ISCM World New Music Magazine 24, 2014 by International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM)

World New Music Magazine, edition 2014 Vol. No. 24 Polska Music Now, edition 2014 Vol. No. 2 Publishers: International Society for Contemporary Music Loevenhoutsedijk 301 3552 XE Utrecht, The Netherlands www.iscm.org Polish Society for Contemporary Music – the ISCM Polish Section Mazowiecka 11 00-052 Warsaw Poland www.ptmw.art.pl Co-publishers: Adam Mickiewicz Institute Wrocław Municipality Acknowledgements: Magdalena Lesiak, Robert Ciechanowski, Izabela Duchnowska, The Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC, Mieczysław Kominek, Izabela Zymer, Tomasz Zymer, Polish Composers’ Union, Krystian Kiełb, Anna Granat-Janki, For Tune, Ryszard Wojciul, Wrocław Opera, Anna Leniart, National Forum of Music, Andrzej Kosendiak, IMIT, Andrzej Kosowski, Ruch Muzyczny, Beata Chłopecka, Dorota Szwarcman, Małgorzata Grudzień, Darek Komorek, Konrad Kalbarczyk, Arthur van der Drift, Croatian Composers’ Society, Dubravko Detoni, Irena Lányiova, MusikTexte, Gisela Gronemeyer-Oehlschlägel, Rainer Nonnenmann, Zygmunt Krauze, Michael Finissy, Richard Tsang, John Davies, Stefan Fricke, Nina Polaschegg, Bruno Strobl, Michał Szostało, Cara Thornton, Hanna Stoppel, Nina Calopek, Odra Magazine, Mieczysław Orski Editor-in-Chief: Anna Dorota Władyczka Editorial Secretary: Magdalena Lesiak Graphic Design: Agnieszka Ćwikła Technical redaction and settings: Natalia Wielęgowska Publisher of Polska Music Now Adam Mickiewicz Institute ul. Mokotowska 25 00-560 Warszawa Poland www.iam.pl www.culture.pl Polska Music Program Manager: Ewa Bogusz-Moore Project Coordination: Zofia Barańska, Katarzyna Świętochowska Texts: Filip Lech Translation and Proofreading: Michał Szostało, Cara Thornton Design: Marcin Łagocki Cooperation: Joanna Peryt, Piotr Wrona Copyright © 2014 by World New Music Magazine, the authors, photographers and translators. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without permission from the authors. ISSN: 1019-7117 Calendar of Events 2013/2014 © Adam Mickiewicz Institute ISBN 978-83-60263-09-4 Distribution: World New Music Magazine has been published annually since 1991 by the International Society for Contemporary Music [ISCM]. The magazine is distributed worldwide by ISCM and via its member organizations.

First printed in Poland, 2014

Foreword By Peter Swinnen, President, ISCM Executive Committee

This edition of the ISCM World New Music Magazine takes as its theme the host city and country for the 2014 ISCM World Music Days Festival, Wroclaw, Poland. Not only does it contain a fascinating description of contemporary music life today, it also provides a historical perspective on the long lasting intensive connection between the Polish music scene and the International Society for Contemporary Music, since its early existence. And it pays tribute to our Honorary Member Reinhard Oehlschlägel, who passed away this year. As such, it is a precious document, testimony of the present as well as the past, for future music enthusiasts to discover, for us all to cherish. I thank the team who compiled and contributed to this collection, and wish you much pleasure in reading it.

Riin Eensalu, Arthur van der Drift, John Davies, Peter Swinnen and Alper Maral – Executive Committee of the ISCM, during General Assembly - the ISCM World New Music Days in Vienna, 2013 (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka) Peter Swinnen – composer, cellist, teacher of composition, cello and theory of music. Education: Royal Conservatory of Brussels (1983–1992) – “Premier Prix” for, among others, “History of Music”, “Cello”, “Chamber Music”, “Practical Harmony” and “Composition”; Queen Elisabeth College of Music in Waterloo (Belgium) – master degree for Composition with Mr. A. Laporte (1989–1992); Master Classes with Mr. M. Finnissy (1993) and Mr. B. Ferneyhough (1998); VUB (2008–2009) – “Doctor in the Arts” with Dr J.P. Van Bendegem. He is member of the Union of Belgian Composers since 1993, vice president of the Componisten Archipel Vlaanderen 2004–2011, founding member and president of ISCM-Vlaanderen 2005–2013, member of the ISCM Executive Committee since 2007, vice-president since 2008, president since 2013. Compositions include solo works and chamber music pieces for diverse instruments (incl. electronic), lieder, tone poems for large orchestra, symphonies, concerti, cantatas, ballets, films and music theatre. Many of them are recorded (radio, TV and CD). First performances in Festival of

Peter Swinnen during the ISCM World New Music Days in Vienna, 2013 (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)

Flanders, Ars Musica, Wien Modern, International Fryderyk Chopin Festival, World Carillon Congres, SMCQ, ISCM WMD...

From the Editor When will people finally understand that art does not just appear out of nowhere, that all artists are aristocrats who must have behind them those 12 generations comprised of Bachs and Beethovens (if they are musicians), Sophocles and Shakespeare (if they are dramatic poets), and if […] they deny their ancestors or don’t have any at all, then despite even the greatest talent, they will be at best idiot bunglers…2 Karol Szymanowski The author of the above-cited words is Karol Szymanowski, the first Honorary Member of the ISCM. Many years ago, that quote impressed itself deeply upon my memory, for it is not only the quintessence of Szymanowski’s artistic attitude, but also a superb point of reference for a music historian’s view of contemporary music. It also illustrates the editorial concept of this year’s World New Music Magazine, in which the past intermingles with the present, and many issues touched upon in the past continue to be amazingly current – starting with the definition of contemporary music, and ending with disputes concerning equal representation of the individual ISCM Sections on festival programs. The entire international contemporary music world knows such names as Karol Szymanowski, Witold Lutosławski, Andrzej Panufnik, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Krzysztof Penderecki and Zygmunt Krauze. However, Polish contemporary music is a lot more than just that… And this is the truth with which we would like to acquaint you more closely in our magazine. In it, you will find texts of historical character, documentation concerning previous ISCM festivals in Poland, a presentation of certain musical institutions. Particularly noteworthy is the presentation of programs to support contemporary music – in particular, one of the most spectacular and innovative systems for commissioning compositions. 2 Karol Szymanowski, Korespondencja. Pwełna edycja zachowanych listów od i do kompozytora [Karol Szymanowski, Correspondence. Complete Edition of Surviving Letters from and to the Composer], vol. 1 1903–1919. Collected and prepared for publication by T. Chylińska, PWM Edition, Kraków 1982. Excerpt from letter of Karol Szymanowski to Zdzisław Jachimecki in Kraków – Tymoszówka, 4 December 1910, p. 245.

:RUOG 1HZ 0XVLF 0DJD]LQH ƌ 3ROVND 0XVLF 1RZ

The wealth of contemporary music being written in Poland can be seen from the number of meetings and festivals being organized, as well of discs being released. The Polska Music Now calendar is a program documenting the everyday life of contemporary music in Poland. We owe this section to our collaboration with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. The calendar contains facts, data and information in brief outline form. Examples of items released on disc are to be found on two CDs appended to the magazine, which represent a selection from the catalogs of two labels – Polmic and For Tune. The lion’s share of our publication has been devoted to the history of the Polish Society for Contemporary Music and the ISCM festivals in Poland. Without doubt, particularly noteworthy is a translation of excerpts from Anton Haefeli’s monumental work Die Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM). Ihre Geschichte von 1922 bis zur Gegenwart [The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM): Its History from 1922 to the Present], including an extraordinary description of the efforts, intrigues and scandals that accompanied the organization of one of the first ISCM festivals in Poland in 1939, as well as the boycott of the 1968, together with the boycott of the boycott. Also to be found in the calendar are mentions of those who have passed away. I would like to draw your attention to the person of Włodzimierz Kotoński, who died on 4 September 2014. This figure – a distinguished composer, precursor of electronic music and pedagogue – is particularly close to the heart of the Polish Society for Contemporary Music. He was president of the PSCM from 1982 to 1989 and, for many years, an Honorary Member. The passing of Reinhard Oehlschlägel on 29 April 2014 is a painful loss for the ISCM. For this reason, a considerable portion of our magazine is a reminiscence concerning his person and reflections, as well as the role he played in contemporary music and in the life of our association. But his credits also include

founding the World New Music Magazine and editing it between 1991 and 2005. An important part of the WNMM is a discussion of last year’s festival. This year, aside from the traditional reports, we are publishing a short account prepared by the festival’s organizers. It is a valuable historical source and, I hope, encouragement to all future organizers to prepare a similar document, which was once standard for the ISCM. An interesting example illustrating this thesis is the reprinting of the organizers’ report from the ISCM World Music Days in Warsaw in 1992. I am very pleased that a bit of our Polish history will reach you this year, when the next festival is being organized in Poland, in my hometown of Wrocław. It is for this reason that the article about Wrocław composers is so important. After the experiences of the festival in Warsaw in 1992, I can say that dreams do come true – my idea to organize this year’s festival, in this place, has come true, for which I would yet again like to thank the coorganizers, partners and friends of our festival, in particular, Wrocław City Hall.

environmental protection consultant. She holds a degree from the University of Warsaw Institute of Musicology, having defended a Master’s thesis written under the direction of Prof. Zofia Helman, entitled Analiza związków słowno-muzycznych w Trzech fragmentach z poematów Jana Kasprowicza Karola Szymanowskiego [An Analysis of Word–Music Relationships in Karol Szymanowski’s Three Fragments from Poems by Jan Kasprowicz]. The creator and co-creator of many important artistic events, she has also served many times as a juror at composition and performance competitions. Since 1989, Anna Dorota Władyczka has been secretary of the board of the PSCM. From 2002 to 2004, she was a member of the ISCM Executive Committee. Translated by Cara Thornton

I would also like to very warmly thank all who have contributed to the publication of this periodical – the people and institutions who have been involved in preparing materials. The final form of the periodical is our joint work.

Anna Dorota Władyczka (photo from the Author’s private collection)

Anna Dorota Władyczka (b. 1964) is a musicologist specializing in and activist on behalf of contemporary music, a person responsible for programming and organizing contemporary music events, and an 5

Table of contents Foreword by John Davis From the Editor by Anna Dorota Władyczka

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I Polska Music Now

Calendar of Events 2013/2014

II Contemporary music in Poland and in Wrocław De musica Silesiae. The Phenomenon of the Wrocław School of Composition by Anna Granat-Janki 40

IV The ISCM festival in 2013 Music, cultural exchanges, and chandeliers, Reflections on the ISCM World New Music Days by Glenda Keam (New Zealand section) 102 The ISCM World New Music Days 2013 by Barbara Jazwinski

104

Demanding real transcendence – Report on the World New Music Days 2013 in Košice, Bratislava and Vienna by Chris van Rhyn, ISCM South African Section 107

For Tune – the publisher of ambitious music by Ryszard Wojciul 48

The ISCM World New Music Days 2013 by Irena Lányiová and Bruno Strobl

POLMIC presents “Polish Music Today – An Anthology” by Izabela Zymer 54

V Reinhard Oehlschlägel in memoriam (1936–2014)

Between the Garden and the Kingdom by Jacek Marczyński

On the Difficulty of Understanding Music from Other Continents by Reinhard Oehlschlägel 114

About a city that survived by Dorota Kozińska

Composing commissions by Maria Peryt

III The ISCM festivals in Poland Karol Szymanowski and the International Society for Contemporary Music: 1923–1939 by Andrzej Chłopecki 78 Double live of the Polish Society for Contemporary Music by Dorota Szwarcman 86 Die Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM). Ihre Geschichte von 1922 bis zur Gegenwart [The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM): Its History from 1922 to the Present] – excerpts by Anton Haefeli 88 The World Music Days Warsaw Organizer’s Report

From my WNMD diaries Warsaw, May 1992 98 by Dubravko Detoni

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A Selfless Egocentric. Reminiscences of Reinhard Oehlschlägel (1936–2014) by Rainer Nonnenmann 117 My encounters with Reinchard by Zygmunt Krauze

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Man with a mission by Michael Finnissy

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Remembering Rheinhard by Richard Tsang

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Reinhard and ISCM – some personal reflections by John Davis 126 Reinhard Oehschlägel is dead by Stefan Fricke

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A Life Dedicated to Music –Reinhard Oelschlägel (1936–2014) by Nina Polaschegg 129 A Life Dedicated to Music –Reinhard Oelschlägel (1936–2014) by Bruno Strobl 130 VI The ISCM information About the ISCM

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Ewa Bogusz-Moore © Radek Polak

The Polska Music program actively supports performances of Polish classical music by renowned international artists worldwide, aiming to increase its popularity across the globe. As well as initiating international stage productions and concerts, commissioning new work, and nurturing contemporary composers, Polska Music also promotes recordings, books and events. The Polska Music Now Calendar which you now have before you contains the most important phenomena in Polish contemporary music from the last twelve months. It is a resultant of various points of view – we present events singled out by representatives of Polish cultural institutions, NGOs, music critics, journalists, composers and performers. This joint retrospective paints us a picture of the tendencies, coincidences and relationships that are appearing, as well as the directions in which Polish composers and artists are currently moving. I hope that the Polska Music Now Calendar – that, as it were, musical almanac – will be an essential information source acquainting you more closely with the dynamics and diversity of today’s music scene in Poland.

Ewa Bogusz-Moore manager Polska Music program Adam Mickiewicz Institute

Calendar of Events 2013/14

2013 June

Marcin Masecki © Tomasz Dubiel

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Lutofusions organizers: Witold Lutosławski Society, Muzyka jest dla wszystkich Foundation curators: Marcin Masecki, Viola Łabanow-Jastrząb, Tomasz Pokrzywiński performers: Marcin Masecki (keyboards), Jerzy Rogiewicz (drums), Marcin Lenarczyk (DJ Lenar), Tomasz Pokrzywiński (’cello), Michał Górczyński (clarinet, saxophone), DJ Papa Zura, DJ Envee, Fluidacje: Marcin and Tomasz Ebert (analog visuals) place: Lublin marcinmasecki.com Marcin Stańczyk © Aleksandra Chciuk

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Witold Lutosławski Scholarship

bit.do/fluidacje Lutofusions was an attempt to update and popularize the output of Witold Lutosławski. During the first concert, musicians from the avant-garde and electronic scene played a live act inspired by the music and thought of Lutosławski; the second day, they put on a musical happening.

laureate: Marcin Stańczyk (composer) founders: Lutosławski family, Witold Lutosławski Society marcinstanczyk.com lutoslawski.org.pl listen: soundcloud.com/marcinstanczyk Composer Marcin Stańczyk, born in 1977, received the Witold Lutosławski Scholarship for a second time. In the academic year 2011/2012, thanks to this scholarship, he participated in music technology and acoustics courses run by the Parisian IRCAM institute, which he continued in the 2013/2014 season.

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Wojciech Kilar. Credo producer: TVP Katowice director: Violetta Rotter-Kozera wojciechkilar.pl bit.do/culture-kilar watch: bit.do/kilar-credo The film Wojciech Kilar. Credo is an attempt to introduce the viewer to the personality of an artist who did not look to current movements or trends in music. The film utilizes never-before-published materials from the composer’s archives. The photos were taken at the Jasna Góra Monastery, as well as in Lviv, Vorokhta, Paris and Seville.

Polska Music Now 2

Calendar of Events 2013/14

July _award

Orphées d’Or 2013 laureates: DVD Madame Curie (composer: Elżbieta Sikora), DVD Manru (composer: Ignacy Jan Paderewski) publisher: DUX founder: Académie du Disque Lyrique (France) place: Paris bit.do/culture-orpheedor dux.pl listen: bit.do/ninateka-madamecurie Manru (world première 1901) is the only operatic work in the output of pianist, composer and Prime Minister of the Second Republic of Poland Ignacy Jan Paderewski; furthermore, it is the only Polish opera to have found its way onto the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. The composer based his work on gypsy and highland motifs. Elżbieta Sikora has presented Marie Curie as a normal human being – extraordinarily dynamic and strong, but torn by emotions, suffering from severe depression.

Mikołaj Górecki © Mariusz Makowski/EUTERPE Music Publishing House Archives www.euterpe.pl

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Titanic

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composer: Mikołaj Górecki performers: Silesian Trio commissioned by: Institute of Music and Dance as part of the Collections – Commissioned Compositions program première: 36th Karol Szymanowski Music Days place: Zakopane

2nd LDZ Music Festival

mikolajgorecki.pl

curator: Wojciech Krasowski organizer: LDZ Music Festival place: Łódź ldzfestival.pl LDZ is a small festival whose aim is to promote Polish independent music. The participants in the event’s 2nd edition included Recognition Records founder Jacek Sienkiewicz, visual artist and performer Wojciech Bąkowski, and the BNNT group directed by Konrad Smoleński, the author of the design that represented Poland at the 55th Art Biennial in Venice.

bit.do/ninateka-mgorecki-titanic Titanic for clarinet, horn and piano is a piece inspired by the tragedy of the British cruise liner. In Górecki’s work, we hear the inspiration of American popular music from the beginning of the 20th century, for example ragtime.

August

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Polish Music at the BBC Proms composers: Witold Lutosławski, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Andrzej Panufnik, Krzysztof Penderecki, Karol Szymanowski curator: Roger Wright organizer: BBC Radio place: Royal Albert Hall, London bit.do/bbclutoslawski This was the first such broad-scale presentation of Polish music – above all, contemporary, but also Renaissance – to take place at the BBC Proms. During last year’s edition, Polish artists, among others the Warsaw Philharmonic under the baton of Antoni Wit, also made their debuts.

polskamusic.iam.pl

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Maria composer: Roman Statkowski director: Michael Gieleta libretto: Roman Statkowski conductor: Łukasz Borowicz organizer: Baltic Opera in Gdańsk, Wexford Festival place: Baltic Opera, Gdańsk bit.do/culture-statkowski listen: bit.do/ninateka-maria Roman Statkowski is, aside from Karol Szymanowski, the most important Polish composer from the turn of the 20th century. The opera’s libretto is based on Antoni Malczewski’s Romantic poem; its contemporary adaptation alludes to the story of the martial law period. Thanks to support from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music program, Maria was premièred at the Wexford Festival Opera in 2011 in Ireland.

Katarina Głowicka © Mathis Nitschke

September _festival

Gaudeamus Muziekweek 2013 _CD

Liliana Górska: Baird – Krauze – Bruzdowicz – Łuciuk composers: Tadeusz Baird, Zygmunt Krauze, Joanna Bruzdowicz, Juliusz Łuciuk performers: Liliana Górska (mezzo-soprano), Katarzyna Bojaruniec (conductor), Dorota Dąbrowska (flute), Anna Gadzińska (flute), Krzysztof Koziatek (’cello), Marcin Kucharzewski (piano), Anna Mikolon (piano), Artur Milian (violin), Mariusz Mruczek (’cello), Aleksandra Pyrcz (flute), Piotr Sutt (percussion) publisher: Acte Prealable acteprealable.com listen: bit.do/liliana-gorska

Polska Music Now 2

composers: Mikołaj Laskowski (Na), Dariusz Przybylski (Chamber Concerto), Katarina Głowicka (Music in 3 Parts: Wind, Ether, Fire) performers: orkest de ereprijs & Orchestra of the 21st Century, International Ensemble Modern Academy muziekweek.nl listen: soundcloud.com/mikolajlaskowski/na listen: soundcloud.com/kasiata/music-in-3movements-1 Na for orchestra and two voices is Mikołaj Laskowski’s most recent composition. The composer is a member of the sultan hagavik duo, the entire instrumentarium of which is represented by tape recorders and Walkmans, on which they mix and distort old tapes. Dariusz Przybylski’s Chamber Concerto is a work scored for an ensemble of 15 instrumentalists, each of whom has received a part in which s/he can display him/herself as a soloist. In the poetic 15-minute work Music in 3 Parts, written for the combined forces of two orchestras, composer Katarina Głowicka plays electronics together with renowned French DJ Philippe Petit.

Calendar of Events 2013/14

56. Warszawska Jesień © Adam Dudek/Delikatesy Frykasy

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El Derwid: Blots on the Sun composer: Witold Lutosławski performers / arr.: Andrzej Bauer (’cello), Cezary Duchnowski (piano, computer), Agata Zubel (voice) publisher: CD Accord cdaccord.pl elettrovoce.com listen: bit.do/elderwid-elettrovoce Derwid was Lutosławski’s pseudonym, used when the composer wrote popular works. His songs have been performed by the greatest stars of the Polish concert stage – Mieczysław Fogg, Violetta Villas, Kalina Jędrusik – even though the artist never spoke of his pseudonymous past. The trio El Derwid has told this story in the language of electroacoustic music.

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56th Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music

Agata Zubel © Tomasz Kulak

director: Tadeusz Wielecki organizer: Polish Composers’ Union place: Warsaw bit.do/56-warszawska-jesien

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IN composer: Agata Zubel preformers: Lower Saxony State Orchestra Hannover, Karen Kamensek (conductor) commissioned by: Hannoverschen Gesellschaft für Neue Musik première: Hannover Staatsoper, Hannover zubel.pl bit.do/culture-zubel

The program of the Festival’s 56th edition was guided by the watchword of combining the past with youth. Representing an important point of the program were three anniversaries: Lutosławski’s 100th birthday (a performance of his Piano Concerto by Krystian Zimerman, who had played it in the same place exactly 25 years ago) and the 80th birthdays of Górecki (a concert of quartets in the rendition of the Silesian Quartet) and Penderecki (Passion under the baton of Antoni Wit). Youth was presented by world premières (Woźny, Wojciechowski, Adamek, Augustyn, Krupowicz) and the Little Warsaw Autumn – a program prepared especially for children (workshops and a sound installation by Lidia Zielińska).

I have a feeling that I have written one of the most important pieces in my output to date. — Agata Zubel The composer has created two layers which, despite their differences, coincide with each other and form a single whole. ‘The events must be mixed, merge, absorb the listener.’

polskamusic.iam.pl

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Musikfest Berlin composer: Witold Lutosławski curator: Winrich Hopp organizer: Berliner Festpiele place: Berliner Philharmonie, Berlin berlinerfestspiele.de watch: bit.do/musikfest-lutoslawski

Do not think that we are playing Polish music here. This is a festival of Lutosławski; for me, this is a composer whom I would compare with Mozart. — Winrich Hopp Lutosławski’s music was juxtaposed with pieces by Bartók, Janáček and Britten.

Wojciech Ziemowit Zych (photo: courtesy of the artist)

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Symphony no. 3 composer: Wojciech Ziemowit Zych performers: Anna Ciuła-Pehlken (soprano), Maciej Straburzyński (bass-baritone), NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Szymon Bywalec (conductor), Lutosławski Piano Duo commissioned by: Wratislavia Cantans International Festival, Institute of Music and Dance as part of the Collections – Commissioned Compositions program première: 48th Wratislavia Cantans International Festival place: Witold Lutosławski Philharmonic in Wrocław bit.do/generacja70-zych listen: bit.do/ninateka-zych-symphony

Elżbieta Sikora (photo: courtesy of the artist)

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Zych uses an entire array of instrumental techniques here, often very subtle and barely audible: harmonics, glissandi and all kinds of little sound vibrations. This effect is brought out by the unusual spatial distribution of the orchestra in the concert hall. Symphony no. 3 utilizes fragments of an essay by Emmanuel Levinas entitled Totality and Infinity, devoted to the Holocaust and to the encounter with the Other.

Sono-sphère 1 – Twilling composer: Elżbieta Sikora performers: Hélène Devilleneuve (oboe), Vincent Laubeuf and Tom Mays (computers), Ensemble Court-Circuit, Jean Deroyer (conductor) comissioned by: Ensemble Court-Circuit première: Auditorium Marcel Landowski, Paris elzbietasikora.com bit.do/culture-sikora This work was commissioned and premièred in honor of the composer’s 70th birthday.

Polska Music Now 2

Calendar of Events 2013/14

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Music on the Heights International Chamber Music Festival curators: Paweł Mykietyn, Maciej Negrey, Jakub Sztencel, Tomasz Sztencel organizer: The Mieczysław Karłowicz Association in Zakopane place: Zakopane

Robert Piotrowicz © Igor Krenz

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Lincoln Sea

en.muzykanaszczytach.com Numerous festival concerts are accompanied by recitals, exhibitions and film showings with live music. All of this takes place in the picturesque interiors of Zakopane, one of the most beautiful cities in the Tatra Mountains.

composer: Robert Piotrowicz publisher: Musica Genera robertpiotrowicz.net musicagenera.net listen: soundcloud.com/rurokura The recordings resemble the sound of an entire orchestra; comparisons with Sonorism are a very frequently-recurring trope in the disc’s reviews. This is all the more perverse in that the only instrument used here was a modular synthesizer.

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7th Karol Szymanowski Composers Competition laureates: Grzegorz Duchnowski (1st Prize for Jéux Varsoviens and 3rd Prize ex aequo for Symphony no. 3), Ignacy Zalewski (2nd Prize for Ballada), Szymon Godziemba-Trytek (3rd Prize ex aequo for Tre Episodi), Kamil Kosecki (Honorable Mention for Illusions) organizer: Polish Society of Authors and Composers ZAiKS place: Warsaw

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Unsound Festival curators: Mat Schulz, Małgorzata Płysa organizer: Foundation Tone – Music and New Art Forms place: Kraków unsound.pl Unsound has branches in New York, Tbilisi and London; the Kraków festival draws an international audience. Various worlds come together here – academic and popular music, noisy avant-garde and dance music. The Festival keyword in 2013 was ‘Interference’; the main rule applying to all listeners was a prohibition on taking pictures. ‘We want to induce the audience to focus on the moment at hand and respect other people’s experiences,’ explained Mat Schulz.

October

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Koryfeusz Polish Music Award 2013 laureates: Piotr Beczała (Personality of the Year), Opening of the European Penderecki Centre for Music in Lusławice (Event of the Year), Jan Ekier (Honorary Award) founder: Institute of Music and Dance place: Warsaw imit.org.pl Jan Ekier, the winner of the honorary award, who celebrated his 100th birthday in 2013, was one of the greatest experts on Fryderyk Chopin’s legacy.

polskamusic.iam.pl

Musica Electronica Nova © Miłosz Wiercioch

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8th Ad Libitum Festival director: Krzysztof Knittel organizer: Polish Music Council Foundation place: Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw ad-libitum.pl bit.do/culture-knittel Ad Libitum is a celebration of improvised music. The organizers attempt to answer the question: ‘What to do in order to resist stylistic conventions and musical fashions, to discover one’s own voice in the world of composition and improvisation?’ This year, the answer was sought by, among others, Piotr Damasiewicz, Maciej Garbowski, Wojciech Błażejczyk, Tadeusz Sudnik and the legendary London Jazz Composers Orchestra.

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5th MUSICA ELECTRONICA NOVA new commissions by: Wojciech Błażejczyk (LoPassHiCut), Sławomir Kupczak (Edges), Krzysztof Knittel (Partita II (Inuit)), Adrian Fołtyn (?@?), Ryszard Osada (For A. B.), Cezary Duchnowski (MuzykaFormPrzestrzennych), Anna Porzyc (we begin. we end), Adam Porębski (Ge(i)ms), sultan hagavik (Tekturon) commissioned by (among others): Institute of Music and Dance as part of the Collections – Commissioned Compositions program curator: Elżbieta Sikora organizer: National Forum of Music place: Wrocław en.musicaelectronicanova.pl listen: bit.do/ninateka-lopasshicut listen: bit.do/ninateka-edges listen: bit.do/ninateka-inuit Krzysztof Penderecki CC

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2013 Beijing Music Festival composer: Krzysztof Penderecki curator: Yu Long organizer: Beijing Music Festival Arts Foundation bmf.org.cn/en/ krzysztofpenderecki.eu/en Celebrations of Penderecki’s birthday took place all over the world – among other places, in Beijing. His works were performed by the China National Symphony Orchestra and violinist Vera Tsu Wei-ling, as well as violinist and violist Julian Rachlin.

Polska Music Now 2

listen: bit.do/ninateka-muzykaformprzestrzennych listen: soundcloud.com/anna-porzyc

We want to introduce electronic music to spheres where this type of music is rarely seen – such as opera, ballet, installations and image actions. — Elżbieta Sikora The festival does not confine itself to music created by academics; one can also hear noise and techno there. One of the festival’s attractions was the Sound Cinema, where a selection of acousmatic pieces was presented; they were heard in a darkened hall, and the sound was played back through high-quality speakers. The Opera Electronica Nova series featured Pierre Jodlowski’s opera-oratorio L’Aire du dire, which examines the issue of the influence of speech and language on music.

Calendar of Events 2013/14

Maciej Jabłoński © Łukasz Zakrzewski

_composition Kwadrofonik Ensemble © Dariusz Senkowski

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Faza N. Rem composer: Agnieszka Stulgińska performers: Kwadrofonik commissioned by: Institute of Music and Dance as part of the Collections – Commissioned Compositions program première: Oskar Kolberg Świętokrzyska Philharmonic in Kielce stulginska.com bit.do/culture-kwadrofonik listen: bit.do/ninateka-fazanrem In our sleep, we do not only see images; we also hear sounds coming both from our surroundings and from our imagination. Stulgińska has decided to transplant sleep to a musical score – making use of brainwave frequencies to change the rhythm, timbre and intensity of the sound.

The Möbius Strip composer: Maciej Jabłoński performers: Kwadrofonik commissioned by: Institute of Music and Dance as part of the Collections – Commissioned Compositions program première: Oskar Kolberg Świętokrzyska Philharmonic in Kielce bit.do/culture-jablonski listen: soundcloud.com/maciej_jablonski_1974 listen: bit.do/ninateka-themobiusstrip The Möbius strip has only one side and edge – turning it right side out is meaningless, because in this topology (discovered by chance), there exists only a uniform space. Turning the Möbius strip, we can reflect on whether the world is as we really perceive it. In Jabłoński’s piece, the composer repeats certain structures; however, he systematically introduces disturbing changes.

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Symphony in G minor composer: Jarosław Siwiński performers: Kwadrofonik commissioned by: Institute of Music and Dance as part of the Collections – Commissioned Compositions program première: Oskar Kolberg Świętokrzyska Philharmonic in Kielce bit.do/culture-siwinski listen: soundcloud.com/jaroslaw-siwinski listen: bit.do/ninateka-siwinski-symphony Siwiński’s piece evokes the sound of American Minimalism’s best times. In its constancy and simultaneous variability, it resembles the music of Steve Reich. The composition develops slowly thanks to the application of techniques involving repetition of the same motifs, as well as mutual superposition of processes of differing duration.

polskamusic.iam.pl

bit.do/fitelberg bit.do/culture-laks bit.do/culture-weinberg The instrumentalists of the ARC Ensemble examine music written as a result of the tragic historical processes which shook the world in the 20th century. Fitelberg, Laks and Weinberg came from Poland, were Jews and (in various places and by various means) survived the Holocaust. The works on the program were written right after World War II.

Wojtek Blecharz © Aaron Mooth

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DFRGMNTD β composer: Wojtek Blecharz performers: Kwadrofonik commissioned by: Institute of Music and Dance as part of the Collections – Commissioned Compositions program première: Oskar Kolberg Świętokrzyska Philharmonic in Kielce bit.do/culture-blecharz listen: soundcloud.com/wojtekblecharz

Ewa Kupiec © LAION

listen: bit.do/ninateka-dfrgmntd DFRGMNTD β talks about memory; and the thing about memory is that it fades – just like the sounds and performers in Blecharz’s composition. At a certain moment, everything begins to evaporate, and the listener is left with the echo of single sounds in his/her ears – there is not even anyone left for whom to applaud.

November

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Poles Apart: Chamber Music from the Garden of Exile composers: Jerzy Fitelberg, Szymon Laks, Mieczysław Weinberg performers: ARC Ensemble of the Royal Conservatory Toronto organizer: Arizona State University place: Zipper Hall in Los Angeles, Katzin Concert Hall, Los Angeles

Polska Music Now 2

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Witold Lutosławski: Complete Works for Piano Solo composer: Witold Lutosławski performer: Ewa Kupiec (piano) publisher: Sony Classical bit.do/culture-lutoslawski ewakupiec.com

Ewa Kupiec offers sharply articulated, colourful performances, with the just the right amount of metal in the tone, and the full-bodied recording quality helps make the disc eminently collectable for the Lutosławski and/or 20th-century piano music specialist. — David Fanning (gramophone.co.uk) The disc was nominated for the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics’ Award).

Calendar of Events 2013/14

Motion Trio © Jacek Poremba

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POLONIUM composers: Witold Lutosławski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Wojciech Kilar, Janusz Wojtarowicz, Jacek Hołubowski, Marta Ptaszyńska performers: Motion Trio, Leszek Możdżer (guest artist) publisher: Parlophone Music Poland (Warner Music Group Company) Andrzej Kwieciński © Jędrzej Sokołowski bit.do/culture-motiontrio Motion Trio has rearranged pieces by bigwigs in Polish 20th-century music for an ensemble of three accordions.

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In listening to their most recent disc, it indeed difficult to believe that one is dealing with just three accordions. For the musical texture is created with orchestral panache, and the material presented is executed at the highest level. — Maria Zimny (Jazzpress)

composers: Andrzej Kwieciński performers: Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra, Wojciech Rodek (conductor), Gośka Isphording (harpsichord) commisioned by: Łódź Philharmonic première: Musica Moderna Festival place: Łódź Philharmonic, Łódź

Concerto. Re maggiore

bit.do/culture-kwiecinski Re maggiore – that is, in D major. Kwieciński has transformed the harpsichord into a highly expressive, though slightly stubborn mechanism resembling an accelerating player piano.

After a certain time, we are having a great deal of fun with it. Humor does not appear in contemporary music very frequently, so it gives the piece additional flavor. — Dorota Szwarcman (Polityka)

polskamusic.iam.pl

Maja Baczyńska © Marek Relich/PRESTO

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Composer-in-Residence Paweł Mykietyn © Jacek Poremba

director: Maja Baczyńska realization: MUDO Music Documentaries producers: Institute of Music and Dance, Polish Musicians’ Association

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Concerto for Flute and Orchestra composer: Paweł Mykietyn performers: Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra, Wojciech Rodek (conductor), Łukasz Długosz (flute) commissioned by: Łódź Philharmonic première: Musica Moderna Festival place: Łódź Philharmonic, Łódź bit.do/culture-mykietyn

watch: bit.do/composer-in-residence Maja Baczyńska’s film documents the process of a Composerin-Residence program; the director has recorded for posterity conversations with composers and the performers who have interpreted their works.

December

listen: bit.do/ninateka-mykietyn-concerto The work sounds like a self-accelerating and self-decelerating mechanism that is somewhat broken. Tension is created by rhythmic changes that break up the work’s uniformity.

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Lutosławski Opera Omnia vol. 4–6 composer: Witold Lutosławski performers: NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra, NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic Choir, Stanisław Skrowaczewski (conductor), Jacek Kaspszyk (conductor), Agata Zubel (soprano), Garrick Ohlsson (piano), Tomasz Daroch (‘cello), Ensemble Court-Circuit, Jean Deroyer (conductor), Lutosławski Piano Duo publisher: CD Accord bit.do/culture-lutoslawski cdaccord.pl

Polska Music Now 2

Calendar of Events 2013/14

Marcel Chyrzyński © Ewelina Chyrzyńska

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Generation ’70 composers: Marcel Chyrzyński, Mikołaj Górecki, Maciej Jabłoński, Paweł Mykietyn, Aleksander Nowak, Sławomir Kupczak, Wojciech Widłak, Maciej Zieliński, Agata Zubel, Wojciech Ziemowit Zych publisher: PWM Edition generation70.pl pwm.com.pl ‘There is one property common to Generation ’70 – that is the freedom to choose one’s artistic path,’ says the entry in the catalog published by PWM Edition which provides a guide to the œuvre and acquaints the reader briefly with the profiles of the most interesting Polish composers born in the 1970s.

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La Follia composer: Krzysztof Penderecki performer: Anne-Sophie Mutter première: Anne-Sophie Mutter birthday concert place: Carnegie Hall, New York bit.do/culture-penderecki-mutter La Follia was a present given by Penderecki to his favorite violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter for her 50th birthday. The composer alludes yet again to the Baroque era – this time, to the chaconne form and to basso ostinato (a bass figure repeated multiple times).

Jagoda Szmytka © Robert Schittko

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Bloody Cherries: Jagoda Szmytka monographic concert composer: Jagoda Szmytka performers: Ensemble Garage place: Deutschlandfunk, Köln jagodaszmytka.com ensemble-garage.de Szmytka has for years been forming her own musical language, which has been departing more and more from traditional forms and moving in the direction of theater and conceptual art – she creates peculiar musical essays. In Köln, we were able to hear her works written in the last four years.

polskamusic.iam.pl

2014 January

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Cracow Duo: Dedications composers: Zbigniew Bujarski, Maciej Jabłoński, Bartosz Chajdecki, Jarosław Płonka, Marcel Chyrzyński, Wojciech Widłak performers: Jan Kalinowski (’cello), Marek Szlezer (piano) publisher: DUX cracowduo.com dux.pl The Dedications album features pieces written by contemporary Kraków composers for this duo.

Esa-Pekka Salonen © Konrad Ćwik/IAM

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Woven Words: Music Begins Where Words End composer: Witold Lutosławski performers: Philharmonia Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor), Krystian Zimerman (piano), Leif Ove Andsnes (piano), Truls Mørk (‘cello), Matthias Goerne (baritone), Jennifer Koh (violin), Hélène Grimaud (piano) curators: Esa-Pekka Salonen, Steven Stucky organizers: Philharmonia Orchestra, Adam Mickiewicz Institute place: Berlin, Dresden, London, Ljubljana, Madrid, Modena, Paris, Roma, Tokyo, Udine, Vienna, Warsaw woven-words.co.uk Music begins where words end – this sentence uttered by Witold Lutosławski became the motto for the Philharmonia Orchestra’s spectacular project under the baton of one of the world’s most important ambassadors for the composer’s œuvre, Esa-Pekka Salonen. The endeavor was comprised of symphonic concerts at the world’s most prestigious concert halls, along with chamber concerts and panel discussions devoted to Lutosławski, which took place between January and September.

Polska Music Now 2

Eugeniusz Rudnik (photo: still from 15 Corners of the World – press materials)

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ERDada for tape composer: Eugeniusz Rudnik publisher: Requiem Records bit.do/culture-rudnik requiem-records.com Eugeniusz Rudnik, a legend of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio, released his debut album at age 82. He began as a radio sound engineer, and shortly thereafter became an independent composer. This man, who for over half a century has been involved in cutting, rewinding and splicing tapes, has never changed his instrument. His debut was created from A to Z in analog conditions. Legend has it that his technical brilliance enchanted Stockhausen himself, with whom Rudnik also had the opportunity to work.

Calendar of Events 2013/14

Rafał Blechacz © Felix Broede/Deutsche Grammophon

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Gilmore Artist Award _CD

Białoszewski do słuchu

laureate: Rafał Blechacz (piano) place: Kalamazoo, Michigan (USA) bit.do/culture-blechacz

composers: Patryk Zakrocki, Marcin Staniszewski, Mikrokolektyw (Kuba Suchar, Artur Majewski) curator: Michał Mendyk publisher: Bôłt Records bit.do/culture-bialoszewski boltrecords.pl

thegilmore.org The Gilmore Award is an unusual prize; its granting is not associated with any competition, and the jury’s deliberations are held in secret. The jurors travel all over the world, listening to pianists’ recitals, and select those that are in their opinion the best. Blechacz received a prize in the amount of 300 000 dollars to be devoted to the support of his further career.

I bought myself a tape recorder for 4000. If you come to Warsaw in May or June, we can have fun recording. It’s a good thing to do. Of interest to everyone. — Miron Białoszewski (1965) He was one of the most interesting Polish poets of the second half of the 20th century, the author of shocking memoirs from the Warsaw Uprising. Miron recorded works by the Polish Romantics, as well as his own prose and poetic works. About 100 hours of material was created, from which the Bôłt label has selected the most interesting fragments.

polskamusic.iam.pl

February

Ignacy Zalewski (photo: courtesy of the artist)

_composition Apollon Musagète Quartett © Marco Borggreve

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Polityka’s Passport laureate: Apollon Musagète Quartett founder: Polityka Magazine

Symphonic Variations composer: Ignacy Zalewski performers: Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra, Marzena Diakun (conductor), Oskar Jezior (piano) commissioned by: Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra as part of the Institute of Music and Dance’s Composer-in-Residence program première: Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of Polish Radio, Warsaw

apollon-musagete.com bit.do/culture-apollon The justification for the verdict read as follows: ‘for consistent and effective building of a strong position in European musical life, always including Polish music in their repertoire, as well as for their brilliant album Multitude’. The quartet was founded in 2006 by four Polish musicians: violinists Paweł Zalejski and Bartosz Zachłód, violist Piotr Szumieł and ’cellist Piotr Skweres. The artists are the winners of, among other awards, 1st Prize at the ARD Competition in Munich.

bit.do/wsm-zalewski listen: soundcloud.com/ignacyzalewski Zalewski has made use of the well-known symphonic variation form, but – not wanting to bore the listener with its traditional version – he has decided to give the work emotional expression and a lively narrative.

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Chain XI Festival composers: Witold Lutosławski, Andrzej Panufnik, Wojciech Kilar, Zbigniew Bargielski organizer: Witold Lutosławski Society place: Warsaw lutoslawski.org.pl Chain is a Lutosławski festival, and its 11th edition represented a fluid transition from the 100th birthday of Lutos to the 100th birthday of his friend Andrzej Panufnik. Among other works, Variations on a Theme by Paganini – a work from the times when Lutosławski and Panufnik performed together in the cafés of occupied Warsaw – was performed. The event was accompanied by the Little Chain mini-festival for children.

Polska Music Now 2

International Inauguration of the Panufnik Centenary composer: Andrzej Panufnik performers: London Symphony Orchestra, Michael Francis (conductor), Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin) organizers: London Symphony Orchestra, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Boosey & Hawkes, Panufnik family place: Barbican Centre, London bit.do/inauguration-panufnik bit.do/culture-panufnik Two completely different works were heard: the spiritual Sinfonia Sacra, beginning with the playing of four trumpets placed at the corners of the stage, and Lullaby for 29 string instruments which play at different tempi.

Andrzej Panufnik is a composer well worth getting to know better, and 2014 is shaping up to be the ideal year to do so. — Gavin Dixon (orpheuscomplex.blogspot.com)

Calendar of Events 2013/14

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Sinfonia ‘Luci nella notte IV’ composer: Andrzej Kwieciński performers: Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra, Maciej Koczur (conductor), Gośka Isphording (harpsichord) comissioned by: Artur Rubinstein Philharmonic in Lódź as part of the Institute of Music and Dance’s Composer-inResidence program première: Łódź Philharmonic, Łodź bit.do/culture-kwiecinski goskaisphording.com This is yet another work in which Kwieciński returns and reinterprets classic forms of musical expression. This is a sinfonia – in the Baroque, this was the name given to introductions, which sometimes lasted even over 10 minutes.

I even think about this [work – ed.] as a sort of passacaglia: the concept is the same, the whole work is based on a repeated motif – only in the case of the Sinfonia, what is repeated are not individual notes, but musical gestures. — Andrzej Kwieciński Tomasz J. Opałka (photo: courtesy of the artist)

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Entrada Concertante composer: Tomasz J. Opałka performers: Kielce Philharmonic Orchestra, Krzysztof Jakub Kozakiewicz (conductor) commissioned by: Oskar Kolberg Świętokrzyska Philharmonic in Kielce as part of the Institute of Music and Dance’s Composer-in-Residence program place: Oskar Kolberg Świętokrzyska Philharmonic in Kielce tomaszjakubopalka.com bit.do/culture-opalka listen: soundcloud.com/tomaszopalka Entrada Concertante – as the name itself indicates – is a sort of concertante overture. It is a contemporary interpretation of what we call a fanfare. The work has a tripartite structure; the phases follow upon each other attacca (from the Italian ‘attack’), thanks to which the composition’s narrative cycle is not disturbed.

March

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Generations XVII series new commissions by: Aleksander Nowak (Chicks and Robot for accordion and orchestra), Tadeusz Wielecki (Reading for orchestra), Paweł Sydor (Double Concerto for violin and ’cello) organizers: Polish Composers’ Union, Polish Society of Authors and Composers ZAiKS, Polish Radio Program 2 performers: Maciej Frąckiewicz (accordion), Dorota Imiełowska (’cello), Tomasz Tomaszewski (violin), Szymon Bywalec (conductor), Polish Radio Orchestra commissioned by: Institute of Music and Dance as part of the Collections – Commissioned Compositions program place: Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of Polish Radio, Warsaw aleknowak.com bit.do/culture-wielecki

polskamusic.iam.pl

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Lamentations composer: Paweł Łukaszewski performers: Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Michael Zaugg (conductor) place: Trinity Wall Street, New York lukaszewski.org.uk bit.do/lukaszewski Wojciech Błażejczyk © Paul Preusser

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Łukaszewski dedicated his Lamentations to the victims of the World Trade Center attack on its 10th anniversary. The work was commissioned by the Wratislavia Cantans festival.

43rd Poznań Spring Music Festival new commission by (among others): Wojciech Błażejczyk (Trash Music) commissioned by (among others): Institute of Music and Dance as part of the Collections – Commissioned Compositions program curator: Artur Kroschel organizers: Polish Composers’ Union. Poznań Branch, More Than One Production place: Castle Cultural Center, Poznań wiosnamuzyczna.pl bit.do/kroschel Standing out among the works commissioned by the festival is Wojciech Błażejczyk’s Trash Music, a work for live electronics, voice and ’objectophones’ – so, an egg chopper, a fragment of a gas stove, a clothes dryer etc.

Dariusz Przybylski © Mateusz Żaboklicki

April

Passio et Mors Domini Nostri Iesu Christi Secundum Ioannem

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Krzysztof Penderecki Works composer: Krzysztof Penderecki performers: Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Choir, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Antoni Wit (conductor), Olga Pasichnyk (soprano), Rafał Bartmiński (tenor), Tomasz Konieczny (bass-baritone) publisher: Naxos krzysztofpenderecki.eu bit.do/culture-penderecki

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Polska Music Now 2

composer: Dariusz Przybylski performers: Solistenensemble Phønix, Timo Kreuser (conductor) publisher: DUX dariuszprzybylski.eu bit.do/culture-przybylski dux.pl This multilingual Passion (Latin-Polish-German) Passion ) was edited by the composer himself. A monumental work, it is at times very lofty and dramatic, though it also contains moments of focus and contemplation.

Calendar of Events 2013/14

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2014 Polonica Nova Award laureate: Agata Zubel (composer) organizers: City of Wrocław, Polish Radio Program 2 place: Wrocław zubel.pl Szymon Bywalec © IAM

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MUSICA POLONICA NOVA new commissions by: Agnieszka Stulgińska (Conversionis for voice, percussion and piano), Dobromiła Jaskot (Slejpnir for male voice, piano, percussion objects and amplification), Karol Nepelski (Logical Shift for voice, percussion and piano), Adrian Fołtyn (ReDim Q-Int for piano quintet and electronic sounds), Ewa Podgórska (Pressante for eight performers), Barbara Buczek (Primus inter pares for horn and six instruments), Adam Porębski (Flow 3 for electric guitar, bass clarinet and electronics), Arkadiusz Kątny (Disappearing Whispers for electric guitar and electronics), Katarzyna Dziewiątkowska-Mleczko (Just 4 four for electric guitar and amplified clarinet), Jacek Sotomski (beautiful to me. Ah for accordion, computers and strings), Dominik Lewicki (DIApreL for string orchestra and electronics), Marcin Rupociński (Horao for strings), Paweł Hendrich (Acanthus for accordion and electronics), Sławomir Kupczak (Third Decimal Place for clarinet, violin, ’cello, piano and percussion), Mikołaj Laskowski (The Tiger Left Me Unsatisfied for violin, clarinet, percussion, piano and Hammond organ), Dariusz Przybylski (Abrenuntio for violin, clarinet, percussion, piano and Hammond organ), Mateusz Ryczek (28 Days of Moon for violin, clarinet, percussion, piano and Hammond organ), Aleksander Kościów (Steam Punk Gear for percussion and Hammond organ) and Adam Porębski (ReVerse 4 for violin, clarinet, ’cello and piano) commissioned by (among others): Institute of Music and Dance as part of the Collections – Commissioned Compositions program, City of Wrocław, Polish Society of Contemporary Music curator: Szymon Bywalec organizer: National Forum of Music place: Wrocław musicapolonicanova.pl bit.do/bywalec

bit.do/culture-zubel NOT I, a work based on a monologue by Samuel Beckett, received the Polonica Nova 1st Prize, awarded by the Musica Polonica Nova Festival. This is yet another award won by this piece – previously, it was chosen as a ‘selected work’ at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers.

All resources associated with the vocal sound, instrumental ensemble and electronic layer are subordinated here to the telling of the dramatic story from Samuel Beckett’s monologue. — Bartek Chaciński (Polityka)

Henryk Mikołaj Górecki © Jan Bebel

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Symphony no. 4 composer: Henryk Mikołaj Górecki performers: London Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrey Boreyko (conductor) commissioned by: London Philharmonic Orchestra and Southbank Centre London première: Southbank Centre, London bit.do/gorecki-symphony bit.do/culture-gorecki This was the posthumous world première of a Symphony by one of the most important 20th-century composers. The subtitle reads: ‘Tansman Episodes’. Adrian Thomas observes that Górecki does not cite Tansman’s music directly – he just alludes to it. The world première of Górecki’s last Symphony took place thanks to support from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

Symphony no. 4 is an ambitious, hypnotic work, and, rather movingly, it acts as a meditation by Górecki on the many styles he adopted and developed during a long and successful career. — Ben Lawrence (The Telegraph)

polskamusic.iam.pl

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Ego sum pastor bonus

Project P: Victory over the Sun

composer: Paweł Łukaszewski performers: Ealing Abbey Choir, Christopher Eastwood (conductor) commissioned by: Ealing Abbey Choir première: Kraków

composer: Sławomir Wojciechowski libretto: Marcin Cecko stage director: Krzysztof Garbaczewski conductor: Marta Kluczyńska commissioned by: Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera première: Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, Warsaw

lukaszewski.org.pl slawomirwojciechowski.blogspot.com

ealingabbeychoir.org.uk

bit.do/culture-wojciechowski This work was written as a tribute to John Paul II, who was canonized on 27 April 2014.

watch: bit.do/project-p-territories

Projekt P © Adam Żebrowski

The title was taken from an opera which today numbers among the classics of the art, but previously was one of the most perverse of musical works. We are speaking here of Mikhail Matyushin’s Futurist show from 1913, the costumes for which were prepared by Kazimierz Malewicz. It was during his work on Victory… that the avant-garde prophet was to happen for the first time upon the train of thought that led him to create Black Square on White Background.

May

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61st International Rostrum of Composers Awards _opera

Project P: Solarize composer: Marcin Stańczyk libretto: Andrzej Szpindler stage director: Krzysztof Garbaczewski conductor: Marta Kluczyńska commissioned by: Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera première: Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, Warsaw marcinstanczyk.com listen: soundcloud.com/marcinstanczyk

laureate: Andrzej Kwieciński (Best Work by a Young Composer for Canzon de baci, Recommendation in the General Category, Commission of New Composition from the International Music Council and Radio France) founder: International Rostrum of Composers co-organizer: Finnish Broadcasting Company place: Helsinki imc-cim.org bit.do/culture-kwiecinski-rostrum Andrzej Kwieciński uses elements of the Baroque and of Spectralism in his music.

watch: bit.do/project-p-territories The protagonist of Stańczyk’s opera is DJ Solarize, i.e. Leon Botha, a visual and sound artist who died in 2011. He attained fame thanks to his DJ displays on YouTube and his participation in the video clip Die Antwoord, as well as the very rare illness progeria, in which the body ages exceptionally fast.

My intention is to create music that inherits Modernist avantgarde idioms built on a repertoire of gestures performing analogous functions to the musical gestures of the Baroque era. My music is meant to be Baroque, not an imitation thereof. The basis of this work is one of the most popular Baroque forms – the ciaccona. — Andrzej Kwieciński

He was a man and an artist who tried to be free in what he did, regardless of the limitations to which everyone is subject. — Marcin Stańczyk

Polska Music Now 2

Calendar of Events 2013/14

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28th Warsaw Music Encounters

Magdalena Lisak © Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina

new commissions by: Marcin Błażewicz (Kali-Yuga for percussion solo, male voice and 28 instruments), Władysław Słowiński (Charon’s Small Boat – 5 songs to poems by Tadeusz Różewicz), Tomasz Jakub Opałka (Symphony no. 2 – Emerge), Adam Sławiński (Music for Strings), Maciej Małecki (3 Songs to Poems by Jan Kochanowski), Krzesimir Dębski (Altruitki, Rajzefiberki and Others for mixed choir a cappella to poems by Wisława Szymborska), Zbigniew Penherski (Four Pieces Without Words for mixed choir a cappella), Alicja Gronau (The Struggle Between Winter and Summer for mixed choir), Anna Ignatowicz-Glińska (Skotopaska 1: Małmazja Shines for mixed choir a cappella), Benedykt Konowalski (Pianist Fikus – humorousballade for mixed choir a cappella), Jan Oleszkowicz (The Beyond for mixed choir a cappella), Maria Pokrzywińska (Cztery figliki for choir a cappella to poems by Mikołaj Rej), The Mud Cavaliers (Trees, Birds, Gardens – Cavaliers in Eden. Songs of Innocence and of Experience) commissioned by (among others): Institute of Music and Dance as part of the Collections – Commissioned Compositions program, Polish Composers’ Union organizer: Polish Composers’ Union, Warsaw Branch place: Warsaw

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Kisielewski: Works for Piano composer: Stefan Kisielewski performer: Magdalena Lisak (piano) publisher: EMI Music Poland (currently: Warner Music Group)

wsm.art.pl Warsaw Music Encounters link the world of early music with the most recent œuvre. Over a dozen pieces based on poems by Polish poets have been written on commission from the festival.

bit.do/kisielewski bit.do/lisak warnermusic.pl

For his entire lifetime, Kisielewski was faithful to one stylistic language – Neoclassicism, with respect for Bach and Baroque style, with a predilection for angular rhythms and motoric drive, with tongue in cheek, as far removed as possible from any kind of pomposity. — Dorota Szwarcman (Polityka)

He is not averse to Baroque allusions, folklore stylizations, even art song, though what definitely remains closest to his heart is ‘pianistic hacking’. But then again, it’s quite some ‘hacking’… — Jacek Hawryluk (Gazeta Wyborcza)

polskamusic.iam.pl

June Moby Dick © Adam Żebrowski

Jerzy Kornowicz © Małgorzata Kosińska

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6th Festival of Traditional and Avantgarde Music ‘CODES’ new commission by: Lidia Zielińska (Missing Link) curators: Jerzy Kornowicz, Jan Bernad organizer: Crossroads Centre For Intercultural Creative Initiatives place: Lublin bit.do/zielinska codes-festival.com CODES is a festival at which the world of traditional music (dance music with local ensemble Czarne Lwy (Black Lions) or lectures on Nō theater) exists alongside the Western avant-garde (Kronos Quartet, Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth). Sometimes, however, they meet together. This is what has happened in Missing Link, a sound show by Zielińska in which, alongside live electronics and amplified viola, we hear traditional song and the hurdy-gurdy typical of the Ukrainian bards. The show speaks of a peculiar type of silence – the silence that follows after a horrible catastrophe.

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Moby Dick composer: Eugeniusz Knapik director: Barbara Wysocka libretto: Krzysztof Koehler conductor: Gabriel Chmura organizer: Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera place: Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, Warsaw bit.do/culture-knapik bit.do/moby-dick

This is a tale about humanity’s relationship with God. […] We are dealing here with a psychological attempt to examine what suffering is, what triggers it, how easily it morphs into hatred and a desire for revenge. — Eugeniusz Knapik In the musical plane, there are many references to the past here: Szymanowski, Wagner, Górecki. We also hear Wacław z Szamotuł’s prayer Już się zmierzcha [Sun Is Setting] – the same one utilized many years earlier by H. M. Górecki, Knapik’s teacher.

Polska Music Now 2

Calendar of Events 2013/14

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55 Baird Competition for Young Composers th

laureates: Paweł Kwapiński (Grand Prix ex-aequo for Acoustic Spaces), Tomasz Szczepanik (Grand Prix ex-aequo for Gangkhar II), Marek Grucka (Honorable Mention) organizer: Polish Composers’ Union zkp.org.pl

The concert of Barbara Kinga Majewska and the Kwadrofonik ensemble was not an ordinary concert of premières, but a two-hour show with precisely thought-out dramaturgy, witty and light, full of distance and a lack of pretension – thanks, likewise, to the discreet but truly spot-on staging by Yulka Wilam. A very original event, aesthetically coherent, musically valuable and – especially important – authentic, i.e. originating as a ‘grass-roots’ initiative from artists themselves, without the participation of institutions or curators in the process of creating the concert concept. — Monika Pasiecznik

Instalakcje 3 © Filip Zagórski

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Fall and Musical Land composer: Dariusz Przybylski direction: Margo Zalite, Felix Seiler conductor: Martin Nagashima-Toft commissioned by: Deutsche Oper Berlin place: Deutsche Oper Berlin dariuszprzybylski.eu bit.do/culture-przybylski

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These operas were presented in the LoveAffairs series. The main motif of Fall is chance, which also has its effect on the musical plane – the work is inspired by aleatorism. Its plot tells of two queens who fight for the attentions of a children’s choir. Musical Land tells of the love drama of musical divas (Evita, Maria and Annie); Arnold Schoenberg even appears in the background.

Installactions. Music Festival new commissions by: Aleksandra Gryka (W.ALTER’s (Z.)) for voice, two percussionists and two pianists), Andrzej Kwieciński (non si puo fuggire), Sławomir Wojciechowski (Machina zawiła), Wojtek Blecharz (September (The Next Reading)) performers: Barbara Kinga Majewska (soprano), Kwadrofonik, Robert Migas (sound design), Yulka Wilam (stage director) curators: Wojtek Blecharz, Paweł Mykietyn organizer: Nowy Theater, Warsaw place: Nowy Theater, Warsaw

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Orphées d’Or 2014 laureate: CD Łukaszewski: Missa de Maria a Magdala composer: Paweł Łukaszewski publisher: DUX founder: Académie du Disque Lyrique (France) place: Paris lukaszewski.org.uk

bit.do/instalakcje-3 bit.do/culture-blecharz bit.do/culture-mykietyn

The works that we will be able to hear at Installactions are a kind of documentation, a vivisection of corporeality. We want the audience to be physically involved, to move around. I don’t like the sterile approach to music performance and listening in which the philharmonic hall is a sort of temple where one cannot even take a deep breath. — Wojtek Blecharz

dux.pl This disc with the composition Missa di Maria a Magdala has already won the ‘Choc de Classica’ of France’s Classica magazine, as well as a 2014 Fryderyk nomination. Łukaszewski composed this work in 2010 on commission from conductor Marco Castellini of Bremgarten.

polskamusic.iam.pl

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Monotype Fest composers/performers: Emiter, Komora A, Mirt + TER, Jacek Sienkiewicz, T’ien Lai curator: Jakub Mikołajczyk organizers: 4.99 Foundation (Bôłt Records), Centre For Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Monotype Records place: Centre for Contemporary Art Laboratory, Warsaw monotyperecords.com boltrecords.pl A festival run by the Monotype Records label, this is an expanded form of the concert showcase that takes place regularly at the Centre for Contemporary Art concert hall. The Monotype Fest hosts not only representatives of Mikołajczyk’s label, but also artists esteemed by him who are not associated with the label.

Jacaszek © Kasper Glanz

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SURVIVAL. Art Review organizer: ART TRANSPARENT Foundation curators: Michał Bieniek, Anna Kołodziejczyk, Daniel Brożek, Bartek Lis, Magdalena Popławska, Magdalena Zięba, Szymon Kobylarz, Antoni Burzyński place: Wrocław bit.do/survival The 12th edition of the SURVIVAL Art Review was guided by the watchword ‘City – Inflammation’, which directed the curators’ and artists’ attention to problems associated with illness and healing. The exhibitions and performances (a total of 70 artistic actions of various kinds) were accompanied by a Sound Stage (installations, concerts, DJ sets and a field recording library) which posed questions concerning the mechanisms of sound’s behavior in space – their intensity and relationships with their surroundings.

Kwartludium © Szymon Brzóska

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Jacaszek & Kwartludium Catalogue des Arbres composer: Michał Jacaszek performers: Kwartludium publisher: Touch Music jacaszek.com kwartludium.com Michał Jacaszek and Kwartludium’s project was presented for the first time at Kraków’s Unsound festival in 2013; it was inspired by a love for nature and for the œuvre of Olivier Messiaen.

Jacaszek [...] gains superb collaborators in the form of the Kwartludium group, who are open and flexible, just as the idea itself demands; they are able to move along the line from subtle Sonorist sound language, to the amazing sounds of harmonics, to the wild regions of contemporary improvised music, but without distracting one from the big picture of the sound – there is no place here for showing off. — Bartek Chaciński (Polityka)

Polska Music Now 2

Calendar of Events 2013/14

_CD

Krzysztof Penderecki: Chamber Works vol. 1 composer: Krzysztof Penderecki performers: Maria Machowska (violin), Artur Rozmysłowicz (viola), Jan Kalinowski (’cello), Roman Widaszek (clarinet), Tadeusz Tomaszewski (French horn), Marek Szlezer (piano) publisher: DUX bit.do/culture-penderecki dux.pl Chamber pieces are not the most frequently-performed of Penderecki’s works. The pieces on the disc represent a crosssection of Penderecki’s entire œuvre: the oldest was premièred in 1960 (Three Miniatures for clarinet and piano); the newest was written by Penderecki in 2012 (Capriccio per Radovan for French horn solo). It shows the change and development of the composer’s style: from experiments with unusual performance techniques to classic forms seeking out beautiful harmonies.

July

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Electronic Music of Łukasz Pieprzyk composer: Łukasz Pieprzyk perfomer: Łukasz Pieprzyk (electronics) organizer: Karol Szymanowski Music Society place: Hasior Galery, Zakopane bit.do/ninateka-pieprzyk-ignition szymanowski.zakopane.pl

polskamusic.iam.pl

Varia 2013–2014

ANNIVERSARIES

FA R E W E L L

2013

Zbigniew Karkowski 1958–2013 bit.do/karkowski

Witold Lutosławski — 100th anniversary of birth

Jan Ekier 1913–2014

Henryk Mikołaj Górecki

bit.do/culture-ekier

— 80th anniversary of birth

Krzysztof Penderecki — 80th birthday

Włodzimierz Kotoński 1925–2014 bit.do/culture-kotonski

Elżbieta Sikora — 70th birthday

2014 Andrzej Panufnik – 100th anniversary of birth

Bogusław Schaeffer – 85th birthday

Polska Music Now 2

Włodzimierz Kotoński © Anna Dorota Władyczka

Calendar of Events 2013/14

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BOCIAN RECORDS founder: Grzegorz Tyszkiewicz bocianrecords.com Bocian Records’ activity centers around noise and free improvisation. Bocian’s discography is dominated by carefully-produced 12-inch limited-edition vinyl discs, though we will also find compact discs there. Particularly associated with Tyszkiewicz’s label are: Paal Nilssen-Love, Mats Gustafsson and Kevin Drumm. Bocian also releases Polish artists: Robert Piotrowicz, Wojciech Bąkowski, Wolfram, Majk Majkowski and the Kapital group led by Kuba Ziołek.

threecomposers.pl baird.polmic.pl panufnik.polmic.pl panufnik.com composers: Tadeusz Baird, Witold Lutosławski, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Krzysztof Penderecki, Andrzej Panufnik publishers: National Audiovisual Institute, Polish Music Information Centre, Polish Composers’ Union, Institute of Music and Dance

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MONOTYPE RECORDS founder: Jakub Mikołajczyk monotyperecords.com This label focuses on experimental music in all of its variants. Among the artists it releases are such personalities as: Zbigniew Karkowski († 2013, creator of noise who lived for many years in Japan), Eugene S. Robinson (leader of cult group Oxbow), Lydia Lunch (member of New York’s no-wave) and Lionel Marchetti (one of the most prolific creators of musique concrète). Recently Monotype has been opening up to club music; their label has released three interesting discs by Polish artists: fast techno by Wojtek Kucharczyk, raw house by Jakub Pokorski, and the We Will Fail project, which searches for interesting sound solutions.

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#ENSEMBLE hashtag-ensemble.com The ensemble was formed as the result of combining several smaller chamber ensembles performing new music. It has to its credit 72 world premières of Polish works, on which it focuses its attention. The musicians say that their initiative has the character of a ‘cooperative’; collaborating on a regular basis with the ensemble are an array of young composers: Dariusz Przybylski, Wojciech Błażejczyk, Ignacy Zalewski.

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Glissando Magazine (nos. 23–26) editors: Dariusz Brzostek, Michał Libera, Antoni Michnik, Krzysztof B. Marciniak publisher: 4.99 Foundation bit.do/glissando Glissando – that is, the only periodical devoted in its entirety to subject matter revolving around contemporary music – is available for the first time (partially) in English. The theme of no. 23 issue is the cassette tape – a musical instrument, part of DIY mythology, a tool to aid in fighting with the regime, or an element of pop-cultural nostalgia. A special addition to the magazine is the cassette anthology The Sounds of Deep Poland.

polskamusic.iam.pl

The Polska Music program, launched in 2011 by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, actively supports performances of Polish classical music by renowned international artists worldwide, aiming to increase its popularity across the globe. Along with initiating international stage productions and concerts, commissioning new work, and nurturing contemporary composers, Polska Music also promotes recordings, books and events. Polska Music has collaborated with a host of high-profile partners around the world, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, English National Opera, Royal Opera, Berliner Festspiele, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Lincoln Center, Salle Pleyel, Deutsche Grammophon and Sony Classical, to name but a few.

Further details on Polska Music program at

polskamusic.iam.pl

Culture.pl provides daily fresh information on the most exciting Polish cultural events worldwide. It is the biggest and most comprehensive source of knowledge about Polish culture – apart from event listings for Poland and beyond, it boasts a wealth of artist bios, reviews, essays, synopses and profiles of cultural institutions. For over a decade now, the culture.pl website has been operated by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute – a national cultural institution aiming to strengthen Polish cultural impact and to benefit international cultural exchange. Pursuing its mission, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute has been instrumental in presenting Polish culture around the world at leading galleries, theatres, clubs and festivals in cooperation with key partners: Brussels (Bozar, La Monnaie), Edinburgh (Edinburgh International Festival), London (Southbank Centre, Barbican Centre, National Theatre, Whitechapel Gallery, London Design Festival), Berlin (Martin Gropius Bau), Madrid (Teatro Real), Moscow (The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Golden Mask Festival) New York City (Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center) and many more. The 4 000 projects carried out by the Institute so far include major cultural events in various countries, for example the Polish Year in Israel, POLSKA! YEAR in the UK, the International Cultural Programme of the Polish EU Presidency and Centenary of Witold Lutosławski 2013. Moreover, the Institute has launched several exciting ongoing projects: a programme promoting Polish design worldwide, the East European Performing Arts Platform, the I, CULTURE Orchestra, Polska Music and Project Asia to name but a few.

More information about Polish culture worldwide at

culture.pl

De musica Silesiae.

The Phenomenon of the Wrocław School of Composition

By Anna Granat-Janki

Wrocław’s musical environment in 1945-2000 included a large group of composers2. Some of them permanently resided and worked in that city, while others left it after completing their music studies. For this reason, it is not easy to formulate the criteria that would define the milieu of Wrocław composers. In my study I took into account such elements as the composer’s regular activity in Wrocław, in most cases related to the fact of living in that city, as well as having one’s works performed there. Another criterion was the membership of the Polish Composers’ Union’s (ZKP) Wrocław Branch or the respective regional branches of the Polish Association of Writers and Composers for the Stage (ZAiKS) and the Association of Polish Artists-Musicians (SPAM). These basic criteria were fulfilled in the period in question by such artists as: Rafał Augustyn, Marcin Bortnowski, Ryszard Bukowski, Cezary Duchnowski, Piotr Drożdżewski, Mirosław Gąsieniec, Zygmunt Herembeszta, Zbigniew Karnecki, Ryszard M. Klisowski, Tadeusz Natanson, Ewa Podgórska, Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil, Radomir Reszke, Jadwiga Szajna-Lewandowska, Janina Skowrońska, Jan A. Wichrowski, and Leszek Wisłocki. However, Wrocław’s music environment has also included other figures who ought to be considered as Wrocław composers despite the fact that some of the above listed criteria do not apply to them. One of these is Lucjan Laprus, a conductor by education and a composer, whose extensive choral oeuvre has frequently been published, awarded in competitions, and continues to be performed. In this group we should also discuss the works of Krystian Kiełb, Tomasz Kulikowski, Robert Kurdybacha, as well as Andrzej Tuchowski, a Wrocław Academy graduate, who lives in Zielona Góra, but teaches at his alma mater in Wrocław, belongs to the PCU’s Wrocław branch and has had many of his 1 This article is based on my book Twórczość kompozytorów wrocławskich w latach 1945-2000 [The Music of Wrocław Composers 1945-2000], published by the Academy of Music in Wrocław, 2003. 2 My study does not cover film, jazz, rock and other forms of popular music.

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works performed in the Lower Silesian capital. Within the milieu of Wrocław composers, we can distinguish four generations. Composers can be ascribed to a particular generation on the basis of peer friendships, the instinctive bond resulting from the shared experience of historical time3, and the community of ideas. Another important factor is the date of the composer’s debut, which means that composers born at different times may be classified as belonging to the same generation. After World War II, there were two generations active in Wrocław’s musical world. The first one included Kazimierz Wiłkomirski and Ryszard Bukowski, both of whom obtained their diplomas in composition from Warsaw Conservatory before the war (respectively in 1923 and 1939). They both made their debuts between the two world wars, but whereas the former had pursued a career as a composer before World War II, the latter began composing on a larger scale only after 1949. Kazimierz Wiłkomirski, educated in the tradition of the Russian school, in which his professor of composition, Roman Statkowski, was steeped, remained under the influence of the post-Romantic style, though he also took advantage of the neo-Classical developments in music. Ryszard Bukowski followed the neoRomantic and neo-Classical models promoted by his composition tutor, Kazimierz Sikorski. In Bukowski’s early compositions (e.g. Prelude, Chorale, Fugue), a neo-Romantic harmonic language is combined with neo-Classical form. After the war, his style was dominated by neoClassicism. The second generation of composers active in the first postwar decade consisted of: Stanisław Michalek, Tadeusz Natanson, Radomir Reszke, Jadwiga Szajna-Lewandowska, Janina Skowrońska, and Leszek Wisłocki. What all these artists had in common (despite the differences in age – they were born between 1912 and 1931) was the time and place of graduation (from Wrocław’s 3 Kazimierz Wyka, Pokolenia literackie [The Literary Generations], Cracow 1977, p. 59.

State Higher School of Music in the mid-1950s) and a similar date of debut. The composers of this second generation were students of Piotr Perkowski, Stefan B. Poradowski and Tadeusz Szeligowski and received similar artistic models during their course of studies. Their shared artistic views were also undoubtedly influenced by the political atmosphere of the time4. Their works mostly belonged to the neo-Classical style. After 1956, in the period dominated by the socalled Great Avant-garde, the composers of the second generation no longer formed such a unified and cohesive group. First of all, not all of them redefined their technique. Only two composers – Tadeusz Natanson and Radomir Reszke – declared themselves in favour of the avant-garde. The second generation was joined in that period by artists born in 1933–1935: Jerzy Filc, Zygmunt Herembeszta and Lucjan Laprus, all of whom graduated from music academies in the late 1950s, but in disciplines other than composition (teaching, piano), and later took up composition studies. Only Lucjan Laprus remained an autodidact as a composer. Of the latter three artists, Jerzy Filc and Lucjan Laprus composed in retrospective styles and drew on the avant-garde only to a limited extent, whereas Zygmunt Herembeszta took advantage of the latest composition techniques. The third generation of composers, which appeared in 1956-1975, initiated the move away from the avant-garde and the process of a great synthesis of tradition and modernity. The composers of this generation – such as Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil, Zbigniew Karnecki, Piotr Drożdżewski, Rafał Augustyn - were born, for the most part, already after World War II. Because of a similar date of debut (the late 1960s or early 1970s) and similar artistic interests, we should also include in this generation two slightly older composers: Ryszard Klisowski (b. 1937) and Jan Antoni Wichrowski (b. 1942). Some younger artists, born in 1954-1957, belong to the third generation as well. These are: Mirosław Gąsieniec, Andrzej Tuchowski, Ewa Podgórska, and Tomasz Kulikowski – composers who made their debuts at the festivals in Stalowa Wola (Gąsieniec, Podgórska) or absorbed the ideals of the Stalowa Wola generation5 during their 4 The period of socialist realism. After World War II, communists seized power in Poland and imposed their worldview on the Polish society, interfering in every area of life, including arts [editor’s note]. 5 The Festival “Young Musicians to the Young City” in Stalowa Wola was held in 1975-80. It became a venue for the debuts of composers born in the 1950s and associated with that city. The Festival has frequently been related to the Polish “New Romanticism” [editor’s note].

education (Tuchowski), even though these ideals did not always find a reflection in their own music (Kulikowski). The fourth and youngest generation was born in the 1970s and began its artistic life in the early 1990s. The music of these youngest composers – Cezary Duchnowski, Krystian Kiełb, Robert Kurdybacha, Marcin Bortnowski, Agata Zubel, Sławomir Kupczak, and Paweł Hendrich – demonstrates the influence of heterogeneous stylistic trends and aesthetic concepts, and reflects tendencies typical of the end of the century. On the one hand, their works draw on the broadly conceived music of the past; on the other, they look forward to the future, toward the 21st century. Every researcher that sets out to discuss and assess the achievements of Wrocław composers must take into account the situation in Wrocław after its incorporation into Poland in 1945. Unlike Greater Poland, Silesia or Cracow, Wrocław had no deep-rooted Polish musical traditions6. Wrocław’s music environment was being rebuilt from scratch, with no Polish roots to fall back on. Artists faced the uneasy task of creating Polish musical culture in that city. The first Polish composers to have arrived in Wrocław were Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Kazimierz Wiłkomirski, and Ryszard Bukowski. The key event for the formation of the city’s composers milieu was the opening of a Section of Composition in Wrocław’s State Higher School of Music in 1952. Its staff consisted of: Prof. Piotr Perkowski from Cracow and Prof. Stefan Bolesław Poradowski from Poznań. These two played a decisive role in the education of Wrocław’s composers. Especially significant was the influence of S. B. Poradowski – the only professor of composition at Wrocław’s State Higher School of Music in 1954-1967. After his death, the subject was taught by Tadeusz Natanson and Ryszard Bukowski, then from 1975 by Leszek Wisłocki and Zygmunt Herembeszta, all of whom were Poradowski’s pupils. Thanks to his work, Wrocław’s State Higher School of Music had educated its own professors of composition. The early 1970s saw the appearance of such young talented graduates as Grażyna PstrokońskaNawratil, Zbigniew Karnecki, Ryszard Klisowski, and Jan A. Wichrowski. Some of them continued their education abroad, in such centres as Paris 6 From the 18th century onward, parts of present-day Western (including Wrocław) and Northern Poland belonged to Austria and Prussia, then – to Germany. At the Potsdam Conference after the end of World War II it was decided that these territories would be handed over to Poland [editor’s note].

or Vienna, and their music has been presented to the international audiences, also at the “Warsaw Autumn” International Festival of Contemporary Music. In the late 1970s they were joined by Piotr Drożdżewski and Rafał Augustyn, and from that moment on the milieu began to develop more dynamically, systematically building its reputation. Despite the difficult circumstances in which the Wrocław composers milieu came into being, its members have always been open to new trends and directions in music. All the tendencies present in Polish music in the 2nd half of the 20th century were creatively continued and developed in that circle. Considering the many transformations in Polish music after 1945, I will now attempt to answer the following questions: What does Polish music owe to Wrocław composers? And what was their contribution to Polish music in the 2nd half of the 20th century? The dominant style of the first postwar decade was neo-Classicism, which left its mark on the works of virtually all the composers of that time. While accepting the basic premises of this neostyle, the composers also creatively developed its concepts, both with regard to musical form and technique. The music of Ryszard Bukowski was characterised by a fondness for polyphony and strict polyphonic forms (the fugue). He combined Baroque with Classicist influences and with folk music stylisations; his idiom included elements of parody and the grotesque. The latter elements can also be found in the compositions of Jadwiga Szajna-Lewandowska, whose neoClassicism was light, graceful, refined, and full of humour. Stanisław Wisłocki, in his turn, enriched classical genres with elements of Polish highlander folklore. In its early years, the Wrocław composers milieu cherished the ideas of Karol Szymanowski. The composer’s artistic testament – his Symphony No. 4 – became an inspiration for both Kazimierz Wiłkomirski and Tadeusz Natanson. The influence of normative aesthetics can best be traced in the cantatas of K. Wiłkomirski and in choral “mass songs”, written mainly for amateur choirs. In other types of songs, as well as largescale vocal-instrumental forms, composers fell back on stylisations of Polish folklore, also from the region of Silesia, and on folk song texts. This was in fact the only way to avoid the tyranny of the new ideology. In the so-called “Recovered 42

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Territories” in the west and north of Poland such compositions also served a propaganda purpose: folk music was to testify to the Polish-ness of those regions. In this period, some composers ventured to break away from the principles of socialist realism. One example is Ryszard Bukowski’s cantata My Evening Song to a hymn by Jan Kasprowicz. The new avant-garde trends quickly found their way into the music of Wrocław composers. Their first twelve-tone compositions were written as early as 1957. Similarly as in other Polish centres, horizontal (melodic) dodecaphony enjoyed the greatest popularity in Wrocław. The composers mainly used the tone row to construct themes, and they treated the technique itself rather freely, combining it with such different stylistic trends as neo-Classicism (Reszke, Wisłocki, Natanson), neo-Romanticism (Natanson), expressionism (Bukowski), and jazz (Reszke). They applied thematic dodecaphony in traditional genres and forms, employing also such original ideas as overlapping series (Natanson’s SymphonyConcerto), which created an archaicising effect. Some composers associated with the Wrocław milieu took up a less popular technique known as total serialism. In his Symphony No.2, Tadeusz Natanson applied the serial principle to melody, rhythm, metre, dynamics and colour. Some composers, rather than using the full twelvetone row, limited their series to just several pitches (Wisłocki, Bukowski, Herembeszta), which gave them more formal freedom in their work on melody and harmony. An original way of handling the series was proposed by Zygmunt Herembeszta. It depended on defining an interval structure which after several transpositions yielded the full twelve-tone series (Varianti B-AC-H). In this way, the composer linked serialism to intervallic structuralism and constructivism. The serialist technique was also extended by being combined with pointillistic textures (Wisłocki, Reszke) and with more modern ways of sound production (Herembeszta). Sonorism attracted Wrocław composers’ interest in the early 1960s. In that period (the 1st stage of development), they combined a sonoristic type of expression with traditional composition techniques, as in Natanson’s Symphony No. 3, though in this work (in Movement Two) he already transforms the melody into horizontal structures (Klangfarbenmelodie).

Example 1: T. Natanson, Symphony No. 3, Movement One

Sonorism came to be applied on a wider scale in the late 1960s (the 2nd stage of development), when it was seen as a principle of construction. A characteristic feature of music by Wrocław composers was that they treated the purely sonorist technique in two different ways: as an element applied only in some sections and combined with traditional techniques of composition or even with thematic thinking (Bukowski, Natanson, Reszke), and at other times – as a basic principle of construction, determining the expressive quality of the entire work (Herembeszta, Klisowski, Natanson, Pstrokońska-Nawratil, Reszke). Sonorism appeared in structuralist-constructivist compositions (constructivist sonorism – Z. Herembeszta); in works dominated by movement (vitalistic sonorism – G. PstrokońskaNawratil); those marked by a bruitist aesthetic emphasising aggressive types of sound (bruitist sonorism – G. Pstrokońska-Nawratil); characterised by refined, sublime sound colours (impressionistic sonorism – J. A. Wichrowski) or by “heightened expression” (expressionistic sonorism – T. Natanson, R. Bukowski); by Classical forms and composition techniques (neo-Classical sonorism – T. Natanson) or by the dominant neo-Romantic forms of expression (neo-Romantic sonorism – T. Natanson); in works following the principle of static form (static sonorism – R. Reszke) and those based on the principles of heightened expression combined with the futuristic idea of movement (expressionistic-futuristic sonorism – R. Klisowski). The fact that sonorism appeared in the music of Wrocław composers in so many varieties testifies to their great creativity in the treatment of the technique of “pure sound colour”. Those numerous, simultaneously developed stylistic proposals made up the rich palette of Wrocław’s avant-garde in that period.

Wrocław composers experimented with controlled aleatory techniques as well, making them responsible for many different aspects of the work’s form. The function of aleatorism could be expressive, colouristic, motoric, or dramatic. New colours and types of sound could be produced not only by means of traditional instruments, but also – electroacoustic devices. In the Wrocław milieu, interest in the new sources of sound developed relatively late. It first manifested itself in 1974 in the works of Ryszard Klisowski, and resulted in compositions representing such genres as musique concrète, electronic music, as well as works combining traditional sources of sound with electronics. Research into the music of Wrocław composers in 1956-1975 has demonstrated that each of the major trends appearing in Polish music in that period found its reflection in works composed in that milieu, which testifies to its members’ openness to new ideas, technical competence and emotional-artistic sensitivity. The onset of postmodernism manifested itself in numerous individual solutions exemplifying two variants of that trend: neoconservative and poststructuralist. Each of the composers understood the privilege of “cancelling all necessity”7 – the differentia specifica of the postmodern era – in a quite different fashion. In Ryszard Bukowski’s oeuvre, the postmodern period was one of consolidating his modern musical language as presented in his greatest works: the two Passions, Missa Profana, Symphony of Threnodies, ballets, string quartets, violin and piano sonatas). The essence of his style is a fusion of neo-Classicism with expressionism.

7 E. Szczepańska, Postmodernizm a muzyka [Postmodernism in Music], in: Encyklopedia kultury polskiej XX wieku [Encyclopaedia of 20th – Century Polish Culture], Vol. 4: Od awangardy do postmodernizmu [From Avant-garde to Postmodernism], ed. G. Dziamski, Warsaw 1996, p. 446.

Example 2: R. Bukowski, ballet Antigone – Prologue

The term “New Romanticism” best characterises the works of Tadeusz Natanson, which reflect a strong need for emotional self-expression and the search for emotional contact with the audience. The composer’s dialogue with tradition manifests itself in the use of traditional elements such as major/minor harmonies, quasi-Romantic expression rooted in melodic forms, modal structures, and the euphony of sound – all of which return in his music as signs incorporated into a modern musical language system. The music of Jan A. Wichrowski is distinguished by a sensuality of sound and an emotional charge. The composer drew inspiration from poetry, philosophy, religion, and nature. He addressed the dilemmas of the modern man (The Rubáiyát, The Megillot, Counterpoints), for which the remedy can be found in love. He combined traditional tonal harmonic and euphonic gestures with his experience of sonorism, aleatorism, pointillism, and impressionism.

Example 3: J.A. Wichrowski, Concerto for Violin and Symphony Orchestra, Movement Two

Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil’s oeuvre, dominated by humanist ideas, reflects a concern about man’s fate and future, the restitution of the sacrum and revival of religious attitudes, a dialogue with nature, a union with the natural world and the entire universe (Seven Frescos). Seeking inspiration in nature (the sea) influenced her composition technique (the “shifting structures”) and the construction of her palindrome-scales (neomodalism).

Example 4: G. Pstrokońska-Nawratil, Fresco VII “Uru Anna”, Part 3, undulating musical structures

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Ewa Podgórska’s idiosyncratic postmodernist idiom is dominated by distinct emotionality and logical construction, whereas Andrzej Tuchowski focuses on universal values. Ryszard Klisowski’s individual variant of postmodernism (in the form of multi-planar, expressionistic sonorism) bears a strong imprint of both the First and the Second Avant-garde. The latter artist combines the achievements of the avant-garde with (frequently deformed) tradition in the form of Gypsy folk, jazz, Austrian stylistic mannerisms, quotations and allusions.

Example 5: R. Klisowski, Vau-Cluse, The Mystery of Creation – The Mobile of Nine

The music of Rafał Augustyn reveals an intricate system of musical symbols and depends on extraor supra-musical meanings and senses. The composer draws on many different traditions, hinted at by means of quotations, associations or references (A Life’s Parallels, A linea, Mirois). He never directly reproduces historical styles in their entirety, but only revives selected symbolic gestures, frequently submitting tradition to a process of deconstruction.

Example 6: R. Augustyn, Carmina de tempore, Part Six, after Hieronim Morsztyn (Corale)

These greatly diversified, individual responses of Wrocław composers to the postmodernist reality significantly enricheds the landscape of Polish music in the postmodern era. The above presented overview of the milieu’s participation in the transformations of Polish music in the 2nd half of the 20th century justifies the claim that, even though the music of Wrocław composers does not represent innovations going beyond the conventions of system, technique and aesthetic, it still contains many original technical and aesthetic solutions proposed by individual authors within the limits of the current trends. These individual solutions formed a significant contribution to the development of Polish music in the period covered by my research. No study of Wrocław composers’ output can be complete without an attempt to define the specific qualities of that milieu’s art and style. An analysis of their combined oeuvre makes it possible to distinguish the following qualities: - the music is strongly rooted in tradition. Even in the avant-garde era, the composers of that milieu never completely broke away from tradition. Powerful links with tradition are also confirmed by the retrospective character of the music of such artists as Wisłocki, Szajna-Lewandowska, Laprus, Drożdżewski, Gąsieniec, or Kulikowski, - the common feature of all these composers’ work is its distinctly emotional character, - the ideas of Karol Szymanowski were upheld and creatively transformed in each period (Wiłkomirski, Natanson, Wisłocki, Klisowski, Gąsieniec, Tuchowski), - foreign influences were extensive and diversified (Mahler, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Bartók, Ravel, Italian futurists, Schönberg, Berg, Webern, Messiaen, Ives), - the composers also drew extensively on Polish musical culture (Chopin, Szymanowski, Baird, Serocki, Penderecki, Górecki, Szalonek, Lutosławski, Krzanowski), 45

- techniques were greatly varied, - the composers of this milieu cultivated many forms and genres (solo and chamber music; small and large-scale vocal-instrumental and choral works; music for films and the stage, including children’s operas; electroacoustic compositions), - the music was influenced by from many different interests and inspirations, such as poetry, philosophy, religion, science, nature and the universe, Indian music, jazz and folk, ancient and medieval cultures, - the artists demonstrated humanist attitudes, and an openness to new trends resulting from the need for continued artistic development. We should finally consider the following question: have Wrocław composers formed a distinct school of composition? When we study the master-pupil relations in the Wrocław milieu, we discover that many of the composers have presented a tendency to continue their teachers’ experience both in the sphere of technique and aesthetics. This continuity can be observed over several generations. It was Piotr Perkowski who sensitized his pupils to colouristic qualities in music, and, consequently, all of them – Tadeusz Natanson, Radomir Reszke, Janina Skowrońska, Jadwiga Szajna-Lewandowska and Leszek Wisłocki – have demonstrated an excellent sense of sound colour. It was also Perkowski who promoted in this circle the ideals of Karol Szymanowski, such as an openness to new trends combined with a rooting in national tradition. The other original teacher at Wrocław’s State Higher School of Music, Stefan B. Poradowski, cherished such classical ideals as order and moderation, balance of form and content, a cult of the composer’s craftsmanship and a love of chamber music (his passion was the sound of the string quartet), all of which he passed down to his pupil Leszek Wisłocki, and the latter – to Piotr Drożdżewski. Tadeusz Natanson inherited the technical discipline, a predilection for traditional genres and the polyphonic technique – from his professor, Stefan B. Poradowski. He then enriched this legacy by introducing such modern technical solutions as dodecaphony, sonorism, aleatorism, as well as powerful emotional expression. The directions outlined by S. B. Poradowski and T. Natanson were creatively continued in the following generation in the works of Grażyna 46

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Pstrokońska-Nawratil, characterised by technical discipline, a respect for tradition, a neo-modal type of tonality, constructivist thinking, a strongly emotional quality and a lasting interest in modern types of sound and expression. Many of these elements can also be found in the music of the youngest generation, educated by Pstrokońska-Nawratil. Marcin Bortnowski inherited her neomodal and constructivist approach, while Robert Kurdybacha took over her strong rooting in tradition, achieved through the cultivation of traditional forms, genres and selected technical means. Another branch of the tradition established by Tadeusz Natanson is exemplified by the music of Ryszard Klisowski. In the manner he lets expression shape his musical form, and in the way he constantly revises his technique in response to new trends, we can trace distinct influences of his master’s art and stance. Zygmunt Herembeszta, another pupil of Poradowski, resembles his teacher in his great technical discipline, manifested in the extensive use of motivic development and a structuralist-constructivist approach to organising the sound material. A similar type of thinking also characterises the music of Mirosław Gąsieniec and Ewa Podgórska, as well as that of Herembeszta’s younger pupil – Krystian Kiełb. A different branch of tradition is exemplified by Ryszard Bukowski, whose trademarks are: strong emotionality, attention to form combined with a tendency to challenge traditional schemes, a sensitivity to colour, contrapuntal thinking and elements of the grotesque. The same elements can be traced in the music of Bukowski’s pupil – Jan A. Wichrowski, whose colouristic imagination combined with a strongly emotional expression make his music eminently sensual. By analysing some of the master-pupil relations listed above, we can demonstrate that over the 50 years of its existence, the Wrocław composers milieu has creatively developed and cultivated its own distinct tradition, passed down from one generation to another, and enriched by new elements characteristic of individual artists. These new elements gradually transformed the structure of the tradition, but the existence of the shared legacy has guaranteed the continuity of the milieu’s development and allows me to interpret the work of Wrocław composers as belonging to a particular “school of composition”, whose founding fathers were Piotr Perkowski

and Stefan B. Poradowski, and the forerunners: Kazimierz Wiłkomirski and Ryszard Bukowski. The results of research presented here are the product of many years’ work that I have conducted with regard to the music of Wrocław composers and the musical culture of that city. My study ought to be considered as the first attempt at a synthetic presentation of an extensive and varied output. I did not research the music of the youngest generation (Marcin Bortnowski, Cezary Duchnowski, Krystian Kiełb, Robert Kurdybacha, Agata Zubel, Michał Moc, and Paweł Hendrich), which still awaits a proper study. This is a dynamic generation that has already scored spectacular successes both in Poland (e.g. at the “Warsaw Autumn” festivals) and worldwide. It combines the exploration of new areas, such as computer music and multimedia spectacles, with a strong rooting in the traditions of the Wrocław milieu and of Polish music at large. Their music aims to be European and national at the same time, thus fulfilling the postulates of Poland’s great 20th-century composer, Karol Szymanowski.

Anna Granat-Janki (photo from the Author’s private collection) Anna Granat-Janki, professor at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław, head of the Chair of Music Theory and the History of Silesian Musical Culture. She specialises in 20th–century music history and theory, the works of 20thcentury composers, in particular – from Wrocław.. Author of two monographs: Forma w twórczości instrumentalnej Aleksandra Tansmana [Form in the Instrumental Works of Aleksander Tansman] and Twórczość kompozytorów wrocławskich w latach 1945-2000 [The Music of Wrocław Composers 1945-2000], as well as numerous articles in Polish and foreign journals and encyclopaedias.

Translated by Tomasz Zymer

For tune – the publisher of ambitious music by Ryszard Wojciul

“The mission of FOR TUNE® Publishing House is to salvage from oblivion the musical phenomena of everlasting nature. Opus aeternatum is our motto and motive for action, we aspire to help works of art become everlasting! Too many a splendid creation has disappeared into non-existence, only lingering in people’s grateful but ephemeral memory. We do not aspire to fully realize our mission–on the contrary, we are aware we are able to pick only a few grains of sand from the desert, but we still find it worthwhile. All the more so that we shun the policy of wholesale and assembly line manufacture, seeking to bestow human personality upon our enterprise. We are open to all directions in geography and art.” The above quote, taken from the For Tune’s homepage (www.for-tune.pl), aptly describes the mission of the new Polish record label which took the world market of ambitious contemporary music by storm. For Tune’s first releases came out in March 2013 and were followed by 22 more titles hitting the stores later that year. Today’s catalogue consists of 36 records and there are several dozens of new projects in the pipeline. So far, For Tune has produced mostly jazz records – all far from the mainstream, largely avant-garde in aesthetics, approximating the classical contemporary intuitive music. The label’s catalogue includes also contemporary music of Polish composers and performers, and a recording of a concert held at last year’s Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music. For Tune’s releases can be easily identified by cover design: each based on a black-andwhite artistic photograph, each a combination of coherent graphic layout with high quality editing. The illustrated liner notes which go with every album provide interesting reviews written by prominent experts. The albums come in a few color-coded series to differentiate between musical genres, namely jazz, world music, classical contemporary, ambitious pop, and, soon to come, rock music.

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What makes the For Tune’s catalogue unique is the courage displayed in the choice of repertoire, the courage that allowed the labels’ founders to invest time and money in the publishing and promoting of contemporary music. These largescale activities are carried out on a worldwide level; For Tune’s catalogue not only presents Polish creators, but also the greatest names in the contemporary intuitive music world, such as Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker, Trevor Watts, or Viatcheslav Ganelin. The CD that comes with this magazine issue presents 16 pieces from records already released and a number of compositions to be premierissned early next year. The CD attached to this magazine issue contains the following compositions published by For Tune:

01. Lorent & Nerkowski – Kassandra (fragment)

Two remarkably talented performers – Leszek Lorent (drums) and Maciej Bogumil Nerkowski (baritone) – present pieces written by Polish composers: Dariusz Przybylski, Ignacy Zalewski, Miłosz Bembinow, and Ianis Xenakis (his legendary ‘Kassandra). “Leszek Lorent and Maciej Nerkowski create an ambience of joyous

solemnity and ecstasy, inviting us to experience something poignant and beautiful”, reads a line from a 36 pages long CD booklet containing all lyrics in original versions and translation.

Explosion and tenderness, post-rock weight, rage and yelling at times. A mass assault. There is a high amplitude of tension and the essential electronics. An almost unbearable obsession can side with a paralyzing melancholy. There are repetitions, or a neurotic absence of them, and melodies, too. Noteworthy is the fact that the band’s leader is Dominik Strycharski playing recorders.

02. Anthony Braxton – Composition 363b+

Fragment of the composition performed by Anthony Braxton Quartet in 2012 during the intuitive music festival “Ad Libitum”. The record came out in the contemporary music series. The musicians perform from a graphic score, the sound effect of which locates the record, in aesthetic terms, in a sphere that is closer to the composed rather than jazz music.

04. Wojciech Błażejczyk – Sculpture 4

Wojciech Błażejczyk is a classically trained composer, sound director, and electric guitar player in one. The album features compositions written between 2008 and 2012 for various instrument combinations, each including electric guitar – whether solo or with a traditional orchestra of “classical” instruments. Sculpture 4 is a part of a larger musical form consisting of compositions for solo electric guitar whose sound is electronically processed.

03. Pulsarus – Isogriv 3

05. Evan Parker/Agusti Fernandez (fragment)

07. P.U.R. Collective – Duets (fragment)

Fragment of a concert played by two legendary improvisers at the 2013 Art Of Improvisation Creative Festival in Wroclaw. The album will be released spring 2015.

This is a fragment of a recording session produced on commission from For Tune, in which the leader, Krzysztof Knittel (composer, prominent musical activist, educationist and proponent of contemporary improvised music) was accompanied by two saxophone players from estern Europe – Alexey Kruglov from Russia and Yurij Yaremchuk from Ukraine. All musicians fit the contemporary intuitive music scene perfectly. The result of this encounter has been truly astonishing. The album will be released by the end of 2014.

06. Piotr Damasiewicz Quartet – Confab

Piotr Damasiewicz is a young trumpeter and composer. He feels at home in the realm of both composed and improvised music. His talent has been recently appreciated with numerous prestigious awards and honors. The music presented on this album was created at the Baptist Church in Wroclaw whose specific acoustic conditions and ambience affected the realization of the original compositional idea, leaving a significant mark on the music.

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08. Karin Helquist – Dominik Karski’s composition “Certainty’s Flux” (fragment)

This album contains the recording of a concert held in 2013 at the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music. It is worth noting that the album was available for purchase

while the festival was still going, only four days after the recording, with an impressive 32-page booklet describing both the performed works and the festival’s history lavishly illustrated with pictures. Karin Helquist, a Swedish violinist, performed compositions written by Dominik Karski, Mauricio Pauly, Joakim Sandgren and Malin Bang.

Recorded at the “Ad Libitum” Festival in Warsaw, 2013, this concert sparked the delight of the audience. Watts and Weston, the musicians and composers who have been exploring the world of improvised music for nearly 40 years, have once again surprised and mesmerized the public with their unconventional approach to creating a peculiar world of sounds and open forms. The album will be released spring 2015.

09. Wacław Zimpel Quartet – Old Feet Feel Out The Path

It is the first album recorded by an international quartet of Wacław Zimpel who is counted among the most talented jazz clarinetists. Firmly set in European tradition, the music on this record is the result of a search for common roots, a fusion of experiences of each member of the band, bearing Zimpel’s distinct compositional style.

10. Trevor Watts/Veryan Weston (fragment)

11. Mateusz Ryczek - Europe’s Ocean (fragment)

This monographic album of a young Based-based composer fascinated with science contains compositions written in 2008–2012 for various combinations of instruments. The track is a fragment of an almost 10-minute long piece for orchestra.

12. Mary Halvorson Trio – Deformed Weight of Hands (no. 28)

Trio recording with an already outstanding although still young guitarist and student of Mr. Anthony Braxton. This is a live recording of a concert held in 2012 in Chorzow at the Jazz & Beyond Festival.

15. Ganelin Trio Priority – Solution (fragment)

13. Gorzycki & Gruchot – Water Method

Violinist and drummer playing in a duo. The music freely flows between styles, sometimes sounding like a contemporary chamber music, at other times like experiments in noise or quasi-jazz groove.

Fragment of a concert played by an avant-garde trio of a Russian pianist who, in the words of a famous German critic, Joachim Berendt, delivers “the wildest and yet the best organized and most professional free jazz I’ve heard in years”. Two other members of this trio are Petras Vysniauskas, a renowned Lithuanian saxophonist, and the German drummer Klaus Kugel (also of Wacław Zimpel Quartet we have mentioned before: see 09). The album will come out in 2015.

14. Keir Neuringer - How Do You Look Away (fragment)

The album has been already mentioned above (see 08). It is a fragment of a concert played at the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music. Keir Neuringer is a saxophonist who acquired the outstanding ability of playing with circular breathing. Worthy of note is the fact that this “breath” lasts nearly 24 minutes, i.e., throughout the entire duration of this trance piece. 52

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16. Hunger Pangs – Love hp

Marek Kądziela, the leader of Hunger Pangs, uses this ensemble as a ground for testing his ideas and fascinations that go beyond the jazz zone. There is room for such diverse aesthetic idioms as punk rock and contemporary music. Translated by Małgorzata Pawlikowska

Ryszard Wojciul – musicologist, musician, journalist. In the 80’s, associated with the Polish independent rock scene. In the 90’s - co-leader a multimedia Grupa MM specializing in the performance of Polish contemporary music. Since the early 90’s operate on commercial radio broadcasting market. Since 2004 active as a music producer, manager and musician. Leader of The Intuition Orchestra specializes in performing intuitive music. He is vice president of For Tune® Publishing House.

POLMIC presents

“Polish Music Today – An Anthology”

by Izabela Zymer, POLMIC

The Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC is well known to musicians, music scholars and audiences in Poland and all over the world. Established in 2001 by the decision of the Polish Composers’ Union (PCU) Management Board, it took over the collections and continues the work of the PCU Library, started almost directly after World War II, as well as the Polish Contemporary Music Documentation Centre, which operated within the framework of that Library. The aim of the new Centre has been to intensify the development and implementation of stateof-the-art tools for information storage and promotion which would live up to the demands of the changing times, expectations and needs, while upholding at the same time the more than 50-year-long tradition and spirit of the institution. Hence the continued, unique and impressive bidirectional character of POLMIC’s activity. The Centre maintains the traditional extensive Collection of scores, books, periodicals and recordings, primarily documenting the development of Polish contemporary music, but also music from earlier periods and other countries, as well as general music reference books. Within the limits of available financial resources and library space, we have aimed to collect all the scores of Polish new music published in Poland and abroad, as well as the complete literature of the subject. In many cases, they are the only copies available in Poland. In recent years our resources have been substantially extended by the addition of online materials: musicological texts and bibliographies (RILM, JSTOR and GROVE), which we subscribe to and make available free of charge to registered users. These resources have been hugely popular among users from all over the country. Apart from music scores, they include a large collection of authorised copies of still unpublished works, submitted directly by their composers. Our recorded music stock consists of editions available on the market now or in the past, preserved on analogue records, compact discs and other recently developed carriers, as well as an immense collection of live recordings, 54

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mainly of concerts and festivals organised by the PCU – with the “Warsaw Autumn” taking the pride of place – but also donated by our individual and institutional collaborators. Apart from these, those visiting our Library have access to the Polish Composers’ Union’s archives, which constitute a priceless resource for the study of Polish music and musical life, primarily in the 2nd half of the 20th century. Our guests from Warsaw and from all over Poland and the world greatly appreciate the Library’s location in one of the Polish capital’s most attractive spots. The windows of our (admittedly small) reading room overlook the Old Town Square with the monument of the Warsaw mermaid. This undoubtedly contributes to the atmosphere of the place. It is here that the world’s main publications on Polish and East European music have been researched and prepared by such authors as Adrian Thomas, Ray Robinson, Cindy Bylander, Lidia RappaportGelfand, as well as younger scholars: David Tompkins, Lisa Jakelsky, Lisa Vest, Andrea Bohlman, Ruth Seehaber, and many others. Our Library is frequented, and our resources used by all those interested in Polish music, both professionals and amateurs, from Poland and all over the world. The most recent challenges are related most of all to the Internet and to database development. Our website www.polmic.pl, wholly dedicated to Polish music and music life in Poland, is accessible to everyone with no restrictions or fees. It contains reports, announcements of future events and reviews, but also databases of institutions, persons and works for more specialised users. The database of contemporary Polish composers makes it possible to select compositions according to specific detailed criteria. We also intensely develop the section of web-streamed recordings and online music scores. The information presented online is backed up and supplemented by our on-site collections and databases constantly updated at POLMIC.

The Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC also actively contributes to music life and the music publishing market. We publish promotional CDs and books, organise concerts and conferences, cooperate with cultural and academic institutions on the local, national, European and global levels. One of POLMIC’s priorities is the participation in the activities of the International Association of Music Information Centres IAMIC, which brings together similar centres from all over Europe and the world and represents the best forum for the promotion of our country’s culture and music life among the international public, including (though not exclusively) the countries of the European Union. Our cooperation with IAMIC was initiated in 1995, and since 1998 we have been the Association’s only member from Poland (originally – as the Documentation Centre). The CD Polish Music Today – An Anthology, available with this issue of “World New Music Magazine”, presents several aspects of POLMIC’s activity. It marks the culmination of POLMIC’s partnership with the International Society for Contemporary Music, Polish Section, connected with the organisation of this year’s international events: the IAMIC Annual Meeting and ISCM World Music Days, held simultaneously in Wrocław. The CD also represents a selection from POLMIC’s most recent CD releases. In 2013, in cooperation with the Polish Radio SA and with the support of the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, we released 10 compact discs, each dedicated to one contemporary Polish composer. They present artists belonging to different generations, residing and working both in Poland and abroad. Despite their considerable achievements and substantial output, none of these composers had previously had a CD dedicated exclusively to his or her own music. In our series “Portraits of Contemporary Polish Composers”, each CD presented the work of one selected artist. For the programme of this CD, we have selected one composition by each of the ten. The present CD is therefore intended to encourage the festival guests and readers of the WNMM to become acquainted with our “Portraits” series. It also serves as a brief overview of the wealth, stylistic variety and beauty of new Polish music. While designing the CD programme, we have aimed to create an artistic and dramatic whole,

so that, despite the great differences in formal concept and the choice of sound material, our selection can function as an aesthetically satisfying musical experience and encourage the listeners further to explore the repertoire. Translated by Tomasz Zymer

[1] Lidia Zielińska Graphic design: Jerzy Matuszewski, photo by Anna Zielińska

Born in 1953, she graduated from the State Higher School of Music (now – the Academy of Music) in Poznań, where she studied composition with Andrzej Koszewski. She has received commissions from e.g. the Polish Radio, the Solidarity Trade Union, the Eighth Day Theatre, Holland Dance Festival, orkest de ereprijs, the “Warsaw Autumn” Festival and Adam Mickiewicz Institute. Currently she holds the posts of professor of composition and director of the Studio of Electroacoustic Music at the Academy of Music and teaches classes in sonology at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań. Rhapsody for violin and electronic sounds (2004) Commissioned by the Edmonton Composers’ Concert Society (Canada). Recorded live on November 21st, 2005 during the 15th Festival de Música Contemporánea Chilena, Santiago; violin: Anna Zielińska, sound projection: Lidia Zielińska.

[2] Anna Zawadzka-Gołosz Graphic design: Jerzy Matuszewski, photo by Andrzej Szełęga

[3] Michał Talma-Sutt Graphic design: Jerzy Matuszewski, photo from the Composer’s private collection

Born in 1955, she studied music theory and composition with Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar in the State Higher School of Music (now – the Academy of Music) in Cracow. She continued her composition studies with Wolfgang Hufschmidt in the Folkwanghochschule für Musik, Theater und Tanz in Essen-Werden and took part in Summer Courses for Composers in Kazimierz Dolny, which she considers as very important for her artistic growth. Since graduation, she has worked in her alma mater as a lecturer in composition and theory.

Born in 1969, he studied composition with Jerzy Bauer in the Academy of Music in Łódź and continued his composition studies in IRCAM, Paris, in the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Stuttgart (with Ulrich Süße), and in the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe. He won two 1st prizes of the International Rostrum of Electroacoustic Music: in 1998, in the category of composers under 30 (for What Nostradamus has kept only for himself) and in 2000, in the general category (for Light and Shade). He has resided in Berlin since 2001.

Cadenza for string quartet (2001) Dedicated to Professor Mieczysław Tomaszewski on his 80th birthday. Recorded live on December 12th, 2001 at the PWM Edition Concert Hall in Warsaw, as part of the concert cycle “Composers’ Portraits”; Camerata Quartet.

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String’0’tronic for 21 string instruments and computer (2005) Recorded live on May 19th, 2007 during the 2nd International Festival “Musica Electronica Nova”, Witold Lutosławski Philharmonic, Concert Hall, Wrocław; AUKSO Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy conducted by Marek Moś; recording: Ewa Guziołek-Tubelewicz, Polish Radio.

[4] Tadeusz Wielecki Graphic design: Jerzy Matuszewski, photo by Michał Nebelski

Born in 1954, he studied double bass and composition (with Włodzimierz Kotoński) at the Academy of Music (now – the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music) in Warsaw. He continued his composition studies with Isang Yun (Berlin) and Klaus Huber (Freiburg). As a double bass player he focuses on the contemporary solo repertoire. He is also active as an improviser, playing with musical ensembles such as Mud Cavaliers and Laterna. He is also involved in the promotion of contemporary music and arts education. He has served as Director of the ”Warsaw Autumn” Festival since 1999. Study of Gesture II for piano (1997) Work dedicated to Witold Szalonek. Studio recording: Studio of the Academy of Music in Gdańsk, October 2013; piano: Małgorzata Walentynowicz; recording: Anna Kasprzycka, editing: Jacek Guzowski and Krzysztof Kuraszkiewicz, Musicon.

[5] Ewa Trębacz Graphic design: Jerzy Matuszewski, photo by Mark Haslam

Composer and media artist, born in 1973, currently lives in Seattle, USA (since 2001). She comes from Cracow, Poland, where she earned her master’s degrees from the Academy of Music (composition with Bogusław Schaeffer, 1999) and the Academy of Economics (computer science and econometrics, 2000). In 2004 she joined the first program of doctoral studies in new media in the USA at the University of Washington Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS). In 2010 she graduated with her Ph.D. and currently works at DXARTS as Research Scientist. things lost things invisible for ambisonic space and orchestra (2007) Work commissioned by the “Warsaw Autumn” Festival in partnership with Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Poland. Recommendation of the 56th International Rostrum of Composers (Paris, 2009). Electronic layer was realized in ambisonics by Ewa Trębacz at DXARTS, University of Washington, Seattle. Initial sound materials for the electronic layer were recorded in ambisonics by Ewa Trębacz at the Dan Harpole Cistern, Fort Worden, Washington, USA. Virtual Soloists: Josiah Boothby – horn; Toby Penk – trumpet; Colby Wiley – trombone. Recorded live on September 22nd, 2007, at the XXI International Expocentre, Warsaw, Poland, as part of the 50th “Warsaw Autumn” International Festival of Contemporary Music; Karol Szymanowski Academic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Tamayo and Szymon Bywalec; sound engineering: Ewa Guziołek-Tubelewicz and Barbara OkońMakowska; recording: Jacek Guzowski and Krzysztof Kuraszkiewicz, Musicon. 57

[6] Aleksander Kościów Graphic design: Jerzy Matuszewski, photo from the Composer’s private collection

Born in 1974; composer, violist, academic teacher and novelist. He studied composition with Marian Borkowski and viola with Błażej Sroczyński at the Academy of Music (now – the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music) in Warsaw. Presently – a lecturer on the faculty of his alma mater. Author of novels: The World of the Loon (2006), Say Sorry. A Player’s Manual (2008), Whales Flying (2010), as well as short stories, which have attracted huge public and critical acclaim; ranked with such authors as Umberto Eco, Italo Calvino, and Haruki Murakami. Kyrie for mixed a cappella choir (1997) Recorded live on May 8th, 2006 during the 20th Warsaw Music Encounters “early music – new music”, the Reformed Church in Warsaw; Choir of the Warsaw Stage Society conducted by Ewa Strusińska; recording: Zbigniew Kusiak and Ewa Guziołek-Tubelewicz, Polish Radio.

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[7] Magdalena Długosz Graphic design: Jerzy Matuszewski, photo by Maria Wiktoria Hübner

Born in 1954, she graduated from the Academy of Music in Cracow after studies with Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar (composition) and with Józef Patkowski (music theory). Since 1979, she has taught classes in the Electroacoustic Music Studio in her alma mater, where she also prepared her first compositions. Her later works were also produced in the Polish Radio Experimental Studio in Warsaw, EMS (Stockholm), EAS in Bratislava, the GRAME Studio in Lyon and IMEB (Bourges). Since 1999, she has been a member of the Repertoire Committee of the “Warsaw Autumn” International Festival of Contemporary Music. Océan Cité – octophonic electroacoustic music for the French ballet project by Pierre Deloche (2007) Commissioned by Pierre Deloche. Sound material: Renata Guzik – flute. Composed in the Electroacoustic Music Studio of the Academy of Music in Cracow; Ewa GuziołekTubelewicz – stereo version.

[8] Jarosław Siwiński Graphic design: Jerzy Matuszewski, photo by Małgorzata Kołcz

[9] Zbigniew Penherski Graphic design: Jerzy Matuszewski, photo by Ewa Rudzińska

Born in 1964, he graduated from the Academy of Music in Warsaw (now – the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music), where he studied piano with Kazimierz Gierżod and composition with Włodzimierz Kotoński. He writes chamber, symphonic and electroacoustic music, music for the theatre, movies and computer games. He has worked closely with e.g. Frederick Rzewski, Michelangelo Pistoletto, the Viktor Lois / Yin Peet duo, Azorro ensemble, Jan Lenica, and Daniel Szczechura. He regularly collaborates with the Children’s Art Centre in Poznań. Member of the Managing Boards of the Polish Composers’ Union and ISCM Polish Section.

Born in 1935, he studied composition with Stefan Bolesław Poradowski at the State Higher School of Music (now – Academy of Music) in Poznań and with Tadeusz Szeligowski at the Academy of Music in Warsaw (now – the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music), as well as conducting under Bohdan Wodiczko. As a holder of a Dutch government scholarship, he studied at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht. His music has been performed in Poland and abroad, including Germany, France, Great Britain, Austria, Italy, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Mexico, and the USA.

Variation 25_12 from Chopin Elements for computer or MIDI piano (2012) Created with an artistic grant from the City of Warsaw.

Lamentations for baritone or male soprano and string quartet, to selected fragments from The Book of Jeremiah (2003) Recorded live on May 13th, 2010 at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Great Assembly Hall during the 24th Warsaw Music Encounters “early music – new music”; Jan Jakub Monowid – voice, Wilanów Quartet; recording: Marcin Guz, DUX Recording Producers.

[10] Jacek Grudzień Graphic design: Jerzy Matuszewski, photo from the Composer’s private collection

Born in 1961, he studied composition with Włodzimierz Kotoński and piano improvisation with Szabolcs Esztényi in Academy of Music (now – the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music) in Warsaw and after graduation he obtained a scholarship funded by Witold Lutosławski to study in London. His London composition Lumen for choir and orchestra opened the ISCM World Music Days in Warsaw in 1992. He also composes music for the theatre and movies; he has worked closely with e.g. Zbigniew Brzoza, Grzegorz Jarzyna, Remigiusz Brzyk and Greg Zgliński. Postlude for piano, violin and cello (1998) Recorded live on December 11th, 2002 at the PWM Edition Concert Hall in Warsaw, as part of the “Composers’ Portraits” concert cycle; violin: Krzysztof Bąkowski, cello: Justyna Rekść-Raubo, piano: Maciej Grzybowski.

Izabela Zymer (photo by Anna Dorota Władyczka) Izabela Zymer, b. 1967, graduated from the Institute of Musicology, University of Warsaw. Her MA thesis, dedicated to the Requiem by Roman Palester (Polish composer, d. 1989), was supervised by Prof. Zofia Helman. After graduation she started to work at the Library of the Polish Composers’ Union (since 2002 – Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC).

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Between the Garden and the Kingdom by Jacek Marczyński

The premieres of contemporary works staged by the Wrocław Opera since 2003 must be looked at from a distance. Juxtaposed together, they yield a picture of events significant to Polish music over a span of almost a hundred years. For such an extensive period of time the word “contemporary” becomes arbitrary, however reaching back to music from the beginning of the previous century belies a deliberate intention. A timeline of Polish contemporary opera should begin with the composer, who broke the Romantic-Moniuszko tradition and carried opera into the twentieth century, Karol Szymanowski. The Wrocław Opera should be credited for moving beyond the obvious choice of King Roger and selecting his earlier work Hagith. While writing this opera in 1912, Szymanowski hoped to conquer the Viennese audiences. However none of these plans came to fruition. The opera is rarely performed – the Wrocław premiere (23 February 2007, dir. Michał Znaniecki) was only the fifth stage production in the history of Hagith.

Hagith, Karol Szymanowski (photo: M. Grotowski)

Szymanowski Staged Differently The reluctance of opera houses to perform Hagith could be explained by the weakness of Felix Dörmann’s libretto borrowed from the Book of Kings, and by the excessive infatuation felt by Szymanowski for the music of Richard Strauss. The Wrocław performance confirmed

that Szymanowski used equally dense instrumentation and the same overwrought, ecstatic tone. At the same time however, Tomasz Szreder led the orchestra in such a way as to prove that straight from its instrumental introduction Hagith also incorporates many original ideas. Besides moments full of drama, sharp, and almost aggressive phrases, there are lyrical passages, such as the title character’s song and her duet with the Young King. Nevertheless, Hagith was also this time overshadowed by King Roger. The Wrocław premiere (30 March, 2007) must be counted among the most successful efforts at staging the opera. Despite its growing popularity in the world it still poses formidable challenges for directors. For director Mariusz Treliński it was the second, yet different from the first production crafted for the National Opera in 2000, attempt at producing King Roger. This time he abandoned the Byzantine-Sicilian scenery of the libretto, which combined early Christianity with Arabic and Ancient Greek culture. The action moved to the present-day and portrayed a world of power, though not hierarchised like the Middle Ages, shown as equally authoritarian. The arrival of the Shepherd, living according to alternative principles, provokes aggression in the crowd. The brutality with which the newcomer is treated however, does not force him into submission, instead the simpleton becomes a symbol for revolt of the individual. Treliński’s production also shows the tragedy of the lonely Roger. Andrzej Dobber, who flawlessly performed the title role, shows a firm but not lacking profound and intense feelings, ruler. A great part in creating the atmosphere of the performance played the Wrocław Opera choir. Ewa Michnik led the orchestra so as to conform with the concept of the director, but at the same time showcased the richness of music and the building of emotional tension until the final climax. The Wrocław staging – with small modifications particularly in Act II – was shown

in 2008 at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg and later at the Edinburgh Festival. Satan and the Murderous Machine Among the active composers following the Second World War, Krzysztof Penderecki holds a special position. The operatic oeuvre of this artist is quantitatively modest, but qualitatively significant. The Wrocław Opera chose to produce his Raj Utracony (trans. Paradise Lost). The world premiere took place in 1978 at the Chicago Lyric Opera, and later was staged at La Scala, Stuttgart and the Warsaw National Opera, however contemporary theatres are still searching for new ideas of how to portray Penderecki’s biblical characters on stage. The Wrocław staging by Waldemar Zawodziński (premiere May 9, 2008 ) was at the same time traditional and modern. The director (and at the same time set designer), did not construct a literal paradise on the stage, but decided on an allegorical space. The costumes added colour and life to the performance, and vividly defined the characters. Zawodziński used simple religious symbols, referring to contemporary times as well as baroque era danse macabre motifs, thanks to which he conjured up a gripping performance. He magnificently managed to capture the bitter tone of Milton’s epic poem. It is Satan who causes the expulsion of Adam and Eve, triumphs over the Creator and decides the fate of the world. The musical framing of the show paralleled the visual in the sense of brilliance of execution. The large choir ensemble matched the level of performance, and Andrzej Straszyński conducted the orchestra and choir with precision.

Raj utracony K. Penderecki (photo: M. Grotowski)

The Wrocław Opera deserves great merit for rescuing from oblivion the only stage work by Tadeusz Baird. His Jutro (trans. Tomorrow) staged

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in Warsaw in 1966, (dir. Aleksander Bardini) made Polish theatre history. It was recorded eight years later for television, and won the Grand Prix at the festival in Prague and has since been broadcast in several countries. In Poland however, this did not affect the presence of Jutro or almost any other works of the composer, who died in 1981. Nonetheless, in recent years, interest in his works has been gradually rising. The Wrocław staging of Jutro (prem. February 15, 2008, musical dir. Tomasz Szreder) proved it worthwhile to turn our attention to Baird’s opera. The composer showed great intuition for the grasp of the rules governing the stage, and the libretto was written based on a short story by Conrad (combining naturalism with motifs characteristic for Greek tragedy) by Jerzy S. Sito. After more than four decades that have passed since the creation of Jutro, the work still stirs the heart, due to a timeless and familiar story. The score contains the best qualities of Baird’s music: expressive tone, and colourful and orchestrated harmonic twists. Perhaps the romantic character speaks to contemporary audiences more so than in, the dominated by the avant-garde, late 60s. Ewelina Pietrowiak making her debut as an operatic director in the Wrocław production, presented a rather simple version of the work, but therefore allowed for audiences to appreciate the musical wealth and dramatic value of Jutro. Baird’s opera was grouped alongside Joanna Brudzowicz’s, Kolonia Karna (Penal Colony), whose world premiere was to be held in 1968 in Prague. After the suppression of the Prague Spring, the piece (inspired by Franz Kafka’s short story describing an oppressive government system) could not be performed in Czechoslovakia. Kolonia Karna saw the light of day in 1972 in Reims, in a slightly modified musically version and performed in French. In 1995, the Grand Theatre in Warsaw staged a production before the one in Wrocław. The only things linking the two works is the time they were written in. Tadeusz Baird called Jutro a musical drama, which is not the only reference made to Richard Wagner as the musical structure is also based on the leitmotifs from his operas. Against the backdrop of Baird’s rich instrumentation, Kolonia Karna establishes itself as a more intimate, and at times even ascetic piece. Jutro has the timeless dimension

of a tragedy, while Kolonia Karna immediately brings to mind events from contemporary history. In 1914 Franz Kafka envisaged a machine carving out the words of the judge’s verdict on the body of the convicted. The twentieth century became the era of political systems specializing in murderous penal colonies and camps. And although at this time many totalitarian regimes collapsed almost before our eyes, democracy still hasn’t triumphed everywhere. Mark Weiss attempted to remind us about this in his production making references to current events in Iraq.

into the world of the concrete, as the whole plot took place in a uniform scenery, a small white house with a garden. Bright colors dominated the scenery, alluding to something positive, as if Ewelina Pietrowiak wanted the audience to realize that the disease is not something abstract as it can affect anyone of us.

Foreign Commissions Since the late 60’s Joanna Bruzdowicz has been living outside of Poland. Hanna Kulenty has also long been living between Warsaw and the Netherlands, where she collaborates with Paul Goodman. It is he who wrote – according to the strict guidelines of the composer – the libretto for the opera Matka czarnoskrzydłych snów (The Mother of Black-Winged Dreams). The piece was commissioned in 1996 and had its premiere at the Münchener Biennale, a festival focusing on the promotion of contemporary music. Fourteen years later, on May 15, 2010, it was shown for audiences on the stage of the Wrocław Opera. The opera is a record of escalating schizophrenia, an unrestrained story written for five voices. The personality of the heroine, Clare, splits into two sets of sisters: Click and Shears. There are five women on stage sharing one life, unrecognized fully by the spectator, as the monologues and the dialogues often overlap. The music, composed for a small ensemble with the addition of electronic instruments, is intrusive and taxing in its persistent repetitions, but it magnificently symbolizes the hostile reality that causes the descent into schizophrenia. Conductor, Wojciech Michniewski emphasized the roughness of the music with the subsequent repetitions, increasingly violent, assailing the ears of the views. It is striking the way in which the composer uses the human voice. The parts of Clara and the Shears sisters were written as vocal charcters, while the Click sisters are more emphasized as acting roles. The heavily rhythmical music imposes a particular way of using both singing and speech. Ewelina Pietrowiak’s production was marked by a determination to establish order on the stage. She transferred the symbolic and oneiric story

Matka czarnoskrzydłych snów H. Kulenty (photo: M. Grotowski)

Thanks to a foreign commission the career of Eugeniusz Knapik, who for years avoided contact with that art form, considering it a “chapter of history locked in its archaic conventions.”, was also launched. However, in 1987, Jan Fabre, a Flemish performer, director, choreographer, set designer and writer became infatuated with his music. The meeting of the two men began their artistic journey together, the effect of which would be the opera triptych, The Minds of Helene Troubleyn. The first two parts premiered in Antwerp (Das Glas im Kopf wird vom Glas, 1990) and Kassel (Silent Screams, Difficult Dreams, 1992). The final piece, La Libertà chiama La Libertà, completed in 1995, had to wait until the 16 October, 2010, when it was produced by the Wrocław Opera.

La Libertá chiama la libertá E. Knapik (photo: M. Grotowski)

Jan Fabre created a trilogy about the danger of dreams: alluding to the idea that one should not live in an imaginary world, albeit it may appear 63

more beautiful than reality. It seems that in this world one would have absolute power, but as shown by the tragic death of Helena Troubleyn, killed by characters she herself created, this is an illusion. Fabre’s text is often pompous, but the music composed by Knapik has many shades, ideas and nuances and arises from the tradition of the dramas of Richard Wagner. Kaspszyk who has a great ear for such music, delivered – together with the orchestra and four choirs – a musically rich and complex performance. Director Michał Zadara created an unhurried rhythmically performance, adapting to Knapik’s musical composition. Contemporary Opera in the Last Decade On February 7, 2003, the Wrocław Opera staged Antigone by Zbigniew Rudziński (musical dir. Tomasz Szreder) originally commissioned by the Warsaw Chamber Opera, where it premiered one and a half years earlier. The composer drew on materials from Sophocles’s tragedy, and although remaining faithful to the original, he interpreted his libretto subjectively. He didn’t focus on the individual’s revolt against heartless rulers but became interested in the psychological portraits of the two protagonists – therefore his opera should be called Antigone and Creon. The first act is devoted to Antigone ‘s struggle for the proper and respectful burial of her brother. The second act, taking place after her death shows the fate of Creon, who realizes that he failed both as a ruler and as a father. Such multifaceted characters are rare in contemporary operas. They are not symbolic beliefs or attitudes, but complex human personalities. The stouthearted Antigone is fragile and weak, and her death is deemed tragic rather than heroic. Equally intricate and diverse is the musical score of Rudziński’s work, with a dramatic orchestral part and references to Mozart in the form of a quote from Don Giovanni, granting a metaphysical dimension to the story. Despite this, Marek Weiss first and foremost created a play about the wishing to justify the cruelty of war by government, as well as about society, finding enough reasons to accept the explanations of the tyrant. The rebels are few in number, and doomed to loneliness. At most, after their death their heroism will be recognized by the crowd. The director referred to the Polish experience. Demonstrations of support for Creon resembled the mass gatherings organized in communist Poland after the events of March 64

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and June, and the fratricidal war in Thebes – the December uprising of 1970. References to contemporary events can also be found in Ester by young composer, Thomas Praszczałek-Prasqual (b. 1981). The premiere on February 23, 2006 was complementary to Hagith. Just like the opera by Karol Szymanowski, Ester is derived from the biblical story of the wife of King Ahasuerus, who saved the Jewish people from annihilation, but musically it occupies the polar opposite to Hagith. The orchestral score is delicate, but full of interesting developments. Prasqual skillfully leads the soloists, assigning each of them a different singing style. Ester is given oriental embellishments – the King is appropriately dignified, and the evil counselor Aman is defined by grotesque Russian motifs. Michał Znaniecki found an interesting conception for the visual aspect of the show. The story of Ester is told during a stop by Jewish exiles travelling by a cattle-drawn carriage, perhaps, towards death. The spectacle of the poor in a style half resembling a village-fair gives them a fragment of hope that extinction is not inevitable. Marked by the stigma of the Holocaust is the hero of Zygmunt Krauze’s Pułapka (trans. The Trap) (prem. 17 December 2011, musical dir. Tomasz Szreder). The composer wrote the libretto in collaboration with Grzegorz Jarzyna, based on a play by Tadeusz Różewicz – considered as one of the most ambitious attempts to deal with the spiritual and cultural heritage of the twentieth century. Using a biography of Franz Kafka – arranged not in chronological events but in a series of images – Różewicz describes the traps that ensnare the man of that epoch. Some of these traps were set up by the history of the twentieth century, others – by biology and nature. The hero is thus impacted by the stigma of death, his life waiting for it. In the background lurks the specter of the Holocaust, which Ewelina Pietrowiak, the director of the opera production, represents less literally than in the play itself, but just as suggestively. Simultaneously, the performance was a story made up of small, everyday occurrences and ordinary objects that suddenly acquire symbolic meanings. Zygmunt Krauze’s music does not distort the words. Short orchestral interludes before consecutive images and a few choral passages are actually the only added values to the original text by Różewicz. The rest is based

on dialogues supplemented with distinctive monologues. The composer repeats the themes assigned to different individuals, and constructs the score like a set of blocks from obsessively returning thematic threads. Two events were an interesting supplement to the series of contemporary operas. The first being a rendition of Cezary Duchnowski’s Ogród Marty (trans. Martha’s Garden) (prem. 15 May, 2011). The world premiere of this “chamber opera for a female voice, an actor, electronic media and instruments” took place in a radio studio in Leipzig in 2006, and three years later was presented to audiences as an operating performance at the Warsaw Autumn festival. Each time - even in Wrocław – the piece assumes a slightly different musical shape. The composer allows for the free choice of instruments, giving artists a certain degree of freedom, but within the limits set by the musical form determined by programmed computers.

Ogród Marty C. Duchnowski (photo: M. Grotowski)

Ogród Marty is a poetic tale, in which a woman and a man – she in a vocal part, he in speech – reveal their dreams, thoughts and reflections about love. Perhaps in direct contact they would have never dared to confess this to each other. It is a string of memories and references to past and theoretical events; at one point, the characters even transform into their grandparents. A division can be made into scenes advancing the plot forward on the one hand, and into reflective arias on the other. Both performers and musicians are present on the stage. Especially arresting in Duchnowski’s composition of the electronic layer that not only enriches the colour of the music, but affects the interaction between the characters. The second event, the premiere of Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie (trans. The Saragossa

Manuscript), on 24 November 24, 2007 was – as defined by Rafał Augustyn – an action choreography in one act. From the famous Chinese box narrative of an eighteenth-century novel by Jan Potocki, where almost every story is merged into another, thus multiplying the threads and characters, the composer extracted a libretto consisting of ten images. Despite the highly complicated chain of events, the structure of the ballet structure is lucid, and the music vividly illustrates the characters of the heroes. Rafał Augustyn supplemented the orchestral score with electronic sounds blending into a musical unity or functioning as separate lines that clarify the place of action. The author of the staging and choreography was Ewelina Chojecka, and the musical director was Tadeusz Zathey. The performance was followed by a oneact ballet Figle Szatana (the Devil’s Frolics) with music by Adam Münchheimer and Stanisław Moniuszko, to which Rafał Augustyn composed the missing pieces and orchestrated the entirety. Among the works prepared for the Contemporary Opera Festival in Wrocław was also Legendy o Maryi (the Miracles of Mary) by the eminent Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů (prem. October 1, 2010, musical dir. Tomasz Szreder). This was the Polish premiere of the opera, inspired by medieval music, the tradition of mystery plays and nativity scenes. The director, Jiří Heřman mixed religious folk symbols with biblical and contemporary costumes, adding his writing to the libretto and leading the performers with precision. On October 23, 2011 in celebration of Tadeusz Różewicz’s 90th birthday, the Wrocław Opera held a concert of songs composed to the words of his poems. Mariusz Godlewski accompanied by pianist Justyna Skoczek performed Pięć pieśni na baryton (trans. Five Songs for Baritone) by Zygmunt Krauze, while Aleksandra Kubas performed Ein Züge der Liebe, die besiegt dent Tod for soprano and Udo Zimmermann’s chamber orchestra. The world premiere of Pięć śpiewów z klatki (trans. Five songs from the cage) for mezzo-soprano, baritone, narrator, orchestra and electronic sounds to the poems of Tadeusz Różewicz will be in sorts a continuation of that concert. The piece written by Prasqual on commission by the Wrocław Opera that consistently seeks to encourage composers to derive inspiration from the works of the prominent poet, so strongly connected with the city. 65

Jacek Marczyński – Journalist and publicist, permanent music, opera and ballet critic for Rzeczpospolita. He previously lectured in the Faculty of Journalism at the University of Warsaw. He was editor-in-chief of the quarterly Scena Operowa, as well as artistic secretary of the National Theatre. He is the author of Przewodnik Operowy (2011) and Alain Bernard, wieczny idealista, O czym śpiewa Wrocław, Dziesięciu tańczących facetów, and co-authored Polskie symbole. He works for TVP Kultura, and publishes the monthly Teatr and Ruch Muzyczny.

Translated by Ludmiła Makuchowska

Jacek Marczyński (photo: from the Author’s private collection)

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About a city that survived by Dorota Kozińska

Seven hundred thousand civilians forced by the Third Reich into an immediate evacuation of the city – on foot, in utter chaos, in freezing January temperatures which that year reached minus thirty degrees. German demolition of the city prior to the Soviet offensive, almost three months of armed conflict during the Siege of Breslau1 and following capitulation – deliberate incineration of whole neighbourhoods whose remains still smouldered for months. Nearly a hundred thousand civilian casualties and thousands of suicides. Seventy percent of the town’s surface area destroyed. Eighteen million square metres of rubble. After the war, Poles drafted in to Wroclaw from literally everywhere – not only from Kresy2, Lvov, Stanislawowo and Vilnius but also from Greater Poland, Lodz, the Province of Kielce and the post-Uprising ruins of Warsaw – at first did not want to live here. They were confronted with an inferno of smouldering fires, a desert deprived of water, hollow-eyed houses with no gas or electricity. An alien city, incorporated into Poland by a decision of the Potsdam Conference. They did not believe Wroclaw would ever become Polish. They feared its loss no matter what happened. They embarked on its de-Germanisation and re-Polonisation, and organized their lives as best they could and rebuilt the city in their own way, often with lamentable results. They loved, hated, fed on hope and doubt. They became acclimatized but were homesick. Whenever the grandmother of a friend of mine took him for a walk along the Rozanka Canal3 she would compare its murky waters to the rapid current of the Nemen4. It would take several generations for the new Wroclaw residents to lay down roots in their city. It would take many years to build out of the debris of Festung Breslau, a young and dynamic city, prepared to engage 1 Wroclaw was declared a fortress city (Festung Breslau) in August 1944. In order to build an additional airfield, houses were purposefully destroyed by fire, and half of the quarter around today’s Plac Grunwaldzki was demolished. Moreover, carpet bombings caused massive destruction of the city. [editor’s note] 2 Kresy (Borderlands) – the territory east of the present Polish border, part of the Republic of Poland before World War II. [editor’s note] 3 Rozanka Canal – a sailing canal in Wroclaw, built from 1913-1917 as part of the waterway off the city centre, used as recreational area. [editor’s note] 4 Nemen – a river flowing through Belarus, Lithuania and Russia (Kaliningrad administrative district), before World War Two it flowed largely through the Polish territory. [editor’s note]

in dialogue, at peace with its past, but above all open to the future. It took a long time, but it happened. Similarly it took some time to rebuild Wroclaw’s position as an important centre of music; and it was not by chance that the period of great change in concert life during the 1960s coincided with the coming of age of the first generation of people born in the city. Hence it is not surprising that contemporary music gained such a unique position – allowing “alien” Wroclaw to become accustomed to a fresh tonal language, be receptive to a completely different form of awareness and considering its lack of emotional ties to the place and its history, build a recognizable narrative in the present tense. The first serious attempt of placing Wroclaw on the map of contemporary music was undertaken back in the days when the Wroclaw Philharmonic was led by Radomir Reszke, conductor, instructor of an amateur movement and from 1956 teacher at the local State High School of Music. In 1962 – in cooperation with the local division of the Polish Composers Union and with the participation of two composers, Tadeusz Natanson and Ryszard Bukowski – the Polish Western Composers Music Festival was established. It represented the third consecutive cyclical revue of contributions by composers of the latest music, preceded only by the “Warsaw Autumn”5 festival founded in the wake of the political thaw of 19566 and the slightly younger “Poznan Music Spring”7. The event initially programmed by a committee of PCU8 composers and local musicians, in 1964 expanded its reach to include composers from the entire country, since when it takes place under the title of Polish Contemporary Music Festival. A year later together with epic changes in the directorship of the Philharmonic, the Festival acquired a genuine artistic director and soon advanced to the ranks of one of the country’s most interesting musical events, not only in the sphere of the latest creative endeavour. However 5 International festival of contemporary music organized by the Polish Composers’ Union. [editor’s note] 6 After the death of J.V. Stalin (1953), a process of political changes began in Poland. Over several years, Odwilż (Thaw) affected the internal policies and the totalitarian political system became less severe. [editor’s note] 7 After the death of J.V. Stalin (1953), a process of political changes began in Poland. Over several years, Odwilż (Thaw) affected the internal policies and the totalitarian political system became less severe. [editor’s note] 8 Polish Composers’ Union. [editor’s note]

before we return to the history of the Festival, which over the years experienced several crises and several metamorphoses, let us dwell a moment on Andrzej Markowski. Markowski was such a distinguished musician, such a complex personality that continuators of his musical initiatives would sometimes get lost in the multitude of strands he left behind; they were unable to amalgamate them into a cohesive whole, they tried so long and hard that a revolution initiated in the 1960s finally spilt over into several independent areas. Having in 1965 taken on the directorship of the Philharmonic – fter numerous trials and tribulations of a formal nature – Markowski embarked so to speak on basic reforms, restructuring the orchestra and radically expanding its repertoire to include the still greatly neglected early music as well as contemporary music, which he promoted with honest conviction born of a deeply felt aesthetic need rather than economic considerations like many then conductors who treated contemporary creativity as a historical inevitability. To ensure ideal working conditions for his ensemble, he did everything in his power to procure a new place of residence for the Philharmonic, which opened on 17th December 1968 and which to this day functions in a building situated in Pilsudski Street. He exploited the celebrations marking the Millennium of the Polish State not only by organizing the first Oratorio-Cantata Festival “Wratislavia Cantans” but also by founding at the Philharmonic the chamber ensemble “Cantores Minores Wratislavienses”, whose directorship he entrusted to the experienced chorus-master Edmund Kajdasz. He also continued to run the Polish Contemporary Music Festival and moreover – augmented the Days of Organ Music Festival’s repertoire with works for harpsichord. He introduced the Wroclaw Philharmonic to the boards of the “Warsaw Autumn” Festival and organized its first genuine tours abroad. The source of “Wratislavia’s” success relied on focusing all aspects of the Festival around the issue of the human voice – a specific and natural bridging element for seemingly incongruous aesthetics and performance formulas. Markowski took great care when mixing water with fire; from the outset he endeavoured to organize early music concerts in historic venues and introduced contemporary music by definition

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associated with the spirit of modernist renewal – to the Large Studio of Polish Radio, to the BWA Gallery9 and to the new building of the Philharmonic. He created a comprehensive formula that was innovatory not only in terms of Polish concert life, and instilled in Wroclaw’s music-lovers a fresh approach to listening to music in general, in this untoward manner making them receptive to experiencing the “alien” world of contemporary art.

29.08.1967 first performance of St Luke Passion by Krzysztof Penderecki, Krakow Philharmonic Choir (photo: IFWC archive)

I once wrote in the pages of “Music in the City” that Markowski “introduced me to the world of the avant-garde so efficaciously that I never again felt duty bound to defend it just because it is the avant-garde”; and that the founder of “Wratislavia” had an unerring instinct, based on his love for contemporary music backed by solid compositional skills, experience in writing incidental music and pioneering achievements in the field of shaping correlations between the tonal sphere and elements of a given work of film, theatre and visual arts. The mentioned instinct protected Markowski against the propaganda-driven intimidation of modernism, enabling him to fish out real pearls from among a sea of the then emerging music: Penderecki’s early endeavours, works by Serocki, Gorecki and Szalonka, not to mention compositions by Lutoslawski whose greatness he helped to establish at a certain stage of his career. During the first years of “Wratislavia” Markowski’s holistic vision had an effect on the public’s perception of 20th century music throughout the whole of Poland – already in the Festival’s second edition in 1967, Markowski had the courage to juxtapose Szymanowski’s Stabat 9 BWA (Biuro Wystaw Artystycznych – Bureau of Artistic Exhibitions), Wroclaw, ul. Wita Stwosza 32, an institution of culture financed by the City of Wroclaw, presenting contemporary artworks since 1962. [editor’s note]

Mater and Song of the Night with Bach’s Mass in B minor, Monteverdi’s Vespers (under his baton) with Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion (under the direction of Henryk Czyz and a canonic cast of Leszek Herdegen, Stefania Wojtowicz, Andrzej Hiolski and Bernard Ladysz). For the first time contemporary music came face to face with history, revealed its contextual intricacies and discarded its mask of incongruity. Markowski’s worthy, albeit not as visionary successor was Tadeusz Strugala, who in successive years expanded the Festival’s formula by including ethnic and sacred music from outside the sphere of European culture; he also enhanced its profile by introducing academic seminars, film sessions and various educational initiatives. However, the features of contemporary music began to get somewhat blurred in this multitude of events, new works lost their position of equal partnership and were further pushed to the background by successive artistic directors (Ewa Michnik, Mariusz Smolij and Jan Latham-Koenig under the general directorship of Lidia Geringer d’Oedenberg; Paul McCreesh and Giovanni Antonioni under the present directorship of Andrzej Kosendiak) who placed greater emphasis on works from bygone eras, being as it were more “naturally” suited to the original concept of “Wratislavia” as a festival of vocal and vocal-instrumental music. Contemporary art, drawn out of the shadows by an audacious stroke of Andrzej Markowski’s baton, had grown up, matured and no longer fitted into the framework of the September festival. Which does not mean it disappeared from it altogether, nevertheless priority in this field was assigned to other Wroclaw events.

30.8.1969 Krzysztof Missona (conductor), Zofia Rysiówna (actress) – Niobe by Kazimierz Serocki (photo: IFWC archive)

Thus we return to the Polish Contemporary Music Festival, which – in a formula established by Markowski – was taken over in 1969 by Tadeusz Strugala initially with the benefit of support from the repertoire committee and from 1974 with independent responsibility for the event’s programming. Although the then president of the PCU, Jozef Patkowski expressed genuine admiration for “the breadth of activity, ambitious plans and faultless realizations” of 20th century Polish works, Strugala stressed that the ensemble of the Wroclaw Philharmonic “shows a marked preference for romanticism and is best suited to its style”. The new director achieved great things: he enrolled “Wratislavia” into the ranks of the European Festivals Association in Geneva, consolidated the orchestra’s performance level and initiated the establishment of the “Leopoldinum” chamber orchestra. His masterly interpretations of contemporary music – by among others Palestra, Bacewicz, Kilar and Maciejewski – remained nevertheless a step behind his beloved Viennese classicism and wealth of 19th century works. The doors opened wide by Markowski were again slammed shut, with contemporary music on the outside and somewhat afraid to knock. Not until the tenure of Wroclaw-born Marek Pijarowski in 1980 as the youngest director of any Philharmonic in Poland, did it knock again on the door. It knocked loud and hard demanding access. Pijarowski was destined to lead the ensemble and its related events during exceptionally difficult – and paradoxically – creative times. A deep political crisis, shortlived euphoria following the August events, the threat of martial law – all seemed to spur on Strugala’s protégée, who made every effort to maintain the prestige of the institution he was entrusted with. And he made a very wise decision by giving a greater voice to contemporary music, which reflected a mirror image of the turbulent realities towards the end of the century. He began to collaborate with his contemporaries like: Rafal Augustyn, one of Wroclaw’s most interesting musical personalities with whom he co-created the Polish Contemporary Music Festival between 1984-94 and later with Grazyna Pstrokonska-Nawratil, a studet of Poradowski and Natanson at Wroclaw’s PWSM (Polish Higher School of Music), a pupil of Boulez and Messiaen, at the time already a professor at her alma mater. Indeed it was during the tenure of 69

Pijarowski and Augustyn that in 1988 the Festival changed its somewhat overbearing name to the more cosmopolitan “Musica Polonica Nova”. It acquired clearly defined programming features focused on new native compositions that challenged the canons of Polish modernism. The Festival began to surprise and amaze – with its concert-collages organized from 1984 onwards, which soon became its hallmark; with the first appearance of Witold Lutoslawski during martial law; with the Polish premiere of his Partita; the Polish premiere of Gorecki’s Quartet No.1; premiere of Stefan Kisielewski’s Piano Concerto. Pijarowski left the Philharmonic towards the end of 2001, a few months earlier having resigned as the institution’s director. There followed in Wroclaw – as elsewhere – an era of culture management by professional managers, a reorganization of funding, a frantic search for sponsorship and not always fortunate personal career moves. The “Musica Polonica Nova” Festival began to lose its impetus, fell into a trap of parochialism, while the once meticulously set programmes increasingly carried characteristics of chance and a lack of distinct thematic trends. From among festivals organized or co-organized by the Philharmonic, presently known as the National Forum of Music (since 2005 under the directorship of Andrzej Kosendiak), the first to recover was “Wratislavia”. In 2005 “MusPolNova” – as it is affectionately known by artists and its attendees – acquired a younger sibling in the form of the “Musica Electronica Nova” Festival, a multi-media event targeted at a public open to the latest trends in contemporary music that combined electronics with instrumental works, elements of theatre, installations and the visual arts. “Electronica” from then on organized every other year in rotation with “Polonica”, offered a long-awaited breath of fresh air instantly appreciated by critics and animators of musical life. From the outset the Festival programmed by composers associated with electro-acoustic creativity (Stanislaw Krupowicz, Michal TalmaSutt, Rafal Augustyn, Elzbieta Sikora) was de facto destined for success: a prevalence of premiere performances, an increasing participation of composers and performers from abroad and a distinct thematic profile of its successive editions, making it necessary for the formula of its twin “Polonica” to be reevaluated. In 2010 the Festival’s directorship was entrusted to Andrzej Chlopecki, a distinguished publicist, critic and 70

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contemporary music theorist, who decided to correct its “gaps in awareness” by juxtaposing the works of young Wroclaw composers with contributions of those from Upper Silesia, Warsaw and Krakow, reveal unknown often modest examples of 20th century Polish music and set them in a wider cultural, historical and political context. Although Chlopecki’s plans were thwarted by his untimely death in 2012, his legacy is admirably continued by “Polonica’s” new director, Szmon Bywalec, conductor of Katowice’s New Music Orchestra, who – introduces foreign accents to the Festival, discovers works of Polish avant-garde outsiders (Barbara Buczkowna and Wojciech Nowak) and pays tribute to undisputed titans. Add to this the “Jazztopad” Festival initiated by Piotr Turkiewicz, who since 2008 continues to persuade stars of improvisational and new-sound music to bring to Wroclaw something special conceived for a particular visit – one can confidently state that projects organized under the auspices of the National Forum of Music guarantee the public an increasingly coherent image of contemporary music.

Andrzej Chłopecki – artistic director of MPN (photo: Joanna Stoga, 2012)

Furthermore, over the last several years the said projects have co-created this image. The National Forum of Music has commissioned over 40 works thanks to which premieres have become a constant feature of Wroclaw festivals. Works written for the NFM include those by both Polish and foreign composers such as: Agata Zubel, Pawel Mykietyn, Cezary Duchnowski, Pawel Szymanski, Pawel Lukaszewski, Marcin Markowicz, Slawomir Kupczak, Zygmunt Krauze, Krzysztof Knittel, Aldona Nawrocka, Wojciech Blazejczyk, Philippe Manoury, Marcin Bortnowski, Pawel Hendrich, William Parker, Christopher Hoffman, Tony Malaby, Charles

Lloyd, Heo Yoon-Jeong, Wojciech Ziemowit Zych, Terje Rypdal, Kenny Wheeler, John Surman, Agnieszka Stulginska, Dobromila Jaskot, Karol Nepelski, Adrian Foltyn, Jacek Sotomski, Eunho Chang, Mikolaj Laskowski, Mateusz Ryczek, Erik Freidlander, Wadada Leo Smith, Nathan Wooley, Rafal Augustyn, Michal Moc, Marek Pasieczny, Jaroslaw Płonka and Jakub Sarwas. In 2007 during “Wratislavia” we listened to the premiere performance of Song of Songs by Agata Zubel – a singer sensitive to every aspect of the human voice, a composer with masterly skills of building a narrative’s tensions and releases. A year later in the Philharmonic Hall we heard for the first time Pawel Mykietyn’s St Mark Passion, one of the most commented on and controversial compositions of the last few seasons, about which I then wrote: “we rubbed shoulders with a work, which may well be beyond our reach; a phenomenon which we are unable to appraise by hitherto known criteria. It could be a case of ‘the king is bare’. It could be a masterpiece”. Long remembered will be the concert of 16th September 2011 whose hero was Pawel Szymanski. On that occasion Camerata Silesia under the direction of Anna Szostek presented two exceptional compositions: Miserere written in 1993 and the premiere of Phylakterion for choir and instrumental ensemble – a work of amazing multi-layered textures, in every inch proving how Szymanski continues his practice of deconstructing music and building each new value from existing elements, by the same token extending the range of musical interpretation.

Pawel Hendrich. Younger critics marveled at the fresh approach to workmanship and brilliant solutions in works by Kupczak (Rucola), Hendrich (Liolit), Wojtek Blecharz (Hypopnea) as well as Warsaw-based Dariusz Przybylski and Krakowbased Wojciech Ziemowit Zych and Karol Napelski (PRIMORDIUM; Encephalon). Older critics admired the continuity of tradition in the works of a younger generation of composers from Katowice, Andrzej Nowak and Jaroslaw Mamczarski. Writing about Augustyn’s Hintapalinta, Monika Pasiecznik expressed regret that “before the listener had time to sample its dense harmonies, after a minute (?) it came to an end”. The organizers of this year’s Festival could not stop singing the praises of its performers: the unusual Nordlys Ensemble quartet (clarinet, violin, cello and piano), the phenomenal vocalist-improviser Phil Minton and the “Polityka” Passport-awarded TWOgether Duo, who perform in the unusual combination of cello and accordion. Next year’s “Musica Electronica Nova” promises a wealth of impressive events under the slogan FILM/CINEMA/SOUND. Rafal Augustyn in conversation with Grzegorz Chojnowski assured us that in music he does not seek wallpaper, a background for frying eggs or doing the gardening and that maybe this year he will be available. As a composer of course!

actionCONTRactionREaction , commission of MEN, 19.10.2013 (photo: Slawek Przerwa)

Krzysztof Knittel during the first performance of Partita II Inuit, Opening concert of MEN, 19.10.2013 (photo: Slawek Przerwa)

During recent editions of the “Musica Polonica Nova” there was much lively debate regarding premieres by composers associated with Wroclaw: Agata Zubel, Marcin Bortnowski, Cezary Duchnowski, Slawomir Kupczak and

Wroclaw rose like a Phoenix from the ashes. Where once stood Festung Breslau has been transformed into an open and generous expanse of experiencing music in every shape and form. As well as – or perhaps above all – contemporary music. Times of besieging fortresses are gone, foreign or domestic cities no longer exist. Eighteen million square meters of rubble have been assigned to oblivion. Time to open a new chapter.

Dorota Kozińska studied Latin and is a music critic and theatre critic, translator and author. For many years she worked for “Ruch Muzyczny magazine”. She is a lecturer in music history with Instytut Badań Literackich PAN, where she teaches postgraduate students. Dorota Kozińska translates poetry, fiction, essays and popular science works. She enjoys long-standing co-operations with Polish Radio Channel Two as well Tygodnik Powszechny and Teatr magazines. She is also an author of programmes for children and young people. A lover of cultures and histories of the East, she often travels to Asia. Dorota Kozińska co-organizes and participates in volunteer activities in and outside Poland. Dorota Kozińska (photo: by Anka Palusińska szuflada.net)

Translated by Anna Kaspszyk

The National Forum of Music (NFM) is an institution born from the merger of the two pillars of culture in Wrocław: the International Wratislavia Cantans Festival and the Wrocław Witold Lutosławski Philharmonic. With its technologically innovative concert venue and a modern organizational structure, The National Forum of Music serves as a platform for Lower-Silesian and national cultural initiatives and offers almost unlimited possibilities for developing artistic projects. The ultra-modern building of the National Forum of Music houses four concert halls, a recording studio, rehearsal rooms, conference and office rooms, and an exhibition space. The facility was designed by professor of architecture Stefan Kuryłowicz’s APA (Architectural Design Studio) Kuryłowicz & Associates, while the excellent acoustics were designed by the New York-based Artec Consultants, Inc., specialising in the planning and engineering of concert halls. Located in the heart of Wrocław, the building perfectly blends in with the space of the historic center of the city. It is built on today’s Wolności Square, the former Royal Forum, where a hundred years ago there were plans to construct an Art Forum – a place for holding state and military ceremonies. Originally, it was Andrzej Kosendiak who put forth the idea of a National Forum of Music and the Mayor of Wrocław Rafał Dutkiewicz has been lending his support for the execution of the construction work. The National Forum of Music also recalls the ancient idea of the forum: it is a space for dialogue and artistic dispute, as well as a civic centre, radiating across the entire city and the region, a national showcase. As a hub of cultural activity, it organises the work of eleven artistic ensembles: the NFM Symphony Orchestra, the NFM Choir, the NFM Leopoldinum Chamber Orchestra, the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, the Polish National Youth Choir, the Lutosławski Quartet, the NFM Boy Choir, the LutosAir Quintet, the NFM Ensemble, the Polish Cello Quartet, and the NFM Leopoldinum Soloist String Trio. Most of these groups were created thanks to the foundation of the NFM. The tremendous opportunities this new institution opens up in the cultural life of Wrocław have resulted in the establishment of attractive festivals – the NFM currently coordinates seven international events: Wratislavia Cantans Jazztopad, Musica Polonica Nova, Forum Musicum, the Leo Festival, Musica Electronica Nova, and the Academy of Ancient Music. The National Forum of Music is also the editor of the monthly magazine, Music in the City. The NFM activity includes numerous educational projects for children and youth, as well as initiatives directed at adults to promote their participation in cultural life. Along with the National Forum of Music, four new music schools have been set up over the past few years, a fact that distinguishes Wrocław from other Polish cities in terms of the development of art education. The creation of the National Forum of Music has generated a number of new jobs, both in the artistic ensembles formed as part of NFM projects, as well as in educational institutions. Bringing the National Forum of Music to life is also reflected in a significant increase in the attendance of Lower Silesian residents at cultural events, especially of the residents of small towns, thanks to the NFM projects which facilitate their attendance at Wrocław concerts. In one year’s time, the National Forum of Music building will welcome about four hundred thousand guests to a variety of artistic events. As a reliable partner theNFM is one of the most important institutions that form the programme of the European Capital of Culture – Wrocław 2016. The National Forum of Music is a brand name which is recognised worldwide and which represents Poland on the international arena. 72

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Composing Commissions by Maria Peryt

A project that brings together creative energy and passion, social needs, prudent cultural policies and best practices borrowed from the West… Sounds impossible, but isn’t. Over the first few years of its implantation, Composing Commissions, one of the newest initiatives launched by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of Poland, has proved all sceptics wrong, while revolutionising the realities of Polish contemporary music. When the first call for grants from the Collections – Composing Commissions priority programme was announced in 2012, Poland’s music community reacted with a mixture of hope and worry. The programme took a long time to design, and while it’s assumptions were never questioned, doubts would arise whenever details of it’s implementation were discussed. How to strike a compromise between the different needs of artists, the society, performers, governmental and nongovernmental organisations? How to evaluate the submissions received? Finally, how to build a transparent financial mechanism, considering that it will standardise artists’ fees, also of those working outside of the scheme? Composing Commissions were devised with a wider objective than merely satisfying the needs of the artistic community. The programme was, first and foremost, put in place to address the society’s need to experience latest art, to make it more available and accessible to audiences, and give the widest possible account of its diversity. Composing Commissions were to bring about numerous new pieces and their performances. The programme’s creators worked hard to ensure that the scheme is pluralistic, objective, and includes incentives for follow-up actions once the works are developed. They also had to make sure that the pieces are made more accessible, the programme facilitates and inspires collaboration between the mechanism’s beneficiaries, and is equipped with a set of norms and principles that govern the selection and evaluation process, taking into account how difficult it is to judge a sensitive material such as contemporary music – not to mention music that hasn’t been written yet.

One of the most controversial issues was the break-up of funds granted. The majority was to be used for the new work’s development, yet in some cases the remainder of the grant was not enough to cover the costs of the piece’s performance. Consequently, the maximum grant total as well as the maximum amount that may be allocated to performance were increased, e.g. in the case of opera pieces. To reach the widest possible group of potential beneficiaries, the scheme was made very flexible. Its daringly open formula proved a success. Currently, we are seeing works being commissioned by renowned ensembles, soloists, orchestras, state-funded cultural institutions (including philharmonic halls), as well as small non-governmental organisations, religious communities, and, starting from the third edition, musical schools and colleges. Once the overall idea was established, time came to tackle a very delicate issue. The matter of composers’ fees and free circulation of scores and recordings proved very contentious. How to compare the work of a prominent, worldrecognised artist and that of a talented emerging composer? How, on the other hand, not to create gaping disproportions in artistic fees? The mechanism now in operation was worked out together with the music community and stipulates precise criteria for calculating fees. As a result, the sum suggested by the applicant

is cross-checked using concrete guidelines, not groundless speculation. This makes the fund allocation scheme transparent and truly inclusive, with a large and diverse group of composers benefiting from the opportunities offered. The matter of free circulation of scores and recordings of the works’ premieres is still under discussion. The majority of composers and performers agree to grant a two-year license al lowing free circulation of their works, yet some are bound by restrictive contacts with their publishers, which hampers their participation in the programme. There has been cases when the commission was altered in the face of the composer’s or performer’s lack of consent for the recording of premiere to be made and then circulated. Although these have been rare instances, the problem reoccurs and may be discussed further in the future. As shown above, the Composing Commissions programme was a complex mechanism to devise and to implement. We have also presented an overview of the changes introduced. As the project has already seen a few editions, we will now focus on its implementation in practice. The operating principles Composing Commissions is a programme launched by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of Poland in 2012. From the very beginning the scheme has been operated by the Institute of Music and Dance in Warsaw. To date, three calls have been put in place (2012/13, 2013/14, 2014/15). The following statistical data give an overview of the programme’s scale and measurable effects. Overall, more that 600 applications have been submitted in response to the three calls announced, with 280 projects having been completed. Successful applications have been submitted by 136 eligible entities. Almost 300 new works of music have been developed (or will have been developed by the end of 2015), premiered and presented publicly (including as many as 56 symphony works, 85 chamber pieces, 45 vocal and vocal and instrumental pieces). The works are available to the public in the form of scores and recordings on the website of the Institute of Music and Dance.

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The scheme welcomes artistic collaborations, and gathered 291 composers altogether. Commissions were made mostly by Polish entities, and a big majority of the works debuted in Poland. Five international projects have been implemented, including one in Darmstadt. The list of beneficiaries includes, first and foremost, non-governmental institutions (more that 150 projects developed) and local cultural institutions (over 70 projects implemented). Eligible applicants are state-funded cultural institutions, local cultural institutions, nongovernmental organisations, churches and religious communities, businesses, public and non-public art schools and colleges. Each edition’s budget reached about 2 million Polish zloty.

Eligible candidates may apply for grants to gel them commission works of music, pieces incorporating music and choreography, or music and text, as well as multimedia pieces, including pieces developed for the scene, vocal (and instrumental) pieces, symphony, chamber, solo, and electroacoustic works, as well as pieces incorporating improvisation, or any other works whose primary element is music. Once the funding is granted, the creative process starts along with preparations for the new work’s

Audiovisual Institute – www.ninateka.pl. A work’s story would be incomplete without an account of its reception. The Institute of Music and Dance collects and publishes reviews of the pieces developed under the scheme. They are published i.e. in “Ruch Muzyczny” (the oldest and the most prestigious Polish magazine dedicated to classical music) and in “Presto” (colour magazine popularizing classics to wider audience).

premiere and its recording in a format that facilitates it’s further circulation. Implementation of a composing commission in practice Having received the commission, the composer sets out on the creative work. Throughout the process, the author uses a digital score in line with guidelines stipulated by the Institute of Music and Dance. This way all the scores available on the institute’s website meet high editorial standards. The entity in charge of the project’s implementation is responsible for the preparation and organisation of the premiere, as well as the event’s promotion. The premiere must be recorded, either in an audio, or audio and video format. The institute also ensures that the pieces are publicly available and promoted: all of the works are available for free for watching, listening to, downloading, and performing for two years from the day of their publication. Short bios of composers are also available at Polish Music Information Center website – www. polmic.pl. Intuitive and accessible What do you have to do use the scores? You simply need to go to www.imit.org.pl and select “Resources” in the top menu. Once you click on “To Perform”, you will be able to browse through the pieces using different filters (composer’s name, programme edition, genre). When you click on a selected piece, you will find a set of basic information about the work, and will be able to listen to it and see the score’s title page. Registered users may download the full score. The recordings are available courtesy of NINATEKA and in association with the National

Translated by Monika Tacikowska

Maria Peryt (photo: Tomasz Opałka) Maria Peryt – musicologist, journalist, Manager of Classics at Warner Music Poland, Head of Promotion for Transatlantyk Festival Poznań 2014 – holds degrees in musicology and public relations from the University of Warsaw. Besides working in the record industry and in classical music promotion, she also does journalistic and academic work. Her research work is devoted to contemporary music viewed in the broader sociocultural context. She is currently working on a book-length publication entitled Postmodernizm się skończył [Postmodernism Has Ended].

Translated by Michał Szostało

Karol Szymanowski and the International Society for Contemporary Music: 1923-1939 (The Polish original was printed in “Ruch Muzyczny” No. 26 of 23rd December 2007) by Andrzej Chłopecki

The most important contemporary music event of international significance in Poland before World War II, and before the foundation of the “Warsaw Autumn”, was the festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music, held in Warsaw and Cracow by the ISCM Polish Section in April 1939. The political situation that accompanied the 17th ISCM World Music Days1 in Poland could hardly be more tense. The strong historical links between the first two international music festivals in Polish history – the ISCM World Music Days in 1939 and the first “Warsaw Autumn” in 1956 – seem undoubtable. Already the first paragraph of the commentary printed by the Polish Composers’ Union in the “Warsaw Autumn” programme book stressed that connection: “Contemporary music festivals in Poland would most likely have developed a fine tradition by now, had it not been for the tragic years of World War II. The 1939 Festival organised in Warsaw by the International Society for Contemporary Music opened – or so it seemed to us at that time – a new splendid era in the history of contacts between contemporary music in Poland and worldwide.” Considering the time when it was published, its authors, and its official context (the preface to the programme of the first edition of an international festival) – this statement was of unique significance. It is common knowledge that the “Warsaw Autumn” would have been impossible in 1951 or 52, in the Stalinist era and under the dictates 1 ISCM World Music Days is the official the name of the ISCM festival used since the 1970s [editor’s note].

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of the official socialist-realist doctrine. In a communist state in the mid-1950s, presenting the “bourgeois” tradition of 1930s Poland (the “Sanation”2) in a positive light and declaring the will to take up and continue a project from that rejected past – was clearly an ideological sensation. We should remember that the Polish Section of the ISCM resumed its activity in 1946, hoping to legalise its status in communist Poland, which was officially achieved in April 1949, but – as it soon turned out – only for a few months. Already before the end of that year, after the National Conference of Composers and Music Critics in Łagów Lubuski, where the doctrine of socialist realism was announced and embraced – the official activity of the ISCM Polish Section was suspended. The political thaw of 1957 made it possible to resume it for a while, but in May 1960 the Internal Affairs Office of the Presidium of Warsaw’s National Council announced the liquidation of the Polish Section (registered as a separate society – the PTMW). For twenty years (until 1980) it was the Polish Composers’ Union that maintained contacts with the International Society for Contemporary Music. One should note that the 17th ISCM World Music Days in 1939, the 1st “Warsaw Autumn” in 1956 and the 42nd ISCM World Music Days 2 This is the popular term describing the political movement that ruled in Poland in 1926–1939. Sanation took its name from Marshal Piłsudski’s call for a “moral sanation” (healing) of public life in Poland. For ideological reasons, the politics and public realities of that period were condemned and rejected by the authorities of communist Poland after World War II [editor’s note].

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held again in Poland in 1968 (jointly with the 12th “Warsaw Autumn”) were all historically and politically ill-fated. In 1939 heavy clouds gathered over the country as war was more and more often considered inevitable. The participation of many German, Austrian and Czech musicians was cancelled under the pressure of Nazi propaganda (e.g. the planned European premiere of Anton Webern’s String Quartet Op. 28 did not take place). In 1956 the political crisis in Poland and the manoeuvres of the Soviet army heading for Warsaw – but soon turning toward Budapest instead – did not disrupt the festival, but artistic raptures were accompanied by extreme political emotions oscillating between hope and despair. In 1968, the participation of Polish troops in the Warsaw Pact’s August invasion of Czechoslovakia led to a partial boycott of the festival, also by the ISCM authorities, which moved the conference traditionally accompanying the festival to a different time and place (Baden-Baden). In his foreword to the combined 1968 “Warsaw Autumn” – World Music Days3 programme book, Heinrich Strobel, President of the ISCM, wrote: “The ‘Warsaw Autumn’, with its comprehensive programmes, has for years decisively contributed to the high esteem that Polish new music is held in. I am happy that the Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music is held this year jointly with the “Warsaw Autumn”. I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to all those who have contributed to the organisation of the festival. I wish the delegates to, and guests of the ISCM Music Days a wonderful and inspiring stay in the Polish capital.” Later, however, Strobel decided to boycott the festival, creating a storm in the international contemporary music circles. One of the initiators of “boycotting the boycott” was Per Nørgård, guest of both the 12th and the recent 50th edition of the “Warsaw Autumn”. He protested against the boycott of the 1968 World Music Days, and thus also – of the “Warsaw Autumn”, in an open letter where he explained that Lutosławski, Penderecki and the Polish Composers’ Union certainly did not attack Czechoslovakia and did not conspire to kill the hopes of the Prague Spring. Thus the Polish music world should not suffer 3 The official name of the festival in Warsaw in 1968 was: the 42nd World Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music” [editor’s note].

because of the military decisions of the state authorities. The intention of the Polish music world, as every year, was to open the door for music from various parts of Europe and the world, so that all groups in the audience could mutually become familiar with one another’s aesthetic ideas and achievements. Eventually Heinrich Strobel announced that he could not come to Warsaw due to… ill health. It was only the third edition of World Music Days organised in Poland (in 1992, held separately from the “Warsaw Autumn”) that could peacefully proceed without the ominous cloud of political discord hovering over concert halls and over the minds and hearts of organisers, critics and audiences alike. We should add one more “critical” date to this list: the ISCM Polish Section, in response to a query from the Society’s authorities concerning the possibility of holding the World Music Days in Poland, offered to organise them in our country in 1927, and protested against ISCM’s decision to grant this honour to Frankfurt-am-Main. After the May Coup of 19264, however, the Polish proposal was rejected and Frankfurt won the competition. This was chronologically the first of so many instances in which politics had an impact on the work of the Society. * The 1910s saw the rise of the first initiatives aiming to save contemporary music from sinking into social oblivion. The aim was to salvage the long observed natural course of musical evolution despite pressure from the now enriched bourgeoisie – who only liked those songs that they could learn by heart – notwithstanding the fact that the philharmonic halls and opera houses, the chandeliers and all that sham did in fact belong to the bourgeoisie. In order to preserve the sense of musical culture – one that History could uphold – special contemporary music concert series and festivals were organised. The same also concerned early music. Arnold Schönberg’s Society for Private Musical Performances was set up in 1918, and in 1910 Maurice Ravel initiated the concerts of the Société Musicale Indépendante. In 1917 Alfredo Casella established the Società Italiana di 4 The armed coup d’etat carried out by Marshal Józef Piłsudski in Poland (in Warsaw) on 12th-15th May 1926. It was related to the country’s poor economic and political situation [editor’s note].

Musica Moderna. It was out of these concert projects that the national sections of the International Society for Contemporary Music arose (more or less directly) in the early 1920s – first in Austria, France and Italy. In August 1922 in Salzburg, Universal, the Viennese publisher of Karol Szymanowski’s music, held a series of contemporary chamber music concerts which became a major artistic event and an impulse. The composer and music theorist Rudolf Réti and the composermusicologist Egon Wellesz together came up with the idea of creating an International Society for Contemporary Music, indicating London as its most appropriate seat. They proposed that festivals of new music (similar to that presented in 1922 in Salzburg) be held annually in different European cities; that national sections be established in each country, and thus form a kind of network uniting Europe and the world in the mission of, and enthusiasm for, contemporary music. A composers’ League of Nations encompassing the entire world… As early as 1922, sections of the Society were set up in Denmark, Germany, Great Britain and France, while the new music society founded in 1920 in Czechoslovakia naturally merged with this network. 1923 saw the establishment of the ISCM’s sections in Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, the United States, and Italy, 1924 – in Argentina and the Soviet Union (the latter was banned in 1933 – in the same year as the German section). The Polish and Romanian sections officially became part of the ISCM structures in 1925. * In an article entitled Notes in the Margin of the Prague Festival, printed in the literary magazine “Wiadomości Literackie” of 13th July 1924, Karol Szymanowski wrote: “The Society, which – as its very name indicates – is concerned exclusively with contemporary, not with ‘the most extreme’ music, aims to organise international concerts and support especially those young talents whose life in their national environments has been made miserable due to the fact that their music is seen as not quite ‘correct’. Naturally, it does not mean that well known and widely recognised names do not appear in the Society’s concert programmes, especially with regard to works which for one 80

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reason or another have rarely been performed. The Society’s ‘international’ nature – though the epithet ‘internationale’ may sound unpleasant to our ears – has in fact nothing to do with its political counterpart. It reflects the dream, possibly a futile one, about a panhuman (or at least panEuropean) art, which is a dream of the highest and most noble sort as far as the genuine spiritual brotherhood of nations is concerned. Ironically, however, each successive ISCM festival belies these hopes, creating an ever greater gap between the fundamental ideals and aims of the various racial groups: German, Romance, and Slavic. This could become the starting point for far-reaching generalisations and characterisations, which we will deliberately pass over in silence, unwilling to wave the (reputedly) red rag of ‘new art’ in front of the ‘proper’ and orthodox artistic groups in our society.” In 1933 in Madrid, Szymanowski delivered a speech entitled The Future of Culture: “The foundation of the International Society for Contemporary Music, and its excellent organisation, has made it possible to present all the most outstanding achievements selected from each country’s music during annual festivals. This confrontation of different styles and trends provides an overview of all the wealth of new music, and allows us to pass informed judgments. I believe there is no danger of this leading to any form of new ‘universalism’, that is, to a unification of musical language into some sort of bland and colourless ‘Esperanto’ to be used by the future generations of composers. Today it seems obvious to us that interpersonal understanding does not depend on blurring the natural differences resulting from environment and race, but on doing away with those ‘spiritual trade barriers’ that result from a false concept of national interests. Those barriers are an obstacle to the mutual communication and agreement of different peoples.” * We know from Karol Szymanowski’s correspondence that initially he was far from enthusiastic about the idea of the new Society, especially as the first person in his circles to become interested in the subject was Stefania Różycka, wife of the composer Ludomir Różycki. Half a year after the foundation of the ISCM, she addressed Adolf Chybiński (in a letter of 5th March 1923):

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“An international movement on an immense scale has begun in the music world. Are you aware that an international music committee set up in London has called upon all the nations of the world to create their own national committees, which will maintain permanent contact with the central committee in London? The mission of each national committee is to inform London about music events, to send scores, magazines, etc. Each year a congress and a music festival will be held in a different city, and each section is to send its delegate, each nation being given just one vote. Cesar Soerschinger, editor of the ‘Musical Courier’ and the American representative in the committee, has addressed me with a request to set up such a section in Poland. At the same time London presses me to send as many materials as possible concerning the most recent Polish music. Apart from Jachimecki’s brilliant article in the ‘Musical Quarterly’, I have nothing on Szymanowski by Polish musicologists, and nothing about current Polish music. About my husband’s works I have plenty of materials and articles, but they are all in foreign languages! And there are no texts about Karłowicz. It is unforgivable negligence on the part of our music society, showing a disregard for our own music. Rather than dwelling on the causes of this state of affairs, we should try to change it as quickly as possible. Today we are the strongest Slavonic state, and we must claim the position that we deserve – not by servile praise of other nations’ art, but by imposing our own values on the world. Members of the international committee (Profs Weissmann, Soerschinger, Dent, Gatti and others) know and appreciate Polish music, which they have frequently stressed. The attitude of our musicologists appears the more painful and inexplicable in this context. [...] I would be extremely grateful if you took this matter in your hands. I am reluctant to entrust it to anyone else, lest this important task should be mishandled. I am afraid that our delegates to the congresses, rather than discussing our own music, will go on about Wagner and Schönberg! The committee is to include our most eminent musicians. I hope you will also join our efforts.”

On 8th March, Adolf Chybiński informed Karol Szymanowski: “Różycka sent me a letter, too important to ignore or make light of. For the sake of our friendship, I want to know your view, categorically and immediately. Reply at once, as even a day’s delay may prove decisive. You must join the Polish section if you care for the good of our country. I offer you the presidency of our committee, for your own sake and because of your foreign connections. Do not worry about that weasel doing something of her own accord! I will not accept petticoat rule, or the dictates of Różycki and the Jews. You will be in charge! But something must be done at once.” Karol Szymanowski replied on 14th March: “…I have received that famous letter from the Polish Cosima! […] And I am not really sure what to advise you. Judging by the names you gave me (Gatti – an old fool, Soerschinger – a common swine, etc.), all this committee is some kind of sham and the ‘Society’s’ makeup puts me off making any closer contacts. […] I am very curious what you are going to write to that woman?...” * Despite his initial distrust, Karol Szymanowski soon came within the orbit of the ISCM’s activity and began his active collaboration with the Society as one of Europe’s major composers and the most important figure in the ISCM’s Polish Section, named the Polish Society for Contemporary Music (PTMW). At the ISCM festival in Prague (1924), Karol Szymanowski – jointly with Grzegorz Fitelberg, Mateusz Gliński and others – set up the Polish Section of the ISCM and became its President until the time of formal registration. It was this event that Szymanowski commented upon in his (above-quoted) article Notes in the Margin of the Prague Festival. In September 1924 an assembly of the PTMW members was held in Warsaw and elected Szymanowski President of the Board, though officially the Society was registered in Poland only in the following year. He was re-elected as President of the PTMW in 1928, and two years later, “in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the promotion of modern music in Poland in general and to the Society’s work in particular”, he was granted

the titles of honorary member and honorary president of the Polish Section. Karol Szymanowski’s letters do not reveal much enthusiasm for his work in the Society. On the contrary: he expressed concern, makes reservations and presents critical remarks. On the other hand, what is evident is his desire to reconcile care for his own affairs with the need to curb personal ambitions for the sake of properly representing all Polish composers, which his function in the Society obliged him to do: “The Polish Section of the ISCM and my elevated post of President have turned out to be the scourge of my life, and I am positive about it! I have already had to deal with a great many letters (including one to Casella), which my secretary presses me to sign or reply to (I hate him: he seems to have nothing else to do in his life but to plague me with the Section’s current business!)” (from a letter to Helena Kahn-Casella of 6th August 1924). “Naturally I am always in the public eye as head of the ISCM’s Polish Section, also now when of all the Polish works again only my Quartet has been accepted. You can imagine how fondly my dear ‘colleagues’ talk about me” (from a letter to Zofia and Paweł Kochański of 20th March 1925). “I am not sure if I should submit my Stabat Mater to the jury of this year’s international music festival! I recently talked to Casella and it may be more appropriate that I – as President [of the ISCM’s Polish Section] – do not send in any of my compositions!” (from a letter to Emil Hertzka of 21st December 1926) “As concerns Piotr [Perkowski’s] composition not being sent to our jury: I am not in the jury of our Section (which, frankly, hardly does anything at all). I gave Gliński some advice as to the kind of compositions that ought to be sent to London. Our jury acted against my advice and I can see they made some boobs again (they are sending Różycki, Karłowicz, etc. all the time). I believe that in this state of affairs it was a proof of my great sensibility and friendship for Piotr to send his works directly to London, ‘bypassing’ our Polish jury – and honestly they should stop sulking over this decision. As for the Stabat Mater, it was submitted against my will!” (from a letter to Helena Kahn-Casella of 24th February 1927)

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“During the festival in Frankfurt, the jury rejected my Stabat Mater, choosing instead some little known composer whose name I do not recall. This is of no import to me, but it is very characteristic of the SIMC jury” (from a letter to Helena Kahn-Casella of 21st March 1930, after a performance of his Stabat Mater in Paris). It should be noted in this context that Szymanowski criticised the presentation to the international public of music that he himself disdained (e.g. Różycki), and also protested against sending Karłowicz, whom he classified in the same historical-aesthetic category with Noskowski’s The Steppe. He was right to believe that Mieczysław Karłowicz’s works might not attract the attention of the ISCM jury selecting works for the successive festivals, and that by proposing such repertoire the Polish section presented itself in a very unfavourable light. Even though Karłowicz’s music was recommended for the ISCM festivals several times, none of his works was ever accepted by the international jury. * In all fairness, it must be stressed that from the very beginning of the ISCM’s activity Szymanowski’s music clearly had a privileged position. Already on 13th June 1923, even before the first ISCM festival in Salzburg, the French Section of the Society held a concert of works by Szymanowski and Manuel de Falla in the Parisian Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier. During this concert, Maria Freund, Paweł Kochański and Mieczysław Horszowski performed the Violin Sonata Op. 9, Myths, Masks, three of the Four Songs to Lyrics by Rabindranath Tagore, one of the Three Lullabies Op. 48 and one of the Four Songs to Words by Tadeusz Miciński Op. 11. In the same year in December, the ISCM’s Austrian Section presented the song cycle Słopiewnie during a concert in Vienna. Neither the presence of Szymanowski’s works in the programmes of these concerts, nor their performances at the Society’s first festivals in Salzburg and Prague were in any way inspired by the Polish section, which had not started its activity by that time. Interestingly, Karol Szymanowski also served on the jury of the composer competition accompanying the 8th Summer Olympics in Paris in 1924.

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The task of the ISCM Polish Section’s first national jury, appointed in 1924, was to recommend compositions to the international jury programming the 1925 festival in Venice. The Polish jury submitted works by Mieczysław Karłowicz (Stanisław and Anna Oświecim), Łucjan Kamieński (Sonata for violin and piano), Ludomir Różycki (Piano Concerto), and three pieces by Karol Szymanowski (Symphony No. 3, String Quartet No. 1, Słopiewnie). From this list, the international jury chose Szymanowski’s String Quartet Op. 31. In the following year (1926), Karol Szymanowski took part in the programming of the Zurich Festival as a member of the international jury. From among the works proposed by the Polish Section (again Karłowicz’s symphonic poem Stanisław and Anna Oświecim, compositions by Ludomir Różycki, Ludomir Michał Rogowski, Łucjan Kamieński, Tadeusz Jarecki and Aleksander Tansman) – the jury selected for performance a fragment of Tansman’s ballet Le Jardin du Paradis, which garnered highly favourable reviews at the festival. Szymanowski supported this choice: “I reluctantly stood up for Tansman”, he confessed, and criticised the other Polish recommendations as artistically ill-advised. For the 1927 Frankfurt festival, the Polish section sent in works by Mieczysław Karłowicz (A Sorrowful Tale), Łucjan Kamieński, Henryk Melcer, Ludomir Michał Rogowski, Ludomir Różycki, Aleksander Tansman and Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater. Szymanowski’s claim, expressed in a letter to Alfredo Casella’s wife, that the latter composition was not accepted for performance – is not quite accurate, as from the Polish list the jury selected precisely this single work, which was then – for technical and organisational reasons – put on a “standby list” and recommended for future performance. Those “technical reasons” may have had something to do with the difficulty of including a large-scale vocalinstrumental work in the programme of one of the concerts, though this excuse did not sound very convincing. The recommendation of the jury – consisting of Alois Hába, Philipp Jarnach and Walther Straram – proved effective, however, as at the 8th World Music Days in Liège (organised jointly with the 1st Congress of the International Musicological Society) the Stabat Mater was performed at

a fringe concert, under Grzegorz Fitelberg and with Stanisława Szymanowska as one of the soloists. This is what Henry Prunières wrote in a review in “La Revue Musicale” (of 1st September 1927) about the absence of the Stabat Mater from the festival programme: “The oratorio by the Croatian composer Božidar Širola took nearly three hours to perform. After the second part the hall nearly emptied and one could not help feeling regret at the thought that for the sake of this oratorio, the jury left out of the programme Karol Szymanowski’s magnificent Stabat Mater, one of the greatest religious works in today’s art.” For the 1928 festival in Siena Poland did not recommend any works. The festival, however, gave rise to a heated controversy between Polish and Czech music circles, and also within the Polish music world itself. The dispute mostly took place in the “Muzyka” monthly, whose editor was Mateusz Gliński, secretary of the ISCM Polish Section. After the festival, Stefania Łobaczewska sharply criticised the total absence of Polish music from its programme and accused the Czech Section of organising a separate concert dedicated exclusively to their music, which supposedly proved that they put their own particular interests first, at the expense of international solidarity. This is not the right place to describe the details of the debate between Warsaw and Prague, but it should be emphasised that for the Polish Section, which kept organising concerts and maintained very active regional branches (e.g. in Lvov), this was the critical moment in its relations with the International Society. ISCM’s Board in London interpreted the lack of any Polish recommendations for the Siena festival as a boycott, provoked by the omission of Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater from the previous year’s festival in Frankfurt. Mateusz Gliński explained that the jury simply did not meet as composers did not propose any music for the jury’s consideration. In the same 1928, Karol Szymanowski was re-elected as President of the ISCM Polish Section. The whole affair reflects rather badly on his ability to handle crises. Instead of acting as a mediator (when open letters were exchanged between Prague and Warsaw, and

Gliński attempted to block the publication of the Czech Section’s statement in the “Muzyka” monthly), he chose the role of a critic stressing the values of new Czech music and exposing the crisis in the Polish Section, which he himself presided. Another crisis occurred in 1934, when the international jury did not select any of the Polish compositions recommended for the festival in Florence, and in protest, the Polish delegation to the festival refused to take part in the ISCM’s General Assembly. Owing to Szymanowski’s informal intercession, the programme of the 1929 ISCM festival in Geneva included a performance of Jerzy Fitelberg’s String Quartet No. 2. After Tansman’s ballet and, naturally, the works of Szymanowski himself, this was another Polish score presented during the World Music Days. For the next edition, held in 1930 in Liège, where the Stabat Mater was also performed, the international jury selected Karol Rathaus’s Sonata No. 2 and Jerzy Fitelberg’s Divertimento. For the following year’s festival in London and Oxford, the Polish Section recommended Szymanowski’s Harnasie and Kurpie Songs as well as pieces by Michał Kondracki (strongly supported by Szymanowski), Roman Palester (already an active collaborator of the PTMW), Stanisław Wiechowicz, again by Jerzy Fitelberg, Jan Maklakiewicz, Ilza Sternicka-Niekrasz, Józef Koffler, and Alfred Gradstein. “I was really surprised that they chose those little choruses of mine,” wrote Szymanowski, referring to the cycle of Kurpie Songs, translated into English by Zofia Rościszowska, which was performed by London Select Choir under Arnold Fulton. Altogether, apart from Szymanowski’s music, eleven works by other Polish composers had been performed at the ISCM festivals by 1939: three by Jerzy Fitelberg (1929, 1932 and 1937), three by Józef Koffler (1931, 1933 and 1938), two by Roman Palester (1931, 1936), two by Karol Rathaus (1930, 1938), two by Bolesław Woytowicz (1932, 1935), one by Aleksander Tansman (1926) and one by Jan Maklakiewicz (1931). * In 1926 Karol Szymanowski was invited to serve, together with Arthur Honegger and Hermann Scherchen, on the international jury selecting works for the 4th ISCM festival in Zurich. Two years later he was appointed principal deputy 84

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chairman of the jury preparing the programme for Siena (1928). In 1935, along with Béla Bartók, he was granted an honorary membership of the ISCM, previously awarded only to Richard Strauss, Igor Stravinsky, Maurice Ravel and Manuel de Falla. He became a prominent figure in the Society. * The inclusion in the programme of the 1st “Warsaw Autumn” in 1956 of Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater – also performed during the ISCM World Music Days in Poland in 1939 – can be considered as a symbolic gesture. The composition acted as a bridge between the two festivals. The Kurpie Songs cycle, previously presented at the 1931 ISCM Festival in London, was another work by Szymanowski featured in the programme of the 1956 “Warsaw Autumn” – and another important bridge… It only seems natural nowadays that the personality (and therefore also the views, statements, diagnoses) and artistic output (musical works, aesthetic standpoint and taste) of Karol Szymanowski are now regarded as a key factor that provided Polish music – and culture in general – with a long-time perspective and a broad horizon. Szymanowski was constantly at grips with himself and with Polish culture… His success was not as obvious in his lifetime as that of Igor Stravinsky; his concepts were not as fundamental and prophetic as those of Arnold Schönberg; he was not as radically dogmatic as Anton Webern, not as powerfully colourful in his use of ethnic traditions as Manuel de Falla, and not as confused in his aesthetic (and other) choices as Richard Strauss. Contrary to the Polish myth about the composer being “underestimated”, however, Szymanowski’s work was fully recognised and appreciated in the international scene already during his lifetime. Until recently Polish authors used to complain that the world does not see the composer of King Roger as a “20thcentury classic”, on a par with others. But then – with whom? With Stravinsky, Hindemith or Ravel? It seems now, from the specific perspective of the 21st century, that the “three just men” among the 20th-century “classics” were: Karol Szymanowski (meandering, restless, indecisive), Alban Berg (longing, hypochondriacal, neurasthenic, who wrote his Violin Concerto “To the Memory of an Angel”

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with his eye fixed on Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1) and Béla Bartók (vital, feeding on the national sentiments of his South-EastCentral Europe, tamed by the rationalism of the “pan-European” form). We should reject the grim view of Karol Szymanowski – “our Karol” of Tymoszówka5 and the Villa Atma6 – as a composer underestimated, unnoticed, and ignored by the world in his lifetime. We should not believe the complaints about the world’s indifference, of which so many can be found in his letters. He was noticed and appreciated, and the world did not remain indifferent to his work. A major crisis in the reception of his music came only later – in the 1940s and 50s. One of the contexts in which his work has been restored to life and revitalised was – and somehow still is – the “Warsaw Autumn”. Had he lived to see the 1950s, he would probably have complained in his letters of difficulties and of excessive workload, but in 1956, at the age of just 74, he would undoubtedly have become… one of the initiators of the “Warsaw Autumn”. In preparing this article, I have drawn on such publications as Anton Haefeli’s Die Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM). Ihre Geschichte von 1922 bis zur Gegenwart. Zurich 1982; Dorota Szwarcman 60 lat Polskiego Towarzystwa Muzyki Współczesnej. Kalendarium działalności 1924-1984 [60 Years of the Polish Society for Contemporary Music in a Chronological Perspective: 1924-1984]. Warsaw 1987; Karol Szymanowski Writings on Music, Correspondence. Ed. Teresa Chylińska, Cracow, 1984-2002. The article is an extended version of a paper delivered during the international conference “The Warsaw Autumn as a Realisation of Karol Szymanowski’s Vision of Modern Polish Music”, organised by the Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC at the Institute of Musicology, University of Warsaw during this year’s “Warsaw Autumn” festival.

Sitting, from the left: ALBERT ROUSSEL, KAROL SZYMANOWSKI and ARNOLD BAX. Standing, from the left: GRZEGORZ FITELBERG, KAREL B. JIRAK (composer), STEPAN CHODOUNSKY of Národní Divadlo, GEORGES M. WITKOWSKI (conductor from Lyon), FRITZ REINER (conductor), JOSEF SZIGETI (violinist), R. KASTNER (musicologist from Berlin)

Tanslated by Tomasz Zymer

Andrzej Chłopecki during World Mussic Days in Germany, 1995 (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka) Andrzej Chłopecki (1950–2012) – musicologist and music theorist, music critic and writer, organiser of musical events. He graduated from the Institute of Musicology, University of Warsaw. In 1975–1981 and 1991-2012 he worked for the Polish Radio. From 1994 he programmed the Polish Radio’s contributions to the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. President of the “Friends of the Warsaw Autumn” Foundation; head of the Programme Board of Polish Audiovisual Publishing House (now NInA), the Repertoire Committee of the “Warsaw Autumn” Festival and the Programme Board of the periodical MusikTexte – Zeitschrift für Neue Musik in Cologne. He designed concert and festival programmes as well as composer commissions. In the last years of his life, he was the artistic director of the Musica Polonica Nova festival.

5 The composer’s birth place [editor’s note]. 6 A historic chalet in Zakopane where Szymanowski lived in 1930-36, currently: the Karol Szymanowski Museum, branch of the National Museum in Cracow [editor’s note].

Double live of the Polish Society for Contemporary Music1 by Dorota Szwarcman

Within two years after the International Society for Contemporary Music has been set up, its Polish Section came into being. It was founded by Karol Szymanowski (whose music was performed at the ISCM international Festivals since the very outset of its existence) with Zbigniew Drzewiecki, Mateusz Gliński and Felicjan Szopski’s. The initial seat of the Polish society for Contemporary Music was at the editorial office of the Muzyka magazine, edited and published by Mateusz Gliński. Up till 1930 the ISCM Polish Section was successfully involved mainly in exporting Polish music. Polish composers repeatedly had their seat in the International Jury of the ISCM World Music Days2 or in the presidium of the ISCM board; moreover, Szymanowski was appointed an honorary member of the Society. In 1930 the Polish Society for Contemporary Music began to put more efforts in popularizing contemporary music in Poland. In many Polish cities the branches of the Polish Society for Contemporary Music were established. Their work boiled down to organizing concerts, broadcasts, lectures; it took 9 years to build a firm foundation for organizing the ISCM World Music Days3. The fact that they were held in April, 1939 seems from our today viewpoint, quiet shocking. During the Second World War the Polish Society for Contemporary Music activity was banned. But at the first postwar World Music Days festival in London (one of jury members was Grzegorz Fitelberg) four pieces by Polish composers were performed. The following vicissitudes of the Polish Society for Contemporary Music mirror the vicissitudes of the country itself. 1 Reprint from article firstly published in Bulletin of the ISCM World Music Days Warsaw 1992. [editor’s note] 2 Before the World War II – official name of the event was Festival of International Society for Contemporary Music. [editor’s note] 3 See footnote No. 2. [editor’s note]

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1946 – resuming intensive work and submitting an application to be registered 1949 – registration 1950 – dissolution 1950-56 – a period of formal non-existence 1957 – attempt to resume work; 1960 – liquidation by the Interior Affairs Office of the Warsaw National Committee Presidium 1961-77 – the Polish Society for Contemporary Music as a part of the Polish Composers’ Union Only in 1977 after two years of endeavors was the Polish Society for Contemporary Music registered again and it has been working since then. There are two postwar histories of the Polish Society for Contemporary Music – official and unofficial. The latter one includes broadcasts organized when the Society remained formally non-existant, at first in forties, latter in the sixties. Taking into account this non-existence, the unofficial history scores many success of Polish composers abroad. The ambiguity of this situation entailed the ambiguity of the ensuring Warsaw ISCM World Music Days4 in 1968 in connection with Warsaw Autumn. The Festival was boycotted by foreign activists musicians and the ISCM General Assembly Members due to the Invasion of Czecho-Slovakia. This year for the first time the Warsaw ISCM World Music Days takes place in an unambiguous situation. And let it be like this for good. Translated by Małgorzata Grudzień

4 Official name of the event was World Festival of International Society for Contemporary Music. [editor’s note]

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Dorota Szwarcman is a music critic writing for “POLITYKA” weekly magazine. She studied composition at The Frederic Chopin Univesity of Music in Warsaw. She is author of many books, included last one – Czas Warszawskich Jesieni (Warsaw Autumn’s Time).

Dorota Szwarcman (photo from the Author’s private collection)

DIE INTERNATIONALE GESELLSCHAFT FÜR NEUE MUSIK (IGNM). IHRE GESCHICHTE VON 1922 BIS ZUR GEGENWART

[THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR CONTEMPORARY MUSIC (ISCM): ITS HISTORY FROM 1922 TO THE PRESENT] - EXCERPTS by Anton Haefeli The monumental book by Anton Haefeli on the history of the International Society for Contemporary Music includes some fragments describing festivals, which took place in Poland, in the years 1938 and 1939. The book was issued in 1982 by Atlantis Musikbuch – Verlag AG. Here are some quotations from this book. Description of the festival in Warsaw in 1939 – a bit bitter tale of the festival in Warsaw 1939 The participation in the Warsaw Festival (1421 April 1939) required significant sacrifice from non-Polish performers and visitors. The refusal of some of them was caused by fear (eg. Sacher, Sanzogno, Rivier and Sigurd M.) Rascher, the famous saxophone virtuoso, reasoned that it was mad to go to Warsaw and to perform in the ISCM festival and he refused in the last moment possible. Partially, he was forced by the situation (the Czechoslovak and Italian sections of ISCM had been disbanded1; the ban on the participation of the Czechoslovak composers and performers had been imposed, which alone caused the impossibility of performing six pieces, among 1 By note. 39 it becomes understandable why a work of a jury member has been played (otherwise, of course, prohibited by the rules).

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them the European première of the Weber String Quartet 2). According to the story, told by Sten Borman, those, who courageously arrived in Warsaw, had to experience, among others, shelling of their train! Well, it is not difficult to understand those, who remained at home. It seemed somewhat a miscarried idea to think about a trip to take a part in an event in Warsaw, let alone to go there just weeks after the invasion to Czechoslovakia, after the German ultimate claims on Poland and the following rejection by the Polish government. Jemnitz started his review of the Warsaw festival accordingly: An international music festival? Now? In Warsaw? Politically oriented readers, and who does not belong to them nowadays?, would take it perhaps with incredulity shaking their heads. – Is this possible? And this land, which we may suppose, having been fully taken in claim, is just experiencing hard times, and in exactly the same time is organising the festival partly in Warsaw, partly in Krakow and is preparing hard to conduct this music week with such a dignity as only possible. How easy and convenient it would it have been for Poland, if the country had given up their 2 sequel commitment of 1968, cf. note 39

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commitments made a year ago and, in this situation, had simply cancelled the event. Its argument (due to unforeseen circumstances unfortunately it was not in the position to do so) would perhaps have not made anybody angry, everyone had to take it in. But Poland did not choose the easier way of cheap retreat, quite the contrary: they kept their promise earnestly and fulfilled its task in the critical moment of history with full delight and love of the European spiritual culture, which is typical in the most beautiful way for the Slavic peoples3. Since this festival certainly had little propaganda value for the new music (remember that in newspapers and magazines issued outside Poland, only two reviews of the seventeenth ISCM festival have been found!), the contacts between Poland and foreign visitors (because of their small turnout) were very limited, besides the debates of the locals were overshadowed by far more urgent problems and therefore they took place only in a perfunctory way”4, it seems at a first glance that they were commented only tersely. The festival On the other hand, it must not be forgotten that the ISCM had to take over more and more functions during the late thirties, which led to its establishment, as almost the only institution performing new music (whether with section concerts or music festivals)5. And that they fulfilled this task, can be proved by a comparison of the Warsaw programs with those of the seventh festival of the “Permanent Council” in Frankfurt am Main (June 1939). Such people as Maasz, Sutermeister, Flor Peters, Weismann, Holenia Lualdi, Georg Schumann, Wiren, Dohnanyi, Kornauth, Pfitzner, Richard Strauss, Labroca, Leif and Paszthory were taken into account6, so the ISCM put in Warsaw a new work by Vladimir Vogel, his “wonderful, richly inventive” (dodecaphonic based) Violin 3 The requirements of Pierre Boulez were decisive to program this special event by the BBC. Some excitement arose when Holliger was already present with the same work as in Hamburg (1969) again. Most would have probably missed the fact that Schoenberg’s Variations had already been officially programmed three times, and were also played a few more times in section concerts (also during the ISCM festivals)! 4 This English work was submitted by the English section and selected by the international jury 5 In Bulletin No. 4 / June 1971, p. 16, it is duly noted that the British section was allowed to select one composition from three proposed by the jury authors. The other two proposals were as follows: Arvo Pärt and Boris Tishchenko, both the Soviet Union. 6 Filed from the German section Zimmermann’s ‘Stille und Umkehr’ (Bulletin, supra).

Concerto, and “captivating by their conciseness and expressive scarcity “Five orchestral Pieces Christian Darntons “who first introduced the Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique into the English music”. Next, (Bading, Ketting, Roos) the remarkably dense musical production of the Netherlands showed, with particularly famous and highly praised Robert de Roos’ Five Etudes for piano and small orchestra and Piet Kettings grand piano fuga. Both turned out to be (along with the English, Elisabeth Lutyens and Darnton) a remarkably successful début on the international music scene. Finally, the ISCM once more presented for discussion a work of Andre Souris, perceived commonly as a surrealist, the Rengaines for wind quintet, which itself sticks too deep “in the worn out material - even liberating its listeners – to make fun“. True humour assumes the inner distance: the superiority of those who can already be observed from a higher standpoint “ It is hard to think that even one of the above ISCM Composers would come across in a program of “Permanent Council7” Of course there were some annoying works in Warsaw too - the jury (Clark, Defauw, G. Fitelberg, Gerhard and Vuckovic) was not immune to blunders. Jemnitz was worried, in this context, especially about the mania of non-European composers showing too much eagerness to take over the European models and deny their own tradition: “in the fourth string quartet of the same evening, in the twomovement work of Japanese Kojiro Kobune we had to do with a already self imposing Euro-Japanese style, which arose quickly, already closer to commercialisation of art than to art itself. All this seems almost as if many Japanese composers composing in the European way looked for the connection path for Puccini’s japanised music just to bring the Western armour. Songs by Alberto Hemsi from Egypt and an Argentinian Honorio Siccardi remained in the already conjured music world of Puccini’s exoticism8.” Nevertheless, he could establish that, “although the music festival discovered neither fundamentally new nor boldly personal 7 The first was programmed by Xenakis: Eonta. 8 I owe this piece of information to former President Jurres. - The intention to reenact at least the works by Thommessens and Gandini at the next festival was not carried out. As usually, all five works were added to the

masterpieces, ... it brought nevertheless much good, even some very good cross-section and once again it should be recognised (Hess ) that we are in an era that is marked by ingenious procedural request of individual pioneers to process the gained values and encouragement to absorb them. After unclouded days spent in a friendly mood one is engrossed by grateful thoughts of a recording that spared no sacrifice and gained not only nominal, but active patronage of President Ignacy Mościcki with his glossy appraisal. The Polish state had the opportunity to stand up for its music culture, perceived and used in exemplary manner9.” [Haefeli 1982: 258-260] The issue of the boycott of the festival in 1968 The third major political commitment of the ISCM 1968 was the boycott of their own festival in Warsaw. The society itself rebuffed their own arguments which they had put forward a year earlier in the case of a protest concerning Isang Yun, the hypocrisy; refuted during almost 45 years of emotional claims that they had nothing to do with politics and should not deal with political proclamations, and went especially hard on their self-imposed issue, of the help to the artist, “in the middle of an almost naturally hostile environment “10 It was a grotesque situation indeed to tolerate sections such as the South African and yet in 1965, when the Spanish Government (unlike Poland) massively supported World Music Festival in Madrid in order to enhance the image of Franco; but then Polish composers cancelled their participation, to protest against Poland’s participation in the military occupation of Czechoslovakia. Despite their relative leeway and pretences of freedom Poles had difficulties in maintaining personal international contacts (except the festival “Warsaw Autumn”), so the boycott was damaging them so irresponsibly, endangering most sections and many performers two weeks before the end of September. 9 The fact that the previous Jury had been replaced by a Program Committee, had not only linguistic, but also programmatic background as well: according to the competition rules, autocratic operating panel is replaced by a program committee, which is not lead by the core question “the ‘best-worked work “, but the” What should today be played at a festival of new music,“ which also causes the need to bring in consultants and, further, “their work with the end of the session, not considered as finished” (Bulletin No. 4, p 11.). 10 Cf. die Resolution von 1935; cited under note 30.

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To put it briefly, the carrying out of the Madrid festival and the associated propaganda effect for Franco was as negative as the boycotting of the Warsaw Festival and the following isolation of the Polish artists. Quite apart from it, it mocked this action, considering the organizational effort of Polish composers before and especially after the boycott, it denied human decency. At the same time it did not happen, what is the initiator of the action, the Swedish section, hoped: “Nevertheless, we are fully aware of the weight of the arguments concerning international contacts; finally, the primary aim of the section is international - but the choice concerns priorities: which international connections in the current situation will have the priority. The degree of possible drawbacks must be balanced for a need to weigh the potential benefit for the other party, and we felt that the Czechoslovak music life would be more supported than that it could harm our opinion on the drawback for the Polish party11”. Indeed, the damage to the Czechoslovakian artists was probably greater than the benefits12. However, the Swedish section was now aware that their action, which had been sparked with a telegram launched late August to all sections for support (about half of which promised to do so)13: „Further consideration of this matter at the meeting of the Swedish Section on the 16th of September has resulted in a decision not to participate in this year’s World Music Festival. This decision involves a break with the previous general approach of the Section an will influence future decisions in similar situations. The Swedish Section proposes that future World Music Festivals be held only in countries which are generally regarded as respecting basic human rights 11 Bucht, ISCM skiljevägen vid? (The ISCM at a crossroads?), P. 46 The translation owes this to the author of the article. 12 How Bucht, supra holds, it were mainly West German music circles, who were of the opinion: “that with such actions they can not help the Czechs, but bring only harm.” 13Argentina, Australia, Finland, Greece, the Netherlands, Iceland, Israel, Norway, Austria, Switzerland and Yugoslavia. shared the approach of the Swedish section. The attitude of sections of Denmark, Japan and the United States waqs still condemning, but for the benefit of the Polish cleeeagues renouncing the boycott.Great Britain waited to see what the Bureau would decide to do (documentation by the Archives of the Swedish section). The first, the boycott activating telegram the Swedish section was: «Due to actual European Situation ordinary general assembly Swedish ISCM section considers ISCM festival taking place in Warsaw questionable stop Swedish Section asks you to join us in convincing Presidential Council ISCM and Polish Section that cancellation is desirable» (to the sections) and«.. .stop Swedish section asks you to reflect seriously on cancellation» (to the presidium).

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(! author’s remark). The Section wishes to stress vigorously the importance of forms of contact other than the official ones being maintained with countries which would thereby be excluded from the task of arranging World Music Festivals, and requests that these matters be dealt with at the extra General Assembly in Baden-Baden14.”15 The Swedish section anticipated the difficulties that might have emerged when carrying out the third section of this explanation. The former President of the section, Gunnar Bucht commented: “As you can see, the statement does not say much about the reason for transferring neither about the consequences themselves. In a narrow scope, the problems of the ISCM have long been the same, the problem of forgiveness of world music festivals, the resistance to the organization of an ISCM festival in a country of dictatorship, which was broken not earlier than in 1965 in Madrid. In those days the whole thing ran without complications, but in 1967 in Prague, so before the liberalization began, the Israeli section withdrew its work after Czechoslovakia, as well as the other Eastern Bloc countries severed diplomatic ties with Israel as a result of the Six-Day War. The Swedish declaration was not only limited to dictatorship countries; also democracies are known to violate human rights, which trims the choices in the forgiveness of world music festivals. It was not likely that the problem would be of any importance whatsoever within the next two years, in Hamburg and Basel 1969, and 1970 would take over the event, so cities in countries that do not rather belong to the category meant in the statement. But the broad view prevails that the endeavour of the Swedish section to the consequences can create difficulties.”16However, because of these strict measures, which the Swedish section wanted to apply rightly to all democracies, hardly any section nor the organization of a festival could be transferred! The positive in the Swedish proposal, however, was, what can be duly assumed, that the responsibility of the ISCM forced 14 The delegates’ meeting in Baden-Baden decided to treat the extraordinary assembly as an ordinary one (Protokol 1968). 15 Swedish Section, To the Presidential Council (Gunnar Bucht, 11.10.1968), Archive of the Swedish Section. 16 Bucht, ISCM vid skiljevägen?, p. 46.

to consider the political implications of the ISCM festivals. The dimension of international unifying of such events would have brought these considerations to their real proportion in reality. However, the delegates meeting in Baden-Baden did not deal with the Swedish resolution, although the Swedish section withdrew the third paragraph, in which they threatened the Assembly17, proving the same once more the ostrich policy of the ISCM . Only the Swiss delegate Constantin Regamey attacked the boycott of the Warsaw Festival and gave the following statement for the minutes: “Mr. Constantin Regamey (Switzerland) said it was better to forget the past, but on behalf of the Swiss Section, he asked if the absence of a Swiss delegate at the Warsaw Festival would be considered and consequently interpreted as a gesture of solidarity and sympathy towards Czechoslovakia, but it should not, by any means be taken as to act of hostility toward our Polish colleagues. 18 The French delegate Henri Martelli noted that this attitude corresponded with the one of his own section19, and President Strobel cut the brief discussion by thanking Regamey who had tackled the hot iron in a refined way: «The President .. . wished particularly to thank Mr. Regamey for his Statement which reflects the attitude of one and all. He expressed his appreciation to the Polish musicians who had gone to such great trouble in organizing the Warsaw Festival. Despite the exceptional circumstances, the Society has proved to be a great and functioning Community (?,author’s remark).»20

17 Cf. Strobel’s statement in Baden-Baden: «Le president en evoquant la crise tres penible que la SIMC venait de passer a demande aux sections de ne plus parier des evenements passes, mais de s‘occuper des problemes futurs et de se tenir strictement ä l’ordre du jour prevu pour l‘Assemblee generale de Varsovie dans la circulaire No 3 du 20 aoüt 1968» (Regamey, Rapport des delegues de la Section suisse ä l’Assemblee generale extraordinaire de la SIMC ä Baden-Baden, le 22 octobre 1968; STV-Archiv XV). Then Bucht, as well, ISCM vid skiljevägen?, p. 45: In connection with this decision, a declaration was acclaimed, sent later to all the sections and laid on the table of the general assembly in Baden-Baden, without recommending anu necessary measures.“ - The withdrawal of the third section cf. Regamey, supra 18 Regamey, in: Protokoll 1968, p. 8; cf. Martelli. 1956 Strobel, supra, p. 9 well as cover-up elected a year later Lutoslawski (the spelling of Polish <1> vide p. 16) a Honorary Member of the Society ... 20 This was also the argument of those who opposed the boycott. Bucht, supra, p. 46, asserts, that the Polish government had paid for the World Music Festival. It might have been like this: that was by no means caused by the great interest. - - Jan Fischer, Czech and member of the board at that time, claimed , after all, that it had triggered some benefits of action for the Czechoslovakian artists: „Mr. Jan Fischer .. .thanked Sections for their sympathy and their solidarity, and highlighted the extreme importance of Their support „(protocol 1968, p. 9).

The boycott, performed in such a way, meant virtually hostility to the Polish composers, even worse: it endangered their activities21. The antithesis of the Swedish attitude was formed in Warsaw, and was composed of the representatives of those sections22, who were not involved in the boycott and adopted a clear “protest against boycott of the ISCM festival”, the aforementioned Denmark and Japan as well - as the whistle blowers of protest - West Germany, who had partly23 warned from the very beginning against any disruptive action: “The members of the ISCM gathered in Warsaw well and truly regret that some Western country sections of this society threatened with a boycott of the 42nd World Music Festival in connection with the events in Czechoslovakia. They express their appreciation and full recognition to the Polish section and the Polish Composers’ Union, that they have not let themselves be put off in the preparation and carrying out of the World Music Festival. The cause of international understanding among all those who are interested in the fate of contemporary music was better preserved through the initiative and sacrifice of the Polish section than by jingoistic proclamations and disruptive action of voluntarily absent members who missed truth to their addressees. The fact, that no member of the Praesidium board of the society was present in Warsaw, was understood as a real affront. The relocation of the Assembly of Delegates of Warsaw, the site of the World Music Festival, Baden-Baden was a dirigiste act, which evoked the vehement protest of the Company members present in Warsaw. Warsaw, 24 September 1968 Otto Tomek, Ulrich Dibelius, Heinz Sink, Günther Becker (all Germany); Svend Erik Werner, Per Norgärd, Light R. Norgärd (all Denmark); Reijo Jyrkiäinen (Finland); Liliana Poli (Italy); Rob du Bois (Netherlands); Hiroaki Minami, K. Ozawa (both Japan)24 Otto Tomek, the first signatory of the protest, explains, “All of us, who were in Warsaw at 21 This included the USA section, although they did not send any representants to Warsaw. 22 Also President Fortner, arguing against its own members, had signed the boycott call against the Eastern Bloc as the highest representative of the German section “Rafael Kubelik as Czech had evoked understandable indignation” (Kruttge in a letter to d. Avail., 1972 ). 23 The protest against the boycott of the ISCM Festival, was (originally) announced as a dpa notice from 26.09.1968. (I owe the copy of the protest to the first signatories, Dr. Otto Tomek.) 24 Tomek in a letter to the author(1972).

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that time, included myself, could soon see that the cancellation of the ISCM festival was absolutely wrong. It was not possible to meet anybody from those circles, who were responsible for the invasion to Czechoslovakia, but the position of those people, who created and achieved, against all odds, the Warsaw Summer as a forum for international meetings became immeasurably more difficult. This very forum was seriously jeopardized by the refusal of the ISCM. In this critical situation, the present ISCM members decided to express openly their opinion.”25 Tomek comments also the reaction to the text, which was handed over to the German Press Agency (only a few newspapers decided to printed it)26, and the a Strobel’s attitude in this matter: “An official response to the protest has never been issued. In an interview later on, professor Strobel assured me, that personally he did not object holding of the ISCM festival in Warsaw but he was compelled by a large number of country sections, particularly the Scandinavians which insisted that the cancellation take place.”27 One cannot take it from the authoritarian Strobel, that he knuckled down before the sections. This alleged coercion was probably an excuse like the one spread by Hess about his absence in Warsaw: He did not come because of serious illness!2864 But later, in the General Assembly in Baden-Baden, he announced that the Committee was not intentionally represented in Warsaw and that it was fully justifiable...29 Eigel Kruttge, who was a prominent ISCM member, like Sten Broman, who came to Warsaw regardless of the boycott (“my trip to Warsaw so soon after the Prague mayhem was a personal protest against the Western boycott“)30 expressed his attitude towards the 25Cf. Regamey, Rapport, a.a.O., p. 3: «Seuls deux journaux allemands de l’Ouest 26 Cf Kruttge, Warsaw Autumn 1968, p. 474 Ulrich Dibelius confirmed d. Avail., That Strobel’s details were excuses only. His aversion to <Warsaw> dated quite large before the invasion! 27 Cf Protocol in 1968 and Regamey, Rapport, supra, p. 1 - By the way, that the boycott did not work and the festival was carried out the boycott notwithstanding, was based on the fact that the Polish section could not be banned to organize the festival. Any legal basis for such a prohibition lacks in the statutes. Moreover, these was also a decision of the General Assembly that it would not have been put aside shortly and without the recent decision of the General Assembly. 28 Kruttge in a letter to the author(1972). 29Kruttge, Warschauer Herbst 1968, p. 474. 30 In 1939, the saxophonist Rascher, the only specialist of his instrument for new music at that time, did not come; only he could have played Concertino of Poland Palester chosen by the jury. Therefore, in 1968, Continuum by

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Committee: “When it was finally known that the Warsaw festival would take place: was it not in the own interest of the sections to express their respect for the Charter of an internationally functioning, artistic targeted company by way of participation, which would allow to avoid any false consideration (aesthetic tendencies, nationality, race, religion or political opinions of composers)? Was it not short-sighted to torpedo the legal meeting of the delegates in Warsaw and to demand an extraordinary assembly of delegates elsewhere , referring to some paragraphs of the statute not used before? Well, according to the democratically established social charter, no one can be forced to participate in any festival. Besides, in the light of a severe illness of the Chairman, should not at least some member of the council be considered as legitimate, by the very fact of their presence? – Missed opportunities”31 In reality: Warsaw in 1968 was a real festival of missed opportunities. First, one lost the occasion in the situation, where, in order to carry through the discriminative statute of the ISCM, (previously it was always a good excuse to avoid any commitment), one could overcome serious resistance and allow tolerance to overpower the emotions – instead, the inertia of ISCM after 46 years of silence in the worst and most uncomfortable moment on their political mandate will be remembered. Not that they should not have condemned the invasion to Czechoslovakia in a resolution; it was absolutely wrong that they wanted to punish a country that had participated in the invasion, moreover, by discriminating artists; and they held solidarity, respect of political views twice as important, but they left out the neutrality of the international music itself. Secondly, the ISCM missed the opportunity to make amends enabling them to take the unconditional responsibility for the Warsaw Festival 1968 like thirty years earlier, when facing major problems which severely impaired the first Warsaw Festival – in 1939, Serocki had to be cancelled because the Danish “Timpana ensemble” failed their participation. (Conversely, the Polish section ensure that a Swedish work was performed despite the cancellation of the performance of the Swedish artist!) 31 Broman in a conversation with the author.

a few weeks before the German invasion and pogroms in Poland. The heroic performance of the organizers had obviously been badly rewarded by various interpreters and delegates who did not go to Warsaw partly from fear, partly duress (Czechoslovakia) and so boycotted or had to boycott the festival. Ironically, among the fearful ones there were many Scandinavians, Swedes and Danes in particular, and facing the refusal of the Scandinavian artists, the Polish works in1939 and 1968 had to be deleted from the programme32. (At both festivals, however, the courageous Sten Broman took care that the Swedish section would be represented and thus their reputation was to some extent defended Incidentally, as Broman told, the train journey to Warsaw in 1939 was a real adventure. The train was repeatedly shelled 69!) Things have not changed much: the Western aggression interfered with both Warsaw festivals. It is more than irony that the Strobel’s preface can be read in the official program pamphlet of the 1968 festival (the boycott statement came long after the printing the program booklet), in which he recalls the indirect threat of the 1939 festival by Nazi terror and is overwhelmed with joy that he can come to Warsaw this year ... 70 Such memory should have suffocated in bud each thought of a boycott (although the boycott of 1968 cannot be by any means compared with with the Nazi threat in 1939). [Haefeli, 1982: 201-206]

XVII. Festival 1939 Warsaw -Kraków33 (14:21. April 1939) Jury: Edward Clark, Desire Defauw, Gregor Fitelberg, Roberto Gerhard, Vojislav Vuckovic. Concerts: Josep Valls, symphony; Christian Darnton Five Pieces for Orchestra; Marcel Poot Legende Epique; Slavko Osterc Passacaglia and Chorale; Wladimir Vogel Scherzo and Finale of the Violin Concerto; Jean Rivier Symphony in D major. Conrad Beck Chamber Cantata (after 32 Strobel, in: Festheft 1968, p. 7: «Quand le festival de la SIMC se tenait, en 1939, ä Varsovie, - peu avant l’agression d’Hitler contre la Pologne, quand l’Europe sombrait dans la nuit - ( . . . ) . Je suis heureux de voir que notre festival de la SIMC se tienne, cetteannee, dans ses cadres (de <l’Automne de Varsovio, d. Verf.).» 33 The third concert of the ISCM and the church music concert took place in Krakow.

sonnets of Louise Labe); Knudäge Riisager Concerto for Tromp and String orchestra34. Francis Poulenc Mass in G major for chorus a cappella; Luigi Dallapiccola Tre Laudi for soloist and small orchestra; Andre Souris, Rengaines for Bl.quintett;: Robert de Roos Five Etudes For Piano and Orchestra", concert of the Polish section: Stanislaw Wiechowicz Kantata Romantyczna for piano, choir and orchestra; Michal Kondracki Cantata for choir and orchestra Ecclesiastica; Karol Szymanowski Stabat Mater Elizabeth. Lutyens (w)35, String Quartet No. 2,. Eugen Suchon Sonatina for violin and grand piano, Kojiro Kobune String Quartet No. 1, Alberto Hemsi Coplas Sefardies for Ges and grand piano; Honorio Siccardi Two Songs (Amado Villarreal) for Total and grand piano; Henk Bading String Quartet No.2, Demetrij Zebre Trois poemes lyriques for violin and grand piano; Joaquin Horns String Quartet No. 2,. Piet Ketting Fuga for grand piano* Concert with Old Polish Church Music in Krakow.

Suzanne Suter-Sapin, Richard Zika, Stanislaw Jarzębski. Grand piano, I. Blochman, Marcelle Meyer, Rudolf Macudzinski, Jerzy Lefeld, Piet Ketting. T .: Arvid Degn. Ens.: Stratton Quartet, Quartet of the Polish Radio, Warsaw Quartet, Winds of Warsaw. Orchestra: Philharmonic Orchestra Warsaw, Orchestra and Choir of the Polish Radio. Conductors: Stanley Chapple, Andre Souris, Kazimierz Hardulak, Tadeusz Wilczak, Stanisław Nawrot, Robert de Roos, W. Raczkowski, Grzegorz Fitelberg, Mieczysław Mierzejewski. [Haefeli, 1982: 497-498]

Ballet evening at the Warsaw Opera: Works by M. Kondracki, R. Palester and K. Szymanowski (Harnasie). Bolesław Woytowicz Twenty variations in the form of a symphony; Gaston Brenta Le et le Financier Animal Save for Bar and Orchestra; Lars-Erik Larsson Ostinato for Orchestra; Marcel Mihalovici Prelude and Invention for String orchestra; Alan Rawsthorne Symphonic Studies; Antoni Szalowski Overture. Proposed works which were omitted36: Roman Palester Concertino for Saxophone and chamber orchestra; Milan Ristic Suite for four trombones (quarter-tone system); . Anton Webern String Quartet, op 28 (would have been EE); Jerzy Fitelberg String Quartet No. 4. Jozef Zavadil Little Suite for violin. and grand piano; Vladimir Polivka String quartet; Karol B. Jiräk Przebudzenie, cycle A. and Ens.

concerts: Ton de Leeuw, Symphonies for wind instruments; Krzysztof Penderecki Capriccio for violin and Orchestra; Friedrich Cerha I mirror for orchestra (among others); György Ligeti Requiem for soloists, chorus and orchestra. Agustin Bertomeu, Pantalän for orchestra; Günther Becker Stabil-Unstabil for orchestra; Augustyn Bloch Ailet, opera-mystere, for reciter, soloist, Baritone, Choir and orchestra (among others). Per Nørgård Iris for orchestra; Hiroaki Minami S. and Banka for orchestra; Klaus Huber Tenebrae for orchestra, Roger Reynolds Quick are the Mouths of Earth for chamber orchestra; Gerardo Gandini Cadencias II for chamber orchestra; Tadeäs Salva Canticum Zachariae for p. and chamber orchestra (among others); Carmelo Alonso Bernaola Musicas de camara; Harrison Birtwistle Tragoedia for comb. Orchestra; Stanko Horvat Rondo for string quartet; Miklos Kocsär Due Lamenti soloist and grand piano; Karl-Erik Wehn Manzit for clarinet, Trombone, cello and grand piano; * Viadan Radovanovic Spheroon for tape. Proposed works, which were cancelled38":

Main artists: Ges.: Ginevra Vivante, Valeria Jędrzejewska, Janina Hupertowa, M. Andrien. violin: 34Slonimsky, supra, p. 467, enlists with Riisager mistakenly the Concertina for Saxophone by R. Palester, which was not played 35 This event was conceived by putting together of the third and fourth concerto, which was caused by the cancellation of many provided works (see note. 24). 36 Many artists were afraid to travel to Poland, on the one hand because of the uncertain political situation, on the other hand because of the pressure of the invaders (Czechoslovakia,Austria) and rulers (Italy, Germany). Besides, many were simply not allowed to come. The absence of Ondricek Quartet alone caused the cancellation of three works. Slonimsky, usually careful, accepted almost always the official program without marking failures. The two indices mention these works without further description (main sources for the exact program: Regamey; SMZ 79/1939, p 265-267.).

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XLII. Festival, Warsaw 1968 21 to 29 September 1968 (joined together with the XII. International Festival of Contemporary Music “Warsaw Autumn)37 Jury: Cristobal Halffter, Miloslav Kabeläc, Ingvar Lidholm, Witold Lutosławski, Ivo Malec.

37 The data include the whole “Warsaw Autumn”; the actual ISCM concerts finished on 26 September. The concerts of the “Warsaw Autumn” are not mentioned here. 38 Vide main text. The failures were all the fault of the boycott of ISCM sections. In the first four works, the relevant sections did not follow their obligations: (artists, money, technical aid); the remaining four works had to be canceled because the ensembles which should have performed them (the Danish “Timpana ensemble”, the Czech Ens. “Musica Viva Pragensis”) did not come to Warsaw. The Polish section which was not capable of

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Antonio Tauriello Canti for violin and orchestra; Jacques Guyonnet, The Approach to the Hidden Man for mezzosoprano and chamber orchestra; Fausto Razzi Improvvisazione III for two soloists, B. and chamber orchestra; Karl-Birger Blomdahl Altisonans (film); Olivier Messiaen Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum for orchestra; Kazimierz Serocki Continuum, Sextet for percussion; Jacob Gilboa Crystals for chamber orchestra (among others); Zbynek Vostfäk cantata for chorus, wind instruments and percussion. Main artists: Ges .: Liliana Poli, Anna Malewicz-Madey, Halina Łukomska, Adam Hanuszkiewicz, Andrzej Hiolski, Ayako Kato, Irena TorbusMierzwiakowa, Erika Sziklay. grand piano: Adam Fellegi. violin: Wanda Wiłkomirska. Ensembles: Warsaw String Quartet, Warsaw Ensemble “Musical Workshop” – Orchestra and choir. Choir and Symphony Orchestra, Polish State Philharmonic Orchestra Of Katowice, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Polish Radio Choir Krakow, The Symphony Orchestra of Polish Radio Katowice, Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio Katowice. Conductors: Andrzej Markowski, Karol Stryja, Mario di Bonaventura, Gianpiero Taverna. [Haelfi, 1982: 526-527]

für Neue Musik von 1922 bis zur Gegenwart, Zürich 1982; Vom musikpädagogischen Eros. Die Kunst, das Musiklehren lieben zu lernen, Aarau 1998; Jacques Wildberger oder die Lehre vom Andern, Zürich 1996 (Hrsg.); Der Grad der Bewegung. Tempovorstellungen und -konzepte in Komposition und Interpretation 1900–1950, Bern 1998 (Mithrsg.). Der Musikwissenschaftler, der sich früher auch als Dirigent und Vokalist betätigte und weiterhin auch Musikkritiker und Autor ist, veröffentlichte unter anderem kürzlich eine umfangreiche Arbeit zum Thema Bruckner und Celibidache (NZZ, 16.12.00).

Geboren 1946 in Brugg, Schweiz. Nach dem humanistischen Abitur Ausbildung 1966–71 an der Universität Zürich (Musikwissenschaft bei Kurt von Fischer sowie Geschichte und Kunstgeschichte) und an der Musikhochschule Zürich (unter anderem Klavier, Schulmusik und bei Rudolf Kelterborn Musiktheorie). Dort Promotion zum Dr. phil. und Erwerb des Diploms für das Höhere Lehramt. Hier Diplome unter anderem als Schulmusikund Musiktheorielehrer. Seit 1984 Dozent für Musikgeschichte und zusätzlich seit 1987 Sachbereichsleiter Ausbildung in der Musikhochschule der Musik-Akademie Basel. Forschungsschwerpunkte: Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts und Musikpädagogik. Bücher: Die Geschichte der Internationalen Gesellschaft taking over these eight works, had still to make an enormous effort to perform four more works, which were threatened with cancellation, as their performers did not appeared in Warsaw. These were the works of Ligeti, Salvatore, Wehn and Horvat. The cost of these performances and new dispositions, according to the rules, were taken over generously by the Polish section too. Four works were replayed at the Hamburg Festival 1969 (Blomdahl, Serocki, Gilboa and Vostfäk). The others were, as usual, added to the ISCM-list (source: STV archive XV / 1968).

Cover of the festival book – XLII World Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music – Warsaw Automn 1968 by Waldemar Świerzy 95

The World Music Days Warsaw Organizer’s Report

In 1992 the ISCM World Music Days took place in Warsaw, Poland. The International Jury consisting of Martin Bresnik (USA), Michael Finnissy (Great Britain), Toshi Ichiyanagi (Japan), Alejandro Iglesias Rossi (Argentina), Dieter Schnebel (Germany) and Zygmunt Krauze (Poland) selected sixty pieces from 648 scores sent in by National Sections and individual entries. The programme was completed with the pieces chosen by the Artistic Committee of Tadeusz Wielecki (chairman), Wojciech Michniewski and Lidia Zielińska. The festival proceeded in numerous trends: from big instrumental forms, chamber music, music for installations, ethnic trend to jazz and rap. During the festival twenty-seven concerts were held at sixteen places in Warsaw and at Pultusk. Ninety pieces from forty three countries were performed including thirteen ones by Polish composers. Moreover, the musical Hyde Park presented twelve programmes. All the pieces selected by the jury were performed with the exception of Hifumi Shimoyama’s (singer’s indisposition). The festival was accompanied by the exhibition of musical and sound installations. The festival was attended by sixty-one composers, numerous journalists and observers from thirty-five countries as well as the delegates representing over thirty countries, who carne to participate in the annual ISCM Assembly (being held throughout the festival). The opening ceremony was honoured by the presence of the Polish Prime Minister, Jan Olszewski. The President of Poland, Lech Wałęsa handed over to the organizers a message which was read during the opening ceremony. The festival promoted the premieres of the choreographical arrangements to three works selected by the Jury (ballet performance by the Polish Dance Theatre ) and five awarded minioperas for children (two performances of 96

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the Lodz Opera House), which subsequently have been included in the Opera’s repertoire. On the occasion of the World Music Days, the organizers announced the All Polish twentieth Century Music Competition for Young Performers, intended for high school and under graduate Students of music. Forty-nine participants were selected for the final stage of the competition. The winners appeared at the concert which took place in the framework of the festival. The compact disc of the pieces performed by the winners was released. Another exceedingly successful item of the programme was a day at Pultusk, a small town sixty kilometers from Warsaw. This “concert for town”, apart from electronic music for children, musical installations, chamber and organ music also included a multimedia event. We succeeded in inviting the following outstanding performers: Ensemble Modern of Frankfurt on the Main, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble 20. Jahrhundert of Vienna, Łódź Grand Opera, Polish Dance Theatre from Poznan, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, Silesian String Quartet, Jane Manning, Jane’s Minstrels Ensemble from London, Ewa Podles, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Yves Prin, Louise Bessette and many others. The festival was accompanied by the ISCM General Assembly and ISCM-IMZ Forum, an event organized in cooperation with the Reiner Moritz R. M. Associated London, dedicated to the promotion of contemporary music in mass media. Due to the long lasting promotion of contemporary music and wide festival publicity (in mass media, at schools during important cultural events, in town, et cetera), the average attendance amounted to circa sixty per cent. For many concerts tickets had been sold out to the last seat. Within two weeks and a half the festival commercial produced by the Polish Society for Contemporary Music was broadcasted on TV (Channels I and II). Throughout a month short

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promotional films produced by the Polish TV Education Programmes were shown. Before in course of and after the festival several dozens of interviews, critiques and programmes about the festival were presented on Polish TV, Polish Radio (Programmes I and II), Radio ZET, Radio S and Radio Wawa broadcasted World Music Days spots for two weeks, forty five times a day. Polish Radio (Programme II) presented twentynine programmes about the World Music Days, Programme 11-15, Programme 1-10. Gazeta Wyborcza published five festival adverts before the festival and regular reports during the event. Furthermore, the daily press and magazine published over ninety festival interviews and articles. Besides, the Polish Society for Contemporary Music Days published five Festival Bulletins. All the concerts were recorded by the Polish Radio and a Majority of these recordings will be accessible to the international exchange within the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Polish TV registered two concerts. The opening concert was broadcasted live. A part of St. Hyacinth’s Church concerts was rebroadcasted. Moreover, Polish TV (Programme II) presented five reports from the festival. The festival was also recognized by International music circles, which was proved by the nomination for the International Classical Music Awards in the category of the best festival or concert series of the year.

The ISCM World Music Days Warsaw 1992 – the ISCM-IMZ Forum (photo: Konrad Kalbarczyk)

The ISCM World Music Days Warsaw 1992 – General Assembly of the (photo: Konrad Kalbarczyk)

The ISCM World Music Days Warsaw 1992 – concert of Prize Winners for young performers (photo: Konrad Kalbarczyk)

From my WNMD diaries1 Warsaw, May 1992

by Dubravko Detoni

In the darkness below deck of the Church of the Holy Cross, Chopin’s heart swings and tinkles, in the form of a miniature piano. And in the church, in the middle of the Old Town, a shattering, deadly lucid self-requiem by Tomasz Sikorski is being played; always the same words of swear-prayers of strings are lamenting, always unimportantly different barking of the camp guards-winds, everything is a bleak, sorrowful whirl of everyday life. In the overall crackling and the flickering of candles, in the irremovable bad odour of weakness or fear, the burning wooden cross from the altar is constantly bending and hovering above us, the crucified, dead Tomek himself, wrapped in all of his misfortunes, ugliness and impudence that have occurred from wisdom and inspiration. This tiny piece defeats and, at the same time, makes all of its musical surroundings unnecessary and cloying. Today I have succeeded, after many hours of doubt, wrangling, scraping off the sediments of crestfallen scorn and malevolence: Croatia is a regular member of ISCM. Congratulations, smiles, temporary fame. On the topic of the Croatian triumph I start a diagonal quarrel with a respected Swiss colleague who, in the final discussion at the congress, almost ruined everything by making some inappropriate political allusions to the current position of Croatia. After the victory everything seems better: shop windows wave at me, pavements are pliably springy, parks bounce screamingly around the monuments that benignantly lean forward and roguishly spin around like brandished carousels. I am intercepted by a joyful gentleman who, bending and enthusiastically gesticulating, rushes towards happiness; it is I! At the estuary of the Krakow Suburbs and the Old Town the sun is turning on and off like an artificially sped-up traffic light. Here in the valley lies the royal castle like a fed sow and hides beneath it nameless royal piggies that suck its lukewarm juice of

history until the very last drop. The Amadeus orchestra is sitting across the festival square and fixing compositions like a debauched gypsy tinker. Silence does not even work on Sundays. Great stone echo is galloping over the square of Warsaw rebels; it is my stone lion that has escaped from the torn down wall in the Stanisław Moniuszko Street, where two and a half decades ago, during windy nights, it was swinging over the head of a provincial stroller like a dramatically shivering, Chopin-like nocturnal harmony. Churches still stand like neurotic percussionists before a premiere, in a solemn orchestra of the city, announcing the crucial change of melodies by the clattering of the mountain bells. Hotels stick out like during an escape scattered petits fours glacés in a broken shopwindow of a magnificent pastry shop; vehicles joyfully drive o” from the loop into the underground; a better world awaits them there. Dubravko Detoni during the ISCM World Music Days Hong Kong 2002 (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)

1 Fragment of the article From my WNMD diaries firstly published in “World New Music Magazine” No. 21, 2011

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Dubravko Detoni during the ISCM World Music Days in Mexico, 1993 (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)

Dubravko Detoni (Križevci, 1937) graduated in piano (Svetislav Stancic) and composition (Stjepan Šulek) from the Zagreb Academy of Music, and continued with further studies in Siena (Guido Agosti, Alfred Cortot), Warsaw (Witold Lutosławski, Grażyna Bacewicz, the Experimental Studio of the Polish Radio), Darmstadt (György Ligeti and Karlheinz Stockhausen), and in Paris (John Cage). His oeuvre includes 133 orchestral, chamber, soloist, vocal, and electronic works, a number of multimedia projects and experiments, nine books of fiction and essays, series of radio and television programmes, as well as numerous commentaries on concerts and sound recordings. He has received many awards and honours in Croatia and abroad. His works have been performed on all continents and at the most important international festivals, they have been published in Croatia and abroad and released on 50 recordings. The author writes his music drawing on both classical instruments and electronic music devices, whereas his efforts to enrich the sound and expand the expressive potential result in his combining of the two sources of sound. With the ACEZANTEZ ensemble, of which he is

the founder (1970) and artistic director, Detoni performed in most European countries as well as parts of America and Asia. Translated by Karolina Rugle

EDITION MUSIKTEXTE Bilingual Editions John Cage/Morton Feldman: Radio Happenings I–V Conversations / Gespräche 1966–1967 Chris Newman: Eugene Dubnov Poems / Gedichte 1979–1990 Alvin Lucier: Reflections / Reflexionen Interviews – Scores – Writings / Interviews – Notationen – Texte Christian Wolff: Cues / Hinweise Writings and Conversations / Schriften und Gespräche Robert Ashley: Music with Roots in the Aether Interviews with and Essays about Seven American Composers Frederic Rzewski: Nonsequiturs / Unlogische Folgerungen Writings and Lectures/Schriften und Vorträge Morton Feldman: Words on Music / Worte über Musik Middelburg Lectures/Vorträge Robert Ashley: Outside of Time / Außerhalb der Zeit Ideas about Music/Gedanken über Musik Giacinto Scelsi: Die Magie des Klangs Gesammelte Schriften (German/French/Italian)

www.musiktexte.de

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Music, Cultural exchanges, and chandeliers Reflections on the ISCM World New Music Days by Glenda Keam (New Zealand section)

The World New Music Days in 2013 were launched from Košice, with its charming old town and an array of lovely performance venues new and old. I found it extremely interesting to see East Slovakia, so many cultures have traversed that part of the world and left their stamp. Slovakia has until recently been much less affected by tourism than other parts of Europe, so there are fewer clues for visitors from afar who don’t speak the language – sometimes with interesting results in the supermarket. On my first attempt at shopping there I attempted to buy a small container of milk, and despite reading and thinking quite carefully, my selection turned out to be cultured buttermilk - which is pretty unusual with tea. As in previous ISCM festivals, it was very stimulating to meet new member representatives as well as rekindling friendships and networks with others met in previous years. There are, for example, plans afoot to develop a collaborative composer project between New Zealand, Sweden and Bolivia, as a direct result of one such meeting. ISCM in Slovakia and Austria offered an almost overwhelming array of amazing performances, and I was reminded that it often feels qualitatively different to hear music performed close to where the works were composed – which, in New Zealand, is only true of our own music. However the breadth of the international array was equally compelling. During the first days in Košice, I enjoyed VENI ensemble/ THReNSeMBle’s concert offering Giacinto Scelsi’s Kya (1959) through Christian Wolff’s Bratislava (1995) to some 21st century works from Tatarstan, Japan and Portugal. I was also delighted by Veni Academy’s highly energetic performances of Louis Andriessen’s Workers Union (1975) as well as some vibrant local music, and Daan Vandewalle’s piano recital of mostly American music was superb. 102 :RUOG 1HZ 0XVLF 0DJD]LQH ƌ 3ROVND 0XVLF 1RZ

We were also treated to a significant number of special culinary treats throughout the festival, as well as some local beverages; after Vandewalle’s recital the Belgian Embassy presented a comprehensively tasty array of Belgian food and beers, and Košice also treated us to a tasting of «Vana Tallinn», which is an Estonian rumbased liqueur. The most astounding performance of this part of the festival for me was Milan Pal’a’s violin/viola concert entirely comprising ISCM entries that demanded enormous vitality and virtuosity. Our time in Košice ended with a whirlwind performance of le Sacre in which the strings were so together they seemed connected to a single superbrain. After Košice we took a five-hour train journey across central Slovakia to Bratislava, for my first glimpse of the Danube. What a wonderful city, a cultural palimpsest with so many fascinating corners. Monuments to history abound, although it was somewhat sobering to find a plaque indicating the spot where a Bratislavan witch was first burned to death in 1602. ISCM delegates were fortunate to enjoy a partial overlap with the IAMIC conference in Bratislava (in combination with the Melos Ethos festival), although it was disappointing that IAMIC events sometimes clashed with other ISCM events as well as running through some of the dates during which ISCM delegates were in either Vienna or Košice. IAMIC guest of honour Kaija Saariaho was interviewed and offered thoughtful and impressive insights into her life as a composer, some of the challenges she has faced, and the supportive people and organisations that have made a difference to her career path. This was after the previous evening’s spine-tingling performance by the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra of her Aile du Songe (2001) as well as her compatriot Jukka Tiensuu’s Vie (2007). By the time we entered the Concert Hall of the Slovak

Philharmonic it was dawning on me that I had never in my life seen so many chandeliers as I did through this festival. One of my personal highlights in Bratislava was the opportunity to attend a late night concert of music for flute and cimbalom (my favourite instrument, rarely – if ever – played in New Zealand). The venue, the Slovak Radio building, takes the shape of an upturned pyramid, and its lobby is an extensive display of old recording and broadcasting equipment.

After all this I returned to New Zealand with my ears full of many languages and accents, an overwhelming array of musical input, and a taste for Slovakian wine and Viennese ‘gansl’. I still find myself marvelling at the extent to which so many nations with long and complex histories can coexist and mingle so richly through music in the space of just ten days.

From Bratislava we travelled by bus over the Austrian border to Vienna, where our first day offered four concerts. Our first musical treat here was part of a reception at the Ministry of Culture, and a short concert of impressive student works performed by students from the Academy in the room where performers would entertain the Prince, and which is now the Audienzhalle. That is also the room in which the ISCM was first conceived of 90 years ago.

Glenda Keam (photo: Stephen Compton) Glenda Keam is a composer, teacher and music analyst from New Zealand. She was awarded a PhD in Music by the University of Auckland in 2006 for her analytical thesis Exploring Notions of National Style: New Zealand Orchestral Music in the Late Twentieth Century. More recently, she co-edited and contributed a chapter to the 2011 Pearson publication Home, Land and Sea: Situating Music in Aotearoa New Zealand. Since 2007 Glenda has been President of CANZ (the Composers Association of New Zealand).

The ISCM World New Music Days Bratislava 2013 - “Family photo” (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)

Many concerts in the Viennese portion of the ISCM WNMDs were part of Wien Modern 2013 held in the various Saals of the Wiener Konzerthaus (many more chandeliers!), including ensemble reconsil’s performance of the New Zealand representative composer Neville Hall’s lifeless air become sinewed (2009). This part of the festival also offered a two-day Symposium hosted by the Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität under the title “Intercultural Modernity and Contemporary Music – a Paradox?” whose speakers were by turns stimulating and provocative. Late night events were held in the music club “Porgy and Bess”, including performers Stump/Linshalm, and the Low Frequency Orchestra with their strangely impressive large wind instruments.

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The ISCM World New Music Days 2013 by Barbara Jazwinski

The ISCM World New Music Days 2013 took place in Košice and Bratislava in Slovakia and in Vienna, Austria. The events in both countries were generally very well organized and well attended. Some of the performances were exceptional. Among the most impressive and inspired performers were the Fama Quartet, pianists Marcela Beatriz Pavia, Peter Adriaansz and Daan Vanderwalle, violinist and violist Milan Pal’a, flutist Camilla Hoitenga, vocal group Camerata Silesia, and Ensemble Reconsil. In my opinion, the most striking characteristic of the WNMD, widely discussed by the participants, was the stylistic focus of the music presented at the festival. While the works heard during the course of the festival were selected and submitted by the various member sections of the International Society for Contemporary Music and the organizers and represented different countries and different continents, these submissions surprisingly were, with few exceptions, stylistically uniform, generally disjunct and featuring harsh sonorities. It almost seemed that the majority of the works deliberately avoids compositional techniques that might hint at any connections with the past. Even though the concert audiences were generally guardedly enthusiastic and supportive, there were voices heard that referred to several artistic productions as very well done but not “user friendly”. These voices included both members of the public and the delegates themselves. It also is important to add that on quite a few occasions delegates representing different countries made public comments that the music selected to be presented at the festival did not represent their artistic and creative interests. This, and the fact that there is unquestionably a great divide among the listeners, with some individuals expressing a great deal of enthusiasm for contemporary art music and others an equal 104 :RUOG 1HZ 0XVLF 0DJD]LQH ƌ 3ROVND 0XVLF 1RZ

measure of apprehension towards its overall sound and its general direction, would suggest that there is a pressing need for a further indepth discussion in order to make an attempt to address a series of very important questions, which may turn out to be very difficult, if not impossible, to answer for a variety of complex reasons. The issue of style and esthetics permeated the entire festival and was addressed, at least to some degree, during the course of the symposium entitled Intercultural Modernity and Contemporary Music – a Paradox? organized by the Austrian chapter. Most controversial, albeit of considerable interest, were the presentations by Sandeep Bhagwati regarding the state of contemporary music in general and by Kyle Gann discussing the state of American music. Moderators Nina Polaschegg, Sebastian Kiefer and Christian Utz provided a general commentary regarding both topics. Sandeep Bhagwati considers new music in Germany to be a part of a giant social reengineering project, an atonement for the collective guilt post WWII. His opinion is very clearly expressed in the following quote from one of his interviews (CEIArtE 2008): “Funded by abundant state-subsidies, institutionalized to a very high degree, new music is seen both as a continuation of the great German tradition – and as an obligation to constantly re-affirm the break with this great tradition, by fostering music that aims to eternally avoid conventional concepts of beauty.” Kyle Gann, well known to many New Yorkers for his contributions to the Village Voice, an alternative newsweekly, gave a presentation on American music which, to those of us who currently live outside of New York seemed to focus primarily on the music played or presented in New York and particularly in Manhattan and in Brooklyn. A lot of discussion

followed his reference and commentary on American music as stylistically diverse - a term that he seems to have used in this particular case in a pejorative sense – and often political. In his talk, Gann also seemed to imply that there currently is no primary “style” that can be referred to as American music and that this is not a desired development. The latter assertion met with skepticism from several delegates representing the Americas, Australia and New Zealand but was embraced by quite a few of the Europeans including some members of the panel who consider the concept of stylistic unity as a sine qua non requirement for the expression of the national psyche and some of whom feel that the enforcement of stylistic requirements is desirable. Considering the diversity of musical sound intended for many different audiences which is so characteristic of the music in the United States in the XXI century as well as the existence of many new works that successfully merge jazz or popular music with art music or even the stylistic hybrids that include elements from different parts of the world and different cultures, I find the concept of stylistic unity and the “American” style neither relevant nor even possible to entertain. The attribute that continues to strike me when I listen to contemporary American music is individualism and the desire on the part of many composers to write music that is very personal, non-conformist, unique, and expressive in a distinctive way. In short, music that has something specific to say, with the understanding that the message might not be fully understood and that the work might be judged purely on the basis of its sound and its appeal to a particular audience as, quite often, there is a very specific audience for which the work is primarily intended. In fact, the issue of an audience is very important to consider bearing in mind the diversity of musical interests in the US populations and their desire to express their psyche in a unique way. In view of the above, I deeply regret that the discussion of American music during the course of the symposium seemed to focus on a very narrow geographic area and did not address any significant musical developments in the South or on the West Coast of the United States, or the influence of such developments

on American music in general. Needless to say, there are countless examples of musical influences in the United States that originate from other parts of the world and that have been integrated to various degrees and in various ways by American composers. The spirited discussion following the presentations and the symposia clearly indicates that there is a considerable chasm between European and American philosophies and expectations regarding music and its function within society. It seems that a continued discourse on this particular topic would be of significant value and might provide some clues that would eventually result in our better understanding of the issues mentioned above. As far as music compositions presented at the festival, there were three works that I found to be of particular interest: the concerto for flute Aile du Songe (2001) by the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, Piano Quintet by Zygmunt Krauze from Poland and Paestum by a young American composer Eric Nathan. Aile du songe derives its inspiration from the poetry of Saint-John Perse and was exceptionally well performed by the American flutist Camilla Hoitenga and The Slovak Philharmonic. The work is intriguing and very subtle and uses the flute with a great deal of imagination and flair. Krauze’s Piano Quintet (1993) is another elegant and beautifully conceived work. The Quintet consists of five independent instrumental songs linked by interludes to form a sort of lyrical suite consisting of images and promenades with each part of the quintet representing a different lyrical style. The Fama Quartet with Daniela Varinska at the piano gave an inspired performance of this work. Paestum (2013) by Eric Nathan, is influenced by an Italian site settled by the Greeks in 700 B.C. He states in his notes that the shrines and the ruins of an ancient city fired his musical imagination. Paestum is an interesting and highly energetic work that was very well performed by the members of the Melos Ethos Ensemble. While there were intriguing and original works presented at the festival, I felt, just like many 105

other members of the audience, that there also were a few works that were very difficult for me to relate to, works that sounded disengaged, limited in their scope, almost unmusical in the traditional sense of the word. This again begs the question of what is music, what is the role of music in different societies and what music actually means to individual composers and members of the audience. It is clear that these questions may have to be answered in very many different ways and that the answers may vary depending on one’s nationality, heritage, age, political inclinations, etc. It might even prove impossible to address some of these issues in a logical, coherent and artistically satisfactory manner. Still, there clearly is a need to at least verbalize our various artistic concerns. Personally, I would very much welcome further discussion on the subjects mentioned above and would like to see a much more varied contemporary music repertoire at the future festivals which, after all, should represent – to the extent possible - the creative interests of its entire diverse membership.

Barbara Jazwinski studied composition and theory at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland. She received her M.A. degree in composition and piano from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in composition from the City University of New York. Her teachers included Mario Davidovsky, Andrzej Dobrowolski, Gyorgy Ligeti and John Chowning. She is the recipient of numerous commissions, grants and fellowships. Currently, she is Head of the Composition Program at the Newcomb Music Department at Tulane University in New Orleans. Dr. Jazwinski has also been active as a performer, conductor and promoter of contemporary music. Since 1988, she has served as Music Director of Spectri Sonori, an award-winning concert series that specializes in performances of contemporary music. Barbara Jazwinski also serves on the Board of Directors of the League of Composers ISCM, US section, and on the Board of

The ISCM World New Music Days Košice 2013 - “Family photo” (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)

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Governors of the American Composers Alliance.

Demanding real transcendence

Report on the World New Music Days 2013 in Košice, Bratislava and Vienna

by Chris van Rhyn, ISCM South African Section

It was whilst starting at the copy of Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) above the bedpost in my hotel room in Vienna that I was reminded of one of my favourite theories: Baudrillard’s simulacrum (its apparent ad infinitum applicability never fails to be a source of amusement).1 The simulacrum, in the words of Deleuze, is ‘an image without resemblance’.2 It is different from a copy in that a simulacrum is a purposefully dissimilar image of the original, and is void of the original’s essence, the Idea, the transcendence-seeking impulse. A copy – the Klimt painting being the working example here – does not pretend to be anything but a copy. The elaborateness and grandeur of Adele Bloch-Bauer transplanted onto a hotel room wall is meant to resemble the original Idea. It is an exact model of the original.

Figure 1: Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907)3 (photo: Chris van Rhyn) 1 Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulations, Translated by Sheila Glaser, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press 1994. 2 Gilles Deleuze: Plato and the Simulacrum, in: October 27 (1983): pp. 4556: p. 48. 3 Gustav Klimt: Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907), http://www. wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Adele_Bloch-Bauer_I#mediaviewer/ File:Gustav_Klimt_046.jpg (9.7.2014).

The reason for my brief exposition of this theory here is its usefulness in trying to make sense of a trend I noticed in a large number of works programmed for the 2013 World New Music Days: the persistence of a twentieth-century avantgarde aesthetic, and by extent, musical material, gestures and styles. (It is at this point where I beg for the reader’s patience, as my experience of this festival was indeed an overwhelmingly positive one). This is perhaps not surprising, as we found ourselves at, or in close proximity to, the origin of the Austro-German tradition of modernism, where such as aesthetic may possibly be viewed as the promotion of ‘tradition’ in a regionalist sense. The trend was, however, not restricted to submissions from this geographical area. This may be symptomatic of a new wave of both European and non-European composers having gone through the mill of a kind of Eurocentric music education of days gone by, and seeking entry into the aforementioned (perhaps heavily managed?) ‘tradition’. Egos originating in this context may then have followed suit (‘if I don’t write a zillion notes and insert a few unnecessary sound effects, how will people know how clever I am?’, or, ‘if it’s not ridiculously atonal, too many people will like it, which means it can’t be good’). The prestige value of this type of music being inversely correlated with comprehension and public response had already been an issue years ago, as was pointed out by Susan McClary in the late 1980s: Ironically, the avant-garde no longer identifies with the new: institutionlized as it is in the universities, it has become the conservative stronghold of the current [late 1980s] music scene, as it holds stringently to difficulty and inaccessibility as the principal signs of its integrity and moral superiority.4

The question is therefore: why am I still saying it twenty-five years later? Has the notion of letting 4 Susan McClary: Terminal Prestige: The Case of Avant-Garde Music Composition, in: Cultural Critique 12 (1989): pp. 57-81: p. 67.

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the institutions of art music ‘survive’ remained so strong that it has kept music in a state of stagnation?5 Despite the technical brilliance on display, this left me cold. The problem is not the use of twentieth-century avant-garde musical material, gestures and styles as such – after all, the ever-expanding postmodern pallet is free for all and not exclusive of anything. The problem is that when these historicallymediated elements are not properly placed or contextualised in contemporary use, it leads to the creation of simulacra. I will use Christopher McAteer’s words to explain why I am pointing the simulacrum out as a problem: … to unmask phony claims of transcendence is to demand and fight for real transcendence. To give up the quest for transcendence is to erect a halo around one’s own stagnation and resignation …6

Compositional successes at the 2013 World New Music Days were, however, numerous. I can only refer to a few representative examples here. Unlike in other works with similar acoustic aims, the string effects in Sabine Kezbere’s subtle, minimalist Monologue (Latvia, 2010) for double bass did not appear gimmicky. The soprano part in Otto Wanke’s Magic and Loss (Czech Republic, 2013) floated effortlessly above the guitar and saxophone accompaniment. Taking the movement to a tonal chord at a strategic moment also into account, the modernist tendencies in the accompaniment sounded wellplaced in this instance. The sparse material in Peter McNamara’s Distorted Waters (Australia, 2007) for flute and cello vividly recalled the Australian landscape, and spoke of a highly developed individual identity. Dissonance was employed strategically in Anna Pidgorna’s Light-Play through Curtain Holes (Canada, 2010) for accordion, a sonic experiment with limited modal material. Bernd Richard Deutsch’s Dr Futurity (Austria, 2013), a chamber piece for in a free-atonal idiom, displayed a strong sense of narrative and humour, and had an attentiongripping rhythmic vigour. Toru Nakatani dared to repeat, whilst avoiding both minimalist clichés and the clichéd modernist use of dissonance and string gimmicks in his 2_1/128_1+1/2 for viola and piano (Japan, 2011). The successful negotiation of an intercultural identity is not easy. Add a good technique that appears effortless to this, and 5 This idea is taken, in part, from Christopher McAteer: Postmodernity and Cultural Stagnation (2011), http:www.christophermcateer. com/2011/11/30/postmodernity-and-cultural-stagnation/ (10.7.2014). 6 ibid.

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what you have is Yasunoshin Morita’s The History of Songs and Words (Japan, 2008) for choir, for which he was awarded the ISCM (in partnership with Music on Main) Young Composer’s Award. The performances of works by composers of the more ‘famous’ variety were a thrill for the present author (an academic at a provincial South African university). Ligeti’s Drei Stücke für Zwei Klaviere (1976) sounded positively fresh and contemporary compared to newer works programmed for the same concert. The invigorating performance of Louis Andriessen’s Workers Union (1975) for any group of loudsounding instruments impressed – how easily a limp orchestra could have made a repetitive piece like this flop! Kaija Sariaaho’s recognisably Finnish, yet entirely individualistic Aile du Songe (2001), a concert for flute and orchestra, left the audience mesmerised, not least due to Camilla Hoitenga’s masterful playing. Saariaho’s advice to developing composers in a television interview the day after the performance is worth mentioning here. She ascribes her success to her collaboration with good performers of her own generation, and warned against running after famous performers because you think that that will make you a famous composer. According to Saariaho the only way to advance is to compose: you have fight for your time and concentration. She was a teacher for only one year, and never a promoter or administrator. Upon hearing this I couldn’t help to think of a statement made by the British-based South African composer Robert Fokkens regarding the reason for good composers leaving Africa, and which may be seen as the reason for many composers from developing nations leaving their countries in order to go and practice their art in Western Europe and North America: you have to spend too much time and energy creating a culture of composition, which prevents you from composing.7 Some issues raised at the International Symposium Intercultural Modernity and Contemporary Music – a Paradox? are worth revisiting in the future. Sandeep Bhagwati’s proposition that contemporary ‘eurological’ art music composers should, instead of seeing themselves as artists who look for new ways of expression, rather see themselves as researchers who look for new tools, concepts and techniques 7 Stephanus Muller: Unpublished interview with Robert Fokkens (2007).

that serve as neutral mediation spaces for intercultural encounters, will surely be hard to swallow for many. His reasoning is that this perspective may help to solve the dilemma posed by socially irrelevant music produced in this paradigm and presented at new music festivals: could it be a new raison d’être for eurological composition: to provide the conceptual and technological infrastructure and contact zone for today’s and tomorrow’s global cultural flows and aesthetic transformations in inter-cultural musicking?8

The proposition does not, however, serve to mobilise contemporary composition in the eurological paradigm in any way. It is rather a philosophical last resort for dealing with a practice that is seen as ‘un-mobilisable’. Kyle Gann’s interesting discussion on the ‘Uneasy, Unarticulated State of American [New] Music’ struck me as being more widely applicable than merely to the United States, especially where he referred to the difference among stylistic trends being driven by difficulties presented by writing autonomous music in a corporate dictatorship, rather than being aesthetically or ideologically driven. The organisers of the 2013 World New Music Days should be congratulated for the extremely smooth running of the festival from beginning to end. The almost consistently high standard of performance should also be mentioned – the high level of playing by student ensembles especially is unlike anything I have witnessed before. The ISCM assembly saw the reinstatement of NewMusicSA as the ISCM South African section. I am happy to report that I was made to feel most welcome, and witnessed a true interest in the plight of non-European and developing nation members. One can only hope that more established members will be able to fight feelings of futility and exercise persistence when proposing collaborations with their less established brethren, who continue to be plagued by a lack of infrastructure and resources.

Chris van Rhyn (photo: Andrew Barry) Chris van Rhyn holds a PhD from Stellenbosch University. He is a lecturer at the North-West University School of Music in Potchefstroom, South Africa, and a board member of the ISCM South African Section.

The ISCM World New Music Days Vienna 2013 - “Family photo” (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)

8 Sandeep Bhagwati: New Music as Service – from Universal Expression to Conceptual Infrastructure (Abstract), in: Programme Booklet for the International Symposium Intercultural Modernity and Contemporary Music – A Paradox? (November 12-13, 2013).

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The ISCM World New Music Days 2013 Organisers reflections

by Irena Lányiová and Bruno Strobl

The festival in 2013 was a celebration of contemporary music and of what has already become musical legacy of the 20th century. It represented the largest event in the field of contemporary music in Košice ever, and an emotional return to the roots (as John Davis, then still president of ISCM, correctly pointed out), to central Europe, to the musical territory so significantly influenced by the distress of World War I and the resulting endeavours to rekindle artistic relations between the single nations. The 90th year of the ISCM World New Music Days began in Košice, then transferred to Bratislava and later completed in Vienna. The cooperating/hosting festivals were ARS NOVA Cassovie (Košice), Melos-Ethos (Bratislava) and Wien Modern (Vienna). Altogether the festival lasted 10 days, with the General Assembly sessions taking place in all 3 cities. During the 4 days in Košice more than 80 guests from different countries of the world gathered, either ISCM representatives, or composers whose works were featured in the programme, or performers. Two new members of ISCM were welcomed in Košice: New Music on Main (Canada) and the Tongyeong Int’l Music Festival (Korea). In Bratislava the festival guests met their colleagues from music information institutions, as the annual IAMIC conference was taking place there over several days. Bratislava General Assembly programme saw the election of the new ISCM president, Mr. Peter Swinnen, who took over the presidency at the last GA session, leaving the seat of the vice-president to the newly elected Henk Heuvelmans. Large portions of the Viennese GA programme were dedicated to the exquisite conference “Intercultural Modernity and Contemporary Music: a Paradox?” During the two mornings, an average number of 100 participants followed interesting contributions of speakers form the 110

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USA, Canada, Germany, Korea and Austria. The conference virtually closed a circle of questions the festival in 2013 had been posing (after the centenarian Rite of Spring was heard in Košice): what are the new musical prophets of the future, what we do or don’t know about the music of other nations and what are the new contexts and criteria contemporary music should develop in? Sometimes, in the course of discussion, some very controversial standpoints arose, however, the shortage of time did not allow for discussion of all these issues. There is some hope and also intent, to continue these talks on music and all related subjects during the next World Music Days.

The ISCM World New Music Days Vienna 2013 – conference (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)

The festival “travelled” a lot this year: not only did it take place in three different cities, it was also presented in many different venues. In Košice the benefits of the recently rebuilt premises were enjoyed in the Kasárne/ Kulturpark complex (military barracks in the past) and in Kunsthalle, a former public swimming pool, both repurposed in the framework of the European Capital of Culture 2013 project. The concert of the Košice Philharmonic was staged in the House of Arts, which is a synagogue turned into concert hall with great acoustics. In Bratislava the venues were even more manifold: concert

halls of the Reduta, Slovak National Theatre, concert hall of the Academy of Performing Arts and of the Slovak Radio. Alltogether, the symphonic programme was presented by 3 symphony orchestras in Slovakia. In Vienna we appreciated the halls of the Konzerthaus and Radiokulturhaus, the modern premises of Museumsquartier and Urania Observatory, and the chamber atmosphere in Porgy&Bess and Palais Kabelwerk. The three installations, which were presented at the Museumsquartier, evoked high interest amongst the visitors there. Out of the works submitted during the Call for scores we were able to perform 70. Twelve of them were individual entries, the major part came in the submissions by ISCM members. The ISCM-IAMIC Young Composer Award was given to Yasunoshin Morita (JP) for his work The History of Songs and Words which was presented by the Polish chamber choir Camerata Silesia Katowice. The audience (especially the ICSM guests) highly appreciated the exquisite level of the performing musicians and of the performances – the latter had a huge influence upon the work of the jury! Previous year’s laureate, Eric Nathan (USA), composed a new work for the Melos Ethos Ensemble, called Paestum. The work was presented during the Bratislava stretch of the festival. The festival saw many charming performances, such as the children’s opening concert or the concert of the conservatory students in Vienna; the strongest memories were left probably by Fama Quartet, VENI ensemble/ THReNSeMBle, Miki and Nora Skuta, Milan Paľa and Daan Vandewalle (Košice), Melos Ethos Ensemble, Enikő Ginzery, Monika Štreitová and österreichisches ensemble für neue musik (Bratislava), and Ensemble PHACE, Klangforum Wien, Camerata Silesia Katowice, Webern Symphony Orchestra and the two short opera programmes produced by sirene Operntheater and progetto semiserio (Vienna). The freshly composed short-opera productions with composition contributions proved to be extremely popular. They were generally conceived by young composers, the lion’s share of which arrived in Vienna from overseas (Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Croatia, Switzerland and Australia). There were 8 short operas/first performances, composed and

performed by the opera companies sirene Operntheater and progetto semiserio. These performances were also sold out in advance. A pleasant part of the festival was the visit of the Federal Minister of Culture, Dr. Claudia Schmied; this event was in connection with a concert (performed by the students of the Conservatory of the Private University in Vienna) in the Vienna town hall and in the Konzerthaus. For the Slovak part of the organising team the ISCM World New Music Days 2013 were a long-time dream come true: to organise the festival for the very first time in Slovakia. For the Austrian part it meant the return to Vienna after 50 years, which also represents an important milestone. Concerts in Košice: 10 concerts Children’s opening concert Solos: Daan Vandewalle, Milan Paľa Duo: Piano duo Miki and Nora Skuta Ensembles: Quasars Ensemble, Fama Quartet, THReNSeMBle/VENI ensemble, VENI ACADEMY, group of Košice Conservatory students Orchestra: The Slovak State Philharmonic Košice Venues in Košice: Kasárne/Kulturpark, The House of Arts (seat of the Slovak State Philharmonic Košice), Kunsthalle Košice

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VENI ACADEMY concert in Kunsthalle Košice (photo: Lukáš Gál)

Fama Quartet and Daniela Varínska, piano (photo: Lukáš Gál)

VENI ensemble/THReNSeMBle (photo: Lukáš Gál)

Eric Nathan with Daniel Gazon, conductor of Melos Ethos Ensemble (photo: Peter Brenkus)

Concerts in Bratislava: 6 concerts Solos and duo: Enikő Ginzery and Monika Štreitová (with electronics) Ensembles: Melos Ethos Ensemble, österreichisches ensemble für neue musik Orchestras: The Slovak Phliharmonic, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra Opera production: Slovak National Theatre Venues in Bratislava: Reduta (seat of the Slovak Philharmonic), Historical Building of the Slovak National Theatre, Slovak Radio, Dvorana Concert Hall (concert hall of the Academy of Performing Arts)

Concerts in Vienna: 12 concerts with 11 formations: Solo Chamber Music Ensembles: Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Platypus, Ensemble Phace, Ensemble die Reihe, Ensemble Reconsil, European Bridges Ensemble Orchestra: Webern Symphony Orchestra Electronics: Low Frequency Orchestra, European Bridges Ensemble, Soloists Venues in Vienna: The Konzerthaus, Radiokulturhaus, Urania, Porgy&Bess, Palais Kabelwerk The Festival had been widely advertised in the press and on air, the audiences were very curious and the concerts were all sold out right from the start.

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On the Difficulty of Understanding Music from Other Continents1 by Reinhard Oehlschlägel

For a European, it is not exactly easy to deal with the culture and identity of other continents, quite independently of the part of Europe in which s/he lives or even of which other continent is being discussed in a given case. (Indeed, Alfred W. Crosby’s thesis presented in his book Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900–1900 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986) – according to which the not-exactly-simple ability to investigate foreign languages and cultures has determined the European’s superiority since the Renaissance – is certainly not entirely false.) The only thing that is truly simple is the tourist type of contact with foreign countries which is fulfilled by finding at one’s destination the standard of language and everyday life to which one is accustomed at home. (Morton Feldman’s comment in one of his Middelburg Lectures – that if one goes to China, and Chinese is spoken there rather than English, something is wrong – is not out of place in this context.) Already a bit less simple is the so-called romantic contact with the archaic aspects of that which is foreign: to yield to the desire for an untouched natural environment, for uncivilized culture at the farmhouse, in the Hallig Isles off the Schleswig-Holstein coast, with the Sami or the Eskimos, with the aborigines or with an Indian tribe in the Brazilian rain forest. With this kind of tourist trips, the return ticket home is included in the price. Artistic or scientific excursions of this type can last months, years or an entire lifetime, until finally the person or his/ her artifact returns to Europe with his/her research results. Adventurers and collectors as well – domestic forms of the trophy-collecting 1 This article was written by Reinhard Oehlschlägel as an editorial for volume 43 of MusikTexte, published in February 1992, which was devoted to Latin America.

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conqueror and, at the same time, the early form of the learned person – belong in this context. And attempts to deal with foreign culture, foreign music in a non-tourist, non-exotic, non-romantic manner turn out to be yet more complicated. International politics – as laid down, for example, in the UN and its Charter – has developed, and indeed has been developing since the French Revolution, a sort of ethic of acceptance and respect for the sovereignty of foreign states. In a less binding manner, there also exist this type of rules for forms of cultural expression, for languages, religions, monuments and objets d’art. But this type of norms is naturally in no way an immediate reality. Something similar also applies to universal human rights, such as the verdict against genocide, as well as with regard to murder and manslaughter. The more a composer, scientist or artist – a composer or musicologist gets involved in the culture, the music of a foreign continent or country, the more the political, scientific and general context of life also comes into view and the more certain limits of perception and understanding become apparent. If one hears – for example, during the ISCM World Music Days – the music by Latin American composers accessible here in Europe, one reads the composers’ program notes, tracks down their biographies and other accessible sources, then a picture also familiar from other contexts emerges: a search for identity, a working out of peculiar stylistic languages connected with the country, with its culture, its language, its landscape and natural environment, while avoiding clichés, trivial displays, tried-and-true systems of stylizations on the one hand and characterizations the other, as they have been developed in Europe and the United States. However, many Latin American composers have studied in Europe

or – in the younger generation – live for a while in Europe after their studies and, later as well, remain involved or at least interested in European development. But at the same time, as in Europe, the United States and, for example, in Japan as well, there is also an eclectic aesthetic language. In Latin America, one could speak of a macunaima or mestizo culture where all is possible – a mixture of styles and manners of writing, of traditions and clichés of Indian-, Ibero- and AfroAmerican provenance. Naturally added to this, in the case of composers of Latin American origin living for a longer time or their entire life in Europe, are mixtures with European composition schools, as well as the gentle pressure to succeed, to remain a recognizable Latin American in Europe – or, on the contrary, a distanced, playful handling of Latin America’s dependence trauma: for instance, the question of what would have happened if Latin America’s original inhabitants had conquered and suppressed Europe 500 years ago, as Mauricio Kagel took up the subject in his stage composition Mare nostrum. For European ears and imagination, the perception and deciphering of this type of differences is naturally influenced a priori by the background of European Modernism and of eclectic, Postmodernist and, recently, multicultural tendencies as well. This also applies to the thoroughly fluid boundaries between composition in the narrower sense and such commercial enterprises as industrial music production. The civilized form of colonialism and imperialism – now that Latin American countries have liberated themselves from direct dependence on European royal houses and colonial administrations – applies to this reigning commercial sector of the cultural scene, the entertainment industry which itself is becoming more and more entangled in international structures. But in Latin America, artistic composition is also often conceived as dependent on developments in Europe and the United States – likewise in the sense that composed music in itself is viewed as a European phenomenon. On the other hand, European cultural and music history is also marked by numerous dependencies. And the pre-eminence or peak of the development in question has always

shifted from country to country – from a Latin American viewpoint, one could speak of a succession from Athens to Rome, Madrid and Lisbon, to London and all the way to Paris – indeed, for some time now, it has no longer even been limited to Europe; during the German National Socialism that usurped power over almost all of Europe, it emigrated all over the world and thereby involuntarily became a part of the Postmodern and multicultural scenery in the United States and elsewhere. Both despite and because of the trend towards global networking, cabling and satellite connections for all of all of this world’s regions, places and houses, there is an undiminished dependence of all culture consumers connected to this network on metropolises and production centers in the United States. It is not at all a foregone conclusion from all of this that there is or will be for all time an unbroken pre-eminence of Europe, or that Latin America must remain inalterably dependent on Europe. Already today, European countries are dependent on the United States and Asian industrial countries in key production sectors. This also applies for the segment of electroacoustic composition with the aid of mainframe computers and so-called workstations. These kinds of power, decision and availability questions are still not without influence in the creative field, though by no means the deciding factors. The search for a continental, national and regional identity for the founding of continental, national and regional schools of writing, painting or composition, as well, are important steps for the self-image of a continent, nation or region; indeed, they are also a necessary background for the emancipation of the artistic individual, whose work, whose individual composition is in the end the deciding factor. Viewed in such a way, the search for identity goes yet a step further than the search, perceptible in his/her work, for an artist’s individual identity in his/her cultural and societal context. As far as Latin America is concerned, one can find this type of individual personalities whose relevance is generally agreed, for example, in Heitor Villa-Lobos, Carlos Chávez, Silvestre Revueltas and Alberto Ginastera. Or is the radical

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individualization of compositional work only a European view of things, a narrowing of artistic productivity – as is unknown, for example, in the old Asian, European, African and American cultures where they are to this day continuously traditional?

Translated by Cara Thornton

Reinhard Oehlschlägel, with Gisela Gronemeyer – ISCM World Music Days Manchester 1998 (photo: Makoto Shinohara)

Thomas Simaku and Reinhard Oehlschlägel, ISCM World Music Days Yokohama 2001 (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)

And here we come full circle. In virtually all attempts to deal with the music of other continents and countries, one can perceive Eurocentric, subtly imperialist or post-

colonialist motives. Even a Latin American issue of MusikTexte can be misunderstood in such a manner. For it is not exactly simple for Europeans to deal with other cultures that are understood as dependent on Europe, without being misunderstood. Perhaps, on the other hand, the step of consciousness-raising, insight into this difficulty, will help in taking the next step.

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A Selfless Egocentric

Reminiscences of Reinhard Oehlschlägel (1936–2014) by Rainer Nonnenmann1 ‘what is obtained in the kingdom of truth by one is won for all’ Friedrich Schiller

With composers who have succeeded in creating something musically unique and new, and who have talked extensively about it, one may say casually: Their works still live today, their words will pass away. But what remains of the lifework of a music journalist, which consists mainly of words about music – and that, of ones hastily spoken and written in lectures, panel discussions, radio broadcasts, reports and articles for daily newspapers? The œuvre of Reinhard Oehlschlägel, who died on 29 April 2014 in his Köln apartment after a severe illness, includes countless essays, critiques, commentaries, interviews, radio broadcasts and editorships, as well as MusikTexte, the new music journal which he co-founded in 1983 and published for thirty years, above all, in tandem with his second wife, Gisela Gronemeyer. All of this is recorded in extensive bibliographies and kept in libraries for contemporary society and for posterity. But does that exhaust the significance of Reinhard Oehlschlägel’s lifelong examination of new music? After all, there are no large monographs or even standard works on the list of his writings. Plans for a book on Dieter Schnebel (as the composer himself wanted) and one on John Cage (long-awaited by many) remained mere ideas and, in the end, were scattered over many individual articles on the aforementioned and other composers. Reinhard was no musicological worker bee who was always occupied with sources from some past era or other. With every fiber of his being, he was contemporary. His insatiable curiosity applied to current music events whose multitude of voices, vigor and variability fascinated him and thereby, evidently, closed the door to a monographic approach for him.

Nevertheless, what made him one of the most present and formative personalities in the younger generation of music history from the mid-1960s onwards was, aside from his energetic publishing endeavors, an incredible amount of other activities by means of which he had a lasting influence on musical life.

Criticism out of Passion Born on 18 July 1936, in the town of Bautzen in Saxony as the fourth son of a lawyer, by age four, he had already lost his mother. After the family’s escape during the Dresden bombardment in 1945, he grew up in the village of Triangel (near Gifhorn, in Lower Saxony) on the estate of his grandfather Will Vesper, who was by profession an author of Nazi blood-and-soil literature. How much of an influence Reinhard Oehlschlägel considered his background to be, he confessed in 2004 during a workshop event of the Köln Society for Contemporary Music (KGNM). Aside from his decisive rejection of Nazism, he then singled out, above all, his sibling situation: ‘I had to “fight” against three older brothers. I think those were the hours when the critic in me was born. You could also understand it this way: Brute force didn’t work, so I had to use my head.’ Immediately after finishing high school in Wolfsburg, during which time he wrote his first music criticism pieces, he studied – at the behest of his father, who didn’t want to let his son become an unemployed musician – music education at the music college in Hannover, though already at that time with the resolution never to become a music teacher). Up until his state examination in 1962 (with a major in recorder performance and a thesis on Schoenberg’s String Quartet no. 2), as chairman

1 The author became more closely acquainted with Reinhard Oehlschlägel in January 1997 at the 2nd Young People’s Forum of the German ISCM section in Frankfurt am Main, remained in contact with him from that time onwards, in 2007 became initially editor and finally, in 2012, co-publisher of MusikTexte, the new music journal co-founded by Oehlschlägel.

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of the Student Council (AStA), he was involved both in college politics and in the organization of concert excursions and a bulletin board for new music. Subsequently, he transferred to the University of Frankfurt to study philosophy and sociology with Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno and Jürgen Habermas, as well as musicology with Rudolf Stephan in Göttingen and recorder performance with Gerhard Braun at the Academy of Music in Darmstadt, where he passed the private music teacher’s exam. Reinhard became an influential personality in new music initially as a critic for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from 1965 to 1969 and then for the Frankfurter Rundschau in 1970/71, as well as, from 1972 onwards until his retirement in 2001, above all as new music editor at Deutschlandfunk Köln (DLF). The way and manner in which he was able to fulfill this position within the radio station by virtue of his character and intellect, against repeated challenges, he owed to that same intellectual and economic independence which allowed him to become a critical authority whose words and judgments held weight. Every day anew, he fought for the foundations of critical journalism: the ability to recognize backgrounds and contexts, to thoroughly research objectively verifiable circumstances and facts, to interpret them correctly, to freely and openly experience and comment upon them autonomously with confidence in one’s own sensibilities and experience, without any definition by others or falsifying influences from outside, in order to finally also take responsibility with all of one’s being for the judgment formulated on this foundation. In this matter, no doubt, Frankfurt critical theory, and then also the student protest movement against unquestionable authorities and the establishment, was good training for him. With all his love and passion for new music, Reinhard also always kept the necessary critical distance. Despite his personal contribution to the life and work of many musicians, he extricated himself from the partialities of persons and entities often entangled with each other by mutual dependencies: composers, ensembles, interpreters, presenters, producers, publishers, labels, associations, institutions, agencies… At all times open to worthwhile cooperative efforts, he reacted allergically even to the slightest suspicion of the current ‘one hand washes 118

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the other’ business model, not least because he always saw this type of arrangements as associated with conflicts of interest which shifted the weight in favor of the already financially or politico-culturally stronger, instead of selflessly serving an endeavor found to be good but requiring support, for the most part because it is not finding any backing.

Cosmopolite of New Music Reinhard Oehlschlägel also reacted skeptically vis-à-vis the all-too-obvious thanks to his broad horizons. Unlike the often locally, nationally or Eurocentrically limited perspective of music journalism, he was as international as new music itself. For nearly five decades, like almost no one else in the entire world, he attended new music concerts and festivals and discussed them in articles and broadcasts. Not rarely, such reports were written after strenuous travel, late into the night for the next day. Everywhere, he met people whose works, experiences, views and information he publicized all over Germany, many of them for the first time, in the Music Journal and New Music Studio broadcast series for which he was responsible at the DLF. In this manner, he broadened the horizon focused, for a long time yet after 1950, on the West German avant-garde centers of Darmstadt, Donaueschingen, Bremen, Hamburg, Köln and Munich. In particular, the cosmopolite opened eyes and ears to experimental music from the United States and Canada at that time – and often even today – largely unknown in Europe as well as in its own homelands, as well as to music from Scandinavia, East Germany, Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin and South America. To his global scope of activity and state of knowledge, events closer to home, as well as composers and interpreters celebrated here in our country, showed themselves in an at times different, sometimes also paler light. On the other hand, he saw as shining larger and brighter such more distant fixed stars as John Cage, Morton Feldman, David Tudor, Conlon Nancarrow, Pauline Oliveros, Graciela Paraskevaídis, José Maceda, Chou Wen-chung and – toward the end of his life – Ben Johnston: significantly, all composers of his generation. In 1970, Reinhard Oehlschlägel also demanded greater international openness for the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt. At that time, as a reporter for the

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, he stood together with the protest of the course participants, who were accusing the leadership of a lack of transparency and experimentation in the program concept and invitation of lecturers. Also typical is the fact that Reinhard, unlike the Darmstadt protagonists of the 1950s, wrote ‘new music’ not with capital letters, but rather always with small letters, because he wanted to consciously include all possible ways of playing contemporary music, expressly also those on the other side of avant-garde demands, however legitimate or illegitimate those demands might be. The international dimension of his thought and work also showed itself in his involvement on behalf of societies and associations. In 1968, he became a member of the German section of the International Society for Contemporary Music. In 1972, he worked with this organization’s statute revision commission, and from 1982 to 1985, he was its vice president. From 1989 to 1993, he was on the board of the ISCM, where he initiated the annual World New Music Magazine, of which he was in charge as co-publisher and editor from 1991 to 2005. He regularly traveled to the World Music Days. On the occasion of the 2005 festival in Switzerland, for his services to new music, he was elected by the plenary assembly unanimously – a historical first – as an honorary member. Also international were his information channels. When on some occasion, for time or financial reasons, he was not able to travel to some festival, he brought himself up to date via radio, newspaper, telephone calls and personal meetings. After all, he was not only a passionate radio broadcast maker, but also a fanatic radio listener and newspaper reader. As a radio editor, he looked through half a dozen daily newspapers a day. By his retirement in 2001, this obligation had grown into an obsession for him. As he continued to cut out articles daily and sort them into different categories, by and by stacks of newspapers weighing tons, which swayed ominously if you came near them and from time to time had to be disposed of, piled right up to the ceiling in the corners of his Köln apartment. It is also in Reinhard Oehlschlägel and Gisela Gronemeyer’s household that the new music journal MusikTexte founded by the two of them, together with broadcast editors Ulrich Dibelius and Ernstalbrecht Stiebler, has

been produced since 1983. Its existence would hardly have been possible without the music journalist couple’s worldwide contacts and information channels. Reinhard Oehlschlägel liked to describe this magazine, offered at cost without profit motive, as a ‘self-help project’: on the one hand, because at the time, there was no longer any journal devoted exclusively to new music in the German-speaking sphere (Melos had been discontinued five years previously and reappeared for a few years only in 1984); on the other hand, because the publication of radio manuscripts – appropriately modified by the authors or editorial staff – was supposed to prevent valuable and often lavishly-researched information from disappearing irretrievably into the ether after one-off broadcasts. But beyond this ‘self-help’ motive, the 140 issues that appeared in Reinhard’s lifetime are far more: they are an archive covering 30 years of current music history – present in many of the world’s private and public libraries, and via the journal’s homepage, easily researchable – with innumerable key texts, trailblazing analyses, profound commentaries, theoretical developments, discussions and important première publications. Quite a few of the essays and interviews later have been incorporated into the composers’ writings series and other anthologies which have appeared since 1993 in the Edition MusikTexte. Ear and Door Openers In putting together the MusikTexte issues, Reinhard Oehlschlägel – together with Gisela Gronemeyer and the editorial and publication team, from 2007/08 onwards farsightedly rejuvenated with Frank Hilberg and Rainer Nonnenmann – paid constant attention to the journal’s international character, as well as to information about female composers and young talents. Over the years, Reinhard’s consistent demand to care about things which others do not do – in broadcasting, newspaper and the volumes of composers’ texts published in MusikTexte – contributed decisively to promoting the acceptance of composers at first unknown, little-appreciated or even openly rejected within the music scene and elsewhere. In the case of several artists, Reinhard was ahead of the game – for instance, with such figures as Alvin Lucier, Robert Ashley, James Tenney, Gordon Mumma, Christian Wolff, 119

Younghi Pagh-Paan, Giacinto Scelsi, Luc Ferrari, Louis Andriessen, Per Nørgård, Henri Pousseur, Alexander Knaifel, Galina Ustvolskaya, Klaus Huber, Nicolaus A. Huber, Helmut Lachenmann, Dieter Schnebel and Mathias Spahlinger. More remarkably, many of these composers – despite great stylistic differences – take up the challenge to understand music politically in the broadest sense, and to connect it with societal concerns. And it was for this, as well, that Reinhard’s heart beat most passionately. Later, the focus also shifted to such younger composers as Peter Ablinger, Mark Barden, Carola Bauckholt, Antoine Beuger, Markus Hechtle, Bernhard Lang, Michael Maierhof, Jörg Mainka, Harald Muenz, Chris Newman, Sergej Newski, Samir Odeh-Tamimi, James Saunders, Martin Smolka, Manos Tsangaris, Jennifer Walshe and many others. In recent years, these people included Annesley Black, Clemens Gadenstätter, Lars Petter Hagen, Robin Hoffmann, Gordon Kampe, Johannes Kreidler, Brigitta Muntendorf, Enno Poppe, Martin Schüttler, Simon Steen-Andersen, Chiyoko Szlavnics … Again and again, there were also emphases in MusikTexte on countries, as well as fields otherwise treated as off-beat, such as improvisation, performance and sound art. Of lasting effect was, above all, Reinhard’s commitment to new initiatives and young talents, which he promoted wherever he possibly could. Ensemble Modern, comprised of members of the German Youth Philharmonic federal student orchestra, owes him its existence and its inaugural concert in 1980 at the then-new DLF Köln chamber music hall, along with which, simultaneously, a new music concert series was founded. In the 1990s, it was combined with early music for the annual NovAntiqua festival and, from 2000 onwards, continued as the New Music Forum. Through DLF recordings, Reinhard also promoted concerts in Walter Zimmermann’s Beginner Studio, which was active from 1977 to 1984 in Köln. And in 1981, he helped in the re-establishment of the Köln Society for Contemporary Music (KGNM); from 1981 to 1984 and again from 1990 to 1993, he was active as a board member of this organization in order to – as a complement to the Westdeutscher Rundfunk music program, perceived as onesided – arrange alternative concerts and music festivals, publish a bimonthly calendar with new music dates in the region, and organize 120 :RUOG 1HZ 0XVLF 0DJD]LQH ƌ 3ROVND 0XVLF 1RZ

exchange events with new music institutions in the Benelux countries. Also indebted to Reinhard’s initiative was the Young Composers’, Interpreters’ and Musicologists’ Forum, which the Society for Contemporary Music – together with Ensemble Modern and the MusikTexte journal – organized for the first time in January 1996. Organized by Gisela Gronemeyer, five more such forums took place up until 2002, which then also provided the impetus for the founding of the International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA). Many young musicians are indebted to the Young People’s Forum for their first important performances and contacts providing entrée into public musical life; and young musicologists (including the author of these words), their first opportunity to put results from seminar papers or master’s theses to discussion and publish them in MusikTexte. Whoever was curious, open and keen on discussion at these meetings (which lasted several days and included seminars, lectures, panel discussions and concerts) could in short order (even without any music journalism experience) be entrusted by Reinhard with further journal and radio contributions. When Reinhard saw that someone was ready to gain their own musical experiences and reflect upon them verbally, then as far as he was concerned, the two most important basic requirements of critical music journalism were already sufficiently fulfilled. He then showed novices much invigorating trust, combined with exhortation encouraging them towards independence and criticism: ‘Every judgment is possible, but it must be well-founded.’

Dialectical Idealist In his own , Reinhard Oehlschlägel proceeded equally clearly and pragmatically. In a first step, sources and facts were tested in order to initially – on the most secure information basis possible, without unnecessary speculations – measure the appropriate works, theories or events immanently against their own perspectives and, if need be, slip the divergence of claim and reality into the assessment. In a second step, the facts and circumstances were then tested from outside through comparisons, antitheses or alternatives. Reinhard had this dialectical method fully and completely internalized. In discussions, he played the

devil’s advocate – sometimes willingly, sometimes under duress – as he tested the validity of an argument or a conviction with appropriate objections and contradictions. To his conversation partners, he often appeared as a Mephistophelian spirit who always negates everything. The bluntness and firmness with which he – without regard for person or position – argued, probed, engaged in criticism, took a stand and demanded the taking of a clear position, was experienced by some as a personal attack. Meanwhile, the point for this unconventional thinker (not malcontent) was always the cause of new music, i.e. the most appropriate view and assessment for a phenomenon – so, in the end, ‘truth’. What was helpful to him in sorting out circumstances and facts was his absolutely encyclopedic knowledge. Reinhard Oehlschlägel was a walking Who’s Who in international new music. Whoever just casually mentioned a name to him, was promptly cut off and all they could do was to, first of all, listen to an exhaustive lecture on this personality, and then draw attention to themselves at best with short interjections – which would then for their part be interrupted, though, with a ‘May I too say something now?’ Corresponding to this man’s insatiable thirst for knowledge was just simply an equally great and regularly overflowing need to communicate. Misunderstood by some fellow travelers and companions-inarms as an arrogant know-it-all, the fact of the matter is simply that with every fiber of his being, he experienced a genuine and selfless need to educate and impart knowledge. Reinhard simply wanted to let other people participate in his experiences and knowledge. In conversations and debates, however, he showed no consideration for personal states of mind or conceits. He openly expressed criticism, demanded explanation, completed, set straight, inquired, insisted. Not infrequently, those affected saw themselves as personally attacked and injured by his objectively-meant interventions. Some, indeed, felt intimidated already just by his striking appearance, which from the 1970s onwards featured long hair and, to the very end, a full, bushy beard. Reinhard’s direct and open manner was polarizing. With some, it created enduring friendships; with others, it led to aversion and antagonism.

This idealist was least of all calculating or intent on his own interests. How little pomposity, smugness or desire to ‘make a name for himself’ came into play with him – despite all the undeniable mania and egocentrism of his character – is shown by the fact that after his retirement as DLF editor, he refused pointblank to agree to an interview on ‘critical music journalism’ as part of a workshop of the Köln Society for Contemporary Music in 2004. Only as part of a ‘double portrait’ (together with Mathias Spahlinger) did he show any interest in it, because now not only he (the ‘unimportant music journalist’) would be questioned, but on the contrary, he too would be able (and this is what he saw as his real task) to interview this ‘important composer’. Based on the transcription of this double portrait, the conversation, text and document volume Mit Haut und Haaren [Hook, Line and Sinker]2 appeared later – in 2006 – on the occasion of Reinhard’s 70th birthday. As it was to be ceremonially presented to him after the inaugural concert of that year’s Donaueschinger Music Days, he stole quietly out of the applauding circle and immediately passed the book on to the also-present Mathias Spahlinger – and this was no higher form of coquetry.

A Loss With Reinhard Oehlschlägel, new music has now lost one of its most independent, pugnacious, creative and striking faces. But with all of his enduring credits as a music journalist, he is now missed also – and above all – as a husband, father and lovable human being. In the heat of debate, it was often forgotten: Reinhard was not only the sharp intellectual and at times merciless discussion participant; he was also sincere, sensitive, emotional, humorous, ironic and capable of self-irony. He and Gisela were also wonderful hosts. Many musicians – especially those with precarious finances – are indebted to their generous, friendly room and board for shorter or even longer stays in Köln. Quite a few guest performances and meetings with artists – who would otherwise have needed a hotel room – would have probably otherwise hardly taken place in Köln. In general, what is illuminating is this couple’s household: Rainer Nonnenmann (ed.): Reinhard Oehlschlägel: Mit Haut und Haaren. Gespräche mit Mathias Spahlinger – Texte und Dokumente zur neuen Musik [Reinhard Oehlschlägel: Hook, Line and Sinker. Conversations with Mathias Spahlinger – Texts and Documents on New Music], Saarbrücken: Pfau, 2006.

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Whoever entered this large apartment in the old building at Gladbacher Straße 23, immediately experienced the fruitful symbiosis of work and life reigning here. Here, all of life was – and will continue to be! – lived with and for new music to the very last dregs. Already half a floor down, on the staircase landing, piles of books and boxes of journals inform one of the productive chaos further upstairs. Inside, every room is a library, stuffed full of books, sheet music, journals, newspapers, concert programs, advertisements, event announcements, photos, manuscripts, notices, letters, printouts, galley proofs, records, CDs. Manic enthusiasm for collecting and work has taken possession of every available surface. Every square centimeter of desk, bookcase and even floor serves the making of journals and books. Only the large kitchen table is successfully defended against encroachments of the paper proliferating everywhere. It is reserved for guests, relatives, friends, authors and musicians, for latte, fresh fish, wine, exciting conversations and – aturally also here – heated debates. Now one person has gotten up from the table and will not come back again: Reinhard Oehlschlägel is missed – in every sense of the word.

Rainer Nonnenmann (photo: Kathrin Bongartz) Rainer Nonnenmann, born 1968 in Ludwigsburg (Germany), studied Musicology, Philosophy and German Philology at the Universities in Tübingen, Cologne and Vienna. In 1997 he made his M.A. with Peter Gülke und 1999 his Doctor with Dietrich Kämper. Based in Cologne he is honor professor at the Hochschule für Musik und T anz Köln and also docent at the Music Academies in Düsseldorf and Freiburg. He was a board member of the Cologne Society of Contemporary Music (KGNM) and the network ON – Neue Musik Köln. 2007 he became editor and finally 2012 co-publisher of the magazine MusikTexte. He gave a lot of lectures at international conferences and published many essays on music and aesthetics of the 19th, 20th and 21st century and also books on Helmut Lachenmann (2000), Nicolaus A. Huber, (2002), Reinhard Febel (2004), Winterreisen (2006), Reinhard Oehlschlägel und Mathias Spahlinger (2006), Johannes Fritsch (2010), Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik (2010) and Helmut Lachenmanns Begegnungen mit Luigi Nono (2013).

Translated by Cara Thornton

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My encounters with Reinchard Zygmunt Krauze, President of the ISCM 1987-1990 Honorary Member of the ISCM

It has been almost forty years of our mutual contacts. Our meetings were usually short, up to some days only, at festivals which were organised in numerous locations: Paris, Cologne, Berlin, Hong Kong, Oslo, Bucharest, Frankfurt, Reykjavik, and many more. I liked him and admired him for his knowledge, intelligence, his own opinion, for his ironic attitude on many topics, but also for his benevolence. I respected his radical views, which some time ago were in the blatant opposition with the general attitude. Later on, he put off the steam but, nonetheless, his views were always original and independent. I liked Reinhard for his smile and because he was always present. He was one of the most true members of the ISCM family. I know that he knew my music, but I doubt he always agreed with it. I liked him however, respected and I looked forwards to seeing his black beard on the next festival...

Zygmunt Krauze is an important artist of his generation – composer, pianist, organiser of musical events and teacher. Krauze’s compositions include five operas, instrumental forms, from miniatures to symphonic works engaging hundreds of musicians, music for theatre, choral pieces and songs. His artistic achievements and efforts in the promotion of music have been recognised with many awards and distinctions, including the French National Order of the Legion of Honour (2007), the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1984) and Doctor honoris causa of National Music University in Bucharest (2014). In 1987 he was elected President of the International Society for Contemporary Music and has been an honorary member of the organization since 1999. In 2002, he was appointed as a Professor of Composition at the Academy of Music in Łódź and from 2006 he has been lecturing at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. Exceptionally important in the list of Krauze’s work is unitary music, which theoretical base comes from the paintings of Władysław Strzemiński. In his compositions, piano is the instrument given the highest priority.

Translated by Tomasz Zymer

Zygmunt Krauze, Izabela Kauze and Jan Oleszwski, Prime Minister of Poland, opening ceremony the ISCM World Music Days Warsaw 1992 (photo: Konrad Kalbarczyk)

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Man with a mission Michael Finnissy, President of the ISCM 1990-1996 Honorary Member of the ISCM

Reinhard was a man with a mission, something which is undoubtedly a necessity in our uncaring world. He was both a wonderful, thoughtful and stimulating person, and – in all honesty – a provocative, angry, pugnacious and occasionally obstructive colleague! Having experienced the apparently innocent resurgence of new music post 1945, in what was, actually, a devious and manipulative political and economic climate, it must have been difficult for Reinhard to remain focussed and idealistic. But he did, and not least through the constant stream of publications, not just the initiative of an ISCM journal, but also through the pages of MusikTexte, and doubtless much else in other spheres. Much of his clarity, of course, stemmed from a volcanic passion. A man of such immense character transcends Life, he was active and truly heroic when so much else remains passive and truly pathetic. He will be missed, and he will always be remembered and cherished.

Michael Finnissy, opening ceremony of the ISCM World Music Days Warsaw 1992 (photo: Konrad Kalbarczyk) Michael Finnissy is outstanding British composer, pianist and teacher. His principal teaching has been at the an Royal Academy of Music (London), Winchester College, the Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven (Belgium), and at the Universities of Sussex and (currently) Southampton.

Reinhard Oehlschlägel, Richard Tsang, Michael Finnissy, Chris Walraven, Ana Lara and Nicolae Brîndus – Executive Committee of the ISCM during General Assembly – the ISCM World Music Days Warsaw 1992 (photo: Konrad Kalbarczyk)

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Remembering Reinhard Richard Tsang, President of the ISCM 2002-2008

Reinhard Oehlschlägel, a really very special man and colleague in the community of the ISCM. As a contemporary music expert, both in the music critique and in the music broadcasting fields, he has always been a corner-stone of the ISCM family. I remember that he has fought hard to support the case of Hong Kong applying to join the ISCM back in the 1980s (while still being a colony at the time), albeit barred by Statutes restrictions at the time. He has shown true insight and vision in pushing for reforming the ISCM Statutes to allow for greater flexibility and more inclusiveness for the organization, resulting in today’s healthy diverse membership make-up of the Society. Reinhard has been an “old-guard”, himself a personification of the post-war modernism ideals which permeated the historical glories of the ISCM in its heydays in the 1950s through 1970s. This aesthetic ideal of his has often led to heated debates and arguments with composers

from different cultural backgrounds – all in a healthy and memorable context when viewed today. Reinhard has been a true believer of his ideals and for this I admire him whole-heartedly. He also had a big heart, a truly compassionate person. As our Society’s Honorary Member and one of the oldest regular participants (in whatever capacity he might be), he has been very much a part of ISCM and ISCM owes much to him. I am saddened by his passing away and will always remember my good friend Reinhard and the unique life that he has led.

Richard Tsang has been active as a composer, conductor, broadcaster and music administrator in Hong Kong and abroad. He founded the First Chinese Composers’ Festival in Hong Kong in 1986 and was the chief organizer of the 1988 & 2002 ISCM World Music Days Festivals in Hong Kong.

Richard Tsang and Reinhard Oehlschlägel - the ISCM World Music Days 2002, Hong Kong (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)

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Reinhard and ISCM – some personal reflections John Davis President of the ISCM Executive Committee 2008-2013

I had the privilege of coming to know something of Reinhard Oehlschlägel through his involvement with ISCM, although I am very aware that his life and work were, and could never be, defined by the boundaries of an organisation, or a particular community.

but I recall being particularly moved. Reinhard’s election as an ISCM Honorary Member in 2004 was no surprise, and richly deserved, given his service and dedication over years. May his spirit remain with us!

One word that I think well describes him is “passionate”. He was a passionate about many things, first and foremost about music. His championing of composers and works that presented an alternative viewpoint, composers who represented the “cutting edge”, or who pointed in new directions, was something that I greatly admired. I think that this is very clear in the editions of the ISCM World New Music Magazine editions that he edited between 1991 and 2005, in the choice of materials representing music activity in a particular place or region, always presenting a unique and incredibly valuable viewpoint. I greatly respected he and Gisela’s championing of women composers, and the passion that they both invested in documenting the work of women composers. Justice and equity were always themes dear to his heart. Reinhard’s passion was no clearer than on the floor of the ISCM General Assembly, where his passionate and fierce advocacy for those things dearest to him was often made very clear, and he was fearless in expressing, in no uncertain terms, a point of order, or a particular point of view. I don’t think that anyone begrudged him if he was ever being unreasonable – and indeed, Reinhard sometimes was unreasonable. If one attends ISCM General Assemblies over some decades, one deserves respect, and ISCM is blessed to (still) have such citizens amongst its members who care deeply about ISCM and what it does.

John Davis (photo by Bridget Elliot) John Davis is CEO of the Australian Music Centre, a position he has held since July 1995. He has an extensive knowledge of Australian contemporary music, and has worked as a performer (jazz and classical), composer, and administrator. He holds a Master’s degree in Creative Arts (Music Composition) from Wollongong University.

I recall his passionate contributions at ISCM in Hong Kong in 2007, where his love for ISCM was also very evident, where accompanying his fierce words there was also tears. I think this surprised him as much as it surprised the rest of us present, 126

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Reinhard Oehschlägel is dead by Stefan Fricke

It happened in the fall of 2001, in Yokohama, during the „World Music Days“ of the International Society for Contemporary Music. At the General Assembly delegates were debating whether or not to exclude one particular section that failed to pay its membership fee. The officials all agreed that according to the statutes this country – I believe it was a South American one – could not remain a member of the ISCM. This is when Reinhard Oehlschlägel rose to speak, pointing out that for precisely such situations „our“ statutes, dating back to the Seventies, had provided the so-called „Emergency Fund“, its designated purpose being to prevent sections in financial hardship, especially sections from Third World and emerging countries, from losing their ISCM status. The discussion took a turn thanks to the incentive taken by „Oehli“ – as his German friends used to call him in his absence. The insolvent section remained an ISCM member. A perhaps innocuous enough incident from the New Music biotope. Not however for Reinhard Oehlschlägel, an ISCM board member from 1989 to 1993, who in 2004 was pronounced Honorary Member. Moreover he founded and edited the „World New Music Magazine“ on behalf of ISCM in the years from 1991 until 2005. Over and above he was actively engaged in the German section. Reinhard’s head and heart belonged to New Music in all its facets. Its underlying social structures were of particular interest and concern to him, and so were the conditions under which it came about and existed. Forever well informed about the birth or imminent demise of New Music incentives all over the world, he committed himself to their cause wherever he saw the need. He did it professionally – from 1972 to 1991 he was chief editor for contemporary music at the Cologne based radio Deutschlandfunk; he did it also privately – active in local, national and international networks alike. He fostered and furthered numerous projects as much as his realm of possibilities allowed, focussed his gaze on Central Europe, on South and North America, reported on the

development of New Music on the other side of the Iron Curtain and in regions far off the well-to-do colleges. The founding of Ensemble Modern in 1980 was owed substantially to his efforts. Ten years prior he was among those who protested against the deadlocked structures at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse and who demanded from the management of the Internationales Musik Institut Darmstadt a say in the design of the courses. With the result that in 1971 the Ferienkurse, founded in 1946, were skipped and henceforth took place biannually. At the time, Oehlgschlägel was active as a music critic for „Frankfurter Rundschau“, where he also reported on the state of affairs at Darmstadt. Previously, from 1965 to 1968, following the completion of his studies in school music and recorder in Hannover, he had been writing for „Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung“. In 1983 he initiated in Cologne the German magazine „MusikTexte“ without which the public discourse about New Music would certainly be poorer. In close collaboration with co-editors, most notably the music journalist Gisela Gronemeyer, his partner, he signed responsible for 140 comprehensive magazines, about 20,000 pages in print. Thanks to their commitment – intellectual as well as financial – this medium invaluable to the scene was able to exist and provide critical information, navigating through the maze of the New Music world. The yellow cover quarterly „MusikTexte“ – as publisher also editing the writings of Morton Feldman, Klaus Huber, Giacinto Scelsi – are undoubtedly Oehlschlägel’s most visible legacy, referred to by some with respectful irony as the „yellow danger“. This journalistic warning and disruption will live on, as made sure by Reinhard Oehlschlägel, the curious, alert and committed champion for the cause of New Music, who passed away on April 29th 2014 at the age of 77 in Cologne. For this, too, we should be grateful to him, who always struggled to accept a word of thanks, and take it as an occasion to critically question ourselves as to our own dedication to the cause.

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Stefan Fricke during General Assembly – the ISCM World Music Days Yokohama 2001 (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)

Stefan Fricke with Wolfgang Liebhart and Marcel Wengler during General Assembly - the ISCM World Music Days Yokohama 2001 (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)

Stefan Fricke Born in Unna/Germany, after his civil service studied musicology and German literature at the Universität des Saarlandes in Saarbrooklyn. In 1989 he founded the PFAU Press together with Sigrid Konrad. Teaching appointments and workshops regularly lead him to various academic institutions. He is an author and editor of numerous publications on contemporary music.

Translation: Barbara Eckle The ISCM World Music Days Yokohama 2001 – “Family photo”, (photo: Anna Dorota Władyczka)

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A Life Dedicated to Music – Reinhard Oelschlägel (1936–2014) by Nina Polaschegg

He would have written one book or another, he told me, but his journalistic job did not allow time for this. He seemed to be quite resigned to this. However, Reinhard Oehlschlägel wrote numerous texts, in which with boldness and agility, he asked frank questions about the music industry and music as such, when music seemed to be on the verge of veering off track, he questioned and investigated. Reinhard Oehlschlägel was very critical, quarrelsome and, doubtlessly, not exactly an easy partner in discussion. But what would musical, journalistic and musicological life be without one who dared to ask straightforward questions, scrutinise different methods, and, last but not least, discover new things, present them and make them audible and discernible? This is exactly what Reinhard Oehlschlägel relentlessly and consistently did. As cofounder of ‘Ensemble Modern’, as a critic for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Frankfurter Rundschau, as an editor of New Music for the national broadcasting company Deutschlandfunk in Cologne (1972–2001) , and as the founder of the magazine Musik Texte, its yellow colour shining in post boxes, not only in the German speaking world.

publishers Reinhard Oehlschlägel and Gisela Gronemeyer, together with their team, gave up discussing fashionable topics, and instead featured composers from all over the world. There was also much improvising and many experiments. One must not forget their numerous books for the publisher Edition MusikTexte, collections of written works by composers such as Christian Wolff, Alvin Lucier, Robert Ashley and Frederic Rzewski, which they supervised with their respective coeditors. The last to be issued (2013) was two tomes on Giacinto Scelsi - the full collection of his written works and also his autobiography. Yes, he was pretty sure in the course of our last meeting and conversation, that he had said and written all the important things which he had wanted to say. Reinhard Oehlschlägel passed away on 26 April as a result of advanced cancer. He was accompanied in his last months by his partner Gisela Gronemeyer, who will henceforth lead their common project. Nina Polaschegg is a musicologist, musical journalist and double bass player living in Vienna. She is specialized in contemporary music, improvised and electronic music, as well as contemporary jazz. As a performer she is above all dedicated to (free) improvisation.

Translation: Robert Ciechanowski Nina Polaschegg (photo from the Author’s private collection)

Last January, when I visited him in his flat in Cologne, I knew that it was the last time we would meet each other. He lay on the sofa, heavily marked by his illness. And, insofar as his ailment allowed, he was willing to talk, asking about the World New Music Days in Vienna, and discussing music topics.

The magazine he created the contents for was black and white, with a yellow cover and a couple of photos and sheet music examples inside, totally without frills. Albeit this format, without doubt, was considered to be one of the most important magazines discussing contemporary music. As for the contents, the founders and

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A Life Dedicated to Music – Reinhard Oelschlägel (1936–2014) by Bruno Strobl

The music journalist Reinhard Oehlschlägel, seen through his numerous and universal activities, as well as contacts and acquaintances with composers, seems to be a part of the history of music and a formative and influential personality in the world of modern music. As a long-time member of the German Section of the ISCM and temporary member of the executive board of the German Section, he was also a delegate for the General Assembly of the ISCM, which assembles each year at the time of the ISCM World Music Days, consisting nowadays of over sixty delegates from all over the world. He was one to face a challenge: putting forward all his enormous knowledge, accosting problems with accuracy and demand, not running away from any controversies which may have arisen, always attentive and critical. He was also a member of the ISCM Executive Committee from 1989 to 1993. Thanks to his initiative, the World New Music Magazine was created (an annual magazine of the ISCM with contributions from the whole world). He was in charge of editing and publishing the magazine from 1991 to 2005. In 2004 he was elected by the General Assembly of the ISCM as an Honorary Member, in recognition of his work and contribution to this international society.

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Bruno Strobl (photo from the Author’s private collection) Bruno Strobl is composer and ensemble conductor, organiser and promoter, living in Vienna. He is president of ISCM-Austria and chairman of the Carinthian branch of the IGNM (ISCM).

Translation: Robert Ciechanowski

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About the ISCM The Internat ional Societ y for Contemporar y Music (ISCM) is a premier forum for the advancement, dissemination and interchange of new music from around the world. Through ISCM, our members promote contemporary music in all its varied forms, strengthening musical life in their local contexts and making their music and its creators known to world.

ISCM Executive Committee Peter Swinnen, President Henk Heuvelmans, Vice-President Arthur van der Drift, Secretary General Lars Graugaard, Treasurer Nina Calopek, Member Riin Eensalu, Member Alper Maral, Member Franz Eckert, Legal Counsel

The annual ISCM World Music Days festival is the principle vehicle through which we pursue our mission. Organized each year by a different host, the festival presents music from each of our member sections, showcasing the incredible diversity of musical practice in our time. Recent festivals have taken place in Hong Kong, Lithuania, Sweden, Australia, Croatia, Belgium, Slovakia and Austria.

ISCM Secretariat Loevenhoutsedijk 301 3552 XE Utrecht The Netherlands Tel: +31-6-29069173 info@iscm.org www.iscm.org

Since our founding in 1922, our network has grown to include more than 60 organizations in over 50 countries, on every continent. The Internat ional Societ y for Contemporary Music was founded on 11th August, 1922 in Salzburg by Rudolf Reti and Egon Wellesz during The International Performances of Chamber Music in the presence of among others: Webern, Bartók, Hindemith, Honegger, Kodály, Milhaud, Poulenc and Grosz. Since the founding of the Society, its basic obligatory rules and objectives have been carried forward in precise way: the International Society for Contemporary Music gathers composers, performers, music admirers interested in contemporary music, which represents all styles and trends without any racial, political, religious, territorial prejudices. Since 1923, individual ISCM sections have organized the annual festival. The ISCM is affiliated with the UNESCO. Activities of the ISCM are among others: ƌ 3XEOLVKLQJ RI WKH :RUOG 1HZ 0XVLF Magazine since 1991 ƌ ,6&0 <RXQJ &RPSRVHU $ZDUG ƌ 9,&& &RPSRVHU LQ 5HVLGHQF\

ISCM Members SECTIONS ISCM – ARGENTINE SECTION Fundacion Encuentros www.aliciaterzian.com.ar ISCM – AUSTRALIAN SECTION Australian Music Centre www.australianmusiccentre.com.au ISCM – AUSTRIAN SECTION www.ignm.at ISCM – BEIJING SECTION Beijing Modern Music Festival, China www.bmmf.org.cn/en/index.html

ISCM – FINNISH SECTION Society of Finnish Composers www.composers.fi ISCM – FLEMISH SECTION ISCM-Vlaanderen VZW www.iscm-vlaanderen.be ISCM – FRENCH SECTION Futurs Composés www.futurscomposes.com ISCM – GERMAN SECTION Gesellschaft für Neue Musik www.ignm-deutschland.de ISCM – GOTLAND SECTION Visby International Centre for Composers www.vicc.se ISCM – GREAT BRITAIN SECTION Sound and Music www.soundandmusic.org ISCM – GREEK SECTION Greek Composers Union www.eem.org.gr www.iscm.gr ISCM – HONG KONG, CHINA SECTION Hong Kong Composers’ Guild www.hkcg.org

ISCM – BULGARIAN SECTION Union of Bulgarian Composers www.ubc-bg.com

ISCM – HUNGARIAN SECTION Hungarian Composers’ Union

ISCM – CANADIAN SECTION Canadian League of Composers www.clc-lcc.ca

ISCM – ICELANDIC SECTION Society of Icelandic Composers www.mic.is

ISCM – CHENGDU SICHUAN SECTION Sichuan Conservatory of Music, China www.sccm.cn

ISCM – IRISH SECTION c/o IMRO www.composers.ie

ISCM – CHILE SECTION Sociedad Chilena del Derecho de Autor SCD www.scd.cl

ISCM – ISRAELI SECTION The Israeli Composers’ League www.israelcomposers.org

ISCM – CROATIAN SECTION Croatian Composers’ Society www.hds.hr ISCM – DANISH SECTION SNYK: Secretariat for Contemporary Music www.snyk.dk ISCM – ESTONIAN SECTION Estonian Composres Union www.helilooja.ee

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ISCM – FAROE ISLANDS SECTION Faroe Islands Faroese Composers Association http://heima.olivant.fo/~summar/ composers.html

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ISCM – ITALIAN SECTION Società Italiana Musica Contemporanea www.novurgia.it ISCM – JAPANESE SECTION Japan Society for Cont. Music www.jscm.net ISCM – SOUTH KOREAN SECTION www.iscm.or.kr ISCM – LATVIAN SECTION Latvian Composers Union www.komponisti.lv

ISCM – LITHUANIAN SECTION Lithuanian Composers Union www.mic.lt

ISCM – TURKEY SECTION Borusan Kocabiyik Vakfi, Kultur ve Sanat Isletme www.borusansanat.com

ISCM – LUXEMBOURG SECTION Luxembourg Society for Contemporary Music www.lgnm.lu

ISCM – UKRAINE SECTION Association New Music www.anm.odessa.ua

ISCM – MEXICAN SECTION SACM www.sacm.org.mx

ISCM – USA SECTION League of Composers www.leagueofcomposers.org

ISCM – NETHERLANDS SECTION Gaudeamus Muziekweek www.muziekweek.nl

ISCM – WALLONIAN SECTION Le Forum des Compositeurs www.compositeurs.be

ISCM – NEW ZEALAND SECTION Composers Association of New Zealand www.canz.net.nz

FULL ASSOCIATE MEMBERS

ISCM – NORWEGIAN SECTION Ny Musikk www.nymusikk.no ISCM – POLISH SECTION Polish Society for Contemporary Music www.ptmw.art.pl ISCM – PORTUGUESE SECTION Miso Music Portugal www.misomusic.com ISCM – ROMANIAN SECTION Union of Romanian Composers & Musicologists www.cimec.ro/Muzica/SNR/default.htm ISCM – RUSSIAN SECTION Intl. Association of Composers Organizations www.iscmrussia.ru ISCM – SERBIAN SECTION Union of Serbian Composers www.serbcompo.org.rs ISCM – SLOVAK SECTION www.iscm-slovakia.org ISCM – SLOVENIAN SECTION Society of Slovene Composers www.dss.si/?spada=1&lang=en ISCM – SOUTH AFRICAN SECTION NewMusicSA, South Africa www.newmusicsa.org.za ISCM – SPANISH SECTION Musica Moderna – c/o Grup Instrumental de Valencia www.grupinstrumental.com ISCM – SWEDISH SECTION www.iscm.se

ARFA, Romania http://www.cimec.ro/muzica/inst/arfa E E C M S, European Eg y ptian Contemporary Music Society, Egypt www.eecms-ebdaa.eu Florida International University – The School of Music, USA www.fiu.edu/~garciao/Miami_ISCM_ Information.html JFC, Japan Federation of Composers, Japan www.jfc.gr.jp/contents/jfc/AbouttheJFC. html M ACM, Malta Association for Contemporary Music, Malta www.maltacontemporarymusic.org Music on Main, Vancouver, Canada www.musiconmain.ca New Music USA www.newmusicusa.org / www. newmusicbox.org Roger Shapiro Fund, Mid Atlantic Associate Member, USA www.rogershapirofund.org Society for Contemporary Music – c/o Centre for Contemporary Music, Russia www.ccmm.ru Stephen F. Austin State University – School of Music, Texas, USA www.sfasu.edu Soc. Venezolana de Musica Contemporánea, Venezuela www.musica.coord.usb.ve/svmc/

ISCM – SWISS SECTION nicolas.farine@bluewin.ch

Tongyeong International Music Festival Foundation, South Korea www.timf.org

ISCM – TAIWAN SECTION http://taiwanesemusic.blogspot.com

ALLIED ASSOCIATE MEMBERS

ISCM – TATARSTAN SECTION Tatar Union of Composers www.rashidkalimullin.com

ISCM HONORARY MEMBERS Louis Andriessen (b 1939) Milton Babbitt (b 1916; d 2011) Béla Bartok (b 1916; d 2011) Sten Broman (b 1902; d 1983) Ferruccio Busoni (b 1866; d 1924) John Cage (b 1930; d 1922) Elliott Carter (b 1908; d 2012) Alfredo Casella (b 1883; d 1947) Friedrich Cerha (b 1926) Chou Wen-chung (b 1923) Edward Clark (b 1888; d 1962) Paul Collaer (b 1891; d 1989) Aaron Copland (b 1900; d 1990) Luigi Dallapiccola (b 1904; d 1975) Edward Dent (b 1876; d 1957) Franz Eckert (b 1931) Oscar Espla (b 1886; d 1976) Manuel de Falla (b 1876; d 1946) Michael Finnissy (b 1946) Sofia Gubaidulina (b 1931) Vinko Globokar (b 1934) Alois Hába (b 1893; d 1973) Ernst Henschel (b 1878; d 1969) Paul Hindemith (b 1895; d 1963) Arthur Honegger (b 1892; d 1955) Klaus Huber (b 1924) Sukhi Kang (b 1934) Zoltán Kodály (b 1882; d 1967) Charles Koechlin (b 1867; d 1950) Zygmunt Krauze (b 1938) Ernst Krenek (b 1900; d 1991) György Kurtág (b 1926) André Laporte (b 1931) Doming Lam (b 1926) György Ligeti (b 1923; d 2006) Witold Lutoslawski (b 1913; d 1994) Walter Maas (b 1909; d 1992) Gian Francesco Malipiero (b 1882; d 1973) Yori-Aki Matsudaira (b 1931) Arne Mellnäs (b 1933; d 2002) Olivier Messiaen (b 1908; d 1992) Darius Milhaud (b 1892; d 1974) Conlon Nancarrow (b 1912; d 1997) Arne Nordheim (b 1931; d 2010) Per Nørgård (b 1932) Viteslav Novák (b 1870; d 1949) Reinhard Oehlschlägel (b 1936; d 2014) Krzysztof Penderecki (b 1933) Goffredo Petrassi (b 1904; d 2003) Willem Pijper (b 1894; d 1947) Maurice Ravel (b 1875; d 1937) Hans Rosbaud (b 1895; d 1962) Hilding Rosenberg (b 1892; d 1985) Albert Roussel (b 1869; d 1937) Antonio Rubin Kaija Saariaho (b 1952) Paul Sacher (b 1906; d 1999) Hermann Scherchen (b 1891; d 1966) Arnold Schönberg (b 1874; d 1951) Roger Sessions (b 1896; d 1985) Jean Sibelius (b 1865; d 1957) Igor Stravinsky (b 1882; d 1971) Karol Szymanowski (b 1882; d 1937) Toru Takemitsu (b 1930; d 1996) Chris Walraven (b 1931; d 1996) ? Ralph Vaughan Williams (b 1872; d 1958) Iannis Xenakis (b 1922; d 2001) Joji Yuasa (b 1929) Isang Yun (b 1917; d 1995)

Festival l’Art pour l’Aar, Bern, Switzerland www.jean-luc-darbellay.

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ISCM WORLD MUSIC DAYS – LIST OF PAST FESTIVALS 1923 Salzburg 1924 Prague/Salzburg 1925 Venice 1926 Zurich 1927 Frankfurt 1928 Siena 1929 Geneva 1930 Liege/Brussels 1931 Oxford/London 1932 Vienna 1933 Amsterdam 1934 Florence 1935 Prague 1936 Barcelona 1937 Paris 1938 London 1939 Warsaw 1941 Unofficial meetings organized in New York 1941 Unofficial meetings organized in San Francisco 1946 London 1947 Copenhagen 1948 Amsterdam 1949 Palermo/Taormina 1950 Brussels 1951 Frankfurt am Main 1952 Salzburg 1953 Oslo

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1954 Haifa 1955 Baden-Baden 1956 Stockholm 1957 Zurich 1958 Strasbourg 1959 Rome 1960 Cologne 1961 Vienna 1962 London 1963 Amsterdam 1964 Copenhagen 1965 Madrid 1966 Stockholm 1967 Prague 1968 Warsaw 1969 Hamburg 1970 Basel 1971 London 1972 Graz 1973 Reykjavik 1974 Rotterdam 1975 Paris 1976 Boston 1977 Bonn 1978 Stockholm/Helsinki 1979 Athens 1980 Tel-Aviv 1981 Brussels 1982 Graz 1983 Aarhus 1984 Toronto/Montreal 1985 The Netherlands

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1986 Budapest 1987 Cologne/Bonn/Frankfurt am Main 1988 Hong Kong 1989 Amsterdam 1990 Oslo 1991 Zurich 1982 Warsaw 1993 Mexico 1994 Stockholm 1995 Ruhrgebiet, Germany 1996 Copenhagen 1997 Seoul 1998 Manchester 1999 Romania & Republic of Moldavia 2000 Luxembourg 2001 Yokohama 2002 Hong Kong 2003 Slovenia 2004 Switzerland 2005 Zagreb 2006 Stuttgart 2007 Hong Kong 2008 Vilnius 2009 Visby/Växjö/Göteborg 2010 Sydney 2011 Zagreb 2012 Belgium 2013 Slovakia (Kosice, Bratislava) / Austria (Vienna) 2014 Wroclaw (Poland)

Acknowledgements

ibis Styles WrocĹ&#x201A;aw Centrum