The Ballets of Eugeniusz Morawski in the Context of the Search for Polish National Identity

The topic of this article is Eugeniusz Morawski’s ballet music analysed in the context of the search for national identity in Poland after it regained independence in 1918. The author’s reflection is focused on two fully preserved ballet compositions written in the 1920s. In the monumental four-part dance poem Miłość [Love] by Morawski, together with the author of the libretto, Franciszek Siedlecki, presents an allegorical journey of the pair of protagonists in search of spiritual renewal in a world threatened by progressive mechanisation. Their pilgrimage ends on Earth, and Mazurka is the central point of the last part of the composition. The two-part ballet Świtezianka [Fair Maiden from Svitez], written by the composer to his own libretto, contains in the first part a group scene in which the composer stylizes Polish folk dances. Morawski uses in these works numerous archaizing elements, such as col legno articulation in the strings or empty fifths in the bass; he also uses a pentatonic scale and modal scales, these fragments are distinguished by incisive rhythms. The composer’s treatment of folk material brings to mind an analogy between his work and the works of composers regarded as representatives of the national-folkloric trend in Polish music: Karol Szymanowski, Stanisław Wiechowicz and Roman Palester. Similar tendencies can also be observed in numerous literary and art works created during the inter-war period. A return to folklore and combination of its elements with modern composing techniques can also be found in the works of the most ou-standing representatives of the avant-garde: Igor Stravinsky and Béla Bartók.