Slowacki’s Chopin

• Authors: Agata Seweryn
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

PL

Supposed analogies between Fryderyk Chopin and Juliusz Słowacki form a recurring thread that runs through the subject literature o f Romantic culture. Legions of literati, critics, literary scholars and musicologists have either attempted to find affinities between Chopin and Słowacki (on the level of both biography and creative output) or else have energetically demonstrated the groundlessness of all analogies, opinions and assumptions. Consequently, stereotypes have been formed and then strengthened concerning the relations between the two creative artists, particularly the conviction of Slowacki’s dislike of Chopin and his music, which - in the opinion of many scholars - the poet simply did not understand. Considerations of this kind most often centre on a famous letter written by Słowacki to his mother in February 1845. However, a careful reading of this letter and its comparison with Slowacki’s other utterances on the subject of Chopin shows that opinions of the poet’s alleged insanity, petty-mindedness or lack of subtlety in his contacts with Chopin’s music are most unjust. The analysed letter is not so much anti-Chopin as anti-Romantic. It inscribes itself perfectly in the context of the thinking of “the Słowacki of the last years”, since the poet negates crucial aesthetic features o f Romantic music, but at the same time criticises his own works: W Szwajcarii [In Switzerland] and, in other letters, Godzina myśli [An hour of thought] and the “picture of the age”, the poetical novel Lambro. It also turns out that what Słowacki says about the polonaises tallies with the opinions of musicologists and musicians writing about “late Chopin”.

Keywords

PL

Juliusz Słowacki; Fryderyk Chopin; music; literature; Romantic poetry; Slowacki’s letters to his mother; Romantic melancholy

• Publisher: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Journal: Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology
• Year: 2010
• Issue: 9
• Pages: 53-68

Dates

published

2018-10-17

Contributors

author

Agata Seweryn

• doctor o f humanities in literary studies, master’s graduate in musicology, she works as a lecturer on the Department o f Enlightenment and Romantic Literature of the Catholic University of Lublin. Author o f Poezja „nutami niesiona”. O muzycznej recepcji twórczości Juliusza Słowackiego [Poetry „borne by musie”. On musical reception of the work of Juliusz Słowacki] (Warszawa, 2008), co-editor of the collective volumes Czterdzieści i cztery studia ofiarowane profesorowi Marianowi Maciejewskiemu [Forty-four studies offered to Professor Marian Maciejewski] (Lublin, 2008) and Poznawać (więc kochać!). O Danucie Paluchowskiej [Get to know (and so love!). On Danuta Paluchowska] (Lublin, 2010). Her current interests are focused on the links between the culture of the Romantic and Baroque eras, as broadly understood.