Nowa Muzyka i przyjemność w serii utworów audiowizualnych ASMR Neo Hülckera

New Music developed in the twentieth century under the influence of Theodor W. Adorno’s philosophy. Its sense, according to the philosopher, lies in social criticism, which the composer accomplishes through radical artistic innovation, and the distance from the audience’s expectations. The sensual pleasure of sound reception is not included in the concept of New Music, which preferably should not appeal to anybody, as it “took on the shoulders darkness of the world and all its guilt, and sees its only happiness in knowing misery” (Adorno). In the ASMR series, the German composer Neo Hülcker breaks this paradigm of perception and proposes a radically different interpretationof New Music.ASMR, or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, is a sensation of pleasant tingle, caused by subtle acoustic-haptic phenomena, such as amplified murmurs, whispers, touching objects and materials. Millions of people around the world are watching ASMR videos on YouTube that let them relax nicely.In such video compositions as ASMR Tutorial: How to Play “Pression” by Helmut Lachenmann, ASMR Tutorial: How to Play Mark Andreor ASMR Unwrapping the Piano & iv 11a, and Peter Ablinger: weiss/ weisslich 3 – [super soft ASMR] Neo Hülcker investigates the similarityof sound material of illustrative pieces of New Music and ASMR, raising the question of whether New Music can make someone feeltingly. Presenting in the context of ASMR works by Helmut Lachenmann, Mark Andre and Peter Ablinger, Hülcker explores the hiddenpotential contained in the most radical aesthetics of New Music, namely the suppressed carnal pleasure. The article is an attempt to show the ways how Neo Hülcker redefines the concept of New Music, entering in it the sensual experience of sound.

Pastorałka dramatyczna Juliusza Słowackiego i jej muzyczna interpretacja we "Fragmentach" Zygmunta Mycielskiego

Zygmunt Mycielski’s final work, Fragmenty to words by Juliusz Słowacki (1987) belongs to the collection of religious works which crown the creative path of the author of Postludia. Fragmenty were written on the basis of a rigorous, individual method of composing using twelve notes – an array system devised by him towards the end of the 1950s which from that time consistently accompanied his creative undertakings.The austerity of technique achieved by limiting external effects, particularly apparent in Mycielski’s religious compositions (alongside Fragmenty one should mention here above all Trzy psalmy and the mass Liturgia sacra), results from the desire to reject pathos in favour of gravity and simplicity. This conscious creative decision means that the devices used serve to bring out the meaning and the emotion in Słowacki’s text, and in the created narration one perceives authenticity, truth and modesty. Fragmenty may be interpreted as a special kind of testament, Mycielski’s confession of faith, and the shades of sacrality discovered in it – the stages of musical spirituality according to Bohdan Pociej’s conception, support this supposition.

Izotopie w praktyce analizy dzieła muzycznego – na przykładzie "Arabesque" Zygmunta Krauzego

The aim of the paper is to reconsider the question of usefulness of the category of isotopy in semiotic analysis of a musical composition, on the example of Zygmunt Krauze’s Arabesque (1983) for prepared piano and instrumental ensemble. Adopting a suggestion by Nicolas Meeùs, the author undertakes an attempt to transpose Rastier’s differentiation between semantic isotopy and isotopy of the plane of expression (isotopie de l’expression) into analysis of music. Following Michel Arrivé, she presents a model example of isotopic relations in the plane of expression (signifiant) from the novel Les jours et les nuits (Days and Nights) by Alfred Jarry, and finds that isotopy of the plane of expression is for linguistic semioticians an alternative to semantic isotopy in providing cohesiveness in the layer of signs that construct meaning. She then discusses the extent of application of isotopy in music semiotics and draws attention to the semantic capacity of this category in Eero Tarasti’s theory and interpretive practice, where it undergoes metaphorisation and a kind of universalisation. She also refers to the proposal of Jean-Pierre Bartoli to use isotopy in analysing Orientalistic exoticism, which constitutes an example of a return to the level of the simplest constitutive units and the condition of their iteration, i.e., to the structuralistic-semiotic conceptions of isotopy in the approach of Greimas. Moving on to an analysis of Krauze’s composition, the author puts forward the view that Rastier’s categories of isotopy of the plane of expression as „conditions of grammaticality” (conditions de grammaticalité) of an utterance can only apply to specific cases of compositional techniques which are utterances in systemic „musical languages”, and this condition is not met in the case of the work analysed. The argumentation presented in the article is based on an analysis of particular features of the organisation of the sound material, the texture and syntax of Arabesque, as well as references to the composer’s claim to have been inspired by the mystical paintings of Władysław Strzemiński and the oriental connotations of arabesqueness in music. In seeking the musical meaning of Krauze’s Arabesque the author focuses on identifying its intentio operis.

Beethoven jako aktor historyczny. Perspektywa mikrohistoryczna w muzykologii

The article focuses on issues of microhistory and the usefulness of this historiographical practice in musicological research. The author begins by presenting the key issues relating to microhistory, referring extensively to the book What Is Microhistory? by István M. Szijártó and Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon. She then quotes and briefly discusses the most significant musicological works which employed microhistorical strategy. These are Mark Everist’s book Music Drama at the Paris Odéon, 1824–1828, Tamara Levitz’s Modernist Mysteries: Perséphone and Peter J. Schmelz’s article “Shostakovich” Fights the Cold War: Reflections from Great to Small. The main part of the text is devoted to Mark Ferraguto’s monograph Beethoven 1806. That publication is wholly based on the microhistorical approach, thus open- ing a new perspective in reflection on the instrumental works by the Master from Bonn. Ferraguto analyses Beethoven’s works from 1806 and early 1807 in the context of the people and the instruments for which they were composed; he also explores the nature of and reasons for the composer’s retreat from the „heroic phase”, analysing various aspects of contemporary musical, social and political life in Vienna. He does so while concentrating on selected, characteristic moments which define the given opus. Unlike the earlier musicological works based on the microhistorical strategy, Ferraguto’s monograph is not overburdened with detail, but makes an excellent job of linking contextual issues with analysis of musical composition. In this way it enriches musicological research by providing it with a new, interesting dimension.

Uchem krytyka. Idiom kompozytorski Pawła Szymańskiego w ujęciu Andrzeja Chłopeckiego

The article aims to present the compositional idiom of Paweł Szy-mański (b. 1954) as conceived by Andrzej Chłopecki (1950–2012), an outstanding Polish music critic and musicologist. His opinion-forming texts, written in a distinctive language, resonated widely in the Polish and international music community. The article has the character of a review, presenting quotations from Chłopecki’s texts regarded by the author as the most significant, confronted with self-reflections of the composer himself, as well as references to other researchers’ com-ments. The initial part of the article describes Chłopecki’s promotional activities in relation to Szymański’s work. As an active employee of the Polish Radio, Chłopecki was in a position to commission works, prepare programmes on the subject of the composer’s music, as well as organise a monographic festival presenting the majority of his works. The next section of the article recapitulates the first important text by this opinion-forming critic which discusses the works of Szymański, titled W poszukiwaniu utraconego ładu. „Pokolenie” Stalowej Woli [In search of lost order. The Stalowa Wola „generation”]. In it the critic emphasised the role of tonality and the Baroque as the arche-type always present in the composer’s music. The central part of the article discusses the main features of Szymański’s music, the subject of Chłopecki’s later texts; these included heterophony, bidirection-al composing, and the dialectic interplay between structure and its transformations. The last section of the article talks about the charge made by the critic against the composer, that of remaining within the same aesthetics, even though placing his compositions among the most significant and individual phenomena of postmodernist music.

Wobec społecznego i kulturowego fenomenu "Chopinowskiego Igrzyska"

The article is a review of the book The Chopin Games on the history of the Fryderyk Chopin International Piano Competition 1927–2010. In the author’s opinion, the synthesis organizing selected cultural, social and anthropological aspects of the Chopin Competition was very useful, and it’s authors completed a large part of the tasks declared in the introduction to the work.

Zygmunt Mycielski i „Res Facta” Michała Bristigera: międzyredaktorskie dialogi i solilokwia

Throughout their lives Zygmunt Mycielski and Michał Bristiger were deeply interested in the development of musical life in Poland, understood in its wider perspective. Both were also editors-in-chief of the two most important music periodicals in Poland: „Ruch Muzyczny” (Mycielski) and „Res Facta” (Bristiger). In 1973 Mycielski also joined the Editorial Committee of „Res Facta”. What was his relationship with Michał Bristiger’s journal and with its editor himself? The article explores these relationships on the basis of published issues of „Res Facta” and „Res Facta Nova”, reminiscences of members of the editorial team, as well as preserved correspondence between Zygmunt Mycielski and Michał Bristiger.

Polish Music Published by Moeck 1958 to 1967 – a (Failed?) Transfer from East to West

From the end of the 1950s, the West German publisher Moeck officially represented the state-led music publishing house PWM ‘in the West’ with the permission of the Polish Ministry of Culture. Beside the distribution of score editions and orchestral performance materials by the PWM, Moeck also represented the interests of Polish composers in the Federal Republic of Germany directly in his own catalogue. Among the first authors of the new series of editions were Kotoński, Lutosławski, Penderecki, Serocki and Szalonek. They belonged to a circle that regularly participated in West German musical life in the 1960s. Despite the spirit of optimism and advantages for the composers, this cooperation also led to problems on several levels. These included the billing of performance materials and the handling of international copyright. This made the participants aware of various limits and led to conflicts – especially on the Polish side. Translation of Polish texts in vocal works into German and English was also not as straightforward as originally planned. The article offers new insights into Polish–German cooperation in the cultural field of music, which went on despite the difficult relationship between the two states then and also beyond the borders of the Cold War.

Naturalistyczna muzykologia systematyczna wobec poglądów Meyera na emocje i znaczenie w muzyce

Leonard B. Meyer’s book Emotion and Meaning in Music was published more than half a century ago. It still provides inspiration for musicologists with various specialisms to undertake research aimed at understanding the intriguing link between music and emotions and the relationship between musical structure and meaning. Since the publication of this outstanding volume we have seen extraordinarily dynamic development of the musicological disciplines constituting that part of systematic musicology which is based on the premises of naturalism. The article focuses on those selected research areas of thisbranch of musicology where the influence of the ideas first presented in the above volume is particularly significant. The most important of Meyer’s postulates in naturalistically oriented systematic musicology that continue to be discussed include: the key role of expectation in shaping our emotional reactions to the musical passages we hear and the inner musical character of the affective meanings created in this way. The main challenges faced by Meyer’s postulates during the recent decades are examined, and the solutions to them proposed within the framework of naturalistically oriented thinking about music.

W okowach mitów – "Medeamaterial" Heinera Müllera, Pascala Dusapina i Sashy Waltz

Pascal Dusapin is regarded as one of the outstanding contemporary French composers. The opera genre seems to have a special place among his creative achievements. Medeamaterial is the composer’s second work for the stage, and one of many where myth becomes the subject. As the text of the libretto, he chose a text by a German dramatist, Heiner Müller. Both authors decide to reinterpret an antique history and deconstruct it using the means available to them. As does Sasha Waltz, who in 2007 staged Dusapin’s work. All three, while initiating a dialogue with the past, set the work firmly in the present. In this article the author attempts to answer the question how the devices used by these creative artists shape the psychological portrait of the drama’s heroine.