Witold Szalonek Seen Through His Own Views

Abstract

Witold Szalonek (1927-2001) did not limit himself in his artistic activity to composing instrumental, vocal and vocal-instrumental works. He was also very active as a pedagogue, music promotor and musicologist-theorist. His writings reflect the tendency (popular among composers in the 2nd half of the 20th century) to comment on the aesthetic phenomena of historical and contemporary music culture, with particular emphasis on his own works. His views on art and selfcommentaries are contained in published and unpublished articles and manifestos. With regard to character and function, the writings that he left behind can be divided into four categories. Among the nearly thirty texts, printed mostly in Poland, we can thus distinguish: 1) essays on general musical subjects, commenting on elements of the European musical heritage important for this composer and on inspirations from non-European cultures; 2) artistic manifestos, in which sonoristic concepts play a major role; 3) self-analyses and self-commentaries on selected works, which are of major value to performers interpreting his pioneering scores; 4) critical texts on current subjects and events, coming from the first years of Witold Szalonek’s artistic work, when he was active as a music critic.

Keywords

• Szalonek
• avant-garde
• sonorism
• combined tones
• non- European music