Literature and visual arts as a source of inspiration in the work of Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar JOANNA MIKLASZEWSKA Institute of Musicology, University of Wrocław Email: [email protected] This publication has been financed from the funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education allocated for the promotion and dissemination of science under agreement 730/P-DUN/2019. Open Access. © 2019 Joanna Miklaszewska, published by Sciendo. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. Literature and visual arts as a source of inspiration in the work of Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar Musicology Today • Vol. 16 • 2019 DOI: 10.2478/muso-2019-0006 ABSTRACT arts, especially literature and poetry.”3 The composer particularly emphasised the importance of literary This article is a contribution to scientific research on this aspect of Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar’s musical output which concerns the inspirations in her work. On the other hand, analyses connections between her music and other arts, primarily literature of the titles of her works and the poetic texts to which and the visual arts, as well as inspirations flowing from nature, religion, her compositions were written indicates a much broader philosophy, and broadly understood culture. The article applies extra-musical context that she herself referred to. structuralist methodology. The starting point for the analysis of the Therefore, four categories of inspirations and non-musical phenomena in question is the musical work itself, its title and its structure, and in the case of vocal-instrumental works - the content references can be distinguished in Moszumańska-Nazar’s and message of the literary text and the person of its author. In the part works: 1) literary inspirations, 2) inspirations from of the article which deals with the biography and artistic personality of visual arts, 3) religious inspirations, and those derived Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar, as well as by quoting the composer’s own from a broadly understood culture and philosophy, 4) statements in the text, I draw on the personalistic method, especially inspirations flowing from nature. Several compositions highly valued in 20th-century philosophy; this method emphasises the role of the human person and personality in analytic work. can be assigned to each of these categories (or even more In the musicological literature to date there exists no separate, large- than a dozen works in the case of literary, religious, and scale study dedicated to the subject of non-musical inspirations in the general cultural inspirations). works of Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar. This topic has been tackled, Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar wrote the following however, in scientific dissertations dealing with various aspects of the about inspirations from literature in her works: composer’s work. For example, inspirations from the sphere of the sacrum have been indicated by Marek Stefański (2011), whereas Ewa Mizerska-Golonek (1992) writes about inspirations derived from the It is very difficult to determine to what extent the text itself, following Biblical text in Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar’s Song of Songs, and the composer’s first fascination with it, conducts the music, and to Hanna Kostrzewska (2012) discusses painting as a source of inspiration what extent its influence can be determined. However, the order in the composer’s oeuvre. The main source of information on this in which a music composition is influenced by a literary work is as subject, however, are the composer’s own statements: her ‘Autorefleksja follows: 1) learning about the text (poem, prose), being delighted kompozytorska’ [‘The Composer’s Self-Commentary’]1 and interviews.2 with it, which triggers musical imagination; 2) the willingness to write a work setting this text, or influenced by it, 3) the actual Keywords: literature, visual arts, culture, Krystyna Moszumańska- composition process. This is how, for example, my Polish Madonnas Nazar, syncretism came into being4. Moszumańska-Nazar’s numerous works inspired LITERATURE AND FINE ARTS AS by literature can be divided into two groups with A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION regard to the source of their inspiration. The first group consists of vocal-instrumental pieces composed Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar distinguished four to texts by 20th-century poets, mainly Polish ones types of inspiration for her compositions: 1) those (Władysław Broniewski, Leopold Staff, Julian Tuwim, occurring as a consequence of a commission, 2) Jerzy Harasymowicz). One exception is Wyzwanie irrational inspiration, 3) provoked by listening to the [Challenge] for baritone and chamber ensemble (1977) music of another composer, 4) inspiration “from other composed to a text by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. Krzysztof Baculewski, writing about the generation of Polish composers active after 1956, indicates that 1 K. Moszumańska-Nazar, ‘Autorefleksja kompozytorska’ [‘The one of the most important tendencies in their works Composer’s Self-Commentary’], in K. Kasperek, Krystyna was their broadly understood humanism, which made Moszumańska-Nazar. Katalog tematyczny utworów, Cracow, Academy of Music, 2004, pp. 149–153. them reach for various texts, both by ancient and contemporary poets, commenting on the tragic legacy 2 M. Woźna-Stankiewicz, Lwowskie geny osobowości twórczej. Rozmowy z Krystyną Moszumańską-Nazar [The Lviv Gene of Artistic Personality: Interviews with Krystyna Moszumańska- Moszumańska-Nazar, Autorefleksja, pp. 152–153. Unless Nazar], Cracow, Musica Iagellonica, 2007; M. Janicka-Słysz, 3 otherwise stated, all the translations have been made by the ‘Z walcem w tle’ [‘With Waltz in the Background’], interview with author of this article. Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar, Ruch Muzyczny, no. 18, 2004, pp. 8–9. 4 Ibid., p. 153. 114 Literature and visual arts as a source of inspiration in the work of Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar of World War II, but also on the fate of modern man. confusion and anxiety, and represents the opposition’s In this context he mentions, among others, Challenge struggle against the communist regime. by Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar5. The composer’s literary inspirations are also evident in the The second group consists of instrumental pieces 12-minute-long APigram for piano (2004). Its title refers (for different sets of instruments), whose titles indicate to the ancient Greek concise literary form of the epigram, inspirations by literary genres such as an essay, rhapsody which sometimes included a witty punch line. Probably (Pol. rapsod) and dialogue (4 Essays for orchestra, with reference to this idea, the title of Moszumańska-Nazar’s 1958; 2 Dialogues for instrumental ensemble; Rapsod work contains a witty metagram: the first letter of the word II for orchestra). 4 Essays for orchestra is a lost work. epigram was changed to ‘a’; as a result, the changed word According to the information provided in the composer’s also refers to the initial of the first name and the first two catalogue of works, it was a cycle consisting of four one- letters of the surname of the pianist Andrzej Pikul, the first movement pieces, with a total duration of c. 8’. Krystyna performer of the work and its dedicatee. Moszumańska-Nazar described this work as follows: Also noteworthy is the title of the work Intonations “An essay is a short story, a statement characterised by for two mixed choirs and orchestra (1968). Intonation a casual form; so I thought that also for my music pieces, is a term derived from linguistics and means equipping composed in a non-schematic form, the title Essays would a spoken word with a particular melody (various be appropriate.”6 The brevity of the individual parts of intonation patterns are distinguished, including rising the work and their free form (presumably each of the four and falling). It is also a musical term with several meanings, parts lasted c. 2 minutes) suggests associations with the including the accurate performance of musical pitches. In literary form of an essay, defined by the PWN Dictionary Intonations, the composer’s intention was “to implement of the Polish Language as a “short scientific or literary her own acoustic and formal vision.”10 She introduced dissertation presenting the topic in a subjective way.”7 In such original types of vocal voice articulations as: “spoken 2 Dialogues, the composer’s intention was to treat all the singing at a given pitch” and “pronouncing the text at any instruments in a soloist way and metaphorically depict pitch.” The work, which has not yet been performed, bears “their conversations.”8 testimony to the author’s original inventiveness in sound. The narrative character of the music of Rapsod II9 Another example of an ambiguous title are Interpretations and the dramatic culminations in this work suggest for flute, tape and percussion created in 1967. The term a convergence with the literary genre of rapsod interpretation refers both to the scientific analysis of [a genre in Polish poetry, related to, but not identical a literary work used in literary studies and the way in with, the Greek notion of rhapsōidia, which concerns which a musical, theatrical, or literary work is performed. the oral performance of epic poetry – translator’s By prescribing only approximate rhythmic values in​​ the note] – a poetic work of a sublime character celebrating first part of the composition, the composer emphasises an important historical event. The composition was the interpretation of the work by its performers. written in 1980.