Lutosławski’s Worlds

424 Pages·2018·15.068 MB·English

by  Lisa Jakelski, Nicholas Reyland (eds.)

Witold Lutosławski (1913–1994) was one of the most important composers of the twentieth
century. His significance extends far beyond his native Poland: his classical music was
premiered by internationally renowned performers like the LaSalle Quartet and Krystian
Zimerman, and his symphonies, concertante, chamber, instrumental and vocal music
are produced by the leading labels of the recording industry. Lutosławski’s vita is just as
captivating as his compositionally path-breaking music. He lived through the Second World
War and brutal German oppression of Poland, negotiated the challenges of Soviet influence
and fluctuating local politics during Poland’s post-war transition to communism, and finally
strove for a new voice in the post-Stalin Thaw of the mid-1950s.
Edited by Lisa Jakelski and Nicholas Reyland
Lutosławski’s Worlds is a landmark volume which looks at the multi-faceted spheres that
informed the composer’s life and works and represents a new departure in the study of his
music. Throughout his life, he steered musicologists away from the connections between his
extraordinary biography and concert music. He also sought to minimize scholarly attention
to the many other spheres of creative activity – popular music, theatre music, film scoring,
propaganda music, and educational music – that occupied him. In this volume, for the first
time, the world’s leading Lutosławski scholars consider the full range of his musical output
and the biographical, cultural and historical contexts in which those musics were created.
It contends that all of Lutosławski’s worlds are equally worthy of study, because each
represents an opportunity better to understand the life and music of a figure of paramount
importance to the critical and cultural history of twentieth-century music.

Lisa Jakelski is Associate Professor of Musicology at the Eastman School of Music,
University of Rochester.
Nicholas Reyland is Head of Undergraduate Programmes at the Royal Northern
College of Music.

Contributors: Stanisław Będkowski, Andrea F. Bohlman, Danuta Gwizdalanka, Lisa Jakelski,
Michael L. Klein, Iwona Lindstedt, Wioleta Muras, Katarzyna Naliwajek-Mazurek, Nicholas Reyland,
Zbigniew Skowron, Steven Stucky, Adrian Thomas, David G. Tompkins, Lisa Cooper Vest. NL E
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Cover image: Familiar and less well-known images of Witold Lutoslawski Relsk
from contact sheets for a photo shoot by Malcolm Crowthers in 1980. yi
Reproduced by kind permission of the photographer. © Malcolm Crowthers. la
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Cover design: Liron Gilenberg | ww.ironicitalics.com d
an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF and
668 Mt Hope Ave, Rochester NY 14620, USA
Lutosławski’s Worlds

Lutosławski’s Worlds
edited by
Lisa Jakelski and Nicholas Reyland
THE BOYDELL PRESS
© Contributors 2018
All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval
system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast,
transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any
means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner
First published 2018
The Boydell Press, Woodbridge
ISBN 978 1 78327 198 6
The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620–2731, USA
website: www.boydellandbrewer.com
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs
for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate
This publication is printed on acid-free paper
For Steve

Contents
List of Figures ix
List of Tables xi
List of Music Examples xiii
List of Contributors xv
Acknowledgements xix
Introduction 1
Lisa Jakelski and Nicholas Reyland
part i: mourning, modernism, and genius
1 Witold Lutosławski’s Muzyka żałobna (1958) and the
Construction of Genius 15
Lisa Cooper Vest
2 Personal Loss, Cultural Grief, and Lutosławski’s
Music of Mourning 39
Nicholas Reyland
3 Lutosławski’s String Quartet:
Mourning, Melancholia, and Modern Subjectivity 71
Michael L. Klein
part ii: other lutosławskis
4 Behind the Curtain of Oblivion:
Lutosławski’s Music for Theatre and Radio Plays 89
Wioleta Muras
5 Derwid as Lutosławski’s Patron 119
Danuta Gwizdalanka
6 Witold Lutosławski in Occupied Warsaw 141
Katarzyna Naliwajek-Mazurek
viii CONTENTS
7 Lutosławski and Sonoristics 165
Iwona Lindstedt
part iii: documents
8 Lutosławski on Contemporary Music:
Critical Commentary in Letters and Documents from
the Lutosławski Correspondence Collection 185
Stanisław Będkowski
9 Witold Lutosławski’s Artistic Diary: An Unknown
Document of the Composer’s Creative Path 211
Zbigniew Skowron
10 MAT. LUDOWE: The Lutos File 227
Adrian Thomas
part iv: political engagement
11 Lutosławski and Stalinism: Contextualizing Artistic and
Political Choices around 1950 257
David G. Tompkins
12 Lutosławski’s Political Refrains 273
Andrea F. Bohlman
part v: legacies
13 Lutosławski, Revived and Remixed 303
Lisa Jakelski
14 Heart and Brain, Tradition and Modernism:
Lutosławski and the Continuing Story of Harmony 333
Steven Stucky, Editing and Prologue by Nicholas Reyland
Bibliography 359
Index 383
List of Figures
4.1 From the left: E. Wierciński, T. Roszkowska, and
Lutosławski against the set of Le Cide. Image courtesy
of Polska Agencja Prasowa. 92
4.2 Theatre poster for Fantazy. 95
4.3 Theatre poster for The Merry Wives of Windsor. 97
6.1 NKW 1940 (2–3 November, no. 258), page 8, second column:
‘Piano duo Lutosławski – Panufnik daily […]. All halls are
well heated’. 154
6.2 NKW 1944 (no. 149), informing readers of the duet’s
concerts at Lardelli’s Café from 13 May. 159
7.1 Józef Chomiński, diagram of pitch relationships in
Witold Lutosławski, Symphony No. 2, Fig. 49. 171
7.2 Summary of sonoristic features in the first movement
of Jeux vénitiens. 179
10.1 Sketch folder for Concerto for Orchestra and, later, folk
materials. 229
10.2 Sheet 1 from five half sheets devoted to Spanish melodies. 230
10.3 Bóg, chłop i cesarz. 232
10.4 Drewniakówna texts 8–11. 234
10.5 I ty i ja (Laura). 235
10.6 Kościan melodies a–f. 237
10.7 Machów melody titles (Little Suite). 239
10.8 Machów melodies (Little Suite). 240
10.9 Bystroń melody (Silesian Triptych, 3rd movement). 241
1 0.10 Envelope (Ten Polish Dances). 242
10.11 Titles and timings (Ten Polish Dances). 243
1 0.12 Kolberg-Mazowsze K.O. 245
10.13 Mazowsze first sheet – top (Concerto for Orchestra). 248
10.14 Mazowsze second sheet – top (Concerto for Orchestra). 249
10.15 Mazowsze half sheet (Concerto for Orchestra). 251
10.16 Borsk, Doczekało męża złego (Dance Preludes, No. 1). 253