“Why Are Our Women-Composers So Little Known?”

In the 1939 issue of Kalendarz dla kobiet [Women’s Almanac], in the section for Music Composers⁽¹⁾, the editors listed (along with the brief profiles quoted below) the following names⁽²⁾ of the then active female composers of music: –

Bacewicz-Biernacka Grażyna – “an extreme modernist trend. Symphonic works”;

This list was supplemented with the names of a few dance, popular song and operetta composers, such as: [Wanda] Vorbond-Dąbrowska, [Fanny] Gordonówna, as well as [Helena] Karasińska, daughter of Adam Karasiński, who wrote the then popular waltz entitled François.

This list obviously does not provide us with the complete picture of women-composers’ environment in Poland, not only on the eve of WWII, but in the entire interwar period. What we can glean from the list, though, is just how varied that environment was and how many different trends it involved. A year earlier, a much larger group of women-composers was represented at the 1^st Congress of Women’s Social and Civic Work held in June 1938 in Warsaw⁽³⁾. The programmes of chamber and symphonic music concerts presented during the Congress featured works by Stefania Allinówna, Zofia [Obtułowicz]-Wróblewska, Janina Rupniewska-Freyerowa, M[aria?] Szubertowa, Maria Trębicka, and Alicja Janiszewska-Nebelska⁽⁴⁾. Even more names can be found in archive materials and press notes. Other women-composers of the interwar period were: Zofia Ossendowska [Iwanowska-Płoszko], Lucyna Robowska, Zofia Zdziennicka-Bergerowa, Ilza Adelajda Sternicka-Niekraszowa, Leokadia Myszyńska-Wojciechowska, Maria Poznańska, Jadwiga Baum-Czajkowska, Maria Orion-Bąkowska and – if we consistently take into account popular music as well – Anda Kitschmann and Stefania Górska.

Example 1

Portraits of Polish women-composers. Left to right, from the top row: Grażyna Bacewicz-Biernacka, Helena Dorabialska, Łucja Drège-Schielowa, Anna Maria Klechniowska, Janina Grzegorzewicz-Lachowska, Zofia Ossendowska, Lucyna Robowska, Ilza Sternicka-Niekrasz, Wanda Vorbond-Dąbrowska, Zofia Wróblewska, Leokadia Myszyńska-Wojciechowska, Zofia Zdziennicka-Berger. Sources: Bluszcz, vol. 71, no. 46, 1938, pp. 56–59; Antena, vol. 5, no. 28, 1938, p. 8; Tygodnik Ilustrowany, vol. 80, no. 27, 1939, p. 531; http://cyfrowe.mnw.art.pl/dmuseion/docmetadata?id=25477

The work and artistic legacy of these composers is still very little known, not only owing to material losses resulting from the ravages of war, but also because of the scarcity of research in this field in recent decades. The very mention of women-composers’ interwar output in historical studies must already be considered as a success⁽⁵⁾, just as the entries dedicated to them in Polish and international lexicography⁽⁶⁾. The existing texts that dedicate more attention to Polish women-composers working between the two World Wars⁽⁷⁾ are fundamentally general surveys. It is only very rarely that their compositions have become the subject of analytic studies and appraisal, such as those contained in Marcin Gmys’s book on the ‘Young Poland’ generation of composers (which discusses, among others, Ryta Gnus’s song Cień Chopina [Chopin’s Shadow] and Anna Maria Klechniowska’s symphonic poem Wawel⁽⁸⁾), as well as publications by Magdalena Dziadek⁽⁹⁾, and Aleksandra Bilińska’s doctoral dissertation⁽¹⁰⁾.

In a paper of this size I cannot, for obvious reasons, even attempt to make up for all this research backlog. Instead, my aim here is to define the role and place of women’s output within the body of Polish music from the interwar period, and to draw a more in-depth picture of women-composers’ activity at that time, including their participation in local and international music life as well as their artistic achievements (the most eminent personalities, stylistic and genre-related questions), viewed primarily from the perspective of their reception in the contemporary press and other publications.

As Magdalena Dziadek reminds us,

to be a composer, even on the eve of World War II, meant – to respect certain ‘limits of decency’, as outlined by the Lwów-(Lviv-) based musicologist Seweryn Barbag in his assessment of his contemporary, Irena Białkiewicz: “[S]he knows the limits of her talent, avoids the problems that result from the spirit of the age, and remains faithful to the traditions of the Romantic era” Quoted after: Polska pieśń artystyczna [The Polish Art Song], in: Muzyka polska. Monografia zbiorowa [Polish Music. A Collective Monograph], Mateusz Gliński (ed.), Warsaw 1927⁽¹¹⁾.

This observation is of crucial importance to any understanding of the Polish women-composers’ status in the society and culture of the interwar period. They worked within a dominant aesthetic discourse in which women, despite considerable achievements in the area of equal rights, still remained on the margin of ‘true’ artistic work, and had to deal with the burden of the 19^th-century legacy of ‘women’s music’ being identified with Salonmusik or Trivialmusik⁽¹²⁾, which immediately lowered the woman-artist’s status. This situation had at least two consequences: First of all, it translated into the critical reception of their works, and secondly – it limited the space in which their music could function, as well as affecting its scope of impact.

Extremely representative of this tendency are those records of historical reception that show how the artist’s gender determined the characterisation of the products of her or his creative talent, as exemplified by the brief composer profile quoted above by Magdalena Dziadek. The topic was discussed by Józef Reiss in his 1928 article⁽¹³⁾ on the differences between men’s and women’s musical sensitivities, as approached from a psycho- and sociological point of view. Reiss firmly argued that, unlike men, women are first and foremost ‘reproductive types’, which is confirmed by their successes in the field of music performance, and in particular – in the performance of songs. He also elaborated on the differences between the feminine and the masculine ways of listening to music, and concluded that only a man is capable of deriving an “aesthetic experience” from music, whereas a woman looks first and foremost for “emotional thrills”, since she “discovers herself” in the music⁽¹⁴⁾. This led him to a thesis that is of key importance to the subject of this paper. According to Reiss, “a woman-composer is a great rarity, and, should one emerge at all, her status is extremely feeble and unimportant, devoid of any originality and independent thinking. A woman-composer can only imitate, and even that – not always with talent!” Reiss also refuted the argument that there had been no eminent women-composers only because women were not allowed to study music, since “it is to music that the greatest proportion of women are attracted, and they dedicate to it definitely more time than men do.”⁽¹⁵⁾

Astonishing as Reiss’s theses undoubtedly may sound for present-day readers, they make us realise how deep-rooted and durable this way of thinking was in interwar Poland. A similar tone can be found in the statements of other leading critics from that period, even those who were otherwise genuinely kindly predisposed toward women’s musical ‘productions’. One example is Felicjan Szopski’s 1929 review of a recital by Lucyna Robowska, a well-known social activist and pianist, highly regarded by both musicians and the audience, who strove to promote especially those Polish music works that had never been publicly performed before⁽¹⁶⁾. While (quite rightly) abstaining from drawing any definitive conclusions on the basis of individual examples, he nevertheless ventured the proposition that the non-emotional, intellectual faculty is not available to all women to an equal extent. He summed up the recital programme in this way:

While the works of J. Niekraszowa, H. Dorabialska, and [then] H. Krzyżanowska seem to be based on the element of reflection and thought, the inventions by H. Łopuska, M. Trębicka and H. Klechniowska speak primarily with their lyricism, whereas the compositions of L. Wojciechowska and M. Borkowiczowa attract attention with their clarity and serenity, expressed through the use of dance rhythms. P. J. Grzegorzewiczówna is now studying composition, and she demonstrates a considerable talent⁽¹⁷⁾.

Several years later, in a review of another concert by Robowska, Michał Kondracki, rather than commenting on the gender of the composers, focused on the artistic quality of the presented works, discovering among them some genuine jewels, while others he criticised as unnecessary effort to perform “mediocre writing by (male and female) composers not worth their salt,” among whom, from among the women, he listed Szubertowa, Wojciechowska and Łopuska, and among the men – Lipski, Sym, Świerzyński and Boruński⁽¹⁸⁾.

Kondracki’s review, however, was hardly a signum temporis heralding some radical change of attitudes. Also in later years the writings of Polish music critics confirmed their mistrust and distance towards women-composers. The already mentioned Congress of Women’s Social and Civic Work was accompanied by a number of concerts which received wide coverage in the press. Reports and commentaries once again demonstrated critical attitudes and conservative thinking, as in the review written by Władysław Burkath for Myśl Narodowa [The National Thought ] weekly:

If we were synthetically to characterise the sum total of women’s musical productions that could be heard there, I must conclude that the ‘gift of God’ which characterises men’s artistic output in particular (I hope the Ladies may forgive me this comment) is rather rare in the two dozen or so of the Polish women-composers represented there. It is most typically replaced by decent technique, precision and meticulousness⁽¹⁹⁾.

Example 2

The poster for a piano recital held by Lucyna Robowska on 7^th March 1931, source: https://polona.pl/item/program-inc-sala-konserwatorjum-dnia-7-go-marca-1931-recital-fortepianowy-lucyna,NjY2NzU5MjQ/7/#info:metadata

Naturally, some of the presented works and artistic personalities did win recognition. The reviewer of Nowy Głos [New Voice], for instance, praised Helena Dorabialska’s “excellent knowledge of a composer’s profession”, Bacewicz’s temperament and “ardent rhythms”, as well as Zofia Ossendowska’s “good artistic taste.”⁽²⁰⁾ The dominant tone of those reviews, however, was condescending. The authors were convinced that “a woman’s psyche” has a preference for small-scale musical forms, and that such a large representation of women in Polish music promises that the “musically gifted Polish mothers” will develop the musicality of the future generations⁽²¹⁾. The critics also remarked that the diversity of forms, genres, styles and preferences represented in the concert programmes could not compensate for some gaps in “the composers’ professional education and practice”, as well as in their “autonomy.” Only after these shortcomings have been eliminated can it turn out “to the advantage of what women have achieved and can still achieve in the field of music composition, which is still rather far from their reach,”⁽²²⁾ as one of the reviewers concluded.

The most complimentary report seems to have been the one written by Leopold Binental for Kurier Warszawski [The Warsaw Courier ]. The author observed, admittedly, that few “women can be said to have synthesised any specific style in their composition, or to have contributed with their works to the artistic enhancement of the aesthetic values promoted by great composers.” Still, he appreciated the women-composers’ “thorough qualifications for independent work in a wide field of practice”⁽²³⁾.

What did the women-artists themselves say to all this? One could hardly dispute the argument that the history of music had not yet yielded a female genius comparable to that of Bach or Beethoven. Zofia Lissa commented on this subject rather cautiously and apparently without great expectations in 1930:

Overall we must admit that women-composers have never excelled in their works beyond the average standards, and never determined the general directions of music’s development, though in many cases their output was of a much higher than average quality. In the context of the ever greater development and autonomy of women’s intellectual life, will they prove equal to the really great masters? This remains a question for the future⁽²⁴⁾.

On the other hand, however, it seemed extremely important to make the Polish women’s compositions more prominently present in the social awareness; in other words, to make the Polish society aware that such music existed and was worthy of closer attention. This aim was pursued by the authors of texts printed in women’s press, daily papers, and music periodicals, which synthetically presented the women-composers’ musical output as well as their artistic biographies. Such articles did not aspire to the role of musicological publications and sometimes contained errors (even in the names of the artists). Nevertheless, they did fulfil their aim as vehicles of information and promotion.

One example is Zofia Zdziennicka-Bergerowa’s text published in 1934 in Polska Zbrojna [The Polish Armed Forces], which aimed to disprove one journalist’s opinion about music composition being the only discipline of art “foreign to women.” She responded to this claim by presenting brief profiles of such Polish women-composers as Helena Dorabialska (“an outstanding talent supported by in-depth knowledge of music”), Łucja Drège-Schielowa (“a talent in the making”), Anna Klechniowska (“a truly exuberant talent active in different fields of music composition”), as well as herself (presented as the one who “has dedicated her work to the revival of early instruments”)⁽²⁵⁾. Probably the most comprehensive survey of Polish women’s musical output since the 19^th century was presented in Muzyka Polska [Polish Music ] by a well-known pianist, teacher and music life organiser from Toruń, Stefania Jagodzińska-Niekraszowa⁽²⁶⁾, who, from among her contemporaries, particularly distinguished Leokadia Myszyńska-Wojciechowska, Anna Maria Klechniowska, and Ilza Sternicka-Niekraszowa, taking great care to list their major works and awards, and concluding that this refuted the “widely-held view that women had no talent for music composition.”⁽²⁷⁾

Following the 1^st Congress of Women’s Social and Civic Work, Bluszcz [illustrated women’s weekly] printed an article by Ryta Gnus entitled Muzyczki polskie w okresie XX-lecia niepodległości [Polish Women-Musicians during the Twenty Years of Independent Poland]⁽²⁸⁾, which was most likely an abbreviated version of the paper that the same author delivered at the Congress. Apart from presenting profiles of women-composers⁽²⁹⁾, Gnus discussed in this text the main fields of women’s musical activity, which included musicology (represented by Helena Windakiewicz, Bronisława Wójcik-Keuprulian, Helena Dorabialska, Zofia Lissa, Stefania Łobaczewska, and Alicja Simonówna), music education and performance (including concert masters), as well the organisation of musical and cultural life.

Of special interest is Stefania Łobaczewska’s article⁽³⁰⁾ printed in the 1933 Almanach spraw kobiecych [A Women’s Almanac], which, apart from presenting a survey of the key achievements of individual women-composers⁽³¹⁾, also put forward the thesis that the role of women’s music in the society had changed significantly in comparison to the period before WWI. Rather than consisting of individual talents “isolated from their backdrop,” women’s musical milieux had been integrated with regard to both their “internal identity”, “structure”, and even “standards”⁽³²⁾.

Łobaczewska justified this claim focusing on “the creative powers” contributed by women to musical culture, and on the new “way of experiencing music.” In this way she alluded to Reiss’s opinion in what might be considered as a veiled polemic against that latter author. She resolutely argued that creative powers “are given to every person to a certain extent; all that counts is that they should be developed and properly channelled, in which case, even if manifested in an incomplete form, they can still bring excellent results.”⁽³³⁾ The stimulus that releases those powers in an “average woman of today” is education, “giving women access to university studies,” which has provided them with numerous new possibilities of creative work in the fields of science, art and teaching, and most of all – has intensified the tendency to “experience music not only emotionally, but first and foremost with their intellect.”⁽³⁴⁾

It would be naïve to think that Łobaczewska’s arguments convinced the sceptics. It was exceedingly difficult in the interwar period for women to be admitted to the circles of “serious composers worth their salt.”⁽³⁵⁾ Even if some compositions received performances in prestigious contexts and attracted wide interest, it was still a mere drop in the ocean, quite out of proportion to the talent that at least some of the women-artists represented. The majority of women-composers’ works remained in manuscript. Only some few selected ones were published, frequently at their authors’ own expense. Of much importance to the popularisation of that music was the ‘campaign’ launched by Bluszcz women’s weekly, which in the mid-1930s created a kind of music publishing series dedicated to “our women-composers”, which included editions (mostly prepared directly from manuscripts) of, among others, numerous piano pieces and songs by Klechniowska, Dorabialska, Gnus, Wróblewska, Myszyńska-Wojciechowska, Baum-Czajkowska, and Gordonówna⁽³⁶⁾.

As we can see, Polish women-composers certainly did not have the chance freely to develop their talents. The one who seems to have come the closest to such a chance was Sternicka-Niekraszowa, pupil and protégé of Karol Szymanowski, upon whom enormous hopes were pinned; however, she died prematurely at the age of 34. In most cases, Polish women-musicians who had some aspirations as composers focused their professional activity on music performance and on teaching. Despite her substantial output of compositions, Anna Maria Klechniowska was mainly known as the inventor of a pioneering (and highly ingenious) piano method (still applied by piano teachers today)⁽³⁷⁾; Helena Dorabialska – as the author of Ćwiczenia praktyczne z harmonii [Practical Exercises in Harmony] (1927) and the dissertation Polonez przed Chopinem [The Polonaise before Chopin] (1938), as well as a music journalist and, perhaps most of all, as the sister of the famous scientist (physical chemist) Alicja Dorabialska. Nor were the women-composers widely represented in the male-dominated professional organisations. Three of them appear to have played prominent roles in such milieux. Dorabialska became (with Kazimierz Sikorski, Piotr Perkowski, and others) a founding member of the Club of Polish Musicians Studying in Paris (later known as the Association of Young Polish Musicians in Paris)⁽³⁸⁾; Klechniowska was elected (in 1935) treasurer of the Polish Composers’ Association’s managing board; Markiewiczówna was active in the Young Musicians’ Association in Cracow⁽³⁹⁾.

Symptomatic of women’s position in music at that time is Anna Maria Klechniowska’s comment found in an interview conducted by Stefania Jagodzińska-Niekraszowa, where the composer emphasises that her creative powers and the ease with which she wrote music had not yet yielded an adequate output of compositions, since she was hindered in this task by various “domestic problems” and by her sex. She then adds:

Our society unfortunately doesn’t trust women’s talents yet, and our colleagues would rather not notice, or hear, the music [we write], even if it can equal or sometimes even excel in its ideas and originality some of their frequently poor productions… Someone told me I must die first in order to gain fame! But I don’t feel like dying yet. And I prefer to justify my posthumous fame by writing a greater number of compositions first⁽⁴⁰⁾.

In the efforts to make the Polish society aware of women’s musical output, an enormous role was played by women’s organisations and women-activists, who organised exhibitions and concerts. Preparations for the Polish participation in the International Congress of Women (Chicago, 17^th–19^th July 1933) involved the establishment of a special Committee which aimed to make Polish women-artists’ journey to the United States possible. At the same time, the works of Polish women-authors and composers were collected for presentation at the Congress exhibition⁽⁴¹⁾. Unfortunately, due to the lack of funds only exhibits were sent to the Congress (to be shown on a special books-and-music stall), and Poland’s only representative in Chicago was Zofia Zdziennicka-Bergerowa, who travelled to the USA at her own expense. It was Zdziennicka-Bergerowa as a ‘semi-official’ delegate who, with the help of the Polish diaspora in Chicago, held an evening presentation dedicated to Polish women’s literary and musical achievements at the McCormick Memorial Building. A paper was delivered; excerpts from writings (by Maria Dąbrowska, Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna, and others) were read out, and music was performed, including songs by Myszyńska-Wojciechowska, piano pieces by Ossendowska, Klechniowska’s triptych Bilitis and her Legend for violin and piano, as well as Bergerowa’s own works for zither. The presentation received favourable reviews in the US press, and attracted great audience interest, which led to the establishment of a Society for the Promotion of Polish Women’s Artistic Work⁽⁴²⁾.

Following the US congress, the concert activity of Polish women-composers in our own country intensified. It involved both events for a wide audience and for the professional milieu. This activity was partly an attempt to answer the question (contained in the title of the present paper) concerning the reasons for the Polish society’s ignorance with regard to the women-composers’ output. Especially rich in such events was the year 1934, when the Warsaw Society of Friends of Arts held, among others, ‘an evening of Polish women-composers’⁽⁴³⁾, Zofia Bergerowa organised an ‘evening of Polish women-composers’ music’ in her private salon⁽⁴⁴⁾, while the Polish Association of Professionally Active Women presented a music audition at the Institute for the Propaganda of Art in Warsaw⁽⁴⁵⁾. In February 1938 a concert of songs by Polish women-composers was held in the salon of Ada Sławińska-Lenczewska⁽⁴⁶⁾. The concert ‘by invitation’ at Bergerowa’s home was described in detail by Kurier Warszawski in a report that excellently reflects not only the programme and manner of performance, but also the unique atmosphere of that evening:

The concert begins. Mme Langeron⁽⁴⁷⁾ plays her own pieces: a nocturne, a lullaby, and preludes. Warm applause follows. Then Mme Matjasiak-Klechniowska’s violin, accompanied by Mme Wilecka, plays a wild melody derived by Mme Ossendowska from Negro motifs collected in Africa. Subsequently they sing a piece by the same composer about Hidalgo and Gitana. After a few minutes’ break, the colourful voice of Mme Strońska recounts, with perfect diction, the text of Bilitis, bringing back to life the pagan beauty of Greece. […] Mme Kozłowska’s strong voice sings the main part, accompanied by the voices of Mmes Gabriela and Wilkoszewska. Mme Wilecka produces flute-like trills on a piano, or imitates the hooves of the awakened deity… […] Mme Robowska gave a wonderful recital: first A. M. Klechniowska’s modernist Wizja żeglarza [Vision of a Sailor], then Janina Grzegorzewicz-Lachowska’s Étude, her own Wesoła fuga [Joyful Fugue] – brief and true to its title, Stefania Allina’s highly atmospheric prelude Dzień zaduszny [All Souls’ Day], Maria Poznańska’s prelude Wspomnienie [A Memory], Maria Trębicka’s Scherzo, and, finally, three beautiful preludes by Helena Dorabialska. […] Mme Matjasiak-Klechniowska played Klechniowska’s wondrous Legenda [Legend], accompanied by Mme Wilecka. A different aspect of the versatile talent of the composer of Bilitis was presented by Mme Wilkoszewska, who sang [Klechniowska’s] charming Kołysanka [Lullaby] on Polish folk motifs, followed by Dorabialska’s beautiful songs, and, in the end, a surprise – the song entitled Czemu? [Why?] which, when many people asked who had written that splendid and atmospheric piece, proved to be the singer’s own (both the music and the lyrics). “For your betrothal…” sang ‘Those Four’⁽⁴⁸⁾. […] ‘Those Four’ ‘right afterwards’ switch over to the most modernist foxtrots and to Wanda Vorbond-Dąbrowska’s tango, accompanied by the composer on the piano. The energy and harmonious sound of the chorus carry the audience away, and as a finale, the sapphire ensemble proposes a very different song by the same artist, Morze [The Sea] (to words by Kleszczyński), filled with the swoosh of waves and special atmosphere, as if they wished to illustrate the diversity of her young but fast developing talent⁽⁴⁹⁾.

Let us finally take a closer look at Polish women-composers’ output of music written in the interwar period. The artists who contributed to it were both well-recognised composers with an established position and others who were only just embarking on their careers; well-educated in the field, and ‘semi-amateurs’. They represent a wide spectrum of styles and composition techniques, the same ones that were practised by the male representatives of the Polish music world: from the 19^th-century neo-Romantic legacy, to impressionism, to neoclassicism and other forms of musical modernism.

The closest to the heritage of the Romantic era are the works of Leokadia Myszyńska-Wojciechowska, Zofia Wróblewska, and Irena Białkiewiczówna. The oeuvre of that last composer is of particular interest, since, apart from songs, she also wrote symphonic works, in genres at that time rarely associated with the ‘female soul’. Her output includes Piano Concerto [in C-sharp minor], premiered in January 1919, which “won the audience’s hearts with confident writing, […] ingenuity, and an eminent sense of form. It is a ‘male’ piece of work, skilful and with temperament, definitely rich and quite interesting.”⁽⁵⁰⁾ Her four-part Symphony [in C-sharp minor], presented at a 1936 matinée at Warsaw Philharmonic, struck the reviewer with its “sincerity”, combined with “modesty of artistic expression.”⁽⁵¹⁾ Following another performance of the same work, however, it was observed that as a pupil of Piotr Rytel Białkiewiczówna “manifestly follows her teacher’s style”⁽⁵²⁾, and even that this kind of music “was old hat”, with distinct “echoes of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies.”⁽⁵³⁾

There are several reasons to claim that the most interesting female personality in the Polish interwar music scene before Grażyna Bacewicz⁽⁵⁴⁾ was Ilza Sternicka-Niekraszowa. It was Sternicka that Roman Statkowski described as the most talented woman he had ever met⁽⁵⁵⁾. Szymanowski had the strongest impact on the development of her artistic personality. Under his influence, as Szymon Waljewski commented, “she began to write valuable works, imbued with a poetic atmosphere and already demonstrating excellent technical command of the musical syntax, especially in her orchestral works.”⁽⁵⁶⁾ One of her first compositions was Baśń [Fairy Tale], a fantasy for piano and orchestra, premiered on 27^th December 1928, which delighted Felicjan Szopski with the beauty of its motifs, the logic of construction, and its noble orchestral sound⁽⁵⁷⁾. Adam Wieniawski added that the work confirmed not only its composer’s high aspirations and invention, but also her thorough knowledge of composition technique, representing a subtly modernist stance.”⁽⁵⁸⁾

Sternicka’s symphonic suite Chess was praised for vigour, sense of humour, but also for the quality of her sound textures⁽⁵⁹⁾. It consisted of seven brief and expressive movements dedicated to individual chess pieces and their respective roles in the game: A March of Pawns, Bishops, Knights, Rooks, The Queen, The King, and Checkmate. It was first performed in its complete form only after the composer’s death, at a concert conducted by Grzegorz Fitelberg. Szymon Waljewski was particularly impressed by the artist’s “acoustic imagination”, extending “from abstraction to sound painting.” He further commented:

The movement entitled The Queen — majestic, with brilliant use of triple time; The King was highly expressive in form, with distinct lines. The movement that has made the greatest impression on me personally was Rooks. It indeed musically depicts the rooks [in Polish called ‘towers’ – translator’s note] — lofty an piling up. Excellent instrumentation, a tasteful use of jarring dissonances and artistic moderation in imaginative writing; all this is likely to secure to Chess a permanent place in symphonic concert programmes⁽⁶⁰⁾.

Other pieces by Sternicka-Niekraszowa undoubtedly had a similar potential. Following a concert under the baton of Stanisław Wiechowicz, she was praised for the style and concept of her composition, as well as “skilful presentation of the principal theme, written in the style of medieval church jubilations”, as well as a texture “of a high technical standard.”⁽⁶¹⁾ The work in question, Oratorium [Oratorio] for four solo voices, mixed choir and orchestra, sets the words by the composer’s husband, the poet Jan Niekrasz. After a fragmentary performance in Poznań, a reviewer wrote about the composer’s “rich and bold” stylistic means, including harmony⁽⁶²⁾.

Another very interesting example of Sternicka’s output is Suita kolorowa [Suite of Colours] for piano, in which she attempted “to describe in sounds the expressive qualities and mood of the various colours: blue, yellow, black, etc.” Her vision of the ‘lilac’ colour was printed in Muzyka’s sheet music series, while Ojcze nasz [Our Father] for voice and piano appeared under the imprint of the Polish Music Publishing Society (TWMP). The latter piece was said to be distinguished by its “far-from-banal melodies” and “fresh if not very original harmonies, in which a listener familiar with Szymanowski’s style will easily recognise echoes of King Roger, Act One, as well as the central movements of his Stabat Mater.”⁽⁶³⁾

A composer who made important contributions to Polish musical modernism, Anna Maria Klechniowska, a close friend of Karol Szymanowski, remained in her early period under the influence of the Young Poland movement. She made her mark with the symphonic poem Wawel, whose versified programme was written by Professor Edmund Żegota-Cięglewicz, the well-known translator of Aristophanes. The work, dedicated to Marshal Józef Piłsudski, was performed several times in the interwar years (for the first time – in 1927 in Cracow by an orchestra made up of military bands, conducted by Juliusz Schreyer)⁽⁶⁴⁾. “The moods that the music of Wawel successively reflects,” wrote a reporter of ‘Kurier Poznański’ after the premiere, “are at first those of the times of [national] bondage, later – dreams of a revival, and finally – the triumphant dawn of freedom.” He stressed the modern harmonies and wealth of orchestration⁽⁶⁵⁾. Wawel met with a strong response also outside the music circles. Its programme and type of sound inspired, among others, a ‘literary impression’ by Hanna Huszcza-Winnicka⁽⁶⁶⁾.

A composition that proved a great success was Klechniowska’s triptych Bilitis for voice, a chorus (of dancers) and piano, in three movements: Bilitis’ Offering (Invocation) — Night — Pan and the Dryads. This “rhythm-and-visuals dance piece” not only earned its composer acclaim in the United States (where, at the concert held in May 1934, the vocal part was sung by Maria Krakowska, prima donna of Chicago Civic Opera House, and the sets were created by Polish painter Ludwik Bodzewski)⁽⁶⁷⁾, but was also included in the syllabus of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze’s prestigious Institut de rythmique in Geneva⁽⁶⁸⁾. Nor was this Klechniowska’s only contribution to the ballet genre. Her collaboration with Tacjanna Wysocka, a choreographer and dancer trained in the Jaques-Dalcroze eurhythmics and in classical ballet, bore fruit in the form of Yuria⁽⁶⁹⁾ to a libretto by Ewa Szelburg-Zarembina, a piece conceived in the spirit of modern folklorism and Stravinsky’s models as a kind of Belarussian and Vilnius-regional counterpart of The Rite of Spring. It comprised, among others, the Belarussian dances Lavonikha and Charot, as well as songs collected in the Święciany (now Švenčionys) and Mołodeczno (now Maladzyechna) regions.

Stylistically speaking, most of the Polish women-composers represented, so to speak, the middle way, steering clear of radical novelty, but also of ‘Romanticising’ tendencies. Helena Dorabialska, whose approach to music composition was most likely influenced by her reputation as a researcher and musicologist, was one of those praised for maintaining this kind of balance. At one of the first concerts presenting her works, held by the Polish Composers’ Association in 1928, the audience had an opportunity to hear her songs, Sonata for violin and piano, as well as minor piano pieces. A reviewer commented:

those pieces belong on the whole to the Romantic trend, but with some evident traces of the influence of the French impressionists. They are distinguished by: rich, fluid and pleasant melodic invention, supported by solid knowledge, lyrical in character, but frequently with a predilection for dramatic effects and musical characterisation⁽⁷⁰⁾.

Example 3

Ilza Sternicka-Niekraszowa, Our Father for voice and piano, Warsaw: Towarzystwo Wydawnicze Muzyki Polskiej 1935, page 1, source: https://polona.pl/item/ojcze-nasz-spiew-i-fort,NzE1MTg0MTg/1/#info:metadata

Dorabialska’s output was varied and quite substantial. It included Variations for piano and orchestra, a string quartet with harp, a symphonic Prelude, a Mass for mixed choir, solo tenor and piano (or organ), as well as two operas: Dewaki after Édouard Schuré’s The Virgin Devaki, and Hanusia after Gerhardt Hauptmann’s Hanneles Himmelfahrt. For Bluszcz magazine’s sheet music collection, the composer presented her modest-scale Dialog [Dialogue] for piano.

Łucja Drège-Schielowa was an independent phenomenon among Polish women-composers, described as one who “does not embrace any trend in advance, nor does she count herself as an adherent of any.”⁽⁷¹⁾ She was most successful as a composer of songs. Following a concert dedicated to her own choice of such songs (to words by Polish masters) she was praised for her “ability intelligently to correlate verbal contents with musical semantics.”⁽⁷²⁾ Her Partita for piano, flute and cello presented in 1933 at Warsaw Conservatory demonstrated logical construction and the skill of “combining the sound qualities of different instruments.”⁽⁷³⁾

Władysława Markiewiczówna attracted critical interest in 1928 with her piano pieces which, as Stefania Łobaczewska reported, “demonstrated a very good sense of form and of colouristic qualities, mostly modelled on the recent French school.”⁽⁷⁴⁾ A decade later her Sonatina for oboe and piano, which combined “the French taste” with “interesting stylisations of Polish melodies” received praise for its “lively dramatic structure” and “mastery of composition technique.”⁽⁷⁵⁾ Markiewiczówna also wrote a Suite for two pianos, and another Suite for flute, oboe, bassoon and contrabassoon. After her own performance of the former composition with Stefania Allinówna at a concert in Warsaw, Konstanty Regamey highly appreciated “the skilful and ingenious texture” as well as the “tasteful and quite modern style” of her music. He added, however, that “her invention is rather meagre and monotonous, particularly because of her predilection for a static bass.”⁽⁷⁶⁾

The eminent violinist Zofia Iwanowska-Ossendowska, who ran her own music school in Warsaw, was a unique figure in the feminine music scene in Poland. Her main successes as a composer followed in the wake of a journey through Spain and Africa which she had undertaken with her husband, Ferdynand Ossendowski. They visited North Africa with a camera, collecting materials for “Poland’s first exotic film,”⁽⁷⁷⁾, premiered in 1927. Ossendowska’s task was to study the music of the local tribes. It was a kind of ethnomusicological field research, which involved not only notating the melodies she heard, but also participating in the local communities’ music life, as Ossendowski himself confirms in, for instance, his description of the following incident:

My wife spotted a ‘kora’, that is, a 21-string guitar, and could not withstand the temptation of accompanying the black musician on her own violin. It must certainly have been for the first time in history that a genuine old Gagliano violin’s sound blended with the wild roar of an African ‘kora’⁽⁷⁸⁾.

Example 4

Helena Dorabialska, Dialogue for piano, source: Bluszcz, vol. 68, no. 43, 1935, p. 19.

Example 5

Zofia Ossendowska, Ouango. Taniec fetyszów [Dance of Fetishes] for violin and piano, Warsaw: Gebethner & Wolff, p. 1, source: https://polona.pl/item/ouango-taniec-fetyszow-danse-de-fetiches,MzkwNzcxOTY/7/#index

The artistically transformed exotic motifs gave rise to Ossendowska’s enthusiastically publicly acclaimed violin and piano works, which represent interesting examples of exoticism in music. A reporter of Tygodnik Ilustrowany listed the following pieces:

[…] Songs of warriors (Mujahid and Devant Morho-Naba for piano), of fishermen (La Malinké for piano), of warlike invaders (La Foulah for piano), farmers (Chant Bambara, Melancolie, and Triste Berçeuse for piano and violin); the dances of fetish-worshipping sorcerers (Ouango for piano) — all these new and previously unknown themes found in the person of Zofia Ossendowska a talented and discerning composer and performer⁽⁷⁹⁾.

Polish women-composers did not exclude popular music authors from their milieux. Even those who specialised in ‘serious’ music [poważna – Polish equivalent of ‘classical’ – translator’s note] did not shun writing lighter repertoire as well, as evident, for instance, from the press account of the concert in Bergerowa’s salon (quoted above). It was also such ‘light’ music that filled the entire second part of the evening concert held during the 1938 Congress of Women’s Social and Civic Work, first as the accompaniment for choreographic productions (one of the ballet composers was Helena Karasińska), and later – in a performance by Wanda Vorbond-Dąbrowska’s vocal quartet⁽⁸⁰⁾. Dąbrowska is considered as the first Polish woman-composer of film music. For the movie Fredek uszczęśliwia świat (English title: Fredek Changes the World, 1939) she wrote two songs which her own ensemble performed on the set. Another candidate for Poland’s first female composer of film music is Anda Kitschmann, who created the soundtracks for cartoons by Włodzimierz Kowańko⁽⁸¹⁾. The case of Fanny Gordonówna proves very clearly that popular music has long been governed by its own rules. This composer with no specialised education in the field, who conjured up beautiful melodies with immense ease, wrote numerous hit songs as well as music for larger-scale revue-type spectacles, such as the operetta Jacht miłości [The Yacht of Love], staged in 1933. In an interview conducted by Stanisław Niewiadomski she thus summed up the gist of her job: “I supply the melody, and let the others take care of the rest.”⁽⁸²⁾

The above-presented brief panorama of women’s musical output in Poland in 1918–1939 is naturally far from complete. A full reconstruction may be impossible because some of their careers proved ephemeral, many basic biographical facts remain unknown, and finding any proof of their activity other than mentions in the press is exceedingly difficult. Though the Polish women-composers basically functioned in a sort of a ‘parallel world’, complementary to the world of Polish music composition ‘proper’, there is no doubt that their output penetrated into that other ‘mainstream’ world, as well as reflecting its dominant trends and tendencies. Their music embraced, for instance, the concept (put forward by Karol Szymanowski) of a modern national style developed in connection with European culture and making use of modern means of expression. This style manifested itself not only in the use of folk music material, but also of other vehicles for transmitting the nation’s ‘spiritual qualities’ in music. Polish women-composers likewise joined the neoclassical trend which transformed historical stylistic and formal models in the spirit of modernity, or continued the impressionists’ work with sound colour. Some of them also demonstrated an interest in the ‘New Objectivity’ movement, understood as an art linked to such characteristic phenomena of contemporary civilisation as sport or modern dance rhythms.

The musical output of Polish women-composers active in the interwar period, with the notable exception of Grażyna Bacewicz, did not stand the test of time. What has not been lost, has been marginalised and forgotten, even in those cases when the composers themselves were still active after WWII. The reasons for such a situation are very complex, but it is certainly not merely a result of the low artistic value of their works, or of the local Polish social, cultural and historical context⁽⁸³⁾. Many musicological studies take up the subject of the reception of women’s musical output and of attempts to solve the problem of their meagre presence in the musical canon, providing an in-depth methodological basis for such work⁽⁸⁴⁾. All the same, research on women’s musical output still seems to be insufficient. The scope of their achievements as presented in this article, within the narrow spatial and temporal boundaries of interwar Poland, also calls for further insights, including analytic studies. This kind of work is worthwhile even if its only purpose were to be a fuller reconstruction and assessment of Polish music in that period.