Karol Szymanowski: His Life and Work (review)

Karol Szymanowski: His Life and Work. By Alistair Wightman. Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate, 1999. [xii, 492 p. ISBN 1-85928-391-8. $99.95.]

In 1972, when Alistair Wightman completed his dissertation titled "The Music of Karol Szymanowski" at the University of York, its subject surely appeared to be of marginal or esoteric interest. Now, nearly thirty years later, a widening audience for Szymanowski's music in the concert hall has emerged, and a higher profile has begun to develop in musicology. The number of Szymanowski's works on concert programs is still rather small, however, and the bibliography of Szymanowski studies in English remains slight. Since completing his dissertation, Wightman has published a number of articles on various aspects of the composer's music and thought, but only recently has his research led to major musicological publications. Karol Szymanowski: His Life and Work follows on the heels of his volume of translations, Szymanowski on Music: Selected Writings of Karol Szymanowski (London: Toccata Press, 1999). Both books are important contributions to Szymanowski scholarship. They have been possible only because of Wightman's sustained study of the composer and his expertise in translating and contextualizing Polish materials.

For readers of Polish, authoritative collections of Szymanowski's writings have been available for some years, but obtaining these outside Poland has sometimes required as much patience and persistence as learning the language. A life-and-works study by the leading Polish authority on the composer appeared in English in the nineties (Teresa Chylin´ska, Karol Szymanowski: His Life and Works, trans. John Glowacki, Polish Music History Series, 5 [Los Angeles: University of Southern California School of Music, 1993), but it suffered from an awkward translation and limited publicity, which blunted the dissemination of Chylin´ska's dedicated and invaluable work. Wightman's new study (which, like much of the best work on Szymanowski, is highly indebted to Chylin´ska) happily avoids such problems. The author is persuasive and adept at paralleling Szymanowski's literary thoughts and musical works, and the publishers have produced a book with a pleasing presentation, including a generous range of music examples and illustrations. The standards of the latter slip only with two rather sketchy, poorly drawn maps, and in appendix 3, "Catalogue of Musical Works," there is an unfortunate error in labeling as "First Published" the column that actually provides dates of composition.

Wightman's title suggests a traditional approach, and this is confirmed by the book's organization. Fifteen chapters offering a chronological narrative of the composer's career are followed by a summarizing conclusion, the expected (but useful) genealogical table, a list of persons associated with the composer, and catalogs of Szymanowski's musical and literary works. The lack of authoritative or easily obtainable, full-length books on Szymanowski in English validates this time-honored, if well-worn, method. Nonetheless, in today's climate this might have seemed a little wearisome, were it not for the fact that Szymanowski's career is one with rich psychological, historical, and cultural dimensions. The centrality of the composer's belief that eroticism and mythology were crucial to the workings of his creative imagination, the direct impact on his life of war and revolution, and the critical issue of Polish national culture all make for a narrative that engages with several major issues in early-twentieth-century European art. Indeed, as a Polish homosexual with a deep ambivalence toward post-Wagnerianism and a vigorous interest in the relationship of art and modern society, Szymanowski has until now been something of an unopened gift for this kind of life-and-works project.

Wightman is a reliable and efficient guide through these contexts. His text is thorough, if not especially seductive, and every chapter contains information not previously available in English. Two sections of the book stand out. The literary and autobiographical background of the opera King Roger (1918-24), probably Szymanowski's most important work, is explored in an insightful and convincing chapter. Much of this material has...