The role of Jane Wilhelmina Stirling in Fryderyk Chopin’s life as well as in preserving his legacy is nowadays underestimated. Jane Stirling was not only Chopin’s pupil, but also his patron. She organized a concert tour to England and Scotland for him and tried to support the composer financially. Moreover, she defrayed the costs of the composer’s funeral and erecting his gravestone. After his death, she focused on what Chopin had left passing away. It is thought that she purchased most of the items from his last apartment; she acquired also the last piano the composer had played. She tried to protect the autograph manuscripts he had left, and attempted to arrange the publication of compositions that had been retained only in a sketch form.

The aim of the article is to bridge the gap in the study of Nicolaus de Radom’s output by presenting a comparative analysis of his works as juxtaposed with other European artists. The prevailing opinion of musicologists, such as Maria Szczepańska and Mirosław Perz, is that Nicolaus de Radom’s music is closely related to the works of northern Italian composers. However, such a claim has not yet been supported with the detailed comparative analysis. The article presents the analysis of the manuscripts Kras 52 and Wn 378, signed by Nicolaus de Radom, confronted with selected masses by Johannes Ciconia and Antonio Zacara da Teramo. A detailed analysis of a two-sectioned cyclic mass helps to distinguish certain similarities and differences in the unification of the Mass pairs, as they are exemplified in the music of the composers. The works of all of the three artists manifest secular songs’ influence on the shaping of the Mass as a genre, although each composer adapts it in a slightly different way. Moreover, it is stated that a thorough analysis of the 15th-century Masses is necessary to determine whether there are any links between Nicolaus de Radom’s, Antonio Zacara da Teramo’s and Johannes Ciconia’s works, and whether there are any similarities in their compositional technique. Presented analysis of de Radom’s, Zacara da Teramo’s and Ciconia’s Masses refutes the claim that Nicolaus de Radom’s output bears closest relation to those of Zacara da Teramo’s. The results of the study reveal that there are no straightforward examples which would support such a theory.

The article is a pioneer attempt in Polish literature to develop a synthetic resume and the characteristics of the work of the Italian Baroque composer Leone Leoni. Leoni was highly valued in his time; also, he is said to be one of the creators of dramma per musica genre, and his religious compositions served as model examples of counterpoint for many centuries. The first part of the text presents the state of research concerning the life and work of the artist; then, the second part contains his biography. The last part discusses Leoni’s works. Finally, the rank of his output is regarded.

Two sides of the olympic medal – the controversy surrounding II Sinfonia Olimpica(1948) by Zbigniew Turski. Contribution to the analysis

The main topic of the article is II Sinfonia Olimpicaby Zbigniew Turski, a composer who is barely known in Poland nowadays. The reason of this is the socio-political situation of the country after World War II. The composer was one of first victims of Stalinist cultural policy. At a conference in Łagów Lubuski in 1949, his II Sinfonia Olimpicawas named formalistic, pessimistic and incompatible with the socialist realism standards. However, the composition had won a gold medal at the XIV Olympic Games in London in 1948 and this success had had a great resonance in Polish music press before the conference.

The article has several objectives. The first of them is to present socio-political situation in musical environment. Moreover, it shows the reception of the symphony after its premiere at the conference in Łagów Lubuski. Finally, an attempt to analyze the II Sinfonia Olimpicais made.

It is noticed that the symphony stands out against other compositions created in the mid-twentieth century particularly by dint of its deeply emotional and dramatic character. The achieved mood results from traumatic war experience of the composer. Although the neoclassical tradition is visible, Turski used the innovative musical language and his attempt to create his own music style is noticeable. According to the author’s opinion, if it had not been socialist realism in the mid-twentieth century, II Sinfonia Olimpicacould be now perceived as one of the most important symphonies created within the last century in Poland.

As many researchers claim, we live in the era of intertextual works. The analysis of the 3rd Symphony “Circus Maximus” by the American composer John Corigliano definitely proves this statement. The symphony, finished in 2004, had been commissioned by Jerry Junkin – the conductor of the Wind Ensemble and Director of Bands at UT Austin. It is said to be an example of program music. Corigliano’s main purpose was to show connections between the past (Rome Empire) and the contemporary world. The composer notices that animalisation and coerciveness are characteristics of people living in these two eras. The composition consists of eight movements and is written for wind ensemble and percussion. The aim of this article is to show intertextual connotations and references present in the composition, such as: allusions, stylization, reminiscences, and memory of genre. In order to achieve this aim, the author used the Mieczysław Tomaszewski’s systematics of music-in-music existence. Moreover, similarities to Gustav Mahler and Charles Ives’ compositions are shown.

The Julio Estrada’s output is still the unexplored area, what creates the opportunity to study the phenomenon called discontinuum-continuum. During the last 36 years of the creative activity, Estrada has developed several aspects of the macro timbre that integrate several compounds of a composition. In his research, Estrada confronts two different situations in the compositional process: continuous transformation of the sound and chronographical method, using strictly defined recording process in order to receive three-dimensional movements of the sound in the topological order. As a result of existing these two situations, a musical work is impossible to be defined by one technique or musical style. Examination of the theory of composition called discontinuum-continuum allows one to understand a new methodology of musical creation that involves scientific research of the physical phenomenon of sound and introspection of the imagination of the sound.

Musical sources survived in the Collection of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

The article presents the conclusion of the research conducted by the author in the collection of the State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau, former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp. The sources are fully featured and described for the first time. The article focuses on showing a complicated post-war history of the camp items connected with music (musical instruments, printings, manuscripts, handwritten copies of instrumental books), which are auxiliary sources to reconstruct the repertoire of chapels in KL Auschwitz-Birkenau. The main aim of the article is to also discuss the preserved repertoire. In the last chapter, the author presents a short characteristics of original works composed by musicians and composers in slavery with a short analysis of all of them. Presented musical printings are a reflection of tastes of the German public in the 1930s as well as an example of ridiculous anthropological establishments of Nazi music scientists and no ability to implement it on listeners practice. In addition, the work contains annexes: musical instruments, original works composed during camp existence, and musical printings – a list of music materials which survived in the collection of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.