Two Visions of Music. The Scores by Zbigniew Turski and Stefan Kisielewski for Two Productions of Juliusz Słowacki’s ‘Kordian’ in 1956
Abstract
The major theatrical events of 1956 in Poland included two spring productions of Juliusz Słowacki’s play Kordian. The Warsaw premiere, directed by Erwin Axer, with music by Zbigniew Turski, took place on 21 April at the National Theatre. The Kraków production, directed by Bronisław Dąbrowski, with music by Stefan Kisielewski, opened on 1 May at the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre. Both composers wrote extensive scores that undoubtedly enriched the stage productions. They have been preserved to our time in manuscript form: Turski’s in the Music Repository at the National Library of Poland in Warsaw (shelf-mark Muz. 2116), Kisielewski’s in the Theatre Archive at the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków (file no. 236). Turski’s score comprises 42 numbered sections, Kisielewski’s has 37 (but in practice 55).
The aim of this article is to point out similarities and differences in these two scores composed for the same play. The similarities are evident in such aspects as the ‘ghosts motif’, which takes the form of a descending figure in both scores (played consistently by the first and second violins in Turski’s music, and by various configurations of woodwinds and strings in the Kisielewski). Both composers also introduced intermezzi preceding individual scenes in the principal acts of the play. As many as 14 musical sections accompany the same passages in the text. Both composers also used musical quotations: Turski only once, citing the hymn ‘God Save the Tsar!’, and Kisielewski four times, with fragments quoted from ‘La Varsovienne’, ‘La Marseillaise’, ‘Dąbrowski’s Mazurka’ and ‘God Save the King’. Differences between the scores are visible in the choice of forces. Turski leaves out wind instruments in favour of expanded percussion and, unlike Kisielewski, introduces vocal parts. Kisielewski scored his music for a traditional symphony orchestra. What most distinguishes the two scores is the organisation of the musical material. Turski tends to emphasise timbral qualities, although this it is not yet a typically sonoristic approach. Kisielewski takes the opposite direction and opts for a neoclassical style, with which he was very familiar.
Keywords:
Kordian, Stefan Kisielewski, incidental music, Zbigniew TurskiReferences
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