EN
This article focuses on the writings of five Polish critics: Stefan Kisielewski, Zygmunt Mycielski, Adam Walacinski, Tadeusz Andrzej Zielinski, and Leszek Polony. While analysing their writings on the musical avant-garde in Poland from the middle of the 1950s up to the 1970s the authoress argued that, in spite of being interested in the avant-garde innovations, such as aleatorism and 'open' form, all five critics approached the radical novelties with some reserve. Their approach, which reflected their own aesthetic views (and their system of values), was the idea of a musical work as a coherent, that is artistically integral, whole. They all were searching for this integrity especially on the level of form, but also on the aesthetic level, including the spiritual realm of a musical work. As far as the latter is concerned, some of the Polish critics, such as Stefan Kisielewski, represented autonomous aesthetics in the spirit of Eduard Hanslick, whereas others, such as Leszek Polony - the heteronymous one. What united the attitudes of all five critics, apart from the nuances of their individual aesthetic approach, was the proposition of the integrity of art. While witnessing the growing presence of the avant-garde, they were unanimously aware of the necessity for music to be rooted in cultural tradition, more precisely - in the classical-romantic tradition, which they considered as a source of music's humanist and even sacred character. The concluding point of the article is the question of the possible impact of the writings of the five Polish critics on the output of Polish composers of that time. Yet although it is impossible to point out a direct connection between these two groups, one cannot totally deny the existence of a deeper impact of the critics on the composers in the sphere of aesthetic ideas, which then could have been transformed into practical, compositional choices.