Chopin and the Warsaw literati – part two
Loading...
Date
2010
Authors
Advisor
Editor
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Katedra Muzykologii, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PTPN, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM
Title alternative
Abstract
Chopin’s life in Warsaw fell at a time of important phenomena and processes
in history, the arts, aesthetics, etc. This article deals with the artistic and social
milieu to which the composer belonged and looks at the question of the common artistic
imagination and aesthetic ideas elaborated within that environment, based on the
example of Chopin and two poets: Stefan Witwicki and Dominik Magnuszewski. Chopin’s
relationship with Witwicki, which gave rise to his songs to the poet’s texts and
lasted into their time in exile, is considered in respect to discussion on folk culture
that was on-going at that time. That culture was treated as a sign of the nobly archaic
or else as a manifestation of modern art, of the “art of the future”. These convictions
did not function as alternatives; their overlapping characterised various aspects of
early romanticism. The output of Magnuszewski, meanwhile, shows the transformation
of traditional figures of rhetoric into Romantic means of expression. It displays a
style of writing that constitutes an act of Romantic hermeneutics in respect to the
language of tradition. Avoiding simple comparisons of works of very different artistic
level and significance, the author analyses Chopin’s relationships with the two poets
by reference to the generational experience – as variously understood – of creative
artists born during the first decade of the nineteenth century, which connected artists
of different levels of talent and varying individual fortunes.
Description
Sponsor
Keywords
Fryderyk Chopin, Stefan Witwicki, Dominik Magnuszewski, aesthetics of early romanticism, folk tradition, fragment, generation
Citation
Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology 9, 2010, pp. 31-51.
ISBN
978-83-232-2148-7