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Jadwiga Paja-Stach Witold Lutosławski and the European Musical Tradition Witold Lutosławski has spoken many times about the influences exerted on him by the music of European composers from the Baroque era to the twentieth century. He has mentioned the music of Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Debussy, Roussel and Bartók as an inexhaustible source of inspiration. The connections of Lutosławski with tradition have also been spoken of by authors of works devoted to the composer, sketching out his biography, artistic attitude or characteristics of individual periods of his œuvre. The aim of the present study is to discuss synthetically the ways in which Lutosławski drew on his musical heritage, to follow the role of tradition through the successive stages of In, for example: Bohdan Pociej Lutosławski a wartość muzyki [Lutosławski and the Value of Music], Kraków 1976, p. 133. See, among others: Steven Stucky Lutosławski and His Music, Cambridge 1981 Cambridge University Press; Charles Bodman Rae The Music of Lutosławski, London 1994 Faber & Faber, in Polish: Muzyka Lutosławskiego, Warsaw 1996 PWM Edition, transl. Stanisław Krupowicz; Jadwiga Paja-Stach Lutosławski i jego styl muzyczny [Lutosławski and His Musical Style], Kraków 1997 Musica Iagellonica; Marta Ptaszyńska ‘French Influence in the Music of Witold Lutosławski’ and Zbigniew Skowron ‘Tradycja, awangarda i nowoczesność jako źródła postawy twórczej Witolda Lutosławskiego’ [‘Tradition, the Avant-garde and Modernity as Sources of Witold Lutosławski’s Artistic Attitude’], in: Witold Lutosławski. Człowiek i dzieło w perspektywie kultury muzycznej XX wieku [Witold Lutosławski. The Man and His Work in the Perspective of 20th-century Musical Culture], ed. Jan Astriab, Maciej Jabłoński, Jan Stęszewski, Poznań 1999 Wydawnictwo Poznańskiego Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauk; Steven Stucky ‘Change and Constancy: The Essential Lutosławski’, in: Lutosławski Studies, ed. Zbigniew Skowron, New York 2001 Oxford University Press, in Polish: ‘Ciągłość i zmiana: istota stylu Lutosławskiego’, in: Estetyka i styl twórczości Witolda Lutosławskiego [Aesthetics and Style in the Œuvre of Witold Lutosławski], Kraków 2000 Musica Iagellonica; Danuta Gwizdalanka, Krzysztof Meyer Lutosławski, vol. I Droga do dojrzałości [The Way to Maturity], Kraków 2003 PWM Edition, vol. II Droga do mistrzostwa [The Way to Mastery], Kraków 2004 PWM Edition. 71 Witold Lutosławski Studies 1 (2007) the composer’s life and œuvre, and in particular, to show musical tradition as an impulse producing novel musical phenomena. A chronological view of the issue of connections between Lutosławski’s music and tradition shows a change in the manner of assimilation and transformation of ideas familiar from the music of previous eras. In Lutosławski’s early works, imitation of some characteristics of twentiethcentury music and affinities with the old masters’ compositions are evident. These display a combination of specific timbres, rhythmic and structural means similar to, for example, those in Debussy’s and Stravinsky’s works, and the use of techniques and formal schemes known from Baroque and Classical music. In Lutosławski’s mature works, connections with music of earlier eras are not so evident, because of a highly original fusion of traditional ideas for the structuring of tensions in a work with Lutosławski’s harmonic language and aleatoric counterpoint. These are connections inherent in the deep plane, consisting of drawing more on ideas than on specific compositional resources; and in the case of drawing on a procedure, taking an abstract model thereof, rather than a concrete compositional style. In Lutosławski’s late works, links with tradition are twofold: 1. ‘Superficial’ links consisting of allusions to music of the masters via utilization of selected, characteristic technical procedures from their works, and inclusion of these procedures in his own set of procedures; 2. Links present in the deep plane, of character known from the previous period of his œuvre. Sources of inspiration in early works In the first period of his œuvre, the composer made use of various sources: Folk and artistic tradition; in some works, he alluded clearly to Impressionist texture and form; in others, to those of the Classical period, in these latter works linking Classical ideas with Modernist harmonic language and instrumentation. Lutosławski’s Piano Sonata (1934), written during his student days, reflects the composer’s attraction towards French Impressionist music. The Piano Sonata contains an exploitation of several levels of sonority typical of Debussy’s and Ravel’s works: 1. melodic line. 2. oscillating chords or figurational texture as a color layer, and 3. a repeated note (mostly in the bass) as a tonal center. In Two Etudes, composed in 1940–41, Lutosławski links his own musical ideas with some concepts modeled on the examples of Chopin’s and Debussy’s Etudes: typical pianistic procedures such as figuration, arpeggiated structures, and concentration on particular intervals used in fast, lively motion, as well as use of tone centers, evidence a continuation of tradition. The pitch organization of the Etudes and the Piano Sonata also reveals the composer’s transposition technique. For example, in the Etudes, Lutosławski used 72 Witold Lutosławski Studies 1 (2007) a synthetic scale comprising the tetrachord c-d-e-f (2-2-1) and its transposition at the tritone f#-g#-a#-b (2-2-1). These two tetrachords play an important role in both the melodic and harmonic aspects of the Etudes. Transpositions of pitch structures are a trait characteristic of Lutosławski’s works from various periods of his œuvre, as has been shown in the analyses of Michael Klein. He showed the compositional technique based on principles of transposition, on the example of the Piano Sonata, the Etudes, as well as late works such as the Partita, Piano Concerto, Symphony no. 4 and others of the composer’s works. The procedure of transposition of pitch structures, no doubt having its sources and numerous examples in traditional music, found particularly interesting solutions in the artistic concept of Lutosławski in the works of his late period, in which the composer utilized it simultaneously in many planes of the orchestral texture. It is such multi-level transpositionality which seems to be a trait at once special and innovative in the composer’s music. In Lutosławski’s early, Neoclassical works, the transpositions are linked with utilization of polyphonic technique. In three compositions in the Neoclassical style: the Symphonic Variations (1938), the Symphony no. 1 (1947) and the Concerto for Orchestra (1954), Lutosławski inserted polyphonic fragments into traditional cyclical forms and used modern harmonic language and colorful orchestration. The structural plan of the Symphonic Variations is Classical and clear: the cantilena theme is followed by seven variations, as well as a coda where polyphonic technique is used (inversion, augmentation and stretto of the motif ). The Classical form of the Symphonic Variations contains modern orchestral and harmonic patterns which show the influence of Stravinsky’s ‘Russian ballets’ (for example: superimposition of chords and rhythmic vitality). In particular, the concertante use of smaller groups of instruments and the important role of the piano, which adds color in many of the structures, is reminiscent of the early Stravinsky sound universe. Similar characteristics i.e. Classical form with polyphonic sections (fugato, canon) and rich orchestration are presented by Symphony no. 1. This work reveals an intellectual discipline and compositional rigor similar to that found in Classical compositions. The first movement is in an orthodox sonata form: exposition with two subjects and two tonal areas, development in which both themes are elaborated, and recapitulation in which the two subjects occur in the same, principal tonal center. There is also a contrast in emotional character, typical of the Classical sonata, between the lively moto perpetuo primary theme and the lyric secondary theme. Michael L. Klein A Theoretical Study of the Late Music of Witold Lutosławski: New Interactions of Pitch, Rhythm, and Form. Doctoral dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1995. 73 Witold Lutosławski Studies 1 (2007) Sonata form is also used in the fourth movement, but without a development as the central section. The construction of this finale shows the influence of Brahms’ Symphony no. 1 and Symphony no. 3. As is shown by this short review of selected traits of form in his Symphony no. 1, Lutosławski utilized both a Classical rendition of the sonata form model, and its subsequent transformations. In the aforementioned Concerto for Orchestra, the composer linked nume rous procedures from early art music with material from Masovian folk melodies (coming from the region around Warsaw). For example, in the first movement of the Concerto, the contrapuntal texture is based on a folk melody in imitation, and a simultaneous juxtaposition of two other folk-song fragments as a counterpoint to the major melody. In the first section of the third movement, the passacaglia theme (another folk melody) is a constant element passing gradually from the lowest to the highest registers of the orchestra. As other layers of the texture are added, other episodes of melody and color appear, changing the character of the passacaglia theme, which is repeated eighteen times. Lutosławski spoke about the style of his own works based on Polish folk melodies as follows: “It consists, above all, of a linking of simple, diatonic motifs with chromatic, non-tonal counterpoints, as well as with non-functional, multicolored, capricious chromaticism. Rhythmic transformations of these motifs, too, as well as polymeter […] are among the characteristics of this style”. Compositions from the first period of Lutosławski’s musical activity show some influences from the great masters of the past and tendencies – especially vivid in the years 1920–50 – to create Classical forms in modern language, and use traditional folk music in the context of new harmony. Witold Lutosławski commented on the technique of his first works as follows: “In my youth, when I composed my first works, I was surrounded by a world of ‘violated tonality’. In other words, tonal music with false notes, such as early Hindemith or some of the works of Les Six. That is what I found to have no future... alien to my nature.... I tried to create order in my first compositions, but that was of course very difficult in that period of my life”. In his Bukoliki, the composer utilized melodies from the Kurpie region of Poland; and in his Little Suite, from the area around Rzeszów; and in the Folk Melodies, songs from various regions of Poland. In: Witold Lutosławski. Materiały do monografii. [Witold Lutosławski. Materials for a Monograph]. Ed. Stefan Jarociński, Kraków 1967, pp. 44-45. In: Balint Andras Varga Lutosławski. Profile, London 1976, p. 22. 74 Witold Lutosławski Studies 1 (2007) The role of traditional ideas in innovatory works A new order in pitch organization is inherent in Lutosławski’s works composed after the year 1954. In the Five Songs for soprano and piano (1957), Musique funèbre for string orchestra (1954–58) and Three Postludes for orchestra (1958– 63), there appears a system of vertical pitch aggregations. In these several compositions, written in the second period of Lutosławski’s artistic activity, affinities with other composers are less evident; there is, however, a continuation of some traditional ideas from Debussy, Bartók and Bach. For example, Debussy’s idea of forming tone color via harmony was developed in Lutosławski’s music. Lutosławski investigated the ‘characterological’ properties of twelve-tone harmony; he was convinced that the expressive and coloristic possibilities of chords result from intervallic relationships between pitches. For Lutosławski, each type of chord – comprised of one, two or three interval classes – had its own character, ‘temperature’ and color; for example, the composer perceived the combination of interval classes 1, 5 and 6 as ‘icy’, while chords containing all interval classes had – in Lutosławski’s view – no defined individuality. In Lutosławski’s ‘harmonic thought’, the musical ideas of Debussy take on a new appearance; Debussy’s concept of harmony as a color value is developed much further. Parallels in the music of Bartók and Lutosławski are twofold: direct influences and similarities in general ideas. Connections between Bartók’s and Lutosławski’s compositional techniques have been described in many papers. For example, Steven Stucky notices a direct relationship in “the use of thematic transformation by systematically shrinking melodic intervals”. He points to the occurrence of a similar procedure in the theme of the Concerto for Orchestra (rehearsal no. 5 in the score, and its variant before no. 66), as well as in the works of the late period, among others, in the Symphony no. 3 (oboe theme before rehearsal no. 39, and the version in no. 75). Michael Klein, on the other hand, reveals a similarity in works by the two composers, consisting of the formation of a linear pitch relationship, the so-called ‘inversional union’, when ‘a melodic fragment is answered in inversion’. And though such analogies do in essence occur, we would like to observe that this is not exclusively a characteristic of the music of Bartók and Lutosławski. See descriptions and classifications of Lutosławski’s chord-aggregates, in: Martina Homma Lutosławski. Zwölfton-Harmonie – Formbildung – ‘aleatorischer Kontrapunkt’. Studien zum Gesamtwerk unter Einbeziehung der Skizzen, Köln 1996; Charles Bodman Rae The Music of Witold Lutosławski, op. cit.; Steven Stucky Lutosławski and His Music, op. cit. Steven Stucky ‘Change and Constancy…’, op. cit., p. 143. Michael Klein ‘Lutosławski and the Canon’, in: Witold Lutosławski. Człowiek i dzieło w perspektywie kultury muzycznej XX wieku [Witold Lutosławski. The Man and His Work in the Perspective of 20th-century Musical Culture], Poznań 1999, p. 60. 75 Witold Lutosławski Studies 1 (2007) In the Musique funèbre (1954–58) dedicated ‘à la mémoire de Béla Bartók’, affinities with the first movement of the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta of the great Hungarian composer consist of analogous intervallic preferences, polyphonic texture and placement of the climax. There are, of course, many differences which attest to the individual thinking of the author of Musique funèbre. Lutosławski combined linear voice-leading with elements of dodecaphonic technique, and presented his own methods of organizing twelve-tone harmonic aggregations. Precision and logic of musical form is a general idea common to Bartók and Lutosławski. Both composers, in their mature creative periods, turned to old musical models and techniques to achieve similar meaning, order and development strategy in their own works, but by different – modern and original – means. Bartók and Lutosławski, drawing on the same musical sources (for example Bach’s counterpoint, Beethoven’s thematic development), created sound universes different with respect to craftsmanship and aesthetic impression, but both dominated by the idea of Classical perfection which results from the order governing pitch within the work. Logical arrangement of pitch and perfection of form are characteristics of Lutosławski’s aleatoric music as well. The introduction of aleatoric technique after 1961 (i.e. in the third period of the composer’s creative activity) is relative to time organization. There is no exact determination of the durations of single notes, only an approximate one; and as a result, there is a non-synchronization of simultaneous parts. Apart from aleatoric, approximate durations of notes, all aspects of the work are precisely determined.10 An aleatoric structure always relies on a precompositional pitch-interval pattern, whose individual elements have been allotted to individual parts so as always to give a similar sound result in any performance. Lutosławski, in his aleatoric music, developed a harmonic language and presented a formal model which – as in the case of Classical composers – was repeated (with modifications, of course) in almost all his works. In the two-movement form of Lutosławski’s works (presented specifically in String Quartet 1964 and Symphony no. 2 1967), the first movement consists of several sections (episodes and refrains) and is of static character; the second movement, conversely, is dynamic and contains a dramatic development and climax. Lutosławski treated musical form as a process in time, and as an object outside of time which can be conceived in its entirety in one moment. In Lutosławski’s concept of form, two ideas are enclosed: 1. composition as a sound drama, and 2. composition as a clear architectonic object. Both ideas have sources in musical tradition, although there are no evident affinities with traditional music in Lutosławski’s compositions written between 1961 and 1970. The composer introduced elements of tradition more and more clearly in his works composed after 1970. 10 76 There are exceptions, for example Trois poèmes d’Henri Michaux. Witold Lutosławski Studies 1 (2007) Traditional techniques and forms in aleatoric works The Cello Concerto (1970) was the first aleatoric work, in which the composer combined his own system of pitch organization with technical and formal ideas familiar from the past. In the Cello Concerto, some characteristics of the traditional concerto appear: the principle of conflict between the soloist and the orchestra, dialogue between the cello and an instrumental group, a virtuosic type of melodic line, as well as a cantilena section in the central movement of the work. The cantilena evokes associations with the central movement (slow and melodious) of the classical concerto, at the same time changing Lutosławski’s two-movement formal plan, and announces the composer’s search for a principle in the field of melody. The cantilena of the Cello Concerto, marked in the score as molto espressivo dolente, comprises several repeated phrases forming the melodic line; each of them based on different interval pairings11. The use of interval pairings and grace notes as two main elements of a melody are typical characteristics of Lutosławski’s dolente melodic lines in some of the works written after 1970 (for example Epitaph 1979, Double Concerto 1980). Melody, unfashionable in avant-garde times, acquired an important role in Lutosławski’s œuvre, already in Paroles tissées (1968); and the procedures for shaping melody displayed in this work were further developed in Les espaces du sommeil (1975), as well as in Chantefleurs et Chantefables (1990). But the Cello Concerto was a work which announced a new stage in Lutosławski’s music: emphasizing the significance of melody in an instrumental work, and the incorporation of traditional techniques and forms into his original language. The most original combination of traditional ideas (Bachian polyphonic ideas) with the composer’s pitch organization can be seen in Preludes and Fugue for 13 Solo Strings (1972). Lutosławski adopted a traditional bipartite layout; but the first movement of the work is composed of seven preludes, and the second one is a highly original fugue. The shape of the work as a whole is variable; any number of the Preludes can be performed, and the Fugue has four optional versions. This concept of form suggests certain affinities with the so-called ‘open form’, but all possible variants of the work were foreseen by the composer. The Fugue presents the main formal elements of a Baroque work of this type: contrast of subjects and episodes, imitative technique, stretto of subjects. However, the existence of six subjects formed in an aleatoric manner is no longer traditional. Each subject appears not as a single melodic line, but as several interwoven ones; the connection among them consists of a common interval-pattern, as well as affinities in rhythm and articulation. The non-synchronized pitch progression in each line of the subject results from ad libitum performance and modification of the rhythmic pattern. The subject is a polymorphic structure, a kind of diffuse aggregation, i.e. a mobile form, oscillating between the vertical and the horizontal. The stretti of polymorphic sub11 See in: Charles Bodman Rae, op. cit., p. 122. 77 Witold Lutosławski Studies 1 (2007) jects do not resemble traditional polyphony, but preserve its function as a means of building up to a climax in the fugue. In Lutosławski’s later work, apart from ‘polymorphic-polyphonic’ structures, one can find polyphony as a combination of single melodic lines. This clarity of ‘linear construction’ is a characteristic of some works written after 1980 – for example, Chain 1 (1983), Symphony no. 3 (1983) and Symphony no. 4 (1992). In both of the symphonies (no. 3 and no. 4), melodic and polyphonic procedures form the most important and attractive aspects of these works. The main movement of Symphony no. 3 is based on two themes: a toccata-like theme and a cantilena theme; both themes are repeated and developed. The use of the two contrasting themes – the first one, lively; and the second one, lyric – as well as their development, is reminiscent of the Classical sonata-form. Lutosławski combined traditional ideas from the past with his own techniques of aleatoric counterpoint and his own harmonic procedures. In Symphony no. 4, melodic and polyphonic means create the climate and expression of the work. The Symphony no. 4 opens with an expressive solo line in the clarinet. An inversion of the beginning of this melody in the English horn is used as a contrapuntal line. There are reprises of variants of this melody in the flute, the clarinets and the violin solo. The second movement of Symphony no. 4 contains two cantabile themes. One of them is played by violins I and II, and has the contour of a developed cantilena. The second one is the main melodic idea of the work (after rehearsal no. 64), which is used to create a climax achieved by polyphonic means.12 The second theme begins from a unison played by the violins together with the violas, next (after rehearsal no. 69, up to no. 73) unfolds in two and three parts i.e. with countermelodies. Lutosławski commented on his technique in Symphony no. 4 as follows: “The genuinely polyphonic (contrapunctal) fabric is made up of three structually (and emotionally) independent layers (top – middle – bottom), but the whole of this fabric exists within the framework of a definite twelve-tone chord. I would describe such an organization of the musical tissue as «wielozdarzeniowa» («compromising many events»)”.13 The melodic and polyphonic ideas of Symphony no. 4 attest to the Classical – in the broad sense of the word – attitude of the composer. Lutosławski – like the great masters of the past – exposed melody as a main element of the work. Connection with the music of earlier eras can also be detected in the works for solo instrument and orchestra written in the 1980s. Affinities exist in the general formal design, and in some technical ideas. See in: Alicja Jarzębska, ‘Problem kształtowania kontinuum formy w IV Symfonii Witolda Lutosławskiego’ [‘The problem of the Creation of the continuum of the form in the Symphony no. 4 by Witold Lutosławski’], Muzyka XL 1995 no. 1–2, pp. 135–154. 13 In: Irina Nikolska, Conversations with Witold Lutosławski, Stockholm 1994, p. 146. 12 78 Witold Lutosławski Studies 1 (2007) The Double concerto for oboe, harp and chamber orchestra (1980) presents a typical contrast of expression and tempo among the three movements (fast– slow–fast), and an allusion to the Baroque concerto grosso (opposition between concertino (i.e. the two solo parts) and ripieno (i.e. a group of instruments or tutti)), represent the main similarities to the traditional concerto. However, the realization of the formal ideas mentioned above is completely modern. Lutosławski used a combination of aleatoric techniques, pitch organization based on 12-tone rows and harmonic procedures familiar from his other mature works. The model of the traditional concerto served him as a general plan of the work, rather than as a paradigm for the imitation of a style. Lutosławski’s late style, associated with concertante technique and form, is also shown by: Chain 2 – dialogue for violin and orchestra, and the Piano Concerto (1988). Lutosławski alluded in these works to the resources of this Classical technique – among others, to dialogue between soloist and orchestra, as well as the use of two types of melody: cantabile and virtuosic. And thus, the cantabile melody in the 3rd movement of Chain 2 and the main theme from the 3rd movement of the Piano Concerto are some of the most attractive musical ideas in these works. Both works also contain showy, effective segments played by the soloist with orchestra accompaniment, as well as the solo parts characteristic of the concertante style. The Concerto also contains allusions to the Baroque era, of which an example is the Finale, which contains a theme in the orchestra, repeated many times as in a chaconne. This traditional aspect of form is associated with the principle of chain linkage of segments of the work, familiar also from other works by the composer, and consisting of asynchronous superposition of two planes whose beginnings do not coincide in time. In the Concerto, we hear many allusions to various musical styles. Lutosławski described his Piano Concerto as “the child of an odd marriage: my individual idiom (melody, harmony, rhythm) is linked with the tradition of 19th-century piano playing, with the tradition of Chopin, Liszt and Brahms”14. As Steven Stucky has noticed, “Composers important to Lutosławski’s early development float once more audibly to the surface in his late works: Prokofiev, in the Double Concerto (ironically, to be sure); Ravel, in Chantefleurs; Bartók, in Chain 2; Ravel, Bartók, Chopin, Liszt and Brahms in the Piano Concerto”15. The relationships of Lutosławski’s music with that of Chopin, signaled in the statements quoted, would be a worthy subject for a whole other paper. Lutosławski himself spoke of them enigmatically; and what has been said by musicologists concerns the occurrence of a certain type of musical structure, formed from chro- 14 15 In: Irina Nikolska, op. cit., p. 101. Steven Stucky ‘Change and Constancy…’, op. cit., p. 141. 79 Witold Lutosławski Studies 1 (2007) matic voice-leading against a chordal background16. This is one of those procedures drawn from tradition which reveals itself in the deep structures of Lutosławski’s works. Conclusion A review of Lutosławski’s compositional procedures which have their source in the European musical tradition shows how diverse, uncommonly important and constantly present they were in the composer’s artistic thought. The attestation of such an accepting attitude on the composer’s part with regard to tradition are his works in which he drew on Polish folklore, as well as those in which one can discern influences from the music of masters from earlier eras, to whose charm he subjected himself intuitively, or to whose styles he consciously alluded. Of nontrivial and inspiring significance for the composer was the broadly-conceived idea of Classicism, understood not only as a set of characteristics of Classical music, but also as perfection of form in a work, obtained by its appropriate proportions and harmony. Even during the period of the reign and promotion of avant-garde art, which broke with canons and rejected tradition, Lutosławski was composing music in which, aside from original, novel procedures, it is possible to discover an attachment to his musical heritage. The most creative appears to be Lutosławski’s development – in the mature and late period of his œuvre – of the ideas and values inherent in Baroque polyphonic music: - Contrapuntal texture found a novel setting in the technique of controlled aleatorism; - The fugue form acquired a completely new shape, visible both in the area of the formal plan and its performance variants, and in its polymorphic subjects; - The idea of simultaneous leading of many voices was multiplied as a result of the shaping of a multi-layered, multi-threaded texture. And finally – a word about melody. This ‘royal’ element of music, removed from the avant-garde œuvre, and restored during the Postmodernist era in the form of quotes and stylistic imitations, found its own original and recognizable shape in Lutosławski’s late works, endowing them with attractiveness and beauty. Lutosławski’s approach to tradition as a source stimulating the creative imagination permitted him to create works in which timeless, traditional spiritual and artistic values coexist harmoniously with the composer’s individual musical thought. 16 Steven Stucky “[…] the chords are joined by stealthy chromatic voice-leading, sometimes with only one or two voices moving at a time, as in the examples from the Partita, Chain 2 and the Piano Concerto.’ In: Steven Stucky, ‘Change and constancy…’, op. cit., p. 146.