Pawel Strzelecki: "New Romanticism" in the Works of Polish Composers After 1975, Published: Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warsaw, Wien (Peter Lang) 2022, 478 pp., 216 fig.
""The monograph concerns one of the most important trends in contemporary classical Polish music. The ‟new romanticism” represented the reaction to the crisis of the avant-garde in the 70s. It appeared in works by the ‟1933 generation” (Penderecki, Gorecki, Kilar), ‟the Stalowa Wola generation” (Knapik, Lason, Krzanowski), and others. This music matched tradition with contemporary techniques and strong emotionalism. Its romantic dimension and seriousness were in sheer contrast to the ‟double-coding” of Postmodernism. It stemmed from the political situation in Poland during the ‟Iron Curtain” times. The book also focuses on the topic’s American (Schonberg, Rochberg) and European contexts. The author also analyzes 104 compositions and presents 30 interviews (incl. with Penderecki) to show an even fuller picture.""
In a few words, it's the crucial, the first, the original and the unique book on the topic, what is worth to underline, deeply respected and broadly quoted in the U.S. and in Poland, used as academic manual and present in many libraries.
The Polish version of book was recently quoted in: Andrea Bohlman: "Musical Solidarities. Political Action and Music in Late Twentieth-Century Poland". Oxford University Press, 2020, pp. 208, 266.
Firstly it was the Ph.D. dissertation wrote at the Institute of Musicology in the Historical Department of the University of Warsaw since 2001 to 2005.
It portrays one of the most important stream in Polish contemporary musical output, which existence is clearly evident in pieces by the ‘1933 generation’ (Henryk Mikolaj Górecki, Wojciech Kilar and Krzysztof Penderecki) and some younger composers, for example the group called ‘Stalowa Wola generation’ and many others. It is the first Polish monograph of the new romanticism.
The book contains five chapters. They are grouped in two thematic sections. Chapters one and two are connected with aesthetical and historical aspects of the ‘new romanticism’. It portrays the origin of the term and its meanings. Chapters three, four and five are analytical and portray examples of ‘new romantic’ works in the output of the ‘1933 generation’, 'Stalowa Wola generation' and representatives of three main Polish cultural centers (Warsaw, Krakow and Katowice). The main goal of the analytical chapters was to prove that the chosen works belong to ‘new romanticism’.
The first chapter is on the genesis of the ‘new romanticism’ in historical and semantical aspects. Firstly, it is about pluralism of musical streams after the second avant-garde, situation in so called ‘Polish School of Composition’ in the 70s and the reasons of turning from the avant-garde. Secondly, it describes the changing of composers’ generations in Polish music after 1975, especially the start of the young ones (amongst them ‘Stalowa Wola generation’). Thirdly, it shows the attitudes of older and younger native critics connected with the changing situation in the ‘Polish School of Composition’. Fourthly, it speaks about the symptoms of returning to romantic attitudes. Finally, it describes the phenomenon of the ‘new romanticism’ in the United States and Europe.
The second chapter is about the esthetical and technical main points of the ‘new romanticism’ in Polish music as far as Polish composers, critics and researchers are concerned. There are emotionalism, ‘new lyricism’, sacrum, pantheism and the cult of nature, descriptive music, ‘new tonality’, euphony, quotation, ‘new humanism’ and restoring the category of beauty, connections with literature, return to traditional form, slower musical time and affirmative attitude to tradition. Yet it describes the relationship between ‘new romanticism’ and postmodernism as well as ‘new romanticism’ and ‘surconventionalism’.
The third chapter contains the description of the genesis of ‘the new romanticism’ in the ‘1933 generation’ output. It started with the forerunners of the phenomenon. And then it describes the breakthrough in the output of Penderecki, Górecki and Kilar in the second half of the 70s. Next it portrays the analyses of three crucial pieces these composers wrote in 1976: Penderecki’s Ist Violin Concerto, Górecki’s IIIrd Symphony and Kilar’s Kocielec 1909.
The fourth chapter is devoted to the music of composers belong to so called ‘Stalowa Wola generation’. It portrays their aesthetic attitudes and chronologically characterizes the chosen pieces and shows the evolution of their output. Generally it characterizes their transition from early – avant-garde period - to ‘new romantic’ one.
The fifth chapter contains the description of ‘new romanticism’ in the music of the other composers in the three main Polish cultural centers: Warsaw, Krakow and Katowice.
Chapters 3-5 describe the broad panorama of the pieces belonging to the new romanticism. I analyzed 104 compositions in this book. They were the source of 47 charts prepared with the original method invented by myself. This method shows the maps of the pieces in time, with the description of musical parameters, e.g. form, content (musical events), time-organization method, pitch-system. There are 158 musical-score examples.
These conversations prove great importance of ‘new romanticism’ in Polish music after 1975.