Engaging Cultural Ideologies : Classical Composers and Musical Life in Poland 1918-1956

Engaging Cultural Ideologies offers a recontextualization of the effects of Poland’s cultural practices, especially those concerning issues such as nationalism, elitism, and race, on the genesis and performance of contemporary Polish compositions from 1918 to 1956. Based on extensive archival research that includes the first comprehensive examination of concert programs in Poland as well as a series of case studies focused on composers’ challenges in the midst of nearly constant turmoil, Bylander brings fresh insights into the public and private power struggles concerning artistic freedom that were animated by similar points of contention across seemingly diverse historical eras.

“Bylander draws out the continuities rather than the ruptures in the Polish art music scene between 1918 and 1956. She argues for the primacy of individual creative agency over state apparatus in a vast, textured history of domestic concert programming whose sweep is unprecedented in English-language scholarship.”

— Joy H. Calico, University Distinguished Professor of Musicology and German Studies, Vanderbilt University

“Should composers serve music or the nation? Should music be original and of high quality or understandable to everyone? Is folklore the best foundation for ‘national music’? Cindy Bylander''s book demonstrates how Polish composers, musicologists, critics, and politicians responded to these questions during four extremely complex decades: the building of sovereign statehood (1918-39), war and German occupation (1939-45), and the years of strongest dependence on the Soviet Union (1945-1956). She adroitly examines the difficulties of creating national art in an ethnically diverse country, the intricacies of cultural policies and the methods of inducing artists to adhere to them (which included considerable financial incentives), and the survival strategies of numerous composers. She carefully illuminates the nuances of Polish musical life by highlighting conflicting opinions and previously untold narratives. Her greatest success is that she scrutinizes this scene with a watchful, unbiased eye, devoid of any tendency to mystify or conceal reality.”

— Danuta Gwizdalanka, author of One Hundred Years of Polish Music History

“In the present book, Dr. Cindy Bylander proposes to look at Polish music from a different perspective than is usually undertaken. Bylander has been researching Polish music for a long time, and here she employs that expertise to show an excellent understanding of the contexts of musical life and works created in twentieth-century Poland. The idea here is not to analyze the development of Polish music from the point of view of specific works, particular composers, or indicated stylistic tendencies, as has been usually done in the past. Instead, Bylander focuses on the musical repertoire found in concert programs and on the radio in the period between the regaining of Poland’s independence and the post-WWII regime’s political thaw, a period which also brought avantgarde changes in music. This approach allows her to capture many elements hitherto absent from the musicological discourse. As a result, the created picture significantly supplements the hitherto existing views of Polish music in the years 1918–1956.”

— Prof. Beata Bolesławska, Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences