Szymanowski was regarded as the most important Polish composer of the 20th century. His creative life could be divided into three periods, and his compositional skills were deeply influenced by Chopin, Scriabin, Wagner, Stravinsky, the Impressionists and the National School of Music. Preludes, op.1 was one of Szymanowski¡¦s earlier works, which the creative music style was influenced by Chopin, Wagner and the late German Romanticism. The historical background of ¡§prelude¡¨ is with a kind of special interest, because it expressed the important characteristics of keyboard music in the earlier period. The ¡§prelude¡¨ originated from the unattached prelude in the 16th century, then graduately developed to evolve the attached prelude, becoming the main type in the Baroque period. The type of independent prelude was lately established by Chopin in the Romantic period. All the nine preludes are essays. The composition technique is often based on a single motivation or a subject, and expresses the music through the graceful melody. Furthermore, Szymanowski was skillful in using the complex harmony, adding dissonances and non-chord tones to expand the texture of music. He also employed the major and minor keys in turn to create a kind of indecisive tones. Therefore, the tonal structure became more clear only at the end of the music. The music style of Szymanowski is very characteristic and with diversity. He adapted different composing techniques to combine various characteristic sensations, moods and perspectives brilliantly, and produced the nine pleasant preludes consequently.

Thesis (M.Mus. 1975) - The Faculty of Music, University of Adelaide.

Zugl.: Berlin, Freie Univ., Diss., 2001

Thesis (Master of Music) in Music--University of Maine, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 37 ).

Treatise (D.M.A.) Florida State University, 2007. / Advisor: Carolyn Bridger, Florida State University, College of Music. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed 10-8-2007). Document formatted into pages; contains 68 pages. Includes biographical sketch. Includes bibliographical references.

This research contributes valuable contextual information to the study of Karol Szymanowski's little-known song cycle Seven Songs to Poems of James Joyce, op. 54 (1926), providing a reliable, comprehensive reference for singers and scholars. In this research, I establish separate historical contexts for James Joyce's Chamber Music and Szymanowski's settings of the poems in op. 54. Using these established historical contexts, I then analyze Joyce's poems and Szymanowski's text settings, focusing on their styles and aesthetics. Szymanowski reorders the seven selected poems, creating a new storyline related to—but different from—the original. Where Chamber Music presents a chronological emotional arc, Seven Songs presents a roller coaster-like storyline, achieved by flashing back and forth between the protagonist's past and present. I demonstrate how Szymanowski's newly-created, complex storyline fits both the surface and deeper meanings of each poem, using specific musical elements to enhance emotional conflicts in the texts. I conclude with a detailed analysis of the relationship between the text and music of this song cycle, serving as a performance guide. I hope that my analysis and complete performance of this cycle will reignite interest in Szymanowski's music outside of Poland, especially in countries where English is the native language.

L’objectif de cette étude est de montrer – par une analyse rigoureuse des principes harmoniques qui gouvernent les multiples sections du tryptique pour piano Masques Op. 34 de Karol Szymanowski – qu’au-delà d’une apparente hétérogénéité de surface, le discours musical est organisé de façon cohérente et subtile par l’interpénétration du niveau de perception immédiate du corps sonore et du niveau infra-sensible qui procède de l’ordre des fondamentales harmoniques. Cette thèse propose également des conseils d’interprétation, déterminés par l’expérience analytique. / The purpose of this study is to show—by means of a rigorous analysis of the harmonic principles which govern the multiple sections of the piano triptych Masques Op. 34 of Karol Szymanowski — that beyond the apparently heterogeneous surface the musical discourse is subtly and coherently organised by the interpenetration of two layers: the immediate perception of sound structure and the underlayer which proceeds from the order of the harmonic fundamentals. This thesis also proposes suggestions for interpretation, determined by the analytical experience.

Polish composer, Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) wrote a substantial number of piano works from 1899-1934, yet these works have been mostly forgotten or ignored outside his country. Szymanowski scholars divide his works into three periods. The second period represents the most radical shift in his compositional style particularly in his treatment of form, harmony and texture. This study demonstrates the musical and historical influences evident in his Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 36 (1917), the last piano work written during his second period. Piano Sonata No. 3 exhibits elements of two contrasting styles, French Impressionism and German Romanticism. Manifestations of Szymanowski's Polish musical heritage and his cultural and social isolation during the years of the First World War (1914-1918) are also found in this sonata.This study also provides a detailed analysis of Piano Sonata No.3 in terms of form, motivic unity, thematic development, harmony, and texture. Another important aspect of my study is the extensive use of musical examples drawn from the works of Debussy, Ravel, Wagner and Strauss to demonstrate the musical influences of both French Impressionism and German Romanticism in his third sonata. In this sonata, Szymanowski mirrors French Impressionistic sound and texture through the common use of whole-tone and pentatonic scales as well as unresolved harmonies, trills, 4ths and 9ths. While drawing upon these particular techniques of Debussy and Ravel, Szymanowski's third sonata retains strong German roots in the use of motivic unity, chromaticism and textural crescendi such as those found in the operas of Wagner and Strauss.

Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) was the composer of a substantial body of compositions for the piano which, outside of his native Poland, remain little known and performed more than forty years after his death. This document is designed to acquaint the reader with this literature, and to give him a general introduction to the stylistic characteristics of the composer. As most of the important books about the composer are in Polish, an annotated bibliography is included which directs the reader's attention to more detailed sources, in both English and Polish, concerning the solo piano works.

Orientador: Carlos Fernando Fiorini / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-23T20:59:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jennings_Claudia_M.pdf: 7069655 bytes, checksum: a9c68d2a82e06d8f0e585572a9937685 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: O Stabat Mater op. 53 do polonês Karol Szymanowski é uma peça representativa da fase de maturidade do compositor, na qual ele emprega elementos da música tradicional polonesa estilizados e técnicas modernas de composição. Este trabalho é dirigido ao regente que planeja executar o Stabat Mater. Nele são apresentadas sugestões de preparação e interpretação da obra a partir da análise dos elementos estruturais e textuais dirigida para sua performance. Discute-se também a escolha do coro e da orquestra, bem como composições do programa de concerto. Por se tratar da execução da obra em sua língua original, também é apresentado um guia da pronúncia da língua polonesa voltado aos cantores falantes do português, incluindo a transcrição fonética do texto / Abstract: The Stabat Mater op. 53 from the Polish composer Karol Szymanowski is a representative work from his mature phase, in which he uses elements from the traditional Polish music and modern compositional techniques. This study is directed toward the conductor who plans to perform the Stabat Mater. The paper presents a background of the work from the analysis of structural and textual elements regarding the performance. The choice of the choir and orchestra is discussed, as well as the possibilities of concert programming. Because of the fact that the work will be performed in the original language, a pronunciation guide of the Polish language is presented and directed to Portuguese-speaking singers, including the phonetic transcription of the text / Mestrado / Praticas Interpretativas / Mestra em Música