Ewa Schreiber | Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (original) (raw)
Articles by Ewa Schreiber
Musicking Collective. Codierungen kollektiver Identität in der zeitgenössischen Musikpraxis der Schweiz und ihrer Nachbarländer, 2024
Res Facta Nova. Teksty o muzyce współczesnej, 2022
Interview with Paweł Szymański
Studia Musicologica, 2023
This article traces references to nature and naturalism (understood as an attempt to ground and l... more This article traces references to nature and naturalism (understood as an attempt to ground and legitimize art in natural phenomena) in Ligeti's writings, but also in selected aspects of his oeuvre. The references to nature recur here in various manifestations, with romantic depictions of nature appearing alongside more recent, modernist approaches. The concept of nature is associated with the romantic setting for human emotions, with the discovery of scientific laws, with listening to soundscape, with phenomena of auditory perception and with the spectral explorations of sound. Although nature is not a central, strategic concept for Ligeti, it remains a constant, even if hidden, context for his work, a point of reference.
Musicology (Muzikologija), 2020
The juxtaposition of classicism and actuality is a good description of the ambiguous position occ... more The juxtaposition of classicism and actuality is a good description of the
ambiguous position occupied by the Second Viennese School not only in the
eyes of the scholars who research it, but also of composers who can be regarded
as its successors. However, in the works and writings originating from the
Second Viennese School we find a concentration of problems encountered by
contemporary composers, especially the modernist ones.
The aim of this article is to examine the role played by the representatives of
the Second Viennese School in the reflections of selected twentieth-century
composers, concerning their place in music history, the expressive categories
present in their work, and their ambiguous attitude to tonality. A separate subject
to be explored is the discourse used by contemporary composers to describe the
music of their predecessors, full of both analytical categories and vivid metaphors.
The quoted composers (Witold Lutosławski, György Ligeti, Helmut Lachenmannand Jonathan Harvey) may be identified with more-or-less radical modernist
views. This article is guided by the thinking of Gianmario Borio and the idea of “historical appropriation”, according to which analysis of the works of the past helps composers to create their own artistic identities and to define their own place in the history of music.
Keywords: the Second Viennese School, Witold Lutosławski, György Ligeti, Helmut Lachenmann, Jonathan Harvey, historical appropriation, contemporary composers’ writings
Trio, 2019
The aim of this text is to identify and characterise the key thematic areas in Ligeti’s writings,... more The aim of this text is to identify and characterise the key thematic areas in Ligeti’s writings, and to demonstrate their role in shaping and expanding our picture of the composer and his works. The first issue concerns the status of the composer, whose attitude and activities are suggestive of those of a scholar. Ligeti’s writings reveal his fascination with science, and his belief in the autonomy of music. Another important thread is the historical placing of Ligeti’s work as the composer seems to
be very aware of the influences to which he was subject himself. The third element of significance is the references to autobiographical themes, which go far beyond being anecdotal and correspond perfectly to the image of Ligeti’s compositions and later inspirations. The special, metaphorised way of describing music based on concrete images and often rooted in childhood memories and phantasies defines the fourth
thematic area.
While Ligeti is an individual case, the phenomena and strategies discussed here may turn out to be symptomatic for the whole
body of contemporary composer-writers.
Musicology Today, 2017
Although we usually treat writing and speaking about music as a secondary activity in relation to... more Although we usually treat writing and speaking about music as a
secondary activity in relation to creation and performance, discourse
about the latest compositional output is now gaining considerable
independence. The need for creative artists to work together with
institutions and with a whole network of mediators means that in the
twentieth and twenty-first centuries, verbal discourse has played even
a key role, and the search for a nuanced and original language that
might attract potential listeners to new repertoire is proving a serious
challenge.
For contemporary music, festivals remain the most important –
and at times almost the only – forum enabling works to exist in the
social awareness. Hence an important area in which discourse linked to
contemporary music is shaped consists of festival books and composers’
comments on their works. The latter help composers to forge their
own image, at the same time helping or hindering the creation of an
additional plane of understanding with potential listeners.
This text represents an attempt to distinguish the main thematic
areas to appear in composers’ self-reflection on the pages of the
programme books of the “Warsaw Autumn” International Festival of
Contemporary Music from 1999 to 2016, when Tadeusz Wielecki
was appointed director of the festival. We will find here remarks on
inspiration, creative process and musical language, as well as technology,
nature and modes of listening. Notions taken from physics, chemistry
and biology also frequently enter descriptions of music, and art
becomes a sort of commentary to modern science. Finally, a separate
strand consists of notes in which composers not so much shed light on
the techniques they use or build contexts for their works, but rather
seek to create plays on words as an alternative to musical compositions.
From a broader perspective, analysis of composers’ comments may
help us to answer the question as to how such comments shape the
plane of communication with potential listeners, what they tell us
about discourse on the subject of new music, and the extent to which
they expand the categories of its interpretation.
KEYWORDS: Warsaw Autumn, composers’ self-reflection, programme notes, contemporary music, festivals
International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, 2017
The aim of this article is to distinguish and describe the most important stances adopted by cont... more The aim of this article is to distinguish and describe the most important stances adopted by contemporary composers in their representations and their expectations of the listener. The context for these considerations consists of the changes that occurred in the composer/audience relationship in twentiethcentury music and the growing demands made on the listener. The article is based on the self-reflection of composers from the second half of the twentieth century associated mainly with modernist trends, such as Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Milton Babbitt, Witold Lutosławski, Elliott Carter, Helmut Lachenmann,
Jonathan Harvey, Brian Ferneyhough and Gérard Grisey.
Keywords: ideal listener • sociology of music •contemporary music •composer/audience
relationship • composers’ self-reflection
Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology, 2013
The aim of the present article is to establish a profile of surconventionalism in Polish music , ... more The aim of the present article is to establish a profile of surconventionalism in Polish music , based on compositions by the two leading exponents of that current: Paweł Szymański and Paweł Mykietyn. We shall discuss, in turn, the generational situation that gave rise to the idea of surconventionalism, the postulate of playing with the listener, which influenced the use of recognisable elements of music from the past, and the work's pre-compositional material, which often remains inaccessible to the receiver. The examples chosen for analysis, showing the ways in which the composers' play with their audience and the multi-layered structure of works, are Szymański's Partita III and Partita IV. The analysis brings out those elements of the work that help to elicit specific associations with the music of the past and also those that serve to question those associations. The continual co-occurrence and interpenetration of those elements determine the specific, multi-aspectual reception of the composition. Works by Szymański and Mykietyn are also interpreted as tools for a critique of contemporary culture, above all the increasingly superficial and simplified reception of classical music. In the context of all these remarks, surconventionalism proves to be not just a quite complex phenomenon, but also an enduring achievement of contemporary Polish music.
Sztuka i filozofia, 2012
Music and the Experience of Space and Movement. Between Conceptual Metaphor and Perception/// ... more Music and the Experience of Space and Movement. Between
Conceptual Metaphor and Perception///
Since the 1980s, the cognitive theory of metaphor has strongly influenced many musicologists. The followers of the interactionist approach are mainly interested in musical meaning and the relations between music and language. Those scholars, who follow the cognitive theory of metaphor concentrate on the categorization of reality and the relations between mind and body. The concepts of space and movement rate among the most elementary metaphors used in music description. However, both their understanding and genesis is presented in different ways. Roger Scruton states that the metaphors of musical movement and space are intentional products of imagination, devoid of any empirical elements. According to the followers of cognitive linguistics (Candace Brower, Steve Larson, Janna Saslaw), metaphors of space and movement are grounded in everyday bodily experience.
The authors who question the functionality of such research stress that dealing with music requires special terminology and the knowledge about its historical transformations (Michael Spitzer). They also state that contemporary music is described by different and more adequate metaphors (Robert Adlington). Other scholars, on the contrary, do not define these concepts as metaphors and argue that they can be understood as either abstract terms (Naomi Cumming) or the actual elements of perception (Eric Clarke). The debate on the concepts of space and movement reveals the music perception as a complex phenomenon, formed between the concrete and the abstract, between the bodily experience and the verbal description.
Kultura Współczesna, 2012
The text constitutes an attempt at introduction of the concepts used to describe a sound object ... more The text constitutes an attempt at introduction of the concepts used to describe
a sound object in Traité des objets musicaux (Treatise on Musical Objects) (1966)
by Pierre Schaeffer with special consideration of their metaphorical meaning.
Such notions as form, matter, mass, texture, granularity and movement concern
the senses of vision, touch as well as fictitious sound sources. Modern
comments on the treatise as well as linguistic (especially cognitive) studies on
metaphor are helpful in their interpretation. With the help of new vocabulary
Schaeffer conveys the ideas reflecting important changes in understanding
of sound and composition.
Fenomen Muzyki, „Zeszyty Naukowe Centrum Badań im. Edyty Stein”, 2012
The article presents the ideas of Pierre Schaeffer (1910–1995), especially the idea of sonic obje... more The article presents the ideas of Pierre Schaeffer (1910–1995), especially the idea of sonic object, and discusses them in the context of philosophical and literary inspirations. The argument is based on Treatise on musical objects (1966) and the comments given by contemporary scholars and composers: Michel Chion, Hugues Dufourt and Carlos Palombini among them. The four modes of listening derived from the French dictionary as well as the attempt to grasp the content of auditory experience are discussed in the context of phenomenology. The notion of sonic object and the search for the new language of sound description prove to be closely linked to literary concepts. The contexts
of Schaeffer’s reflection include the philosophical ideas by Descartes and Husserl, prose by Rabelais and poetry by Ponge as well as Heidegger’s reflection on technology. All the arguments prove that the idea of sonic object is complex and dynamic. It implies
not only sound recordings and their transformations but also the conscious attempt to grasp the content of auditory experience, the interaction of sound with listener and the sophisticated, changeable relation with the object of cognition.
"Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology", Oct 17, 2008
Books by Ewa Schreiber
I Don’t Belong Anywhere: György Ligeti at 100, 2022
2023 marks the centenary of Ligeti’s birth, an appropriate moment to take stock of the relevance ... more 2023 marks the centenary of Ligeti’s birth, an appropriate moment to take stock of the relevance this composer has in the contemporary world, to assess where he “belongs” today and how our views of his œuvre and our understanding of his position in musical and cultural history have evolved. What do Ligeti and his music have to say to us in our post-postmodernist age? Why do his works still fascinate us so much? This volume (edited by Wolfgang Marx) offers new readings of core compositions such as «Aventures», «Lontano», the «Hölderlin Fantasies», «Galamb borong» and the Violin Concerto. It also reassesses the context and reception of Ligeti’s works, including the influence of Romanian music (not least in his childhood), musical life in Hungary between 1945 and 1956, the ways in which his thinking was influenced by his experience of different soundscapes, yet also the surprisingly widespread use of his music in film and TV (beyond Kubrick as the usual suspect). Finally it presents new sources discovered or made available only recently: letters exchanged between Ligeti and Aliute Mecys in 1972, the correspondence between the composer and his publisher Schott, and an extended BBC interview from 1997.
Warszawa, Narodowe Centrum Kultury, 2012
Przeobrażenia pamięci, przeobrażenia kanonu. Historie muzyki w kręgu współczesnych dyskursów, 2019
Publikacja, którą oddajemy do rąk Czytelników jest próbą wypracowania podejścia, które, łącząc t... more Publikacja, którą oddajemy do rąk Czytelników jest próbą wypracowania podejścia, które, łącząc tradycję badań kulturowych z narzędziami, jakie oferuje współczesna muzykologia, pozwoli zbudować szersze ramy teoretyczne problematyki kanonu. Tytuł książki zapowiada już interdyscyplinarny wymiar podjętych rozważań i swobodne przenikanie się rozmaitych wątków obecnych w różnych dyskursach. Kanon, zawężony do obszaru muzycznego, został tu bowiem przedstawiony zarówno z perspektywy badań historycznych, pamięci kulturowej, jak i indywidualnych działań czy wypowiedzi kompozytorów oraz krytyków muzycznych. Na rzecz tak sformułowanej analizy przemawia sam charakter omawianych zagadnień, mających swoje źródła w rozlicznych dyscyplinach naukowych. Mówiąc o kanonie nie sposób bowiem pominąć zagadnienia pamięci kulturowej, pojęcia kluczowego zwłaszcza w niemieckiej tradycji badań kulturoznawczych. Te zaś kwestie w nieunikniony sposób łączą się z problemem komplementarności pamięci wobec historii, analizowanym zarówno przez badaczy kultury, jak i samych historyków. Zasadne wydaje się więc odwołanie do owej relacji, częstokroć przedstawianej także jako forma dyskursywnego konfliktu, jak i wskazania na czynniki, które w pewien sposób osłabiły naukowy autorytet badań historycznych. Tu szczególne znaczenie zyskują liczne prace wpisujące się w tak zwany nurt poststrukturalistyczny, który przez kilka dekad zdominował dyskurs naukowy, owocując szeregiem teorii krytycznych. Muzykolodzy nie pozostali obojętni wobec tych tendencji, choć spotkały się one z ich zainteresowaniem stosunkowo późno. W latach osiemdziesiątych i dziewięćdziesiątych XX wieku istotną rolę odegrały przemiany paradygmatu badawczego prowadzące do zakwestionowana wielu podstawowych założeń historii muzyki, w szczególności powstanie tzw. nowej muzykologii, czerpiącej z badań teoretycznoliterackich, etnomuzykologicznych, czy badań nad muzyką popularną . Głębokie zmiany, jakie zaszły w muzyce II połowy XX wieku, kazały także postawić dodatkowe pytania dotyczące kryteriów wyboru dzieł kanonicznych oraz ich relacji wobec tradycji.
Translations by Ewa Schreiber
Jan Topolski, Widma i czasy. Muzyka Gérarda Griseya, 2013
W oryginale tekst ten ukazał sie pod tytułem. Musique spectrale, [w:] Musique, pouvoir, écriture,... more W oryginale tekst ten ukazał sie pod tytułem. Musique spectrale, [w:] Musique, pouvoir, écriture, Christian Bourgois, Paris 1991, s. 289-294.
Scontri, 2015
Polski przekład artykułu "Music theory and mathemtics" opublikowanego [w:] "The Cambridge History... more Polski przekład artykułu "Music theory and mathemtics" opublikowanego
[w:] "The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory", red. Thomas Christensen, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2008, s. 272-304.
Scontri, 2017
Tekst pierwotnie opublikowany pod tytułem Autoportrait avec L’Itinéraire, [w:] „Le Revue Musicale... more Tekst pierwotnie opublikowany pod tytułem Autoportrait avec L’Itinéraire, [w:] „Le Revue Musicale”, no. 421-424 (1991), red. Cohen-Levinas Danielle. Przedruk [w:]Gérard Grisey, Écrits ou l’invention de la musique spectrale, red. Guy Lelong, Éditions MF, Paris 2008, s. 191–202.
Book Chapters by Ewa Schreiber
Music as Cultural Heritage and Novelty, ed. Oana Andreica, 2022
Contemporary research conducted by, among others, Naomi Cumming, Tia DeNora and Maria Spychiger d... more Contemporary research conducted by, among others, Naomi Cumming, Tia DeNora and Maria Spychiger demonstrates that examining the concepts of self and identity in the context of music leads to significant and interesting results. Music not only influences the understanding of our social and cultural roles as music-makers, but also contributes to the construction of self-image. It seems that the question of musical self and musical identity is also one of the central questions asked by contemporary composers. In their case, musical identity is very clearly marked; moreover, it requires constant reinforcement and verification on their part. In order to both illustrate and problematise the issue of musical identity of a modern composer, I have chosen two artists whose statements and approach to self-presentation provide great contrast. It was on the example of György Ligeti that Charles Wilson characterised the rhetoric of autonomy. On the other hand, in the statements of Jonathan Harvey we find its total rejection and a more fluid conception of identity. Ligeti placed very strong emphasis on his artistic independence in relation to his contemporaries, as well as the exceptional nature of his works, which could not be categorized as belonging to any current musical movement. On the other hand, Harvey claimed that contemporary composers’ personalities are inevitably “polyphonic” and the creative process in many aspects resembles kleptomania. Both composers took a great deal of effort to create their musical identities. The two self-presentations, at first glance very contrasted, hide attitudes that are not so distant from each other. The composers’ self-presentations are also supplemented by analyses of musicologists. On the one hand, the composers’ words are eagerly quoted; on the other, similar research procedures are applied in interpreting their works. Regardless of their declared compositional intentions, their suggestive descriptions of music turned out to be an important hermeneutic clue for researchers. Ligeti’s autonomous individuality is now perceived through the prism of various cultural identities and environmental influences, while Harvey’s “polyphonic self” is examined in the context of the integrality and continuity of his output. From one perspective, one could decide that the rhetoric of autonomy has lost its relevance and is no longer attractive to researchers. However, in the twenty-first century, the social expectation of individuality and integrality of a creative artist is still strong.
Musicking Collective. Codierungen kollektiver Identität in der zeitgenössischen Musikpraxis der Schweiz und ihrer Nachbarländer, 2024
Res Facta Nova. Teksty o muzyce współczesnej, 2022
Interview with Paweł Szymański
Studia Musicologica, 2023
This article traces references to nature and naturalism (understood as an attempt to ground and l... more This article traces references to nature and naturalism (understood as an attempt to ground and legitimize art in natural phenomena) in Ligeti's writings, but also in selected aspects of his oeuvre. The references to nature recur here in various manifestations, with romantic depictions of nature appearing alongside more recent, modernist approaches. The concept of nature is associated with the romantic setting for human emotions, with the discovery of scientific laws, with listening to soundscape, with phenomena of auditory perception and with the spectral explorations of sound. Although nature is not a central, strategic concept for Ligeti, it remains a constant, even if hidden, context for his work, a point of reference.
Musicology (Muzikologija), 2020
The juxtaposition of classicism and actuality is a good description of the ambiguous position occ... more The juxtaposition of classicism and actuality is a good description of the
ambiguous position occupied by the Second Viennese School not only in the
eyes of the scholars who research it, but also of composers who can be regarded
as its successors. However, in the works and writings originating from the
Second Viennese School we find a concentration of problems encountered by
contemporary composers, especially the modernist ones.
The aim of this article is to examine the role played by the representatives of
the Second Viennese School in the reflections of selected twentieth-century
composers, concerning their place in music history, the expressive categories
present in their work, and their ambiguous attitude to tonality. A separate subject
to be explored is the discourse used by contemporary composers to describe the
music of their predecessors, full of both analytical categories and vivid metaphors.
The quoted composers (Witold Lutosławski, György Ligeti, Helmut Lachenmannand Jonathan Harvey) may be identified with more-or-less radical modernist
views. This article is guided by the thinking of Gianmario Borio and the idea of “historical appropriation”, according to which analysis of the works of the past helps composers to create their own artistic identities and to define their own place in the history of music.
Keywords: the Second Viennese School, Witold Lutosławski, György Ligeti, Helmut Lachenmann, Jonathan Harvey, historical appropriation, contemporary composers’ writings
Trio, 2019
The aim of this text is to identify and characterise the key thematic areas in Ligeti’s writings,... more The aim of this text is to identify and characterise the key thematic areas in Ligeti’s writings, and to demonstrate their role in shaping and expanding our picture of the composer and his works. The first issue concerns the status of the composer, whose attitude and activities are suggestive of those of a scholar. Ligeti’s writings reveal his fascination with science, and his belief in the autonomy of music. Another important thread is the historical placing of Ligeti’s work as the composer seems to
be very aware of the influences to which he was subject himself. The third element of significance is the references to autobiographical themes, which go far beyond being anecdotal and correspond perfectly to the image of Ligeti’s compositions and later inspirations. The special, metaphorised way of describing music based on concrete images and often rooted in childhood memories and phantasies defines the fourth
thematic area.
While Ligeti is an individual case, the phenomena and strategies discussed here may turn out to be symptomatic for the whole
body of contemporary composer-writers.
Musicology Today, 2017
Although we usually treat writing and speaking about music as a secondary activity in relation to... more Although we usually treat writing and speaking about music as a
secondary activity in relation to creation and performance, discourse
about the latest compositional output is now gaining considerable
independence. The need for creative artists to work together with
institutions and with a whole network of mediators means that in the
twentieth and twenty-first centuries, verbal discourse has played even
a key role, and the search for a nuanced and original language that
might attract potential listeners to new repertoire is proving a serious
challenge.
For contemporary music, festivals remain the most important –
and at times almost the only – forum enabling works to exist in the
social awareness. Hence an important area in which discourse linked to
contemporary music is shaped consists of festival books and composers’
comments on their works. The latter help composers to forge their
own image, at the same time helping or hindering the creation of an
additional plane of understanding with potential listeners.
This text represents an attempt to distinguish the main thematic
areas to appear in composers’ self-reflection on the pages of the
programme books of the “Warsaw Autumn” International Festival of
Contemporary Music from 1999 to 2016, when Tadeusz Wielecki
was appointed director of the festival. We will find here remarks on
inspiration, creative process and musical language, as well as technology,
nature and modes of listening. Notions taken from physics, chemistry
and biology also frequently enter descriptions of music, and art
becomes a sort of commentary to modern science. Finally, a separate
strand consists of notes in which composers not so much shed light on
the techniques they use or build contexts for their works, but rather
seek to create plays on words as an alternative to musical compositions.
From a broader perspective, analysis of composers’ comments may
help us to answer the question as to how such comments shape the
plane of communication with potential listeners, what they tell us
about discourse on the subject of new music, and the extent to which
they expand the categories of its interpretation.
KEYWORDS: Warsaw Autumn, composers’ self-reflection, programme notes, contemporary music, festivals
International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, 2017
The aim of this article is to distinguish and describe the most important stances adopted by cont... more The aim of this article is to distinguish and describe the most important stances adopted by contemporary composers in their representations and their expectations of the listener. The context for these considerations consists of the changes that occurred in the composer/audience relationship in twentiethcentury music and the growing demands made on the listener. The article is based on the self-reflection of composers from the second half of the twentieth century associated mainly with modernist trends, such as Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Milton Babbitt, Witold Lutosławski, Elliott Carter, Helmut Lachenmann,
Jonathan Harvey, Brian Ferneyhough and Gérard Grisey.
Keywords: ideal listener • sociology of music •contemporary music •composer/audience
relationship • composers’ self-reflection
Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology, 2013
The aim of the present article is to establish a profile of surconventionalism in Polish music , ... more The aim of the present article is to establish a profile of surconventionalism in Polish music , based on compositions by the two leading exponents of that current: Paweł Szymański and Paweł Mykietyn. We shall discuss, in turn, the generational situation that gave rise to the idea of surconventionalism, the postulate of playing with the listener, which influenced the use of recognisable elements of music from the past, and the work's pre-compositional material, which often remains inaccessible to the receiver. The examples chosen for analysis, showing the ways in which the composers' play with their audience and the multi-layered structure of works, are Szymański's Partita III and Partita IV. The analysis brings out those elements of the work that help to elicit specific associations with the music of the past and also those that serve to question those associations. The continual co-occurrence and interpenetration of those elements determine the specific, multi-aspectual reception of the composition. Works by Szymański and Mykietyn are also interpreted as tools for a critique of contemporary culture, above all the increasingly superficial and simplified reception of classical music. In the context of all these remarks, surconventionalism proves to be not just a quite complex phenomenon, but also an enduring achievement of contemporary Polish music.
Sztuka i filozofia, 2012
Music and the Experience of Space and Movement. Between Conceptual Metaphor and Perception/// ... more Music and the Experience of Space and Movement. Between
Conceptual Metaphor and Perception///
Since the 1980s, the cognitive theory of metaphor has strongly influenced many musicologists. The followers of the interactionist approach are mainly interested in musical meaning and the relations between music and language. Those scholars, who follow the cognitive theory of metaphor concentrate on the categorization of reality and the relations between mind and body. The concepts of space and movement rate among the most elementary metaphors used in music description. However, both their understanding and genesis is presented in different ways. Roger Scruton states that the metaphors of musical movement and space are intentional products of imagination, devoid of any empirical elements. According to the followers of cognitive linguistics (Candace Brower, Steve Larson, Janna Saslaw), metaphors of space and movement are grounded in everyday bodily experience.
The authors who question the functionality of such research stress that dealing with music requires special terminology and the knowledge about its historical transformations (Michael Spitzer). They also state that contemporary music is described by different and more adequate metaphors (Robert Adlington). Other scholars, on the contrary, do not define these concepts as metaphors and argue that they can be understood as either abstract terms (Naomi Cumming) or the actual elements of perception (Eric Clarke). The debate on the concepts of space and movement reveals the music perception as a complex phenomenon, formed between the concrete and the abstract, between the bodily experience and the verbal description.
Kultura Współczesna, 2012
The text constitutes an attempt at introduction of the concepts used to describe a sound object ... more The text constitutes an attempt at introduction of the concepts used to describe
a sound object in Traité des objets musicaux (Treatise on Musical Objects) (1966)
by Pierre Schaeffer with special consideration of their metaphorical meaning.
Such notions as form, matter, mass, texture, granularity and movement concern
the senses of vision, touch as well as fictitious sound sources. Modern
comments on the treatise as well as linguistic (especially cognitive) studies on
metaphor are helpful in their interpretation. With the help of new vocabulary
Schaeffer conveys the ideas reflecting important changes in understanding
of sound and composition.
Fenomen Muzyki, „Zeszyty Naukowe Centrum Badań im. Edyty Stein”, 2012
The article presents the ideas of Pierre Schaeffer (1910–1995), especially the idea of sonic obje... more The article presents the ideas of Pierre Schaeffer (1910–1995), especially the idea of sonic object, and discusses them in the context of philosophical and literary inspirations. The argument is based on Treatise on musical objects (1966) and the comments given by contemporary scholars and composers: Michel Chion, Hugues Dufourt and Carlos Palombini among them. The four modes of listening derived from the French dictionary as well as the attempt to grasp the content of auditory experience are discussed in the context of phenomenology. The notion of sonic object and the search for the new language of sound description prove to be closely linked to literary concepts. The contexts
of Schaeffer’s reflection include the philosophical ideas by Descartes and Husserl, prose by Rabelais and poetry by Ponge as well as Heidegger’s reflection on technology. All the arguments prove that the idea of sonic object is complex and dynamic. It implies
not only sound recordings and their transformations but also the conscious attempt to grasp the content of auditory experience, the interaction of sound with listener and the sophisticated, changeable relation with the object of cognition.
"Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology", Oct 17, 2008
I Don’t Belong Anywhere: György Ligeti at 100, 2022
2023 marks the centenary of Ligeti’s birth, an appropriate moment to take stock of the relevance ... more 2023 marks the centenary of Ligeti’s birth, an appropriate moment to take stock of the relevance this composer has in the contemporary world, to assess where he “belongs” today and how our views of his œuvre and our understanding of his position in musical and cultural history have evolved. What do Ligeti and his music have to say to us in our post-postmodernist age? Why do his works still fascinate us so much? This volume (edited by Wolfgang Marx) offers new readings of core compositions such as «Aventures», «Lontano», the «Hölderlin Fantasies», «Galamb borong» and the Violin Concerto. It also reassesses the context and reception of Ligeti’s works, including the influence of Romanian music (not least in his childhood), musical life in Hungary between 1945 and 1956, the ways in which his thinking was influenced by his experience of different soundscapes, yet also the surprisingly widespread use of his music in film and TV (beyond Kubrick as the usual suspect). Finally it presents new sources discovered or made available only recently: letters exchanged between Ligeti and Aliute Mecys in 1972, the correspondence between the composer and his publisher Schott, and an extended BBC interview from 1997.
Warszawa, Narodowe Centrum Kultury, 2012
Przeobrażenia pamięci, przeobrażenia kanonu. Historie muzyki w kręgu współczesnych dyskursów, 2019
Publikacja, którą oddajemy do rąk Czytelników jest próbą wypracowania podejścia, które, łącząc t... more Publikacja, którą oddajemy do rąk Czytelników jest próbą wypracowania podejścia, które, łącząc tradycję badań kulturowych z narzędziami, jakie oferuje współczesna muzykologia, pozwoli zbudować szersze ramy teoretyczne problematyki kanonu. Tytuł książki zapowiada już interdyscyplinarny wymiar podjętych rozważań i swobodne przenikanie się rozmaitych wątków obecnych w różnych dyskursach. Kanon, zawężony do obszaru muzycznego, został tu bowiem przedstawiony zarówno z perspektywy badań historycznych, pamięci kulturowej, jak i indywidualnych działań czy wypowiedzi kompozytorów oraz krytyków muzycznych. Na rzecz tak sformułowanej analizy przemawia sam charakter omawianych zagadnień, mających swoje źródła w rozlicznych dyscyplinach naukowych. Mówiąc o kanonie nie sposób bowiem pominąć zagadnienia pamięci kulturowej, pojęcia kluczowego zwłaszcza w niemieckiej tradycji badań kulturoznawczych. Te zaś kwestie w nieunikniony sposób łączą się z problemem komplementarności pamięci wobec historii, analizowanym zarówno przez badaczy kultury, jak i samych historyków. Zasadne wydaje się więc odwołanie do owej relacji, częstokroć przedstawianej także jako forma dyskursywnego konfliktu, jak i wskazania na czynniki, które w pewien sposób osłabiły naukowy autorytet badań historycznych. Tu szczególne znaczenie zyskują liczne prace wpisujące się w tak zwany nurt poststrukturalistyczny, który przez kilka dekad zdominował dyskurs naukowy, owocując szeregiem teorii krytycznych. Muzykolodzy nie pozostali obojętni wobec tych tendencji, choć spotkały się one z ich zainteresowaniem stosunkowo późno. W latach osiemdziesiątych i dziewięćdziesiątych XX wieku istotną rolę odegrały przemiany paradygmatu badawczego prowadzące do zakwestionowana wielu podstawowych założeń historii muzyki, w szczególności powstanie tzw. nowej muzykologii, czerpiącej z badań teoretycznoliterackich, etnomuzykologicznych, czy badań nad muzyką popularną . Głębokie zmiany, jakie zaszły w muzyce II połowy XX wieku, kazały także postawić dodatkowe pytania dotyczące kryteriów wyboru dzieł kanonicznych oraz ich relacji wobec tradycji.
Jan Topolski, Widma i czasy. Muzyka Gérarda Griseya, 2013
W oryginale tekst ten ukazał sie pod tytułem. Musique spectrale, [w:] Musique, pouvoir, écriture,... more W oryginale tekst ten ukazał sie pod tytułem. Musique spectrale, [w:] Musique, pouvoir, écriture, Christian Bourgois, Paris 1991, s. 289-294.
Scontri, 2015
Polski przekład artykułu "Music theory and mathemtics" opublikowanego [w:] "The Cambridge History... more Polski przekład artykułu "Music theory and mathemtics" opublikowanego
[w:] "The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory", red. Thomas Christensen, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2008, s. 272-304.
Scontri, 2017
Tekst pierwotnie opublikowany pod tytułem Autoportrait avec L’Itinéraire, [w:] „Le Revue Musicale... more Tekst pierwotnie opublikowany pod tytułem Autoportrait avec L’Itinéraire, [w:] „Le Revue Musicale”, no. 421-424 (1991), red. Cohen-Levinas Danielle. Przedruk [w:]Gérard Grisey, Écrits ou l’invention de la musique spectrale, red. Guy Lelong, Éditions MF, Paris 2008, s. 191–202.
Music as Cultural Heritage and Novelty, ed. Oana Andreica, 2022
Contemporary research conducted by, among others, Naomi Cumming, Tia DeNora and Maria Spychiger d... more Contemporary research conducted by, among others, Naomi Cumming, Tia DeNora and Maria Spychiger demonstrates that examining the concepts of self and identity in the context of music leads to significant and interesting results. Music not only influences the understanding of our social and cultural roles as music-makers, but also contributes to the construction of self-image. It seems that the question of musical self and musical identity is also one of the central questions asked by contemporary composers. In their case, musical identity is very clearly marked; moreover, it requires constant reinforcement and verification on their part. In order to both illustrate and problematise the issue of musical identity of a modern composer, I have chosen two artists whose statements and approach to self-presentation provide great contrast. It was on the example of György Ligeti that Charles Wilson characterised the rhetoric of autonomy. On the other hand, in the statements of Jonathan Harvey we find its total rejection and a more fluid conception of identity. Ligeti placed very strong emphasis on his artistic independence in relation to his contemporaries, as well as the exceptional nature of his works, which could not be categorized as belonging to any current musical movement. On the other hand, Harvey claimed that contemporary composers’ personalities are inevitably “polyphonic” and the creative process in many aspects resembles kleptomania. Both composers took a great deal of effort to create their musical identities. The two self-presentations, at first glance very contrasted, hide attitudes that are not so distant from each other. The composers’ self-presentations are also supplemented by analyses of musicologists. On the one hand, the composers’ words are eagerly quoted; on the other, similar research procedures are applied in interpreting their works. Regardless of their declared compositional intentions, their suggestive descriptions of music turned out to be an important hermeneutic clue for researchers. Ligeti’s autonomous individuality is now perceived through the prism of various cultural identities and environmental influences, while Harvey’s “polyphonic self” is examined in the context of the integrality and continuity of his output. From one perspective, one could decide that the rhetoric of autonomy has lost its relevance and is no longer attractive to researchers. However, in the twenty-first century, the social expectation of individuality and integrality of a creative artist is still strong.
I Don’t Belong Anywhere: György Ligeti at 100, by Wolfgang Marx, 2022
The Three Fantasies for mixed choir after Hölderlin (1982) form a kind of "bridge" between the ve... more The Three Fantasies for mixed choir after Hölderlin (1982) form a kind of "bridge" between the very typical choral pieces of the 1960s/70s, Lux Aeterna and Clocks and Clouds, and the later development of György Ligeti. Here, for the first time since a very long period, Ligeti renewed his acquaintance with poetry by confronting himself with one of the most outstanding poets of the German field, who, moreover, made a great impact on the minds of composers during this very period (see Luigi Nono and Wolfgang Rihm among others). In this period of questioning and artistic crisis that shook the Ligeti generation, the use of meaning in vocal music was, so to speak, a challenge: to get away from aerial vocal polyphonies without truly comprehensible texts (except for a few phrases from the "Mass of the Dead") in these works that quickly became famous, to return to poetic texts of the highest quality by finding suitable means (which were, moreover, in full evolution at the beginning of the 1980s) for this new confrontation between canonical-type polyphonies or heterophonies and the question of "making a text heard".
To explore this new path in Ligeti's work, which was followed by several choral pieces or pieces for vocal ensembles with texts, Pierre Michel and Maryse Staiber propose a multidisciplinary musicological and literary approach that they have already developed around other composers and poets (Wolfgang Rihm and Paul Celan, Paul Méfano and Paul Éluard or Yves Bonnefoy, etc.). This essay will also make it possible to better acquaint the English-speaking public with the context of German poetry and the profound references of these poems, as well as the musical specificities of this important work.
Metafory ucieleśnione, red. Marek Hetmański, Andrzej Zykubek, Wydawnictwo Academicon, Lublin, 2021
[Conceptual metaphors in contemporary music, based on the example of the ideas and works of Györg... more [Conceptual metaphors in contemporary music, based on the example of the ideas and works of György Ligeti]
Referring to Michael Spitzer’s theory of musical metaphor, the author tries to answer the question whether there is a coherent internal (analytical, related to basic level musical categories) and external (cultural) metaphor in the music of the second half of the 20th century.
With the development of sound recording and sound-processing technologies, the concept of sound became a much more complex category than in previous eras. It gained unprecedented autonomy at that time, and therefore could serve as a basic musical category underlying the metaphors present in compositional and musicological discourse, as well as in the perception of music.
Conceptual metaphors in contemporary music are described on the example of the ideas and works of the Hungarian composer, György Ligeti. It clearly shows three aspects that are representative of the metaphorical approach to the music of the second half of the 20th century. These are: the concreteness of the sound matter, the structure understood as a network of relations, and the sonic flux. These three areas correspond to the three levels of thinking about musical composition. They lead from sound understood as musical material, through the structure resulting from the configuration of sounds, to the musical time in which the composition takes place. The presented analysis includes both compositional poetics, which can be reconstructed on the basis of the composer's numerous statements, and interpretations of his works by musicologists.
The presented analysis allows us to better understand how contemporary music is embodied. It also leads to the conclusion that we find some familiar image schemata in new configurations, while some spatial-motor images go beyond the basic metaphors of everyday life catalogued so far. Experiences supported by our imagination, to which we do not have access on a daily basis, are therefore richer than we thought, and contemporary music allows us to discover their potential.
KEYWORDS: musical metaphor, image schemata, György Ligeti, metaphors of sound, contemporary music
Gegliederte Zeit 15. Jahreskongress der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie Berlin 2015. Marcus Aydintan (Hrsg.); Florian Edler (Hrsg.); Roger Graybill (Hrsg.); Laura Krämer (Hrsg.), Hildesheim-Zürich-New York: Verlag Olms , 2020
Book preview: https://books.google.pl/books/about/Gegliederte\_Zeit.html?id=fYgHEAAAQBAJ&redir\_esc=y
Marcin Trzęsiok (red.), W ogrodzie muzyki. Eseje interdyscyplinarne, Akademia Muzyczna w Katowicach, Katowice, 2016
Anna Granat-Janki et al. (ed.), Musical Analysis. Historia-theoria-praxis, Akademia Muzyczna im. Karola Lipińskiego we Wrocławiu, Wrocław, 2019
György Ligeti spent most of his creative life in Austria and Germany, but his life „adventures” l... more György Ligeti spent most of his creative life in Austria and Germany, but his life „adventures” left an indelible mark on him. The composer constantly kept returning to them, not only in interviews, but also in the descriptions of his compositions.
The commentaries to works preceding his escape from Hungary in 1956 were written from a more distant time perspective, during the 1980s, 1990s, and even post-2000. However, the commentaries to compositions from the end of the 1950s or 60s were written concurrently.
Ligeti conducts a discourse on two planes, musical and verbal. References to childhood and youth, but also to synaeasthesia, dreams or imaginings, allow him to create his own, idiomatic narrative. They also supply handy metaphors and fulfill a different function at each stage of his creative journey.
The aim of the paper is to explore the role played by references to childhood and youth in the composer’s commentaries to his works. At the beginning of his creative path in Western Europe, Ligeti purposely creates analytical and interpretive categories of his works, to which he will consistently keep returning later. While at the turn of the 1950s and 60s Ligeti’s retrospections served to support his image as a distinct and autonomous artist, the notes written during the 1980s and later had a different aim. They were to supplement the image which previously functioned only fragmentarily, and in this way to create a bridge between the “true” Ligeti, who had already built his career, and the “prehistoric” Ligeti whose many aspects still remained unknown. In the composer’s later works childhood reminiscences function as a distant literary construct, accompanied by references to absurdity and utopia, and the composer no longer builds cohesive narratives around them.
Les espaces sonores. Klanganalysen, Stimmungen, spektrale Musiken, Michael Kunkel (Hg.), PFAU, Saarbrücken, 2016
Elisabetta Gola, Francesca Ervas (eds), Metaphor and Communication, 2016
ABSTRACT: This chapter makes a contribution to musicological research into metaphor. Its purpose ... more ABSTRACT: This chapter makes a contribution to musicological research into metaphor. Its purpose is to analyse the metaphorical concepts of sound in the ideas of three twentieth-century composers from France and Canada: Pierre Schaeffer (1910– 1995), Raymond Murray Schafer (born 1933) and Gérard Grisey (1946–1998). Analysis of the composers’ writings and opinions enables us to characterize the metaphors that influenced their creative imagination and aesthetic outlook. Their ideas focus on particular metaphors: of the sonic object (Schaeffer), the soundscape (Schafer) and the sound organism (Grisey). The conclusions drawn from a comparative analysis of the three composers’ ideas may contribute to the flourishing research into metaphor and provide new tools for research into contemporary music.
KEYWORDS: music, creativity, aesthetic, imagination, metaphor
András Benedek, Kristóf Nyíri (eds), The Power of the Image. Emotion, Expression, Explanation, 2014
Ewa Kowalska-Zając, Marta Szoka (eds), Kompozytor i jego świat. Bronisław Kazimierz Przybylski in memoriam, 2012
Didaskalia, 2022
Sonic singularities The article introduces the most important philosophical and musicological con... more Sonic singularities The article introduces the most important philosophical and musicological contexts of Jakub Momro's book "The ear has no eyelid. Sonic primordial scenes". The author of the book places the music and sonic practices of late modernity into an extensive network of philosophical concepts, especially those related to the philosophy of deconstruction and psychoanalysis. In this way he shows the relationship between music and the issues of time, voice, materiality and corporeality, sound and vision, freedom and determinism, trauma and desire. The text also includes a reconstruction of some theses on the ephemeral and performative nature of sound and on listening as the domain of freedom. At the end conclusions are presented about the importance of the book in the context of contemporary musical thought.
Aspekty Muzyki, 2020
Recenzja książki "The Routledge Research Companion to Modernism in Music" pod redakcją Björna He... more Recenzja książki
"The Routledge Research Companion to Modernism in Music" pod redakcją Björna Heile i Charlesa Wilsona (Routledge, London–New York 2019)