Since the middle of the 19th century, Franz Schubert’s song cycles Die schöne Mullerin and Winterreise are not only considered as an outstanding contribution to the Lied genre, but also as “romantic” compositions par excellence, whose protagonists might be depicted adequately only by performances of male singers. The “masculine nature” (Carl Lafite) of these thoughts, emotions and actions might be inappropriate for female singers. This attitude, which is still present today (even amongst professional musicians and musicologists), though, contradicts not only the performance practice of the early 19th century, but even Schubert’s handling of his songs. In fact, the idea of these two cycles as “men’s cycles” has only developed in the course of the 19th century, when various impacts such as the general upvaluation of the Lied genre, the transfiguration of the composer, the interpretation of his songs as being a personal statement, and the idea of Werktreueshaped the reception of Schubert’s compositions. These factors led to the consolidation of strong and still valid power structures, in which men are regarded as the norm, whereas women (and other alternative voice categories like countertenors) appear as deviation from this norm. These structures are tightly related to similar conditions and principles which have been outlined in the past decades by the masculinity studies on higher levels of our society. In this paper, I will set out this whole process by delineating the performance practice at Schubert’s time, his own attitude (insofar as it is possible), the various influences of romantic musical aesthetics, and the development of the mentioned performance tradition towards the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Furthermore, a number of statements from the 21st century will demonstrate that these concepts are still common today, and I will correlate them with some certain principles pointed out by masculinity studies from the last decades.

The work concerns Giovanni Battista Bassani’s output and its reception with a particular emphasis on manuscripts preserved in the collection from parish church in Grodzisk Wielkopolski. The oeuvre of this composer has been preserved to a huge amount today—there are 441 manuscripts and 67 prints preserved in 287 copies.

The article consists of two parts. The first chapter presents a list of sources of the composer’s  works, created using the RISM database with special attention to the Polish sources. In addition, a list of sources identified as the transmission of Bassani’s output is presented. The second part of the article characterises the composer’s works preserved in the collection from parish church in Grodzisk Wielkopolski.

Dresden played no role in Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf’s life, but history made this city one of the most significant places regarding preserved sources of his works. In the Department of Special Collections (German: Sondersammlungen) of the Sächsische Landesbibliothek—Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek in Dresden (English: Saxon State and University Library Dresden, abbr.: SLUB), there are, among others, more than thirty archival sources containing Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf’s symphonies. That makes it the third richest collection of symphonic works by this composer. The majority of them comes from court’s theatre of Duke Frederick August Braunschweig-Oels in Oels (Öls, Polish: Oleśnica). It is one of the most representative collections of Dittersdorf’s symphonies from all known archives. There are several composer’s autographs, partial autographs, a large variety of works from all periods of his activity, and a few unique copies of symphonies as well. A minor body of Dittersdorf’s symphonies comes from two different sources, until recently unknown. One group is the set of partbooks (contemporary with Dittersdorf), including—apart from Dittersdorf’s works—several dozen movements of serenades, symphonies, string quartets etc. of G.B. Sammartini, J.G. Graun, J.Ph. Rameau, the Stamitz family and J. Haydn, apparently used in performances on the occasion of court activities, not in concerts. The second, from 1860s, is the set of scores, prepared by C. Mehner.

The purpose of this article is to present a broad spectrum of relations between Arthur Honegger—a composer, and Jean Cocteau—a poet and playwright. They are often associated with the group under the patronage of Cocteau called Les Six, to which Honegger undoubtedly belonged. The poet gathered young composers around himself and became the initiator of artistic meetings and concerts. Most of them took place between 1917 and 1921. Cocteau wanted to show the path French music should follow. In accordance to that, his aesthetic manifesto Le Coq et l’Arlequinwas published in 1918.

In the first section, Honegger’s and Cocteau’s aesthetic views concerning music, its elements expression are presented and confronted. Next, the composer’s as well as poet’s work is presented by the example of their cooperation.

The analysis of mutual relations leads to the conclusion that, despite many different views, Honegger and Cocteau respected each other and were very kind. The composer significantly departed from the ideals of Cocteau and developed his own individual style resulting from a wide range of musical inspirations. Les Sixwas a short-lived group and Cocteau himself was gradually moving away from his controversial and radical views.

Paul Hindemith is one of the most famous composers of the 20th century as well as the most important thinkers in the field of music. His aesthetic beliefs are inspired mainly by Boethius and Saint Augustine. He raises an issue of ideas of tradition and progress, which seemed quite disputable in the music of the 20th century. Hindemith believes that in the world exist some universal spiritual principles, which must be integrated by composers in the process of creating music. He criticises the approaches in which the technique itself appears to be predominant, therefore he negates such techniques as the twelve-tone chromatic scale. According to Hindemith, the development of music must be based on traditional fundaments, which, however, can be linked to modern styles and ideas. That seems crucial not only in the process of composing, but also in teaching music, both in theory and in practice.