The history of the keyboard instrument MNP I 49 from the Museum of Musical Instruments in Poznań. the state of research

The keyboard instrument MNP I 49 from the Museum of Musical Instruments in Poznań has not been a subject of detailed academic studies yet, but there have been mentions of it in various types of publications throughout the years. The item is currently placed in the exhibition hall devoted to the art of the Baroque era in the Museum of Applied Arts in Poznań. It is a unique historical item in the Polish collection due to a very scarce number of harpsichords preserved in Poland. This situation is mainly a result of two world wars in the 20th century. Due to not enough available sources, the exact time of the creation of the instrument and the name of its builder were impossible to determine. The aim of the present article was to compile and arrange previous knowledge about the historical item MNP I 49. The work lists source materials and publications in which the instrument was mentioned, such as documents from the National Archive in Poznań, Raczyński Library in Poznań and National Museum Archive in Poznań. Based on the available source materials, the author was able to determine that the harpsichord appeared at the Skórzewski family’s palace in Czerniejewo before 1855.

Emic-etic analysis as a research method for theory of music

Emic and etic are the terms taken from linguistics, but they have become widespread in other fields of humanities, especially anthropology. According to the most general definition, emic approach implies studying behaviours in culture according to its internal categories, whereas etic approach uses external, objective points of reference for this purpose. From the time the concept was created in the 1950s, numerous researchers from different fields have tried to adapt and redefine these two terms so as to use them in their work. The present article attempts to apply both emic and etic approaches within one coherent analytical method. It presents its theoretical fundamentals and proposes a list of six elements that an emic-etic analysis should include. The article focuses on the use of the concept of emics and etics in the theory of music, but the suggested method may also be used for an analysis of other types of culture texts such as music pieces, literary texts, and even fine arts works. The example used in the article is the emic-etic analysis of Letters about music by Michał Kleofas Ogiński, which has shown that the method seems fruitful from the perspective of an analyser, yet it is flawed in terms of objectivity. Therefore, the author does not recommend it as a main method for academic research, but he suggests it could be an auxiliary method and a new tool for the education of school and university-level students. The present article is a shortened version of the BA thesis entitled Emic-Etic Analysis Exemplified On M. K. Ogiński’s “Lettres sur la musique”, defended at the Department of Composition and Theory of Music, The Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, in June 2021.

Teaching qualities in piano works by Henryk Pachulski in the context of the development of piano technique in children and youth. Part 1

Henryk Pachulski (1852-1921) – a Polish composer, pianist, and teacher. He graduated from the Warsaw Institute of Music, having studied piano with Rudolf Strobl. His harmony and counterpoint teachers were Stanisław Moniuszko and Władysław Żeleński. After that, he studied piano at the Moscow Conservatory with Nicolai Rubinstein and then Pawel Pabst. He learnt harmony from E. L. Langer, then Anton Arensky with whom he also had a special course in counterpoint. In 1886 he started his teaching career at the Moscow Conservatory, which lasted over 30 years. He also performed as a pianist in Moscow, Petersburg, and Warsaw. Pachulski was acknowledged for his technical aptitude, but he gained the greatest recognition as a teacher and a composer. He created over a hundred piano works, including three sonatas, two cycles of variations, two polonaises, two mazurkas, three waltzes, preludes, studies, impromptus, and more. He also wrote chamber, vocal and orchestra compositions, as well as piano transcriptions for orchestra and chamber pieces. This article presents the composer’s music and teaching activity, it also touches on teaching qualities of his piano works. It pays special attention to technical aspects, and the analysis also covers the formal side of these compositions. While preparing the text, the author used information included in the Polish music press from the turn of the 20th century, music collection of the National Library in Warsaw, archive documents, and foreign sources.

In search of truth in service of beauty: the comparison of the autograph of Sonata in a minor by Franz Schubert with available editions

Musicians attach increasing importance to the selection of edition they use for playing. There is a growing awareness of the influence of score material selection on interpretation. Historical performance raises the bar as well by encouraging the use of autographs, manuscripts and first editions. Thanks to referring to historical materials, we can quickly appreciate the effort of contemporary editors who – once publishing scores today – make them much more accessible. It would seem that basing one’s interpretation on an urtext edition should be a perfect solution combining today’s clarity with historical truth. The analysis shows, however, that even these trustworthy urtext editions differ from one another, thus differ from the autograph. Using Sonata in A Minor D 385 by Franz Schubert as an example, the article shows different approaches to music text edition. There are distinct ways in which editors interpret articulation, dynamics, and even sound pitch. The biggest number of differences can be found in terms of articulation, which it largely connected with the necessity to read handwritten material. Unambiguous deciphering (and exact placement) of numerous music markings can sometimes be downright impossible. That is why editors often use the method which consists in searching for analogies between fragments and parts, yet this method does not always seem right. As performance practice shows, treating each part individually, playing a similar fragment in a dissimilar way, often brings interesting results interpretation-wise. The article encourages own experiments, using doubts as material for interpretation, and using the benefits of contemporary editions cautiously.

The history of Polish viola literature – the 19th and 20th centuries

After the Romanticism era, when virtuoso music was dominated by the violin, cello and piano, there was a noticeable tendency among composers to search for new and fresh sound inspired by instruments previously functioning mainly in an orchestra. One of the instruments which acquired a new glory back then was the viola. Even though Western European literature earned a permanent place in the repertoire of violists worldwide, Polish pieces representing this genre are lesser-known and performed not as often, except for a few compositions. The library of Polish 20th century viola works is quite rich, but many compositions did not stand the test of time and we would look for them in vain within the performance canon; others were not published in print or recorded, and their manuscripts are owned by private collections. Some autographs of compositions have gone missing and only their titles have been preserved to this day. The present article is an attempt to systematise the state of knowledge about Polish viola compositions written before the end of the 20th century.

A nostalgic return to the past or sound searching? On the use of contemporary harpsichords in early music performance

The article is based on the materials used for the author’s doctoral dissertation entitled Contemporary performance of 17th century German harpsichord toccatas in the context of instrument selection. Its main part is an analysis of the changes which occured in the harpsichord builiding before the end of the 19th century and the change in approach to early music at the beginning of the 20th century. The article is an attempt to answer the question to which extent instrument selection determines our today’s performance. Is it only a harpsichord being an exact copy of historical instruments that allows us to deliver an authentic and fresh interpretation? While listening to 20th century harpsichordists playing 20th century instruments (i.e., using contemporary models, not historically-based), we discover a different world of early music, which may even be more experimental than today’s performance sound-wise. It seems that the openness towards contemporary harpsichords while preserving historical practices at the same time may help discover new sound qualities in early music pieces.

Organ accompaniment to silent films, part 3 – the activity of Robert Hope-Jones and its importance

The idea to write music for silent films, both in a form of written-down scores and composed live has experienced its renaissance for more than ten years. Thanks to a quite decent number of preserved theatre instruments and also due to the globalisation and wide data flow options connected with it, the knowledge and interest in Anglo-Saxon tradition of organ accompaniment in cinema were able to spread away from its place of origin. The article is the third part of four attempts to present the phenomenon of combination of the art of organ improvisation with cinematography and it was based on the fragments of the doctoral thesis entitled “Current methods of organ improvisation as performance means in the accompaniment for silent films based on the selected musical and visual work”. The dissertation was written under the supervision of prof. dr hab. Elżbieta Karolak and was defended at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań in 2020. The article focuses on the profile of Robert Hope-Jones, an eccentric creator of cinema organ. It describes the period preceding the time when typical theatre instruments called “Mighty Wurlitzer” acquired their final shape, i.e., from the introduction of first electromagnetic tracture innovations in England, to the establishment of Hope Jones’s collaboration with the Wurlitzer company in the United States of America and the creation of instruments of the Unit Organ type.

Organ accompaniment to silent films, part 2

The idea to write music for silent films, both in a form of written-down scores and composed live has experienced its renaissance for more than ten years. Thanks to a quite decent number of preserved theatre instruments and also due to the globalisation and wide data flow options connected with it, the knowledge and interest in Anglo-Saxon tradition of organ accompaniment in cinema were able to spread away from its place of origin. The article is the second part of four attempts to present the phenomenon of combination of the art of organ improvisation with cinematography and it was based on the fragments of the doctoral thesis entitled “Current methods of organ improvisation as performance means in the accompaniment for silent films based on the selected musical and visual work”. The dissertation was written under the supervision of prof. dr hab. Elżbieta Karolak and was defended at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań in 2020. The article touches on the process of adding sound to silent films, creating publications containing the so-called genre music (i.e., music for specific tyles of scenes), as well as cue-sheets which appeared since 1909 and which were particularly useful for improvising pianists and organists. It also describes the practice of orchestra accompaniment and different sizes of lineups connected with it.

“A composItIon wrItten wIthout creatIve lImItatIons” – Wanda Landowska and concerto for harpsichord and five instruments by ManueL de Falla (1923)

The aim of the present article is the analysis of Concerto for harpsichord and five instruments by Manuel de Falla – a piece which was dedicated by the composer to Wanda Landowska, an outstanding Polish harpsichord player. The piece was meant to commemorate the friendship these two artists shared as well as their collaboration. Written in the period of 1923-1926, the Concerto was the first composition in the history of 20th century music where harpsichord was the soloist instrument. The first element of the article is the context in which the piece was written. We shall look into the musical influences that shaped its form. On the one hand, it was the music of the past: from Cancionero Felipe Pedrell through mainly Bach’s polyphony to works by Scarlatti which preceded the Classicism (this influence is particularly noticeable in the third movement of the Concerto). On the other hand, it was music from the time of de Falla: first of all – Neo-Classicism and works by Stravinsky. The author refers to historical sources – critics’ reviews, testimonies of de Falla’s contemporaries and, obviously, his own remarks as to the interpretation of the piece. Next, Inés R. Artola analyses the score in the strict sense of the word “analysis”. In this part of the article, she quotes specific fragments of the composition, which reflect both traditional musical means (counterpoint, canon, Scarlatti-style sonata form, influence of old popular music) and the avant-garde ones (polytonality, orchestration, elements of neo-classical harmony).

A tribute to the sea. A contribution to the studies on marine comositions by Adam Świerzyński.

One of the composers who devoted a substantial part of their creative output to the Baltic Sea and Kashubia is Adam Świerzyński – he wrote numerous marine-themed pieces for varied performance groups. These compositions are not wide-known and some of them even get forgotten. Nevertheless, they are worth looking into due to their artistic value. Świerzyński’s works are eclectic in their style as in terms of their harmonic aspect they refer to Neo- Romanticism or aim towards modernist sounds. The composer’s instrumental lyric, which is based on inspirations by the nature of the sea as well as by historical events and folk elements, is an interesting area in the Polish 20th century literature. The present article relates to two compositions for viola and piano, i.e., Sea Impressions and Elegy, as well as viola transcriptions of Kashubian Fantasy and Lamento, Arend Dickmann in memoriam.