Map of Polish Composers

1930 Debut GenerationA group of Polish composers who began their artistic career ca. 1930 (or more broadly –
during the 20 years between the two World Wars).
1933 GenerationA generational description of a group of Polish composers born ca. 1933.
1951 Generation / Stalowa Wola GenerationA name used to denote the generation of composers who fundamentally changed the face of Polish music in the mid-1970s.
1960s Polish school of compositionA description introduced by music critics (especially outside Poland, chiefly in Germany) in reference to the blossoming of avant-garde tendencies in Polish music after the political thaw in 1956.

ad libitum techniqueA variety of aleatorism of texture introduced and widely used by Witold Lutosławski; another term he used to describe it was ‘controlled aleatorism’.
aleatorismA method of composition that results in the dependence of essential properties of a piece on the action of chance.
algorithmic musicMusic composed using algorithms – that is, instructions containing a finite sequence of strictly-defined rules of action, leading to the attainment of the intended result.
archaizationA general name for technical procedures aimed at giving a musical piece traits associating it with a style typical of a given period of music history – in particular, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance or the Baroque era.
Association of Young Polish Musicians in ParisCreated at the end of 1926 by Piotr Perkowski, Stanisław Wiechowicz and Feliks Łabuński in Paris, the association aimed to promote contemporary Polish music abroad.
avant-gardistA composer who seeks out new means of expression, radically breaking with tradition, including that created by the 20th-century classics (Stravinsky, Berg, Bartók et al.).

bipartite formA means of shaping the form of a musical work developed by Witold Lutosławski and typical of his style.
block formA type of segmented variation form used by Zbigniew Bargielski.
bridge formA concept of form used by Aleksander Tansman, which arose as a sort of alternative to sonata form.

CamerataAn artistic group active from 1957 to 1962, embracing young poets and composers.
chain techniqueA method of shaping the form and texture of a composition that was developed and used by Witold Lutosławski in almost all of his works, starting with the Concerto for Orchestra (1954).
concept musicBy the idea of ‘concept music’ (‘Konzeptmusik’) propagated by German philosopher Harry Lehmann, we understand a peculiar genre of music.
constructivismA general name for a method of composition that results in the presence of concealed pitch organization methods in a given work.

dodecaphonyA method of composition in which the rule is a constant and precisely-regulated flow of all twelve different pitches or pitch classes.
dodecaphony (individual variety)Many composers have been inspired by the idea of classic dodecaphony, using it as a basis to create their own, often no less strict compositional methods.

electroacoustic musicMusic in which electronics technology, presently above all computer-based, serves to generate, configure and process sonic material, and the main medium for sound transmission is speakers.
expanded performance techniquesA tendency, present on a large scale in contemporary compositional techniques, to utilize unconventional methods of playing musical instruments or of singing, for the purpose of obtaining equally unconventional sounds.
Experimental Studio of Polish RadioAn institution, a focal point for the activities of composers from different generations who were interested in creating music using electronic resources.
expressionismIn the most general sense, this term refers to music that exhibits extreme, intense emotions.

folkloricismA style representative of music from the first half of the 20th century, distinguished by utilization of folkloric elements (specific melodic or rhythmic threads, or general principles of formation) and combination of them with the resources of contemporary compositional technique.
Freight TrainAn ensemble that began its activity on 27 January 1987 at Warsaw’s Dziekanka Gallery. The backbone of the group was established by Piotr Bikont, Marek Chołoniewski and Krzysztof Knittel.

Glissando GenerationA conventional description of the ‘younger generation of Polish composers’ born between 1977 and 1984.
graphic musicA method of composition and, above all, notation of music that highlights the general – more or less subjective – idea of the work, but without specifying its sonic details.
Group 49A composers’ group formed in 1949 (thus, the numeral in the name) during a meeting of three young artists – Kazimierz Serocki, Tadeusz Baird and Jan Krenz – at the Conference of Composers and Music Critics in Łagów Lubuski.

impressionismA name given to the musical style of Claude Debussy (1862–1918) at the end of the 19th century via his symphonic suite Printemps (1887).
improvised musicA set of musical practices in which improvisation (that is, a process of simultaneous creation and performance of music) remains the only source of sonic events, or at least occupies a superordinate place relative to the composition.

Kazimierz GenerationThis concept, coined by analogy to the Stalowa Wola Generation, encompasses the generation of composers who debuted at the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s.
KEWA group of composers whose name comes from the first initials of Krzysztof (Knittel), Elżbieta (Sikora) and Wojciech (Michniewski).
Kraków school of compositionA conventional name for a multigenerational and stylistically diversified group of composers associated with Kraków. Other things that can be considered marks of this œuvre are a sensitivity to timbre and sound quality, as well as a strongly emotional artistic message.

Lvov school of dodecaphonyA conventional description of a group of composers who were associated with the Polish Music Society Conservatory in Lvov [present-day Lviv, Ukraine] during the 1930s, and were the first in Poland to introduce dodecaphony to their artistic technical arsenal.

mc2 duoFounded by Marcel Chyrzyński and Marek Chołoniewski in 1996, this ensemble creates music played on acoustic instruments (clarinet, saxophone), computer instruments and noise generators, and utilizes multimedia techniques.
microtonalityA general name for methods of composition utilizing microtonal pitch material, i.e. not only pitches corresponding to the keys of a piano, but also those situated between them.
modernistA composer who aims to create new means of expression, while nonetheless retaining – on the pattern of the 20th-century classics (Stravinsky, Berg, Bartók et al.) – an essential part of musical achievements from the past.
monochromatic formA type of form practiced by Jerzy Kornowicz, originating in the practice of improvisation.
MorphaiThis duo comprised of Cezary Duchnowski and Marcin Rupociński is involved in interdisciplinary artistic activities.
Mud CavaliersAn artistic group founded on the initiative of Jerzy Kornowicz in 2001. Aside from Jerzy Kornowicz, its core membership comprises Krzysztof Knittel, Ryszard Latecki, Mieczysław Litwiński, Tadeusz Sudnik and Tadeusz Wielecki.
multimediaA musical composition is normally characterized as a multimedia piece when – alongside the sonic process – visual elements (light or video projection, elements of acting in the musicians’ playing etc.) are an integral part of the work.
musical gestureA term associated with the manner of composition used by Tadeusz Wielecki, as well as Wojciech Ziemowit Zych.

neoclassicismA movement in 20th-century music whose fundamental identifying mark is reliance on 17th–18th-century aesthetic principles.
neoromanticismA style in the music of the second half of the 20th century and later, marked by allusions to the 19th-century tradition, especially concerning strategies in the area of harmony (euphony), time and genre (programmatic music), by a turn away from contemporary avant-garde tendencies, and by intense ‘Romantic’ expression.
neotonalityA general name for phenomena which consist in the introduction of non-traditional tonal concepts to a musical composition – that is, which establish a certain hierarchy as well as a center for the sonic material.
new complexityA style in the music of the second half of the 20th century, characterized by extreme complexity (‘convolution’) of textures and forms, as well as the presence of constructivist organizational principles.

performativityA type of musical practices in which the artists’ and audiences’ attention is shirted from sound effects to such aspects as the physicality and visuality of music, the theatrical aspect of performance, which is related to strategies for the conceptualization of music.
Phonos ek MechanesA trio formed in 2007 on the initiative of Wrocław composers and performers of electroacoustic music Cezary Duchnowski, Paweł Hendrich and Sławomir Kupczak.
pointillismA method of composition that results in a mosaic, ‘scattered’ sound which highlights single, isolated sound ‘points’.
polystylismA method of composition which leads to the presence in a musical work of an array of diverse styles that form a coherent whole.
popular musicA term commonly used in everyday discourse, but very difficult to define with any precision because of historical transformations, as well as the processes of constant transformation and adaptation to which music is subject.
postmodernist-experimentalistA composer who takes a certain distance to the Modernist paradigm, who utilizes and develops strictly avant-garde means while, at the same time, utilizing elements typical of the music of very different eras, traditions and cultural formations.
postmodernist-traditionalistA composer who questions the idea of progressive development of music and the necessity of inventing more and more new ways of making a musical statement. As a result, the composer writes music in freely-treated 19th-century and older musical conventions, or in collective alliances thereof, while bearing in mind the contemporary cultural context.
postromanticismA description serving to identify the final phase of musical Romanticism – phenomena typical of the final decades of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century.

recyclingA compositional technique used by Krzysztof Knittel, consisting of the use in a new work of material from a work finished in the more or less distant past and treatment of it as material for further transformations.
reductionismA general name for methods of composition based on purposefully and consciously restricted sonic material.
religious musicIn the 20th- and 21st-century musical œuvre, there is an active movement that continues the tradition of creating music used in religious ritual (liturgy) or has reference to the musical setting of religious texts, including non-liturgical ones.
repetitivismA method of composition consisting in multiple directly successive repetitions of identical or slightly modified melo-rhythmic formulae or recordings of electronic or concrète material (e.g. human speech) of small dimensions and short duration.

Second Kraków GroupAn artistic group constituted as an association in May 1957. It was comprised of representatives from the visual arts, theater and literature.
serialismA variety of classic dodecaphony in its strict variant, in which the rule is serial organization not only of pitch, but also of at least one of the remaining aspects of sound (rhythm, volume or color).
Silesian school of compositionThe foundations for the school were laid by professors of the Katowice Conservatory of Music: Bolesław Szabelski and Bolesław Woytowicz. It is accepted that the principal characteristic of the ‘Silesian school’ is diversity based of the foundations of European musical culture.
sonorismA term created in the mid-1950s by Polish musicologist Józef Michał Chomiński to signify a method of composition that highlights other aspects of sound aside from pitch – especially its color and texture. As a general descriptive category, it thus referred to the occurrence in music of new sound qualities that fulfill a structural and form-creating function.
sound artCreative actions from the border area between electroacoustic or experimental music and contemporary visual arts, in which the object of reflection is sound per se.
spatialityA phenomenon consisting in the intentional distribution of instruments and sound sources (in the case of electroacoustic music, speakers) in the performance space, including outside the concert hall, which makes it possible to create an impression of motion in sound phenomena.
spectralismA method of composing that results in a shaping of the musical work based on the internal structure of individual sounds (their spectrum or specter).
spiral formA variety of aleatorism of form and aleatorism of texture elaborated by Leoncjusz Ciuciura and typical of his style.
sultan hagavikFormed in 2011 by Mikołaj Laskowski and Jacek Sotomski, sułtan hagavik is a cassette recorder duo involved in a peculiar type of composition for tape – ‘music for cassette’.
surconventionalismA method of composition named and practiced by Paweł Szymański and Stanisław Krupowicz, analogous in certain respects to Surrealism in painting.

thin texturesIn the music of Witold Lutosławski, sonorities involving fewer than twelve different pitches or pitch classes.
third streamA general name for compositions (especially those from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s) in which elements of jazz and avant-garde classical music are combined; the term is associated with the premise that each of these types of music can gain something from confrontation with the others.
traditionalistA composer who writes in a convention inherited from the 19th century and earlier periods.

unismA composition method and style characteristic of the œuvre of Zygmunt Krauze, inspired by Unism in painting (Władysław Strzemiński).

Winners of the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung’s Förderpreise für PolenA label connecting representatives of the youngest generation of Polish composers, who participated in the Förderpreise für Polen scholarship project initiated by the board of the Ernst von Siemens Foundation and announced in 2001 (study abroad, courses, workshops).

Young Composers from KrakówA conventional term denoting four composers of the youngest generation associated with the Academy of Music in Kraków (Kamil Kruk, Piotr Peszat, Piotr Roemer, Szymon Stanisław Strzelec).
Young PolandThe term functions, above all, in the sense of the artistic group founded in 1905 as the Young Polish Composers’ Publication Society (Vereinsverlag junger Polnischer Komponisten) on the initiative of Grzegorz Fitelberg, and active until 1912.
Young Warsaw GenerationA description conveying the generational community of young composers educated and traveling in the circles of the Warsaw conservatory.

ZodiaqueA composers’ group formed in 1947 in Paris by Maurice Ohan, Alain Bermat and Pierre de La Forest Divonne. Somewhat later, they were also joined by Stanisław Skrowaczewski and Sergio de Castro.

author: Mariusz Gradowski

Polish Film Music

Film music is diverse, and its scope depends on the perspective one adopts. It comprises compositions written for film (feature, documentary or experimental), but also...

author: Filip Lech

The intricacies of graphic scores

Barbara Okoń-Makowska, a sound engineer associated with the Polish Radio Experimental Studio, has written a treatise – subtitled ‘In Period Style’ – devoted to Bogusław...

author: Teresa Malecka

Polish Composers vis-à-vis the Phenomenon of John Paul II (1978–2005)

"O Music! Melody! Music! You all-powerful! Harmony of Nature! – you crush me with the weight of a vibrating harp, with your strings you carry...

author: Michał Mendyk

The Right to Experiment: The Beginnings of Electronic Music in Poland

‘Some call it a cacophony of decibels. Others, the joyous song of the future. But that is precisely what the right to experiment consists of,’...

author: Jan Topolski

The Fall Première Season: Music by Polish Composers at the Warsaw Autumn and Sacrum Profanum Festivals

As every year, the time is approaching for a long-awaited fiesta – the two most important Polish contemporary music festivals: one in Warsaw (20–28 September),...

author: Beata Bolesławska-Lewandowska

Warsaw Autumn and the Polish Composition School

In the mid-1950s, the political situation in Poland began to liberalize somewhat. The year 1956 brought riots in the Soviet bloc states, which in Hungary...

author: Krzysztof Stefański

Composers in the Occupation Years

As a result of the September campaign, Polish musical culture incurred severe losses. Among other things, the Warsaw opera and philharmonic buildings were destroyed; Polish...

author: Monika Pasiecznik

Composers in Free Poland

The last three decades have brought great political, social and technological changes. While Communism was falling in Eastern Europe, the Internet was entering commercial circulation...

author: Monika Pasiecznik

Women’s Voices in 20th- and 21st-century Polish Music

The average share of female composers at contemporary music festivals around the world today does not exceed 20%. Some say that the figures reflect the...

author: Filip Lech

Polish Jewish Music

Jewish settlement on Polish lands has an over 1000-year history that has made a deep mark on our culture. In 2014, the Jewish Historical Institute...

author: Filip Lech

Codes and Dissonances: The Sacred in Polish Music

Two world wars, the Holocaust, the gulags and Communist oppression – the suffering made an indelible mark on 20 th -century artists. Theodor W. Adorno...

contact [email protected]

Map of Polish Composers is the most comprehensive resource ever dedicated to Polish music giving users instant access to biographies, extracts from recordings and a carefully charted map providing a rich global cultural context for every artist highlighting their influences and inspirations.

Map of Polish Composers is powered by Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

The project is created by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music and POLSKA 100, the international cultural programme celebrating the centenary of Poland regaining independence.

Financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland as part of the multi-annual programme NIEPODLEGŁA 2017–2022.

We are in the process of updating our website. Please feel free to feedback on your browsing experience using the above email address. Thank you!

authors

CONCEPT: Ewa Bogusz-Moore, Zofia Zembrzuska
SUPERVISOR: Dr hab. Iwona Lindstedt
SUBSTANTIVE SUPPORT: Marcin Krajewski, Monika Pasiecznik, Filip Lech, Michał Mendyk
CONTENTS: Adriana Borowska, Filip Lech, Monika Pasiecznik, Krzysztof Stefański, Jan Topolski, Joanna Zabłocka
COORDINATION: Zofia Zembrzuska
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANCE: Paulina Styczyńska, Maria Karwowska, Anna Stachurska, Joanna Szutta, Piotr Wrona, Angelika Tracz, Julia Ablewska
TRANSLATION: Karol Thornton-Remiszewski

digital product

CONCEPT: Kordian Klecha
PRODUCTION: intui
GRAPHIC DESIGN: less.
FRONTEND/BACKEND DEVELOPEMENT: Damian Zawadzki
D3.JS PROGRAMMING: Piotr Migdał
ADDITIONAL HELP: Kama Czechowska

thanks

We would like to extend our gratitude to all individual and institutional licensors, Polish Radio, ZAIKS, PWM, POLMIC, IMIT.Moreover, we would like to express our sincere appreciation to NMC Records for all of the essential suggestions and valuable advice.