UNDERSTANDING MUSIC - USING WITOLD LUTOSLAWSKI'S 'MI-PARTI' AS AN EXAMPLES

• Authors: Tarnawska-Kaczorowska K.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The analysis-interpretation presented here concentrates on one work - Witold Lutoslawski's orchestral composition 'Mi-parti' dating from 1976, of 15-minute duration. The authoress subjects it to three examinations, each time from a further distance, from a higher plane of understanding and level of interpretation. There are many levels of reading a work and revealing its meanings - in fact, they are infinite. An understanding of a musical composition (or any work of art) is achieved gradually, and this process is never definitively completed. Every time a score is read anew, every time a composition is listened to again attentively, there is an increase in one's knowledge of it, and at the same time a modification of one's previous understanding of it. The consecutive stages of acquiring knowledge of 'Mi-parti', understanding and experiencing the work, its poetics and logic, its form and meaning, its colouring and its value, are presented in three readings, representing three increasingly comprehensive approaches, or approximations, each deepening the understanding achieved previously. The (three) consecutive levels of understanding a work of art, and the features and categories important for this work: harmony, tonality, contrasts of dramatic importance, and the two features identified by the composer himself: iciness and heat, are all characterised in turn. In conclusion, the authoress refers to her proposed framework for understanding (in the widest meaning of the word) the structure of a musical composition, in which she distinguishes seven layers, or aspects: from the lowest, material one, to the highest (or perhaps deepest) - semiotic level. She explores the functioning of this framework in relation to Lutoslawski's composition, and finally attempts to elucidate the work's title.

Keywords

EN

'MI-PARTI'; LUTOSLAWSKI W.; UNDERSTANDING MUSIC

Discipline

• ARTS_&_ARCHITECTURE: ARTS & ARCHITECTURE

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Sztuki PAN
• Journal: Muzyka
• Year: 2005
• Volume: 50
• Issue: 1(196)
• Pages: 117-142
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Tarnawska-Kaczorowska K.

• The authoress passed away in 2005

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

05PLAAAA0038941