Bonum ex integra causa... A dialogue with Mieczysław Tomaszewski’s concept of integral interpretation

• Authors: Maciej Jabłoński
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

PL

 The article presents an in-depth and detailed reflection on the concept of „integral interpretation” put forward by the Polish musicologist Mieczysław Tomaszewski. The problematics of interpretation has for many years been the focus of Tomaszewski’s attention and interest, as evidenced by his numerous publications devoted to it. They culminate in the formulation of this concept, described by the author as the method of an adequate interpretation of a musical work. In contrast to many contemporary approaches to the issue of the scope of musicology’s subject area, for Tomaszewski the concept of a musical work is central to the discipline, and he poses questions concerning its ontology and understanding in the spirit of Roman Ingarden’s theory of musical work, to which he frequently refers. Tomaszewski regards the process of interpretation as a kind of „rising” to the level of the work, the meaning of which (intentio operis), often identified with the authorial meaning (intentio auctoris), stands at the highest point in the hierarchy of meanings ascribed - from this point of view - to the work. In turn, the work itself functions in different phases, existing as a score, a performance, a result of the processes of perception and as its reception within a culture. In my article I attempt not only to present Tomaszewski’s method, but above all to argue against its anachronicity and limitations resulting from a lack of reference both to contemporary artistic practice and contemporary research methodology in the humanities and in musicology.

Keywords

PL

musical work; Tomaszewski; Ingarden; methodology of musicology; interpretation; integrity; value

• Publisher: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Journal: Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology
• Year: 2013
• Issue: 12
• Pages: 165-196

Dates

published

2018-10-17

Contributors

author

Maciej Jabłoński

• (1962), a musicologist (Dept, of Musicology, University in Poznań). Jabłoński’s musicological interests focus on the history and theory of opera, aesthetics of 20th century music, musical semiotics and methodology of musicology. He is author of the books: Krzysztof Meyer. Ein Komponistenportrait (Poznań, Koln, 1998) and Music as Sign (Poznań, 1999; Helsinki: Acta Semiotica Fennica, 2010). Jabłoński is editor-in-chief of the international musicological series Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology, co-editor of the Poznań Studies in Opera and Res Facta Nova. He is also president of the editorial committee of Henryk Wieniawski’s Complete Works. From 1992 till 1994 he held the post of artistic director of the Opera House in Poznań. Since 1999 till 2008, he has been president of the Poznań Section of the Polish Composers’s Union and director of contemporary music festivals Poznań Music Spring. Jabłoński is author of many musicological papers published in Poland, Finland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Germany, Italy and the USA.