The Heritage of Polish Music

Polish Music Publishing House, Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne (PWM) has collaborated with Fryderyk Chopin Institute (NIFC) to create The Heritage of Polish Music project, financed by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. This joint venture aims to promote the works and composers of the 123-year period of the Partitions through their documentation, description, analysis, publication, recording and performance.

Following a 2016 survey of existing documentation it was discovered that significant nineteenth-century composers and works from the period of the Partitions are absent from the awareness of performers and audiences. Attempts at documenting and promoting their works were frequently prohibited or restricted and many important initiatives had been halted. These works therefore remain unappreciated in the present day.

The project is being realised in four areas. The first phase is the publishing of sheet music editions with comprehensive analysis encompassing Partition-period works which are likely to become established repertoire. This will include the complete works of Ignacy Jan Paderewski and Stanisław Moniuszko, most extant works of Jan Stefani, Karol Kurpiński, Henryk Wieniawski and Karol Lipiński, as well as music of other key Partition composers.

As part of the project, PWM has published a sheet music edition of Stanisław Moniuszko’s String Quartet in D minor and the String Quartet in F major, the only fully independent chamber works written by Moniuszko which are meant for performance rather than practice. Included below is an abridged extract from the music analysis included in this edition:

The two works have come down to us together in the form of a single autographed manuscript. They date from Moniuszko’s younger years (around 1837–1840) and were written while he studied composition in Berlin. The pieces remained unknown during Moniuszko’s lifetime, as he moved his focus to songs and stage music, so it was only in 1895 that the first of the quartets was performed.

In terms of style, both quartets follow Classical and early Romantic influences, and in design, they present the classic four movement cyclic arrangement with sonata form in the outer movements. These sonata forms in both quartets are marked by simple construction; in the finale of both, however, the principles governing the form are loosened, particularly in the reprises, where the theme undergoes extensive variation.

Compared to the earlier Quartet in D minor, the Quartet in F major displays slightly more advanced form and technique. The presence of polyphonic techniques in this piece betrays the influence of Moniuszko’s counterpoint teacher in Berlin, Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen.

It should be noted that Moniuszko did not exploit the full range of sonorities offered by the string quartet in either quartet, adhering mainly to the middle ranges of the instruments. Additionally, although both quartets display a songfulness typical of Moniuszko in the forging of the melodic lines, the pieces do have certain shortcomings resulting from their youthful provenance, before the composer had fully developed his skills.

These two works represent a valuable contribution to the history of the string quartet in Poland, forming a bridge between the quartet output of composers of the first half of the nineteenth century (such as Józef Elsner, Franciszek Lessel, Karol Kurpiński, Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński and Józef Władysław Krogulski), and works by subsequent generations of composers.

PWM’s new edition of the quartets revises the previous edition by Krzysztof Mazur but is grounded on Mazur’s detailed source and bibliographic research and so the changes made in this new score and revision commentary were mainly made to improve the articulation in both works.

The greatest difficulty faced by editors was caused by Moniuszko’s insufficient instructions for performance, as well as some ambiguity in edits made to the original manuscript. Numerous new articulation and dynamic markings were added to the manuscript when the first edition of the two works was being prepared in 1909, which are indistinguishable from corrections made by Moniuszko himself. In order to present the most original form of the scores possible, this edition replicates solely what was written in ink, making only essential corrections and addenda to articulation and dynamics.

An Internet portal is also set up featuring composer biographies, catalogues of works, calendars of each composer’s life and creative work, a bibliography and iconography. Music recordings and documentary films, as well as written and recorded expert opinions.

The programme’s third area is the training of editorial staff in source documentation, analysis and sheet music editing. This important element of the programme includes intensive courses for staff, as well as a pilot scheme at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow for students and alumni of the university and of the Academy of Music in Cracow. The project also plans to expand further to work with other academic institutions.

An important area of the project is the promotion and dissemination of resources and recordings. NIFC and PWM plan to achieve this, among their other goals, via online streaming services and other digital platforms.