Lutoslawski on Music

Zbigniew Skowron

doi:10.5771/9781461669449

Summary

The writings of twentieth-century Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski reveal many important aspects of his approach to music and his viewpoints as an artist and as a man. In Lutoslawski on Music, the first full collection of writings by this famous composer, Zbigniew Skowron has amassed an exciting assortment of essays, speeches, lectures, and articles, many of which are newly translated in English and previously unpublished. After an introductory autobiography, the writings, grouped in five parts, illustrate various aspects of the composer's creativity, and discuss musical form, compositional technique, and perception. Lutoslawski examines his own works as well as those of other composers, and expresses his views on crucial aspects of twentieth-century music, including the role of Schoenberg and Debussy and the impact of the western avant-garde of the 1950s. The book also contains Lutoslawski's Artistic Diary, his 'notebook of ideas' written from 1959 to 1984 containing intensely personal reflections that do not appear in his public speeches and writings. Concluding with a select bibliography, this collection will give readers a unique and comprehensive overview of the man and his music, encouraging a full appreciation of Lutoslawski's compositional technique and aesthetic views, as well as his position in the history of twentieth-century music.

Search publication

Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2007
ISBN-Print: 978-0-8108-4804-7
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4616-6944-9
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 347
Product type: Edited Book

1. Table of Contents No access
2. Preface No access
3. Introduction: Witold Lutoslawski's Life and Music No access
1. On Beauty No access
2. Notes on the Construction of Large-Scale Forms No access
3. Problems of Musical Form No access
4. Pitch, the Interval, and Harmonic Aggregate No access
5. Some Problems in the Area of Rhythm No access
6. Aleatorism No access
7. About the Element of Chance in Music No access
8. Rhythm and Organization of Pitch in Composing Techniques Employing a Limited Element of Chance No access
9. Tonal System No access
10. Seminar on Instrumentation No access
11. Theory and Practice in the Work of the Composer No access
12. Reflecting upon the Art of Composing No access
13. The Composer and the Listener No access
14. Some thoughts on the Perception of Music No access
15. Sound Language No access
1. Comments on Early Works (1934-1954) No access
2. Concerto for Orchestra (1950-1954) No access
3. Five Songs to Poems of Kazimiera Iłłakowicz (1956-1957) No access
4. Musique funèbre (1954-1958): Improvisations on a Given Theme No access
5. Jeux Vénitiens (1961) No access
6. Trois Poemes D'Henri Michaux (1961-1963) No access
7. String Quartet (1964) No access
8. Paroles Tissees (1965) No access
9. Symphony No.2 (1965-1966) No access
10. Cello Concerto (1969-1970) No access
11. Preludes and Fugue (1970-1972) No access
12. Les Espaces Du Sommeil (1975) No access
13. Sacher Variation (1975) No access
14. Mi-parti (1975-1976) No access
15. Double Concerto (1979-1980) No access
16. Symphony No. 3 (1972-1983) No access
17. Chain 1 (1983) No access
18. Partita (1984) No access
19. Chain 2 (1984-1985) No access
20. Piano Concerto (1987-1988) No access
21. Chantefleurs et Chantefables (1989-1990) No access
1. On J. S. Bach No access
2. On WA. Mozart No access
3. On Beethoven and Bartok No access
4. On Messiaen No access
5. On Ravel No access
6. On Roussel's Symphony No. 3 No access
7. On Shostakovich No access
8. On Sibelius No access
9. On Stravinsky No access
10. On Webern No access
11. On Chopin No access
12. On Grazyna Bacewicz No access
13. On Grzegorz Fitelberg No access
14. On Witold Maliszewski No access
15. On Constantin Regarney No access
16. On Michal Spisak No access
17. On Karol Szymanowski No access
18. On Hermann Abendroth No access
19. On Anne-Sophie Mutter No access
1. Opening Address at the General Assembly of the Polish Composers' Union (1957) No access
2. Reflections on the ISCM Festival of Contemporary Music in Rome (1959) No access
3. About Radio (1959) No access
4. Reflections on Ballet (1962) No access
5. Is this Music? (1963) No access
6. Sounds in No Matter what Scale (1971) No access
7. Reflections on the Future of Music (1972) No access
8. Today's Moment No access
9. The London Sinfonietta (1973) No access
10. Conducting the London Sinfonietta (1973) No access
11. On the Occasion of the Twentieth Warsaw Autumn (1976) No access
12. The Philharmonia of My Youth (1976) No access
13. Speech at the Twenty-first General Assembly of Polish Composers Union Meeting (1981) No access
14. About the Issue of Truth in a Work of Art (1981) No access
15. One Hundredth Anniversary of Parsifal (1982) No access
16. An Answer to Young Composers (1987) No access
17. Music Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (1983) No access
18. An Attitude toward French Culture No access
19. On Silence No access
1. On the Hundredth Anniversary of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna No access
2. To The Forty-sixth Graduating Class of the Cleveland Institute of Music, 1971 No access
3. On Receiving an Honorary Doctorate from Warsaw University, 1973 No access
4. On Receiving an Honorary Doctorate from the Nicolaus Copernicus University, 1980 No access
5. On Receiving the Siemens Prize from the Ernst von Siemens Foundation, 1983 No access
6. On Receiving an Honorary Doctorate from Jagiellonian University, 1984 No access
7. 1. On Receiving Honorary Membership in the Royal Academy of Music, 1976 No access
8. On Receiving the Polar Music Prize in Stockholm, 1993 No access
9. On Receiving the Kyoto Prize, October 1993 No access
6: Notebook of Ideas, 1959-1984 No access Pages 291 - 330
Select Bibliography No access Pages 331 - 338
Name and Tide Index No access Pages 339 - 346
About the Editor No access Pages 347 - 347