Chopin – Grottger
Loading...
Date
2010
Authors
Advisor
Editor
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Katedra Muzykologii, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PTPN, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM
Title alternative
Abstract
Is Stanisław Tarnowski’s linking of Fryderyk Chopin and Artur Grottger in
his Dwa szkice [Two sketches] justified? Well, the connection is substantiated by the
“Romantic-leaning” point of view and the idea of the correspondance des arts that
characterised the nineteenth century in which the two creative artists (and Tarnowski
himself) lived, although they represented different creative fields. Both the musician
Chopin and the artist Grottger were regarded as poets. The former on account of the
poetic of his piano playing and musical works, the latter for the poetical dimension of
his pictures devoted to the January Rising. Tarnowski called Chopin the fourth bard of
Poland, alongside Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński, and
Grottger the poet of the Rising, since – as he paradoxically stated – the poetical narrator
of those events could only be an artist. Terminology of a literary character belonged
to the lexicon of notions employed by critics of art and music at that time.
Besides this, the national character is inscribed in the idiom of the work of both these
creative artists – the thoroughly patriotic stance that was so strongly manifest in the
output of Polish romanticism.
Another common denominator in their work is the concept of the cycle. With Chopin,
the 24 Preludes, Op. 28 comprise a cycle in which the bonding element is the succession
of major keys and their relative minor keys according to the circle of fifths, but they are
also an expressive cycle of various states of mind, from despair to joyous reverie. The
Preludes show both the semantic capacities and the suppleness of Chopin’s musical language; that is, the ability to express the same feelings through various purely musical means, without any programmatic motto. With Grottger, we have the cycles Warszawa
[Warsaw] (two cycles), Polonia, Lituania and Wojna [War]. In them, the metonymy of
the narrative sequences is coupled with the notional exposition, with the symbolism.
Grottger portrays not the historical scenes of the Rising, but the feelings of grief, despair
and fear of individual people, reflecting their experiences. And so the concept is similar.
Chopin’s Preludes are like sketches, aphoristic utterances; sketches are also important in
the work of Grottger, partly as a self-contained genre.
A third plane of analogy is the reduction of media. Chopin confines himself essentially
to the piano, from which he produces startling tonal qualities, although he did
write several works for chamber or orchestral forces. Grottger, meanwhile, draws his
cycles solely in black pencil, using white only to heighten contrasts and give the effect of chiaroscuro. He did not wish to distract the attention of viewers, but wanted them to concentrate on the symbol.
Description
Sponsor
Keywords
Fryderyk Chopin, Chopin’s 24 Preludes, Op. 28, Artur Grottger’s graphic cycles, Stanisław Tarnowski, correspondance des arts
Citation
Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology 9, 2010, pp. 102-113.
Seria
ISBN
978-83-232-2148-7
ISSN
1734-2406