42 The narrative of a composers biography: some aspects of Szymanowski reception
durval cesetti
1. See, for instance, Hayden
White: The historical text as
literary artifact, in Geoffrey
Roberts, ed.: The history and
narrative reader (London &
New York, 2001), pp.22136.
2. White: The historical
text, p.228.
The narrative of a composers biography:
some aspects of Szymanowski reception
A
composers reputation is slowly constructed in a process that
relies not solely on musical characteristics but on many other factors
as well. Furthermore, the perceived status of a composers oeuvre
reflected in the amount of exposure it receives in concerts, recordings,
radio, and through published scores has a powerful influence in shaping
how new listeners will ultimately consider its worth. When confronted with
a piece by an unfamiliar name, the novice listener might be curious to listen
to it, and may even become a fervent admirer of it later, but it is hard to
deny that a part of us instinctively tends to accept that a lack of prestige
especially in a composer from a bygone era must be connected to some
kind of musical lack, thus creating a self-perpetuating cycle that reinforces
the original perception. Because of this, it is imperative that the musical
establishment constantly reassess the value of a composers output, lest
it remain stuck with outworn notions and prejudices that try to shoehorn
unique individuals into Procrustean models. Whether a composer such as
Szymanowski deserves a greater space under the limelight is something that
could be debated for a long time based on purely personal views. However,
if this debate is to arrive at a productive and valid conclusion, one must
leave personal preferences aside for a moment, and examine which factors
historical, biographical, sociological and musical might have influenced
the way posterity has perceived his value.
The notion that history is simply a collection of facts, which are impartially
observed and presented to the reader, has been persuasively dethroned by
historians such as Hayden White, who emphasises that historical accounts
are basically verbal fictions, relying on previously accepted concepts of
how a narrative should be established.1 Events, on their own, do not contain
sense; by selecting and ordering them into a coherent whole, we are indeed
presenting an interpretation and evaluation of them. White affirms that the
more we know about the past, the more difficult it is to generalize about it.2
However, generalisations are just as inevitable as they are unwelcome; one
must first accept them before deconstructing their elements. Evidently, the
need to create meaningful narratives out of many disjointed facts applies
not only to large historical events, but also to personal biographies; there
are certain concepts of how a great composer should look, and those who
do not fit these concepts are not granted admission into the introductory

3. Quoted in Ates Orga:
Karol Szymanowski
(18821937), liner notes to was sceptical (rightly, as it turned out to be) that these trips would result
Szymanowski: piano works,
vol.2, performed by Martin
Roscoe (NAXOS 8.553300,
1996), p.4.
4. Hans Heinz
Stuckenschmidt: Karol
Szymanowski, in Music &
Letters 19/1 (January 1938),
p.38.
5. Related by Alistair
Wightman: Karol
Szymanowski: his life and
work (Aldershot, 1999),
p.256.
6. This is also true for
the rest of his output; his
symphonic works have a
great danger of degenerating
into a massive sonic jumble
if the conductor does not
take a firm and unambiguous
decision about which voices
should be more prominent
at every single moment.
Many recordings of his
symphonies seem reluctant
(maybe because of too
much respect?) to banish
some of the many voices
of his counterpoint to
the background, creating
instead an undifferentiated,
uninteresting, and confusing
panorama.
books used in music history survey classes.
However, before moving on to the complex issues involved in the
manipulation of a composers biography for public consumption, one should
also explore more prosaic reasons that might be partially responsible for the
neglect that Szymanowskis output has suffered outside Poland. For example,
it is undeniable that his music tends to be highly difficult and complex, for
performers, theorists and listeners alike. The 1951 Record Guide, for example,
affirmed that his highly wrought music full of exquisite effects of color [...]
is unlikely ever to be popular; but those with a taste for recondite art will
continue to be fascinated by its rarefied and ecstatic beauty.3 Even those
who appreciate Szymanowskis artistry have acknowledged his passion for
complexity (often for its own sake). Stuckenschmidt blamed this on his
aristocratic dislike of the commonplace, which made him afraid of being
too easily understood a fear that is somewhat decadent, yet immensely
creative and fertile .4 When Szymanowski made two trips to the United
States in the early 1920s in order to publicise his works, his own publisher
in anything concrete, since he did not think that Americans possessed
the complex sensitivity required to appreciate Szymanowskis subtle and
intricate appeal.5
The difficulties Szymanowski presents to performers are also staggering.
His piano works, for instance, are often written on three staves, displaying
contrapuntal intricacies that challenge both the pianists physical skills and
his or her ability to understand how these multiple levels of action should
interact.6 Szymanowski also uses a variety of technical effects and virtuoso
passages (such as the superimposed tremolos, fluttering arpeggios, and
rapid repeated notes often found in his middle period) that keep his works
inaccessible to many. While other composers are also known for writing
exceedingly difficult pieces, it can be argued that Szymanowskis unpopularity
might be partially attributed to his unwillingness to compromise creating
some works that might have been more commercially accessible to amateurs,
for instance. Even when the technical demands are not transcendent, his
pieces have other stumbling blocks for the performer: his Mazurkas op.50
and op.62, for instance, are not easily understood (nor memorised), due to
their complex harmonies and asymmetrical phrase structures.
Szymanowskis music has also been prone to cause puzzlement among
theorists. Theorys desire to organise music into models and systems is of
course necessary, but it often leaves gaps in our musical understanding.
The positivistic wish to find an explanation for everything goes unfulfilled
in many of Szymanowksis works, something that might create deep
consternation and reprobation amongst certain individuals. As Joseph
Kerman correctly points out, ideologies often lurk behind the faade of
the musical times Autumn 2009 43
44 The narrative of a composers biography: some aspects of Szymanowski reception
7. Joseph Kerman: How
we got into analysis, and
how to get out, in Critical
Inquiry 7/2 (Winter 1980),
pp.31131.
8. Kerman: How we got into
analysis, p.318.
9. Indeed, some of
Szymanowskis pieces
seem to present what
Gary Saul Morson names
sideshadowing, multiple
plotlines that deviate from
linear narrative . Morson
finds that this parallels
how temporality unfolds in
real life, in an unplanned
and contingent way. He
also cites Tolstoy as one
author who achieved this
quality, planting many red
herrings in his plots that
could develop into multiple
outcomes, but are abandoned
instead. Szymanowskis
music often has a similar
feeling: it could develop into
many directions at a given
moment, but does not follow
through with each one of its
suggestions. See a description
of Morsons ideas in Maiko
Kawabata: The narrating
voice in Rimsky-Korsakovs
Scheherazade , in Women &
Music: A Journal of Gender
and Culture 4 (2000), p.31.
10. Cruz-Peres seems to be
the exception, presenting
four periods: Warsaw,
Viennese, Impressionistic,
and Nationalistic. This
greater nuance convincingly
separates his early period
into two phases, the first
one more connected with
Chopin, Scriabin and the
older Germans, while
the second one under
the influence of Strauss
and Reger. See Horacio
Antonio Cruz-Perez: The
piano sonatas of Karol
Szymanowski (Ph.D.
dissertation, Northwestern
University, 1987), pp.1618.
pure and objective analysis.7 When a system explains pieces according
to their organicism, for example, one is implicitly presented with a value
system that validates those pieces that have this quality. Kerman believes the
epitome of such a line of thinking to be Rudolph Rti naively asking why
every note in a Beethoven sonata should be exactly that one note rather than
some other.8 If one indeed considers musical value to be anything remotely
like this, a piece by Szymanowski replete with casual passing commentaries,
superfluous details, and passages that may suggest multifarious outcomes
would indeed not be considered highly.9
The many musical influences that he absorbed into a motley whole
throughout his lifetime also do not make the task of analysing his oeuvre
any easier. Most authors divide Szymanowskis output into three periods:10
the earlier period was heavily influenced by his upbringing in German
music, and coloured by Chopin and Scriabin, the middle (Impressionistic)
period revealed his newfound passion for French music and used extra-
musical narratives as a tool to free him from academic straightjackets,11
and the final period (after the reunification of Poland) attempted to forge
a nationalistic style, using folk sources inspired by the barbarism12 of
Bartk and Stravinsky13 and providing a cleaner presentation that would
be more in tune with the Neue Sachlichkeit that was in vogue in the arts
after the First World War.14 Even though any division of this sort is by
nature forced, since a persons artistic features unlikely display such abrupt
changes, Szymanowski himself thought of his career this way,15 describing
11. In fact, he used extra- [which, for him, is best important in his development,
musical narratives in all his expressed in the Stabat but Szymanowski did not
periods, but in the middle Mater]. See Roger Scruton: appreciate Stravinskys later
one they were more frequent, Between decadence and neoclassical phase, and had
and he was not as reticent barbarism: the music of caustic words about Oedipus
in publicly accepting them. Szymanowski, in Micha rex.
Wightman believes that the Bristiger, Roger Scruton,
explicitly programmatic and Petra Weber-Bockholdt, 14. Kijanowska presents
content of Mythes marked edd.: Karol Szymanowski a succinct description of
a new departure for the in seiner Zeit (Munich, how the New Objectivity
composer, who became [c.1984]), p.170. Scruton is ideals appeared in the works
thereafter more self-assured always unapologetically of composers as diverse
in his artistic visions. opinionated, which is as Stravinsky, Prokofiev,
See Wightman: Karol refreshing amongst many Schoenberg and Hindemith.
Szymanowski, p.144. musical commentators who See Anna Kijanowska:
carefully find refuge in Twenty mazurkas op.50
12. Incidentally, Scruton anodyne and insipid writing; and two mazurkas op.62
intensely dislikes the however, his conclusions of Karol Szymanowski:
frenzied, nagging here reveal some of the rediscovery of folk material
barbarism of Szymanowski; biases that Szymanowskis and new objectivity (DMA
paraphrasing Bernard music has frequently dissertation, Manhattan
Shaw, he believes that encountered, as will be School of Music, 2003).
Szymanowskis journey explored later.
from decadence to barbarism 15. See Jim Samson: The
passed through a glorious 13. The early ballets and music of Szymanowski
period of civilization Les noces were particularly (London, 1980), p.89.

16. Orga: Karol
Szymanowski, p.4.
17. As described by Jim
Samson: The use of
analytical models in the
analysis of Szymanowskis
harmonic writing, in
Bristiger et al, edd.: Karol
Szymanowski, pp.14957.
18. James M. Breckenridge:
The early music of Karol
Szymanowski: a stylistic and
structural analysis (DMA
dissertation, American
Conservatory of Music,
1985), p.81.
19. Yung-Ching Yang:
The variations in B flat
minor, opus 3 of Karol
Szymanowski: an analysis
of performance challenges
and solutions (DMA
dissertation, Ohio State
University, 2002), pp.1426.
20. Samson finds that his
lifelong susceptibility to
musical influence [...] is more
disturbing in later works.
See Samson: The music, p.79.
This already hints at another
reason for Szymanowkis fate
as a minor composer, as we
shall see later.
21. Wightman: Karol
Szymanowski, p.38.
22. After this piece,
Szymanowski feared that
he would earn the epithet
unspiel- und unsingbarer
Komponist (quoted
in his correspondence how different events and situations allowed him (or,
in some instances, forced him) to reach these new artistic phases. However,
this division should imply neither a clean break nor a smooth transition
between styles; rather, Szymanowskis music takes the appearance of a
palimpsest, constantly acquiring new influences that are superimposed to old
ones, creating then a unique combination that lives in spite of (or because
of ) its contradictions. As Ates Orga pointedly describes, Szymanowskis art
constantly transcends/denounces its early Teutonic allegiances16 present
in his fondness for counterpoint (his three piano sonatas each end with a fugal
movement, for instance) and in his full-blooded passages that betray more
traditional harmonic organisations17 even as he moves towards different
spheres of influence. His French textures also make cameo appearances
in some later works, and he never really abandons the greater harmonic
diversity that French music provided him with.
From his Preludes op.1 and Etudes op.4, Szymanowski already presents a
degree of sophistication that, according to James M. Breckenridge, reveal[s]
an understanding of Chopins music that goes beyond the surface,18
besides displaying significant parallels to Scriabins music. His Variations
op.3, nevertheless, are more indebted to Brahms and Schumann, as shown
by Yung-Ching Yang in great minutiae.19 While this is to be expected of a
young composer, as Szymanowskis progress continues, his list of influences
la Don Giovanni keeps growing.20 His First Sonata op.8, a self-
conscious serious work21 with many gauche passages, seems to emulate
Beethoven (along with the other usual suspects), while his Fantasia op.14,
alludes to Liszts world with its cyclic form and its pianistic effects.22 The
Second Sonata op.21, a hypertrophic colossus that Breckenridge considers
the apex of his neo-romantic idiom,23 is highly indebted to Reger and, three
years later, by the time Szymanowski composed his middle-period triptychs
(Mtopes op.29, Mythes op.30, and Masques op.34), he was already engaged
with his uniquely personal dialogue24 between German Romanticism and
French Impressionism, never forgetting the influence of Scriabin and his
mystic chord, as Donald Zent is at pains to demonstrate.25
Not only can Szymanowskis music not be subsumed under a consistent
logic (due to this incredible variety), but Szymanowski himself never wished
to look for such logic. As both Samson and Scruton concur, his approach
is less systematic than Scriabin or Schoenberg; while Szymanowski had to
in Wightman: Karol Szymanowski, p.7). models, p.150).
Szymanowski, p.46). Orga
also commented on its 23. Breckenridge: The early 25. Donald Zent: The
Lisztian muscular virtuoso music, p.95. harmonic language of Karol
pianism [... and] its tendency Szymanowskis Metopes and
to substitute rhetoric for 24. The phrase is Samsons Masques (DMA dissertation,
substance (Orga: Karol (The use of analytical Indiana University, 1988).
the musical times Autumn 2009 45
46 The narrative of a composers biography: some aspects of Szymanowski reception
26. Scruton: Between
decadence and barbarism,
p.159.
27. Samson: The use of
analytical models, p.149.
In 1927, Adrian Collins
remarked that Szymanowski
was a man of finer musical
endowment than Scriabin,
whose later compositions
seem to be absolutely
stifled by the rigidity of his
method. Quoted by Ann
Louise Kosakowski: Karol
Szymanowskis mazurkas:
cyclic structure and
harmonic language (Ph.D.
dissertation, Yale University,
1980), p.5.
28. Kosakowski: Karol
Szymanowskis mazurkas,
p.248.
29. He believes that tonal
expectations operate
frequently at a local level,
but it would be inappropriate
to look for an overall tonal
centre. He also believes in
the usefulness of Schenkerian
analysis, since Szymanowski
always displayed a
consciousness of long-range
linear motions in the bass;
however, Samson explores
the value of other analytical
tactics as well, such as Rtis
concept of pantonality, and
the theories of Lendvai,
Chailley, Siohan, and
Krenek. See Samson: The
use of analytical models.
30. Marylynn Louise
Fletcher: Pitch constructions
in the Masques, op.34 of
deal with the breaking apart of tonality as any other early 20th-century
composer, he did not have the Teutonic propensity to consider theory as an
essential part of [the] solution,26 making him feel no strong need to replace
traditional tonal organization with alternative unifying disciplines.27 His
instinctive approach was an intrinsic part of his compositional ethos, but this
made his pieces hazardous for future generations of theorists. Therefore,
the best analyses of his music have been those that accepted it as it is, and
used various procedures in order to describe it. This has been the approach
taken by Ann Louise Kosakowski in her description of his Mazurkas,28 and
by Samson, who realises that different passages must be approached from
different analytical angles.29 Conversely, the least effective analyses of his
music have been done by those who, armed only with a hammer, consider
everything to consist of nails. Marylynn Louise Fletchers application of set
theory, for instance, discovers four cells (0125, 015, 025, 026) in Masques, but
laments that she could not discover a larger system which incorporates all
these pitch constructions.30 Coupled with this admission comes the implicit
assumption that, because she could not find this overarching system, it does
not exist, which consequently detracts from the pieces value. Another
quantitative approach has been Zents attempt to decipher Szymanowskis
style in the middle-period piano triptychs. His thorough analysis culminates
in the description of Szymanowskis 27 [!] preferred chords; while much
of what he writes is useful, he also creates the misguided impression that
it is possible to find total cogency in his works (something that, obviously,
is not convincingly achieved), and he often perpetrates the sin of cherry-
picking, arbitrarily choosing notes that fit his predetermined sonorities.31
These issues already show how our evaluations are not unbiased; we
require certain criteria in order to make them. There would be nothing
wrong with that, except that we often use these criteria unquestioningly,
based on premises that have been inherited from different composers in
different contexts. Therefore, before discussing the value of Szymanowskis
music, it is advisable that the analyst undergo a self-examination to reveal
what sort of implicit judgments are present in his or her analysis, and it is
essential that the analyses apply standards that are appropriate to the works
in hand. Furthermore, all of Szymanowskis influences not only create a
problem for the analysis of his music (which, as we have seen, will inevitably
create value judgments), but they have also been used in order to malign
Szymanowskis capacity as a composer. From his early years, Szymanowski
Karol Szymanowski (DMA 31. See, for instance, his chords are absolutely
dissertation, University of identification of precise inaudible, but there could
Texas at Austin, 1984), p.66. sonorities in the rapid be other ways of logically
Was she perhaps looking for figuration at the beginning grouping those notes
the wrong thing in the wrong of the first movement together. Donald Zent: The
place? of Metopes. Not only his harmonic language, p.115.

32. Both criticisms were
made by Polinski; the
first one was addressed
to both Szymanowski
and his colleagues at the
Young Poland in Music
group, and the second one
was specifically directed
at Szymanowskis First
Symphony (which he
withdrew after a couple
of performances). Quoted
in Wightman: Karol
Szymanowski, pp.54, 6869.
33. Karol Szymanowski,
ed. Alistair Wightman:
Szymanowski on music:
selected writings of Karol
Szymanowski (London,
1999), p.99. The critic in this
case was Piotr Ryel.
34. Jim Samson:
Szymanowski and Polish
Nationalism, in The Musical
Times vol.131 no.1765 (March
1990), pp.13537.
35. Breckendridge: The early
works, p.19.
36. See Lloyd Whitesell:
Men with a past: music and
the anxiety of influence ,
in 19th-Century Music 18/2
(Autumn 1994), pp.15267.
37. Stephen Downes:
Szymanowski, eroticism
and the voices of mythology
(Burlington, VT, 2003), p.13.
was accused of being a parrot vainly imitating the voices of Wagner and
Strauss, not having the right to be called a composer, only a copyist. And
there is no Pantheon for copyists.32 Later in his life, Szymanowski himself
published a response to another critic, saying that he does not see my real
face behind these masks, which, one after another, he would have me wear,
and asserts that I really do not have a face of my own at all.33
These accusations would persist throughout his life, and would help
tarnish his image for posterity. While patriotism probably helped the Polish
establishment to overcome its initial misgivings about him, the rest of the
musical world was content with labelling him as a composer who did not
possess a strong authorial voice. He has been depicted as someone who,
unsure of his direction, [...] wander[ed] aimlessly among the byways
of contemporary European music,34 someone whose career can be best
described as a journey from one sphere of influence to another in his lifelong
quest to find his own stylistic voice.35 Some authors came to his defence by
showing how all of his stylistic changes ultimately do not affect his true
self displayed in his tendency to escape to faraway or imaginary lands
and eras, and in the ecstatic fervour that pervades all of his periods and by
arguing that his music is unlike anything else in the Western canon. While
these attempts are justified and correct, the main issue remains untouched:
Szymanowskis perception by posterity is tainted by what Harold Bloom
calls the anxiety of influence. Blooms sole and hagiographical concern
is to deal with those strong poets [...] with the persistence to wrestle with
their strong precursors, even to the death.36 His oedipal view demands that
the artist mis-read the works that have influenced him (with Bloom, the
artist even if female is most certainly a him), creating in the process
something that strongly asserts the individuals independence from the past.
As Downes explains, an artist who deviates from this ideal, who is not seen
as a fecund procreator of child-texts37 that are uniquely his own, will have
his authorial voice revoked by society. Nevertheless, even those artists who
do successfully achieve this position will inevitably live in a state of anxiety,
constantly trying to prove their individuality.
As Whitesell mentions, Blooms theory can be useful if considered as a
description of a patriarchal tradition, even though Bloom himself presents it
in quite prescriptive terms. In many ways, the tradition he describes remains,
if not the dominant view to determine how we perceive Western art, at
least an extremely influential one. There have always been exceptions,
successful individuals who have assumed (at least partially) a position of
humility, gratitude, and great joy in their relationships with the powerful
dead (Whitesell mentions a few of these individuals: Roethke, Britten,
Schumann, TS Eliot and Walt Whitman); however, in general, Blooms view
is the one that most powerfully determined how the creative artist is to be
the musical times Autumn 2009 47
48 The narrative of a composers biography: some aspects of Szymanowski reception
38. Whitesell: Men with a
past, p.154.
39. He complains once, for
instance, of the critics who
say that everything I do has
already been done before me
by Schoenberg, Debussy,
Skryabin e tutti quanti!
(quoted in Wightman:
Karol Szymanowski,
p.238). At another time,
he also claims, against the
evidence of his music, to
have been influenced by
Scriabin only in his early
compositions (Scruton:
Between decadence
and barbarism, p.174).
However, he also once
admitted that he was afraid
of the all-too-powerful
influence of Strausss
music. [...] I find myself
unwittingly succumbing to
its influence (Cruz-Peres:
The piano sonatas, p.199).
It is interesting, though, to
superimpose such comments
with his belief that a true
beautiful act is to create
constructively rather than
to destroy and annihilate
even [...] something] now
outworn (Wightman: Karol
Szymanowski p.233); in this,
he expresses his artistic credo
of synthesis between the
old and the new, something
diametrically opposed to
Blooms martial metaphors
of conquest.
40. Szymanowski:
Szymanowski on music,
pp.32425.
41. White: The historical
text, p.229.
42. This coherence is
the essential quality of
understood by our society. Accordingly, it not surprising that Szymanowski
has been banished to the lower ranks.38
Interestingly, Szymanowski himself was well aware of his own anxiety
of influence; despite being an artist who humbly absorbed all sorts of
influences (without forcing them to become his own), he too felt the societal
urge to claim his artistic independence.39 Moreover, he was keenly aware
of the difficulties his biographers would face in the future; as he himself
admitted in the introduction to his never-completed autobiography, the
confused content and the deceptive ambiguity and many-sidedness of his
life obscure his deepest being. For everything depends on interpretation.40
It is revealing to observe how his views closely imbricate with Hayden
White s notion of history as narrative, mentioned in the beginning of this
article. It is particularly enlightening to dwell on Whites comment that our
explanation of historical structures [... is] thus determined more by what we
leave out of our representations than by what we put in.41 Furthermore,
just as White argues that history is made understandable only by using
literary techniques that familiarly tell us how the events are organised into
one coherent whole,42 Szymanowski believed that only a literary genius
such as Dostoyevsky could find the integral man that was hidden beneath
the superficial incongruities of his personal and artistic life.
Through the prism of Blooms theory, Szymanowski is seen as weak,
etiolated, mannered, peculiar; his style, like Rosens description of Brittens
music, is affected by a placid acquiescence that fails to assert itself.43 It
is interesting to notice that all these adjectives carry connotations that
traditionally have been perceived as feminine. Szymanowskis excessive
expression of ecstasy could also easily receive the hysteric label that has
often been hurled upon Tchaikovskys name.44 In fact, as one peruses the
words that have been attached to Szymanowskis music even by those who
claim to admire it one notices a common recurrence of these feminine
traits, such as his sensuality, his irrationality (the lack of rational
underpinnings to his music has already been shown in the analytical attempts
to explain it), his craftsmanship (as opposed to real art), his refinement,
his contemplativeness, his passivity, his receptiveness, and his charm the
latter feature being something that especially upsets Scruton, who thinks
a narrative as explained Men with a past, p.165. and Alfred Einstein who
by the philosopher Paul have complained about
Ricoeur. See his definition 44. The fact that these three Tchaikovskys pathological,
in Jann Pasler: Narrative composers were homosexual neurotic exhibitionism of
and narrativity in music, should not be neglected, but feeling, which made them
in JT Fraser, ed.: Time and this would entail a whole feel that this man is ill [...];
mind: interdisciplinary issues new discussion beyond must we be shown all his
(Madison, CT, 1989). the topic of this article. sores without exception?
Whitesell mentions a few of (Whitesell: Men with a
43. Mentioned by Whitesell: the authors Martin Cooper past, p.165).
45. Scruton also believes that
Szymanowski creates a need
for melody which he cannot
satisfy (Between decadence
and barbarism, p.163). His
melodies are often lacking
in vigor and appeal [... and]
have a studied, abstract,
quality, [...] leav[ing] the
listener cold. Indeed, he
goes to the extreme of saying
that his melodies fail to
be melodies. Of course,
Scruton can only speak for
himself, even though he
professes to judge from a
pedestal of enlightenment.
This would be akin to
affirming that Wagners
melodies are poor because
they lack the melodiousness
of Puccinis, when in fact
they are completely different
entities, governed by
completely different criteria.
If one is to appreciate
Szymanowkis artistry (his
melodies included), one
should not judge it according
to foreign standards.
Maciejewski actually makes
the opposite point, praising
Szymanowkis capacity
for writing convincing
melody except for the
brief Viennese period
when he had been listening
to too much Reger. See
BM Maciejewski: Karol
Szymanowski: his life and
music (London, 1967), p.81.
46. Mentioned by Wightman:
Karol Szymanowski, p.134.
47. Due to a knee injury in
childhood, he was exempt
from serving in the war.
Incidentally, this knee
injury also forced him to
be more isolated during his
childhood, which might have
deepened his introspective
nature.
48. Christopher Palmer:
Szymanowski (London,
1983), p.100.
49. Mentioned in Palmer:
Szymanowski, p.16.
that Szymanowski tends to use it to disguise his lack of true substance.45 It
is quite possible that these gender biases, combined with the other factors
mentioned above, also contributed to the deleterious effect that kept his
pieces out of the mainstream repertoire. However, if one were to reverse
one s unconscious prejudices, and value works that emphasise exactly the
characteristics described above, Szymanowski would then undoubtedly rise
in this new pantheon of composers as one of its foremost exponents.
Last but not least, one would be remiss not to explore some biographical
details that might also have contributed to the neglect that Szymanowskis
work has suffered. It is recognised by all of his biographers that as an
individual he was rather introverted and averse to publicly claiming attention
(just as much as he craved attention, another one of his contradictions).
Chylinska, for example, comments on his dislike of descending to the
market-place ,46 even though he wanted to be a celebrated composer. She
also conjectures that his outburst of productivity during the war years was
partly caused by the fact that he had the perfect alibi to hide himself in the
composing hut of his Ukrainian state.47 Palmer also discusses how he did not
have the psychological makeup to somehow galvaniz[e] the world around
him into purposeful activity on his behalf .48 Artur Rubinstein, his lifelong
friend, was one of the people who spurred Szymanowski to visit the United
States looking for supporters to his art. However, he soon was dismayed by
Szymanowskis reticence: Karol [...] suffered from agoraphobia and was
exceedingly reserved with strangers. He also had an aversion to showing
his works to musicians who had not already heard of him. He would say,
I hate to pass exams at my age! 49 It is a fair speculation to say that, had
Szymanowski possessed more flair to promote himself, he might have
encountered greater success during his lifetime and posthumously.
Other personal factors to contribute to his reduced notoriety would
include his aristocratic dislike of working to commission, especially if the
person commissioning the piece had some specific request;50 this might have
led him to reject many potential successes in his career, besides increasing
the financial burden in which he found himself after the Bolsheviks
expropriated his estate during the 1917 Revolution. Even repeated requests
from his esteemed friends Rubinstein and Smeterlin for him to write them a
piano concerto were never fully realised.51 He indeed had a history of bad
50. See Karol Szymanowski: and 44. After Szymanowski more for Szymanowskis
Karol Szymanowski and Jan temporarily assuaged career had he received
Smeterlin: correspondence and his desire by writing the a virtuoso concerto as
essays (London, [between Symphonie-Concertante, he desired. It is indeed
1969 and 1972]), p.32. Smeterlin goes back to his somewhat surprising that
original request in p.77. Rubinstein did not record
51. See n.50. Smeterlins Rubinstein, who was the much of his friends music,
letters show a litany of dedicatee of the symphony, in spite of professing a
these requests; see pp.31, 35 would arguably had done strong admiration for it.
the musical times Autumn 2009 49
50 The narrative of a composers biography: some aspects of Szymanowski reception

decisions that would affect his career; he often spent monumental amounts
of time indulging in a languid and dandified lifestyle, wasting money and
creating health problems due to his continuous drinking and smoking
(habits that, if avoided, could have arguably prevented his early death at the
age of 55, allowing him more time to compose and to publicise his work).
Another decision that could have been positive to both his finances and his
health would have been to accept the directorship of the Cairo conservatory
in the late 1920s, rather than taking a much lower-paid similar position in
Warsaw (with its cold climate), where he would eventually become involved
in innummerable arguments that would generate even greater rancour
towards him among certain areas of the Polish establishment (he indeed had
the knack for antagonising many Polish critics and musicians throughout
his life). Alternatively, one might believe that, had he moved to Paris or
Vienna in the 1920s, where his music was more appreciated, he would have
been fted as one of the leading composers of his day, rather than remaining
in backward and antagonistic Warsaw.
While it is certainly fascinating to look at History with the benefit of
hindsight, the fact of the matter is that probably none of these individual
factors would have assured greater receptivity to Szymanowskis music
nowadays (but the combination of them might, though). Among this
myriad of reasons that claim to demonstrate why Szymanowski is not
more renowned, one can indeed see a pattern that suggests how things
could have been different, if only... Yet, ultimately, all that remains is ones
own personal involvement with his music. There are musicians with great
discernment who do not consider Szymanowski to be underrated at all; for
them, he gets exactly the renown he deserves according to his compositional
abilities. There are others, however, who never cease to admire the deep
beauty that seems only to grow with the repeated exposure to his music.
To these individuals, it is certainly a terrible injustice that not more people
have been exposed to Szymanowskis music and, for them, it is evident that
Historys judgment is not always dependable and, hopefully, does not have
to be eternal.