A R T Y K U Ł Y R E C E N Z Y J N E

TWÓRCY – ŹRÓDŁA – ARCHIWA [COMPOSERS, SOURCES, AND ARCHIVES];

MIĘDZY WARSZAWĄ A PARYŻEM (1918–1939) [BETWEEN WARSAW AND
PARIS (1918–1939)]; ‘AMERICAN DREAM’: POLSCY TWÓRCY ZA OCEANEM
[‘AMERICAN DREAM’: POLISH COMPOSERS ACROSS THE ATLANTIC],
EDS. BEATA BOLESŁAWSKA-LEWANDOWSKA AND JOLANTA GUZY-PASIAK
Warszawa 2017–2020 Instytut Sztuki PAN (= Muzyka polska za granicą 1–3), pp. 300 + 210
+ 205. ISBN 978-83-65630-59-9, 978-83-65630-86-5, and 978-83-66519-09-1

T he three volumes under review are the

first instalments of an on-going project
devoted to Polish music beyond the coun-
Zygfryd Kassern, Karol Rathaus, Konstanty
Régamey, and Zygmunt Mycielski among
others. These composers were younger than
try’s borders, organised under the auspices Karol Szymanowski, whom they often took
of the Institute of Art at the Polish Academy as a source of inspiration, but older that
of Sciences in Warsaw and edited by the mu- avant-garde composers such as Krzysztof
sicologists Beata Bolesławska-Lewandowska Penderecki or Henryk Górecki, who would
and Jolanta Guzy-Pasiak. Although the achieve international fame in the 1960s.
essays will be most useful to scholars who Born circa 1895–1915, this ‘middle genera-
can read Polish, they include detailed Eng- tion’ of composers often had internation-
lish-language abstracts. The forty-eight es- al careers, driven by a desire to establish
says provide many contributions that, taken themselves in Western Europe during the
together, provide a birds-eye view of current 1920s and 1930s and, after World War II,
thinking in Polish musical academia about by exile from communist-ruled Poland. As
Polish music and internationalism. The a result, they have long occupied an am-
many outstanding contributions are too biguous place in twentieth-century Polish
numerous to detail in this review, so I will music. Many if not most composers active
focus on major themes. in this period occupy a precarious place in
The first three volumes of Polish Mu- the Polish concert hall, and they are often
sic Abroad (Muzyka polska za granicą) are little-known beyond Poland’s borders, with
largely devoted to Polish composers who a handful of notable exceptions. Many of
were born around the turn of the twenti- their works are unpublished and unrecorded,
eth century, including Aleksander Tans- further complicating efforts at study and
man, Jerzy Fitelberg, Andrzej Panufnik, rehabilitation. Nonetheless, their works
Roman Palester, Piotr Perkowski, Tadeusz and lives have received sustained academic

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attention, thanks to the research of Polish lesser frequency until 1936. The letters she
musicologists beginning in the late 1980s, quotes are replete with fascinating details
including the 1988 conference held by the of his lessons and musical life in Paris more
Union of Polish Composers on ‘Muzyka źle broadly, bringing us into the world that
obecna’ (literally: ‘Poorly-present music’) Mycielski inhabited at this formative mo-
and later monographs by Janusz Cegiełła ment: ‘In [Boulanger’s lectures on music
(on Tansman) and Zofia Helman (on Pa- history] there is everything, and everything
lester) among others. The volumes under is arranged in a systematic order, in a clarity
review continue this important work of and ease of form’, he explained to his mother
evaluating the contemporary musical world shortly after his arrival in Paris in 1928
of mid-twentieth-century Poland. All of the (vol. 2, p. 93).
essays are characterised by care and atten- Other essays provide complementing
tiveness to the historical record, and a gen- and contrasting perspectives on the inter-
erosity with unearthing and sharing new war Parisian milieu. Violetta Kostka, Elżbie-
archival materials. ta Szczurko, and Renata Skupin all consider
Taken together, the essays reveal the the significance of France for Polish com-
diversity of experiences had by Polish com- posers, as well as whether French resonances
posers across the middle of the twentieth can be discerned in the works of Kassern,
century, while also bringing into focus sev- Szałowski, and Piotr Perkowski. Renata Su-
eral common themes. Notably, they reveal chowiejko adopts a wide perspective on this
how the exuberance for international ex- topic by drawing on reviews in Le Ménestrel,
change that the middle generation felt in Le Courier musical, and La Revue musicale
the 1920s and 1930s, following the re-estab- to discuss the reception of Polish works at
lishment of Polish statehood in 1918, gave the time. An interesting theme that emerges
way to increasing frustrations after World from this article – especially when read
War II, due to both the trauma of the war alongside the essays of Małgorzata Gamrat
and establishment of communist rule in and Anna Granat-Janki – concerns the re-
Eastern Europe. ception of Tansman’s works. Suchowiejko
Focusing on the interwar period, Bea- shows how Tansman played a key role in
ta Bolesławska-Lewandowska’s essay on the defining and promoting Polish music in
Parisian studies of Mycielski, a composer Paris in the early 1920s and demonstrates
and essayist, draws on an extensive collec- how he provided Parisian readers with early
tion of letters written to his mother that are explorations of the topic of Polish music.
held in the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków Yet as Gamrat points out, Tansman’s recep-
– an intimate and rarely consulted source. tion in Poland was rather chilly, a fact that
Although Mycielski’s Parisian studies and he attributed in his memoirs to antisemi-
connections to the renowned pedagogue tism in the Polish new music community.
Nadia Boulanger had long formed a part At the same time, Suchowiejko shows that
of his mystique, the nature and extent of the Association of Young Musicians Poles in
these studies has been somewhat less clear. Paris (Stowarzyszenie Młodych Muzyków
Bolesławska-Lewandowska reconstructs this Polaków w Paryżu), which has long been
history, showing how Szymanowski direct- lionised by its members as the predominate
ly encouraged Mycielski to study in Paris site of Polish-French international music
(‘These days, only Paris, sir. I send all the exchange, had relatively minor resonances
youths only to Paris’, he told Mycielski) in the Parisian press, rarely appearing as
and establishes that his most intense Paris- what she terms a ‘collective hero’ in reviews.
ian studies occurred between 1928–31, with We are thus reminded that the historiogra-

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phy of Polish musical internationalism – as broadcast into Eastern Europe, and both he
written and constructed by its participants and Panufnik maintained a critical stance
– is often quite different from how those toward Poland’s musical life under com-
abroad viewed, much less chose to engage munism.
with, Poland on musical terms. Others managed to maintain connec-
We also learn about the challenges the tions with the postwar Polish new music
composers of the middle generation faced, milieu, even as they lived permanently
especially from the 1930s on. The rise of Na- abroad. Katarzyna Naliwajek-Mazurek’s
zism in Europe forced Polish-Jewish com- fascinating essay on Konstanty Régamey
posers to flee the continent, and the careers demonstrates this course. Régamey had es-
of Fitelberg (who fled to New York), Tans- tablished himself prior to World War II as
man (United States, returning to France a major critic among modernist composers
after the war), and Rathaus (New York) and a chief theorist of musical aesthetics in
never fully recovered. For many, fleeing Poland, and only began composing during
Poland during the war led to a permanent the war. Although living in Poland during
or semi-permanent break after it, when the interwar years, he was in fact a Swiss cit-
they had to make fraught decisions about izen, which during the occupation allowed
whether return to Poland – which was now him a degree of flexibility in skirting Ger-
aligned with the Eastern Bloc – or remain man restrictions. Based in Switzerland after
in exile, perhaps permanently. For instance, 1944, he attempted to maintain contacts
Ewelina Boczkowska’s essay draws on letters with composers in Poland, publishing ex-
written by Jerzy Fitelberg, in New York, to tensively between 1946 and 1948 in Poland’s
Roman Palester shortly after World War II main music periodicals. He was invited for
to demonstrate the deep conflicts that the the first Warsaw Autumn Festival in 1956
former felt about whether to stay in the and made several other trips to Warsaw. Yet
United States or return to Poland. His de- he also attracted attention from the State’s
cision was informed by difficult conditions internal security apparatus, documents
faced by composers in the US, his desire from which Naliwajek-Mazurek quotes at
to remain connected to the Polish musical length. Officials viewed him as politically
milieu, and concerns about the establish- suspicious because of his alleged connec-
ment of communist rule in Poland. ‘I con- tions to the Labor Faction, which led to the
stantly think about leaving and about my denial of visas to visit Poland in 1965 and
return’, Fitelberg wrote to Palester from 1968. Nonetheless, his identity remained, in
New York in 1946; ‘Write to me please and his own views, pulled between Switzerland
tell me honestly what you think about my and Poland, as he noted in 1971: ‘Of course,
return [to Poland] and about the oppor- I am Swiss; I have a Swiss name and no one
tunities I would have there’ (vol. 3, p. 38). in Switzerland doubts that I am Swiss…
For Palester, along with Andrzej Panufnik, But at the same time, in the domain of mu-
on the other hand, the decision to break sic, it is difficult for me not to see myself as
with postwar Poland was a more dramatic a Pole’. Six years later he stated that ‘classi-
under-taking. As Bolesławska-Lewandows- fying me is simply impossible, because I am
ka discusses (in a different essay from the characterised by diversity and variety’ (vol. 1,
one mentioned above), both Palester and pp. 89–90).
Panufnik’s post-emigration careers were As I reflect on these richly detailed,
heavily influenced by the Cold War. Palester archivally-grounded essays, I am struck
began working at Radio Free Europe in by the multiple conception of ‘za granicą’
1952, a mouthpiece of the Western Bloc that (literally ‘abroad’, but perhaps better trans-

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lated as ‘internationalism’) that were at play productively enrich our understanding of

in both the worlds of mid-century Polish how the Polish intelligentsia imagined the
composers and the scholars who have en- cultural terrain beyond Poland’s borders.
gaged with their lives. In the essays, the Points of reference for exploring such
term most often connotes emigration or issues might be found in the recent musi-
exile, although some authors also touch on cological studies that have sought to move
cross-border compositional influence and beyond the nation as a paradigm for study-
international exchange. Despite the cen- ing international musical exchange. Brigid
trality of cross-border experience to Pol- Cohen has, for instance, persuasively chal-
ish twentieth-century music, however, we lenged the idea that Stefan Wolpe’s career
hear relatively little about the intellectual is best narrated in terms of nation by in-
and ideological background that animated stead exploring his multiple attachments to
Polish interest in internationalism in the communities during his emigration, which
mid-century. Readers of the essays might she uses to discern a type of ‘migrant cos-
well wonder, for example, what Mycielski, mopolitanism’ in his works.2 One wonders
Tansman, or Szałowski believed they were whether Régamey’s life could be understood
accomplishing when they left for Paris and in similar terms. Lisa Jakelski’s recent schol-
how similar their motivations were to oth- arship on the Warsaw Autumn Festival and
ers in central or eastern Europe at the time. Danielle Fosler-Lussier work on music di-
Many of the essays also strike me as plomacy have likewise stressed the ways in
sharing a methodological affinity with the which ideas of international exchange – in
German field of Exilforschung, a project that this case those led by the State – are com-
sought to re-integrate émigrés of Nazism plicated by the messy interpersonal contacts
into the national canon after World War II.1 and multiple priorities of individual par-
Applied to the Polish context, the national ticipants in these projects.3 Future studies
rupture under questions is not Nazism per of Polish émigré composers might likewise
se, both rather occupation during World productively attend to the tensions between
War II and the establishment of communist ideology, intellectual context, and composers’
rule after it. Yet while some of the Polish individual actions.
composers under discussion in Polish Mu- As with any project that attempts to
sic Abroad certainly saw their experiences engage with as broad a topic as this one,
in terms of a break with the Polish nation, there are several subtopics that Polish Mu-
the nation-based framework also has limi- sic Abroad has yet to explore. With the ex-
tations: Can it fully elucidate Régamey’s ception of Jolanta Guzy-Pasiak’s fascinating
feeling of multiple national allegiances, for study of Polish music at the World Fairs in
instance? Does calling Tansman’s composi- 1925 and 1937, few essays discuss the institu-
tions ‘Polish music’ do justice to their rela- tions that supported international musical
tion to Polishness, Jewishness, and French- exchange. One wonders about the role of
ness – not to mention his French citizenship the Polish State, as well as non-governmen-
after 1938? Put differently, the experiences
and works of Polish composers likely have 2 B rigid Cohen, ‘Limits of National History: Yoko
much to reveal about the meanings of ‘Pol- Ono, Stefan Wolpe, and Dilemmas of Cosmo-
ish music’ as a national category and could politanism’, The Musical Quarterly 97 (2014)
no. 2, pp. 181–237.
3 Lisa Jakelski, Making New Music in Cold War
1 See Pamela M. Potter, Art of Suppression: Con- Poland: The Warsaw Autumn Festival, 1956–1968,
fronting the Nazi Past in Histories of the Visual and Oakland 2017; Danielle Fosler-Lussier, Music in
Performing Arts, Berkeley 2016, chapter 2. America’s Cold War Diplomacy, Berkeley 2015.

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tal institutions such as the International only a cultural attaché in the Polish embassy
Society for Contemporary Music, in pro- in Moscow at the war’s conclusion, where
moting Polish music abroad. Nor, except- she oversaw Polish-Soviet musical exchange,
ing Marek Żebrowski’s informative essay on but also participated in musical tours to
Henryk Wars’s symphonic compositions, China in the 1950s.5 These activities do not
is there much coverage of composers who necessarily fit into musicological narratives
made their names working in ‘light’ gen- that privilege composers and works, but
res, even though the explosion of Polish such activities nonetheless undergirded the
tangos and foxtrots arguably defined the circulation of Poland’s music beyond the
aural experience of urban Poles during the country’s borders.
interwar years. One wonders how the global These considerations for future research,
circulation of these popular recorded gen- however, do not detract from the volumes’
res helped to promote and transmute ideas significant contributions to our understand-
of Polishness, both within and beyond the ing of the international lives of Polish com-
country’s borders. posers in the last century. The essays collected
Finally, one also wishes to hear more in the first three volumes of Polish Music
about the gender of Polish musical interna- Abroad address major gaps in scholarly
tionalism. With Małgorzata Komorowska’s understandings of the music composed by
essay on the singer Marcella Sembrich aside, the middle generation of twentieth-century
the contributions focus on male protago- Polish composers, while serving as models
nists. Yet women such as the musicologists of archival rigor and scholarly generosity.
Alicja Simon and Zofia Lissa played major I eagerly await the future publications in
roles in promoting Polish music abroad. the series.
Simon, for instance, not only completed
a dissertation in Zurich about Polish influ- J. Mackenzie Pierce
ences on German baroque music, but later University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
worked for the League of Nations where
she studied the economic conditions of
musicians and served for several years at the
Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.,
where she was charged by the Polish Minis-
try of Foreign Affairs with promoting Polish
5 D
 avid G. Tompkins, ‘Red China in Central Eu-
music in the United States.4 Lissa was not rope: Creating and Deploying Representations
of an Ally in Poland and the GDR’, in: Socialist
4 H
 er activities are chronicled in Archiwum Akt Internationalism in the Cold War: Exploring the
Nowych, collection of the (prewar) Ministerstwo Second World, eds. Patryk Babiracki and Austin
Spraw Zagranicznych, file 8251. Jersild, Berlin 2016, pp. 273–302.

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