Polish Music since Szymanowski

by Adrian Thomas

Overview

Issues of how artistic freedom was exercised and how well-known figures (Lutoslawski, Górecki, Penderecki) and unduly neglected composers (Baird, Serocki, Krauze) reacted to political upheavals form the core of this study of an incredibly rich musical history. Since the death of Szymanowski in 1937, Poland's music has been influenced by violent political upheavals—World War II, the Stalinism of the Cold War, the "thaw" of the late 1950s and 60s, the election of the Polish Pope and the rise and fall of the Solidarity Trade Union.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521054720
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/01/2008
Series:	Music in the Twentieth Century , #19
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	412
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Adrian Thomas is Professor of Music at Cardiff University.

Table of Contents

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

Editorial Reviews

"Polish Music since Szymanowski is an important publication that should endure as the present generation of composers takes its audiences into the twenty-first century."
-Opera Today

"[A] rigorous and superbly documented volume"
-Slavic Review

From the Publisher