(1) This paper reports some findings of my postdoctoral research in Polish music conducted at McGill University (Montreal) in association with the University of Warsaw (Poland) and funded by a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (1994-1996). The project consisted of two studies: (1) Women Composers in the Polish People's Republic (1945-1989) and (2) Spatiality, 'sonorism' and the Polish avant-garde (1956-1976). This text was previously published in the Bulletin of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in Canada and the Polish Library vol. 13 (1996): 36-40. Also published in the IAWM Journal 2 no. 2 (June 1996): 13-15. Back to the text.
(2) Cf. Maria Iwanejko: Maria Szymanowska. Cracow: Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne, 1959. Back to the text.
(3) Marta Lugowska: "A typical woman. Conversation with Hanna Kulenty" in Polish Music/Polnische Musik 24 no. 4 (1989): 16-23. For a discussion of negative stereotyping of women in Western culture see Nancy Tuana: The less noble sex. Scientific, religious, and philosophical conceptions of woman's nature. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1993. Back to the text.
(4) This linguistic practice resembles the custom of praising an exceptional woman for being a "wspanialy czlowiek" (i.e. a wonderful man). For a study of gender characteristics of Polish language see Adam Jaworski: A linguistic picture of women's position in society. A Polish-English contrastive study. Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Peter Lang, 1986. Back to the text.
(5) Cf. Elzbieta Pakszys: "The state of research on Polish women in the last two decades" Journal of Women's History 3 no. 3 (Winter 1992): 118-125. See also Renata Siemienska: "Polish women and Polish politics since World War II" Journal of Women's History 3 no. 1 (Spring 1991): 108-125 and by the same author: "Women in the period of systemic changes in Poland." Journal of Women's History 5 no. 3 (Winter 1994): 70-99. Back to the text.
(6) Bianka Pietrov-Ennker: "Women in Polish society. A historical introduction," in R. Jaworski and B. Pietrow-Ennker, eds. Women in Polish society. Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs, 1992: 1-30. Back to the text.
(7) Curiously, this form appears even in Almanach polskich kompozytor¢w wspolczesnych [Dictionary of contemporary Polish composers], Mieczys awa Hanuszewska and Bogus aw Schaeffer, eds., Krak¢w: PWM, 1982, new edition. Back to the text.
(8) Pietrov-Ennker, p. 11. Back to the text.
(9) Grazyna Bacewicz: Znak szczegolny [Birthmark]. Warszawa: Czytelnik, 1974. Back to the text.
(10) "Bernardetta Matuszczak in conversation with Maria Anna Harley" unpublished transcript of tape recording, July 1995, Warsaw, Poland (in Polish). Back to the text.
(11) Cf. entries in The New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers, Julie Anne Sadie and Rhian Samuel, eds. London: MacMillan, 1994. A useful brief biography of Bacewicz is by Judith Rosen: Grazyna Bacewicz: Her life and works. University of Southern California: Friends of Polish Music, 1984. Back to the text.
(12) Stefan Kisielewski: Grazyna Bacewicz i jej czasy [G.B. and her times], Cracow: PWM, 1964. Back to the text.
(13) "Conversations with Maria Anna Harley." Warsaw, June 1995. Unpublished transcripts from tape recordings. Baculewski's book, Polska tworczosc kompozytorska 1945-1984, [Polish compositional output, 1945-1984], (Cracow: PWM, 1987), mentions the names of many women composers and draws examples from their work where appropriate, i.e. while discussing composers, schools, or particular musical styles. Back to the text.
(14) K. Moszumanska-Nazar: Biographical notes, unpublished typescript. Back to the text.
(15) Statements from interviews conducted in the summer of 1995. The group was funded but never formally closed; despite different career choices of its three members, the group still appears in concert programs. In 1989, SIMC (Polish Section) organized a concert in Warsaw. In 1994, one of the group's compositions, Second Secret Poem for tape and slide-projection, was performed at a concert in Kusthaus Flora, Berlin. Back to the text.
(16) Zofia Helman: "Polnische Komponistinnen im XX. Jahrhundert" paper presented at the Women Composers Symposium in Heilderberg, summer 1988. Unpublished typescript. Back to the text.
(17) Krystyna Wrochno: La femme en Pologne Populaire, Warsaw: Edition Interpress, 1969. Back to the text.
(18) Quoted from: "Piekno i moc. Lidia Zielinska odpowiada na pytania Ewy Galkowskiej" Ruch Muzyczny 38 no. 9 (1 May 1994): 1, 3. Back to the text.
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