The Tale of Crazy Harman..., op. cit.,p. 225.18 Cf. e.g. Abraham Ibn Ezra, The Beginning of Wisdom. An Astrological Treatise (1148A.D.), Ascella Publications: London 2001.19 Ibid. , p. 243

138 Sławomira Żerańska-Kominek20 This is Orpheus’ first ascension into heaven in European literature, cf. John BlockFriedman, Orpheus in the Middle Ages, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 1970.21 Charles Segal, The Myth of the Poet, Baltimore and London: The Johns HopkinsUniversity Press 1989, p. 198

9Reviews9.1 The Oeuvre and Aesthetic Ideas of Igor StravinskyAlicja Jarzębska, Strawiński. Myśli i muzyka [Stravinsky. Ideas and Music], Musica Iagellonica:Kraków 2002.Witold Lutosławski wrote in 1962: “the oeuvre of Stravinsky combines sucha great part of the essence of his time that I often think and speak of ‘an eraof Stravinsky.”’ Alicja Jarzębska quotes these words in the Introduction toher book (p. 14), which is a new reading of both the music and the aestheticposition of the author of The Rite of Spring and Symphony of Psalms. Thebook (508 pages with an English abstract and photographs) consists of twoextensive parts (complemented by a “Timeline of Life and Works” and a “Listof Igor Stravinsky’s Works”) that form a coherent and comprehensive whole.Part One presents and discusses “Stravinsky’s Ideas on Music;” Part Twopresents an analysis and interpretation of the composer’s music based on anew and original method inspired by cognitivism.Stravinsky’s philosophy of art, discussed by the author in the first part,was dominated by the idea of beauty, associated, in his verbal-musical pieces,with an ethical aspect. Stravinsky stressed that he understood the processof composition — as a quest for, and a selection of, ideas — in terms ofeveryday toil, which could be pleasure-giving if it led to a satisfying artisticgoal. The development of the artist’s views is examined from their early stagewithin the sphere of Russian influence (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakoff, the “Mir139

140Iskustva” group and the ideas of the acmeist movement, aspiring towardsclassical fullness and maturity), or that of Johann Sebastian Bach, througha criticism of the Romantic philosophy of art and the rejection of the Modernistimperative of “historical necessity” of progress, to an understandingof art in terms of a Christian vision of the universe. According to the author,Stravinsky “deplored the significant impoverishment of art, includingmusic, in his contemporary and secularised world, a result of the artists’ failureto express the existential relationships that only happen between manand his Creator” (p. 220). Seen as the “father of modernism,” the composerwas adamant that his music was neither moderne or futuristic (he describedapologists of progress as “pompiers”); that he only wrote for the present. Heupheld the opinion that it is a matter of artistic choice to maintain the connectionbetween creative activity and the ancient idea of beauty, identifiedwith a harmonic association of the similar with the different — a constantelement in European culture.The new analysis of the structure of Stravinsky’s music presented in thesecond part of the book is based on an ongoing discussion about the functioningof the composer’s work in the reception of the listener. New categorieswere needed that would take into account, in the words of the author, “thehighly characteristic effect, in (Stravinsky’s) music, of discontinuation (orstratification) of musical ideas and the impression of repetitive musical systemsassociated with similar tone qualities. A research method derived fromcognitivism, employing theories of cognitive schemes and studies on cognitivepsychology of music, has proven itself useful” (p. 261). In the cognitiveapproach, a work of music is treated as a coherent whole, with various relationshipsbetween its similar and different parts, identified at ever-higherlevels of hierarchy.The author shows in her analysis and interpretation that the wealth ofstructural realisations in Stravinsky’s work is in fact the result of his repeateduse of several basic units of structure, existing within hierarchicallycomposed [layers?] and differentiated musical entities. She calls these basicelements partons (from Latin pars = part) and divides them into threekinds: isodiastematic (stable pattern of pitch), isorhythmic (repetitive model

Reviews 141of rhythmical values) and isotimbral (associated with repetitive relationshipsbetween the means of performance). Partons combine into higher-level units— hyperpartons — and create multilayered musical structures that emergefrom the “play” of musical patterns both similar (constant value) and different(variable value). This approach to the problem of Stravinsky’s oeuvrefinds support in a statement by the composer himself, to the effect that, inhis quest for material, he concentrated either on interval structure, rhythmicrelationships, or timbre.The analytic-interpretative strategy proposed by the author allows one tograsp the relationships between stability and change in terms of both toneand musical time division. The highly meaningful title of the book’s 12 thchapter, “Noble simplicité and the beauty of musical structure” identifies thecharacteristic feature of Stravinsky’s music, since his stylistic idiom was basedon the idea of order. It is apparent, according to the author, “in the meticulousselection of a limited number of musical ideas, their hierarchical differentiationand in the balanced relationships between the constant and the variable — therelationships highlighted by the principle of proportion and broken symmetry,itself a manifestation of the composer’s favourite aesthetics of ‘dynamic calm”’(p. 404).The author concludes with the thesis that Stravinsky’s music, irrespectiveof its diversity in tone and genre, was held together by the artist’s powerfulpersonality (to achieve “unity in diversity”); she also proposes a new perspectiveon his creative evolution. She enumerates six phases of development: (1)initiation (1898; 1903–1908); (2) quest for a new way of shaping the musicalcontinuum (1909–1911); (3) definition of own aesthetics and composingmetiér (1911–1919); (4) continuation of European pre-Romantic musical tradition(1920–1939); (5) dialogue with American culture (1940–1951) and (6)dominance of vocal-instrumental music to religious texts and adaptation ofthe twelve-tone technique (pp. 419–420).The book by Alicja Jarzębska is a kind of compendium; it brings valuableinsights to the research into Igor Stravinsky’s aesthetics and music, offeringa comprehensive base of documentation and sources, and a penetrating analysisand interpretation. Moreover, while meeting all the requirements of an

142academic study, it is also a text which can be read for pleasure, and whichencourages the reader to listen to, and to experience, music.Małgorzata Janicka-Słysztranslated by the author9.2 Karol Szymanowski – “the Poet of Sounds” §The songs of Karol Szymanowski and His Contemporaries. Edited by Zofia Helman, TeresaChylińska and Alistair Wightman. Translated by Alistair Wightman and Anne Desler from Pieśńw twórczości Karola Szymanowskiego i jemu współczesnych. Studia pod redakcją Zofii Helman.Kraków: Musica Iagellonica, 2001. 2002 by the Polish Music Centre, University of Southern California.Polish Music Series, vol. 7. Polish Music Centre at USC, Los Angeles, 2002.Poetry and music symbiotically blossoming into an ideal art in Karol Szymanowski’ssongs — this seems to be the main motto of this valuable collectionof 18 essays presented at the Symposium in Zakopane which commemoratedthe sixtieth anniversary of Szymanowski’s death. Indeed, many of theauthors of the essays in this volume underline in their analyses Szymanowski’sdeep sensitivity not only to music, but also to poetry. He manifested a highlydeveloped artistic ability of combining these two arts, and, moreover, in hissongs, he did not restrict himself to imitating the existing cultural or musicalmotifs, but expressed them in an individual, intuitive and unique musicallanguage, capturing their essence. The poetic text supports his musical language— the latter judged by the composer to be insufficient as a means ofexpression. Literature was a powerful source of inspiration for Szymanowskiwho even felt the need express himself in writing, in order to free his innerworld. He was highly skeptical about his own writing skills; however, thisdid not mean that he passively incorporated other poetic inspirations into hismusic. On the contrary, a chosen poetical text was subjected to a thoroughaesthetic scrutiny during the selection process. The same may be observed inthe composer’s attitude to the translations of poems to which he composedmusic; their poetical essence was much more important to him than beingfaithful to the original. It is well known, that the composer influenced the§ Term “the poet of sounds” was used by Teresa Chylińska in the introduction to The songs ofKarol Szymanowski and His Contemporaries, Los Angeles, 2002, p. x.

Reviews 143final version of the libretto of King Roger to such an extent that he becameits co-writer, together with his friend, the poet Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz.This collection of essays ranges far beyond analyses of Szymanowski’s outputsong by song: it brings much complex information about the contextof their creation and the background to the works of Szymanowski and hiscontemporaries. The essays help us towards a better understanding of the poeticalchoices made by Szymanowski, and of his language of expression. Someof them bring out new, so far unexplored, aspects of Szymanowski’s oeuvre;song cycles are examined as the turning points in Szymanowski’s evolutionas a composer; this includes such aspects as the use of the Franciscan idiom,or the poetry of Richard Dehmel, now forgotten, but once the inspirationnot only for Szymanowski but also for Schönberg and Webern (Dehmel, onthe other hand, was inspired by music to write some extremely musical poetry);or the discovery of the list of Children’s Rhymes marked down on themanuscript of King Roger at the Library of Congress, or an unknown soldiers’song, and many other fascinating details of this kind.The book underlines the uniqueness and the great value of Karol Szymanowski’smusic. However, reading these essays leads one to ask to somefurther questions. Szymanowski wrote many letters, poems and prose texts,and he did so in different languages. Should we regret the fact that he didnot value his own writing more, and would not share his poetry with a wideraudience? He only speaks a few of his own words in King Roger. A discussionof Szymanowski as a poet and as a writer is the one aspect whichis missing from this collection, yet it might have provided a balance to theother thoughtful reflections, and help us to a deeper understanding of Szymanowski’sthought and his work as a composer. A philological analysis ofthe composer’s writings, in particular his poetry, collected so superbly in hisWritings (Pisma) 1 , and an examination of their artistic value, might enableus to reach new conclusions. It would perhaps be best for now to leave thelast word to Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz who did attempt such a critical evaluation.He said about Szymanowski: “He was self-critical enough to describe hispoems as “horribly awful things”; however they were not without significanceas expressions of certain creative moods” 2 ; and, talking about Szymanowski’s

144poems, he wrote “their weakness lies in remaining in the circle of banal picturesand conventional vocabulary; however, they are quite amazing as anideological expression, and at the same time they have about them a poetictone which reflects to a great extent Brémond’s ideas 3 , and which, in fact,constitutes their true poetic quality”. 4Anna Adamusińskatranslated by the authorNotes1 Karol Szymanowski — Pisma, edited by Teresa Chylińska, Kraków: PWM, 1989,vol. 1 & 22 Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Książka moich wspomnień [The Book of My Remembrances],Warszawa: Czytelnik, 1975, p. 2643 Henri Brémond (1865–1933), French theoretician, critic, literary historian; heassociated poetry with intuition and religious experience. Brémond claimed that theessence of poetry is an unknown, mysterious and unifying reality, and that each poemowes its poetic character to the presence and emanation of the transforming andunifying mystery, which he called “pure poetry”. Furthermore, according to Brémond,poetry emanates an elusive but overwhelming charm independently of the sense of thewhole work; the nature of poetry surpasses discursive forms and is not reducible torational consciousness (see note in Karol Szymanowski — Pisma [Writings], edited byTeresa Chylińska, Kraków: PWM, 1989, vol. 2, p. 333).4 Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Książka moich wspomnień [The Book of My Remembrances],op. cit., p. 2659.3 On the Diffusion of Traditional Music Cultures in Warmia andMazuryAn essay-review of Warmia i Mazury, a five-volume collection of regional folk music consisting of:(i) Calendar and Wedding Songs(ii) Ballads and Social Life Songs(iii) Courting and Love Songs(iv) Family and Dance Songs(v) Religious and Popular SongsWarmia i Mazury is the third part in the series Polska Piesń i MuzykaLudowa. Źródła i materiały [Polish Songs and Folk Music. Source materials].Editor-in-Chief: Ludwik Bielawski; Editor of song lyrics and descriptionsof customs and rituals — Barbara Krzyżaniak; Editor of musical material

Reviews 145— Aleksander Pawlak; Co-editor Jarosław Lisakowski 5 , Warszawa: IS PAN2002.The publication by the Institute of Arts of the Polish Academy of Sciencesof the five-volume collection of folk material entitled Warmia i Mazury 6 mustbe regarded as an event of great significance in Polish humanistic sciences.In fact, it would be hard to find an ethnomusicological work of similar importanceanywhere in the world. This monumental opus is the culminationof decades of research by a team of scholars under the leadership of LudwikBielawski (Barbara Krzyżaniak was responsible for the descriptions ofcustoms and rituals and for the editing of the lyrics of the songs, and themusical material was edited by Aleksander Pawlak, now deceased, who collaboratedwith Jarosław Lisakowski). It is a model of modern, critical andcomprehensive documentation of folk music from a particular ethnographichistoricalregion. The region in question is unusual for two reasons: firstly,because of its position on the borderline between various ethnic and nationalgroups, languages, religious faiths and traditions; secondly, because in realityit no longer exists. The documentation concerns a musical culture createdby people who, for the most part, had to leave their homeland behind; theirplace was taken by people displaced from other regions of pre-war and postwarPoland. In his Introduction, Ludwik Bielawski refers to this region as theAtlantis of the North. Communities which for centuries had preserved theirdistinctive identity in spite of the powerful pressure of alien cultures, finallydisintegrated. The area of Warmia and Mazury was homeland to diversecommunities which became differentiated in modern times, mainly under theinfluence of the Reformation; their cultures were shaped at a time of change,often turbulent, affecting such fundamental aspects of culture as religiousfaith (Lutheran Masuria), language (German mainly in towns and manorialestates), custom and national identity.Warmia i Mazury demonstrate the complexity, and the paradoxes, of borderlandcultures, as well as the simple truths about their coexistence: at timespeaceful, when the differences of religion, language and tradition did not destroyrespect for and a sense of solidarity with one’s neighbours; at othertimes hostile, when politics entered into people’s lives and set them against

146the “aliens”. While the differences of faith, language and tradition (comingfrom different national cultures: Polish, German and Lithuanian) wereimportant, so were the attitudes which the communities adopted towardseach other, which allowed them to coexist in spite of these differences. Foryears, generations of Mazurians learned the Protestant faith and Polish language(and local customs) from consecutive editions of the “Mazurian hymnbook” (its official title was “The Newly Edited Prussian Hymn Book” 7 ), whichaccompanied them from the cradle to the grave. However, Polish speakingteachers, folklorists and social activists did not always approve of being linkedto Poland. For example, Marcin Gerss, a noted folklorist and a propagatorof the Polish language, was in favour of the Mazurians attaching themselvesto the Prussian monarchy, for religious reasons. On the other hand, manyoutstanding Protestant pastors, such as Michał Pogorzelski in the eighteenthcentury, or Gustaw Gizewiusz and Herman Pełka in the nineteenth, all highlyknowledgeable about local customs, advocated the nurture of Polish identity.Their manuscript records of folklore are among the most valuable documentsof nineteenth-century Mazurian culture.In the nineteenth century there was close cooperation between Polish andGerman scholars, such as Oskar Kolberg, Jan Karol Sembrzycki and WojciechKętrzynski or A. Preuss 8 , Max Toeppen and Herman Frischbier (a friend ofSembrzycki). This led to an exchange of collected folk material, as well asideas, which were always formulated on the basis of sound evidence, and withrespect for the Mazurians and their culture. The cooperation also resultedin the translation of a number of articles (from German into Polish and viceversa), as well as Polish songs and descriptions of rituals. This began tochange towards the end of the nineteenth century, with the intensification ofPrussia’s anti-Polish policy, which changed people’s attitudes and destroyedcollaborative and impartial research. For example, the hostile attitude of theGerman musicologist, Joseph Muller-Blattau, led him to falsely interpret thecollection of Mazurian songs, Masurische Volsklieder, published in 1934, astypically German. In fact, these songs were germanized versions of 55 Polishsongs, familiar throughout Mazury and in some cases throughout Poland(such as Kąpała się Kasia w morzu, Z tamtej strony jeziora or Zielona rutka).

Reviews 147In their original form they had typical mazurka rhythms, which were adaptedto the demands of the German language. The lyrics, translated into German,were adapted to the modified melodies, which in turn were notated with ananacrusis and constant accentuation (instead of the variable accentuation,typical of the Polish metro-rhythmic structure; cf. Karl Becker’s notation).Warmia i Mazury present an unusual record of what might seem to be afrozen image of the music of the communities inhabiting north-eastern Poland(former East Prussia). In reality, however, it is a deeply moving, dynamicand dramatic story, whose complex, entangled and often extremely turbulentcourse takes place against the background of beautiful forests, lakes andfields. This is reflected in both the songs themselves and the commentariesand footnotes to the original sources. It is therefore important to view thisdocumentation (the oldest sources reach back to the eighteenth century, themost recent ones — the end of the nineteen-eighties) from a historical perspective,placing the development and evolution of the musical culture of Warmiaand Mazury in the context of historical events. Of equal importance is theethnographic perspective, accentuating the cultural and social context of thesongs. And, finally, the purely musical perspective is needed to demonstratehow the cultural context and the violent history of Warmia and Mazury arereflected in the genres, structures, forms and styles of the songs. Much can belearned from the dissemination of the various musical themes and lyrics. Thework reviewed here enables one to consider all these questions: it providesa full, critical edition of the collected musical, ethnographic and historicalsources, together with commentaries to the songs and the informants’ stories.The songs are organised in a clear and logical manner and their lyricsand melodies are presented using modern graphic methods, both of whichfacilitate the task of analysis.The various volumes of Warmia i Mazury include important material, rangingfrom the rare and extremely valuable manuscripts recording songs, folkliterature and customs and dating from as far back as the eighteenth century(documents of great ethnographic-historical significance), to the material collectedduring the systematic field studies from 1950–1958 9 , which constitutesthe core of the book. Credit for the latter must go to the team of researchers

148from Olsztyn, who carried out this work as part of the Folklore CollectionProject and who extended their studies beyond 1954 (the official end of theProject) owing to the determination of Władysław Gębik, the leader of theteam (his main co-workers were Janina Gliszczyńska and Jan Lubomirski).Their efforts resulted in a collection of nearly six thousand by now pricelessrecordings of songs and stories by native Mazurian and Warmian informants,and almost as many recordings of the folklore of other ethnic groups whowere settled in this region after the Second World War and who came fromas far away as the Vilnius, Lvov and Volhyn areas, from Belarus and fromBieszczady (Lemka) 10 . Today, after the last desperate wave of migrations bythe Protestant Mazurs to Germany in the 1970s, the present population ofthe former East Prussia is an unusually complex and highly telling mixtureof dialects, cultures, faiths and traditions.It seems that the uniqueness of this monumental, perfectly carried outdocumentation lies in what could be summed up as the issue (at times hard tointerpret) of cultural identity of the native inhabitants of Warmia and Mazury,expressed through their melodies, lyrics, dialects and customs. What are thecomponents which make up this continually evolving, internally differentiated(e.g. through faith: basically Catholic Warmia and Protestant Mazury), yetclearly discernible sense of identity and cultural distinctiveness of Warmiaand Mazury?The unique complexity of the musical culture of Warmia and Mazury needsto be approached initially from the historical perspective. Its deepest layer,truly dramatic and almost undetectable, lies in the cultural tradition of theBaltic Prussians, who were subjected to overwhelming pressure, mainly fromthe Teutonic Order, even as early as the late Middle Ages. Intense germanizationof the Prussian population (including the Warmians) was overlaid bymigrations from Mazovia which began in the late Middle Ages. These twofactors form the main foundation of the documented culture (the Lithuanianelement played a lesser part here). However, as has already been mentioned,this foundation became greatly diversified over the course of time. The evolutionof traditional culture, normally very gradual, here, in Warmia andMazury, underwent periods of violent acceleration, mainly in response to the

Reviews 149Reformation and the historical shifts in the national status of the two regions.Periods when the influence of politics came into play had the mostnegative effect on the culture. The policy of “repolonising” the former EastPrussia, introduced after the Second World War, led to the destruction oflocal traditions and radical changes in the composition of the population nowinhabiting Warmia and Mazury. It is doubtful whether a new, cohesive traditionalculture could crystallise from the present ethnic mixture (following thedesperate flight of many native inhabitants to Germany 11 and the migrationsfrom the north-eastern, central and southern Poland), especially now, in aperiod of an expanding mass culture.The material in the five volumes of Warmia i Mazury is arranged so as toenable the reader to consider simultaneously both the music and the lyrics(which makes it different from the previous publication on Kujawy). Thismakes it easier to perceive the songs as musical-textual wholes, in line withthe Kolbergian tradition. As in the works of that great folklorist, here toothe repertory relating to customs and ritual is given a great deal of attention(Volume 1), indicating the connection between the songs and the culturalcontext and the annual and familial ceremonies (represented by the weddingceremony). This context provides us with a panoramic picture full of diversethemes, representing the culture of the region, and at the same time providinga commentary on the landscape, the flora (cereals, herbs, flowers and treestypical for the region) and the fauna (bear, horse, stork, heron, all play importantsymbolic parts in the winter and spring songs and ceremonies), theclimate and the occupations of the Warmians and the Mazurians. The ethnographicperspective on the annual and wedding repertory helps not only toexplain the specific meanings and functions of the ritual chants, but also theirdifferentiation in terms of genre and style (the age and function of a song). Anumber of the songs are relics of a distant past, which can make their criticalinterpretation difficult (the original connection between particular chants andrituals may be doubtful and hard to verify). At the same time, this leads usto examine the songs’ meanings, where symbols and metaphors of the songs,the accessories and the whole rituals play a fundamental part (the volumesof Słownik stereotypów i symboli ludowych [The Dictionary of Stereotypes and

150Folk Symbols] 1996, 1999, edited under the direction of Jerzy Bartmiński,which are being published currently, should be of great assistance in this).Further volumes bring a truly comprehensive variety of material: volume2 — Ballads and Social Life Songs (including songs of itinerant singers, soldiers’songs, and songs relating to historical, social and occupational themes);volume 3 — Courting and Love Songs; volume 4 — Family and Dance Songs(comprising generally known, family and children’s songs, jocular songs anddance ditties, dances and social games); volume 5 — Religious and PopularSongs (including the famous Christmas Matins, a unique record of MazurianChristmas musical tradition with Catholic roots; also hymns, carols, Mariansongs, songs to do with saints and pilgrimages, occasional and popular songsand instrumental pieces). Songs accompanied people in almost every situationin life, and this shaped their content, function and form. Volumes 2–5take lesser account of the cultural and situational context of the performance(apart from work songs or lullabies), concentrating on presenting the songsin accordance with their formal genre and functional and stylistic features.Such a comprehensive collection allows one to observe above all the musicaldifferentiation of particular groups of songs. The tremendous differentiationwithin such simple forms manifests itself through various principles of tonalorganisation (from repetitive formulae consisting of a few notes to elaborateperiods with functional tonality) and metrorhythmicity (from expressionthrough organic sentences, through ametric formulae, to the repeatability ofdance formulae). This is linked to stylistic differentiation in performance(tempo, articulation, rubato etc.). Presenting the songs in this way encouragesthe reader to trace the relationship between the genres and functions ofthe chants and their musical structure and forms of expression.This unprecedented review of songs 12 also reveals issues which are usuallyignored — issues which may be controversial, but have great significance.They concern the variability of the sensitivity and artistic taste of folk singers,which may be related to the different functions of the songs. Side by side withtrue musical masterpieces (frequent among songs relating to rituals, as wellas ballads or dance songs) one finds quite a few songs with banal melodiesand trivial lyrics. There are also a number of songs which were probably

Reviews 151composed “in the folk spirit”, with greater or lesser skill, and which weretypical particularly during the second half of the nineteenth century and thebeginning of the twentieth. The issue of the evolution of values concerns notonly the beauty of the melodies and the poetry of the songs. It also concernsthe values held by the communities of Warmians and Mazurians, such as hardwork, generosity or solidarity. Many informants emphasise the fact that thesewere the values held in high regard in the old days, they were what shapedthe life of the communities, their image of the world, their customs and theirart. Of significance is, for instance, the view which regards nature as sacred,typical for the ritual songs, particularly the older and the most interestingones.Equally fascinating are the issues of changes of denomination, or rather theadaptation of the new, Protestant faith to the traditional religious mentalityof the Mazurians, which the songs reflect in their own particular way. Ofparticular interest here is the appearance of the “written” tradition alongsidethe oral one (Lutheran culture was distinguished by its cult of the Scriptures),and, more specifically, the influence of hymn books on the folk repertory andthe manner of performing traditional folk songs 13 . Another area of great interestis the influence of German not only on the everyday language of theWarmians and Mazurians, but also — through contacts with the Germanculture — on folk customs. Thus, the substitution of the traditonal term forthe chief groomsman, “proszek”, by “placmistrz” was linked to abandoningthe custom of inviting guests to a wedding directly and personally. Theseinvitations originally took the form of splendid orations, addressed by the“proszek” to each invitee. This ancient custom was replaced by that of sendingwritten invitations — “bilety” — in the interwar period (could this alsobe a reflection of the cult of the Scriptures?) Other linguistic changes are alsoworth investigating: for instance, the substitution of “brutka” for the Polishword for the bride (“panna młoda”) might have a number of consequences,also those affecting wedding songs. All these interdependencies (language —melody — custom — culture) are not easy to trace, and their relationshipsare at times very indirect. However, one can also observe direct and obviousinfluences (such as abandoning direct invitations or replacing traditional folk

152ensembles of fiddle, double bass and/or clarinet, accordion and small drum,by brass bands, a favourite element of Prussian culture), which would effectclearly observable changes in the musical arrangements at weddings and themusical sensibility of the people. Of course the relationship between artisticand what might be called universal values is not simple, nor is it easyto investigate. But it is interesting nonetheless, and perhaps may be thekey element in maintaining traditional cultures. When values such as thosementioned above (generosity or solidarity) became obsolete, the traditionalculture began to die, becoming similar to the pop and mass culture.The series Polska.. has been referred to as the “New Kolberg” (Prof. JerzyBartminski described it as such in his review of Kaszuby). Is this right? Theanswer seems to be: yes. The approach to the recorded musical culture isKolbergian in its broad view of songs in the context of culture and the naturalworld (although Kolberg may have the edge in this respect), in following theprinciple of faithful recording, and in making the documentation as comprehensiveas possible (Kolberg used to record all forms, paramusical ones aswell, and both authentic folk songs and those sung at manor houses and incities). The desire to preserve the song “as it came from the mouth of thepeople”, in its “pristine simplicity”, even with “deviations”, is also a Kolbergiantrait.But this is definitely a new Kolberg, supplemented by detailed informationabout the performers and even their portraits, giving precise musical and textualtranscriptions (phonetic record of dialect), and even taking into accountperformance variants of particular verses of songs. The structuring of thematerial in terms of content-function and culture-context, apparently closeto that of Kolberg, has the hallmarks of twentieth-century knowledge and thetechnical capabilities of modern folklorists (sound and film recordings). Andin one aspect, the reader is aware of having truly entered the twenty-firstcentury.The aspect referred to is the unique index of melodies — a digital, synopticrecord of the melics of all the songs reduced to the “sol modus” (gl is the centralnote of the melodies — it might be called their common tonal denominator),with numbering and division into groups and with textual incipits of the songs.

Reviews 153The index shows the differences between the groups and the relationshipswithin many groups of songs, at times virtually melodic types. It is not only anew feature of the series, providing an irreplaceable guide to the material; it isalso a highly promising proposal for structuring song material in general. Onecan surmise that this will provide the starting point for a separate catalogueof folk melodies, initiating a new stage of research and comparative studies.This stage will make use of modern graphics and the exceptional skills of theteam of ethnomusicologists and dialectologists led by Prof. Ludwik Bielawski.Their work is characterised by the highest degree of professionalism in theareas of phonetic recording of dialect, musical transcription and electronicencoding and recording of melodies, and the best proof of this is provided bythe publication reviewed here.Katarzyna Dadak-KozickaNotes5 Monika Gruchmanowa and Edmund Kownacki acted as dialect consultants; KrystynaLesień-Plachecka was responsible for language verification. Computerized typesettingof texts — Arleta Nawrocka-Wysocka, computerized typesetting of music — EwaDahlig, Arleta Nawrocka, Zbigniew Przerembski.6 The two previous collections in this series were Kujawy (two volumes, 1974–5) andKaszuby (three volumes, 1997–98). The Editor-in-Chief of the series, and co-author ofKaszuby, Ludwik Bielawski, received a number of awards, among them thePomeranian Association’s award (“The Amber Snuffbox”), the Polish Composers’Union award, and the Oskar Kolberg Award, in recognition of this work.7 The first editions of “The Newly Edited Prussian Humn Book” were published in 1741;by the end of the century it had run to eighteen editions (according to thebibliography by Władyslaw Chojnacki, which revises the data provided bySukertowa-Biedrawina), thus demonstrating that this “musical bible” must have beenin great demand (Arleta Nawrocka-Wysocka, Śpiewy protestanckie na Mazurach.Tradycja ustna i pisana [Protestant Singing in Mazury Land. Oral and WrittenTradition], Warszawa: Instytut Sztuki PAN 2002.8 His article published in Preussische Provinzial-Blatter (later AltpreussischeMonatsschrift) in 1935 discusses the distinct folk cultures of three ethnic groups:German, Polish and Lithuanian, quoting several Polish songs (with Germantranslations). Preuss notes that many folk songs may withstand comparison with thegreat works of “haute musique”; he also refers to the instrumentation of folk ensemblesand to the hospitality of the Mazurians, adding that he owes this information to theprovost of Drygały near Pisz.9 These were extended and supplemented by field studies carried out by researchers

154from the Arts Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Poznań as recently as the1980s.10 This was the result of deportations carried out in 1947 as a result of the “VistulaCampaign”, tragic in its consequences.11 After the Second World War the Mazurians, who were identified with the Germans,suffered much persecution. On the other hand, they were often regarded as aliens bythe Germans; sometimes homesickness brought them back to Mazury (see EwaLaskowska’s study of neighbours and relatives in the Szczytno area; Master’s thesisFolklor Mazurów Ewangelickich... [Folklore of Evangelical Mazurians...]; for a fullerdiscussion see Andrzej Sakson’s Mazurzy — społeczność pogranicza [The Mazurians —a Borderline People], Poznań 199012 Previous collections have always consisted of selections from the whole folk repertoryof a region.13 These issues are the subject of Arleta Nawrocka-Wysocka’s doctoral thesis Śpiewyprotestanckie... [Protestant Singing in Mazury Land...], op. cit. The author receivedthe Rev. Prof. H. Feicht Award from the Polish Composers’ Union for this work.

ContributorsMagdalena Dziadek, born in 1961 in Bielsko-Biała, graduated of the Academyof Music in Katowice where she studied the theory of music (diploma with distinction,1984). In 1991, she defended her doctoral thesis at the Institute of Art of theAcademy of Sciences, treating the problematic of Warsaw musical critique during theyears 1810–1890. In 2004 at this Academy she received the postdoctoral title. Since1992 she is leading her autonomic science activity devoted to the history of Polishmusical culture of the 19th and 20th century, especially in the field of the history ofmusical criticism. She has published among other a 2 volumes monograph ‘Polskakrytyka muzyczna w latach 1890-1914’ [‘The Polish Musical Criticism in 1890–1914’](Katowice 2002, Cieszyn 2002) and also the monograph ‘Moda na “Wiosnę”. PoznańskaWiosna Muzyczna 1961-2002’ [“‘Spring” in Vogue. The Musical Spring inPoznań 1961–2002’] (Poznań 2003). She is also a musical criticism and publicist.Since 1998 has been working as editor of the classical music department at the bimonthly [], and since 2003 as co-editor of an internet magazine. During the years 2003–2005 she co-organized in Katowice, with LiliannaMoll, three exhibitions devoted to the musical culture of Polish women in the19th century. She is member of the Polish Composers’ Union (PCU) (since 2003Secretary of the Central Management Board of Musicologists’ Section and Secretaryof the Board of the PCU’s Katowice Branch) and International Musicological Society.She lectures at the Frederic Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and at theUniversity of Śląsk. Lives in Cieszyn.Alicja Jarzębska, Professor at the Institute of Musicology at the Jagiellonian Universityin Kraków and director of this Institute. In the centre of her scholarly interestsare music theory of 18th–20th century, methods of analysis of a musical work and155

156 Contributorshistory and aesthetics of 20th-century music. She published many articles in Polishand foreign journals, entries in Encyklopedia Muzyczna PWM and in EncyclopediaBritannica, and 4 books: ‘Idee relacji serialnych w muzyce XX wieku’ [‘Ideas of SerialRelations in 20th Century Music’] (Kraków 1995), ‘Strawiński. Myśli i muzyka’[‘Stravinsky. Ideas and Music’] (Kraków 2002), ‘Z dziejów myśli o muzyce’ [‘Historyof Ideas in Music’] (Kraków 2002) and ‘Spór o piękno muzyki. Wprowadzenie dokultury muzycznej XX wieku’ [‘Debate on the Beauty of Music. An Introduction into20th Century Musical Culture’] (Wrocław 2004).Agnieszka Leszczyńska, Ph.D., lectures at the Institute of Musicology, Universityof Warsaw. In her research she concentrates on European Medieval and Renaissancemusic, in particular on the work of Franco-Flemish composers of Josquin’stime and on the music of Royal Prussia in the sixteenth century. Publications include:‘Melodyka niderlandzka w polifonii Josquina, Obrechta i La Rue’ [‘NetherlandishMelodics in the Polyphony of Josquin, Obrecht and La Rue’], (Warszawa1997); ‘Ślady trecenta w Poznaniu’ [‘The Traces of Trecento in Poznań’], 1991 No. 3; ‘Johannes Wanning — kapelmistrz kościoła Mariackiego w Gdańsku’[‘Johannes Wanning — maestro di cappella of the Marian church in Gdańsk’], 1999 No. 3; ‘Muzyka w Gdańsku 2.poł. XVI wieku wobec przemiankonfesyjnych’ [‘Music in Gdańsk in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century andChanges in Religious Faith’], in: ‘Musicology and Changes in Culture and Civilization’,ed. L. Bielawski, J.K. Dadak-Kozicka, A. Leszczyńska (Warszawa 2001);‘W poszukiwaniu hanzeatyckiego sponsora: listy muzyków z przełomu XVI i XVIIwieku do rad miejskich Torunia i Gdańska’, in: ‘Complexus effectuum musicologiae’,ed. T. Jeż (Kraków 2003); ‘Unique Masses from the Time of Josquin in MsMus. 40634 in the Jagiellonian Library (from the former Preussische StaatsbibliothekCollection)’, 2004, vol. 3 ‘The Motets of JohannesWanning from the Collection ‘Sacrae Cantiones’ 1580, 2004,vol. 3.Iwona Lindstedt, Ph.D., lectures at the Institute of Musicology at the Universityof Warsaw. She specializes in the areas of history, theory and the aesthetics oftwentieth-century music. Her research interests include the history of Polish musicfrom the second half of the twentieth century, and the problems of musical analysis.Some of her more important works include the books: ‘Dodekafonia i serializmw twórczości kompozytorów polskich XX wieku’ [‘Dodecaphony and Serialism in theOutput of Polish Composers of the 20th century’] (Lublin 2001) and ‘Wprowadzeniedo teorii zbiorów klas wysokości dźwięku Allena Forte’a’ [‘Introduction to the Theoryof Pitch-Class Sets by Allen Forte’] (Warszawa 2004), as well as a number of pa-

Contributors 157pers, among them: ‘Metody informatyczne - nowe perspektywy analizy muzycznej?’[‘Informatics’ Methods — New Perspectives of Musical Analysis?’], 2000No. 4; ‘Between Dodecaphony and Sonoristics: Post-Serial Formulas in Penderecki’sWork, 1960–1962’, in: , vol. II, Princeton 2003; ‘Some Remarkson Computer-Assisted Analysis of the Finale of Chopin’s Piano Sonata in Bflat minor, Op. 35’, in: ‘Analytical Perspectives on the Music of Chopin’, Warszawa2003.Barbara Przybyszewska-Jarmińska is an Associate Professor at the Departmentof the History of Music at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences inWarsaw. Her main area of research is focused on the issues relating to the music ofthe late Renaissance and Baroque periods in Poland in their European context. Herother area of interest is editing early music and since 2005 she has been Editor-in-Chief of the series Monumenta Musicae in Polonia. She has published the followingbooks: ‘Kasper Förster junior. Tekst i muzyka w dialogach biblijnych’ [‘KasperFörster Junior. Text and Music in Biblical Dialogues’] (Warszawa 1997) and ‘TheBaroque, part I: 1595-1696’, in the series (Warsaw2002). She has edited numerous compositions by musicians connected with thecappella of the Polish Vasa kings.Elżbieta Zwolińska, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Musicologyat the Warsaw University. During the years 1999–2002 she has been vice-directorof the Institute. She is member of the Polish Composers’ Union (Musicology Section),International Musicological Society, Gesellschaft der Musikforschung. Herresearch interests concern the oeuvre and musical culture of the Middles Ages, theRenaissance and Baroque, the history of Polish Music, sources and musical paleography.At the Institute of Musicology of the Warsaw University she leads lecturesand exercise courses in the field of common history of music from the Antiqueto the Baroque, in the field of history of Polish music, musical paleography andsources and also counterpoint. Main works: ‘Muzyka nadworna ostatnich Jagiellonów’[‘Court Music of the Last Jagiellons’], (Kraków 1988); ‘Musica mensuralisw polskich źródłach muzycznych do 1600 roku’ [‘Musica Mensuralis in the PolishMusical Sources up to 1600’], in: ‘Notacja muzyczna w źródłach polskich XI—XVIwieku. Studia pod redakcją E. Witkowskiej-Zaremby’ [‘Notae musicae artis. MusicalNotation in the Polish Sources of the 11th and 16th century. Studies edited byE. Witkowska-Zaremba’] (Kraków 1999); ‘Zwischen Tradition und Novität: Konzeptund Repertoire der königlichen Rorantistenkapelle an der Kathedrale zu Kraków’,in: Trasmissione e recezione delle forme di cultura musicale, Kassel 1990 (= Attidel XIV Congresso IMS Bolonia 1987); ‘Studie über Musik am Hofe der letzten

158 ContributorsJagiellonen’, in: ‘Florilegium Musicologicum’, Festschrift H. Federhofer zum 75.Geburtstag, Tutzing 1988; Italianita und Sarmatismus. Einige Bemerkungen zumProblem der Determinanten der polnischen Musikkultur am Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts,w: vol. XVI, No. 1, Madrid 1993; ‘Aus demRepertoire des jungen Chopin: op. 55 von FerdinandRies’, in: ‘Chopin and his Work in the Context of Culture. Studies edited by IrenaPoniatowska’, Kraków: Musica Iagellonica 2003, vol. I.Sławomira Żerańska-Kominek, Professor at the Institute of Musicology of theWarsaw University, its Director and Head of the Systematic Musicology Department.Leads seminars in the field of ethnomusicology, psychology of music and cognitiveanthropology. She specializes in ethnomusicology concentrating especially on musicof Central Asia. Main works: ‘Symbole czasu i przestrzeni w muzyce Azji Centralnej’[‘Symbols of Time and Space in Music of Central Asia’] (Kraków 1987);‘Muzyka w procesie przemian tradycji etnicznych Litwinów w Polsce’ [‘Music inthe Transformations of Ethnic Tradition of Lithuanians in Poland’], in: ‘Kulturamuzyczna mniejszości narodowych w Polsce: Litwini, Białorusini, Ukraińcy’ [‘MusicalCulture of National Minorities in Poland: Lithuanians, Belorussians, Ukrainians’],ed. S. Żerańska-Kominek, Warszawa 1990 (p. 13–97); ‘Muzyka w kulturze.Wprowadzenie do etnomuzykologii’ [‘Music in Culture. Introduction to Ethnomusicology’(Warszawa 1995); ‘The Tale of Crazy Harman. The Musician and theConcept of Music in the Turkmen Epic Tale, Harman Däli’ (Warszawa 1997, coauthor:Arnold Lebeuf); ‘Mit Orfeusza. Inspiracje i reinterpretacje w europejskiejtradycji artystycznej. Studia pod redakcją Sławomiry Żerańskiej-Kominek’, [‘TheOrpheus Myth. Inspirations and Reinterpretations in the European Artistic Tradition.Studies edited by Sławomira Żerańska-Kominek’] (Gdańsk 2003).