Los Angeles Celebrates 100 Years of Poland's Regained Independence with Music (Vol. 9, No. 11)

How else to celebrate freedom and independence of a country that suffered so much in the past 200 years of its history, than  with vibrant classical music that uplifts the spirit and heals the heart?  That's what we did and continue to do in Los Angeles this year, when 100 Years of Poland's Regained Independence has become the focus of  six concerts (on October 14, 20, 27, November 5 and 10), three of them presented here and three in the next installment of this blog. 

2019 PADEREWSKI LECTURE RECITAL AT USC

We already discussed the 2018 Paderewski Lecture at USC Thornton School of Music, organized by the USC Polish Music Center, and given by USC Professor of Musicology Lisa Cooper Vest, with several wonderful performances of Polish music of the past century by USC musicians and ensembles. The event took place on October 14, 2018. We heard performances by the USC chorus: Karol Szymanowski's selected Piesni Kurpiowskie, as fresh as when they were written in the 1929; and Ignacy Jan Paderewski's  Hey, White Eagle! of 1917, a rousing anthem for Polish troops in an enthusiastic interpretation by young students, and a Trojan-focused translation by Marek Zebrowski who rendered, "Hej, na boj" - literally, "hey, to battle" into a USC catch phrase "Fight on!" 

Ludomir Rozycki is the most unjustly forgotten Polish composer of the interwar era and his exuberant Krakowiak from the ballet Pan Twardowski was masterfully arranged for a chamber ensemble by Marek Zebrowski and beautifully interpreted by USC String Quartet (Bradley Bascon, Leonard Chong, Jenny Sung, Allan Hon), with Sergio Coehlo clarinet, and pianist So-Mang Jeagal. This magical piece was full of life and exuberance - of a dance and joie de vivre. Delightful. Equally enchanting was the following set of Cinq Melodies written in 1927 by Aleksander Tansman, a Polish Jewish composer who made his home in Paris, and survived the war in California (1941-46). He is also among the most unjustly neglected, prolific, and talented composers of music written to bring joy to its performers and audiences.  The honey-hued, clear soprano of Stephanie Jones, shone and dazzled in the witty, wistful, or melancholy songs, with the colorful and supportive accompaniment of So-Mang Jeagal that transformed these songs into sparkling gems of music. 

After years of studying avant-garde composers of the 20th century, having published the first English language monograph on Jozef Koffler - a 12 tone experimentalist and Holocaust victim of the most tragic and moving story imaginable, I must say that I was disappointed with his cantata Die Liebe (Love) based on New Testament letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, "love is patient, love is kind" - even more so that I expected to love it. Somehow, 12-tone music has not aged well. All experimental and innovative in its heyday, this music is written against nature - the nature of sounds that requires resonance of harmonies, not dissonance of angular leaps and bounds or weird chordal juxtapositions, and the nature of performance that requires that music flows an dances with meters and rhythms and is not strangled in some straight jacket of formula-based, calculated patters. True, Koffler's Cantata deserves to be played, because it aged a lot better than Schoenberg's works, and definitely stratospheric-ally better than music by lots of Schoenberg's followers who shall not be named here as being tone-death and emotionally crippled. You could feel not love, but pity for the poor young musicians so focused on every single note, so intent on rendering each nuance of the difficult score. 

Grazyna Bacewicz's String Quartet No. 1 from 1938 did not fare much better to my ears; as it shows quite clearly the straight-jacket of neoclassical dissonance that constrained her innate musicality. She was a virtuoso violinist and a concert pianist and she knew the classical repertoire well. But at this point in time, in order to be appreciated as a composer, and a woman at that, she had to cover up her talent, and distort her wonderful ideas under thick layers of discordant, harsh chords, evaded cadences, illogical melodic leaps, and fragmented rhythms that made this music avant-garde then, and unlikeable now. Luckily for listeners, Bacewicz also wrote lots of music that is far more delightful to hear, even if still dissonant and aggressive. My favorite is her String Quartet No. 4, with some of the most sublime music composed in Poland during the long 20th century.  Nonetheless, her complicated, dense, and dramatic harmonies were exceedingly well played by the USC string quartet, who revealed remarkable talents, rich sonorities, and virtuosity in every part. These musicians will go places! 

Indeed, to me, this concert was a revelation that I did not expect. I had spent more than 20 years of my academic career on studying and promoting contemporary avant-garde music precisely like the pieces by Koffler and Bacewicz on the USC Polish Music Center's program. So I was quite surprised by my visceral, negative emotional reaction to this music now. No, no, no - my ears, and body said. We do not want to hear that. So there. What next? 

The Paderewski Lecture Recitals were established in 2002 with the purpose of promoting the most avant-garde contemporary composers from Poland, every year someone new. It was to honor Paderewski who received a honorary doctorate from USC in 1923 and to promote 20th century Polish music that was the main mission of the USC Polish Music Center until then. Founded in 1985 by Dr. and Mrs. Wilk and with enormous support from Polish composers who donated their original manuscripts to jumpstart the collection (Lutoslawski, Bacewicz, Bruzdowicz, Ptaszynska, Skrowaczewski, and over 30 others), the Center focused on bringing these composers to the forefront. But apart from the first two events in 2002 (Zygmunt Krauze plus dancers from Krakusy), and 2003 (Joanna Bruzdowicz and films by Agnes Varga), the Paderewski Lecture-Recitals have never been well attended, with the hall typically filled in half or even one-third. So maybe we should be done with this neoclassical, sonoristic, 12-tone, and dissonant mess? Maybe the Paderewski lectures should feature more listener-friendly music that appears to the heart and soul?  There are so many great composers, so worthy of our attention... 

Photo by Lucyna Przasnyski

SADEJ PRESENTS 100 YEARS OF POLAND IN MUSIC IN BEVERLY HILLS 

A different type of celebration took place on October 20, 2018 at a private mansion in Beverly Hills. We heard the incomparable mezzosoprano Katarzyna Sadej (you have to hear her to believe it! What a voice, one in a century!) with Basia Bochenek, piano, in a recital of Polish songs, entitled "100 Years of Poland in Music" and organized by the Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club.  I posted my remarks about the program of Polish patriotic and popular songs that together formed a whirlwind tour of Polish history on this blog already. Now it is time to focus on the performance. The concert started with Paderewski's Hej, Orle Bialy! / Hey, White Eagle! - a call to arms directed to Polish emigres in America and Canada, inciting them to the war effort, to go fight in Europe and eventually free Poland. Eventually, their numbers reached closed to 90,000, but many died and never returned home to America. 

The call to "fight on" is tragic in its essence, it demands the sacrifice of life, of one's own trauma, injury, and death, the infamy of killing. Sadej filled her rendition of this call to bravery with a premonition of the suffering that would inevitably follow. War is a disaster and her interpretation of the patriotic anthem, inspired and profound, enriched the song with layers of meaning. This was also the first time that this particular audience could hear her magnificent voice;  rich, saturated, resonance, with perfect intonation, it resonated through the hall, through everyone, so much so that the listeners became totally immobile. Some had tears in their eyes. 

Photo by Lucyna Przasnyski

The sorrow and loss of war continued to be mourned in Dzis do ciebie przyjsc nie moge / I Cannot Come to You Tonight,  a more explicit way in a melancholy plaint of the underground Home Army soldier, regretting that he could not visit his sweetheart, for he had to go to battle. The 1943 song written by a Home Army soldier remained popular through the post-war period. Sadej filled it with longing, gentle melancholy, and quiet resignation; revealing an expressive side to her musical talent. The tears that appeared in the eyes of her listeners were a testimony to her skill; through her superb musicality and expressiveness she touched her audience deeply.  The next WWII anthem, Red Poppies on Monte Cassino, from 1944, was written by a soldier in the Second Polish Corps fighting alongside the Brits under general Wladyslaw Anders, and, after a huge loss of life, finally conquering the fortress that the Benedictine monastery had become, filled with German soldiers. Here, Sadej aptly preserved the military character of the battle song. 

The second part of her program included a diverse set of popular songs written by Witold Lutoslawski and published under a pseudonym of Derwid; light-hearted, sentimental or amusing, these songs portrayed the "mask-wearing" in-authenticity of life in a country that pretended to be free, but was not. The Polish People's Republic was a satellite of the Soviet empire; filled with double-speak, lies, and propaganda. The cheerful and easy-going tangos and foxtrots of Derwid were an "optimistic" mask created to distract and momentarily amuse; and to turn the attention away from the deeply uncomfortable facts of lack of sovereignty and absurd socio-political system.  Sadej suffused these songs with life, yet rendered them in a somewhat "campy" style, filled with irony and humor.  Lovely, as they were - and being a part of a CD recording project, so exceedingly well performed - I was not convinced that these songs do have the lasting value and significance even remotely comparable with the previous three patriotic anthems... 

Photo by Lucyna Przasnyski

As an opera singer, Sadej knows how to please her public with a performance that's stage worthy, as she proved in the last two items on her program. Jerzy Petersburski tango, That Last Sunday / To ostatnia niedziela is a dramatic farewell of a suicidal jilted lover: in the original a man, here - a woman singing to one man she selected from the audience, with great comic force. A pure delight, musical confection made of a melancholy confession of futile love. The Sevillana (Près des remparts de Séville) from Berlioz's Carmen needed a prop of one red rose that Sadej played with while walking through the rows of her listeners who obediently allowed themselves to be seduced by her mesmerizing voice and charm.  Of course, the strong support of Basia Bochenek made all this playacting and performing possible and we are deeply grateful for her fruitful collaboration with Sadej, the opera star. 

Katarzyna Sadej and Barbara Bochenek - photo by L. Przasnyski

  

Photo by Mary Kubal

POLISH CONSULATE'S GALA INDEPENDENCE CONCERT

WITH AMERICAN PIANIST KATE LIU 

The third Los Angeles concert to celebrate 100 Years of Poland's Regained Independence took place on November 5, 2018 at the Colburn School of Music in downtown Los Angeles It was organized by the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in collaboration with the Polish Music Center at the University of Southern California, with financial support from the Polish National Foundation and Polish Investment and Trade Agency, and with organizational support of the Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club. 

The program included works by Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Fryderyk Chopin (mazurkas) and Beethoven's sublime sonata Op. 110.  This was a star studded evening, with Poland's Senator Anna Maria Anders, Secretary of State for International Dialogue who flew in for one night! Also present were many celebrities, including Wojciech Kocyan, pianist, Katarzyna Sadej, mezzosoprano, Kasia Smiechowicz and Marek Probosz aktors, Marcin Gortat from the Clippers, and many representatives of Polish American organizations from San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Francisco.

Born in Singapore in 1994, Kate Liu began to study piano at the age of four and moved with her family to the Chicago area when she was eight. She continued her studies at the Music Institute of Chicago and graduated from the New Trier High School in 2012. Currently she is studying at Curtis Institute of Music. Winner of the First Prize at the 2010 New York International Piano Competition in New York City and at the 2015 Chopin Competition in Daegu, South Korea, Katie Liu was also a prizewinner at the 2010 Thomas & Evon Cooper International Competition in Oberlin, 2011 Hilton Head International Piano Competition for Young Artists in Hilton Head, 2012 Eastman Young Artist International, and 2014 Montreal International Musical Competition. In 2015 Kate Liu was the Third Prize winner at the Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw and the recipient of the Polish Radio Special Prize for her performance of Chopin’s Mazurkas. Widely popular with the Polish public, Kate Liu received the highest number of votes cast by listeners of the Second Program of the Polish Radio, and won the “My Chopin” contest. In the opinion of listeners, she was the best pianist of the 2015 Chopin Competition.

Photo by Mary Kubal

She chose the program for the evening and made sure that the music flowed impeccably from one mood, one work to the next. Ignacy Jan Paderewski's Melodie op. 16, no. 2 is tranquil and romantic, filled with delicate arabesques in the memorable melody sustained by rich harmonies  beautifully interpreted by Kate Liu. From the first moment, this performance was pure magic, serene and nostalgic, the music dazzled and shone even in the most tranquil piano pianissimo all the way through brilliant forte. Already in the first piece, there were moments when the audience waited with baited breath for the next note, the hall completely still and silent, except for the fluid gestures of Ms. Liu.

The set of three mazurkas op. 59 by Fryderyk Chopin (no. 1 in A minor, no. 2 in A-flat Major, and no. 3 in F-sharp minor) from mid 1840s revealed Ms. Liu's superb musicality and the reason why she received a special prize for the performance of Chopin's Mazurkas at the 2015 Chopin Competition in Warsaw.  The first mazurka composed in 1845 has long been considered one of the gems of world music; its well-contoured melancholy mazurka theme grows dramatically to a climax, and returns like an echo, or a long lost memory at the end.  Famous Polish pianist Ludwik Bronarski thought that this mazurka contains some of ‘the most beautiful sounds that it is possible to produce from the piano." 

The second mazurka, in A-flat Major was composed upon a request by composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and dedicated to his wife Cecile. A typical dance form, ABA, with trio in the middle and a coda, according to Mieczyslaw Tomaszewski, this mazurka bears the characters of a dramatic ballade and a proud mazur, repeating its "soaring phrases again and again." A favorite of Artur Rubinstein, and many other pianists, under the fingers of Ms. Liu this mazurka rose to the patriotic heights so suitable for the occasion. Her range of colors was unsurpassed, her ability to move from noble pride to wistfulness - deeply touching every heart. Again, in the ending of this mazurka, the audience was entirely still and silent, waiting for the next note. While her fortes are never forced or impatient, but rather saturated, and filled with the richness and vitality of spirit, the pianos and pianissimos are out of this world. I did not know that the piano could sound like that...

The third mazurka from op. 59 in F-sharp minor, with some brightness of F-sharp Major highlighting certain moments, was described by Prof. Mieczyslaw Tomaszewski  as  "the whirl of a Mazurian dance from the very first bars, with its sweeping, unconstrained gestures, its verve, élan, exuberance, and also, more importantly, the occasional suppressing of that vigour and momentum, in order to yield up music that is tender, subtle, delicate..." It has the character of the fastest dance from the mazurka family, the oberek; but the dance is interrupted for moments of contemplation, resulting in music that's purely sublime.  As Tomaszewski writes: "in the F sharp minor Mazurka, moments given over entirely to the element of dance entwine with moments in which the Terpsichorean narrative is halted, be it only for an instant, to allow for contemplation and reflection, or a wonderment leading to ecstatic delight." Again, Kate Liu was able to take her audience on an inspired, sublime journey, from the whirlwind of dance, a symbol of earthly delights, into the serenity of a joyous spirit resting among the stars. Again, the richness of emotions and colors surprised and delighted the listeners; from folksy drones in the left hand, and twirling oberek motion in the melody, to thoughtful reflection, sometimes peaceful, sometimes touched with a hint of sorrow.  Alternating, from dance turns, to serenity - all in all a masterpiece of music making. 

Photo by Lucyna Przasnyski

The most substantial work on Ms. Liu's program was Beethoven's late sonata Op. 110 in A-flat Major, composed in 1821, in three movements, united by themes and structures, and connected to Missa Solemnis in certain aspects of the final movement with is astounding polyphony - two fugues! The appearance of this work by a German composer active mostly in Vienna, the capital of Austria (both enemies of Poland who took the country apart in 1795) in a concert celebrating Polish independence was surprising to some. It was the pianist's choice, sanctioned by the USC Polish Music Center whose director, Marek Zebrowski, worked with the pianist on the selection of music for her California programs. 

Beethoven was the favorite composer of Ignacy Jan Paderewski who played almost all of his sonatas, and sometimes programmed two in one concert. That's one, "Polish" connection. Another reason for this celebratory choice is musical and links Beethoven to Chopin, both geniuses of European music, lifting it to the universal level of all humanity. At the end of all strife lies forgiveness - when sovereign, perfectly happy and loving individuals, in sovereign, perfectly organized nation-states can co-exist without war, conflict, strife, without attacking or disparaging each other. This new world of peace and prosperity ("live long and prosper"!!!) for the whole planet is a dream for the most visionary Poles; a dream that includes fully independent and sovereign Poland, a country in charge of its fate, enjoying its abundance of gifts. 

Photo by Lucyna Przasnyski

The concert ended after one encore, Chopin's Prelude in D-flat Major, Op. 28. No. 15, the famous "Raindrop Prelude" - nicknamed so due to repetitions of one note in the middle section that was associated with the tapping of a raindrop on the windowsill. This prelude as many other Chopin's works gave rise to numerous fanciful interpretations, and was the most popular work to write about in Chopin with Cherries anthology. Ms. Liu transformed it into a poem of an entirely different kind - delicate, peaceful, and sublime, with echoes of past trauma, it transported the listeners into the exalted realms of pure spiritual joy - one does sound very old-fashioned when trying to describe the serene sweetness, interrupted by insistent heartbeat of pain, and returning to tranquility of the most inward, or ascended quality. I have never heard this Prelude played in this way; completely free of sentimentality, banality, or outward pathos. Very, very, very well done! 

Photo by Marek Zebrowski

Photo by Iga Supernak

Minister Anna Maria Anders Costa, Secretary of State of the Republic of Poland who attended the concert and made a speech about the price of victory ended it with this call to happiness, call to pride over all that Poland has been and has become, all the shared gifts and talents. As if in response to Minister Anders's speech, Kate Liu created a musical experience filled with joy, sublime inspiration, and intense musical delight for which all listeners had to be grateful. 

Photo by Iga Supernak. L to R. Maja Trochimczyk, Kate Liu, Consul Jaroslaw Lasinski

The fourth Polish-themed concert, on October 27, 2018 by Wojciech Kocyan at Loyola Marymount University presented a whole program of Polish composers, from Maria Szymanowska to Grazyna Bacewicz, with Fryderyk Chopin and Ignacy Jan Paderewski in-between.

The fifth concert, on November 2, 2018. took listeners to two years in the post-war period - 1953 when Stalin died and the folk-inspired socialist realism was a binding doctrine in all arts in Eastern bloc countries, and 1991, two years after the fall of the oppressive system. This concert, sponsored by the Wende Museum of the Cold War in Culver City featured the music of Bacewicz, Weinberg, and Gorecki.

Finally, the sixth concert to celebrate 100 Years of Poland's Regained Independence took place on November 10, 2018 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels in downtown Los Angeles where after a solemn Mass for the Homeland an organ recital by Prof.Jan Bokszczanin of Poland concluded classical music celebrations of independence day in Los Angeles. 

On Sunday, November 11, 2018, during religious and patriotic celebrations at local churches in L.A. and O.C. children sung Polish songs, recited poetry, danced folk dances, and acted in plays all to teach and commemorate Polish history and culture. A classic sing-along of patriotic songs, of a kind practiced through the long 19th century in Polish homes and mansions, took place at the Polish Center in Yorba Linda; with songbooks of soldier's songs from a century of fight for independence distributed among the audience. 

We will discuss these concerts in the next installment of this blog. 

Celebrating Chopin's Birthdays (Vol. 6, No. 3)

Was Chopin born on March 1 or February 22? According to the biography on the website of the National Chopin Institute in Poland (NIFC.pl), we will never know. The official entry is for March 1 and NIFC biography (http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/life/calendar/year/1810) states the following:

"The question of the date on which Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin entered the world has never been satisfactorily resolved: according to his own written testimony –  1 March; according to the official entry in the baptismal register of Brochów parish church – 22 February. The place of birth is beyond dispute: Żelazowa Wola, a Mazovian village lying on the River Utrata, close to the Kampinos Forest, 54 kilometres west of Warsaw, belonging at that time to the family of Count Skarbek."

"His father, Mikołaj (1771–1844), 'the lawful son of Franciszek Chopin, wheelwright, and Małgorzata Delfin, his wife', born in Marainville (Lorraine), had resided in Poland since 1787. He is known to have taken part in the Kościuszko Rising. He became Polonised, and discharged the functions of governor, first to the Łączyński family, then to the Skarbeks. Fryderyk held his father in respect and esteem, and his death caused him considerable grief. His mother, Tekla Justyna (1782–1861), 'born of noble parents: Antonina (nee Kołomińska) and Jakub Krzyżanowski, lawful spouses', in Długie, in the Kujawy region, was raised as an orphan (a distant relative?) by the Skarbek family, with whom she resided." 

"The wedding of Justyna and Mikołaj took place in 1806, in Brochów. Their first child, three years older than Fryderyk, was his sister Ludwika (1807–1855), later Jędrzejewiczowa, who displayed considerable musical and literary talents; she would care for him and watch over him all her life."

23 April was the date of Chopin's baptism in the church of St Roch in Brochów, near Sochaczew. Chosen as godparents were Anna Skarbek, later Wiesiołowska, of Strzyżew, and Fryderyk Skarbek, a pupil of Mikołaj Chopin, a future scholar and writer."

Now that we know what happened, we can celebrate in concerts - here's information for the West Coast. Other concerts are listed on the website of NIFC

The Polish Music Center presents…

CRACOW DUO PERFORMS CHOPIN, MEYER, OPAŁKA & TANSMAN

USC’s Polish Music Center kicks off its 30th Anniversary season with a concert by the acclaimed Cracow Duo in a recital of works for cello and piano by Polish composers. The program includes a world premiere by Tomasz J. Opałka and an American premiere by Krzysztof Meyer, as well as works by Frederic Chopin, Alexandre Tansman and more

TUESDAY, 24 February 2015, 7:30 p.m.

Alfred Newman Recital Hall (AHF)

3616 Trousdale Pkwy, Los Angeles, CA 90089

Free admission

A reception at the PMC in Stonier Hall (STO) will follow the concert

More info: music.usc.edu/events/details/?event=913749

Frederic's Birthday

SATURDAY, Feb 28th @ 7:30 pm

Polish Hall

3832 N Interstate map

Tickets at the door:

$15 general/ $10 senior, student, PLBA member

BUY TICKETS

on line: http://fredbirthday.bpt.me/ 

     Frédéric François Chopin was born between the 22nd of February and 1st of March 1810 - different sources cite different dates. We choose to celebrate his birthday on Feb. 28 with music dance and more! Since Chopin was a child prodigy, we invited some VERY young pianists - along with seasoned artists, to celebrate with us. Birthday cake included!
Tickets: Regular: $15.00; senior, student, PLBA members: $10.00
on line: http://fredbirthday.bpt.me.

Colleen Adent - piano:
1. Waltz in Db Major (Minute Waltz),Op 64, No 1
2. Nocturne in Eb Major, Op 55, No 2
3. Barcarolle, Op 60
Excerpts from "On an Overgrown Path" - a Spring 2015 concert at the Alberta Rose Theater by the Lyrical Strings Duo, (Lucia Conrad - violin and Stephen Osserman - classical guitar) with ALDancers. Chopin's preludes #4, #7 and #12 from Op. 28
Mitchell Falconer - piano + ALDancers, choreography by Agnieszka Laska; Chopin's preludes #1, #14 and #17 from Op. 28
Matthew Kaminski - piano, will play his own composition: "At the Top of the World" inspired by Chopin
Sebastian Stenfert Kroese - piano, Little Prelude #18 in C Minor by J.S. Bach
-----------------------------

Colleen Adent, Mitchell Falconer - piano
Lyrical Strings Duo: Lucia Conrad - violin and Stephen Osserman - classical guitar
ALDancers in Chopin Project
Matthew Kaminski (age 13) - piano/ composition
Sebastian Stenfert Kroese (age 12) - piano
music by: Chopin, Bach, Kaminski
concert piano thanks to Michelle's Pianos

Informacja - Agnieszka Laska
Supported in part by: Polish Library Association, Polish Festival, Saint Stanislaus Parish, Multnomah County Cultural Coalition, Oregon Cultural Trust. Piano thanks to Michelle's Pianos.
http://portlandpolonia.org/

Chopin and the "Polish Race" - National Ideologies and Chopin Reception, Part I (Vol. 5, No. 4)

The focus of Chopin’s followers and devotees in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries rested on his usefulness for their causes, not on a full understanding of his musical achievements.  Thus, Fryderyk Chopin held an elevated position in the national pantheon as a poet-prophet [wieszcz] whose musical statements equaled in significance the poetic proclamations of Adam Mickiewicz, expressing the true spirit of the nation.  Jan Kleczyński (1837-1895), Zygmunt Noskowski (1846-1909), Władysław Żeleński (1837-1921), Stanisław Przybyszewski (1868-1927), Jarosław de Zielinski (1847-1922), Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941), Stanisław Niewiadomski (1859-1936), and Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) were preoccupied with demonstrating the ways that identified Chopin and his oeuvre as truly and fully Polish.  Their essays contributed to a Polish tradition of constructing Chopin’s identity, a tradition that evolved through distinct stages of Polonizing the composer, based on shifting definitions of the essence of nationality.

In this essay I will trace the evolution of nationalist views of Chopin’s musical and personal Polishness, views of an increasingly all-embracing nature, connected to the Romantic idea of the “Polish spirit” (primarily expressed in Chopin’s music) and to the notion of the “Polish race” (exemplified by Chopin himself).  The conceptual background for this evolution is provided by ideas put forward by such European writers on nationhood and the arts as a German Romantic philosopher and critic, Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803), whose well-known idea of the “spirit of the people” i.e. Volksgeist, influenced the texts by Kleczyński, Noskowski and Żeleński; and a French philosopher and historian of social-Darwinist orientation, Hippolyte Taine (1828-1893), whose theories of artistic expressions of the nation-race had an impact on writings by Przybyszewski, Niewiadomski, Zielinski, Paderewski, and Szymanowski.  The gradual replacement of the older German notion of the “national spirit” (Herder) with the more modern notion of the “national race and milieu” (Taine) is evident in the argumentation used in texts about Chopin’s place in Polish musical culture until the outbreak of World War II.

 Defining National Traits

In the process of depicting Chopin as Poland’s paradigmatic national composer, his followers expressed their beliefs about national messages that Chopin supposedly conveyed in his music.  Initially, their definitions of national identity, inspired by Herder’s notion of the Volksgeist, envisioned it as a spiritual phenomenon, centered on the experiences and productions of the Folk, i.e. the inhabitants of the countryside enjoying spontaneously creative lives in a close connection to nature, the pristine and enchanting fields and meadows of Poland.  In this interpretative tradition, Chopin’s music was valued not in and of itself; instead, its quality was construed as stemming from its closeness to Polish folk song and the landscape.  The Chopin essays, however, feature a wider variety of arguments while explaining the composer’s Polish identity and his significance for Polish culture.  It will be informative to briefly review the main criteria, or markers, for ethnic/national identity that recur in Polish writings addressing the national identity of Chopin and other composers and might be relevant to our discussion.

Selected Criteria for Defining the Polish Identity of Composers

A. Biographic Criteria (personal identity, background, and choices, defined by self and others)

1) “name”  – Polish forms of the first and last name 2) “family-of-origin” – Polish family background, typically patrilineal and at times connected to the notion of the “Polish race” 3) “psychosomatic identity” – being the embodiment of Polish traits in the whole person, body and spirit (given, not self-defined) 4) “emotional and patriotic identity” – having a “Polish heart” and displaying a deep attachment to Poland (chosen, self-defined) 5) “official identity” – with a Polish national identity and citizenship 6) “native language” – using Polish as the native language 7) “community” – engaged in the Polish community, through the place of residence, membership in organizations, and charitable activities for Polish causes

B. Musical Criteria (traits chosen by the composers or ascribed to their works by others)

1) “language” – the use of Polish texts and titles in works 2) “genre” – the use of Polish genres, e.g. the mazurka or polonaise 3) “quotation” – citing from Polish folk music, national songs or anthems 4) “style” – the presence of various melodic and rhythmic elements definable as ‘Polish’, especially originating from Polish dances 5) “content” – Polish subjects in explicit (defined by the composer) or implicit forms, the latter ‘heard’ by reviewers; themes borrowed from Poland’s history, mythology, literature, religion and customs, climate and geography, etc. 6) “spiritual content” – expressions of the “Polish spirit” in general terms, or in the form of a predominant character trait ascribed to the whole nation, such as “sorrow” [żal], or “arrhythmia” 7) “music community” – Polish performance and programming contexts, e.g. festivals of Polish music, concerts for Polish causes; the music being understood by Poles alone

 Both categories of this list include issues that composers have a degree of control over by consciously choosing to be Polish and compose Polish music filled with national traits.  Simultaneously, the list of biographic criteria includes characteristics that pre-date the composers’ birth and pre-define their identity as Poles in ways transcending the intentions of the composers’ themselves.  Furthermore, the composers’ lives and music may be depicted as far more Polish than those originally intended, especially when viewed from a posthumous perspective of “late grandchildren” who have the freedom of interpreting the composers’ biographical background and achievements without taking into account their wishes.  This openness to fanciful and arbitrary interpretations characterizes particularly the criteria of family-of-origin, psychosomatic identity and community in the area of biography, and the criteria of style, community, content, and spiritual content in the domain of music.  

 

The essays about Chopin have provided partial and contradictory answers to the following questions: Was Chopin a Polish composer?  Was Chopin a purely Polish composer, without a trace of French identity?  Was Chopin’s music entirely Polish and if so, why?  What Polish traits did Chopin capture and express?  What is the definition of being Polish in music?  Numerous thematic threads have been intertwined in these texts that could be given a collective subtitle of “How Polish was Chopin?” On the basis of scattered references in Chopin’s letters we might note that the composer’s self-definition during his years in Paris was as an exiled Pole.  Moreover, Chopin seemed to believe in distinct national emotional and personality traits, pointing to the essential character differences separating a Slav from a Scandinavian or a Spaniard.  

Yet, Chopin’s personal beliefs in this matter were immaterial for the authors of texts about him, texts that straddle the areas of music aesthetics, music biography and national ideology.  These narratives follow a twisted path through the list of criteria: the issue of Polonizing Chopin’s name came to the forefront of discussions in the 1930s (though it was initiated at the end of the 19th century; see the comments on Niewiadomski’s essays), while the awareness of the presence of a vaguely defined “Polish spirit” in Chopin’s music permeated the literature of this subject from its inception (see my comments about essays by Przybyszewski, Noskowski, and Paderewski, and chapter 10 in this collection).  Relying on the criteria described above to provide a general framework for conceptualizing the Polishness of Chopin’s music, I will follow a roughly chronological trajectory.  This approach will allow me to highlight the appearance of significant concepts and interpretations, in particular, the charged notion of the “Polish race.”

The Rise and Fall of the “Polish Race”

The tendency to circumscribe the national identity to common genetic origin and shared personality traits and define art as an expression of such narrowly described features increased in the Western world towards the end of the 19th century.  Europeans and Americans habitually described spiritual essences of their nations in terms of their shared genetic heritage.  Such descriptions permeate the aesthetic writings of Hyppolyte Taine which greatly influenced generations of Polish music critics and historians.  The concept of race itself was developed much earlier in Germany (by Johan Blumenbach, 1752-1840) and France (by Joseph Arthur de Gobineau, 1816-1862).  From its inception, it served to provide arguments about the supposed inequality of the world’s peoples and the superiority of Europeans, or, in particular, the French or the Germans.  Different genealogies were compiled for various national races and their hierarchies reflected the nationalistic and political views of the writers.  

The term “Polish race” referred to people of inherited Polish ethnicity, i.e. those who were born to Polish parents, who, in turn, were children of Polish parents, etc.  The chain of origin extended indefinitely back in time to the nation’s mythical birth from several Slavonic tribes who “dwelt from time immemorial” on the vast plain “between the Baltic sea and the Carpathian mountains.”  One could be Polish only when sharing the Polish genes; this heritage was thought to engender common psychological and spiritual traits of the Polish nation.  These racial definitions of Polishness were found in self-definitions proclaimed in Poland and abroad, as well as in descriptions offered by outsiders.   Jakob Riis saw “the thrifty Polish race” (1890) among impoverished emigrants to America; James W. Gerard mused about the great future of “the splendid Polish race” in its own, independent country (1918).

 A fascinating genealogy of the “Slavic or Slavonic race” precedes an account of musical achievements of the “Polish race” in a 1902 essay by an émigré composer and pianist, Jaroslaw de Zielinski (1847-1922).  The Slavic race includes Poles, Czechs, Lithuanians, Ruthenians, Servians, Croatians, Carinthians, Illyrians, and Vends, but excludes the “Muscovites,” who claim to be Great Russians but—according to Zielinski—in reality are a Tartar race.  In this narrative, the Slavs’ history unfolds as a struggle against their neighbors in the south—Byzantine, and the west—Germanic.  The Germans, in addition to frequent military confrontations, crowded Poland as craftsmen, merchants, and teachers, thus having the opportunity to wreak havoc with national identity by prejudicing “their pupils against the Polish language.”  The theory that Poland had two enemies, Russians and Germans, stemming from the historical facts of Poland’s partitions by Russia, Prussia and Austria at the end of the 18^th-century, is given here a racial justification.  Similarly to Zielinski, Charles Phillips (1923) rhapsodized about the perennial “racial competition”—based on the principle of the “survival of the fittest”—between the races of the German (i.e. Teuton who was “steady, powerful, ponderous, self-righteous, self-satisfied, static”) and the Pole (“dynamic, flexible, un-self-satisfied, self-critical, idealistic and tenacious of his ideal”).

The notion of the “Polish race” appeared in various Polish-American writings; for instance in the amended 1914 Charter of a para-military youth association, The Polish Falcons of America whose main objective was “to regenerate the Polish race in body and spirit and create of the immigrant a National asset, for the purpose of exerting every possible influence towards attaining political independence of the fatherland.”  While the unabashed patriotism of the Polish Falcons seems praiseworthy, their goal of renewing and unifying the nation through strengthening its youth resembles the objectives of totalitarian organizations in various (actual or imagined) political systems, from Plato's Republic to Nazi Germany.  In this context, it is important to note that the concept of the “Polish race” found its demise at the outset of World War II, when the hard-won sovereignty of Poland was again under attack from Germany seeking to expand its territories.  On August 22, 1939, a week before the invasion of Poland and the beginning of World War II, Hitler addressed his military commanders ordering them “to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish race or language.” Therefore, the term acquired a genocidal connotation which rendered the notion of the “Polish race” unacceptable, banishing it from respectable nation-building discourse.

Before it disappeared, though, the “Polish race” played an increasingly more prominent role in constructing the Polish identity of Chopin and his music.  In 1923 Charles Phillips ended his list of positive characteristics of the “dynamic and idealistic” Pole: “Chopin is an example.”  Let us begin the examination of this topic with a review of national traits associated with Chopin’s music.

Musical Evocations of Polish History and Landscape

The quest for Polish subjects in Chopin’s solo piano works (Musical Criterion 5: content) is a recurring topos in 19^th-century responses to his music.  Romantic writers provided fantastic descriptions of historical subjects hidden in purely instrumental compositions.  For instance, Marceli Antoni Szulc envisioned the Polonaise Op. 53 in A-flat major as an image of a national procession of hetmans and voivodas, colorfully costumed in precious garb of Polish 17^th-century noblemen (see also Kleczyński’s interpretation of this piece in chapter 10).  Writing in this vein, Stanisław Tarnowski (1837-1871) sought a connection between Chopin’s compositions and Polish poetry.  Not surprisingly, he found a direct patriotic inspiration in numerous pieces, including the Preludes Op. 24, many Mazurkas, and the Funeral March from the Sonata in B-flat minor.  Tarnowski saw the latter work as a “funereal conduct of the whole nation watching its own funeral.”  

A similar patriotic vision is captured on a late 19th-century postcard depicting pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski—a foremost Chopin interpreter of his time (see Figure 1).  Here, a solemn procession of Polish kings and noblemen arises above bluish light emanating from the keyboard; Paderewski’s outstretched hands and intensely focused face indicate that these great heroes of the past have been brought to life by his music.  This image reveals the role that music played in the cultivation of Polish culture and identity after Poland’s loss of sovereignty.  The postcard also illustrates a statement from Ignacy Jan Paderewski’s famous speech of 1910 that Chopin’s compositions truly contain “the spirit of the land of his fathers, the spirit of his nation."  Paderewski thus described a ghost-filled scene evoked by Chopin’s music: “Finally . . . spectres fulfill their shadowy rights. What ghost was that?  Whose spirit there went past?  Was this Żółkiewski?  Or Czarniecki’s noble shade?”

 While the Polish character of Polish dance genres, such as mazurkas and polonaises, could not be doubted (Musical Criterion 2: genre), these works themselves have been taken to a second level of Polishness by being read as programmatic representations of Polish landscape and village scenes (Musical Criterion 5: content).  Fifty years after the composer’s death, Zygmunt Noskowski took for granted a thesis that “Chopin’s melodies are poetic transformations of the sights that the master absorbed in his youth . . . From many a mazurka one can guess the color and light filling a landscape that the master saw with the eyes of his soul while writing his beautiful poem.”  Noskowski proceeded to associate particular images with individual mazurkas, impromptus, sonatas, and ballades.  The Impromptu in F-sharp Major was assigned the most elaborate program.  Noskowski interpreted this work as an extended “Sunday-in-a-village” scene, replete with “the voices of church bells calling to the service” over summer fields “covered with newly ripened wheat, gently swaying under a slight breeze.”  The commentator concluded: “Nature in its entirety is praying in this moment... and the holiday sentiment pervades everything.”  Thus, in Noskowski’s nationalistic/religious interpretation of Chopin’s piano compositions, a pastoral idyll arises from the music that perfectly captures the serenity of a people united with their land.  The music is important—and Polish—because it portrays the landscape of Poland and the religious moods associated with it.

The language of description used by Polish composers and music critics in the 19th and early 20th centuries often employs figures of speech equating folk song with field flowers.  The trope that Chopin’s folk-inspired music is, as it were, permeated with “the fragrances of delicate flowers of Polish meadows” first appears in Józef Sikorski’s article of 1849.  Sikorski discussed the national traits of Chopin music (seen in the use of genre, style and quotation; Musical Criteria 2-4) and his inspiration with Polish folk songs.  For Sikorski, these songs were elevated, charming and simple, while remaining as fleeting and ineffable as the “fragrance of a violet.”  This synaesthetic reference articulates a widespread belief that folk music belonged to the utopia of cultivated nature, the idyllic and serene “national garden of Eden.” 

Similarly, Cyprian Kamil Norwid (1821-1883), characterized Chopin (“a Varsovian by birth, a Pole by heart, and a citizen of the world by talent”) as someone who “knew how to gather field flowers, without shaking off even a slightest drop of dew, or a smallest speck of dust from them.” Norwid’s reference to folksong as “field flowers” articulates the connection between the beauty of Polish countryside and the music created by its inhabitants.  The association of Chopin with the lost paradise of the native country recurred in an essay by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (1812-1887) where Chopin himself (not just his music, but the whole person) became a “phenomenon, as it were, straight from our fields and meadows, those of old, those that blessed our evenings with a marvelous fragrance of the breath of our beloved soil.”  Zygmunt Noskowski also penned a noteworthy passage equating folksong with field flowers and describing Chopin as someone who “brought a breeze of fresh air” to the “atmosphere of exotic fragrances” of the Romantic salon.  The freshness and originality of Chopin’s music stemmed from his closeness to Nature, “his first mistress [whose] brilliance and beauty entranced him and left their traces deep in the soul.”  Finding inspiration in folk music, like painting landscapes outdoors, meant choosing the natural over the artificial.

Folk art as nature might be an environmental trope, rather than a national one, however in the Polish context it has strong nationalistic overtones.  Through the 19th century Poles were a nation without sovereignty over its territory, a nation reduced to the status of an ethnic minority in three different countries.  Since they lived under a constant threat from the occupying nations and struggled to regain ownership and control of their land (the Prussians being particularly eager to remove Poles from their farms and/or Germanize them), their attachment to the ancestral land was an expression of their patriotism.  These difficult circumstances engendered the myth-making process that transformed Chopin into “a singer of Polish fields and meadows” praised by Noskowski for the accuracy and authenticity of his musical landscape depictions.  The ecological nationalism of most “flower”-references reveals a dependency on Herder-sanctioned connection of a people to the land they inhabit.  In this style of nationalistic readings of Chopin’s music, both Polish folk song and Chopin’s music based on it have a straightforward link to the benevolent and nurturing Nature.

In other nationalistic interpretations, the same music may be seen as vehicle for conveying the national spirit and expressing the traits of the nation’s personality (Musical Criterion 6).  Arguments used in this area increasingly take Chopin’s personal characteristics and heritage into account (Biographic Criteria 2-4, pertaining to the family of origin, psychosomatic identity, and emotional identity of the composer).  Thus, through the 19^th century, nationalistic writers gradually shift their attention from generalized and colorful rhapsodizing about the Polish content of Chopin’s music (Musical Criteria 5-6) toward statements about his personal relationship to the “Polish race” and its musical manifestations.  Let us first examine the varieties of musical expressions of the Polish spirit.

............... to be continued

Excerpts from Maja Trochimczyk, "Chopin and the Polish Race" 

chapter in Halina Goldberg, ed.  The Age of Chopin: Interdisciplinary Inquiries,
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004, 278-313.

Chopin's Family Revealed - Three Books in Polish (Vol. 3, No. 9)

During my summer travel to Poland and two conferences on emigration, in Krakow and Gdansk, I met with my academic mentor and advisor, Prof. Zofia Helman of the University of Warsaw. After a light lunch at the faculty club in Kazimierzowski Palace, she promptly took me shopping to the Prus Bookstore across the Krakowskie Przedmiescie street.  My box of books on music has recently arrived with three biographical treasures about Chopin's family and circle of friends:

1. Rodzina Matki Chopina: Mity i Rzeczywistosc [The Family of Chopin's Mother - Myths and Reality], by Andrzej Sikorski and Piotr Myslakowski (Warszawa, Studio Wydawnicze Familia, 2000)

2. "Rodzina Ojca Chopina: Migracja i Awans" [The Family of Chopin's Father - Migration and Ascent] by Piotr Myslakowski (Warszawa, Studio Wydawnicze Familia, 2002)

3. "Chopinowie: Krag Rodzinno-Towarzyski" [Chopins - The Familial-Social Circle] by Piotr Myslakowski and Andrzej Sikorski (Warszawa, Studio Wydawnicze Familia, 2005).

The three books, available only in Polish, are based on decades of intense archival studies by the authors, as well as reports from archival studies by other scholars. They include numerous transcripts and translations of archival documents and debunk myths about the origins and upbringing of Fryderyk Chopin, the scion of French and Polish families that could be described as "lower middle class" today.

The French heritage of Chopin's father, Nicolas, was questioned by patriotic mythmakers in the past. Ideas that he was a descendant of Polish soldiers who settled in France were circulated at the end of the 19th century. Piotr Myslakowski shows conclusively that this, widely abandoned myth, had no grounds in facts. He also reveals surprises in Chopin's lineage.  His forefather moved from a small Alpine village of smugglers living in abysmal poverty to lower, border area of France that used to be a part of the kingdom of Lotharingia and is now called Lorraine region.

Apparently, the great-great-...-grandfather of Chopin left the home village and never looked back. From the underclass of smugglers the family rose to the lower class of peasants and artisans in the village.  One of the Lorraine great-great-grandfathers of Chopin became a wheel-maker and a scribe, rising to a position of note in the community. His descendant, Nicolas, left his family behind at the age of 17 when he moved to Poland where he became first a live-in tutor of sons of noble families, and then a school professor and principal. In one step after another, the family rose from murky and far-less-than-respectable background through hard work, education, and the pursuit of virtues and moral values. The subsequent generations of Chopins in the three locations did not stay in touch. When the artistocrat-of-the-spirit Chopin moved to Paris to hobnob with princesses, he did not look up his aunts and cousins in Lorraine. They were peasants, he was a friend of aristocrats. They had nothing in common. His ample correspondence with his family shows intense affection for members of his immediate familial circle. But he had no interest, nor need to reach out beyond.

Similarly, the family of his mother came from humble roots. Not as humble as the French family: her kin were among impoverished gentry who often disappeared from historical records, as they did not own land or estates. The two scholars traced their history through the records of baptisms - the Krzyzanowski family members could be Godfathers or Godmothers to various children where they lived. Another lively and surprising source of family history was found in the court records of the warring, lawless "less-than-noble" members of the Polish landed gentry, whose pastime, it seems, was to sue each other and, in an absence of an execution of the sentence, raid their enemies and attack, injure or even kill them, while destroying or stealing their possessions. As an employee of such a brigand-noble, one of Justyna Krzyzanowska's forebearers is noted in several court records of this kind. Fascinating reading!

I have not yet started reading the "family circle" part of the three books, but I believe that it would be to the benefit of English-speaking Chopin lovers and scholars to have access to their English translations.  The books are written in a very engaging and engrossing fashion. I read the story about Chopin's father as if it were a murder mystery - and, in fact, a mystery solved it is. The sooner we have English versions, the better for all future scholars of Chopin's life and music.