Background
On October 6, 1882, Karol Szymanowski was born at Timoshovka in the Ukraine to a wealthy, highly cultured Polish family that encouraged his obvious musical talent.
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book
Szymanowski on Music: Selected Writings of Karol Szymanowski (Musicians on Music)
(Karol Szymanowski 1882-1937 is now widely acknowledged to...)
Karol Szymanowski 1882-1937 is now widely acknowledged to be the most important Polish composer since Chopin. He was also a considerable thinker on musical topics: the role of music in society, the goal of musical education, the purpose of criticism, the nature of Romanticism, the hallmarks of national identity - indeed, he was passionately concerned with the emergence of the Polish voice in music, and the role of Chopin in particular. Szymanowski on Music is the first comprehensive selection of his writings to be published in English. It contains all the most important of the composer's essays and interviews, throws light on the trying conditions under which he was obliged to work in the 1920s and '30s, especially in education, and gives perceptive assessments of the work of some of the major composers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - Wagner, Strauss, Stravinsky, Ravel, Satie and others - and the trends they embodied. A number of pieces of a more biographical nature are also included. Overall it provides, in the words of the translator Alistair Wightman, 'abundant evidence of the breadth and depth of Szymanowski's personal culture, and at the same time a telling demonstration of his search for an all-embracing humanistic synthesis'. Dr Wightman faces his pioneering translations from Szymanowski's Polish originals with an extensive introductory essay that places his literary activities in the context of his life and career. This book will be a vital element in the rediscovery of the music of one of the twentieth century's most appealing composers.
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Szymanowski, Karol : 9 preludes pour piano. Op. 1.
(Szymanowski, Karol : 9 préludes pour piano. Op. 1. ?Prélu...)
Szymanowski, Karol : 9 préludes pour piano. Op. 1. ?Préludes, piano, op. 1 This is an Eastman Scores Publishing professional reprint of the work originally published by: Stahl, Berlin, 1906, 19 pp. Eastman Scores Publishing Library Commerce Sheet Music ISMN : 979-0-087-00894-5
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Szymanowski, Karol : 4 etudes : pour piano : op. 4.
(Szymanowski, Karol : 4 études : pour piano : op. 4. Etiud...)
Szymanowski, Karol : 4 études : pour piano : op. 4. Etiudy, piano, op. 4 1. E? minor. 2. G? major. 3. B? minor. 4. C major. This is an Eastman Scores Publishing professional reprint of the work originally published by: Universal-Edition, Wien, 1913, 19 pp. Eastman Scores Publishing Library Commerce Sheet Music ISMN : 979-0-087-00895-2
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KXY8STM/?tag=2022091-20
Karol Szymanowski
Edit ProfileEducation
While still in his teens he wrote elegant pieces for the piano obviously inspired by Frédéric Chopin. In 1901 he entered the Warsaw Conservatory, and after graduation he went to Berlin in 1905. There he and three other young Polish composers founded a society called Young Poland in Music.
Career
In 1908 Szymanowski returned to Timoshovka. He spent the years 1912-1914 in Vienna.
Compositions of this early period are numerous piano pieces—Preludes (1901, 1905), Etudes (1902), and Variations (1901, 1904)—introduced by Artur Rubinstein in his concerts; and violin pieces—a Sonata (1904), Romance (1909), and Notturn e tarantella (1914)—introduced by Paul Kochanski. The Love Songs of Hafiz (1910, 1914) and the opera Hagith (1912-1913) reflect Szymanowski's interest in Oriental mysticism and philosophy.
Szymanowski's Mythes (1915) is a set of three pieces for violin and piano. The second of these, the Fountain of Arethusa, became his best-known and most frequently performed composition. Over a shimmering, dissonant piano part the violin soars in arabesque-filled melody. The harmonies are dissonant but are treated in the impressionist manner, not for their tension but for their color.
The Szymanowski family estate was lost in the 1917 Revolution, and the composer's affluent position changed overnight. In 1920 he went to Warsaw, where he lived until 1935.
During the 1920s Szymanowski's compositions became known to a wider audience through their inclusion in the annual programs sponsored by the International Society of Contemporary Music, and he emerged as Poland's most eminent composer. He became director of the Warsaw Conservatory in 1926. At this time Szymanowski's works began to reflect his national heritage. Harnassie (1926) is a ballet-opera based on Polish peasant music and traditions, similar to Igor Stravinsky's treatment of Russian folklore in Les Noces and Bohuslav Martinu's use of Czech themes in Spalicek. Szymanowski's Stabat Mater (1928) for solo voices, mixed chorus, and orchestra reconciles Palestrina counterpoint with Slavic melodies. A cycle of 12 songs (1930) was inspired by the folk music of the Kurpie region of Poland. Other important compositions are the Second Violin Concerto (1930) and the Symphonie Concertante for piano and orchestra (1932), both distinctly Polish in character.
Szymanowski died of tuberculosis in Lausanne, Switzerland, on March 28, 1937.
Achievements
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He was awarded the highest national honors, including the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland and other distinctions, both Polish and foreign.
On 16 November 2006, the Polish Parliament passed a resolution to name 2007 "The Year of Karol Szymanowski" in order to honour the 125th anniversary of the composer's birth and the 70th anniversary of his death. On 3 October 2007, the National Bank of Poland issued special commemorative coins depicting the composer in the following denominations: 200 zloty, 10 zloty and 2 zloty. The Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice as well as the Kraków Philharmonic have been both named in remembrance of the composer.
Works
book
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Szymanowski on Music: Selected Writings of Karol Szymanowski (Musicians on Music)
(Karol Szymanowski 1882-1937 is now widely acknowledged to...)
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Szymanowski, Karol : 4 etudes : pour piano : op. 4.
(Szymanowski, Karol : 4 études : pour piano : op. 4. Etiud...)
-
Szymanowski, Karol : 9 preludes pour piano. Op. 1.
(Szymanowski, Karol : 9 préludes pour piano. Op. 1. ?Prélu...)
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Szymanowski on Music: Selected Writings of Karol Szymanowski (Musicians on Music)
Membership
He was an honorary member of the Czech Academy of Learning.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Aleksander Laskowski describes the composer's music and its changing style in the following words: “He invented a musical language [. .. ] His works were true and ingenious creations. And his oeuvre shows an incredible development from the Straussian and Wagnerian, through an interesting and very romantic Oriental period, and finishing with a national period influenced by his time in the Tatras. ”
Connections
References
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Born
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Died
March 29, 1937 (aged 55) -
Resting place
Skalka Sanctuary, Kraków, Malopolskie, Poland -
Nationality
Polish