The Polish School of Composition in 20th-Century Music – A Recapitulation

Abstract

The present paper concerns the concept of ‘the Polish School of Composition’, well established in writings on music composed in the 2nd half of the 20th century, but still resisting attempts to define it clearly. I sum up the ways authors have talked about the Polish School of Composition to date, both from the internal (Polish) and external (foreign) points of view. I also examine the musical differentia specifica (such as aspects of style, composition technique and expression in works associated with this phenomenon) and the extramusical (mostly social and political) contexts which have determined the evolving approaches to the phenomenon in question. I begin with the origin of the term itself and discuss its subsequent interpretations until the present. From this perspective, the Polish School of Composition appears to be a kind of mythic narrative, a proposed way of ordering and understanding the past realities, transcending the categories of truth and falsehood, and working primarily in the sphere of emotions.