Research on 18th Century Music in Poland. An Introduction

Abstract

Abstract Research on 18th-century music has been one of the key areas of interest for musicologists ever since the beginnings of musicological studies in Poland. It initially developed along two distinct lines: general music history (with publications mostly in foreign languages) and local history (mostly in Polish). In the last three decades the dominant tendency among Polish researchers has been, however, to relate problems of 18th-century Polish musical culture to the political history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and more generally – to the political history of Central Europe at large. The most important subjects taken up in research on 18th-century music include: the musical cultures of the royal court in 18th-century Warsaw (primarily in the works of Alina Żórawska-Witkowska) as well as Polish aristocratic residences (e.g. studies by Szymon Paczkowski and Irena Bieńkowska), the ecclesiastical and monastic circles (publications by Alina Mądry, Paweł Podejko, Remigiusz Pośpiech and Tomasz Jeż); problems of musical style (texts by Szymon Paczkowski); research on sources containing music by European composers (e.g. by Johann Adolf Hasse); the musical culture of cities (of Gdańsk, first and foremost); studies concerning the transfer of music and music-related materials, the musical centres and peripheries, etc.