The Beginnings of Polish Musicology

Introduction

At the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century, Polish musicology celebrated the centenary of the founding of the first departments at national universities – in 1911 at the Jagiellonian University under the direction of Zdzisław Jachimecki, in 1912 at the University of Lviv led by Adolf Chybiński. At the same time, though following the initiative of a musicologist not associated with any of these universities – Henryk Opieński – the activity of the first Polish music magazine which fulfilled the standards of an academic publication was inaugurated in Warsaw. In 1911 Kwartalnik Muzyczny started to appear. The periodical, which appeared for the first time exactly at the birth of Polish musicology, linked three epochs. For the first time, it accompanied the academic community at its dawn in enslaved Poland, for the second time – at the time of intensive development during the interwar period of free Poland and – ultimately – in the time of the revival of academic structures during the difficult years of the communist regime of the 1950s. Three visions of the periodical appeared over a dozen or so years of its history. The first Kwartalnik, initiated as an organ of WTM, appeared in the years 1911–14. Closed as a consequence of the turbulence of history, it reappeared in 1928, this time as a magazine of the Warsaw SMDM and TWMP and functioned until the year 1933 (the tradition of the academic journal was sustained and continued in the pages of Polski Rocznik Muzykologiczny whose editorial survived until the first days of World War II). The third incarnation took place fifteen years later, in 1948, in the reality of the turn of the 1940s and 1950s, dominated by the new ideology. Adolf Chybiński, one of the fathers of Polish musicology, was connected to the journal from the very beginnings of its existence – first as its primary author and consultant on issues of merit, and later the editor-in-chief; he bridged all editions of Kwartalnik Muzyczny.

The only magazine addressed to the small group of Polish musicologists that was taking shape, as well as musicians and music enthusiasts eager to deepen their knowledge at an academic level, had to contribute to concentrating this young environment around the title and getting people to join initiatives undertaken by editors. On the other hand, it was also the source of disputes, which created groups of supporters and critics of this type of literature and of ‘mummified’ and ‘paper’ musicology (typical for ‘technical history’ based on building a base for musicological research through arduous archival and library inquiries and making detailed and tedious analyses supported by deep specialist theoretical ←9 | 10→knowledge that were the domain of the founder of the Lviv musicological school, Adolf Chybiński). The quoted terms appeared in the press from the group of supporters of the musicology proposed by the second founding father of Polish musicology, Zdzisław Jachimecki. Opposition to the Lviv methodology was ‘living history’ cultivated by the head of the department at the Jagiellonian University and by a group of journalists, mainly from Warsaw, associated, among others, with the editors of the popular monthly Muzyka which was founded and led by Mateusz Gliński. Its expression came in publications filled with interdisciplinary erudition and a beautiful literary narrative, the lack of scientific value of which was repeatedly criticised by Chybiński and his supporters.

The literature which has so far brought us closer to the history of this discipline in Poland is quite rich, but above all abounds in occasional reports and contributions. Therefore, the information contained therein had to be supplemented with reading and analysis of official documents surrounding the work of organisations and institutions from the scene – statutes, reports of activities, summaries from conventions and meetings (for example, WTM, PTMW, PTM, ZKP and others), often either completely unknown or unused. For the purpose of making the whole story below, the most significant were the collections of correspondence stored in several Polish libraries as well as – most importantly – those in private hands and never before accessible. This included the family archive of Józef Michał Chomiński containing the professor’s legacy, including files with incoming and outgoing correspondence, the latter in the form of duplicate copies. In total from the period up to 1952 nearly six hundred documents, including from and to: Ignacy Blochman, Ludwik Bronarski, Mieczysław Drobner, Stanisław Golachowski, Włodzimierz Poźniak, Bronisław Romaniszyn, Marian Sobieski, Bronisław Edward Sydow, Zdzisław Jachimecki, Zygmunt Estreicher, Alicja Simon, Roman Palester, Roman Ingarden, Konstanty Régamey, Bolesław Woytowicz, Stefan Kisielewski, Zygmunt Mycielski, as well as representatives of Lviv’s musicology – Hieronim Feicht, Stefania Łobaczewska ←10 | 11→and Zofia Lissa, and their common master – Adolf Chybiński. Amongst this group, there were also official writings – including from MKiS, with PWM, ZKP, PIS, the editorship of Ruch Muzyczny. Documents from the private archive of the Chomiński family were supplemented with funds collected in university libraries in Warsaw, Cracow and Poznań (archives of Adolf Chybiński, Zofia Lissa, Tadeusz Ochlewski, Ludwik Bronarski and others).

I. Socio-institutional contexts of the establishment of Kwartalnik Muzyczny

1. Panorama of Polish musicological journalism until 1910 – Roman Chojnacki’s Młoda Muzyka and Przegląd Muzyczny – WTM and Henryk Opieński’s Kwartalnik Muzyczny (1911–14) – collaboration with Adolf Chybiński – clarification of the concept of a musicological quarterly – university series

At the end of the third decade of the twentieth century the foundation of the first Polish periodical which could be described as musicological, entirely controlled by representatives of the academic community, was preceded by almost a hundred years of activity in the field by music critics and journalists, musicians and musically educated amateurs who laid the foundations for native scientific journalism. Already in autumn 1820, a prospectus announcing the first Tygodnik Muzyczny magazine appeared in several Warsaw bookshops and music shops. Karol Kurpiński was the creator, editor and primary author of the magazine. In his own words, it was supposed to contain a ‘dissection of music in general, various information concerning music, remarks about works, about their performance and all antiquities and musical novelties. … Moreover, [there were to be] exceptions from the life of famous composers and news about new musical works.’ Kurpiński’s greatest wish was to explain to the readers the ‘grammar’ of the language of music. He lamented that the average listener could only divide music into ‘beautiful’ and ‘hideous, boring,’ having no basis and knowledge to explain why they like some music or not. Popular literary criticism at that time was based on an article, O klasyczności i romantyczności tudzież o duchu poezji polskiej¹ [About classicism and romanticism and the spirit of Polish poetry] by Kazimierz Brodziński, which initiated a broad discussion and provided a powerful force and a kind of programme referring to all fields of art, and Rozprawa o metryczności i rytmiczności języka polskiego [Discourse about the metricism and rhythmicism of the Polish language] by Józef Elsner² and Kilka rad dla ←15 | 16→piszących poezje do śpiewania [Some advice for those writing poetry for singing] from Józef Dionizy Minasowicz,³ and an artistic exemplum of patriotic poems with the title Śpiewy historyczne [Historical songs] by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, which a group of composers set to music. Kurpiński undertook the task of bringing potential readers of his periodicals closer to texts primarily concerning the history of music (‘Historia opery aż do opery polskiej’ [The history of opera up to Polish opera], but also ‘O muzyce dawnych Egipcjan’ [About the music of ancient Egyptians]), aesthetic issues (‘O skutkach muzyki’ [About the effects of music], ‘Czy potrzebna ludziom muzyka’ [Do people need music?]) and theoretical (‘Kilka słów o fudze’ [A few words about fugue]). He mainly wrote himself, though, for example, he invited Minasowicz for the preparation of the ‘Foreign news’ section, Alojzy Żółkowski for the discussion of local news and opera reviews and a few other anonymous authors. He also tried to encourage cooperation with readers: ‘Everybody in the country, as well as eminent amateurs and artists from overseas, are invited to give remarks, insights and thoughts, or send any discoveries regarding music to the editors of this weekly.’⁴