Little-known Polish composers before 1945

Maciek · July 20, 2007, 08:50:24 AM

Quote from: D Minor on July 20, 2007, 07:10:48 AM
I'm only interested in Polish composers that lived before 966

D Minor, here's a challenge: name one, and I'll widen the gap. 0:)

In fact, I'll be satisfied if you name one Polish historical figure of any kind who died before 966.

Tancata · July 20, 2007, 09:25:49 AM

Quote from: Maciek on July 20, 2007, 08:50:24 AM
In fact, I'll be satisfied if you name one Polish historical figure of any kind who died before 966.

Easy - Siemomysł (d. 964), third Polish duke and father of Mieszko I...

Maciek · July 20, 2007, 10:09:45 AM

Yeah? And where exactly was that "Poland" he supposedly came from situated?

Tancata · July 20, 2007, 10:13:54 AM

Quote from: Maciek on July 20, 2007, 10:09:45 AM
Yeah? And where exactly was that "Poland" he supposedly came from situated?

In the Warta river basin ... 0:)

BachQ · July 20, 2007, 10:15:25 AM

Quote from: Tancata on July 20, 2007, 10:13:54 AM
In the Warta river basin ... 0:)

Yeah, the Warta river basin ........ I know it well .........

BachQ · July 20, 2007, 10:17:51 AM

........ One of my favorite pre-966 basins, in fact ........

Maciek · July 20, 2007, 10:24:20 AM

There was no such thing as "Poland" in the Warta river basin at that time. There was a kingdom of the "Polan" tribe but even after the symbolic date of 966 it wasn't called "Poland" (or "Polska", or even "Sclavinia"). It was called the Gnieznian State (after Gniezno - its capital). My challenge was a trick one. It is generally assumed by historians that there was no such thing as "Poland" prior to ca. 960 - and the specific date usually given is 966. But even that is stretching things a bit - I'd say Poland wasn't really recognized "internationally" until the year 1000. There are even more moot points to this but I'm not bringing them up - they're completely unmusical.

Maciek · July 20, 2007, 10:26:37 AM

But after serious consideration, I've decided to humour D Minor. After all, he's one of our most valuable posters on the subject of Polish music.

Maciek · July 20, 2007, 10:27:24 AM

There. 0:)

Tancata · July 20, 2007, 10:29:52 AM

Result!

Maciek · July 20, 2007, 10:38:36 AM

Now, back on the music subject:

I hope you guys are not missing the fact that so far everyone who has downloaded the music I've posted over here has been pleased. Lilas Pastia is constantly posting rave reviews of these pieces in the What are you listening to thread, and there's also Guido's comment above.

Personally, I'd single out the Nowowiejski and Melcer pieces as truly excellent. There's also that Rozycki PC but the sound quality is bad, with really distracting noise...

Maciek · July 20, 2007, 10:42:02 AM

Hopefully one day I'll have some Polish Renaissance and Baroque to post (Gorczycki, Szarzynski, Mielczewski etc.). And I wish I had some glitch-free Jan Engel symphonies - he's a splendid early-Classical composer. Actually, I might upload the two glitchy ones that I have anyway.......

Tancata · July 20, 2007, 10:45:00 AM

Quote from: Maciek on July 20, 2007, 10:42:02 AM
Hopefully one day I'll have some Polish Renaissance and Baroque to post (Gorczycki, Szarzynski, Mielczewski etc.). And I wish I had some glitch-free Jan Engel symphonies - he's a splendid early-Classical composer. Actually, I might upload the two glitchy ones that I have anyway.......

This would be awesome. But do you have any first-millenium Polish chant codices?

Maciek · July 20, 2007, 10:47:11 AM

Will get back to you on that in a minute. Have to fetch the dictionary.

Tancata · July 20, 2007, 10:48:50 AM

I wonder if Jordi Savall's "Music in the Court of Duke Siemomysł" is still available....

Maciek · July 20, 2007, 10:51:08 AM

This label has some amazing stuff - I'm not sure of the exact dates though. AFAIK, 15th c. is the farthest back surviving written materials go but I may be wrong.

Musicon

Maciek · July 20, 2007, 10:52:44 AM

Another label good for this sort of stuff (they have a ton of Polish Baroque but maybe there's something older lurking about) is this:

PRO MUSICA CAMERATA

Tancata · July 20, 2007, 10:53:40 AM

Quote from: Maciek on July 20, 2007, 10:51:08 AM
This label has some amazing stuff - I'm not sure of the exact dates though. AFAIK, 15th c. is the farthest back surviving written materials go but I may be wrong.

Musicon

Nice labels, yeah - do you have any of the CDs?

Maciek · July 20, 2007, 11:08:12 AM

Sadly enough.... well, you know the rest of the sentence. 0:)

Actually, I do have at least 2 Musicon CDs - but the music is rather modern (20th c. in fact). I'm sure you'll appreciate the fact that more than half of the PMC catalogue is on my wishlist though.

I just remembered that DUX and Acte Prealable have some old Polish music in their catalogues too. If you look at the out of print items (

) in the AP catalogue you will find two very interesting discs:
Gaude Mater Festival - 4
and
Gaude Mater Festival - 8

Of course, I don't have them - but just wanted to mention how enticing they look.

I can upload a few recordings from one of this year's Gaude Mater concerts: choral works by Wladyslaw Leszczynski (17th c.), Jan Ruta (16th?? don't remember) and Jan Ponikowski (17th?? not sure) - these are admittedly not the most famous Polish composers from those periods. But interesting enough. Their works were discovered in the Jasna Gora Monastery library. Actually the monastery has been conducting a program of bringing its collection to life for several years now. The library is enormous, so it should take about a hundred years...

BachQ · July 20, 2007, 11:28:52 AM

Polish music resides in spirit, and in a common humanity, irrespective of any geographical existence .........