Re: Polish Composers
Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2010 9:44 pm
Does anyone have a score (or piano reduction) of Szymanowski's Harnasie? Thanks!
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Polish by birth and education, he settled in France where he made all his teaching and writing career. Mainly remembered for his Dictionary of Polish and Slavic composers.HTIEKFR wrote:Here's a rare score I believe by ALBERT SOWINSKI 3 waltzes and a mazurka
Not much information about the composer around. I'd be curious to see some other scores.
Sowiński, Wojciech [Albert]
(b Łukaszówka, Podolia, 1805 [?1803]; d Paris, 5 [?2] March 1880). Polish writer on music, pianist, composer and teacher. He was first taught music by his father, Sebastian Sowiński, an army musician, and later studied in Vienna with Czerny (piano), and Gyrowetz, Leidesdorf and Seyfried (composition). He made his début as a pianist in 1828 in Vienna, and later appeared in Italy (where he lived from 1828 to 1830), France and England. In 1830 he settled in Paris, where he was active mainly as a music and piano teacher.
Sowiński's most important work was the dictionary of Polish musicians, first issued in Paris in French, which was intended to propagate interest in the subject as well as to recapitulate and systematize all the available information on Polish music history. The dictionary contains, as an introduction, a short outline of the history of Polish music, illustrated with music examples; it has a musical supplement and contains about 1000 biographies of composers, performers, theorists and others connected with Polish music from the earliest times to Sowiński's contemporaries. Based on the scant material then available, collected mainly in the first half of the 19th century, it has many gaps and inaccuracies and is today of only historical significance. Sowiński's compositions (about 120 works, predominantly for piano and typical of 19th-century salon music) are now almost completely forgotten.
WORKS
printed works published in Paris unless otherwise stated
location of MSS unknown
Ops: Lénore, ou Les morts vont vite (lyric drama, 2, E. d'Anglemont); Le modèle (comic op, 1, P. de Saint-Georges); Une scène sous la ligne (comic op, 1); Złote gody [Golden Wedding] (2, K. Ostrowski)
Choral: La varsovienne, ou La polonaise (cant., K. Delavigne) (1831); Missa solemnis, B (1844); St Adalbert martyr (orat, K. Ostrowski), vs (1845); Chants religieux de la Pologne, 30 songs, 2, 3vv, org (1859); Missa brevis, C (1870); Cantate (M. Margerin) (1876); Dieu le vent (cant., Countess of Saint-Légier) (1878); Air des légions polonaises, fantasia on Dąbrowski mazurka, chorus, orch (n.d.); Le sacrifice d'Abraham (orat, d'Anglemont); Sąd Salomona [The Judgment of Solomon], motet, 3 solo vv, chorus, orch; 6 motets à 2, 3, et 4 voix et orgue (n.d.); 12 other motets and liturgical settings, most pubd in Paris (n.d.); 2 [?3] other masses; 3 other large works
Orch: Sym., e (n.d.); 3 ovs., Królowa Jadwiga [Queen Jadwiga], Mazepa (n.d.), Jan Sobieski, czyli Uwolnienie Wiednia [Jan Sobieski, or The Liberation of Vienna]; 2 pf concs.; Grande polonaise brillante, pf, orch (n.d.)
Chbr: Grand rondeau précédé d'une introduction sur un motif du Maçon, pf, str qt (n.d.); Trio, b (n.d.); Duo brillant sur la prière d'Othello, vn, pf (n.d.); Pf Qnt, E; Nonet, f
Other works: c75 pf pieces, most pubd in Paris (n.d.), incl. 7 sets of variations, 12 fantasias on operatic and other themes, rondos, marches, waltzes, studies; 15 songs, all pubd in Paris; numerous edns/arrs. of Polish folksongs, pubd in Paris, Mainz, Leipzig, Milan
WRITINGS
‘Théâtre polonais’, La Pologne historique, littéraire, monumentale et illustrée, ed. L. Chodźko (Paris, 1839–41, 5/1844)
Les musiciens polonais et slaves anciens et modernes: dictionnaire biographique (Paris, 1857/R; Pol. trans., 1874/R, as Słownik muzyków polskich dawnych i nowoczesnych)
Histoire de la vie et de l’oeuvre de Ludwig van Beethoven (Paris, 1864, 4/1871/R) [trans. of A. Schindler: Biographie von Ludwig van Beethoven, Münster, 1840, 3/1860]
Histoire de W.A. Mozart, sa vie, son oeuvre (Paris, 1869) [trans. of G.N. von Nissen: Biographie W.A. Mozart's, Leipzig, 1828/R]
Musiciana (Paris, 1878) [Pol. trans. of J.-B. Weckerlin: Musiciana, Paris, 1877]