Karol Szymanowski
From Chopin and Scriabin to a modern harmony built on Polish folk song
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Who he was
Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937) was born at Tymoszówka in Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire, and died in Lausanne. He studied composition in Warsaw with Noskowski, and in 1905 formed Young Poland with Fitelberg, Różycki and Szeluto, arguing against German dominance. He directed the Warsaw Conservatory from 1927 to 1932 and reformed its curriculum. He died of tuberculosis in Switzerland in 1937.
His place
His output falls into three phases. The early music is indebted to Chopin, Scriabin and Wagner and stays within key. Around 1914 he turned to Mediterranean and oriental subjects with harmony close to Impressionism, producing Metopes, Masques and the opera King Roger. From the 1920s he returned to Polish folk music, using tunes from the Podhale region in the Mazurkas, the ballet Harnasie and the Stabat Mater. The phases are not a break: the harmony grows more complex while the rhythm grows more local.
What to hear
Listen first for figures of light and water. In the three pieces of Metopes Op.29 the right hand often runs in fast scales while the left holds a few long notes; hear how the pedal dissolves the harmony into colour. Then the changing of masks. Each of the three pieces in Op.34 has a title, and inside one scale a change of rhythm and register changes the character. Then the edges of folk song. The Mazurkas Op.62 do not smooth away the shifted accents of the dance; hear the second and third beats push against each other. Finally patience of structure. The Third Sonata Op.36 is in one movement, begins quietly, and builds its climax by accumulating figures rather than by introducing new themes.
Key works
- Piano: Metopes Op.29, Masques Op.34, Twelve Etudes Op.33, Mazurkas Op.62
- Stage: King Roger, Harnasie
- Orchestral: four symphonies
- Vocal: Stabat Mater, song cycles
Influence
He is where modern Polish music begins. He turned folk song from quotation into grammar, and most Polish composers after the war start from that position. His piano music was long treated as a technical obstacle and has entered the regular repertoire only in the last thirty years. At the Warsaw Conservatory he rewrote the curriculum and trained the first generation of Polish modernists. His output is small, but it reconnects Polish music after Chopin to the European mainstream.
Listen in the library
All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).
Sources
- 希曼诺夫斯基生平、青年波兰团体与华沙音乐学院任期，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 的 Szymanowski 条目，本文为原创表述
- 《假面》《玛祖卡》与歌剧《罗杰王》的写作背景，参通行波兰音乐研究，实例说明由本站撰写
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.