Polish Violin Music in the 20th and 21st Century

The purpose of this dissertation is to promote Polish violin music written in the 20th and 21st Century. My recitals included many lesser-known compositions and composers which I strongly believe deserve to be better known and more often performed. The search and preparation of those pieces, for which recordings and music scores are not easily found, was a very exciting and stimulating process. Much Polish music written in the 20th and 21st Century is interesting, expressive, beautiful, and deserves to be more often performed. Performing 20th and 21st Century music opens new perspectives in two directions: musically and technically. Performer and listener are, in many cases, unbound from tonality. Composers are looking for new sonorities and exploring such performing techniques as varieties of harmonics, quarter tones, extreme dynamics, complex rhythms, and usage of a wide range of registers. An important part of Polish music is Polish folklore. The little town of Zakopane is known for Polish traditional clothing, food, architecture, dance and music. Also, most prominent Polish luthiers including Wojciech Topa, whose instrument I am playing, have been making their instruments in Zakopane. This little town in the Tatras Mountain has been an inspiration for many Polish artists including Iwaszkiewicz, Witkacy, Karłowicz, and Szymanowski. Those composers used such folklore elements as folk scales, popular tunes, and imitations of the sound of the folk band with characteristic folk dance rhythms. Other musical genres where folk elements are strongly present are the compositions dedicated to young musicians, with a specifically educational purpose. Among composers who wrote educational music were Grażyna Bacewicz, Witold Lutosławski, and Henryk Mikołaj Górecki. This approach makes the works more easily understood by young performers and, at the same time, broadens their understanding of Polish culture and prepares them for the challenges of contemporary music. This has been an exciting project for me because, on the one hand, it allowed me the challenge of performing compositions that are lesser-known and often consist of musical language new to me while, on the other, it brought me back to my roots and the country of my mother tongue.

SELECTED CHARACTER PIECES OF FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN (1810-1849), FRANZ LISZT (1811-1886) AND JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897)

During the 19th century, Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849), Franz Liszt (1811- 1886), and Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) were among the most recognized composers of character pieces. Their compositions have been considered a significant milestone in piano literature. Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) did not give descriptive titles to his character pieces. He grouped them into several genres such as Mazurkas, Polonaises. His Mazurkas and Polonaises are influenced by Polish dance music and inspired by the polish national idiom. Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was influenced in many ways by Chopin, and adopted Chopin’s lyricism, melodic style, and tempo rubato. However, Liszt frequently drew on non-musical subjects (e.g., art, literature) for inspiration. “Harmonies poétiques et religieuses” and “Années de pèlerinage” are especially representative of character pieces in which poetic and pictorial imagination are reflected. Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was a conservative traditionalist, synthesizing Romantic expression and Classical tradition remarkably well. Like Chopin, Brahms avoided using programmatic titles for his works. The titles of Brahms’ short character pieces are often taken from traditional lyrical or dramatic genres such as ballade, rhapsody and scherzo. Because of his conservatism, Brahms was considered the main rival of Liszt in the Romantic Period. Brahms character pieces in his third period (e.g., Scherzo Op.4, Ballades of Op.10, and Rhapsodies of Op.79) are concise and focused. The form of Brahms’ character pieces is mostly simple ternary (ABA), and his style is introspective and lyrical. Through this recording project, I was able to get a better understanding of the styles of Chopin, Brahms and Liszt through their character pieces. This recording dissertation consists of two CDs recorded in the Dekelboum Concert Hall at the University of Maryland, College Park. These recordings are documented on compact disc recordings that are housed within the University of Maryland Library System.