The aim of the paper is to present the concept of topics (Gr. τοπικά) in music, which entails a presentation of its uses in the history of culture and literary studies. Thanks to such a broad context, it will be possible to interpret this Greek term more fully as applied to musicology and to the analysis of selected examples of musical works. The article consists of three complementary parts. The first deals with the origins of the concept, derived from ancient rhetoric and discussed, among others, by Aristotle, Cicero, and Boethius. The second part of the article presents topics in the context of analyses by Ernst Robert Curtius, Janina Abramowska, and Jacek Jadacki in the field of literary studies. The last and most extensive part of this paper is dedicated to the place of topics in musicology on the example of several authors. I discuss writings on topic theory, which since the 1980s has mainly been developed by researchers from Anglo-Saxon countries.

The fourteen sonatas for two harpsichords from the collection Sonate per uno o due Cembali con il basso cifrato by Bernardo Pasquini (British Library of London, shelf mark: Ms. Add. 31501, I) are unique examples of double partimento. Few performers have taken up these works so far; they deserve much more attention. Employing contrapuntal techniques in their execution offers very interesting possibilities. The author describes and presents her own polyphonic interpretations of selected pieces from this collection: Sonata II mm. I, II, III; Sonata V m. II; Sonata VII a due m. I; Sonata X a 2 m. II; Sonata XIII a 2 mm. I and II. This material may serve as encouragement for further studies and performance of these works. They are worthy of becoming part of staple concert repertoires.

The tradition of musical duels harkens back to the days of ancient Greece. One of the earliest examples of musical rivalry is the myth of Marsyas and Apollo, which ends tragically for the satyr. Without doubt, the tournaments of the ancients served as an inspiration for later generations of musicians. In each epoch they took a different form, tailored to the current norms and customs. In the sixteenth century the singing contests of the Meistersingers became extremely popular. With the development of instrumental music in the seventeenth century, duels, in which the main subject of the dispute was the superiority of one of the performers in terms of interpretation and mastery of playing a given instrument, were increasingly growing in importance.

The eighteenth century, in which public concert life flourished and demand for virtuoso instrumentalists consequently grew, brought a genuine boom in musical duels. During that era, musical duels were not only confrontations between individual musicians or their patrons, but also important contributions to the exchange of experiences between artists, the spread of musical novelties and dissemination of the works themselves. Additionally, such ‘battles’ symbolised a confrontation of musical styles, in particular the Italian and the French one.

Jean-Marie Leclair, known as the French Corelli, is considered by many researchers as the founder of the French violin school. Pietro Antonio Locatelli, an heir to the legacy of Arcangelo Corelli, is justifiably considered as the Paganini of the eighteenth century. Despite shared roots in the Italian violin school, their music differs in both form and expression. At first glance, Locatelli’s typically Italian music goes far beyond the previously accepted norms as far as demands placed on the violinists are concerned, whereas Leclair’s French music bears the mark of Antonio Vivaldi’s models set in the latter’s violin concertos. We know that the first confrontation of the violinists took place on 22 December 1728 at Kassel court. Some authors speculate that it was not the only meeting of these two musicians. The surviving accounts suggest that both of them stirred strong emotions among the audiences with their playing.

Despite their enormous importance for the development of violin music, both composers remain underrated. This article briefly outlines the history of musical duels and sheds light on the practice of violin performances in the first half of the eighteenth century. Additionally, I have attempted a comparative analysis of selected violin concerts, namely: Locatelli’s Violin Concerto in G major Op. 3 No. 9 and Violin Concerto in A minor Op. 7 No. 5 by Jean-Marie Leclair. These two come from a similar period in the work of both composers and are close in time of composition to the famous duel.

The output of Polish composers active at the turn of the twentieth century has largely been forgotten and is still waiting to be properly researched nowadays. Józef Wieniawski and his oeuvre, which once used to attract the attention of both Polish and foreign critics, is a case in point. This article seeks to provide a synthetic study of this subject on the basis of 19^th-century literature.

My study of the historical opera I Medici focuses on an analysis of the work’s dramaturgy. In my opinion, the libretto is the key to understanding operatic dramas; it constitutes their primary foundation, on which the subsequent semantic layers of this naturally syncretic musical genre are constructed. In my paper I have therefore analysed the individual components of the libretto, with special emphasis on the persons of the drama, their personality traits, as well as their musical representations in Leoncavallo’s work. Analysis of the dramaturgical aspects of the opera is an essential first step to a consideration of the musical layer, which lies at the heart of my research. In my paper, I have followed the path mapped out by musicologist Luca Zoppelli; however, his work is only the starting point for a more detailed study of the opera’s expressive qualities and the procedures applied for the musical representation of veristic ideas. Verity – not only in the historical sense – becomes a leading category which unifies the opera at every level, from its original source recorded in the chronicles to the composer’s presentation of the story.

Aleksander Nowak’s (*1979) third opera, ahat ilī – Sister of Gods,premiered in 2018, sets a libretto by Polish Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk, based on her own novel. This marriage of literature and opera, reinforced by the unique situation in which the author of the text which served as an inspiration and of the libretto is one and the same person, suggests that the work could be defined as a Literaturoper. My paper aims to analyse this composition in terms of genre as well as to represent the unique path of its content’s transformation from a literary into an operatic work, along with an analysis of the verbal component presented from the librettological perspective.

The article concerns the issue of experiencing spatial music. While discussing movement and space in music, Bohdan Pociej draws attention to two types of spatiality in a music work: the ‘internal’ and ‘external’ spatiality. The former derives from the nature of the sound material and the interaction of elements; it remains in the sphere of impressions and metaphors. The latter involves the physical parameters and actual performance of the piece. I demonstrate that the works of twentieth-century composers tend to break through from the internal space, transforming it into the external one. The issue of the body as a centre is present in the works of Edmund Husserl, Yi-Fu Tuan, Edward Hall, and others. The metaphor of movement in language and music has become the subject of research in cognitive science. In the context of spatial music, the metaphorical level coexists with the physical level. During the performance of a composition, listeners may enter into various relations with sound sources but always locate them with reference to their own bodies, which they treat as the centre. The two basic types of external spatiality – the perspective of the observer and the perspective of the participant – correspond to the two ways of understanding the metaphor of movement in music (internal spatiality) proposed by Steve Larson and Mark Johnson.

The article discusses concerts organised by the inhabitants of the Łódź Ghetto and their cultural context. My research focuses on concerts conducted by Teodor Ryder, with preserved posters and programmes used as my sources. The surviving concert reviews written in the ghetto contribute to a better understanding of these events. Analysis of source materials provides me with an opportunity to describe the musical life in the ghetto and discuss the role of music in the lives of its inhabitants.

The main purpose of this paper is to describe John Zorn’s approach to klezmer music and Jewish music tradition in general. The text has been divided into shorter sections. The first part of the article is dedicated to providing an overview of problems concerning the definition of Jewish music. The second part focuses on analysing klezmer motifs in John Zorn’s selected works and Jewish symbols present in the visual component of his recording projects. The last section contains a summary and conclusions.

Much has been said about performance, styles, and interpretation. However, we should ask ourselves where they come from, what they depend on, and what factors influence them. The answer proves very complex. This article deals with the problem of piano technique as an element on which interpretation, sound and expression depend to a large extent. The pi­ano is an instrument with incredible tonal possibilities, but it requires fingering skills, the ability to ‘feel’ the keys and a certain physical strength which is directly related to the technique we use. Achieving a high level in playing requires years of diligent work, perseverance, and determination. Technical proficiency, in turn, facilitates expression and appropriate interpretation, in line with the style of a given musical period and the feelings of the pianist-performer. We are thus talking about two things that inexorably influence each other: technique and its results. The latter depend largely on the former. This article explores the knowledge of piano technique which needs to be acquired so that in the end nothing comes in the way of communication between performers, listeners, and the music.