Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology, 2013
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Browsing Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology, 2013 by Author "Golianek, Ryszard Daniel"
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item A Polish saint. Historical-national themes in Franz Liszt’s oratorio ‘St Stanislaus’(Katedra Muzykologii, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PTPN, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 2013) Golianek, Ryszard DanielSaint Stanislaus, a Polish bishop murdered in 1079 by King Boleslaus the Bold, is the title character of Franz Liszt’s oratorio St Stanislaus. The libretto of St Stanislaus has several authors – the fi rst author was the Cracow man of letters and folklore scholar Lucjan Siemieński, whom Liszt asked to write a text for his oratorio. The libretto, completed in 1869, was translated by Peter Cornelius, who made certain changes to the order of events. Not until 1874 did Liszt set about writing the music for his oratorio in earnest, and that was when he asked Cornelius to revise the libretto. The author’s premature death thwarted that intention, and so Liszt was forced to seek other authors. The version prepared several years later by Karl Erdmann Edler fi nally met the composer’s expectations. In its fi nal version, the libretto comprises four scenes, which form a logical sequence of events and at the same time serve to emphasise Stanislaus’ spiritual strength and the causative power of his actions. Liszt did not succeed in setting the whole text of the libretto; the extant material covers only scenes 1 and 4. The musical style of St Stanislaus indicates that the composer drew on various types of musical inspiration and technique. Hence the work is characterised by a certain heterogeneity – a synthetic character that encapsulates a nineteenth-century aesthetics. Nevertheless, the oratorio is undoubtedly one of the most distinctive manifestations of Liszt’s interest in Polish subjects. The presence of quotations from the Polish songs ‘Boże, coś Polskę’ and ‘Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła’ lends the work a distinct national colouring and evokes a mood of solemnity and religious contemplation, as well as the aura of triumph, victory and domination. Such an attitude may be symptomatic of the typically nineteenth-century perception of Poland as a tormented nation deprived of its statehood, which thanks to its valour and resilience will ultimately regain its independence.Item Liszt and Mahler in the postmodern fi lmic visions of Ken Russell(Katedra Muzykologii, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PTPN, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 2013) Golianek, Ryszard DanielThe British fi lm and television director Ken Russell is esteemed principally for creating fi lmic biographies of composers of classical music. In the 70s, he shot his most original fi lms on musical subjects: fi ctionalised, highly individual composer biographies of Mahler (Mahler) and Liszt (Lisztomania), which are the subject of the article. Neither of the fi lms is in the least a realistic documentary biography, since Russell’s principal intention was to place historical biographical facts in cultural contexts that were diff erent from the times in which Mahler and Liszt lived and worked. This gave rise to a characteristically postmodern collision of diff erent narrative and expressive categories. Russell’s pictures remain quite specifi c commercial works, exceptional tragifarces, in which the depiction of serious problems is at once accompanied by their subjection to grotesque deformation and the demonstration of their absurdities or denaturalisation. The approach proposed by this British director, in which serious issues are accompanied by elements of triteness, is a hallmark of his style. The director’s musical interests are refl ected by the fundamental role of music in the structure of his cinematographic works. The choice of musical works also denotes a kind of aesthetic choice on the director’s part, especially when the composers’ biography comes into play.