Karol Szymanowski

Karol Szymanowski was born in Tymoszówka (modern-day Ukraine) on October 3, 1882. His father began his musical education and continued to study at Neuhaus’s school in Elisavetgrad until moving to Warsaw in 1901. For the next three years, Szymanowski had private lessons with Zawirski on harmony and counterpoint and composition with Zygmunt Noskowski. Szymanowski’s compositions can be placed into four categories: his early period (influenced by Strauss, Wagner, and Scriabin), World War I period (influenced by Islamic culture and Ancient Greek drama), 1920s (heavily influenced by Podhale and Kurpie folk music), and 1930s (return to original style). He traveled extensively in Germany, Italy, France, and England and returned to Tymoszówka in 1914-17 with a renewed spirit for composition until his family had to move to Elisavetgrad after his house was destroyed and ultimately settling in Warsaw in 1919. 

Szymanowski was offered director positions at conservatories in Cairo and Warsaw, and accepted the position in Warsaw with the aspiration to revive Polish music education and create a new generation of Polish composers. However, Szymanowski’s health took a turn due to physical and nervous stress. After spending time at a sanatorium in Davos, Szymanowski rented a house in Zakopane and was appointed as the rector of the Warsaw Academy of Music. Szymanowski died shortly after a move to a sanatorium in Lausanne on March 24, 1937.

Works featured in our catalog include:

Title of Work Poet
Daleko został cały świat Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer
Tyś nie urmała Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer
We mgłach Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer
Czasem, gdy długo, na półsennie marzę Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer
Słyszałem ciebie Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer
Pielgrzym Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer
Święty Boże Jan Kasprowicz
Jestem i płaczę Jan Kasprowicz
Błogosławioną niech będzie ta chwila Jan Kasprowicz
Zulejka Stanisław Barącz
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