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Maria Szymanowska, born Marianna Agata Wołowska (on 14 December 1789, in
Warsaw) was a
Polish virtuosa pianist and composer of piano pieces, vocal and
chamber music. Little is known about her formal training in
composition. Belza (1956/1987) claims that she studied with
Franciszek Lessel (1780-1838), Iwanejko (1959) mentions also
Jozef Elsner (1769-1854) and Karol Kurpinski (1785-1857) as
Szymanowska's possible tutors. She studied the piano with Antoni
Lisowski and Tomasz Gremm (till 1804) and gave first public
concerts in Warsaw and Paris in 1810.
During her marriage to Jozef Szymanowski, which lasted from 1810
to 1820 (after the separation, three children stayed with the
mother), Maria performed mainly for friends and visitors, and
focused on composition. From this period come her best piano
works (Vingt Exercices et Preludes ) and the majority of her
songs. In the years 1823-1827, Szymanowska toured Europe
(Germany, England, France, Switzerland, Italy and Russia); she
may have been the first virtuosa pianist playing from memory. In
Berlin and London, she performed for the royal courts, in Weimar--
for Goethe. She settled in Petersburg in 1828, working as the
court pianist of the tsarina and giving music lessons; her
musical salon was frequented by Polish and Russian artists and
aristocracy (M. Glinka, S. Pushkin, A. Mickiewicz). She died of cholera in
Petersburg, on 25 July 1831.
Szymanowska left a mark on the cultural life of several
countries, but was widely acclaimed for her performing
capabilities, not for her music. Called "exceptional among
women" (by F. Malewski, cf. Belza 1987: 15), "the charming
Allmighty of Sound" (by J.W. Goethe who wrote for her Aussohnung,
cf. Syga and Szenic 1960, Swartz 1984) and "the Queen of tones"
(by A. Mickiewicz, cf. Iwanejko 1959: 60), Szymanowska was
praised for the brillance and expressive quality of her tone: she
made the piano speak and sing (Mochnacki 1827/1955).
Among circa 100 compositions penned by Szymanowska, the most
numerous and interesting are piano miniatures (etudes, preludes,
dances, fantasias, mazurkas, etc.). She wrote over 20 songs with
piano accompaniment and 3 chamber pieces; she left no orchestral
music. Her compositions may be described as "pre-romantic"
(Poniatowska 1993) and are characterized by brilliant
virtuosity (piano works), pensive expressiveness (romances),
simplicity of form and texture (i.e. the absence of polyphony
and motivic development). Polish and Russian scholars consider
her an important forerunner of Chopin, especially in the use
of stile brillant, Polish dances, forms of concert etude,
mazurka, and nocturne.
BIBLOGRAPHY
Belza, Igor. 1956/1987. Maria Szymanowska. Transl. from
Russian into Polish by Jadwiga Ilnicka,
Krakow: Polskie
Wydawnictwo Muzyczne. Orig. published in 1956, Moskva:
Issdatelstvo Akademii
Nauk of Soviet Union. With a new preface
by the author.
________. 1955. Romansy russkich i polskich kompozitorov na
slova Adama Mickiewicza,
[Romances
by Russian and Polish composers to the texts of
Adam Mickievicz]. Moskva: 1955.
________. 1963. Z dziejow polsko-rosyjskich kontaktow
muzycznych [From the history of
Polish-Russian musical contacts], Krakow: Polskie
Wydawnictwo Muzyczne.
Cybulska, Janina. 1960. "Romans wokalny w Polsce w latach 1800-1830"
[Vocal romance in Poland
in the years 1800-1830], in Z
dziejow polskiej piesni solowej. Warszawa: Towarzystwo im.
Fryderyka
Chopina and Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne, 253-383.
Gabrys , Jerzy. 1960. "Poczatki polskiej piesni solowej w latach
1800-1830" [The origins of Polish
solo song in the years 1800-1830], in Z dziejow polskiej piesni solowej.
Warszawa: Towarzystwo
im. Fryderyka Chopina and Polskie Wydawnictwo
Muzyczne, 1-252.
Golos, George. 1960. "Some Slavic predecessors of Chopin," The
Musical Quarterly 46 (October):
437-447.
Iwanejko, Maria (Szeligiewicz-Iwanejko). 1951. Maria
Szymanowska (1790-1831) pierwsza polska
pianistka-wirtuozka i kompozytorka [M.Sz. the first polish virtuoso pianist
and composer],
M.A. thesis in philosophy, Jagiellonian University,
Archives of the Faculty of Philosophy.
Iwanejko, Maria. 1959. Maria Szymanowska. Krakow: Polskie
Wydawnictwo Muzyczne.
Lissa, Zofia and Olga Lada, eds. 1955. Mickiewicz w piesni
polskiej i obcej. Krakow: PWM Edition.
Mirski, Jozef. 1931. "Zapomniana artystka polska," Muzyka no.
11-12.
Mirski, Jozef and Maria Mirska. 1953. Maria Szymanowska, 1789-1831. Album:
Materialy
biograficzne, sztambuchy, wybor kompozycji. Krakow: Polskie
Wydawnictwo Muzyczne.
Mochnacki, Maurycy. 1827/1955. "Jeszcze kilka slow o koncercie
Szymanowskiej z powodu jej
recenzentow" [Some more words about Szymanowska's concert,
because of her reviewers] reprinted in S. Jarocinski, ed. Antologia
polskiej krytyki muzycznej XIXi XX wieku [Anthology of Polish music criticism in
the19th and 20th c.]
(do roku 1939)" Krakow: Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne, 43-48.
Nowak-Romanowicz, Alina. 1980. "Maria Szymanowska." Entry in The
New Grove of Music
and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, vol. 18. London:
Macmillan.
Poniatowska, Irena. 1993. "Styl brillant i idee preromantyczne
w tworczosci Marii Szymanowskiej,"
[Stile brillant and pre-romantic ideas in
the music of Maria Szymanowska], in Historia i
interpretacja
muzyki. Z badan nad muzyka od XVII do XIX wieku [History
and interpretation of music:
Research into music from the 17th to 19th century]. Krakow: Musica
Iagellonica, 94-116.
________. 1991, "Muzyka salonowa--miedzy sublimacja a
trywializacja," [Salon music-- between
sublimity and triviality], in Muzyka fortepianowa i pianistyka w wieku XIX
[Piano music and piano
performance in the 19th century] Krakow: Musica Iagellonica, 278-288.
Swartz, Anne. 1984. "Goethe and Szymanowska: The years 1823-1824
in Marienbad and
Weimar"
Germano-Slavica 4 no. 6 (fall 1984): 321-330.
________. 1985. "Maria Szymanowska and the salon music of the
early nineteenth century.
The Polish Review 30 no. 1: 43-58. New
York: Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America.
Syga, Teofil and Stanislaw Szenic. 1960. Maria Szymanowska i
jej czasy [Maria Szymanowska
and her times]. Warszawa: Panstwowy Instytut Wydawniczy (PIW).
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