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University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
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Karol Szymanowski and his Stabat Mater
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Karol Szymanowski and his Stabat Mater
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Content
KAROL SZYMANOWSKI AND HIS
STABAT MATER
by
Kuan-Fen Liu
A Treatise Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC THORNTON SCHOOL OF MUSIC
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS
(CHORAL MUSIC)
December 2010
Copyright 2010 Kuan-Fen Liu
ii
DEDICATION
To my parents. Father, Chi-Tien Liu (1941-2000), mother, Hui-Jen Lu, for their
love, dedication, and inspiration.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My husband and our daughter, for their patience and support.
My teachers and mentors: Dr. Victor Shen (Tunghai University, Taichung,
Taiwan), Dr. William Weinert (Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York), Dr.
David Wilson (University of Southern California), and Dr. William Dehning (University
of Southern California).
A special thank you to Dr. Jo-Michael Scheibe, Chairperson, Dr. Nick Strimple,
Dr. Cristian Grases, and Dr. Debora Huffman for their guidance, and to the Polish Music
Center at the University of Southern California.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication ii
Acknowledgements iii
List of Figures vi
Abstract x
Introduction 1
A Preview of the Organization of the Remainder of the Paper 3 Chapter One: Karol Szymanowski 4
Family Background and Early Years 4
Young Poland in Music 5
His Musical Style 6
French Influence 7
Folk Influence 8
His Final Years 11
Public Recognition 11
Brief Survey of Szymanowski’s Composition 12
Orchestral and Piano Works 13
Stage Works 14
Song and Orchestral Works 15
Chapter Two: Stabat Mater: Discussion and Analysis 17
Stabat Mater: A Medieval Sequence 17
The Genesis of Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater 17
The Relationship of the Music to the Text 19
The Orchestration and Its Effect on the Music 21
Analysis 26
Table 1: The General Outline of the Work 28
Movement I. Stała Matka bolejaca – 47
Stabat Mater dolorosa
Movement II. I któwidzac tak cierpiaca – 51
Quis est homo qui non fleret
Movement III. O Matko, zródlo wszechmilosci – 57
Eja Mater, fons amoris
Movement IV. Spraw niech placze z Toba razm – 58
Fac me tecum pie flere
Movement V. Panno słodka racz mozoł – 62
v
Virgo virginum praeclara
Movement VI. Chrysus niech mi będzie grodem – 66
Christe, cum sithinc exire
Chapter Three: Rehearsal and Performance Challenges and Suggested Solutions 68
From the Study and the Analysis 68
Conducting Issues 70
Chapter Four: Conclusion 72
Bibliography 74
Appendixes:
Appendix A: A List of Karl Szymanowski’s Compositions 76
Appendix B: Podhale and the Tatra Mountains 80
Appendix C: Stabat Mater with English Translation 82
Appendix D: Polish Language Pronunciation Guidelines 85
vi
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Szymanowski Mazurkas op. 50, No. 6 10
Figure 2: Movement V: Panno słodka racz mozoł (mm 22-30) 22
Figure 3: Movement I: Stała Matka (mm. 1-9) 23
Figure 4: Movement III: O Matko, zródlo wszechmilosci (mm 14-17). 24
Among the string divisi played unison in octaves
Figure 5: Movement II: I któwidzac tak cierpiaca (mm. 1-8). 24
Doublebass divisi play glissandi
Figure 6: Movement III, (mm 1-5) 26
Figure 7: Movement II: I któwidzac tak cierpiaca, (mm.13-16). 30
Parallel thirds can be found within the chorus parts,
and between the flutes, the clarinets, horns III and IV,
the trumpets, first Violin divisi, and cello divis.
Figure 8: Movement VI: Chrystus niech mi bedzie grodem, (mm.1-4) 31
Parallel thirds Between Clarinet I and II.
Figure 9: Movement V: Niechaj pod nim razem stoje, 31
parallel sixths between sopranos and basses,
parallel thirds between altos and tenors (mm. 70-78)
Figure 10: Movement I: Stała Matka, (mm. 4-9). 31
Paralle fifths in the French horn section.
Figure 11: Movement I: Stała Matka, women’s chorus (mm. 38-47). 32
Parallel triads in Women Voices.
Figure 12: Movement III: O Matko, zrówszechmilosci, 33
triads in its first inversion among flutes,
Clarinet sand French horns (mm. 18-21).
Figure 13: Movement I: Stała Matka (mm. 14-19). 34
Long and sustaining pedal point
in the lower strings and in timpani.
vii
Figure 14: Movement VI: Chrystus niech mi bedzie grodem (mm. 25-27). 35
Long and sustaining pedal point occurs
in the lower strings and in timpani.
Figure 15: Movement I: Stała Matka, flute I, (m.1) (top score), 36
and Gorzkie źale (Lenten Psalm), m.1-2 (bottom score).
Figure 16: Movement V: Panno słodka racz mozoł (mm. 1-3). 37
Adapting the Podhalean mode from the Polish folk music.
Figure 17: Movement V: Virgo virginum, 39
between violin I and II (mm. 45-49)
Figure 18: Movement II: Quis est homo, 39
between celli and double bass (mm. 1-4)
Figure 19: Movement V: Niechaj pod nim razem stoje, (mm. 63-69) 41
Pedal point on c on the organ pedal, the cellos, and the double
bass divisi.
Figure 20: Movement I: Stała Matka, string section (mm. 11-13) 42
Figure 21: Movement I: Stała Matka, string section (mm. 61-63) 43
Figure 22: Movement I: Stała Matka, (m. 4). Two super-imposed chords. 44
Figure 23: Movement II: I któwidzac tak cierpiaca, (mm.12-15). 45
Off-beat accent to achieve text painting.
Figure 24: Szymanowski, Stabat Mater, 46
No. 2 I któwidzac tak cierpiaca, (mm. 1-4).
Use of ostinato found in the harp, celli, and in double bass.
Figure 25: Movement I: Stała Matka, (mm. 37-39). 47
Ostinato found in the harp, viola, and celli.
Figure 26: Movement I: Stała Matka, clarinet solo (mm. 62-66). 49
Figure 27: Movement I: Stała Matka, soprano solo (mm. 14-17). 50
Figure 28: Movement I: Stała Matka, chorus (mm. 20-24). 50
Parallel thirds between soprano and alto.
viii
Figure 29: Movement I: Stała Matka, chorus (mm. 39-48). 51
Parallel triads in root position.
Figure 30: Movement II: I któwidzac tak cierpiaca, (mm. 1-4). 53
Off beat ostinato.
Figure 31: Movement II: I któwidzac tak cierpiaca, (mm. 2-4). 54
French horns I & II and viola divisi
The cyclic theme from the fist movement occurs
between the French horns and the violas.
Figure 32: Movement II: I któwidzac tak cierpiaca, chorus (mm. 12-16). 54
The cyclic theme appears again in the chorus.
Figure 33: Movement II: I któwidzac tak cierpiaca, (mm. 30-34). 55
Baritone Solo sings the cyclic theme with the chorus
and the orchestra fully engaged playing fortissimo.
Figure 34: Movement II: I któwidzac tak cierpiaca (mm. 13-17). 57
Soprano and tenor Sing unison in octaves;
alto and bass also sing unison in octaves.
Figure 35: Movement III: O Matko, zródlo wszechmilosci, 58
opening duet (mm. 1-5). Portion of the cyclic theme occurs
between the clarinet solo and the alto solo.
Figure 36: Movement IV: Spraw niech placze z Toba razm (mm. 43-52) 60
Last seven measures soprano and alto solo in octaves, choir
in parallel thirds.
Figure 37: Movement V: Panno słodka racz mozoł (mm. 7-8) 62
Figure 38: Movement V: Panno słodka racz mozoł (mm. 14-19). 63
Baritone solo, soprano and flute I in canon.
Figure 39: Movement V: Panno słodka racz mozoł (mm. 63-69). Hemiola. 65
Figure 40: Movement VI: Chrysus niech mi będzie grodem (mm. 2-5). 66
ix
Figure 41: Francis Poulenc: Stabat Mater. VI. Vidit suum. 67
Opening soprano solo.
Figure 42: Movement VI: Chrysus niech mi będzie grodem (mm. 1-4). 67
Cyclic theme in parallel thirds between clarinet I and II.
x
ABSTRACT
Karol Szymanowski is one of the more influential composers of the twentieth-
century. In Poland, he is called the father of Polish contemporary music. His music has
influenced many subsequent Polish composers. The intent of this treatise is to highlight
the composer’s biography, acknowledge his musical influences, and to discuss his
compositions with a detailed analysis on his choral orchestral composition, Stabat Mater. Stabat Mater was a commission from a Warsaw businessman Bronislaw Krystall
in memory of his wife Isabella. It was composed in 1925 and 1926. It is scored for
soprano, alto and baritone solo, SATB choir and orchestra. Szymanowski chose Jozef
Janowski’s (1865-1935) Polish translation of the Stabat Mater as the text. The work is
approximately twenty-six minutes long and is divided into six different movements. The world premiere of Stabat Mater took place on 11 January 1929 with the
Warsaw Philharmonic, without the composer being present, as he was ill. The soloists
were Stanisława Korwin-Szymanowska (the composer's sister), Halina Leska and
Eugeniusz Mossakowski, and Grzegorz Fitelberg conducted. Many critics hailed the
piece as Szymanowski's greatest work. The composer himself spoke of Stabat Mater as a
work in which the expression of his creativity had fully crystallized. Chapter One of the treatise will discuss the composer’s family background,
childhood, and his young adulthood as a member of the Young Poland in Music. This
chapter will also discuss his musical styles, influences, and will provide a survey of his
compositional output.
xi
Chapter Two will focus on a discussion and analysis of his Stabat Mater.
Included in this chapter is a discussion of the genesis of the Stabat Mater, the relationship
of the music to the text, and the orchestration and it’s influence on the music. In addition,
this chapter will provide a detailed movement by moment analysis including musical
Figures. Chapter Three will examine the proposed rehearsal techniques and acknowledge
the performance challenges and suggest potential solutions. Score preparation and
conducting issues will also be discussed in this chapter.
1
INTRODUCTION Stabat Mater of Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) was composed in 1925 and
1926. It is scored for three soloists: soprano, alto and baritone, SATB choir and orchestra
(double woodwind, 4 French horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, percussions, and strings) and
sets Jozef Janowski’s (1865-1935) Polish translation of the Marian hymn, Stabat Mater.
The work is approximately twenty-six minutes long and is divided into six different
movements. According to the composer, in an interview given to Mateusz Glinski (1892-
1976) and later printed in one of Glinski’s journals Muzyka, Szymanowski said that he
wanted to compose religious music in the vernacular, not a requiem for a liturgical
setting.
1
Therefore, this music is set in Polish, and the work is filled with unusual
orchestration, widely varying styles, colors, and moods, and treats the traditional text in
non-traditional ways.
The world premiere of Stabat Mater took place on 11 January 1929 with the
Warsaw Philharmonic, without the composer being present, as he was ill. The soloists
were Stanisława Korwin-Szymanowska (the composer's sister), Halina Leska and
Eugeniusz Mossakowski, and Grzegorz Fitelberg conducted. Many critics hailed the
piece as Szymanowski's greatest work. The composer himself spoke of Stabat Mater as a
work in which the expression of his creativity had fully crystallized. This treatise will examine Karol Szymanowski as one of the more influential
composers of the twentieth century, the father of Polish contemporary music, his
compositional style, and his musical career. It will survey his compositions and study
1
Mateusz Glinski, interview, translated by Alistair Wightman, Muzyka, 111/12 (1926): 597-599.
2
his Stabat Mater with detailed analysis of the structure of the music, the orchestration, the
relationship between the text and the music, and the vocal writing. Karol Szymanowski is among the more influential composers of the twentieth-
century. In Poland he is called the father of Polish contemporary music, and his music
has influenced many subsequent Polish composers particularly Roman Maciejewski
(1910-1998),Witold Lutosławski (1913-1994), and Henryk Górecki (b. 1933). Despite
this, Szymanowski is relatively unknown to people in the broader classical music world
and his music is rarely performed outside of Poland. Szymanowski’s music was first
thought of as being too modern, too dissonant and too intense but now, with decades of
change in the world music culture and listeners being exposed to many varieties of music,
Szymanowski’s work is considered to be more approachable, and appears more
frequently on programs. There are few scholarly materials written in English on Szymanowski and his
work. Information about his Stabat Mater found among existing reference works and
periodicals are very general and often repetitious; very few of the existing articles, books
and dissertations on this music include detailed analysis or suggestions on how to
approach, prepare, and teach this score. An article written by Richard Zielinski titled
Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937): The father of contemporary Polish choral music
(Choral Journal No. 46 September 2005, 8-24.) is the most comprehensive one among
all. It is the purpose of the current study to examine and analyze his background, style
and compositional method as they relate to his Stabat Mater, and to provide such an
analysis and performance guide.
3
A Preview of the Organization of the Remainder of the Paper
Chapter One of this paper will discuss the composer’s life, education and his
musical influences, as well as his role in the development of contemporary Polish music.
This chapter will also discuss Szymanowski as a writer, and the relationship between the
composer and Polish literature in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries.
Chapter Two will examine the medieval sequence Stabat Mater, discuss the genesis of
Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater, his choice of Jozef Janowski’s Stabat Mater in Polish, the
orchestration, and a movement-by-movement analysis of the work. Chapter Three will
detail the problems of rehearsals and propose possible solutions to these problems.
Chapter Four will summarize the salient points and indicate areas for future study. The
appendix will include a list of Karol Szymanowski’s compositions, a map and an
introduction of Podhale and the Tatra mountains, a chart of Stabat Mater text in Latin and
Polish with English translation, and Polish language pronunciation guidelines.
4
CHAPTER ONE KAROL SZYMANOWSKI
Polish composer and pianist Karol Szymanowski is one of the most outstanding
European composers of the twentieth century. His relatively short life was marked by
war, political revolution, culture transformation and extensive traveling, which brought
inspirations to his composition.
Family Background and Early Years
Szymanowski was born in Tymoszowka (present-day south Ukraine) in 1882 to
one of the many families who settled in Ukraine following the second partition of Poland
between 1772 and 1795. His mother, born Baroness Anna Taube, was of Swedish
extraction and his father was a Polish landowner. Szymanowski was the youngest in a
family of two boys and three girls. Art and music were an important part of their early
childhood education; Szymanowski and his siblings grew to pursue careers as musicians,
painters, and poets. Due to a leg injury at the age of four, Szymanowsky received his
childhood education at home, and was exempt from military service during World War I.
He began his piano study at age seven with his father and continued at Neuhaus’s school
(run by his relatives) in Elisavetgrad (present-day Kirowograd) from 1892 to 1901. In
1901, at the age of nineteen, he moved to Warsaw and attended the Warsaw Music
Institute (the forerunner of Warsaw Conservatory) to further pursue his studies. There
he studied harmony with Marek Zawirski and counterpoint and composition with
Zygmunt Noskowski.
5
Young Poland in Music
Although Poland had produced great composers and performers in the past, no
Polish composer since Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) had made an impact on the
international scene, and Warsaw was in, many ways, still a culturally isolated city ruled
by the Russian Empire at the end of the nineteenth century. However, at the beginning of
the twentieth century, along with the Young Poland Movement in Philosophy and
Literature (1890-1918), a group of young, talented, and ambitious Polish musicians
started receiving international recognition roughly between 1906-1912. These included
pianist Artur Rubinstein and violinist Pawel Kochanski. In summer of 1905,
Szymanowski along with three other Polish musicians (conductor, Grzegorz Fitelberg
[1878-1953]; composer, Ludomir Róźycki [1884-1953]; and composer and conductor,
Mieczysław Karłowicz [1876-1909]) met and organized themselves as “Young Poland in
Music” to promote and publish contemporary Polish Music. Prince Władysław
Lubomirski, who was an amateur composer himself, funded the group. Soon after the
group was formed, they planned a semi-private event where the composers connected to
the group appeared officially for the first time as the Publishing Group of Polish
Composers. It was on this occasion that compositions by Szymanowski were first
publicly performed.
Although the group stayed together for only a very short period of time, it was
through the “Young Poland in Music,” and the financial support of Prince Lubomirski
that Szymanowski’s music was performed and published in Poland and Germany
between 1905-1912. Compositions from this period include various forms of piano
6
music, and numerous songs with texts by young Polish poets such as Kazimierz Tetmajer
(1865-1940), Jan Kasprowicz (1860-1926), Wacław Berent (1873-1940) and Tadeusz
Miciński (1873-1918).
His Musical Style
Szymanowski’s compositions reflect his adoption of different musical styles
during different stages of his life. His composition is generally divided into four periods:
early career, the World War I period, the 1920s, and the 1930s.
His early work (1900-1906) indicates influences of Chopin and Alexander
Scriabin’s styles, which is very lyrical but also marked by sentimental sadness with a
tendency to dramatize.
2
An example of his composition from this period would be
Labedz (The Swan, 1904). From 1905 to 1908, Szymanowski lived mainly in Berlin and
Leipzig, and from 1908-1913 he spent time in Vienna. During these years, he intensively
studied the music of New German School music, then the predominant influence in
Europe, and his music shows the influence of composers such as Richard Wagner, Max
Reger and Richard Strauss among others. Representative compositions from this period
are: Concerto Overture (1905) and Second Symphony (1910).
In 1911 Szymanowski visited Sicily with his friend Stefan Spiess and was
particularly impressed with the blend of Greek, Roman, Norman and Moorish cultures.
This trip fired his imagination, and he began to store impressions of Sicily’s architecture,
history and landscape, which would later be put to good use in the opera King Roger.
3
In
2 Teresa Chylinska, Szymanovski, Karol, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vol. 18,
edited by Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 1980), 895.
3 ibid., 894.
7
the spring of 1914 he traveled to Algiers and Tunis. This journey significantly changed
both his music and his sense of himself. On this trip he became fascinated with world
culture, and, for the first time, recognized the need to understand himself as a
homosexual man.
French Influence
The influence of French music in Szymanowski’s music began when he visited
Paris and London after his trip to Algiers and Tunis. During his stay in Paris (early
summer of 1914), he was exposed to modern French music, and Impressionism in art and
music. He was drawn to the music of Debussy and Ravel and was influenced by their
styles of music, the writing of the harmony, in particular. The French influence became
apparent in the music he composed in Tymoszówka during World War I period (1914-
1918). Examples from this period include the Symphony No. 3, “Song of the Night”
(1916), Violin Concerto No. 1 (1916), Myths for Violin and Piano (1915) and the piano
triptychs Metopes (1915) and Masques (1916).
From 1914 to 1917 Szymanovski lived mostly in Tymoszowka where he was
isolated from Western Europe, but he undertook many journeys to visit Kiev, Moscow,
St. Petersburg and Odessa. Everywhere he went, he exposed himself to the regional
culture and music; he took notes of the new sounds and ideas he heard and made
significant impact on his music. Unfortunately, in the fall of 1917 during the October
Revolution the Szymanowski’s estate in Tymoszowka was burnt down, and the family
was made homeless and poor. As a result, the Szymanowski family was forced to move
to Elisavetgrad (a city in central Ukraine, formerly belonged to Poland). They lived there
8
for two years (1917-1919), during which; Szymanowski stopped composing music and
turned his focus to literature. In one of his letters to his friend, he wrote: “Can you
imagine … I cannot compose now…I am writing a bit – of course without any literary
aspirations - simply to get things out off my chest.”
4
He was in fact working on a full-
length novel Efebos, of which only fragments survived the Warsaw fires of 1939. On
Christmas Eve of 1919 after the end of the World War I, Szymanowski moved back to
Warsaw, now the capital of the newly independent Poland, along with the rest of his
family. The Szymanowski’s family was in serious financial distress after having sold
their property in Elisavetgard before returning to Warsaw. He stayed in Warsaw for a
few months (from the end of 1919 to early 1920) to look after his mother and sisters and
to help the family settling in. And in early 1920, he began travel widely again in Europe,
and visited America twice in 1921 and 1922 with his friends, violinist Pawel Kochanski
and pianist Artur Rubinstein. During their short sojourn in New Work City,
Szymanowski was a frequent visitor to the operas, concerts, theatres, and cinemas.
Together, they also gave concerts that met with critical success and acclaim.
Folk Influence
After having traveled all his life in search of ideas from beyond his native land; in
the 1920s, Szymanowski began his interest in Polish folk music, especially the music
from the Podhale mountain region (the Highland) around Zakopane. Podhale (literally
translates as "below the mountain glen") is located in the foothills of the Tatra range of
4
Chylinska. Szymanovski, Karol, 894.
9
the Carpathian mountains (see Appendix B). The region has a rich tradition of folklore
that is romanticized in the Polish patriotic imagination by poets and painters.
After Poland became free of the One hundred and twenty-three year Russian
domination, Szymanowski’s music took a new direction using Polish folk influences in
his music. This may also be related to the newfound nationism. The national identity in
music was no longer suppressed. Szymanowski wrote: ‘Let our music be national in its
Polish characteristics… but not falter in striving to attain universality. Let it be national,
but not provincial.’
5
Examples of folk influence in his music can be found in his 20
Mazurkas op. 50 (see Figure 1) and the ballet Harnasie.
5
Chylinska. Szymanovski, Karol, 895.
10
Figure 1: Szymanowski Mazurkas Op. 50, No. 6
11
His Final Years
Szymanowski had many of the characteristics that launch and sustain a musical
career: He was very ambitious, he was very intelligent, and had great personal charm. He
gathered around himself a large community of friends, musicians, and artists who shared
his ideas, admired his talent and were devoted to him. However, he also suffered from
depression, and smoked and drank excessively, all of which contributed to a rapid decline
in his health. In addition, the composer also faced great financial problems in his final
years; these forced him to undertake exhausting concert tours throughout Europe in 1935
and to give up his Zakopane home. He spent the summer of 1936 with one of his sisters
in Warsaw. During the winter of 1936, he made a last attempt to compose a ballet score
based on the Odyssey while he traveled to Paris, and then to Grasse on French Riviera
where he stayed in a boarding house without adequate medical care. During the spring of
1937, his secretary Leonia Gradstein found Szymanowski in a helpless state. He was
quickly transferred to Lausanne, Switzerland to the care of his sister Stasia, but died of
tuberculosis on the 28
th
or 29
th
of March 1937 in the presence of his sister Stasia and
Leonia Gradstein in Lausanne. He was buried on April 7, 1937 at the cemetery for Polish
nobles in Pauline in Krakow. Prior to burial, the composer’s heart was removed in order
that it can be interned in the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw near the heart of Chopin.
Unfortunately, during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, the heart was destroyed.
Public Recognition
Although Szymanowski and his music are relatively unknown to people in the
broader classical music world, his ambition and constant effort in promoting Polish music
12
inside and outside of his native land earned him the title of the Father of Polish
contemporary music, and led him to receive high distinctions and awards from numerous
international societies. In 1927 he was offered the Directorships of both the
Conservatory of Cairo and the Conservatory of Warsaw. He chose to go to Warsaw
despite the much better terms of the Egyptian invitation with the intention of staying in
his own country. Among other awards, he also received: The Officer Cross of the
Polonia Restituta Order
6
; The Officer Order of the Italian Crown
7
; The Commander
Order of the Italian Crown; The Commander Cross of the Polonia Restituta Order; The
Academic Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature; the Royal Academy of
Music in Belgrade; and the International Contemporary Music Society (ICMS).
Moreover, he was presided as the first rector of the State Academy of Music in 1930 and
was honored with a degree of Doctor of Philosophy by the Jagiellonian University in
Kraków. In 1935 he was awarded the Polish National Prize for Music.
Brief Survey of Szymanowski’s Composition
Szymanowski was a nationalist and patriot, he spoke for the independence of his
nation, which often created political tension and put him at a disadvantage as a composer
during his lifetime. Despite this disadvantage, many virtuoso artists, such as the great
pianist Artur Rubinstein and internationally known violin master, Paweł Kochanski,
6
The Officer Cross of the Polonia Restituta Order is one of Poland's highest Orders. The Order can be
conferred for outstanding achievements in the fields of education, science, sport, culture, art,
economics, defense of the country, social work, civil service, or for furthering good relations
between countries. It was established on February 4, 1921 and can be awarded to both civilians
and soldiers, as well as to foreigners.
7
The Order of the Crown of Italy was founded as a national order in 1868 by King Vittorio Emanuele II. It
was awarded in five degrees for civilian and military merit.
13
recorded a fair amount of his piano and string music. The major orchestras around the
world also performed and recorded some of his orchestral music.
Szymanowski composed music in many different genres; his 240 compositions
include six stage works, five cantatas, seven symphonies and concertos, six songs with
orchestra, two string quartets, sixteen works for piano, six works for violin and piano,
twenty-one vocal works with piano, and one unaccompanied work for chorus.
Orchestral and Piano Works
Among his compositions, Szymanowski was well known for his Myths. Myths is
a composition of three poems for violin and piano, op. 30, in which the two instruments
are treated as two equal soloists. Szymanowski composed total four symphonies. The
first two symphonies were performed in Europe in 1910 and 1912 under the baton of his
friend, Grzegorz Fitelberg. The first symphony contains only two movements.
Symphony No. 3, Song of the Night, belongs to his middle-period style, which illustrates
his interest in oriental cultures stimulated by his travels in Sicily and North Africa and
intensified by his studies of Greek and Arabic culture. It only took the composer four
months in 1932 to compose Symphony No. 4 (Symphonie Concertante), the title of this
work tells us this symphony if more a piano concerto than a symphony. The piano is
treated as a solo instrument, and the other instruments are treated in a concertante
manner.
His chamber music, especially his two string quartets, was very much influenced
by the folk music of the Tatra Mountain region (See Appendix B). His piano music
14
includes Sonatas, Mazurkas, Fantasies, Preludes and Fugues. The most frequently
performed and recorded piano works were his Etude and Mazurkas.
Stage Works
Among the composer’s six stage works, his opera King Roger, op. 46 is probably
the most well known. Szymanowski finished composing the King Roger (1922-1926)
and the Stabat Mater (1925-1926) in the same year. It is no coincidence to see in both
compositions the refined orchestration, evocative harmony and lush texture.
The libretto of King Roger is a dramatic poem in which there is no romance, no
love duets, no murders, and no duels, in other words, none of the supposedly
indispensable elements of an operatic plot. The librettist of King Roger is Jaroslaw
Iwaszkiewicz (1894-1980), the composer’s cousin, and the synopsis of the story concerns
the enlightenment of the twelfth-century Christian King Roger II of Sicily by a young
shepherd who represents pagan ideals. The opera was first performed on June 19, 1926
in the Grand Theatre in Warsaw, Poland, conducted by Emil Młynarski. Among the
original cast was the composer's sister, the soprano Stanisława Korwin-Szymanowska,
8
as Roxana. King Roger received its North American premier in California with Long
Beach Opera in January 1988, conducted by Murray Sidlin and Mr. Jonathan Mack (USC
faculty) as Edrisi, an Arab scholar.
Szymanowski’s ballet Harnasie, op. 55 was the work that most identifies
Szymanowski as a nationalistic composer; it is the embodiment of Szymanowski’s quest
to promote Polish folk-song, and to popularize it within European countries. The entire
ballet was built almost entirely on Tatra folk music. The script of Harnasie is a kind of
8
Often in a Slavic language, famine name usually ended with an “a” or an “ovia.”
15
mythological generalization of highland culture—the plot is symbolic, the characters
have no names, they are simply “the Girl,” “the Shepherd,” “the Robber”; and it is based
on the story of the abduction of a bride on her wedding-day by Harnás and his robber
band, the Harnasie. It took the composer ten years to complete the ballet after the sketch
of the outline of the libretto. The ballet’s world premiere took place in Prague in May
1935, and then the revised version debuted in Paris in 1936. Szymanowski was very
proud of the ballet and was well aware that he had produced something extraordinarily
significant in Polish music.
Songs and Choral Orchestral Works
Szymanowski was a remarkable songwriter, but his songs are unknown to the rest
of the world outside of Poland, except in German translation. During his lifetime the
composer’s most popular songs were The Swan (Łabędź), which was dedicated to his
mother Ann Taube, and Zuleika, Op. 13 for voice and orchestra. A considerable portion
of his vocal music was vocal-instrumental (solo voice with orchestral accompaniment
and choral-orchestral), of which the most beautiful are the two fragments from the Litany
to the Holy Virgin Mary for soprano solo, female chorus and orchestra, and his
Symphony No 3, Song of the Night for high voice, choir and large orchestra. Many of his
songs have exotic musical elements and mystical character; among them are the Love
Songs of Hafiz, Songs of the Fairy Princess and Song of the Mad Muezzi.
Among the composer’s choral-orchestral music, Stabat Mater is probably the
best-known composition. This is a masterpiece for choir, solo voices and orchestra. In
the Stabat Mater, the composer made use of authentic Polish folk material and applied
16
his studies of Polish sacred music from the sixteenth century as well as western
polyphony prior to Palestrina.
17
CHAPTER TWO
STABAT MATER: DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
Stabat Mater: A Medieval Sequence
Stabat Mater dolorosa (The grieving Mother stood) is one of the five medieval
sequences; it did not survive the reforms of the Council of Trent (1545-1563), but was
restored in the Roman Catholic liturgy By Benedict XIII in 1727.
It is the sequence for the Mass for the two feasts of the Seven Sorrows of the
Blessed Virgin Mary. The text of the Stabat Mater is based on the following passages
from the Holy Bible: John 19:25, Luke 2:35, Zacharias 13:6, II Corinthians 4:10 and
Galatians 6:17. The historical event of the suffering Christ on the Cross and the weeping
Virgin Mary beneath the Cross is narrated in the first, second, and fourth stanzas; the
remaining strophes are made up of reflections, expressions of affection, petitions, and
resolutions. The language in these passages was simple and vivid, and the Stabat Mater
hymn was considered one of the most compassionate hymns of the Middle Ages.
The Genesis of Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater
During Szymanowski’s stay in Paris in 1924 the Princess de Polignac, a devoted
patron of twentieth-century music, commissioned a choral work for soloists and orchestra
18
from the composer. She requested a Polish Requiem in a Polish musical style that would
use the standard Requiem text. However, the Princess and Szymanowski lost contact
with each other and the commission was abandoned. Meanwhile, two incidents led to the
birth of Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater: one was a commission from the Warsaw
businessman Bronislaw Krystall for a work in memory of his wife Isabella, and the other
incident was the death of the composer’s favorite niece, Alusia Bartoszewiczówna (the
daughter of his sister, Stanisława). Szymanowski began to work on the composition, and
has settled on the Stabat Mater text instead of the Requiem text after he remembered
Jarkowski’s Polish translation of the Stabat Mater from a journal he had read ten years
earlier.
Many composers from the early Renaissance through the twentieth-century have
set the Stabat Mater text; among them are Josquin, Palestrina, Pergolesi, Haydn, Rossini,
Schubert, Verdi, and Dvorák. Szymanowski, however, chose to set the text not in its
original Latin, but in a Polish paraphrase by Józef Jankowski. (The score was printed in
both Polish and Latin to allow for performance in either language). It is generally
accepted that the use of the vernacular makes the work directly accessible to Polish-
speaking people
Although the text is religious, Szymanowski was never a religious man, and
appears not to have been drawn to sacred music. He intended his Stabat Mater to be a
universal rather than a dogmatic work, one that would bring us to face human suffering.
19
"I sought an inner experience," he wrote, "endeavoring to give a concrete, concise form
to what is most real and yet most intangible in the secret life of the mind."
9
The Relationship of the Music to the Text
Stabat Mater text tells the heartrending anguish of the Mother of Christ as she
stands beneath the Cross. The composer explained:
A whole series of motives induced me in my resolve to write the religious work,
Stabat Mater, from inner, personal compulsions, right down to external
circumstances of life that resulted last winter in my lying aside other already
started “secular” works, and dedicating myself exclusively to work on the Stabat
Mater.
10
The discovery of Józef Jankowski’s (1865-1935) Polish setting of the Stabat
Mater text some ten years earlier inspired Szymanowski’s decision to compose his own
Stabat Mater in 1925. Jankowski was a writer and philosopher who began his career as a
journalist and literary critic. Jankowski’s writings were initially very light and humorous
or satirical; it was later on in his life that he began to write on the subjects of religion and
ethics. Jankowski was also a translator; translating many classic works from foreign
languages to Polish. In 1915 Jankowski became paralyzed and immobile. It was at this
point he developed an interest in religion. He translated the text of the hymn Stabat
Mater in 1915.
According to Kornel Michałowski, it was “the unusually primitive, almost ‘folk-
like’ simplicity and naivety of the translation”
11
that captivated Szymanowski’s interest.
9
Teresa Chylinska, Karol Szymanowski (New York, 1966), p.135.
10
Kornel Michałowski, Katalog Tematyczny Dzieł I Bibliografia [Thematic catalogue of works and
bibliography] (Kraków: PWM, 1967), 195: quoted in Wightman, The Music of Karol
Szymanowski, 230.
11
Michałowski, Katalog, 231.
20
Michałowski finds that the Polish “translation preserves the metrical and rhythm scheme
of the Latin, but its imagery is more vivid and intense.”
12
Szymanowski explained his
reasons for wanting to compose religious music in Polish:
For many years now I have been thinking about Polish religious music (but not
liturgical, where certain formal canons are obligatory). I have certain opinions,
too many to mention, on this matter. But in my view, it ought to be about all,
directly emotional action, and so of course one based on a universally
comprehensible text, on the, so to say, organic fusing of the emotional content of
the words with its musical equivalent. Perhaps I am mistaken, but I have the
impression that for even those who know Latin best, this language-because it has
its direct contact with life – has become an elevated, naturally, but congealed
form, not open to further development. It has lost its emotional content, retaining
only a conceptual one. This does not apply to Roman (classical) literature, which
in the nature of things uses a language which at the time of writing was still alive,
capable of expressing directly the emotional content of the then-contemporary
concepts of life.
13
Compared to the original Franciscan poem, Jankowski’s modern Polish version is
simultaneously much more personal, violent, and realistic. For example, Jankowski
translates the original Latin text “Fac, ut pórtem Christi mortem” (“Grant that I may bear
Christ’s death”) as “Let me accept death from the executioner.” Moreover since the
Polish version recounts an execution instead of Christ’s death, it may well be that
Szymanowski related the Polish version to the killing and suffering endure by the people
of Poland through years of foreign occupation, war and revolution.”
14
Szymanowski
indicated how important the Polish text was to him: “when singing in a country church of
Święy Boźe [Holy God] or my favorite Gorzkie źale [Bitter Sorrows], every word of
12
ibid.
13
Szymanoski’s interview with Mateusz Gliński, Muzyka no. 11/12 (1926), transl. by Alistair Wightman,
cited in Wightman, 597-599.
14
Zielinski, Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater, 146.
21
which is poetically a living organism for me, it always arouses the religious instinct in me
a hundred times more powerfully than the most artistic Latin mass.”
15
It appears, then,
that Szymanowski preferred Jankowski’s Polish version of Stabat Mater to the traditional
Latin text as a personal and patriotic choice. Moreover, Szymanowski added some words
to Jankowski’s translation when composing the Stabat Mater (see Appendix C).
The Orchestration and Its Effect on the Music
Stabat Mater is orchestrated for 2 flutes, 2 oboes (oboe 2 doubling on English
horn), 2 clarinets in A, 2 bassoons with the second bassoon being doubled by the contra
bassoon), 4 French horns, 2 trumpets in B-flat, timpani, percussion (includes: bass drum,
triangle, suspended cymbals, tam-tam, and glockenspiel), harp, organ. In the string
sections, Szymanowski called the exact number of these players: 8 violin I (4 stands), 8
violin II (4 stands), 6 viola (3 stands), 6 violoncello (3 stands), and 4 double bass. The
full orchestra is not employed in every movement; orchestral duets and trios of different
instrument combinations are used to create a more intimate chamber orchestral sound and
texture to accommodate the text.
Szymanowski’s harmonic language in the Stabat Mater is rather bold (see Figure
2) and evocative (see Figure 3). Dissonance occurs frequently between different
instruments (see Figure 3); octaves played among the string sections or between different
instrument groups create a hollow sound and an empty feeling (see Figure 4). Strings
often play in divisi, and in the second movement, the contrabass divisi plays in glissandi
for the most part of the movement to create special effects (see Figure 5).
15
ibid.
22
Figure 2: Movement V: Panno słodka racz mozoł (mm 22-30).
23
Figure 3: Movement I: Stała Matka (mm. 1-9).
24
Figure 4: Movement III: O Matko, zródlo wszechmilosci (mm 14-17). Among the
string divisi played unison in octaves.
Figure 5: Movement II: I któwidzac tak cierpiaca (mm. 1-8). Doublebass divisi play
glissandi.
25
The orchestration shows that Szymanowski preferred to begin and end a
movement with only a few instruments in order to create a sense of loneliness or holiness.
Four out of six movements in the Stabat Mater use only one or two instruments to begin
and or end the movement (Movements I, II, V, and VI). Orchestral writing is however, in
full force during Movement III when the text is dealing with hatred, imprisonment, scorn
and derision. It is tacet in movement IV when the text indicates a prayer. These
effective orchestral colors show Szymanowski’s insightful knowledge about the text and
skillful technique and ability in orchestration.
Moreover, not only the first violins but also the woodwinds often introduce
thematic material before voice or voices enter (see Figure 3). In some solo passages, the
solo voice is treated as part of the orchestration that sings a duet or in a trio with
instruments (see Figure 6). The brass instruments provide harmony to the melody, serve
as rhythmic figure, and together with the percussion add special effects to the texture.
26
Figure 6: Movement III, (mm 1-5).
The orchestral writing in Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater helps to carry out the
meaning of the text and the beauty of the Polish language. The orchestra’s role in the
entire composition is not to overpower the voices but to support, reinforce, and carry out
the meaning of the poem. The orchestration of the Stabat Mater is unique in color,
texture, and harmony. It is unpredictable, mercurial, and graceful.
Analysis
Stabat Mater is divided into six movements, but the musical substance is to a
large extent derived from the chant-like phrases heard in the first fours bars of the first
movement on the flute and clarinet. The First Movement (Stała Matka bolejąca) is
solemn in mood, and is scored for a solo soprano, a female chorus, and with orchestra
accompaniment. The Second Movement (l ktόż widząc tak cierpiącą) is scored for a solo
27
baritone, a mixed chorus with divisi, and the orchestra. The mood of the Second
Movement is an ominous tread of a funeral procession. The mood of the Third
Movement (O Matko, źrdόło wszechmiłości) is tender and compassionate. It is scored for
contralto and soprano soloists, a female chorus, and the orchestra. Third Movement is
followed by a devotional, quasi-liturgical Forth Movement (Spraw, niech płaczę z Tobą
razem), beautifully scored for an a cappella mixed chorus with divisi, and soprano and
contralto soloists. The Fifth Movement (pnno słodka racz mozołem) is scored for a solo
baritone, mixed chorus with divisi and the orchestra; the mood is dramatic and
impassioned. The last movement of the Stabat Mater is a beatific setting of the last two
verses of the Stabat Mater text (Chrystus nech mi będzie grodem), in which the three
soloists appear together for the first time, with a mixed chorus and the orchestra.
28
The following table provides a general outline of the work:
Table 1: The General Outline of the Work
Mvt. Text # of Bars Tonal
Center
Meter Tempo Medium
1 Vs. 1-4 66 e 5//4 Andante
Mesto
Orchestra
Soprano Solo
SA Chorus divisi
2 Vs. 5-8 49 G# 4//4 Moderato Orchestra
Baritone Solo
SATB Chorus
divisi
3 Vs. 9-12 46 F# 4//4 Lento
Dolcissimo
Orchestra
SA soli
SA Chorus divisi
4 Vs. 13-14 52 Ab 3//4 Moderato a cappella
SA soli
SATB Chorus
divisi
5 Vs. 15-18 89 C 2//2 Allegro
Moderato
Orchestra
Baritone Solo
SATB Chorus
divisi
6 Vs. 19-20 59 Ab/C# 2//4 Andante
tranquillisimo
Orchestra
SAB soli
SATB Chorus
divisi
As mentioned earlier, Szymanowski’s music was greatly influenced by many
Romantic composers and composers from the early twentieth-century and the late
German Romantics; however, when composing the Stabat Mater, Szymanowski
extensively studied Renaissance music, including Palestrina. He also investigated early
29
church organum from the masters Leonin, Perotin, and other composers from the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
Evidence of early vocal music’s influence on Szymanowsi’s Stabat Mater is
shown in the parallel motion between voices and the sustained pedal tones, in the use of
church modes and the patterned rhythm, melody, and harmony.
Like the early church organum, parallel thirds (see Figures 7 and 8) and its
inversion, parallel sixths (see Figure 9) are the most popular intervals occurring in
Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater. Despite the fact that parallel fourths and fifths are less
popular here, Szymanovski uses double parallel fifths in the French horn section in the
opening of the First movement (see Figure 10).
30
Figure 7: Movement II: I któwidzac tak cierpiaca, (mm.13-16). Parallel thirds can
be found within the chorus parts, and between the flutes, the clarinets,
horns III and IV, the trumpets, first violin divisi, and cello divis.
31
Figure 8: Movement VI: Chrystus niech mi bedzie grodem, (mm.1-4) Parallel thirds
between clarinet I and II.
Figure 9: Movement V: Niechaj pod nim razem stoje, parallel sixths between
sopranos and basses, parallel thirds between altos and tenors (mm. 70-78).
Figure 10: Movement I: Stała Matka, (mm. 4-9). Parallel fifths in the French horns.
32
Parallelism in Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater also occurs often in parallel chords;
examples can be found in parallel triads in the women’s chorus in the opening movement
(see Figure 11), and the parallel triads in the first inversion in the third movement among
flute, clarinet, and French horns (see Figure 12). Results of these parallel sounds create
archaism and may lead listeners to a path of deep thinking and meditation.
Figure 11: Movement I: Stała Matka, women’s chorus (mm. 38-47). Parallel triads in
women Voices.
33
Figure 12: Movement III: O Matko, zrówszechmilosci, triads in its first inversion
among flutes, clarinets and French horns (mm. 18-21).
Another inspiration that came from early church polyphony is the use of the
sustained pedal tone. Long held notes and chords in the orchestra are seen everywhere
throughout the music, especially in the lower string instruments, which typically provide
the foundation to the harmony, and in the rolling timpani (see Figures 13 and 14). A
sustained pedal tone brings steadiness to listener’s ears; however, the underlying message
coming is also the anticipation of change and the uncertainty of not knowing when the
change will occur.
34
Figure 13: Movement I: Stała Matka (mm. 14-19). Long and sustaining pedal point
in the lower strings and in timpani.
35
Figure 14: Movement VI: Chrystus niech mi bedzie grodem (mm. 25-27). Long and
sustaining pedal point occurs in the lower strings and in timpani.
The opening soprano solo of the first movement is reminiscent of Francis
Poulenc’s (1899-1963) choral orchestral work Stabat Mater (1950-1951). The two
composers lived approximately seventeen years apart and their compositions of Stabat
Mater were written twenty-five years apart.
In preparation, Szymanowski also investigated old Polish religious music from
the fifteenth century, which brought significant impact to the writing of Stabat Mater.
One work in particular that Szymanowski studied carefully was the Gloria from a Mass
36
(ca. 1420-1430) of the Polish fifteenth century composer Mikołaj of Radom (Kicolaus of
Radom). In this Gloria many characteristics of early Polish vocal music were found and
are adopted in the Stabat Mater. These characteristics are parallel movement between
voices, modal pitch organization, and strongly patterned rhythms.
16
Szymanowski also adopted melodic elements found in two Polish hymns, Święty
Boźe [Holy God] and Gorzkie źale [Bitter Sorrows]. The opening of Gorzkie źale is
quoted at the every beginning of the Stabat Mater: the flute opening three pitches (A-G-
sharp-B) in No. 1 Stała Matka, a descending half-step followed by an upward leap of a
minor third, is an exact transposition of the opening pitches (B-flat-A-C) of the Gorzkie
źale (see Figure 15).
17
Figure 15: Movement I: Stała Matka, flute I, (m.1) (top score), and Gorzkie źale
(Lenten Psalm), m.1-2 (bottom score).
Besides implanting materials from the ancient Polish hymns, Szymanowski also
sought materials from Polish folk music and used them in his Stabat Mater. For
example, he uses the Podhalean mode, an ancient Polish folk mode characterized by its
16
Zielinski, Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater, 147.
17
ibid., 152, 153.
37
raised fourth scale degree (Lydian), can be seen in No. 5, measures 1-3 in the Stabat
Mater (see Figure 16).
Figure 16: Movement V: Panno słodka racz mozoł (mm. 1-3). Adapting the
Podhalean mode from the Polish folk music.
Szymanowski was a nationalistic composer who valued greatly of his native
culture and was especially proud of the Polish folk music in certain regions of his native
land. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that Szymanowski highly respected the
Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, who devoted his life to researching Hungarian and
Romanian folk music and making this music well known to the rest of the world.
Szymanowski once expressed further what he believed in: “each man must go back to the
earth from which he derives. Today I have developed into a national composer not only
subconsciously but with a thorough conviction using the melodic treasures of Polish
folk.”
18
During the years 1920-24, as part of Szymanowski’s research, he “began to keep
a notebook in which he sketched numerous highlanders’ melodies.”
19
However, this
notebook was destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. On the other hand, in the
18
International Encyclopedia, s.v. “Karol Szymanowski,” by Felix Łabuński, quoted in Michael Piasek-
Wański, “Karol Szymanowski’s Philosophy of Music Education” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of
the Pacific, 1981), 87.
19
Samson, The Music of Szymanowski, 168.
38
early part of the twentieth century, a group of Polish musicologists began recording folk
music from the Tatra region on the gramophone. In the 1930’s, the number of these
recordings reached a total of 25,000 and was kept in the southern city of Poanań.
Unfortunately, all of these recordings were again destroyed during World War II. Even
though there was no direct evidence of how the folk music that was kept in
Szymanowski’s notebook and the recordings of the Tatra region folk music influenced
the writing of Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater, the intention of involving the Polish folk
materials by the composer was very clear. This is especially reinforced after reading the
British musicologist Jim Samson’s description of the general characteristics of the Tatra
mountain region folk music:
Various kinds of polyphonic singing for high men’s and deep women’s voices,
including distended parallelism, by use of pedal points either of open fifths or of
jarring minor seconds, and a remarkable heterophony of two fiddles over a simple
bass on three stringed instruments, and finally a tendency for Lydian patterns and
descending shapes to predominate.
20
Many of the elements mentioned above such as parallelism, pedal point, modal
pattern and open fifths are present in the Stabat Mater. In the Stabat Mater, open fifths,
parallel motion, long sustained pedal tones and the modal melodies are the essential
components of the first movement and are recurrently seen elsewhere in the remaining
movements.
Szymanowski also applied the use of the interval of a second from folk music to
enrich the harmony on Stabat Mater (see Figure 17). He ingeniously flipped the intervals
of seconds into ninths to create not only the conflicting dissonance but also a feeling of
20
ibid., 167.
39
emptiness (see Figure 18). Both the dissonance and the emptiness reflect perfectly the
emotion of grief and anguish of the Stabat Mater text.
Figure 17: Movement V: Virgo virginum, between violin I and II (mm. 45-49).
Figure 18: Movement II: Quis est homo, between celli and double bass (mm. 1-4).
A summary by Zofia Lissa in a chapter of Polish Music, edited by Stefan
Jarociński, aptly describes Symanowski’s Stabat Mater as representative of Polish
religious work. Zofia explains: “Through the use of archaic formulas and folk idiom, he
(Szymanowski) composed a work purely Polish in character. [The Stabat Mater] is
40
Szymanowski’s most inspired work, reaching out for the religious traditions of the Polish
peasants.”
21
The young Szymanowski traveled extensively outside of his homeland; some
occasions were for pleasure but others were forced by political reasons (please see page
7). Among many trips he made, he had the opportunity to visit Paris and was further
exposed to modern French music by such composers as Debussy and Ravel. While
composing Stabat Mater, Szymanowski recalled the experience from his journey to
France. It was evident in the Stabat Mater that Szymanowski applied sound planes
(parallel motion in all voices) and linear cadences, the two most important compositional
techniques mastered by the impressionist French composer, Claude Debussy. In
Zielinski’s article he also confirmed: “In Debussy’s music Szymanowski may have
discovered two important techniques: the use of sound planes and linear cadences.”
22
Indeed, in Stabat Mater, the use of sound planes are found in several places: the
example in No. 5 Niechaj pod nim razem stoje, mm. 63-69 (see Figure 19) where two
separate sound planes are presented in counterpoint. The woodwinds and strings, in
parallel seventh chords, present a two measure descending ostinato; meanwhile, the
chorus, doubled by the horns and organ, moves in parallel sixths against the sound planes
from the woodwinds. The above two sound planes are accompanied and supported by a
third static layer which is provided by the percussion and by the pedal point on C.
23
21
Zifia Lissa, “Karol Szymanowski,” in Polish Music, ed. Stefan Jarociński (Warszawa: Polish Scientific
Publishers, 1965), 163.
22
Zielinski, Szymanowski,s Stabat Mater, 162.
23
ibid., 166.
41
Figure 19: Movement V: Niechaj pod nim razem stoje, (mm. 63-69). Pedal point on
C on the organ pedal, the cellos, and the double bass divisi.
Sometimes layers of sound planes resolve themselves in linear cadences. We see
examples of such in the music of Claude Debussy and Anton Bruckner as well as other
contemporary composers. In Szymanowsky’s Stabat Mater, such examples are found in
No. 1 in mm. 8-9, mm. 11-13 (see Figure 20), mm. 22-24, mm. 34-36 and mm. 61-63
42
(see Figure 21). From the Figures 19 and 20 (same cadence), one can also see that when
these linear cadences occur through the association with sound planes, the parallel
motions remind. It is almost predictable that the parallel motion in this case is an
assumed result from the combination of both sound planes and linear cadence.
Figure 20: Movement I: Stała Matka, string section (mm. 11-13)
43
Figure 21: Movement I: Stała Matka, string section (mm. 61-63).
Other contemporary influences that Szymanowski incorporates in the Stabat
Mater are the added-tone chords and ostinato.
24
Bi-chordal passages occur quite
frequently in the Stabat Mater that remind us of Charles Ives’ (1878-1954) and Benjamin
Britten’s (1913-1976) bi-tonal style. Often, in these bi-chordal passages, additional non-
chord pitches are added to make the harmony even more complex. These added non-
chord pitches are both in consonant and dissonant notes to the primary chords. The first
chord of the entire Stabat Mater occurs on measure 4. It consists of two superimposed
chords, one chord consisting of notes G-sharp and D-sharp played by harp, first flute,
first clarinet and first horn; the other are notes C-sharp and A played by second and the
24
ibid.
44
third horns (see Figure 21). This first chord with the combination of the above pitches
resulted in a gong-like sounding.
Figure 22: Movement I: Stała Matka, (m. 4). Two super-imposed chords.
Moreover, these added non-chord pitches are usually in the interval of seconds to
the primary chords in the Stabat Mater. The sound of a conventional chord progression
with hinted dissonant seconds suggests conflicts that lie beneath a peaceful surface. One
example of such a case can be found in Movement II (see Figure 23). Intervals of a
major second can be heard in second violin divisi, in the harp and between the first and
the second French horns. Moreover, by text painting, these intervals appeared on the
45
second and fourth beats of each measure for several measures, also suggest the image of
the limping Christ on his way to the crucifixion.
Figure 23: Movement II: I któwidzac tak cierpiaca, (mm.12-15). Off-beat accent to
achieve text painting.
In his article in the Choral Journal (September, 2005), Richard Zielinski
mentions that Szymanowski’s use of ostinato in Stabat Mater is another technique
influenced by contemporary composers such as Bartók and Stravinsky.
25
Tracing the
history of composers using ostinato went back to the sixteenth century. Basso ostinato is
25
ibid.
46
also called the stubborn bass. It is a musical phrase repeated over and over again in the
bass line. This musical phrase consists of repeated rhythmic and or melodic patterns. It
can be a simple 4-note figure or a more extended phrase. The use of ostinato is a useful
method of unifying an extended piece of music. It also provides a unity to a composition
with multi-movements such as Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater. An example of using
ostinato in Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater can be found through much of the Second
Movement, Quis est homo – I któżwidząc in the harp and double bass (see Figure 24).
Ostinato also serves as a unifying element throughout different movements of Stabat
Mater. It is also found in the First Movement Stabat Mater - Stała Matka, mm. 37-39 in
the harp, viola, and celli (see Figure 25).
Figure 24: Szymanowski, Stabat Mater, No. 2 I któwidzac tak cierpiaca, (mm. 1-4).
Use of ostinato found in the harp, celli, and in double bass.
47
Figure 25: Movement I: Stała Matka, (mm. 37-39). Ostinato found in the harp, viola,
and celli.
After the above discussion of the overall characteristics of Szymanowski’s Stabat
Mater, the following section is a more in-depth analysis of each individual movement.
This movement-by-movement analysis is critical and beneficial to conductors for the
following reasons: First of all, it helps conductors to be able to “hear” better during
rehearsal process. Second, the analysis gives conductors better ideas of how to plan their
rehearsals according to the formality of each movement and therefore, introduce these
movements to the musicians in a more systematic approach. Third, conductors will be
able to see and better understand the relationships within the voice, text and the
orchestration.
Movement I. Stała Matka bolejaca – Stabat Mater dolorosa
The opening movement is written for soprano solo and female chorus (alto divisi)
singing verses one through four with orchestra accompaniment. This portion of text
describes how the Mother stood grieving and weeping beside the cross while her Son was
48
being crucified on the cross. The tempo is Andante Mesto and the tonal center sets on E
minor.
The orchestral introduction (mm. 1-13) of the first movement sets the overall
atmosphere and the mood of the entire Stabat Mater. It opens with a flute solo playing
the first theme of five measures with the clarinet joining the flute at the second measure
playing in a counterpoint. Immediately, at the second interval they play together is a
piercing minor second with an E against an E-sharp. The stark opening theme suggests
emptiness and loneliness, and by word painting, the dissonant interval suggests the pain
and the anguish of the holy Mother of God. The two strong statements presented at the
beginning of the orchestral introduction foretell Szymanowski’s compositional intent in
the Stabat Mater.
At the end of the fourth measure of the opening orchestral introduction, an oboe
solo comes in playing the variation on the first theme. Oboe’s first note plays an E-sharp
and lasts for three beats; interestingly, it feels like the duration is longer than three beats
because of a deep sense of longing floating above a calm and sustained pedal tone played
by three French horns. One beat before oboe’s entrance, harp enters for the first time
with a low G-sharp and a D-sharp that are in vertical alignment with the second chord of
the French horns (A, C-sharp and D-sharp); the sounding of this combination creates an
ancient bell or gong sound. In the string section, violas are the first to enter; they join
the oboe solo in measure six as a counter part to the solo melody. The rest of the strings
play in a parallel motion and lead the opening introduction to its first cadence. The exact
same cadence is repeated at the end of the first movement.
49
Moreover, the stark interval of a fifth occurring at measures two to four between
the flute and the clarinet help to create an archaic resonance; the chromatic scale and the
dissonant intervals are also significant characteristics of the opening introduction which
help to set the mood to the entire piece.
The first movement is in a Binary form (A-B) with a thirteen-measure
introduction and a repetition of the introduction at the conclusion. The A section (mm.
14-36) begins with the soprano solo and continues with the female chorus three measure
later. When the voices first enter, the accompaniment is very minimal. The B section
(mm. 37-50) begins with the orchestral ostinato (see Figure 19) accompanying a quasi-
chant singing in soprano solo and simple triadic chords in the chorus. The contrast
between the A and the B sections is clear. A section is sorrowful and mournful; and the
B section is fearful and agitated.
The returned introduction section (mm. 51-66) is two measures longer than its
first appearance. It begins with a duet between the flute and the oboe revisiting the first
theme, and the clarinet plays the counterpoint to the theme. First movement ends with a
solo clarinet melody (see Figure 26) very similar to the opening soprano solo melody (see
Figure 27).
Figure 26: Movement I: Stała Matka, clarinet solo (mm. 62-66).
50
Figure 27: Movement I: Stała Matka, soprano solo (mm. 14-17).
The choral writing in the first movement sets up an example of using triadic
materials, which idea reoccurs throughout the entire music. The first choral passage from
measure thirteen to measure twenty-three uses only the interval of thirds between soprano
and alto with the exception of one perfect forth and three perfect fifths (see Figure 28).
The second choral passage, occurring from measure thirty-eight to measure forty-seven,
uses only parallel triads in their root position except from measure forty to measure forty-
two, where the triads are in their second inversion (see Figure 29).
Figure 28: Movement I: Stała Matka, chorus (mm. 20-24). Parallel thirds between
soprano and alto.
51
Figure 29: Movement I: Stała Matka, chorus (mm. 39-48). Parallel triads in root
position.
Movement II. I któwidzac tak cierpiaca – Quis est homo qui non fleret
The second movement of Stabat Mater is written for Baritone solo, SATB chorus
(with occasional alto divisi) and orchestra accompaniment. This portion of Polish text
covers verses five through eight of the original Latin text dealing with the death of the
Christ. The tempo is marked Moderato with occasional accelerando, rallentando, and
allargando. The constant quarter note pulse played by the orchestral ostinato suggests
the march to the crucifixion of Christ, and the use of bass drum, tam-tam and triangle
creates a feeling of a dirge.
The second movement is in a three-part form (A-B-A’). The A section (mm. 1-
29) begins with an orchestral ostinato between the harp and the double bass. The
ostinato is based on a chord cluster of E, F, F-sharp and G-sharp; the stronger beats of the
ostinato fall on the weak beats of each measure (beats two, four, and six). This off beat
52
ostinato may be seen as word painting of Christ’s limp while marching to the cross. (see
Figure 30) Moreover, the first theme from the first movement in parallel thirds occurs in
the French horns and the violas starting at the second measure of the A section (see
Figure 31). This cyclic theme is then taken over by the chorus and is heard until measure
16 (see Figure 32).
53
Figure 30: Movement II: I któwidzac tak cierpiaca, (mm. 1-4). Off beat ostinato.
54
Figure 31: Movement II: I któwidzac tak cierpiaca, (mm. 2-4). French horns I & II
and viola divisi The cyclic theme from the fist movement occurs between
the French horns and the violas.
Figure 32: Movement II: I któwidzac tak cierpiaca, chorus (mm. 12-16). The cyclic
theme appears again in the chorus.
The B section (mm. 30-37) is short lasting only eight measures. The orchestra is
fully engaged playing fortissimo; the baritone solo revisits the cyclic theme and the
chorus sings in block chords accompanied by the orchestra with same chords at the first
and third beats of each measure to reinforce the baritone solo (see Figure 33). The
orchestra begins a new ostinato in the B section and it is repeated every measure for the
entire B section.
55
Figure 33: Movement II: I któwidzac tak cierpiaca, (mm. 30-34). Baritone Solo sings
the cyclic theme with the chorus and the orchestra fully engaged playing
fortissimo.
The A' section (mm. 38-49) begins immediately with both the main theme and the
first ostinato. The main theme is heard in the chorus and is doubled by the oboes, French
horns and the strings (except the double bass) in the orchestra. The original ostinato
again is played by the harp and the double bass, however, when the original ostinato
returns at the A’ section, the contrabassoon joins the harp and the double bass.
The vocal style of the baritone solo in the second movement is similar to the
soprano solo in the first movement; it is rather simple and declamatory. It is reminiscent
of the baritone solo in the Johannes Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem (movements III and
VI): both have very beautifully written melodic phrases and both are declamatory. The
range of the baritone solo here is generally within an octave but the highest written note
is a F-sharp above middle C.
The choral writing of the second movement continues the style of the first
movement and retains a chant-like character. The choral passage in the A' section is very
56
similar to the A section. Both are constructed in a way that sopranos and tenors sing
unison in octaves and so do altos and basses (see Figure 34). Therefore, the interval of a
third is paralleled between soprano and alto and between tenor and bass. From measure
twenty-four to measure twenty-nine is where the chorus breaks the pattern of using
parallel thirds. Here, while the male voices continue chant-like singing, the female
voices carry an extensive melody, and the melody is passed from the alto to the soprano
at measure twenty-six.
57
Figure 34: Movement II: I któwidzac tak cierpiaca (mm. 13-17). Soprano and tenor
Sing unison in octaves; alto and bass also sing unison in octaves.
Moreover, the chorus functions as a Turba Chorus; they often moves together in
parallel motion and in homophonic texture to show an unbreakable power of unity from
the crowd as they witness the suffering of the Christ and the hardship of the Mother.
Szymanovski’s use of such a technique for choral passages frequently throughout the
entire Stabat Mater has created an intended archaic sound.
Movement III. O Matko, zródlo wszechmilosci - Eja Mater, fons amoris
The texture of the third movement gradually changes from a quiet duet between
the alto solo and a clarinet solo to a full scale orchestral tutti (mm. 31-35); then the
texture returns to a duet at the conclusion of the movement with the except of the ending
passage which is a whole step lower than at the opening of the movement.
This movement is orchestrated for orchestra, soprano solo and alto solo with a
female chorus (alto divisi) in a through-composed form. The duet at the first five
measures repeats a portion of the main theme from the first movement. While the alto
solo presents the main theme, the clarinet plays the counterpoint to the theme (see Figure
58
35). The French horn joins the ensemble at the pick up to measure six and flute at
measure twelve; both play the counter melody to the clarinet. At measures seven to
eleven, flute plays in unison two octaves higher than the bassoon. Once again, these
octave passages create emptiness to the entire texture. Strings finally join the ensemble
at measure twelve (ppp) and upper strings often play in divisi. Orchestral tutti does not
occur until measure seventeen and from this point on, the texture start to thicken and the
musical climax occurs at measure thirty-one (f).
Figure 35: Movement III: O Matko, zródlo wszechmilosci, opening duet (mm. 1-5).
Portion of the cyclic theme occurs between the clarinet solo and the alto
solo.
The text of the third movement includes verses nine through twelve of the poem,
and is sung by the soprano and the alto soloists. The women chorus sings textless
throughout. The alto solo begins and ends the movement while in the middle of the
movement the soprano and alto solos are treated equally in importance.
Movement IV. Spraw niech placze z Toba razm - Fac me tecum pie flere
The fourth movement is set for soprano and alto soli and a cappella chorus. The
texture of it is strictly homophonic and it is set for SATB with some divisi. Most of the
choral passages are in parallel motion, and in fact, most of the passages are parallel triads
in root position. Despite this simplistic writing, it provides the impression of being
59
archaic. This movement is to be considered a moment of peace before the arrival in the
fifth movement the suffering of the Christ. The text is taken from the thirteenth and the
fourteenth verses of the poem.
The two solo voices alternate their solo passages and rise above the chorus. The
chorus is reminiscent of listeners of the Russian Orthodox choral music. It is straight
forward in harmonic progression and rich in color. The simple homophonic setting helps
to amplify the text.
In the harmonic progression of the fourth movement is based on different triads
and their inversions with occasional seventh chords (see Figure 36). Szymanowski
concludes this movement with the soprano and alto soli approaching the cadence by
singing seven measures in octaves while the chorus moves in parallel thirds.
60
Figure 36: Movement IV: Spraw niech placze z Toba razm (mm. 43-52). Last seven
measures soprano and alto solo in octaves, choir in parallel thirds.
61
Figure 36, Continued
62
Movement V. Panno słodka racz mozoł – Virgo virginum praeclara
The fifth movement is orchestrated for baritone solo, chorus and orchestra singing
verses fifteen to eighteen: “Make me a partner in passion… make me to be wounded by
his wounds, make me to be inebriated with the cross, and with the flowing blood of the
Son….” As mentioned earlier, this movement is the contrasting section to the peaceful
fourth movement. It is also the climax of the entire work.
Movement five is set in a through-composed form using the cyclic theme as a tool
to unite the movement. The cyclic theme first appears in the clarinets and doubled by the
bassoons (see Figure 37). The entire movement can be divided into three sections: The
first section includes measures one through thirty-eight, the second section, thirty-nine
through fifty-five and the ending section, fifty-six to the end.
Figure 37: Movement V: Panno słodka racz mozoł (mm. 7-8).
The first section begins with the low strings (celli and double basses) playing in
low but fortissimo (energico, accented) half notes in octaves then the baritone solo enters
at measure five. Again, the composer uses massive passages of parallel thirds and triads
in the accompaniment as well as in the chorus. It is seen not only in the opening
woodwind section but also in the chorus (within the basses and the tenors) throughout.
While the men of the chorus (TTB) sing simple chant-like rhythm, the sopranos echo the
baritone solo, and the flute repeats the same melody an octave higher, but it is played as a
63
canon two beats behind the sopranos (see Figure 38). When the chorus appears the
second time from measures thirty-four to thirty-eight it is almost an exact repetition of its
first appearance only in this occasion the rhythm is organized differently. It is more rapid
rhythmically therefore it results to be two measures shorter than the first time. This is a
result of the diminishing of the rhythm due to the setting of the text.
Figure 38: Movement V: Panno słodka racz mozoł (mm. 14-19). Baritone solo,
soprano and flute I in canon.
The second section of the movement is entirely baritone solo; the music continues
to develop and the intensity increases. The rhythm is more compact and the density of
the harmony thickens. Without interruption to the building of the climax, the chorus
enters at measure fifty-six accompanied by the full orchestra. The trumpets and the
64
timpani play consecutive triplets, which instantly create a strong sense of urgency to the
musical development. The choral passage at the ending section is again, parallelism.
Strictly parallel thirds are sung between altos and tenors; and parallel sixths between
sopranos and basses. Moreover, because of the rhythmic organization of this ending
section, listeners hear a hemiola effect from measures sixty-three to sixty-nine (see
Figure 39).
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Figure 39: Movement V: Panno słodka racz mozoł (mm. 63-69). Hemiola.
66
Movement VI. Chrysus niech mi będzie grodem – Christe, cum sithinc exire
Of all the movements of Stabat Mater, the last movement has the most consonant
harmonic writing throughout. As a result of text painting, the harmonic language in this
movement suggests resolution and comfort. The text is a plea for a final salvation: “…
when my body shall die, grant that my soul be given the glory of paradise.”
26
It is gentle
and extremely lyrical which contrasts the brutal crucifixion of the fifth movement and it
is set in a through-composed form for all three soloists (soprano, alto, and baritone),
divisi chorus and orchestra. The opening soprano solo begins with an ascending half step
followed by a downward perfect fourth then mostly stepwise upward motion with an
unexpected upward leap of a minor third which then followed by descending steps (see
Figure 40). This opening soprano solo melody is repeated four times within the first
twenty-four measures, and it is reminiscent of the soprano solo in a Latin setting of the
Stabat Mater Poulenc (see Figure 41). While Szymanovski favors upward leaps of minor
thirds, Poulenc characterizes his soprano solo with major sixth leaps in both directions.
Figure 40: Movement VI: Chrysus niech mi będzie grodem (mm. 2-5).
26
English translation from Nick Jones.
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Figure 41: Francis Poulenc: Stabat Mater. VI. Vidit suum. Opening soprano solo.
The opening stepwise theme appears again in variation between the two clarinets
playing in parallel third motion (see Figure 42). From previous experiences, one can
safely say that Szymanowski favors clarinet to play the main theme in most cases in the
Stabat Mater. It happens almost every time when a main theme appears. Moreover, the
use of the soprano solo in both the first and the last movements provides a nice balance to
the composition as a whole. The linkage of the thematic material and the linear texture
between the first and the last movements unifies entire composition.
Figure 42: Movement VI: Chrysus niech mi będzie grodem (mm. 1-4). Cyclic theme
in parallel thirds between clarinet I and II.
Choral writing in the last movement is again chant-like in parallel motion (thirds
or triads) with occasional passing tones and with the soprano section periodically
repeating the soprano solo. The chorus and soloists approach the end of the movement
by singing three measures unaccompanied in pianissimo (chorus soprano doubles the solo
soprano and the rest in parallel triads with passing tones). The entire piece ends with a
C-sharp triad (C#-E#-G#). This final chord is the same as the first tutti chord of the
movement (m. 3) with the enharmonic spelling of Db-F-Ab.
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CHAPTER THREE REHEARSAL AND PERFORMANCE CHALLENGES AND SUGGESTED
SOLUTIONS From the Study and the Analysis
One of the major challenges in preparing for the rehearsals is the use of Polish,
and subsequently teaching it to the singers. Polish is said to be one of the most difficult
languages spoken next to Finnish. There is very little similarity between English and
Polish. In fact, there are only ten letters that are pronounced in the same way between
English and Polish. It is helpful if singers have knowledge of how the International
Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is to be used and have familiarity with other foreign languages
such as German and French.
The Polish language is difficult to master; depending upon the capabilities of the
singers and the training of the singers, extended time maybe needed to teach the
language. The two appendices can be helpful in learning and pronouncing Polish more
efficiently: Appendix C: “Stabat Mater in Latin and Polish with English translation” and
Appendix D: “Polish Language Pronunciation Guidelines.” The first one provides a
comparison chart as well as an English translation. The latter one separates the language
into vowels, nasals and consonants and it works by applying the IPA system.
It is possible to perform Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater in Latin (available in
Universal Edition UE 8743) however, such choice will greatly diminish the authentic
69
sound and rhythmic effect of which can only be achieved with the combination of the
music and the Polish language due to word stress. In other words, when performance is
done in Latin, the authenticity and aesthetic will suffer.
One manner in which to assist the choir in learning the language is to help them to
understand more about the Polish language. Polish is part of the western branch of the
Slavic languages, which belongs to the Indo-European family and is the official language
of Poland. It is also used as a second language in some parts of Russia, Lithuania,
Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. The general characteristics of Polish, like the other
Indo-European languages, are based on Latin grammar and vocabulary. There are three
tenses (past, present, and future), two numbers (singular and plural), and three genders
(masculine, feminine, neuter). There are no articles used in Polish; like Latin, it is an
inflectional language that distinguishes seven cases, defining the noun usage in a
sentence. This feature makes the language itself difficult to master and presents a
considerable difficulty to non-native speakers.
Here are the general rules of pronunciation of Polish that can help conductors and
singers in the rehearsal process. First, its written form is largely phonetic. Second, the
stress falls always on the penultimate syllable (similarly in Italian). All vowels are short.
There are two nasals and a few diphthongs.
Here are some examples of how to pronounce Polish: in contrast to English, there
is no phonetic "ur" (like in "murmur"), no "ere" (as in "where" or "here"), no "th," no
"oa" (like in "boat") and no aspiration on "p," "t," "k," "f”. See Appendix D
27
for
pronunciation guidelines on vowels, consonants, and some special cases.
27
Information on Appendix IV was adapted from the website: http://www.staypoland.com/polish.htm.
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Conducting Issues
As always, a conductor’s score preparation is critical. A conductor needs to
thoroughly study the score from all the different aspects and be very confident in teaching
the pronunciation. A conductor also needs to be able to hear the chord clusters and
distinguish the harmonic changes; he or she needs to be very fluent in conducting meter
changes throughout the entire composition. Moreover, to choose the correct soloists and
to balance different vocal parts especially when there are divisions within the same voice
part and be very aware of the balance between the orchestra and the chorus at all times.
Lack of preparation and ability on the conductor’s part will jeopardize the rehearsal
process and the performance quality.
In order to achieve the balance between the chorus and the orchestra, a mixed
choir of at least 120 singers is the minimal requirement. The performance venue may
also suggest a larger choir with 150 to 170 singers for a performance in a large concert
hall. Due to the harmonic nature, a clean and precise intonation is required.
In the rehearsal process and before the Tutti rehearsal, the conductor should
schedule multiple and separate rehearsals for the chorus, soloists and the orchestra.
During the instrumental rehearsal, conductor needs to pay special attention to the
intonation in the string and woodwind sections, and listen for the balance within different
sections. At the piano-vocal rehearsal, listen to the balance between the soloists and the
choir, and always aware of the balance and blend within the different sections in the
choir. At the Tutti rehearsal, check balance between the instruments and the voices.
During a dress rehearsal at the performance venue, it is wise to ask a fellow musician to
71
listen for the balance and the pronunciation for you in the hall. Always, reinforce
articulation, precision and intonation during Tutti rehearsals. A minimal of two two to
two and a half hours Tutti rehearsals are needed to insure a well prepared performance.
Lastly, an unusual personal experience during the 1998 Carnegie Hall Choral
Workshop was facing the illness of our then conductor Robert Shaw. Mr. Shaw turned
seriously ill before the workshop began. He was visiting his son at Yale University in
January 1998, and he died on January 25 of the same year in New Haven, Connecticut.
Mr. Shaw was unable to attend the rehearsal sections and the performance. His long time
assistant and accompanist Norman Mackenzie acted as the choirmaster during the
workshop and Mr. Charles Dutoit was flown in from Germany to conduct the
performance the day before the concert. We had only one rehearsal with Mr. Dutoit. He
certainly had the knowledge of the music and conducted the performance from memory.
With such infrequently performed music, it would be a challenge to have to find a
substitute conductor due to an emergency circumstance.
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CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
As stated at the beginning of this treatise, the purpose of this study is to broaden
the conductors’ knowledge of Karol Szymanowski’s life, his music, and his influence in
the musical world in the first half of the twentieth century. Also by the conscientious
study of Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater, the conductors would exercise their skills on how
to analyze and prepare a large-scale choral orchestral work for rehearsals and
performances.
This student was able to broaden her knowledge on a topic that she has never had
the opportunity to study in class but she was able to use tools and skills that she has
learned and gained through all the school years and applied them in research and in
analysis. Further, she has gained great confidence and encouragement to explore and
expand to repertoire that is outside of the norm.
Szymanowski and his music are still relatively unknown to the world, despite the
fact that he is one of the most important composers in the first half of the twentieth-
century and the father of Polish contemporary music. His collection of music covers all
genres. His musical style embraces folk idioms from his native land and musical ideas
from the global culture. He has also learned from master composers who were his
contemporary and pioneers. His Stabat Mater is a piece of music that is worthy for
choral conductors to consider adding to their repertoires. It will be a successful
73
experience when conductors have desirable choirs and orchestras, work to achieve study
and prepare the score thoroughly, carefully coach the Polish language, and understand the
harmonic nature of the music.
We hope that with the continuous changes in the world’s musical culture, and
people continue to have more exposure to music from around the globe, classical music
listeners will have more interest in exploring music such as Szymanowski’s.
74
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---. Szymanovski on Music: Selected Writings of Karol Szymanowski. London: Toccata
Press, 1999.
Wightman, Alistair, Ann Desler, Zofia Helman, and Teresa Chylinkska, eds. The Songs
of Karol Szymanowski and his Contemporaries. Los Angeles: Polish Music
Center at USC, 2002.
Zielinski, Richard. “Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937): The Father of Contemporary
Polish Choral Music.” Choral Journal 46 (2005): 8-24.
76
APPENDIX A: A LIST OF KARL SZYMANOWSKI’S COMPOSITIONS
STAGE WORK:
• 1908-9 The Lottery for Men (operetta)
• 1913 Hagith (opera)
• 1920 Mandragora
• 1918-24 King Roger (opera)
• 1925 Prince Potemkin (incidental music for play by Micinski)
• 1923-31 Harnasie (ballet-pantomime)
ORCHESTRAL MUSIC:
• 1907 Salome (soprano, orch)
• 1904-5 Concert Overture in E
• 1906-07 Symphony no. 1 in f
• 1908 Penthesilea (S, orch)
• 1909-10 Symphony no. 2 in Bb
• 1914 Love-songs of Hafiz (orch)
• 1914-16 Symphony no. 3 'The Song of the Night' (Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi,
words) (T/S, chorus, orch)
• 1933 Songs of a Fairy-Tale Princess (1 voice, orch)
• 1916 Violin Concerto no. 1
• 1917 Demeter (after Euripides) (alto, female chorus, orch)
• 1917 Agave (A, female chorus, orch)
77
• 1934 Songs of the infatuated muezzin (1 voice, orch)
• 1928 Slopiewnie (1 voice, orch)
• 1925-26 Stabat Mater (medieval sequence trans. to Polish, Latin) (solo
SAB, chorus, orch)
• 1930 Veni Creator (Wyspianski) (S, chorus, orch, org)
• 1930-33 Litany to the Virgin Mary (poetry by J. Liebert) (S, female
chorus, orch)
• 1932 Symphony no. 4 (Symphonie concertante) (pf, orch)
• 1933 Violin Concerto no. 2, 1933
CHAMBER MUSIC:
• 1904 Sonata in d (vn, pf)
• 1907 Piano Trio (destroyed)
• 1910 Romance in D (vn, pf)
• 1915 Nocturn and Tarantella (vn, pf)
• 1915 Mity [Myths] (vn, pf)
• 1917 String Quartet no. 1 in C
• 1918 Three Paganini Caprices (vn, pf)
• 1925 Kolysanka [Lullaby] (La berceuse d'Aitacho Enia) (ven, pf)
• 1927 String Quartet no. 2
78
VOICE AND PIANO
• Piesni polskie (soldiers' songs)
• 1900-02 Six Songs (K. Tetmajer)
• 1902 Three Fragments from Poems by Jan Kasprowicz
• 1904 Labedz (The Swan)
• 1904-05 Four Songs (Micinski)
• 1905-07 Five Songs (Dehmel, F. Bodenstedt, O. J. Bierbaum)
• 1907 Twelve Songs (Dehmel, Mombert, G. Falke, M. Greif)
• 1909 Six Songs (Micinski)
• 1910 Buntelieder (K. Bulcke, A. Paquet, E. Faktor, A. Ritter, Huch)
• 1911 Love-Songs of Hafiz
• 1915 Songs of a Fairy-Tale Princess
• 1915 Three Songs (Davidov)
• 1918 Four Songs (Tagore)
• 1918 Songs of the Infatuated Muezzin
• 1920 Two Basque Songs
• 1921 Slopiewnie (J. Tuwim)
• 1922 Three Lullabies (Iwaszkiewicz)
• 1922-23 Children's rhymes
• 1926 Four Songs (Joyce)
• 1928 Vocalise-Etude
• 1931-32 Kurpian Songs
79
UNACCOMPANIED CHORUS:
• 1928-29 Six Kurpian Songs fro unaccompanied mixed choir
PIANO MUSIC:
• 1900 Nine Preludes
• 1903 Variations in bb
• 1902 Four Studies
• 1904 Sonata no. 1
• 1904 Variations on a polish folk theme
• 1905 Fantasy
• 1905-06 Prelude and Fugue in c#
• 1911 Sonata no. 2 in A
• 1915 Metopy [Metopes]
• 1916 Twelve Studies
• 1916 Maski [Masques]
• 1917 Sonata no. 3
• 1924-25 Twenty Mazurkas
• 1926 Four Polish dances
• 1933-34 Two Mazurkas
80
APPENDIX B: PODHALE AND THE TATRA MOUNTAINS
28
Podhale (Tatra Foothills)
It is a highland area about 40 miles wide from east to west. It lies
between the Tatra Mountains to the south and the Western Beskid
Mountains to the north. The major cities of this area are
Zakopane and Nowy Targ. The transliterated meaning of the
name Podhale is "below the mountain glen." Possessing some of Poland's most beautiful
landscapes, this region encompasses some of Poland's most popular national parks to
heighten its developed tourist industry. This region was originally inhabited by the
Górale or Highlanders. Spisz, an area that was under Hungarian sovereignty for centuries
can also be found in this area.
Tatry (Tatra Mountains)
They are the highest mountains of the Carpathian Range with altitudes between 6500-
8000, making these mountains the highest between the Alps and the Urals. The height of
these mountains, however, belies their magnificence. Alpine in nature, these mountains,
with towering peaks, steep rocky slides, and mountain lakes hundreds of feet down, are
as beautiful as any mountain range in northern Europe. Tatra Mountains mark the border
between Poland and Slovakia. Those on the Polish side (about a third of the total) are
28
Source extracted from: infopoland/University at Buffalo at http://info-
poland.buffalo.edu/web/geography/regions/podhale/link.shtml
81
part of the Tatras National Park. Though the range is only 40 miles long and 10 miles
across, millions visit this mountain range and the town of Zakopane, situated at the foot
of the mountains
82
APPENDIX C: STABAT MATER WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Stabat Mater in Latin and Polish with English Translation
Latin – English Translation
Monks of Solesmes, Chants of the Church
(Belgium: Desclee & Company, 1953), 140-141
Polish – English Translation
Literal translation of Polish text by Jan Adamcyk
[words added by Szymanowski are in brackets].
No. 1 Stabat Mater No. 1 Stała Matka
1a.
Stabat Mater dolorosa
There stood (the) Mother sorrowful
juxta crucem lacrimosa
beside (the) cross in tears,
dum pendebat Filius.
while hanging (on it) was her son.
1a.
Stała Matka bolejąca
There stood (the) Mother sorrowful
koło krzyża łzy lejąca
beside (the) cross in tears,
gdy na krzyżu wisiał Syn.
while hanging (on it) was her son.
1b.
Cujus animam gementem
Whose soul sighing,
contristatam et dolentem
saddened and grieving,
pertransivit gladius.
the sword pierced.
1b.
A jej duszę potyraną
And on her trampled soul,
rozpłakaną, poszarpaną
that crying, was torn
miecz przeszywał ludzkich win.
pierced by the sword of human faults.
2a.
O quam tristis et afflicta
O how sad and afflicted
fuit illa benedicta
was that blessed
Mater Unigeniti!
Mother of the only begotten!
2a.
O, jak smutna, jak podcięta
Oh, how sad, how afflicted
była Matka Boża święta,
the holy Mother of God was,
cicha w załamaniu rąk!
Quietly clasping her hands in horror
2b.
Quae moerebat et dolebat
She was mourning and grieving,
pia Mater, dum videbat
(the) tender mother, while she saw
nati poenas incliti.
her Son’s pains, (her) noble (Son).
2b.
O, jak drżała o truchlała,
Oh, how she cringed with fear,
I bolała, gdy patrzała
and grieved, while she looked
na synowskich tyle mąk.
at her Son’s so many sufferings.
No. 2 Quis et homo No. 2 I któz widząc
3a.
Quis est homo qui non fieret,
Who is (the) man who would not weep
Matrem Christi si videret
(the) Mother of Christ if he saw
in tanto supplico?
In such suffering
3a.
I kto serca nie ubroczy,
And who will not have his heart bleed,
widząc, jak do krzyża oczy wzbiła,
see how she raised her eyes to the cross
oczy, z bólu drétwa już.
eyes, already numb with pain.
3b.
Quis non posset contristari,
Who (would) not be able to grieve
Christi Matrem contemplari,
Christ’s mother to contemplate
dolento cum Filio?
(as she was) grieving with her son?
3b.
I kto serca nie ubroczy,
And who will not have his heart bleed,
widząc, jak do krzyża oczy wzbiła,
see how she raised her eyes to the cross
oczy, z bólu drétwa już.
eyes, already numb with pain.
83
4a.
Pro peccatis suae gentis
For (the) sins of His own nation
vidit Jesum in tormentis [ah!]
she saw Jesus in torments, ah!
et flagellis subditum.
And by scourges beaten down.
4a.
[Ach,] Za ludzkiego rodu winy
For the trespasses of mankind
Jak katowan był jedyny, [ach!]
how her only one was beaten, ah!
męki każdy niosła dział.
She bore each part of his suffering.
4b.
Vidit suum dulcem natum
She saw her own dear child
moriendo desolatum,
dying (and) forsaken,
dum emisit spiritum.
while He breathed forth (His) Spirit.
4b.
I widziała, jak rodzony
And saw how her only begotten
Jej umierał opuszczony,
Son was dying abandoned,
zanim Bogu duszę dał.
before he gave his soul to the Lord.
No. 3 O Eia, Mater No. 3 O Matko, źródło
5a.
[O] Eia Mater, fons amoris,
O (dear) Mother, fount of love,
me sentire vim doloris
(let) me feel (the) weight of sorrow
fac, ut tecum lugeam.
grant that with Thee I may weep.
5a.
O Matko, źródło wszechmiłości,
Oh, Mother, source of all love,
daj mi uczuć moc żałości,
let me feel the power of sadness,
niechaj z Tobą dźwignę ból.
with you I can bear the pain.
5b.
Fac, ut ardeat cor meum
Grant that fervent be (the) heart of me.
in amando Christum Deum.
in loving Christ (my) God
ut sibi complaceam.
that to Him I may be pleasing.
5b.
Chrystusowe ukochanie
Let the precious love of Christ
niech w mym sercu ogniem stanie,
in my heart become a fire,
Krzyża dzieje we mnie wtul.
press close into me the deeds of the cross.
6a.
Sancta Mater, istud agas,
Holy Mother this do (for me),
crucifixi fige plagas
of the crucified fix deep (the) wounds,
cordi meo valide.
in the heart of me indelibly.
6a.
Matko, Matko, miłosiernie
Mother, Mother, look
wejrzyj, Syna Twego ciernie
with pity, your Son’s thorns,
w serce moje wraź jak w cel.
in my heart stick to it like a target.
6b.
Tui nati vulnerati,
Of thy Son (so) wounded,
tam dignati pro me pati,
so gracious (as) for me to suffer,,
poenas mecum divide.
His pains with me thou do divide.
6b.
Rodzonego, męczonego,
The one you bore, the tortured one,
Syna Twego ofiarnego,
your Son, share with me
Kaźń owocną ze mną dziel.
the fruitful execution of the sacrificed one.
No. 4 Fac me tecum No. 4 Spraw, niech płaczę
7a.
Fac me tecum pie flere,
Make me with thee lovingly to weep,
Crucifixo condolere,
with the Crucified to sympathize
donec ego vixero.
as long as I shall live.
7a.
Spraw, niech płaczę z Tobą razem,
Cause me to cry with you,
Krzyża zamknę się obrazem
I will lock myself with the image of the cross
aż po mój ostatni dech.
until my last breath.
7b.
Juxta crucem tecum stare
There stood (the) Mother sorrowful
et me tibi sociare.
7b.
Niechaj pod nim razem stoję,
Let me stand underneath him together,
dzielą Twoje krwawe znoje.
84
beside (the) cross in tears,
in planctu desidero.
while hanging (on it) was her son.
[juxta crucem, juxta crucem]
beside the cross,
[tecum stare, desidero.]
With thee to stand, I desire.
and sharing your bloody toils.
Twą boleścíą zmywam grzech.
With your pain I wash away the sins.
[z Tobą razem, aż po mój,
with you together, until my
ostatni dech.]
last breath.
No. 5 Virgo virginum praeclara No. 5 Panno słodka, racz
8a.
Virgo virginum praeclara
Virgin of virgins, noble Lady
mihi jam non sis amara,
to me now (d) not be bitter,
fac me tecum plangere.
make me with thee to mourn.
8a.
Panno słodka, racz, mozołem
Sweet Maiden, rather, with much effort
niech me serce z Tobą społem
may my heart together with you
na golgocki idzic [szczyt], skłon.
to Golgotha go to the slope top.
8b.
Fac, ut portem Christi mortem,
Grant that I may bear Christ’s death,
passionis faca consertem,
of His Passion make (me) sharer,
et plagas recolere.
and of His wounds a worshipper.
8b.
Niech śmierć przyjmę z katów ręki,
Let me accept death from the executioner,
uczestnikiem będę męki,
I will be the participant in the torture,
razów krwawych zbiorę plon.
I shall gather a harvest of bloody blows
9a.
Fac me plagis vulnerary,
Make me with His wounds wounded
fac me cruce inebriari,
make me of His cross enamored,
et cruore Filii.
and of the blood of thy Son.
9a.
Niechaj broczy ciało moje,
May my body bleed;
krzyżem niechaj się upoję,
May I be totally filled with the cross;
niech z miłosnych żyję tchnień!
May I live on the breaths of love!
9b.
Flammis ne urar succensus,
With flames lest I burned consumed
Per te, Virgo, sim defensus
by thee, O Virgin, May I be defended
in die judicii.
in (the) day of judgment.
9b.
W morzu ognia zapalony,
In the sea of fire,
z Twojej ręki niech osłony
from your hand let me take the protective
puklerz wezmę w sądu dzień!
breastplate in the day of judgment!
No. 6 Christe, cum sit hinc exire No. 6 Chrystus niech mi będzie
10a.
Christe, cum sit hinc exire,
Christ, when it is time hence to part,
da per Matrem me venire
grant (that) through (Thy) Mother I may come,
ad palmam victoriae.
to (the) palm of victory.
10a.
Chrystus niech mi będzie grodem,
Christ let me be a walled city,
Krzyż niech będzie mym przewodem,
let the cross be my guide,
łaską pokrop, życie daj, życie daj.
sprinkle me with grace, give me life.
10b.
Quando corpus morietur,
When (my) body shall die,
fac, ut animae donetur
grant that to my soul be given,
paradisi gloria.
of paradise (the) glory.
10b.
Kiedy ciało me się skruszy,
When my body will crumble,
oczyszczonej w ogniu duszy
for the soul purified in the heart,
glorię zgotuj, niebo, raj.
prepare glory, heaven, paradise.
85
APPENDIX D: POLISH LANGUAGE PRONUNCIATION GUIDELINES
VOWELS:
a - always like "u" in "mum" (mama = mum)
e - always like "e" in "red" (serce = heart, read as ser- tse)
i - always like "i" in "hit" (i = and)
ia - like "yu" in "yummy" (miasto = city, town)
ie - like "ye" in "yes" (pies = dog)
io - like "yo" in "yolk" (Piotr = Peter)
ió - like "you" (pióro = pen)
iu - like "you" (biuro = office)
o - always short like "o" in "pot" (sto = hundred)
u - like "u" in "bull"- (usta = mouth)
ó - like "u' in "bull" (ból = pain)
y - somewhere between "i" and German "ü" (ty, wy i my = you (sg.), you (pl.) and us)
TWO NASALS:
a - like 'on" in French "bon" (maka = flour)
e - like "en" in Fren "bien" (bede = I will be)
CONSONANTS:
b - babcia = granny; read as bub- cha
c - like "ts" in "cots" (kac = hangover or co = what)
86
c - like "ch" in "chip" (cma = moth, read as tchma)
ci - like "chi" in "chip" (cicho = silence; read as chi- ho)
cz - like "ch" in "cherry" (czerwony = red; read as cher- vo- ney)
d - dobry = good; read as dob- ree
dz, dz like "j" in "job" (lódz = ship (with capital "L" the name of the second biggest
Polish city), read as woodge))
dzi - like "gy" in "gym" (dziura = hole; read as gi'u- ra)
g - like "g" in "good" (gra = game)
h - like "ch" in Scottish "loch" (hej = form of informal greeting, read as chey)
ch - like "ch" in Scottish "loch' (chory = ill)
j - like "y" in "York" (jajo = egg, read as ya- yo)
l - like "l" in "lead" (lody = ice cream)
l - like "w" in "wood" (ladnie = nicely, read as whad- nie)
m - most = bridge; read shortly - see "o" above
n - noga = leg, foot
n - like Spanish "ò", (dzien = day, read as jeni)
ni - like Spanish "òi", (nic = nothing)
p - para = couple
r - pronounced like "r" in Italian or Spanish. (rower = bicycle, read as rro- ver)
rz - very difficult - pronounced like a combination of French "j" and rhotic "r" rzeka =
river
s - slowo = word, (read as swo- vo)
87
si - (exception) like "sh" in shift, (sila = strength, power, read as shi- wa)
s - like "sh" in "shift" (smiech = laugh, read as sh- myekh)
sz - szalony = crazy (read as sha- lo- ney. "sh" is stronger than in "s")
t - tak = yes
w - like "v" in "vet" (woda = water, wódka = vodka, read as vood- ka)
z - zdrowy = healthy
zi, z, z - like "j" in French "jour", (zurek - a type of sour barley soup, zima = winter, zle =
badly)
Abstract (if available)
Abstract
Karol Szymanowski is one of the more influential composers of the twentieth-century. In Poland, he is called the father of Polish contemporary music. His music has influenced many subsequent Polish composers. The intent of this treatise is to highlight the composer’s biography, acknowledge his musical influences, and to discuss his compositions with a detailed analysis on his choral orchestral composition, Stabat Mater.
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Liu, Kuan-Fen
(author)
Core Title
Karol Szymanowski and his Stabat Mater
School
Thornton School of Music
Degree
Doctor of Musical Arts
Degree Program
Choral Music
Publication Date
12/10/2010
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
Choral Music,choral orchestral,contemporary,OAI-PMH Harvest,Polish,Stabat Mater,Symanowski
Place Name
Poland
(countries)
Language
English
Contributor
Electronically uploaded by the author
(provenance)
Advisor
Scheibe, Jo-Michael (
committee chair
), Grases, Cristian (
committee member
), Strimple, Nick (
committee member
)
Creator Email
choraldances@yahoo.com,downbeatplus@gmail.com
Permanent Link (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-m3586
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texts
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University of Southern California
(contributing entity),
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
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Repository Name
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Repository Location
Los Angeles, California
Repository Email
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Tags
choral orchestral
contemporary
Stabat Mater
Symanowski