Pieśniowe portrety kobiety – prządki
Song portraits of a woman-spinner

Summary/Abstract: The article which treats about the portraits of woman-spinners is devoted to a comparison of verbal-musical works, which are partly united by the common text (fragment of J.W. Goethe’s Faustus – and in particular the song sung by Margaret at the spinningwheel), and which in part refer to the common image – namely that of a spinning woman. In contemporary theories, the image of a spinning woman is often used as a handy symbol of creativity, and particularly female creativity. However the 19th century popularity of this motif, especially in the numerous songs, points to the fact that it has a much more primeval and broader significance. As a monotonous and typically female activity, spinning served successive composers (F. Schubert, R. Wagner, G. Verdi, S. Moniuszko) to create a more profound characteristic of woman-spinners. Reaching out to similar means of musical expression points to the fact that in spite of resorting to various texts, and in spite of the time interval dividing the analyzed works, the woman spinner from the songs has been permanently associated with onomatopoeic imitation of the sound of the spinning wheel and with the meditative nature of the performed activity which becomes a useful background for a more profound female self-reflection.

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