Kamila Stępień-Kutera Mediterranean Shakespeare. Libretto by Arrigo Boito to Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff

The article presents the circumstances of the creation of Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi, his last opera, one of the two to a libretto by Arrigo Boito. The author reveals behind the scene of working on that masterpiece referring to source materials that include, among other documents, fragments of letters by Verdi, Boito and Giulio Ricordi, translated by the author and published for the first time in Polish. The key features of Boito’s libretto – sources he used, his attitude to Shakespeare’s originals, versification and poetic means are also discussed (the article provides us with the fragments of the libretto both in the original language – Italian and, similarly to the letters, in the author’s translation). The article is an adapted version of fragments of the author’s doctoral thesis Arrigo Boito and his concepts of the opera, supervised by professor Michał Bristiger and defended at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences in 2014.

Przemysław Krzywoszyński Giovanni Simon Mayr – music in the service of revolution

The aim of the article is to present the revolutionary work of Giovanni Simon Mayr. This composer, known mainly as Donizetti’s teacher, was a leading figure in opera at the turn of the 18 th and 19 th centuries. As a witness of the French conquests and their revolutionary exports in Venice, he wrote operas on themes typical of “engaged” works. The best examples are, apart from occasional pieces, his rescue operas Lodoiska and L’amor coniugale, as well as the farce Il segreto. On the other hand, by distancing himself from active political involvement, through his pedagogical and artistic activity, the composer had a significant influence on shaping the operas beyond the Alps, which is even associated with the term “Father of 19th-century Italian Music”.

Archaeology of the Score. On Restoring the Author’s Version of The Legend of the Baltic

The article presents a complex history of the opera The Legend of the Baltic to a libretto of Waleria Szalay-Groele which enjoyed great popularity already during Feliks Nowowiejski’s lifetime. The author argues that subsequent versions of the opera, made by the composer since its successful world premiere in Poznań in 1924, were, at least partially, a result of unfavorable criticism, not devoid of nationalistic traits, expressed or inspired by a respected ethnomusicologist Łucjan Kamieński, his adversary from the time of Berlin studies under Max Bruch. On the other hand, the new edition of the final scene, allegedly prepared in 1941, ignoring a precise combination of leitmotifs of the two main characters – Doman and Bogna, which became a pillar of the new version of the score popular during the communist period, was, in fact, a mystification made by the sons of Nowowiejski who decided to bring their father’s work closer to the ideals of socialist realism. A final, author’s version of The Legend of the Baltic was then prepared personally by Nowowiejski for the inauguration of the 1939/1940 season at Grand Theatre in Poznań; however, due to the outbreak of war, the score was not performed during his lifetime. It was only in 2017 that the score was reconstructed by Marcin Gmys and published as part of the series “Works of Felix Nowowiejski” by the Polish Music Publishing House. This edition of the opera, when compared with its inauthentic post-war version, restores not only the original, final scene but also, among other elements, the original arrangement of three acts of 1938 with Act II being a compact ballet scene taking place at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. It is worth emphasizing that after World War II, for many years, the music for Act II in a shortened, purely instrumental version gained great popularity as an alleged overture to Act I of the opera.

Olena Kholodkova Rhetorical Scheme in Georg Philipp Telemann’s Sonatas for Two Violins or Flutes (1727)

The relevance of this article is due to the lack of research of G.Ph. Telemann’s works in the context of Baroque rhetoric. The main purpose of this article is to reveal the content of the Six Sonatas for two violins or flutes by G.Ph. Telemann in the context of the rhetorical scheme. In contrast to the rhetorical figures, the components of the rhetorical canon in a musical piece are not commonly examined in fundamental theorists’ works, and for this reason we suggested to reveal ways of its realization in the G.Ph. Telemann’s duo sonatas. The results of the study have shown that a turn to the rhetorical scheme during the analysis is a completely historical and logical method. The understanding of the subject of musical rhetoric has changed in the historical space, but a great number of Baroque theorists considered the possibility of defining and turning to a rhetorical canon in music, in analogy with verbal rhetoric. The analysis of G.Ph. Telemann’s duo sonatas allows conclusively conclude that they represent four stages of the rhetorical scheme (except the memoria): inventio – as an introduction to a whole composition or as a subject (theme) of a single movement, as well as performer’s improvisation (before or in-between the movements), dispositio – as a specific plan of the form development; decoratio – the use of rhetorical figures and phrases, as well as compositional and performer’s ornamentation and pronuntiatio – methods of sound production, phrasing, dynamics and articulation. The correspondence between G.Ph. Telemann’s music and the rhetorical concept proves not only his profound theoretical knowledge, but also demonstrates the practical use of the rhetorical scheme in his works, which substantiates this analytical approach in this research and also takes researchers and performers to a deeper level of comprehension of the poetics in G.Ph. Telemann’s works.

The Idiom of Russian Music as an Inspiration for Preludes of Polish Composers of the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries

This article presents the results of research on the impact of Russian music on preludes of Polish composers active at the turn of the 19 th and 20 th - centuries. The study focuses on characteristics of selected Russian composers determined by Marina Frolova-Walker, Richard Taruskin, and Piotr Kędzierski. Specific features of the Russian idiom, which proves its inspiring role, were found in the preludes of Karol Szymanowski, Witold Maliszewski, and Roman Statkowski.

Transmodernism and the Vision of Death by Marcin Błażewicz

Marcin Błażewicz (1953–2021) entered the group of Warsaw composers of the 20th and 21st centuries as a composer and philosopher. His works, full of existential considerations, focused on human religiosity and combined various philosophies and religions. The trend that was formed by his compositions is called transmodernism. Works written by Błażewicz were often based on the subject of death, viewed not only as a phenomenon of the end of life. The article aims to present the composer’s work, analyse the ways of presenting death, explains the concept of transmodernism, and broaden the knowledge of contemporary music.

The Musical Perspectives of Artificial Intelligence

Recently we have been witnessing an amazing outburst of visual art done by Artificial Intelligence based on texts prompts. Will it ever be able to exhibit such a creative approach towards music? Before we answer, we should learn some basics of these systems. Artificial Intelligence powered by machine learning becomes more effective through exposure to empirical data. By analysing similarities and differences between hundreds of thousands of photographs of violin, it understands what a violin can look like, without being given any other explicit instruction. Machine learning systems specialize in recognizing objects and GAN networks can also generate new objects based on the analysed data. As for now there is no highly effective and diverse system to produce music based only on informal text prompts. But its existence is theoretically possible. We can even envision more complex systems, which automate such output around biological user feedback.

Music of the “Anthem of Ukraine” by Mykhaylo Verbytsky in the Words of Pavlo Chubynsky: Spiritual Symbols

The study is devoted to the main musical symbol of the Ukrainian people. It is revealed that the work has a high prophetic symbolism regarding the evolutionary development of the country. The method of analysis of the spiritual content of melodies helps to identify a systematic objectification of its potential, based on the category of “spiritual reality”, and is considered from a musicological point of view. The melody reveals a symphonic technique of proto-intonation development. The genre basis of the melody is prayer. The system reproduces the basis of musical drama of Ukrainian folklore. The method of microminiature art, typical of Ukrainian folk masters, is embodied. The methodological basis helps to focus on the development of the sacredness of space-time content. The program potential of this work is able to lead the transformation of the spiritual state of man. Sacred symbols are placed in the center of energy development. The music conveys the idea of a renewed pulse. The people recognize Nature as the Temple in which man exists. The world of spirituality is sanctified by its living perception. The music of the “Anthem of Ukraine” perfectly combines the world and consciousness of people who woke up from eternal slavery. The melody contains courage and tenderness, firmness of spirit and faith in a good awareness of Truth and Joy. The cosmic law of consonance, the law of analogy is embodied. In the microstructure of the thematic core of the melody there is a point and its energy “engine” – dotted rhythm, a microelement of the iambic foot of the One Whole, which serve as two symbolic parameters of the formed core of themes. They perform in the energy layer the fundamental microfunction of the level of the heart, the function of the highest prayer to the Spirit, which helps the manifestation of spiritual consciousness in the density of the musical structure. the masculinity of the major is affirmed and ends with the gentle, feminine softness of the parallel minor, which indicates the systematic fluctuations of their paired periodicity in melodic-syntactic structures. A peculiar system of expressive symbolism of artistic and figurative drama of Ukrainian folklore, a reflection of the powerful genre of youth lyrics, the core of the spiritual greatness of culture, which is still preserved in the folk traditions of family education. The most popular image of the Mother of God is inspired by the Ukrainian prayer site, a sacred symbol of the famous icons “Protection of the Blessed Virgin” of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. The highest feminine principle encourages the protection of the male community, the whole nation, endows the Almighty with an effective symbol of patriotism, covers with its omophorion, gathers an army of men on the battlefield, the sanctity of monasticism, which protects spiritually. Intuitively and intelligently, the composer-priest conveyed that the invisible Hierarchy of Light stood up for the protection of hearts that dream and know of dignity and honor, honesty and spiritually high justice in the reality of earthly existence.

Andrescus Function of Toponyms in Ukrainian People’s Ballads

The article analyzes the peculiarities of the functioning of toponyms in Ukrainian folk ballads. It is noted that toponyms as organic components of ballad lyrics are a source that helps to establish the time and place of the event. Ukrainian ballads appeared in the XV–XVI centuries and were created by kobza players up to and including the XX century. Ballads have always reflected reality, important social events, heroic deeds carried out in the name of the people, and therefore it is in this genre that the most reliable information about the fate of Ukraine is concentrated. Toponyms used in the context of folk ballads have an important place and meaning. This layer of vocabulary is important since it precisely reflects socio-historical events, as well as directly mirrors the people’s figurative understanding of the natural environment’s real specifics. Big cycles in the epic work consist of thoughts about the struggle against the Turkish- Tatar and Polish-noble invaders. A prominent place among the works of the heroic epic belongs to the ballads that reflect the history of Ukraine in the XX century (starting from the revolutionary events of 1905). These works are mostly devoted to specific historical events and personalities. The description of real events is impossible without an indication of the event’s place, a description of the area, and this explains the frequency of toponyms in ballad lyrics, as them perform the function of address. 115 toponyms were analyzed, among which the largest group was oykonymy (60), the group of hydronyms has 30 proper names, a slightly smaller number (25) is the group of horonyms. It was found that the frequency of use of one onym or another is primarily related to the subject and content of Ukrainian folk ballads. The central place in these epic works is the fate of Ukraine, the heroic and tragic life of Ukrainians, in this regard, the token Ukraine is a semantic center around which all the positive and negative, the glorious and tragic, is based. It is proved that one of the functions of toponyms in the texts of Ukrainian people’s ballads is address. Toponyms acquire a generalized, abstract meaning, ie the lyrics of Ukrainian folk ballads contain many toponyms, which add other meanings to their own lexicographically fixed meaning, and these meanings implicitly contain people’s attitudes to the world, environment, ie acquire for them a certain cognitive meaning. In this regard, the study of such toponyms allows us to analyze and understand the linguomentality of our people, their spirit, worldview and world perception.

The article is devoted to consideration and characteristics of the ways of formation and development of the theoretical base of musical textology. The purpose of the article is to identify and characterize leading approaches to key concepts in the analytical apparatus of musical textology. The article uses a set of musicological approaches, among which the system-interpretive and comparative ones have a leading role. It is established that the problems of a text and text creation in music are becoming central in an increasing number of works representing original musicological and cultural concepts, and also often become the focus of various discussions. It is emphasized that the concept of the musical text as central receives different interpretations. Each of the researchers, who focuses attention in their works on the text as an object of study, understands this phenomenon differently, highlighting these or those its content and structural features. Emphasizing the views that are represented in the works of Levon Hakobyan, Mark Aranovskij, Alexandra Samojlenko, Andrew Denisov, allows us to study the musical text as a complex, multi-level, systemic phenomenon that has its own semantic structures, an autonomous logic of development, unique properties. Among the latter, musicologists single out fixation, organization, meaning productivity, duality, transitivity, equivalence, linearity of unfolding in time, the possibility of multidimensional organization of sound texture, variability depending on interpretation, etc. It is their understanding that determines the ways of comprehension of the musical text. There are revealed the mechanisms of the generation of the musical text, both external and internal, which allow it to acquire the status of a significant, possibly real space. At the same time, the musical text appears as a combination of the «expressed» (semiotic structure expressed in signs) and what is meant (meaning), caused by the realization of the function of musical- sign and sound subject-creative activity. The special attention in the article is paid to the definition of levels of the musical text, which are important for understanding its structural organization. It is established that the relationship between the linear and vertical aspects of the text through their understanding is the main characteristic of the text as a structure.

Piotr Artomiusz and Michał Marcin Mioduszewski on the Role of a Song in Polish

The article attempts at answering the question concerning the role attributed to religious songs in the native language by Piotr Artomiusz, a Lutheran pastor and author of the hymnal, and Michał Marcin Mioduszewski, a Catholic priest and a collector of religious music. Their works – the Hymnal of Artomiusz and the Songbook… of Mioduszewski, played a significant role in the then religious communities and serve as a valuable example of transmission of a religious song in Polish. Statements provided by both authors in their collections allow the author to discuss their purpose; the role of the vernacular and the song in Polish in the liturgy and personal piety; the addressees of the collections, as well as the function of Polish translations of psalms. The juxtaposition of authors’ statements reveals similarities and differences in the perception of language and vernacular song in Church. The examination of those statements is crucial for a better understanding of the role of songs in the native language, especially of the song in Polish that became an important element of the tradition of Polish Lutheranism.

Lviv and Kraków Musical Schools as a Cultural Phenomenon in Ukraine and Poland

The scientific novelty of the work consists in elucidating the leading role of Zdzisław Jachimecki and Adolf Chybiński in the formation and development of the national musicological schools of Poland and Ukraine as the heirs of the cultural genocode of Jagiellonianism, which consisted in special attention to the inter-Slavic connections of the Western-Eastern cultural heritage. Zdzisław Jachimecki and Adolf Chybiński are personalities related in the representation of Polish musical science of the first half of the 20th century, which, due to complex historical and international circumstances, was somewhat distributed in Krakow and Lviv universities, causing direct contact with the Jagiellonian concept in the first of them, while the second reflected Polish centrist preferences after overcoming the institutions of Austrian Lviv.