Abstract
After the Romanticism era, when virtuoso music was dominated by the violin, cello and piano, there was a noticeable tendency among composers to search for new and fresh sound inspired by instruments previously functioning mainly in an orchestra. One of the instruments which acquired a new glory back then was the viola. Even though Western European literature earned a permanent place in the repertoire of violists worldwide, Polish pieces representing this genre are lesser-known and performed not as often, except for a few compositions. The library of Polish 20th century viola works is quite rich, but many compositions did not stand the test of time and we would look for them in vain within the performance canon; others were not published in print or recorded, and their manuscripts are owned by private collections. Some autographs of compositions have gone missing and only their titles have been preserved to this day. The present article is an attempt to systematise the state of knowledge about Polish viola compositions written before the end of the 20th century.
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