This is the first monograph on the Polish composer Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860 1941). It aspires to be part of the process of restoring his compositional legacy to European musical culture. Reinterpreting the legend surrounding the great Pole, the study is based on Paderewskis works that are listed in the Paderewski catalogue, but also includes sketches, unfinished pieces and student exercises. Raba s analysis and interpretation of the composer s work is carried out in formal-structural, stylistic-critical and aesthetic contexts, revising the image of the composer, that has been distorted in...

The author analyses the substantial contribution made by American composers to the development of twentieth-century opera. The methodological approach employed in this book is influenced by Mieczyslaw Tomaszewski's method of integral interpretation. The operas analyzed in this monograph, written from 1976 onwards, represent a watershed in twentieth-century American opera, characterised by three main aspects: firstly, creation of video-opera, represented by the works of Steve Reich, secondly, creation of a new kind of opera based on topics related to contemporary events that are manifested...

This book is the first monographic study of Tadeusz Baird - one of the greatest Polish composers of the second half of the 20th century, a connoisseur of music tradition and a prophet of the future of music (postmodernity), a composer of worldwide renown, an erudite. Baird was deeply engaged in art, aware of the threats and problems of contemporary world, and endowed with a sense of a mission. His personality was shaped by traumatic experiences during World War II and during the late 1940s and early 1950s. He was very demanding of himself and others. As signaled in the title, the book is an...

It is the first monograph in which the concertos of all composers active in this field in the Republic of Venice in the years 1695-1740 are methodically discussed. The Venetian instrumental concerto from Vivaldi's time is portrayed here through an extensive and thorough survey of the most complete and representative musical material that allowed for the making of conclusions as to its typology, form, style and technique. The concertos discussed here include 974 works by fifteen composers active in Venice, Brescia, Bergamo and Padua. Such an approach not only gives an exhaustive but also a...