Dobrzyński Michał - 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.
brillant styleThroughout the 19th century, the term brillant referred to the pieces and performances whose characteristic features included liveliness, elegance, radiance, and grandeur, coupled with virtuosity and bravado. Conversely, the brillant style signified the technical and expressive measures that evolved in the 19th century along with the development of instrumental virtuosity. The brillant style involved a virtuoso performance of a musical piece, with contrasting dynamics, articulation, and tempos, as well as juxtapositions of quick passages with melodious and ornamental ones. It also impacted the structure of the performed piece, although the margin of improvisational liberty did not essentially disrupt the fundamental architecture of the instrumental form. The brillant style is commonly attributed to its preeminent representative, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, whose musical output strongly inspired such composers as Fryderyk Chopin.

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).
Chopin’s CircleThis informal term denotes a group of people tied to Fryderyk Chopin in one way or another, be it through a master-student relationship, friendship, social relations, and the different forms of promotion of the life and work of Poland’s most prominent composer (monographers, copyists, publishers, performers of Chopin’s music), as well as the different manifestations of Chopin’s influence on the Polish music of his time.
classicismClassicism may essentially be referred both to a historical period, a specific musical style and aesthetics, and to the pieces whose style or structure at least partially refer to the period of the so-called Viennese classicism as a paragon of “classical character” (e.g. the 20th century neo-classical musical pieces). Classicism is routinely associated with the 2nd half of the 18th century, when the foundations of the classical style in music were laid and solidified by Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and the young Ludwig van Beethoven. The distinguishing features of classicism include the superiority of instrumental music, the presence of homophonic texture, and – form-wise – the arrival of transparent patterns which set the structural standards of composition. The most important among them was the sonata, comprised of four movements, including the vitally important first movement, whose characteristic, coherent structured was subsequently referred to as the sonata form. The sonata manifested itself in solo pieces, chamber music, symphonies, and concertos alike.
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.

grupa gen~.rateThe group was founded in 2014 in Warsaw by Aleksandra Kaca, Teonika Rożynek, Żaneta Rydzewska and Rafał Ryterski. gen ~ .rate was focused on the cooperation of young, unconventional composers, conductors and musicians from various academic centers and enabling them to present their compositions.
Glissando GenerationA conventional description of the ‘younger generation of Polish composers’ born between 1977 and 1984.
grand opéraAlso known as the French grand opera, the grand opéra tradition was represented by the likes of Danie Auber (La muette de Portici), Jacques Halévy (La Juive), or Giacomo Meyerbeer Robert le diable and Le prophète, among others). The term denotes the grandeur behind the concept, and the dashing momentum of grand operatic performances. Filled with sudden plot twists, grand operas typically consisted of five entirely sung acts, and their librettos often evoked heroic historical events. Highlighted in the grand opéra genre were choral and ballet scenes, as well as multifarious vocal forms. In the 19th century, the grand operatic tradition provided a vital frame of reference for composers from in and outside of France, including Poland.
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.

parlor musicFor a piece to be classified as parlor music, it should comply with certain technical and expressive means, such as the light figuration typical of the brillant virtuoso pieces, and the sentimental sensitivity with a touch of sophisticated elegance. Typical parlor genres and forms include arrangements of vocal music (e.g. arias from opera pieces), dances, and characteristic pieces with programmatic titles, which “narrate” stories or create a specific ambience.
Parlor pieces can be classified into the “high” category – not devoid of artistic value – and the “low” tier parlor music, marked by excessive virtuosity for its own sake. Initially, parlor music was fashioned after artistic pieces, with parlor composers striving towards clarity and coherence of the musical material, at the same time integrating it with virtuoso passages. Over time, however, the growing demand for pieces that would allow performers to showcase their musical prowess while also easing the listeners into the reception of the presented compositions, a new type of parlor music evolved that was no longer treated seriously and was hence looked down on as kitsch. It was characterized by the use of stereotypical techniques, a knack for ornamentation, an inclination toward flaunt banal singsong melodies, and an abuse of expressive measures. In the mid-19th century, the parlor style was trivialized and completely discredited by the overproduction of the latter pieces. The predominant instrument in parlor music was the grand piano, however its repertoire quickly incorporated other performing measures, including arrangements for a specific type of instrumental ensemble, known as the parlor orchestra.
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’.
Polish national operaThe notion of the “Polish national opera” is a peculiar subcategory of the Polish national school in music, and refers to the stage pieces that manifest the major constituents of national culture and identity (e.g. with reference to the main themes and predominant means of expression) or, in more general terms, the idea of national distinction. The title of the founder of the Polish national opera is frequently attributed to Stanisław Moniuszko, however its foundations had been laid earlier by such composers as Józef Elsner and Karol Kurpiński. According to Leon Schiller, the first Polish national opera was Cracovians and Highlanders, composed by Jan Stefani (Józef Stefani’s father) and featuring a libretto by Wojciech Bogusławski.
Polish national schoolNational schools in music traditionally refer to the musical styles characteristic of a specific national culture. The representation of the so-called national schools (such as the Polish, Scandinavian, Russian, or Czech school) played a particularly important role in the 19th century music. It was then that numerous attempts were made to develop a set of distinct musical features that would set the music of a given nation apart from that of the “leading” musical nations (e.g. Germany, Italy, or France). These attempts usually involved a constitutive role of local folk music, along with the references to the history of one’s nation. The two major influences in the development of the Polish national schools were Fryderyk Chopin and Stanisław Moniuszko.
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.
program musicProgram music is commonly understood as that which is narrative or descriptive in character; in the broadest sense, the term refers to the music that strives to represent extra-musical ideas (from objective events and figures to subjective emotions) without resorting to words. The term was first coined by Franz Liszt (who materialized it in his symphonic poems) with reference to the prefaces to instrumental pieces in which the composer directs the listener’s attention to the poetic and literary intention behind the piece by affecting their emotions rather than a rigid narrative. Moreover, according to Liszt’s original concept, program music was that which derived its logic and progress from a theme, which it then sought to describe, and as such it could be understood within the confines of its programmatic assumptions. In the strict sense of the term, therefore, program music does not employ musical mimicry or musical imaging, but rather subjects its structure to a purely musical logic. Although the concept of program music strongly influenced the impressionist works by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, their pieces were not programmatic in the Romantic sense. 20th-century composers essentially departed from imaging and instead turned to more abstract musical means of expression. The second half of the 20th century saw a moderate revival of program music, e.g. in the output of the representatives of the so-called New Romanticism.

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.
romanticismRomanticism refers to the period spanning the first half (or, according to some scholars, the entirety) of the 19th century. If one were to distinguish between the two halves of the 19th century, the phenomena occurring in the latter half should be attributed to neo-Romanticism. According to the musicological typology of stylistic periods, Romanticism crystallized in the post-Beethoven generation (whose foremost representatives included Fryderyk Chopin, Robert Schumann, Hector Berlioz, and Franz Liszt), while the second half of the century was dominated by the new generation of composers (such as Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner, César Franck). Furthermore, Romanticism is thought to have been ushered in, and out, by the transition from the so-called Viennese classicism (associated with the likes of Franz Schubert) and the proto-Modernist era, respectively.
The 19th century brought in a number of new musical genres, forms, and means of expressions, employed above all in the services of emotional and dramatic expression. So great was their diversity that it seems easier to define Romanticism in music by referring to the ideas and motivation underlying its artistic ventures than it is by operating with mere stylistic categories. As an artistic movement, Romanticism was founded on the principles of emotionalism, subjectivism, individualism, while also displaying a preference for specific (fairy-like, fantastic) themes and the budding national identities.

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).

verismoVerismo was a tradition in the late-19th century Italian opera (its foremost examples include Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleriar usticana and Ruggiero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci), founded on the idea of realist substance (“truth” inspired by real life events) and focusing on the lower social classes. Music-wise, the veristic operas characteristically employed the so-called numbers, along with recurring music themes, naturalistic sound effects, as well as sentimental orchestral intermezzos. Although some scholars consider Stanisław Moniuszko as the pioneer of verismo in the Polish operatic tradition, it is difficult to consider any Polish opera works as distinctly veristic; one should rather think of them as “veristic-ish.”

Warsaw Music Society DirectorsThe group includes the composers who have presided over the Warsaw Music Society, established on January 15, 1871, and active to this day. The Society has been actively involved in the organization of concerts, composer competitions, musical education, as well as academic activities, and the wide-ranging support of Polish culture. The first musical director of the Warsaw Music Society was Aleksander Zarzycki, while its founding members included Stanisław Moniuszko, Adam Münchheimer, August Freyer, and Ludwik Grossman, among others.
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.