Abstract

There is an overwhelming tendency for scholars of Polish music to politicize the presence of folk music references when they appear in art music compositions. This has particularly been the case in studies of Frédéric Chopin, where certain myths pertaining to that composer’s extramusical intentions have long dominated how his music was unpacked in musicological literature. In this article, I demonstrate that our understanding of later Polish composers suffers similarly from the politicization of folklore. In an examination of the discourse surrounding both Karol Szymanowski and Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, I argue that a myopic understanding of the compositional possibilities bound up in folk music engagement has limited the scope of our interrogations into their compositional practices. I then reposition folk music as an aesthetic tool in their works that has enabled these artists to negotiate the compositional challenges confronting their respective generations. In addition to improving our understanding of these two composers’ methods, my analyses highlight how folk music models can lend a sense of familiarity and cohesion to the modern musical aesthetic.

摘要

当波兰音乐学者出现在艺术音乐作品中时，有一种压倒性的趋势是将民间音乐参考的存在政治化。在对弗雷德里克·肖邦的研究中尤其如此，与这位作曲家的超音乐意图有关的某些神话长期以来一直主导着他的音乐如何在音乐文学中被解开。在这篇文章中，我证明了我们对后来的波兰作曲家的理解同样受到民俗政治化的影响。在对围绕 Karol Szymanowski 和 Henryk Mikołaj Górecki 的论述进行检查时，我认为对民间音乐参与中的作曲可能性的短视理解限制了我们对其作曲实践的审问范围。然后，我将民间音乐重新定位为他们作品中的一种审美工具，使这些艺术家能够应对他们各自世代所面临的作曲挑战。除了提高我们对这两位作曲家方法的理解之外，我的分析还强调了民间音乐模型如何为现代音乐美学带来熟悉感和凝聚力。