EN
This article is a broad and detailed discussion of the complex harmonic issues of Karol Szy- manowski’s Mazurkas Op. 50. It outlines the current state of research on the harmony of the Mazurkas, beginning with the work by Adolf Chybiński (1920s), through the monograph by Stefania Łobaczewska (1950s) (now obsolete), studies by Józef M. Chomiński, articles by Zofia Helman, Antoni Poszowski, and Piotr Dahlig, the monograph of the twentieth century Polish mazurka by Anna Nowak, the great biography of Szymanowski written by Teresa Chylińska and, above all, the classic works by Tadeusz Andrzej Zielinski, fundamental to the issue of the mazurka harmony, the only ones so attentive and so focussed on the detail, and yet formulating such an appropriate and clear conceptual apparatus. The results of Zieliński’s research and analyses make an obvious starting point for contemporary music theorists interested in the issue of harmony throughout the twentieth century. Capturing and naming the entire complex of phenomena encountered in the Mazurkas Op. 50 is not easy. Mazurkas Op. 50 are characterized by a vast variety of har- monic phenomena, innovative treatment of the piano texture and the use of various sound effects stylising the folk music of the Polish Highlands. Moreover, the ways in which the music material is organised often blend with one another or coexist in the course of the piece within the intersect- ing old and new rules (harmonic eclecticism). The article examines a broad spectrum of har- monic phenomena, proposed by Zielinski, occurring in Opus 50. These are: relics of function harmony system, the interaction of the so-called non-function thirds harmony and the ‘sound spot’ technique, tinting chords with dissonances, using multi-tonal saturated chords, percussive use of half-step intervals, using the fourth structures, emancipation of dissonant intervals, various types of ostinato and burdon formulas, repeated chord complexes, the bimodal phenomena, the double- and multilayer harmonic complexes, the parallel intervals and chords, the bitonal co-occurrences of bass fifths and triads. The article gives examples of all the phenomena, but only the selected ones were fully discussed, focusing on other issues: the types of dual melodic lines, formula of half- and whole-step movement between chords, monophonic fragments or the whole tone scale order. The horizontal scale orders were not discussed, unless it was necessary for the understanding of the harmonic issues in question.