Styl brillant we wczesnoromantycznej muzyce polskiej
Brillant style in Polish early Romantic music

Author(s): Agata Górska-Kołodziejska
Subject(s): History, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Cultural history, Music
ISSN: 0082-1314
Published by: Łódzkie Towarzystwo Naukowe
Keywords: Brillant style; Polish early Romantic music; Romantic period
Summary/Abstract: In the history of composition and performance an interesting and multiplot chapter of musical changes opens, together with development Romantic epoch. Then a different from the current concept of a piece of work is being born. The work, which reaching for various inspirations, is slowly turning away from classical, formal and melodic and harmonic formula and is heading for virtuosity. Musical findings of that period would not have been possible without specific trends and composing tendencies being pointed out in the early stage of the Romantic period. Among those a special place was reserved for brillant style. This technique joined formal elegance and beauty of Italian bel canto style with harmonic enriching and virtuosity, created on the basis of sentimentalism, became a bridge between Classicism and music 19th century.Trying to catch the essence and evolution of brillant style, nineteen cen-tury’s and contemporary researchers have been basing on analysis of great European composers, slightly neglecting this phenomenon within smaller e.g. national areas. Some Polish researchers, touching the issue, limited it only to a description of the problem, focusing just on one composer and they did not extend their study onto works of other Polish early Romantic musicians. Thus there is a gap around brillant style embracing heritage of tal-ented composers of the period of partitions, Warsaw Duchy and Polish Kingdom, who despite being remote from European music centre tried to follow its traces. Combining what was Polish and national with contemporary composing fashion, they created some interesting and worth analysing works, which are research material for the present thesis. A ‘blank page’ in the description of this piece of Polish music history makes one put questions: firstly, if and to what extend creation of local composers included some features oh widespread on the West trend for virtuosity interweaving with affectionate lirysm and secondly, how to perform and interpret works written by Polish creators according to rules of brillant style.The stimulus to undertake scientific consideration on ‘Polish’ brillant style was for the author only Chopin’s works. The studies on them initiated the process of searching for other but similar compositions by musicians creating just before or together with the great composer. These actions resulted in rediscovery of plenty oh interesting information about works by early Romantic composers, who have not been too famous so far. These mu-sicians, similarly to Western European ones, performed daring technical shows, joining them with melodious parts. In Polish works, following brillant style, we can observe domination of figuration, ornamentation and a principle of alterative use of deeply lyrical and exceptionally virtuoso moments. This combination revealed musical and professional mastery of a performer, which was particularly noticeable in piano, violin and chamber literature.The research of some compositions oh Warsaw composers mainly, al-lowed to describe the brillant style phenomenon, which has become the aim of the present thesis. A special place is here occupied by analysis of some works by Maria Szymanowska (Nocturn in B major), Ignacy Feliks Do-brzyński (Grand Trio in A op. 17) and Fryderyk Chopin (Fantasy on Polish Airs in A major op. 13), whose recorded on the enclosed record performance, is an integral part of the presented ‘description of a piece of art’.An attempt of doing a research and creating an in-depth description of the topic has determined the lay-out of the work. In the first chapter, the author made closer to a reader the phenomenon of the brillant style in historic and cognitive context. She has framed the epoch background, where based on the changing philosophy and new social structures, a profession of a virtuoso-composer was being born. This part of thesis was devoted to a description of oeuvre of leading European composers, who willingly and with great deter-mination created ‘brillant’ works. The author focused also on, resulting from composing fashion, problem of changes in, popular then, types of instrumen-tal miniatures and soloist concerts. She has also gave her account of Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s – the doyen of the brillant style – work, in which he framed formal, technical and esthetical guidelines of the presented style. In the first chapter she described all the collected information about the de-scribed stylistics, revealing some significant negligence in researches of Polish early Romantic brillant current.Based on earlier opinions and definitions, in the second chapter, a pic-ture of fashions and composing tendencies of the 19th cent. Polish music salon has been presented. Introducing political, cultural and social unique-ness of Poland of the turn of the 18th and 19th century, the author described composing experience of popular, among whom we may find Józef Elsner, Franciszek Lessel, Józef Deszczyński, Józef Krogulski, Antoni Kątski, a vio-linist – Karol Lipiński and Henryk Wieniawski. Next, analysing in detail some compositions, the author emphasised achievements of the most inter-esting (according to her) artists: Szymanowska, Dobrzyński and Chopin. The choice came from searching and comparing elements of brillant style in possibly various genres – from early miniatures through chamber forms up to concert pieces. Putting the works together allowed to show not only stylis-tic development from its modest use to ideal symbiosis of virtuosity and lyrical and sentimental motives opening the way for the mature Romantic period, but also to distinguish features which make Polish brillant style dif-ferent from European compositions. Probably as an effect of complex Polish political situation and coming with it need to kindle Polish national spirit, Polish music of this period is full of national and folk references.A detailed analysis of works by Szymanowska, Dobrzyński and Chopin allowed to notice how together with the development of the brillant style it came to quoting of native melodious expressions. Works by Szymanowska, which followed gentle salon character, show the beginnings of virtuoso stylis-tics, which strongly absorbed national elements only in Dobrzyński’s and then Chopin’s works. Of course, a crowning achievement of this tendency became the virtuoso Fantasy op. 13 by Fryderyk Chopin, which was to stay forever almost symbolic image of early Romantic composing fashions and a founda-tion stone of Romantic national schools. Presenting by the author almost unknown so far Grand Trio op. 17 by Dobrzyński, has become big contribu-tion to discovery of forgotten works by Polish composers. Its detailed analy-sis allowed to trace the way in which composers implemented brillant style to piano chamber compositions and made allusions to traditional national motives. In four-part composition by Dobrzyński’s even fragments use char-acter of popular Polish dances – mazur i krakowiak. The second chapter which is entirely devoted to Polish compositions unfolded a wide perspec-tive onto music of early Romantic Polish salons, which were dominated by piano brillant style and joined virtuosity and lyrism as well as quotations from national melodies. The last chapter made an attempt to answer the question how to interpret and perform Polish works in brillant stylistics. The author was searching for this in statements by Chopin himself and also in his stu-dents’ recollections. The conclusions were confronted with some remarks of another great Romantic virtuoso – Ferenc Liszt. Quoting opinions about ways and methods of playing of two so distinguished European representa-tives of virtuoso current allowed to have broader perspective on performance aspects of brillant stylistics. Seeking a way of, the closest to early Romantic epoch, interpretation of here described works, the author reached for the concept of intertextual interpretation by Mieczysław Tomaszewski and Irena Poniatowska’s point of view. These researchers claim that a piece of art is somehow a mirror of the times in which it was created. This conclusion makes one focus on early Romantic writers’ remarks, so that after analysis of all of the factors making up for the interpretation, such as beauty of the sound, phrasing or pedalisation, it was possible to quote in the summary a concluding opinion by Chopin himself: ‘The simplicity is the top. Having overcome all the difficulties, played thousands of notes, you come to charm-ing simplicity being the top of arts’ (Op. cit. J. Eigeldinger, Chopin in the eyes of his students, Cracow 2010, p. 80).Framing of the epoch, leaning over early Romantic developments of Polish music salons and meticulous research of some pieces by Szymanowska, Dobrzyński and Chopin, paying special attention to finding and defining elements of brillant stylistics, allowed the author to prove that in Poland at the turn of 18th and 19th century a virtuoso composing trend was developing. This trend was able to work out its own, innovative features compared with Western music. Taking into account time, subject and spatial scope of the work, based on critics of the sources, analysis of accessible heritage of mentioned above creators and pianistic experience of the most distinguished virtuoso-composers, the author proved the existence of a very interesting current and valuable Polish music literature of the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, which was wrongly forgotten for such a long time.

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