nationalism in szymanowski's mazurka op. 50

Nationalism in Karol Szymanowski’s Mazurkas No. 1-4, Op. 50: The Influence of Goral Music

A doctoral document submitted to the

Division of Graduate Studies and Research of the University of Cincinnati

in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS

in the Keyboard Studies Division

of the College-Conservatory of Music

2007

By

Sun-Joo Cho 2410 Ohio Ave. #201 Cincinnati, OH 45219

B.M., Ewha Women’s University, Seoul, South Korea, 1997

M.M., University of Cincinnati, 2001

Committee Chair: Dr. Robert Zierolf

Abstract

Karol Szymanowski was a successor to the Polish nationalism of Chopin, and

truly was an important figure as the bridge between Chopin and twentieth-century

composers including Lutoslawski, Penderecki, Gorecki, and Paderewski as a figure of

international fame. He composed two sets of mazurkas: 20 Mazurkas, Op. 50 (1924-25)

and Two Mazurkas, Op. 62 (1933-34), his last completed works. His mazurkas are

commonly understood to have been directly inspired by Chopin’s. However,

Szymanowski’s were also influenced by Poland’s postwar independence, Bartok’s

nationalism, Stravinsky’s Russian Period music, and musical contacts with the Gorale and

personal experiences in Zakopane, located in the Podhale region in the Tatra Mountains

in the early 1920s. Among these influential factors, the music in the Podhale region was

the biggest motivation and musical basis in composing a set of Mazurkas, Op. 50. Written

in Zakopane in the 1920s, they show many general musical characteristics from the

“highland” mountain area and are clearer examples of nationalism than Op. 62.

This document analyzes the first four mazurkas in Op. 50, favored in concert by

many pianists, focusing on how Szymanowski incorporated musical features from

Podhale into the mazurka, the genre from the “lowland.” The purpose of this document is

to present musical folk idioms of the Tatra Mountains area, then provide deeper

understanding of Szymanowski’s Mazurkas by examining relevant musical characteristics

in the first four of Op. 50. Chapter one includes a biographical sketch, five important

factors that were crucial influences on Szymanowski’s nationalism, and brief examination

of general characteristics of authentic form and features of the mazurka. Chapter two

mainly focuses on highland Podhale music in the Tatra Mountains including the Podhale

region’s geography, its history as an artistic center from the late nineteenth century and

four main figures in musical history of Podhale before Szymanowski, followed by

musical characteristics of the Tatra Mountains region. Chapter three, the main portion of

the document, concentrates on stylistic analyses of Szymanowski’s first four mazurkas,

Op. 50. This chapter examines and illustrates how Szymanowski dealt with the folk

elements in his mazurkas and how the characteristics of the goral music are specifically

used in the pieces for piano.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to my advisor, Dr. Robert Zierolf, for his thorough advice and

helpful suggestions on improving and eventually finishing this project. I appreciate his

warm caring, endless support, and enormous patience. I could not have accomplished this

without him.

I would like to thank Eugene and Elizabeth Pridonoff, and Ms. Sandra Rivers for

being my piano teachers and mentors. They always have been beautiful inspirations for

every piece of my life.

I also want to acknowledge my parents for believing in their daughter’s musical

gift and supporting my every step to this moment. They gave me strength, loving hearts,

and tireless support. I extend my many thanks to my family members and friends for their

positive support and prayer.

Finally, I thank God, whose name I will glorify throughout my whole life.

Table of Contents

List of Tables iv List of Figures v Introduction 1 Chapter I. Karol Szymanowski, His Nationalism, and Mazurka’s General Characteristics 5 A. Biographical Sketch 5 B. Influential Factors on Szymanowski’s Nationalism 9 C. Mazurka: Definition and General Characteristics 13 Chapter II. On Highland Music 16 A. Podhale: Geography 16 B. Podhale: An Artistic Center 18 C. Four Main Figures of Podhale Music before Szymanowski 19 D. Musical Characteristics 21 Chapter III. Analysis of Szymanowski’s Mazurka Op. 50, Nos. 1-4 27 Chapter IV. Conclusion 58 Bibliography 60

iii

List of Tables

1. Table 1. Karol Szymanowski: Works for Solo Piano 2

iv

List of Figures

1. Figure 1. Basic rhythmic figures of the mazurka 14 2. Figure 2. Map of Central Europe, Poland, Podhale, and Zakopane 17

v

Introduction

The nationalism that inspired Frederic Chopin (1810-49) carried on throughout

the nineteenth century in Poland. After the death of Chopin, however, there were few

Polish composers until Szymanowski who made remarkable contributions and achieved

international fame. Undoubtedly, Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) was a successor to the

Polish nationalism of Chopin. Mieczyslaw Kolinski (a Polish ethnomusicologist and

theorist) called Szymanowski “the most representative composer of Poland.”1

Szymanowski was a leading figure in reviving Polish nationalism in music in the early

twentieth century.

However, despite Szymanowski’s musical ingenuity and contributions to Polish

nationalism, he has been one of the most neglected composers in the early twentieth

century. His piano music (along with his other compositions) was largely excluded from

concert programs for many years. Szymanowski’s works are now recognized as marvels

of modern music, and the composer is seen as a great stylistic innovator.2 A recent

performance of Szymanowski’s King Roger by the English National Opera and

performances of his orchestral works bring more attention to his music. Also, the Vienna

colloquium of 1982 celebrating the centennial anniversary of his birth greatly contributed

to the revival of his works.3

1Paul Collaer, A History of Modern Music (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1961), 369. 2Janina Fialkowska, pp. 1-2 in the liner notes to Fialkowska Plays Szymanowski. Janina Fialkowska, pianist (Ontario: Opening Day Recordings, 1995), ODR9305, Compact Disc. 3Roger Scruton, “Introduction,” in Karol Szymanowski in seiner Zeit, ed. Michal Bristiger (Munchen: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1984), 9.

1

Generally, Szymanowski’s piano output is divided into three periods. The first is

in the style of late German romanticism. There are strong influences from Chopin

(although not yet Polish nationalism) and from Wagner, Strauss, and Reger. The second

happened in the mid-1910s, when his musical output changed to some extent through the

influence of Debussy, Ravel, and Stravinsky (whom he met for the first time in London in

1914). Exotic sounds and Impressionism best describe this middle period.

In a trip to Paris in 1921, he was overwhelmed by Stravinsky’s music (Les

Noces) and his nationalistic treatment of Russian folk-songs. This experience inspired

him to write Polish national music, especially under the influence of the folk-music of the

Tatra Mountains. This is his third creative period.4 Compositions after 1920 are usually

designated as from the “nationalistic” period. See Table 1.

Table 1. Karol Szymanowski: Works for Solo Piano

1st Period 2nd Period 3rd Period Years ~ c1911 1914 - 18 c1920 ~ Influences/Musical Styles

Chopin & Late German romanticism

Exotic/oriental influences & Impressionism

Polish nationalism (especially the Goral [mountain people] music)

Piano Works Examples

Nine Preludes, Op.1Variations, Op. 3 & Op. 10. Four Etudes, Op. 4 Sonatas, Op. 8 & 21

Metopes, Op. 29 Masques, Op. 34 Twelve Etudes, Op. 33 Sonata, Op. 36

Twenty Mazurkas, Op. 50 Valse Romantique Four Polish DancesTwo Mazurkas, Op. 62

He composed two sets of mazurkas: 20 Mazurkas, Op. 50 (1924-25) and Two

Mazurkas, Op. 62 (1933-34), his last completed works. His mazurkas are commonly

4Martin Anderson, p. 2 in the liner notes to Karol Szymanowski: The Complete Mazurkas. Marc-Andre Hamelin. Pianist (London: Hyperion, 2003), CDA67399, Compact Disc.

2

understood to have been directly inspired by Chopin’s. However, Szymanowski’s were

also influenced by Poland’s postwar independence, Bartok’s nationalism, Stravinsky’s

Russian Period music, and musical contacts with the Gorale and personal experiences in

Zakopane, located in the Podhale region in the Tatra Mountains in the early 1920s.

Among these influential factors, the music in the Podhale region was the biggest

motivation and musical basis in composing a set of Mazurkas, Op. 50. Written in

Zakopane in the 1920s, they show many general musical characteristics from the

“highland” mountain area and are clearer examples of nationalism than Op. 62.

In this document, the first four mazurkas in Op. 50 (1923-24) will be analyzed,

focusing on how Szymanowski incorporated musical features from Podhale into the

mazurka, the genre from the “lowland.” The purpose of this document is to present

musical folk idioms of the Tatra Mountains area, then provide deeper understanding of

Szymanowski’s Mazurkas by examining relevant musical characteristics. My analysis of

Nos. 1-4 will concentrate on the treatment of the folk elements in Szymanowski’s own

way. I will illustrate how each of the four mazurkas adopts musical features of the

Podhale region. The mazurkas will be analyzed, not by considering a standard analytical

approach like Roman numeral or Schenkerian analysis, but by revealing the particular

musical characteristics in Podhale used in the four mazurkas: the construction of

melodies, rhythms, use of typical modes and scales, voicing and texture, and so on.

First, I will begin with a brief biographical sketch of Szymanowski, highlighting

his sojourns to the Tatra Mountains and the influences of the traditional music there in the

1920s. Then five important factors that were crucial influences on Szymanowski’s

nationalism will be discussed. A brief examination of the general characteristics of

3

authentic form and features of the mazurka will be presented to help the reader’s

understanding of the genre. The second part of the document will mainly deal with

history and music of Zakopane and Podhale in the Tatra Mountains. Both Podhale and

Zakopane’s geography, history as an artistic center from the late nineteenth century, and

discussions of four main figures in musical history of Podhale before Szymanowski (Dr.

Tytus Chalubinski, Jan Krzeptowski-Sabala, Oskar Kolberg, and Adolf Chybinski) will

be followed by musical characteristics of the Tatra Mountains region. Analyses of

Szymanowski’s first four mazurkas, Op. 50, are the subject of the last part, the main

portion of this document. In this chapter I will examine and illustrate how Szymanowski

dealt with the folk elements in his mazurkas and how the characteristics of the Goral

music are specifically used in the pieces for piano.

4

CHAPTER I

Biographical Sketch

Karol Szymanowski was born on 6 October, 1882, to an aristocratic, musical

Polish family in Tymoszowka, Ukraine. His family had a keen interest in the arts. He was

the third of five children, three of whom became musicians (his sister was a singer, his

brother a pianist). Two other siblings, Sofia and Anna, became a poet and a painter,

respectively. Due to a leg injury at the age of four, his early education took place at home.

At the age of seven he began music education with his father. Later, he was sent to his

uncle, Gustav Neuhaus (who ran a music school in Elisavetgrad), to study piano and

theory. Through Neuhaus Szymanowski became acquainted with the works of Bach,

Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and Chopin. Most of the compositions from these early

dates at Tymoszowka and Elisavetgrad have not survived.5

In 1901 Szymanowski moved to Warsaw to take lessons in harmony with Marek

Zawirski, and he also studied counterpoint and composition with the conservative

Zygmunt Noskowski. In Warsaw he made acquaintances and connections with a number

of great musicians including Artur Rubinstein (later a champion of Szymanowski’s piano

music), Pawel Kochanski (later one of the greatest violinists of his generation), and

Grzegorz Fitelberg (who became a leading conductor in Poland and gave many premieres

of Szymanowski’s orchestral works).

In 1905, together with Fitelberg, Ludomir Rozycki, and Apolinary Szeluto (all

were composition students of Noskowski), Szymanowski founded Spolka Nakladowa

(the Young Polish Composers’ Publishing Company) in Berlin under the patronage of

5Jim Samson, The Music of Szymanowski (New York: Taplinger Publishing Company, 1981), 26.

5

Prince Wladyslaw Lubomirski. Their purpose was to publish and promote new Polish

music and concerts. Pianist Rubinstein and violinist Kochanski were strong supporters of

the group. The group was also known as “Young Poland in Music,” and they gave first

concert of their own works at the Warsaw Philharmonic in February 1906. Szymanowski

was represented by Concert Overture, Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, and Etude in

B-flat minor for piano, played by Neuhaus. The concert was very successful; especially

Szymanowski’s music received much praise and attention. Alexander Polinski, the

leading music critic, said, “I did not doubt for a moment that I was faced with an

extraordinary composer, perhaps a genius.”6 Unfortunately, the group didn’t last long

because of a lack of common, shared musical ideals.

Between 1909 and 1914 Szymanowski traveled to London, Vienna, Paris, Berlin,

Sicily, Algiers, and Tunis with his friend, Stefan Spiess, a music-lover and patron of the

arts. Throughout the trips he became captivated by the exotic sounds of Oriental culture

and French Impressionism. In the summer of 1914 he returned to Tymoszowka and

remained there until 1917. During these years he spent most of his time composing,

writing the novel Efebos, and studying Greek literature and Islamic culture. His two

impressionistic masterpieces for the piano, Metopes and Masques, were written in this

period.7

The family’s property in Tymoszowka was destroyed in World War I, and the

Szymanowskis moved to Warsaw after the war ended. Around this time his close friends

6Ibid., 20. 7Jim Samson, “Szymanowski, Karol,” Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 13 May 2006), <http://www.grovemusic.com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu>

6

Kochanski and Rubinstein chose to stay in the United States and establish their careers,

but Szymanowski decided to remain in his own country to revive music of Poland.

Meanwhile, his musical direction had turned an unexpected direction. Dating from the

early 1920s he embarked on music with nationalistic sources and folk materials, which he

had been against as a composer. It was around this period that he became interested in

Polish nationalism. The strongest source was the music of Zakopane people (the Gorale)

in the Podhale region of the Tatra Mountains. Because of his injured knee, instead of

climbing or hiking he rather enjoyed music and dance performances of the Gorale and

also interacted with many artists, musicologists, and writers from outside the mountains.

He stayed in Zakopane almost all autumn and winter 1922-23, and for the next fifteen

years, except for several short trips abroad, he remained in Warsaw and Zakopane. In this

“Zakopane period” he stayed at “Stamara Cottage” then at “The Red Cottage” and lastly

at “Limba Cottage.” Along with Harnasie and Slopiewnie, the 20 Mazurkas, Op. 50

(1924-25) were the fruits from these “nationalistic” years.8

In the latter half of the 1920s, Szymanowski’s reputation as a composer,

performer, and educator continued growing in Poland as well as abroad. In 1927 he

received two offers of directorship from the conservatories of Cairo and Warsaw. In spite

of the better terms of invitation and good weather in Cairo, which would have been better

for his health, he became director of the Warsaw Conservatory (a predecessor of the

Warsaw Academy of Music), hoping to revitalize Polish music and education. He wrote

in a letter to Chybinski: “I prefer to be a pauper in Poland than a rich man elsewhere!”

His rather progressive ideas about music and education, shown in one of his statements:

8Boguslaw Maciejewski, Karol Szymanowski, His Life and Music (London: Poets’ and Painters’ Press, 1967), 73-74.

7

“our aim is not ‘yesterday’ but ‘to-day’ and ‘to-morrow’–in other words–creativeness and

not confinement to achievements already acquired” led to constant fighting with the

conservative people of Warsaw; he ended up resigning in 1929.9 Around these years,

tuberculosis slowly began to break down his health.

The year 1930, however, was the most celebrated in his musical and pedagogical

careers. He was appointed Rector of the State Academy of Music in Warsaw and also

received several honors and awards, for example, the Cross of the French Legion of

Honour, a high Polish decoration–“Polonia Restituta,” and honorary memberships in the

International Society for Contemporary Music and the Czech Academy of Arts and

Sciences. He was awarded an honorary Ph. D. from the University of Cracow in the same

year. After the Cracow celebration he headed for Zakopane for another visit and stayed in

an “Atma” villa, which became his primary base for the next couple of years.

Unfortunately, he was faced with conflicts with the conservative side again, and he left

the Academy in April, 1932.

Due to nervous stress and conflict, Szymanowski’s health deteriorated from

tuberculosis, and his financial problems grew progressively worse. To make a living he

composed Symphony No. 4: Symphonie Concertante for orchestra and solo piano, his last

major work along with the Second Violin Concerto, Op. 61. He also gave extensive tours

throughout Europe as an exhausted soloist at the piano. He completed two Mazurkas, Op.

62, his last published work, in 1933 and ’34. Because of financial difficulties, he had to

give up his room in Zakopane and move to several different locations with different

people. He died in a sanatorium in Lausanne, Switzerland on 29 March, 1937, at the age

9Ibid., 83.

8

of 54 in the presence of sister Stasia and his secretary Leonia Gradstein.10

Influential factors on Szymanowski’s nationalism

In 1910, around the time Szymanowski refused to attend a festival celebrating the

centennial anniversary of Chopin’s birth, he wrote a letter to his friend Zdzislaw

Jachimecki, a Polish musicologist:

One does not debase Bachs and Mozarts, pass over Beethovens and Wagners so as to be able to shed more easily Polish-Sienkiewiczian tears over the grave of our one genius, Chopin. . . . I don’t give a damn for such commonplace patriotism! When I think that ninety percent of Poland’s intellectual and cultural elite is more or less of this type, I feel sick to the depths of my Soul. . . . I am by no means a cosmopolitan, but in our present atmosphere I feel like somewhat of an outsider.11

Up to this time, Szymanowski showed little interests in elements of folk music and

Chopin’s inheritance.12 He also criticized the Polish nationalism of the previous

generation’s musicians/artists, such as Stanislaw Moniuszko (1819-72), as “provincial.”13

However, Szymanowski’s patriotic fervor and respect for Chopin as a nationalistic icon in

music are clearly exhibited later, in a statement made in 1924:

[Chopin’s] spiritual legacy—a treasure of ineffable beauty gathered assiduously during the course of a brief and difficult life that he lived during the darkest days of our history—has not lost a shred of its celestial radiance but rather continues to shine with the most beautiful hues of the rainbow, like a clear diamond in which there is no trace of imperfection or flaw. . . . On the unbended

10Jim Samson, “Szymanowski, Karol,” Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 13 May 2006), <http://www.grovemusic.com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu> 11Alistair Wightman, Karol Szymanowski: His Life and Work (England: Ashgate, 1999), 84, quoted in Barbara Ann Milewski, “The Mazurkas and National Imaginings: Poland, Frederic Chopin, Karol Szymanowski” (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 2002), 111. 12Jerzy Sulikowski, Polish Music (England: Polish Publications Committee, 1944), 29. 13Leon Pommers, “Polish Aspects of Szymanowski’s Style” (M.A. thesis, Queens College, City University of New York, 1968), 33.

9

wings of a faith in the future, the works of Fryderyk Chopin rose above and survived the contemporary tragedy of our Nation. . . . I have called them the Myth of the Polish Soul since at the core of their mystifying beauty, in the wealth and variety of their forms, there always sparkles the same immutable truth of their unmistakable Polishness.14 Szymanowski’s new opinion and attitude toward Chopin and Polish nationalism

did not happen all at once. Rather, it was generated by certain influential factors that

made him change his point of view and compositional direction. Poland’s newly achieved

independence after World War I, the music of Stravinsky and Bartok, Chopin’s Polish

legacy, and his personal experiences in Zakopane in the Podhale region were all crucial

elements of Szymanowski’s nationalism. Among these, the experiences and musical

contacts with Zakopane and the mountain people served as the main influential factor for

his composition of Mazurkas, Op. 50.

After World War I Poland took back independence after more than a century of

control by Russia, Prussia, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire (the third partition, 1795-

1918). New-born Poland needed to unite its citizens politically, socially, and also

economically.15 In this new, nationalistic environment, Szymanowski became aware of

the need for nationalistic music and shifted his compositional interests to a new

direction.16

One of Szymanowski’s contemporaries, Igor Stravinsky, was an influential figure

in forming Szymanowski’s nationalistic music. Particularly Stravinsky’s “Russian

period,” which included his first three ballets (The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of

14Preconcert lecture by Karol Szymanowski in Polish, presented at the Warsaw Philharmonic, Poland, 16 October 1924, quoted in Barbara Ann Milewski, “The Mazurkas and National Imaginings,” 112. 15Pommers, “Polish Aspects of Szymanowski’s Style,” 27. 16Robert Morgan, Twentieth-Century Music: A History of Musical Style in Modern Europe and America (New York: Norton, 1991), 264.

10

Spring) and Les Noces, composed a little later, made an impact on the birth of

Szymanowski’s nationalism (in his ballets, Stravinsky used Russian folk motives and

themes). It was in 1913 when he watched the performance of Petrushka and was

captivated by Stravinsky’s music. In the following year in London he became acquainted

with Stravinsky personally and heard his new compositions.17 Nationalism in

Stravinsky’s works inspired Szymanowski and helped him realize that one could convey

folkloric traits in music without trite presentation.

In 1921 in Paris, Szymanowski played through the ballet Les Noces with

Stravinsky at the piano, and this occasion and the music itself directly motivated

Szymanowski to compose his first nationalistic work, Slopiewnie, the five-song set on

Julian Tuwin’s poems.18 In an unpublished article in 1921, Szymanowski wrote that “We

should be especially concerned with his work because of the treatment he accorded in his

music to national elements.”19 In this sentence, Szymanowski revealed his respect for

Stravinsky’s nationalistic approach in music.

Along with Stravinsky’s “Russian period,” Bartok’s nationalism made a

contribution to Szymanowski’s nationalistic style. Bartok’s efforts at collecting authentic

folklore and his achievement in establishing Hungarian national music gave

Szymanowski a better appreciation of folk music, and also motivated him to revive Polish

nationalism. He showed strong agreement with Bartok’s opinion about a chief role of folk

in national music in an article, “The Question of Folkness in Relation to Contemporary

17Stanislaw Golachowski, Szymanowski: His Life and Times (New Sersey: Paganiniana Publications, Inc., 1986), 27, 29. 18Milewski, “The Mazurkas and National Imaginings,” 119. 19Samson, The Music of Szymanowski, 156.

11

Music.”

In this way, the rather hackneyed, and naturally compromised, academic “folk” style that was characteristic of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century music developed. There was a flood of great and small works of varying value based on authentic folk rhythms and melodies. . . . Today’s music is descending toward and joining the people, the earth, the rich and fertile soil. Compromised, “exotic” folk music was only a bridgehead leading from exalted, but, to be sure, moribund aesthetic academicism, toward real life. . . . We should be able to capture the eternally-beating “heart of the race” that is beyond the reach of every possible dogmatic aestheticism and perfectly recreate, in a universally understood artwork, that which manifests itself in the folk as the creator’s autonomous strength, uncurbed by any discipline. In my opinion, this is the primary task of a great national artist.20

As Szymanowski’s view of Polish national music had changed due to several

reasons mentioned above, Chopin naturally came to serve as Szymanowski’s model to

revitalize Polish nationalism and folk tradition in his own music. Szymanowski wrote in

the same genre, mazurka for piano, which played an important part in Chopin’s musical

Polishness. With this genre Szymanowski successfully combined the national dance form

from the lowland of Poland with the goral music from the Tatra Mountains, thus

continuing Chopin’s movement toward Polish nationalism.21

It was in March 1920 when Szymanowski was acquainted with the music of the

Podhale for the first time, when Dr. Adolf Chybinski, a musicologist and professor at the

University of Lwow, played some Podhale folk melodies for him. In 1923-24

Szymanowski wrote a 66-page folklore notebook, filled with authentic folk melodies of

the Gorale. The book was lost in 1944.22 He traveled to Zakopane frequently throughout

the 1920s and even stayed there from 1930 until 1935. An essay published in Kurier

20Milewski, “The Mazurkas and National Imaginings,” 134-35. 21Stefan Jarocinski, ed., Polish Music (Warsaw: PWN-Polish Scientific Publishers, 1965), 165. 22Maciejewski, Karol Szymanowski, 75.

12

Polski (The Polish Courier) in 1924 reveals his deep interest and appreciation of the art

and music of the Podhale region.

I belong to a group of people who perceives goral folk art as a first-class, genuinely artistic material capable of regenerating and refreshing the musty atmosphere of our art. That is why we work strenuously to preserve and even further develop this art. We are striving to continue the tradition established by Witkiewicz, Tetmajer, Matlakowski, Chalubinski, etc., turning our attention, however, more toward music, dance and lyric poetry. I am extremely interested in everything that is coming to life and taking shape in Podhale.23

The folk music of the Gorale heightened Szymanowski’s shift into Polish

nationalistic music. Starting with Slopiewnie, he composed the ballet Harnasie, in which

authentic melodies of the Tatra Mountains were used without any alteration. Two sets of

Mazurkas, Op. 50 and Op. 62 were also written when he stayed in Zakopane, and musical

characteristics of Goral music became direct influences in his Op. 50 mazurkas.

Mazurka: Definition and General Characteristics

Generally, the mazurka is defined as “a Polish national dance in triple meter with

strong accents frequently falling on the second or third beats of the measure.”24

Originating in Mazovia (northeastern Poland, near Warsaw) in the sixteenth century,

mazurka is a lively Polish folk dance for a circle of four or eight couples and is also

music composed for dancing it. It is in 3/4 or 3/8 meter with dotted rhythms and

accentuation of weak beats, where phrases also begin and end. Here are examples of

rhythmic figures most frequently encountered. (See figure 1).

23Kurier Polski (Poland), 14 February 1924, quoted in Barbara Ann Milewski, “The Mazurkas and National Imaginings,” 113. 24Anne Swartz. “The Polish Folk Mazurka.” Studia musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Vol. 17 (1975): 249.

13

, , ,

Figure 1. Basic rhythmic figures of the mazurka

As seen in the figures, the quicker-note figure is usually placed in the first part of the bar.

Characterized by stamping feet and clicking heels with a turning movement, the mazurka

allows improvisation in both the movements and the music itself. It became popular first

at the Polish court and spread to Russia and Germany, reaching England and France by

the 1830s.25

The mazurka consists of three types: Oberek, Mazurka, and Kujawiak, all

different in tempo and mood. Oberek, the fastest one, is a lively, whirling dance. Mazurka

is slower than Oberek and is rather fiery and war-like in character. Kujawiak is the

slowest dance, with longer phrases and a sentimental, melancholy melody. Aside from

different tempi and general characteristics, these three types share common elements:

rhythmic traits such as a short-short/long/long pattern, triplets, dotted rhythms, repetition

of small motives and sections, improvisation, use of the Lydian mode and the Hungarian

mode (C–D–Eb–F#–G–Ab–B–C´, so called because it was used much in Hungarian

Romantic music, also called Gypsy scale26), and accompaniment by drone bass and

bagpipes on the tonic or tonic and dominant pitches. The music usually contains two or

four sections of six or eight measures, each repeated.27

The traditional folk ensemble of central Poland consisted of a melody instrument

25James Huneker. Chopin: The Man and His Music (New York: Dover Publications, 1966), 194. 26“Gypsy scale [Hungarian mode, Hungarian scale]”, Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 10 December 2006), <http://www.grovemusic.com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu>

27Don Randel, ed., The New Harvard Dictionary of Music (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1995), 477.

14

(the violin played in first position on the upper strings, or the fujarka, a high-pitched

shepherds’ pipe) plus an instrument or two to provide a drone (lower open strings on the

violin, or the dudy or gajdy, a Polish bagpipe) and/or a rhythmic pulse (the basetla or

basy, a string bass played with constant bows). These rural bagpipes originally

accompanied the rustic triple-meter mazurka with its strong accents on the second or third

beat, which are normally weak beats in triple meter.

15

CHAPTER II

Podhale: Geography

According to Timothy J. Cooley, the term “Podhale,” derived from the Gorale28

dialect hala (meaning mountains or mountain pasture) and Pod (meaning below), refers

to “Piedmont” or below the mountains. However, the word “Podhale,” used by

tourists/ethnographers from the outside, was not popular among the mountain people

themselves. Goral is the term used more commonly to mean “mountain people.”29

Podhale, located on the southern border of Poland, is a small region about 34 kilometers

north to south and 24 kilometers east to west. It is about 100 kilometers below Krakow,

the capital city until 1611, when the government moved to Warsaw to escape from the

Tatars’ menaces. Podhale is bounded on the north by the Gorce Mountains and on the

south by the Tatra Mountains.30 (See Figure 2).

28The term meaning “mountaineer.” Gora (mountain) is the origin of the word. Referring to all

inhabitants who come from mountain areas, the word is particularly used to name “people of the Polish Tatra Mountain regions” in many scholarly writings as well as in this document.

29Timothy J. Cooley, Music in the Polish Tatras: tourists, ethnographers, and mountain

musicians. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005), 21. 30Ibid., 19-20.

16

Figure 2. Map of Central Europe, Poland, Podhale, and Zakopane

The Tatra are the largest mountains in Central Europe, as well as the tallest peaks

of the Carpathian range, curving from the Balkans and continuing along the border of

Poland and Slovakia. This border passes through the Tatra Mountains. However, only

about 20 percent of the “High” Tatra Mountains are within the political boundary of

17

Poland. At 2,499 meters, Mount Rysy is the pinnacle of the Tatras in the Polish territory.31

As seen on the map (Figure 2), Podhale is a region within the larger Tatra Mountains area

and Zakopane, a small village which will be mentioned below referring to

Szymanowski’s mazurkas, is in the Podhale region.

Podhale: An Artistic Center

Since the mid-nineteenth century, Zakopane had become well known as a health

resort, and the Podhale region was developed into a tourist center after the construction of

a railway in 1899.32 However, tourists were attracted to the Tatra Mountains for several

reasons. One was to escape from social and political oppression from foreign powers.

Poland was partitioned between Russia, Prussia, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire

(1795-1918). Due to its geographical location, people thought that the Tatra Mountains

were isolated and untouched, so the area of Podhale was the perfect place to get away

from the complicated political situation. They believed in the mountains’ purity and

folkloric authenticity, and this myth of isolation was another reason that tourists went to

the area. Podhale’s folk culture and music played an important part in the growth of

tourism.33

The history of tourism is paired with the history of ethnography. Since the late

nineteenth century, the town of Zakopane had become a retreat for artists as well as a

tourist center. As Podhale developed, ethnographers and other artists (for example, the

31Ibid.

32Samson, The Music of Szymanowski, 166. 33Cooley, Music in the Polish Tatras, 5.

18

“Young Poland” poets) also gathered in the town and their interests intensified. Zakopane

soon became an artistic center for research in ethnomusicology led by Dr. Chybinski, a

professor in Lwow. Tourists and ethnographers closely interacted with the Gorale, and

tourism produced a source of employment as local musicians and dancers were hired for

the visitors. Ethnographers who were fascinated by the music and the folk culture

researched and propagated it.34

Four Main Figures of Podhale Music before Szymanowski

It is not too much to say that the ethnography of Podhale formed alongside the

history of tourism of the Tatra Mountains, because the first tourists from outside were

also the first ethnographers exploring the music of Podhale. The musical culture of

Podhale is the result of interactions between visiting researchers, ethnomusicologists, and

local musicians. Four main figures developed the cultural and musical history of

Zakopane and the Podhale area from the mid-nineteenth century before Szymanowski.

Dr. Tytus Chalubinski (1820-89), a well-known physician from Warsaw, was in

the vanguard of tourists and ethnographers of Zakopane in Podhale. Due to his

contributions to tourism and ethnographic activities, Zakopane developed into a health

resort, a tourist center, and also a musical mecca of the Gorale in the Tatra Mountains. Dr.

Chalubinski came to Zakopane and founded a sanatorium there in the late nineteenth

century. He promoted hot springs for recuperation and set up Tatra Mountain excursions

for tourists. He employed the Gorale who worked as guides and also as music and culture

providers. They not only guided the tourists along the mountain sojourn but also

34Ibid., 6-8.

19

performed local music and dance around the campfires in the evening.

Among them, Jan Krzeptowski-Sabala (1810-94) was Dr. Chalubinski’s favored

mountain guide. Sabala, who did storytelling, fiddle playing, and mountain excursion

guiding in the mid-nineteenth century was also a close, personal friend of Dr. Chalubinski.

On T. Chalubinskiego Street, southeast of Zakopane, there is a monument featuring these

two most influential, pivotal figures in the nineteenth century.35

Better known as an ethnographer, Oskar Kolberg’s, a Polish folklorist and

composer (1814-90), activities in research and multi-volumed collections of folk tunes

actively encouraged a new era of Polish ethnomusicology. Kolberg devoted his life and

energies to collecting and publishing folk tunes from Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, and

Lithuania. As a result, more than 17,000 folk melodies, both published and unpublished,

remain. Volumes 44 and 45 contain only melodies associated with the Polish mountains,

including the Tatra Mountains.36

Ethnomusicology of the Tatra Mountains (including Zakopane and the Podhale

region) in the twentieth century was chiefly led by Dr. Adolf Chybinski (1880-1952), a

Polish musicologist and professor at the Lwow Conservatory. Jan Steszewski called him

“the most prominent explorer of the folk music and folk instruments of Podhale.”37 His

ethnomusicological concern was mainly about the people and music of the Tatra

Mountains. He transcribed the first phonographic records of the folk music of the Gorale

in 1913, and he collected folk tunes in various villages with a phonograph horn or by

35Ibid., 1-4. 36Steszewski, Polish Folk Music, ed. Stefan Jarocinski, Polish Music, 202. 37Ibid., 203.

20

hand.38

It was Dr. Chybinski who first introduced Szymanowski to the music of Podhale

in the early 1920s. From 1894 Szymanowski intermittently spent time in the mountain

resort; however, it was in March 1920 when he became acquainted with Goral music

when Dr. Chybinski played the mountain music for him. From 1922 on, Szymanowski,

who was fascinated by music in Zakopane, studied, notated, and collected folksongs and

dances by the highland people.39 Since the first musical contact with Goral music in the

early 1920s, Szymanowski, who had never expressed any respect for Chopin’s Polish

nationalism before, became very enthusiastic about nationalistic music and the legacy of

Chopin. Under strong and direct inspiration from the music of Podhale, he started

composing mazurkas.

Musical Characteristics

Due to its geographical isolation, the music of Podhale is unique and distinct

from that of other Polish regions. However, some scholars argue that music-making in

Podhale was not only from its isolation but also from the result of interactions between

the Gorale and the artists and ethnographers from the outside. It was not until the 1920s

that the Gorale’s musical style and repertoires were agreed upon and codified in Polish

publications.40 Music is closely related to the Goral life itself. A third of all Podhale

people possess and play a musical instrument, and almost all sing. Musical performances

38Ibid. 39Martin Anderson, liner notes to Karol Szymanowski: The Complete Mazurkas. Hyperion, CDA67399, Compact Disc. 40Maja Trochimczyk, ed. After Chopin: Essays in Polish Music. (Los Angeles: Polish Music Center at USC, 2000), 243-44.

21

give them opportunities to meet each other, to socialize, and also to rest.41

Goral music exists in solo and chamber performances, and in vocal and

instrumental forms. All instrumental music today originated from song, and modern vocal

music can also be played by instrumentalists. A typical instrumental ensemble consists of

first and second violins and bass. Each instrumental part in the ensemble plays a

particular role. The lead violin, prym, carries main melodic tunes with a great deal of

ornamentation. The one or two accompanying second violins, sekundy, support the chords.

The bass, often played by the basy, a three-stringed cello-sized bowed lute, provides a

drone (imitating bagpipes) with open fifths or harmonic ostinato, all bowed on the

quarter-note beat. Harmonies are projected in vertical chords in the accompaniment

(together the sekundy and basy). (See Example 1).

Example 1. Podhale ensemble music

Vocal ensemble music is characterized by predominant, high-ranged male voices

and rather secondary female voices in the same range. (Since both male and female

voices sing in the same register, the male part sounds louder and higher). Both a cappella

and accompanied singing exist. There is also a lead singer with a strong voice who begins

41Anna Czekanowska, Polish Folk Music: Slavonic Heritage, Polish Tradition, Contemporary Trends. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 84-85.

22

a song, then the rest of the singers start after a few beats. Occasionally, beginnings and

closings are in unison or at an octave. The high male voices, voice-crossings,

uncontrolled dynamics and volume, the various ranges of tempi, and sharp harmonic

dissonances are other distinguishing characteristics that make the Goral music harsh and

intense.42 Chromaticism, however, is rarely present. Example 2 illustrates dissonances

with tritones. (See Example 2).

Example 2. Tritones in the music of the Gorale

As for melodic shapes, typically short, singable descending (falling) melodies

(defined as nuta) with a narrow range of a sixth or octave are often characterized by a

prominent augmented fourth above the tonic and have asymmetrical five-bar phrases43 in

duple meter clearly marked by the second violins and basy, which are bowed on the beat.

42Cooley, Making Music in the Polish Tatras, 23-24. 43Three-measure or five-measure phrases are symmetrical within themselves. But some authors consider three or five phrases asymmetrical.

23

Example 3 shows a Podhale melody in the top part that features a descending contour

within a range of octave.

Example 3. Typical Podhale melodic shape

Example 4 also exemplifies asymmetrical phrases with different phrase lengths.

Example 4. Asymmetrical phrases in the Goral music

This is notably different from the music in other Poland regions in which the upbeat is

often emphasized.44 Two-phrase periods are prevalent; however, the antecedent-

consequence phrase structure is absent. Instead, each phrase obtains a cadence. Frequent

44Trochimczyk, ed. After Chopin, 245.

24

use of the pentatonic scale, the Lydian scale, the Podhale scale (the raised fourth and

flatted seventh), and tritones are also representative melodic features in Goral music.45

Polyphony (in Goral music it means two or more independent voices occurring at

the same time. So called by some scholars of this repertoire, it’s more commonly known

as heterophony), improvisatory quality, parallelism in minor seconds, bagpipe open fifths,

and octaves as pedal points are prevalent. The rhythm of Goral music has a tendency to

be rather irregular and not predictable. A short/long dotted rhythmic figure ( , called

“Podhale rhythm”) and its relaxed forms ( , ) are also characteristics in

Podhale. (See Example 5).

Example 5. The typical Podhale rhythm

The Podhale rhythmic figure was frequently used by Szymanowski, along with the

mazurka rhythms shown in Figure 1.

The music of the mountain people and their dances are closely related to each

other. As in the music, male performance dominates and women play a secondary role in

45Steszewski, Polish Folk Music, ed. Stefan Jarocinski, Polish Music, 205-18.

25

dances. Polyphonic, multi-part singing, and complex rhythmic patterns show the dancer’s

fast speeds with demanding skills.

26

CHAPTER III

Analysis of Szymanowski’s Mazurka Op. 50, Nos. 1-4

Since his first musical contact with Goral music in the early 1920s, Szymanowski

became very enthusiastic about nationalistic music as well as the legacy of Chopin.

Under strong and direct inspiration–the music of Podhale–he started composing mazurkas.

The Op. 50 set was composed and published between 1923 and 1931; the first four

mazurkas in Op. 50 were dated 1923-24. At first the twenty Mazurkas were published in

groups of four in five different volumes before being issued in one set. In modern editions

the first four are still grouped together. These four pieces are supposed to be played

without a break; thus, there is no double bar until the end of No. 4. All four mazurkas are

in the ternary (ABA) form adapted from Chopin’s mazurkas.46 Mazurkas Nos. 1-4 were

dedicated to Artur Rubinstein, one of Szymanowski’s closest friends and also a champion

of his piano music. Of the twenty mazurkas in Op. 50, the first has been the most popular

for many pianists, including Rubinstein.47

The first four mazurkas in Op. 50 demonstrate Szymanowski’s extraordinary

ability to draw on Goral musical resources in the mazurka. The music moves from one

type of material to the next at a quick pace, showing a variety of the Gorale’s musical

characteristics. Frequent changes in tempo and meter in the ternary frame make the music

engaging.

46Milewski, “The Mazurkas and National Imaginings,” 137. 47Gwilym Beechey, “Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) and his Piano Music,” Musical Opinion (October 1982): 16.

27

Mazurka Op. 50, No. 1

The first mazurka of Op. 50 sets a clear tonal center of E from the beginning. The

primary melody in the right hand begins on E and ends on E at measure 4, and E and B

open fifths–appearing on the first beat of the first measure–constantly function as pedal

points throughout the piece. The opening melody features a descending contour for the

right hand (the prominent augmented fourths are emphasized with trills in mm. 5, 9, and

13). Szymanowski shows his great talent for modal treatment in the opening measures.

He produced a mixture of the Lydian mode (E-F sharp-G sharp-A sharp-B-C sharp-D

sharp) and the Podhale mode (E-F sharp-G sharp-A sharp-B-C sharp-D) by alternating

between D and D sharp. (See Example 6).

28

Example 6. Mazurka No. 1, mm. 1-16

The A section simply consists of this four-measure phrase, repeated four times.

However, he added rhythmic variety to each recurring phrase by including melodic

embellishment; different chordal accompaniments by the left hand are changed or added

each time as well. Furthermore, the whole A section is an example of the Goral

instrumental ensemble, which consists of first and second violins and bass. Each

individual voice represents a unique characteristic of traditional Goral music. The right

hand’s single melodic part, like the lead violin, plays highly ornamented themes. The

pedal point plays the bass role with open fifths mimicking the sound of a bagpipe. The

rest of the left-hand chords support harmonies. (See Example 6).

29

In section B (mm. 17-44) one can see internal a-b-a ternary form. The small ‘a’

section also demonstrates three-layer structures in another way. The first phrase of eight

measures consists of two independent upper voices for the right hand (a hint of the Goral

polyphonic writing style) and repeated open-fifth bass drones for the left hand. (See

Example 7).


As for the melodic character, compared to the longer singing phrase in the two

well-balanced lines by the right hand in the previous four measures, the melody here is

shorter (two measures) and rather motivic. However, a descending melodic shape is also

demonstrated in this section.

30


The next passage, mm. 37-44, serves as a bridge by connecting the B and the

returning A sections. The bass line for the left hand emphasizes a progression of IV-V-I

(A-B-E) to return to the A section, which possesses the stable tonal center of E. The right-

hand part, consisting of new melodic fragments, is motivic. (See Example 8).

The returning A section has only eight measures, containing the initial phrase

from the beginning of the piece and its repetition. For the final chord Szymanowski

produced tonal ambiguity (between E major and E minor), omitting the third of the E

chord so that the piece remains open.

Of the first four mazurkas, No. 1 is the simplest in terms of formal structure. It

exhibits a simple ternary form featuring a very brief return to A. Although there is a

reference to polyphonic style in section B, the piece is mainly constructed in homophonic

texture. Overall, the A section features longer melodic lines, and the B section and bridge

contain shorter, motivic contours with mild chromaticism.

31


No. 2 probably conveys the most characteristics of the Goral folk music

introduced in Chapter 2. The piece exemplifies polytonality and polymeter, and features

many instances of dissonance, asymmetrical phrasing, falling melody within a narrow

range, use of the Podhale scale, open fifth drones, as well as pedal points. It also

demonstrates three-layer textures, the Podhale rhythm and its augmentation figure, and

improvisatory qualities. Abrupt dynamic changes across a wide range and voice-crossing

between the parts are also some of the traits that make this mazurka representative of the

music of Podhale. As for the form, compared to the short returning A section in the

previous mazurka, No. 2 contains a very brief B section with a contrasting character.

The mazurka opens with polymeter, a mixture of duple and triple meter. While

the left hand open fifths, again imitating bagpipes, provide a typical mazurka

accompaniment with accents on weak beats in triple meter, the right-hand part is clearly

conceived in duple meter, with regular accents on every first beat of two. (See Example

9).


32

In addition, Example 9 also illustrates the three-voice texture used by

Szymanowski. The upper melody, except for the short ascending contour in the first

measure of each phrase, employs a falling melody within the range of ninth. The middle

part, inserted only in the second half of each phrase, presents a brief melodic line within

the range of a sixth. Meanwhile, the bass figuration for the left hand features open fifth

drones.

The next passage, mm. 9-20, containing two six-measure asymmetrical phrases,

illustrates other musical resource that Szymanowski adopted from the Podhale region. He

produced dissonances for a single hand and also vertically between both hands. For

example, the repeated left-hand figure ( ) constantly plays minor seconds. In mm.

15-20, as a temporary middle voice is inserted, the left hand creates a tritone (G-flat and

C). The circled notes in mm. 15 and 17 are examples of dissonances of minor seconds

and tritones projected by both hands. (See Example 10).

As mentioned briefly above, the phrase partly employs a three-layer texture in

mm. 15-20. Another clear example of the influence of Goral music is a use of “the

Podhale rhythm.” The rhythm placed at the end of each phrase is emphasized by

sforzando and accents.

33


Shortly thereafter, a two-measure motivic phrase is presented, repeated, and then

enlarged through the use of dynamics (cresc. sff, with accents on every beat), widened

range, and by doubling the melody. The second measure of the two-measure phrase is

derived from mm. 14 and 20. At m. 24 the composer introduced a variant of the Podhale

rhythm ( ). As the dynamic level increases at the end of the second phrase,

Szymanowski added tritones in each beat by the left hand and augmented fifths on the

second beat by the right hand. (See Example 11).

34


Interestingly enough, there is a pedal point (on G), which is normally employed

for the accompanying left hand, for the right hand in mm. 21-22. While the top voice is

making the pedal point, the lower voice in the right hand carries main theme.


In the following two measures (mm. 23-24), open fifths (an imitation of bagpipe

fifths), normally occurring as left-hand bass accompaniment, are featured as the melodic

line by the right hand, while the left hand provides a simple quarter-note accompaniment

in major and minor seconds. (See Example 13).

35


One can clearly see another variation of the Podhale rhythm in a brilliant way in

the following example. The left-hand eighth note and sixteenth rest with a sixteenth looks

like a regular dotted rhythm representing the typical mazurka rhythm. However, through

a clever use of slurs, the sixteenth note, emphasized by sforzando with tenuto, is

connected to a quarter note over the barline. As a result, the rhythm eventually comes to

exactly replicate the Podhale rhythm.


In the same example there is a brief moment of polytonality at m. 41 with the

36

right hand in F-sharp (F sharp-A sharp-C sharp), and the left hand in C (C-E-G).

In a passage that soon follows, Szymanowski suggested a spontaneous quality

that augments the free, improvisatory character at the close of the A section. An

eloquently ascending, monodic line adds a cadenza-like flavor with the dynamic

markings crescendo e accelerando, fermata, and diminuendo e rallentando with tenutos

on each descending eighth. Meanwhile, the left hand provides tritones on the second and

third beat of mm. 49-50.


After the unaccompanied, improvisational single statement, the next section, B,

marked Poco meno. Tranquillo provides a slower, lyrical contrast. Also, the B section

(eight measures) is much shorter than the previous A section, which has 53 measures.

Compared to the rather short melodic motives in the A section, the middle section

contains a singable, lyrical melody in a slower tempo within a four-measure symmetrical

phrase structure.

The B section incorporates the Podhale scale (A-B-C sharp-D sharp-E-F sharp-G

natural). Interestingly enough, the same scale degrees characteristic of the Podhale scale

are also used in the opening passage of L’isle Joyeuse by Claude Debussy, who was one

of Szymanowski’s inspirations in his middle, impressionistic period. (See Example 16a,

37

and b).

Example 16a. Debussy, L’isle Joyeuse, mm. 8-9

Example 16b. Mazurka No. 2, mm. 53-60

The return to the A section, marked Sub. Tempo I. (Vivace), starts soon after the

conclusion of the B section and returns to the fast tempo, but in a much softer dynamic

range (pp). Interestingly, the composer opened this section not with the initial theme but

with the second passage (starting from m. 9). (See Example 17).

38


The composer brought back the same exact material shown in mm. 21-28 in the

returning A section. (See Example 11 and 18).


39

From m. 81, the initial theme finally recurs. This recurring theme is reinforced by

two factors: the melody is doubled and features a larger dynamic, ff. (See Example 19).


Voice-crossing, one of the Gorale’s musical features, occurs between the two

hands in mm. 93-94 and 99-100. (See Example 20a and b). It also can be a reminiscence

of the strong and predominant male voice of the Gorale, which sang in the same register

with the female voice.

Example 20a. Mazurka No. 2, mm. 93-94

40


Contrary to the thick texture in loud dynamics in the returning A section, the

close of the mazurka demonstrates a contrasting subdued quality. Compared to the earlier,

generally thick and homophonic texture, the last six measures are characterized by a

leaner character with two single lines moving contrapuntally within the dynamic range pp

to p. However, Szymanowski made the piece interesting by providing an abrupt ending,

both structurally and dynamically. The polyphonic passage gradually disappears with a

ritenuto, pp. The music literally stops for one-and-a-half beats. Soon after, a sudden,

convincing final chord (A major with an added ninth) is struck in both hands, finalizing

the mazurka on the second, traditionally weak, beat. (See Example 21).


41

Mazurka Op. 50 No. 3

Szymanowski’s interest in the polyphonic singing style of the Gorale is evident

in the beginning passage of No. 3, where he wove two independent voices into a

contrapuntal texture. This polyphonic writing suggests the a cappella singing style of

Goral music in which a lead singer begins a song then the rest of the singers join after a

few beats. (See Example 22). The passage creates asymmetrical phrases of four and five

measures by simply adding the left-hand part of m. 8 one more time.


Example 22 also features polyphonic elements combined with the juxtaposition of two

different scales with different tonal centers. The right hand consists of a white-key minor

pentatonic scale with a tonal center of A, whereas the left hand uses a black-key

pentatonic scale in C-sharp.

Subsequently, a new texture is illustrated. Asymmetrical phrases (three and four

measures) with new melodic materials occur. There is an abrupt mood change between

the previous period and this new one, and also between the two phrases within this new

42

period. Compared to the clear polyphonic writing in the previous period, this following

passage presents a much more homophonic style. The first three-measure phrase carries a

rather long, lyrical, melodic contour by the right hand with a chordal accompaniment that

resembles a secondary melody. However, the next four-measure phrase introduces a

simple three-quarter-note accompaniment, while the right-hand melody is motivic rather

than melodic, employing a single rhythmic pattern ( ). Additionally, every quarter

note for both hands is detached, with staccato markings. (See Example 23).


Voice crossing takes place in mm. 24 and 25. The ascending three notes (C-sharp,

D-sharp, and G-sharp) in the bass line are pitches higher than the right hand open fifths

(C-sharp and G-sharp). (See Example 24).

43

Example 24, Mazurka No. 3, mm. 24-25

Szymanowski began section B (starting at m. 30) with a clear three-layer texture.

In first three measures, the heavy use of dissonance is a prominent characteristic of the

middle layer (tritones and augmented seconds). The composer also produced dissonances

with vertical chords when the three voices sound together. For example, the first beat

features a 9th chord (B-D sharp-F sharp-A-C) with an added augmented 4th on B (E sharp).

(See Example 25). The example below also consists of four three-measure asymmetrical

phrases.

44


The left-hand music in Example 25 portrays another instance of the tendency for duple

meter in Goral music. From mm. 30 to 35, Szymanowski constantly placed the left-hand

accented chords within a duple sense, so that the chords sound like the first beats of each

measure in duple meter. Also, the upper melodic line of each asymmetrical phrase (except

for the upper neighboring tone on the third beat of the first measure and the slightly

ascending gesture at the end of the phrase) exemplifies the descending melodic contour

within a narrow range that is a distinctive feature of the Gorale. (See Example 25).

A period consisting of two asymmetrical phrases within five measures (mm. 42-

51) follows. The initial five-measure phrase sequences downward by a major second. As

45

a result, the period lacks a sense of antecedent and consequence phrasing relationships.

(See Example 26).


Each phrase, however, can also be divided into another two asymmetrical subphrases

(3/2); each of these subphrases demonstrates a contrasting character. The first three-

measure phrase is polyphonic with two independent voices, reminiscent of the opening of

the piece. The second two-measure phrase, on the other hand, employs a texture similar

to the homophonic style of the phrases in mm. 10-12 and 17-19.

Of compositional interest is a foreshadowing of the opening contrapuntal theme

before the return to Tempo I (m. 60). The returning A section seems to appear rather

unclearly from mm. 55 to 59, where fragments in polyphonic structure from the opening

period are hinted at with slight changes and the omission of several bars. However, this

short recalled theme is similar enough to the theme’s initial appearance to sound almost

like a literal restatement. (See Example 27a and b).

46

Example 27a. Mazurka No. 3, mm. 1-5


Immediately following this recollection is Tempo I, which indicates the return of

the A section. Different from the preceding phrase, which is used as something of a false

return, the Tempo I section (mm. 60-69) represents a literal repetition of mm. 10-19. In

the repetitions of identical phrases (3/4/3 phrase structure), a few markings are changed

or added. (See Example 28).

47


Szymanowski closed the piece with coda beginning at m. 70, marked Sostenuto.

Within the three-voice structure, the bass provides pedal points in minor sevenths,

whereas the middle voice creates vertical, harmonic dissonances such as tritones and

augmented fifths by playing one (C sharp) or two notes (C sharp and D sharp) against the

bass pedal points. The melodic upper voice consists of pentatonic scale degrees. (C sharp,

D sharp, E sharp, G sharp, [A sharp]). All these features occur within a very soft dynamic

range, and the ending gesture also creates an effect of the gradual decay of sustained

sound. (See Example 29).

48


In sum, polyphonic texture adapted from Goral music is a salient feature

throughout this mazurka. At times, Szymanowski combined the polyphonic texture with a

polytonal technique. Asymmetrical phrases, different types of dissonances, three-layer

structure, and the use of the pentatonic scale are also characteristics that appear

frequently throughout this piece.


Again using ternary form, Szymanowski employed many characteristic traits

from Goral music throughout this mazurka, such as three-part ensemble texture, several

varieties of asymmetrical phrasing, the Lydian mode and the Podhale scale, frequent

instances of dissonance, drones and bagpipe fifths accompaniment, and polytonality.

The piece opens with a period containing two four-measure symmetrical phrases

49

layered in three voices. In mm. 1 through 4, the middle voice carries the main melodic

theme, which is within the range of a sixth (B flat–G). The bass part provides

accompaniment in block chords on the second and third beats of each measure,

resembling the bowing of a basy (in mm. 2, 3, and 4 this effect produces quintal chords,

creating dissonances by major ninths), and the top voice supplies accents on the second

beat of every measure. (See Example 30).


The texture changes from three voices to two as the period continues. The right

hand plays the primary melody doubled in octaves while the left hand maintains a chordal

accompaniment with octaves. Compared to the first phrase, the second uses a wider range

by the left hand (featuring wide leaps between the second and the third beats). (See

Example 31).


50

The following measures (mm. 9-14) feature asymmetrical phrases of four and

two measures. Whereas the piece starts clearly with a B-flat tonal center, the melody by

the right hand is partly in A major in mm. 11 through 14. Szymanowski emphasized every

beat by adding accents and sforzandi in a ff dynamic to create the wild sound of folk

music (except for mm. 13 and 14, where quintal chords with tenutos appear with quarter

rests on the first beats mf). (See Example 32).


The next passage, mm. 15 through 34, introduces a new asymmetrical phrase

with six measures, repeated three times with slightly different changes in rhythm and

pitch each time. The phrase is divided into two subphrases of two measures and four

measures, respectively, and those two subphrases feature contrasting characters. The first

subphrase has two voices in different tonal centers, with the polytonality separated by a

major third between both hands (C and E in mm. 15-16, A and C-sharp in mm. 21-22, and

G-flat and B-flat in mm. 27-28). The right hand music is motivic, and the left hand

provides bass drones. The next four-measure subphrase presents three voices: the top

melody, which is longer and melodic rather than motivic, the middle voice, which is an

internal chromatic melody, and the open fifths of the bass voice. The last six-measure

phrase (mm. 27-34), however, is a variant on the first two-measure phrase pattern,

including two extra measures. (See Example 33).

51


In contrast to section A, Section B (mm. 35-68) exhibits a much simpler and

leaner quality. All phrases (except for the last phrase with six measures) are symmetrical,

consisting of four measures. The texture is rather similar to Chopin’s: a mostly

52

straightforward accompaniment with three-quarter-note figures for the left hand and a

lyrical melody with simple rhythmic figures by the right hand (shown in Figure 1 in

chapter 1). (See Example 34).

53


The passage below suggests many dissonances created by tritones in the chords.

(See Example 35).


The next section, the return of A (mm. 69-98), is almost a literal restatement of

the primary section, except for slight changes in the beginning and an omission of four

measures at the end. (See Example 36a, b, c, and d).

54

Example 36a Mazurka No. 4, mm. 1-8

Ex36b. Mazurka No. 4, mm. 69-76

55

Example 36c. Mazurka No. 4, mm. 27-34

Example 36d. Mazurka No. 4, mm. 95-98

A coda follows from m. 99 to the end. Bagpipe open fifths in the accompaniment

are repeated until the last three chords. However, there are two rhythmic types of open

fifth accompaniment in the coda ( , ). (See Example 37).

56


A two-measure phrase, mm. 99 and 100, repeated also in mm. 103-06, exemplifies the

composer’s interesting treatment of mode and scale. The right-hand melody incorporates

the whole-tone scale (G flat, A flat, B flat, C, [D], and F flat), while at the same time both

the right and the left hands are clearly situated within the Podhale scale (G flat, A flat, B

flat, C, D flat, E flat, and F flat). Furthermore, the Lydian mode is used in the lower

melodic part for the right hand in mm. 101 and 102, which melodically is reminiscent of

the opening theme. (See Example 37). Szymanowski continued to integrate material

already presented while introducing new materials that are not completely assimilated

until the end of the piece. From m. 107 on he used asymmetrical phrases of five and four

57

measures consisting of material first introduced in section A (mm. 15-34). The initial

appearance is a polytonal, six-measure phrase. However, in this case both hands of the

first 5-measure phrase beginning at m.107 are in a single tonality, B-flat. Interestingly, in

mm.112-14 (the reappearance of the material in the last four-measure phrase) polytonality

returns, a minor third apart this time (B-flat by the left hand and G by the right hand). To

this point the ending would certainly seem to be soft. The dynamics stay the in ppp—pp

range, with meno mosso dolce, poco sostenuto, and rallentando emphasizing this mood.

However, the piece ends abruptly, fortissimo, with three accented octave notes (dominant

and tonic in B-flat). The last one, a B-flat octave with an added fifth drone, is reinforced

by sff with a fermata.

58

CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

With his first contact with the Gorale and their music in the Podhale region in the

early 1920s, Szymanowski’s enthusiasm for Polish nationalism was rejuvenated. From

that time he began to research authentic Goral music in depth. Through this research he

realized how important Chopin was in the history of Polish nationalism and became

determined to succeed him in Polish musical heritage. He chose the mazurka to represent

his nationalistic passion and successfully conveyed the musical features of the Goral style,

which he believed to be the purest and most authentic form of Polish nationalistic music.

The main focus of this document has been to examine Mazurkas Op. 50, Nos. 1-4,

which exhibit an abundance of the characteristics of traditional music in the Podhale

region of the Tatra Mountains in Poland. These Mazurkas exhibit Szymanowski’s great

ability to adopt the Gorale’s musical traits into the form of the mazurka, a compositional

framework. As demonstrated in the examples in this document, Szymanowski employed

musical elements under the influence of Goral music throughout the first four mazurkas

in Op. 50: modal scales (in particular, the Lydian mode, the Podhale mode, the pentatonic,

and the whole-tone scale by implication), three-voice texture suggesting the instrumental

ensembles found in Podhale, descending melodic contours within a narrow range,

polyphonic writing, hints of duple meter, asymmetrical phrasing, voice-crossing, Podhale

rhythm (short-long dotted rhythm), polytonality, dissonances (achieved by tritones, minor

and augmented seconds, minor sevenths, quintal chords, and so on), wild dynamic

59

contrast, and abrupt mood change.48

This study will contribute to a better understanding of Szymanowski, who was

one of the most influential Polish composers in the early twentieth century and a true

successor to Chopin’s Polish nationalism. It will also highlight his Mazurkas, Op. 50,

which successfully combine the national musical genre, the mazurka, with traits of Goral

music.

48Steszewski, Polish Folk Music, ed. Stefan Jarocinski, Polish Music, 205-18.

60

Bibliography

Allen, Gregory. Liner notes to The Rubinstein Dedications, Volume Three: A Musical Portrait. Gregory Allen, pianist. New Jersey: Musical Heritage Society, 1991. 512827W. Compact Disc.

Anderson, Keith. Liner notes to Karol Szymanowski: Piano Works Vol. 1. Martin Roscoe,

pianist. Germany: Naxos, 1995. 8.553016. Compact Disc. Anderson, Martin. Liner notes to Karol Szymanowski: The Complete Mazurkas. Marc-

Andre Hamelin, pianist. London: Hyperion, 2003. CDA67399. Compact Disc. Antokoletz, Elliott. Twentieth-Century Music. Englewood cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1992. Austin, William W. Music in the 20th Century, from Debussy through Stravinsky. New York: W. W. Norton, 1966. Banfield, Stephen, ed. The Twentieth Century. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1995. Beechey, Gwilym. “Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) and his Piano Music.” Musical

Opinion (October 1982): 5-9+16. Burge, David. Twentieth-Century Piano Music. New York: Maxwell Macmillan International, 1990. Chylinska, Teresa. “The Life of Szymanowski.” In Karol Szymanowski in seiner Zeit, ed. Michal Bristiger, 11-18. Munchen: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1984. ________. Szymanowski. Translated by A. T. Jordan. New York: Twayne and the Kosciuszko Foundation, 1973. ________. Karol Szymanowski: His Life and Works. Los Angeles: University of Southern California. 1993. ________. Young Poland (accessed 13 May 2006); available from

61

www.grovemusic.com; Internet. Collaer, Paul. A History of Modern Music. Translated by Sally Abeles. New York: Grosset and Dunlap. 1961. Cook, Nicholas and Anthony Pople. ed. The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Music. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Cooley, Timothy, J. Making Music in the Polish Tatras: tourists, ethnographers, and mountain musicians. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005. Cooper, Martin, ed. The Modern Age, 1890-1960. London: Oxford University Press, 1974. Czekanowska, Anna. Polish Folk Music: Slavonic Heritage, Polish Tradition, Contemporary Trends. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990. ________. “Continuity and Change in Eastern and Central European Traditional Music.”

in Retuning Culture: musical changes in Central and Eastern Europe, ed. Mark Slobin, 92-98. Durham: Duke University Press, 1996.

Dahlig, Piotr. “Traditional Music in Contemporary Local Communities in Poland.” East

European Meetings in Ethnomusicology Vol. 5 (1998): 35-44. Davies, Lyn. Liner notes to Szymanowski: Complete Piano Music. Vol. 2. Martin Jones,

pianist. Charlottesville: Nimbus, 1995. NI 5435/6. Compact Disc. Deri, Otto. Exploring Twentieth-Century Music. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1968. Erhardt, Ludwik. Music in Poland. Translated by Jan Aleksandrowicz. Warsaw: Interpress Publishers, 1975. Ewen, David. The Complete Book of 20th Century Music. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1953. Fialkowska, Janina. Liner notes to Fialkowska Plays Szymanowski. Janina Fialkowska,

pianist. Ontario: Opening Day Recordings, 1995. ODR9305. Compact Disc.

62

Ford, Andrew. Illegal Harmonies: Music in the 20th Century. Alexandria: Hale & Iremonger, 1997. Gillespie, John. Five Centuries of Keyboard Music. Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1965. Golachowski, Stanislaw. Szymanowski: His Life and Times. New Sersey: Paganiniana Publications, Inc., 1986. Gordon, Stewart. A History of Keyboard Literature: Music for the Piano and its Forerunners. London: Prentice Hall International, 1996. Grout, Donald J., and Claude V. Palisca. A History of Western Music. 6th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001. Hansen, Peter S. An Introduction to Twentieth-Century Music. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1971. Harley, Maria Anna. The Briefest History of Polish Music. (Accessed 28 April 2006); available from www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/essays/briehist.html; Internet. Huneker, James. Chopin: The Man and His Music. New York: Dover Publications, 1966. Jachimecki, Zdzislaw. “Karol Szymanowski.” The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 8, No.1 (January, 1922): 23-37. Jarocinski, Stefan. ed. Polish Music. Warsaw: PWN-Polish Scientific Publishers, 1965. Machlis, Joseph. Introduction to Contemporary Music. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1979. Maciejewski, Boguslaw. Karol Szymanowski, His Life and Music. London: Poets’ and Painters’ Press, 1967. Maciejewski, Boguslaw and Felix Aparahamian. ed. and trans. Karol Szymanowski and Jan Smeterlin: Correspondence and Essays. London: Allegro Press, 1970.

63

Martin, William and Julius Drossin. Music of the Twentieth Century. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1980. McNamee, Ann. “Bitonality, Mode, and Interval in the Music of Karol Szymanowski.”

Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 29/1 (1985): 61-84. Mellers, Wilfrid Howard. Romanticism and the 20th Century (from 1800.) Rev.

ed. London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1988. Milewski, Barbara Ann. “The Mazurkas and National Imaginings: Poland, Frederic

Chopin, Karol Szymanowski.” Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 2002. Milosz, Czeslaw. The History of Polish Literature. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. Morawska, Katarzyna, Zygmunt M. Szweykowski, Zofia Chechlinska, Adrian Thomas, Jan Steszewski, and Krzystof Cwizewicz. Poland (Accessed 13 May 2006); Available from www.grovemusic.com; Internet. Morgan, Robert P., ed. Modern Times: From World War I to the Present. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1993. ________. Twentieth-Century Music: A History of Musical Style in Modern Europe and America. New York: Norton, 1991. Morris, Mark. A Guide to 20th–Century Composers. London: Methuen, 1996. Myers, Rollo H., ed. Twentieth-Century Music. London: Calder & Boyars, 1968. Orga, Ates. Liner notes to Karol Szymanowski: Piano Works. Vol. 2. Martin Roscoe,

pianist. Germany: Naxos, 1996. 8.553300. Compact Disc. Palmer, Christopher. BBC Music Guides: Szymanowski. London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1983. Pekacz, Jolanta T. Music in the Culture of Polish Galicia, 1772-1914. New York:

64

University of Rochester Press, 2002. Pommers, Leon. “Polish Aspects of Szymanowski’s Style.” M.A. thesis, Queens College,

City University of New York, 1968. Randel, Don Michael, ed. The New Harvard Dictionary of Music. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1995. Rappoport, Lidia. “Sonorism: Problems of Style and Form in Modern Polish Music.” The

Journal of Musicological Research, Vol. 4/3-4 (1983): 399-415. Rogala, Jacek. Polish Music in the Twentieth Century. Translate by Lukasz Litak. Krakow,

Poland: Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzycne, 2000. Rosenfeld, Paul. Musical Chronicle (1917-1923). New York: B. Blom, 1972. Rubinstein, Artur. Carnegie Hall Highlights. RCA Red Seal 09026 63042-2, 1999.

Compact Disc. Samson, Jim. The Music of Szymanowski. New York: Taplinger Publishing Company,

1981. ________. Szymanowski, Karol (accessed 13 may 2006); available from www.grovemusic.com; Internet. ________. Music in Transition: A Study of Tonal Expansion and Atonality. New York:

Norton, 1977. ________. “Szymanowski and Polish Nationalism.” The Musical Times, Vol. 131, No.

1765 (March, 1990): 135-37. ________. “Szymanowski–an Interior Landscape.” Proceedings of the Royal Musical

Association, Vol. 106 (1979-1980): 69-75. ________. “Szymanowski and Tonality.” Studi Musicali, Vol. 5 (1976): 291-312.

65

Sierpinski, Zdzislaw. ed. Szymanowski: An Anthology. Translated by Emma Harris. Warsaw: Interpress Publishers, 1986.

Simms, Bryan R. Music of the Twentieth Century: Style and Structure. New York:

Schirmer Books, 1986. Slonimsky, Nicolas. Music since 1900. 5th ed. New York: Schirmer Books, 1994. Smaczny, Jan. “Composer of the Month: Szymanowski.” BBC Music Magazine, Vol. 4,

No. 8 (1996): 45-48. Stuckenschmidt, Hans Heinz. Twentieth-Century Music. Translated by Richard Deveson. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1969. Sugar, Peter and Ivo Lederer, ed. Nationalism in Eastern Europe. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1969. Sulikowski, Jerzy. Polish Music. England: Polish Publications Committee, 1944. Swartz, Anne. “The Polish Folk Mazurka.” Studia musicologica Academiae Scientiarum

Hungaricae, Vol. 17 (1975): 249-56. Szymanowski, Karol. Mazurkas, Op. 50, Piano Solo. Wien: Universal Edition, 1994. ________. Deux aazurkas, pour piano, Op. 62, Piano Solo. Paris: Editions M. Eschig,

1935. Thomas, Adrian. Polish Music since Szymanowski. England: Cambridge University Press,

2005. Trochimczyk, Maja. ed. After Chopin: Essays in Polish Music. Los Angeles: Polish

Music Center at USC, 2000. Urbanski, Janusz, Musical Life in Poland Today. London: Polish Cultural Institute, 1953. Watkins, Glenn. Soundings: Music in the Twentieth Century. New York: Schirmer Books,

66

1988. Whittall, Arnold. Exploring Twentieth-Century Music: Tradition and Innovation. New

York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Wightman, Alistair. Karol Szymanowski: His Life and Work. England: Ashgate, 1999. ________. ed. and trans. Szymanowski on Music: Selected Writings of Karol

Szymanowski. London: Toccata Press, 1999. ________. “Szymanowski and Joyce.” The Musical Times, Vol. 123, No. 1676 (October,

1982): 679-81+683. ________. “The Music of Karol Szymanowski.” Ph.D. diss., University of York, 1972. Wilk, Wanda. ed. Polish Music History Series: Szymanowski. Translated by Dr. John Glowacki. Los Angeles: Friends of Polish Music, University of Southern California, 1993.

67

nationalism in szymanowski's mazurka op. 50

Documents

musical history of podhale

karol szymanowskis mazurkas

musical features

set of mazurkas

sets of mazurkas

musical contacts

musical arts

musical basis