20th-century classical music is art music that was written between the years 1901 and 2000, inclusive. Musical style diverged during the 20th century as it never had previously, so this century was without a dominant style. Modernism , impressionism , and post-romanticism can all be traced to the decades before the turn of the 20th century, but can be included because they evolved beyond the musical boundaries of the 19th-century styles that were part of the earlier common practice period . Neoclassicism and expressionism came mostly after 1900. Minimalism started later in the century and can be seen as a change from the modern to postmodern era, although some date postmodernism from as early as about 1930. Aleatory , atonality , serialism , musique concrète , and electronic music were all developed during the century. Jazz and ethnic folk music became important influences on many composers during this century.
176-633: Witold Roman Lutosławski ( Polish: [ˈvitɔld lutɔˈswafski] ; 25 January 1913 – 7 February 1994) was a Polish composer and conductor. Among the major composers of 20th-century classical music , he is "generally regarded as the most significant Polish composer since Szymanowski , and possibly the greatest Polish composer since Chopin ". His compositions —of which he was a notable conductor—include representatives of most traditional genres, aside from opera: symphonies , concertos, orchestral song cycles , other orchestral works, and chamber works . Among his best known works are his four symphonies,
352-582: A Cello Concerto which followed, were composed during a particularly traumatic period in Lutosławski's life. His mother died in 1967, and in 1967–70 there was a great deal of unrest in Poland. This sprang first from the suppression of the theatre production Dziady , which sparked a summer of protests; later, in 1968, the use of Polish troops to suppress the liberal reforms in Czechoslovakia 's Prague Spring , and
528-668: A Prom concert in London in 1991, and the Fourth Symphony in 1993 in Los Angeles. In between, and after initial reluctance, Lutosławski took on the presidency of the newly reconstituted "Polish Cultural Council", which was set up after the 1989 legislative elections led to the end of communist rule in Poland. In 1993, Lutosławski continued his busy schedule, travelling to the United States, England, Finland, Canada and Japan, and sketching
704-473: A personal union with Imperial Russia . The Royal University of Warsaw was established in 1816. With the violation of the Polish constitution , the 1830 November Uprising broke out against foreign influence. The Polish-Russian war of 1831 ended in the uprising's defeat and in the curtailment of Congress Poland's autonomy. On 27 February 1861, a Warsaw crowd protesting against Russian control over Congress Poland
880-443: A semitone ; human voices and unfretted strings can easily produce them by going in between the "normal" notes, but other instruments will have more difficulty—the piano and organ have no way of producing them at all, aside from retuning and/or major reconstruction. In the 1940s and 50s composers, notably Pierre Schaeffer , started to explore the application of technology to music in musique concrète . The term electroacoustic music
1056-528: A "Futurist" context. The "Machine Music" of George Antheil (starting with his Second Sonata, "The Airplane") and Alexander Mosolov (most notoriously his Iron Foundry ) developed out of this. The process of extending musical vocabulary by exploring all available tones was pushed further by the use of Microtones in works by Charles Ives , Julián Carrillo , Alois Hába , John Foulds , Ivan Wyschnegradsky , Harry Partch and Mildred Couper among many others. Microtones are those intervals that are smaller than
1232-416: A "farewell to folklore". From the late 1950s he began developing new, characteristic composition techniques. He introduced limited aleatoric elements, while retaining tight control of his music's material, architecture, and performance. He also evolved his practice of building harmonies from small groups of musical intervals . During World War II , after narrowly escaping German capture, Lutosławski made
1408-645: A "post-tonal" idiom: while composing the first symphony, he felt that this was for him a cul-de-sac . As such, Dance Preludes would prove to be his final composition centered around folk music; he described it as a "farewell to folklore". In Five Songs (1956–57) and Musique funèbre (1958) Lutosławski introduced his own brand of twelve-tone music , marking his departure from the explicit use of folk music. His twelve-tone technique allowed him to build harmony and melody from specific intervals (in Musique funèbre , augmented fourths and semitones ). This system also gave him
1584-557: A Lutosławski signature: he introduced randomness into the exact synchronisation of various parts of the musical ensemble in Jeux vénitiens ("Venetian games"). These harmonic and temporal techniques became part of every subsequent work, and were integral to his style. In a departure from his usually serious compositions in 1957 to 1963, Lutosławski also composed light music under the pseudonym Derwid . Mostly waltzes , tangos , foxtrots and slow-foxtrots for voice and piano, these pieces are in
1760-594: A Recitative for organ in 1941). He taught Anton Webern and Alban Berg and these three composers are often referred to as the principal members of the Second Viennese School (Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven—and sometimes Schubert—being regarded as the First Viennese School in this context). Webern wrote works using a rigorous twelve-tone method and influenced the development of total serialism . Berg, like Schoenberg, employed twelve-tone technique within
1936-468: A Theme by Paganini (1941), the Concerto for Orchestra (1954), and a cello concerto (1970) are his best known works. See The Witold Lutosławski Society for a comprehensive list . Books Online 20th-century classical music At the turn of the century, music was characteristically late Romantic in style. Composers such as Gustav Mahler , Richard Strauss and Jean Sibelius were pushing
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#17328760547422112-400: A Theme by Paganini. Although Musique funèbre was internationally acclaimed, his new harmonic techniques led to something of a crisis for Lutosławski, during which he still could not see how to express his musical ideas. Then on 16 March 1960, listening to Polish Radio broadcast on new music, he happened to hear John Cage 's Concert for Piano and Orchestra . Although he was not influenced by
2288-652: A century earlier— Warsaw was part of Tsarist Russia ). Dmowski's strategy was for Russia to guarantee security for a new Polish state. In 1917, the February Revolution forced the Tsar to abdicate, and the October Revolution started a new Soviet government that made peace with Germany. Józef's activities were now in conflict with the Bolsheviks , who arrested him and his brother Marian. Thus, although fighting stopped on
2464-520: A different pattern of geomorphological forms. There are several levels of the Vistula plain terraces (flooded as well as formerly flooded), and only a small part is a not-so-visible moraine escarpment. Aeolian sand with a number of dunes parted by peat swamps or small ponds cover the highest terrace. These are mainly forested areas ( pine forest ). Warsaw experiences an oceanic ( Köppen : Cfb) or humid continental ( Köppen : Dfb) climate, depending on
2640-564: A gesture of support, he sent a recording of the first performance (in Chicago) of the Third Symphony to Gdańsk to be played to strikers in a local church. In 1983, he was awarded the Solidarity prize, of which Lutosławski was reported to be more proud than any other of his honours. Through the mid-1980s, Lutosławski composed three pieces called Łańcuch ("Chain"), which refers to the way the music
2816-704: A great inspiration from the Roman period. The best-known architect who worked in Warsaw at the time was Domenico Merlini , who designed the Palace on the Isle . Other significant buildings from this period include Królikarnia , Holy Trinity Church , St. Anne's Church, Warsaw . Also in the first half of the 19th century, neoclassicism dominated the architecture of Warsaw. Old buildings were rebuilt and new ones were built in this style. The neoclassical revival affected all aspects of architecture;
2992-399: A height 75.6 m (248 ft) (at the right bank of the Vistula, by the eastern border of Warsaw). There are some hills (mostly artificial) located within the confines of the city – e.g. Warsaw Uprising Hill (121 m (397 ft)) and Szczęśliwice hill (138 m (453 ft) – the highest point of Warsaw in general). Warsaw is located on two main geomorphologic formations:
3168-592: A large-scale, dramatic work worthy of the name. In 1968, the Symphony earned Lutosławski first prize from the International Music Council 's International Rostrum of Composers, his third such award, confirming his growing international reputation. In 1967, Lutosławski was awarded the Léonie Sonning Music Prize , Denmark's highest musical honour. The Second Symphony, and Livre pour orchestre and
3344-634: A late-romantic or post-romantic style ( Violin Concerto , which quotes a Bach Choral and uses Classical form). He wrote two major operas ( Wozzeck and Lulu ). The development of recording technology made all sounds available for potential use as musical material. Electronic music generally refers to a repertory of art music developed in the 1950s in Europe, Japan, and the Americas. The increasing availability of magnetic tape in this decade provided composers with
3520-472: A living playing the piano in Warsaw bars. After the war, Stalinist authorities banned his First Symphony for being " formalist ": accessible only to an elite. Rejecting anti-formalism as an unjustified retrograde step, Lutosławski resolutely strove to maintain his artistic integrity, providing artistic support to the Solidarity movement throughout the 1980s. He received numerous awards and honours , including
3696-572: A medium which allowed recording sounds and then manipulating them in various ways. All electronic music depends on transmission via loudspeakers, but there are two broad types: acousmatic music , which exists only in recorded form meant for loudspeaker listening, and live electronic music, in which electronic apparatus are used to generate, transform, or trigger sounds during performance by musicians using voices, traditional instruments, electro-acoustic instruments, or other devices. Beginning in 1957, computers became increasingly important in this field. When
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#17328760547423872-424: A more westward position. In 1945, after the bombings, revolts, fighting, and demolition had ended, most of Warsaw lay in ruins. The area of the former ghetto was razed to the ground, with only a sea of rubble remaining. The immense destruction prompted a temporary transfer of the new government and its officials to Łódź , which became the transitional seat of power. Nevertheless, Warsaw officially resumed its role as
4048-471: A noticeable mark on its architecture and urban form. Unlike most Polish cities, Warsaw's cityscape is mostly contemporary – modern glass buildings are towering above older historical edifices which is a common feature of North American metropolises. Warsaw is among the European cities with the highest number of skyscrapers and is home to European Union's tallest building . Skyscrapers are mostly centered around
4224-407: A particular process which is essentially laid bare in the work. The term experimental music was coined by Cage to describe works that produce unpredictable results, according to the definition "an experimental action is one the outcome of which is not foreseen". The term is also used to describe music within specific genres that pushes against their boundaries or definitions, or else whose approach
4400-463: A physician, and translated books for children from English. In 1924, Lutosławski entered secondary school ( Stefan Batory Gymnasium ) while continuing piano lessons. A performance of Karol Szymanowski 's Third Symphony deeply affected him. In 1925, he started violin lessons at the Warsaw Music School. In 1931, he enrolled at Warsaw University to study mathematics, and in 1932 he formally joined
4576-622: A piano duo with friend and fellow composer Andrzej Panufnik , performing together in Warsaw cafés. Their repertoire consisted of a wide range of music in their own arrangements, including the first incarnation of Lutosławski's Variations on a Theme by Paganini, a transcription of the 24th Caprice for solo violin by Niccolò Paganini . Defiantly, they sometimes played Polish music (the Nazis banned Polish music in Poland—including that of Frédéric Chopin ), and composed Resistance songs. Listening in cafés
4752-501: A scholarship to enable young Polish composers to study abroad; Lutosławski also directed that his fee from the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra for Chain 3 should go to this scholarship fund. In 1986, Lutosławski was presented (by Tippett) with the rarely awarded Royal Philharmonic Society's Gold Medal during a concert in which Lutosławski conducted his Third Symphony; also that year a major celebration of his work
4928-526: A search for listeners who think and feel the same way he did—he once called it "fishing for souls". Lutosławski's works up until and including the Dance Preludes (1955) show the influence of Polish folk music , both harmonically and melodically. Part of his art was in transforming folk music, rather than quoting it exactly. In some cases, such as the Concerto for Orchestra, folk music is unrecognisable as such without careful analysis. As Lutosławski developed
5104-479: A set of children's songs. He commented: "[I]t was for those functional compositions of mine that the authorities decorated me ... I realised that I was not writing indifferent little pieces, only to make a living, but was carrying on an artistic creative activity in the eyes of the outside world." It was his substantial and original Concerto for Orchestra of 1954 that established Lutosławski as an important composer of art music. The work, commissioned in 1950 by
5280-414: A short piece for cello in honour of Paul Sacher 's seventieth birthday, occupied Lutosławski throughout the 1970s, while in the background he was working away at a projected Third symphony and a concertante piece for the oboist Heinz Holliger . These latter pieces were proving difficult to complete, as Lutosławski struggled to introduce greater fluency into his sound world and to reconcile tensions between
5456-518: A situation that continued throughout the era of Khrushchev , Brezhnev , Andropov and Chernenko . In 1954, the climate of musical oppression drove his friend Andrzej Panufnik to defect to the United Kingdom. Against this background, Lutosławski was content to compose pieces for which there was social need, but in 1954 this earned him—much to the composer's chagrin—the Prime Minister's Prize for
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5632-579: A small fishing village called "Warszowa". The Prince of Płock , Bolesław II of Masovia, established the modern-day city in about 1300 and the first historical document attesting to the existence of a castellany dates to 1313. With the completion of St John's Cathedral in 1390, Warsaw became one of the seats of the Dukes of Masovia and was officially made capital of the Masovian Duchy in 1413. The economy then predominantly rested on craftsmanship or trade, and
5808-560: A student of Jerzy Lefeld , he gained a diploma for piano performance from the Conservatory in 1936, after presenting a virtuoso program including Schumann 's Toccata and Beethoven 's fourth piano concerto . His diploma for composition was awarded by the same institution in 1937. Military service followed; Lutosławski was trained in signalling and radio operating in Zegrze near Warsaw. He completed his Symphonic Variations in 1939. The work
5984-654: A violin concerto, but by the first week of 1994 it was clear that cancer had taken hold, and after an operation the composer weakened quickly and died on 7 February, aged 81. He had, a few weeks before, been awarded Poland's highest honour, the Order of the White Eagle (only the second person to receive this since the collapse of communism in Poland—the first had been Pope John Paul II ). He was cremated; his wife Danuta died shortly afterwards. Lutosławski described musical composition as
6160-434: Is a further development of electroacoustic music that uses analyses of sound spectra to create music. Cage, Berio, Boulez, Milton Babbitt , Luigi Nono and Edgard Varèse all wrote electroacoustic music. From the early 1950s onwards, Cage introduced elements of chance into his music. Process music ( Karlheinz Stockhausen Prozession , Aus den sieben Tagen ; and Steve Reich Piano Phase , Clapping Music ) explores
6336-401: Is a green capital, with around a quarter of the city's area occupied by parks. In sports, the city is home to Legia Warsaw football club and hosts the annual Warsaw Marathon . Warsaw's name in the Polish language is Warszawa . Other previous spellings of the name may have included: Warszewa , Warszowa , Worszewa or Werszewa . The exact origin and meaning of the name
6512-454: Is a hybrid of disparate styles, or incorporates unorthodox, new, distinctly unique ingredients. Important cultural trends often informed music of this period, romantic, modernist, neoclassical, postmodernist or otherwise. Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev were particularly drawn to primitivism in their early careers, as explored in works such as The Rite of Spring and Chout . Other Russians, notably Dmitri Shostakovich , reflected
6688-691: Is a reaction to modernism, but it can also be viewed as a response to a deep-seated shift in societal attitude. According to this latter view, postmodernism began when historic (as opposed to personal) optimism turned to pessimism, at the latest by 1930. John Cage is a prominent figure in 20th-century music, claimed with some justice both for modernism and postmodernism because the complex intersections between modernism and postmodernism are not reducible to simple schemata. His influence steadily grew during his lifetime. He often uses elements of chance: Imaginary Landscape No. 4 for 12 radio receivers, and Music of Changes for piano. Sonatas and Interludes (1946–48)
6864-530: Is composed for a prepared piano : a normal piano whose timbre is dramatically altered by carefully placing various objects inside the piano in contact with the strings. Currently, postmodernism includes composers who react against the avant-garde and experimental styles of the late 20th century such as Astor Piazzolla , Argentina, and Miguel del Águila , USA. In the later 20th century, composers such as La Monte Young , Arvo Pärt , Philip Glass , Terry Riley , Steve Reich , and John Adams began to explore what
7040-466: Is constructed from contrasting strands which overlap like the links of a chain. Chain 2 was written for Anne-Sophie Mutter (commissioned by Sacher), and for Mutter he also orchestrated his slightly earlier Partita for violin and piano, providing a new linking Interlude, so that when played together the Partita, Interlude, and Chain 2 form his longest work. In 1985, the Third Symphony earned Lutosławski
7216-507: Is known as a Varsovian – in Polish warszawiak , warszawianin (male), warszawianka (female), warszawiacy , and warszawianie (plural). The first fortified settlements on the site of today's Warsaw were located in Bródno (9th/10th century) and Jazdów (12th/13th century). After Jazdów was raided by nearby clans and dukes, a new fortified settlement was established on the site of
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7392-533: Is now called minimalism , in which the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features; the music often features repetition and iteration. An early example is Terry Riley's In C (1964), an aleatoric work in which short phrases are chosen by the musicians from a set list and played an arbitrary number of times, while the note C is repeated in eighth notes (quavers) behind them. Steve Reich's works Piano Phase (1967, for two pianos), and Drumming (1970–71, for percussion, female voices and piccolo) employ
7568-467: Is often seen as neo-baroque (an architectural term), though the distinction between the terms is not always made. A number of composers combined elements of the jazz idiom with classical compositional styles, notably: Impressionism started in France as a reaction, led by Claude Debussy , against the emotional exuberance and epic themes of German Romanticism exemplified by Wagner . In Debussy's view, art
7744-523: Is one of the cities with the highest number of skyscrapers in Europe. Although contemporary Warsaw is a fairly young city compared to other European capitals, it has numerous tourist attractions and architectural monuments dating back centuries. Apart from the Warsaw Old Town area, reconstructed after World War II, each borough has something to offer. Among the most notable landmarks of the Old Town are
7920-589: Is one of the most significant figures in 20th-century music. While his early works were in a late Romantic style influenced by Wagner ( Verklärte Nacht , 1899), this evolved into an atonal idiom in the years before the First World War ( Drei Klavierstücke in 1909 and Pierrot lunaire in 1912). In 1921, after several years of research, he developed the twelve-tone technique of composition, which he first described privately to his associates in 1923. His first large-scale work entirely composed using this technique
8096-780: Is represented by the Metropolitan Office Building at Pilsudski Square and Varso tower, both by Norman Foster , Warsaw University Library (BUW) by Marek Budzyński and Zbigniew Badowski, featuring a garden on its roof and view of the Vistula River, Rondo 1 office building by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill , Złota 44 residential skyscraper by Daniel Libeskind , Museum of the History of Polish Jews by Rainer Mahlamäki and Golden Terraces , consisting of seven overlapping domes retail and business centre. Jointly with Moscow, Istanbul, Frankfurt, London, Paris and Rotterdam, Warsaw
8272-478: Is represented in the majestic churches but also at the burgher houses and fortifications. The most significant buildings are St John's Cathedral (1390), a typical example of the so-called Masovian Brick Gothic style; St Mary's Church (1411); the Burbach townhouse (14th century); Gunpowder Tower (after 1379); and Royal Castle 's Curia Maior (1407–1410). The most notable examples of Renaissance architecture in
8448-428: Is the case with conventionally notated classical ensemble music. The LaSalle Quartet, however, specifically requested a score from which to prepare for the first performance. Bodman Rae relates that Danuta Lutosławska solved this problem by cutting up the parts and sticking them together in boxes (which Lutosławski called mobiles ), with instructions on how to signal in performance when all of the players should proceed to
8624-449: Is uncertain and has not been fully determined. Originally, Warszawa was the name of a small fishing settlement on the banks of the Vistula river. One hypothesis states that Warszawa means "belonging to Warsz", Warsz being a shortened form of the masculine Old Polish name Warcisław, which etymologically is linked with Wrocław . However the ending -awa is unusual for a large city;
8800-517: The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . The amount means a tenth of the Polish capital's population of 1.8 million — the second-largest single group of Ukrainian refugees. Warsaw lies in east-central Poland about 300 km (190 mi) from the Carpathian Mountains and about 260 km (160 mi) from the Baltic Sea , 523 km (325 mi) east of Berlin, Germany. The city straddles
8976-619: The Capital City of Warsaw , is the capital and largest city of Poland . The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at 1.86 million residents within a greater metropolitan area of 3.27 million residents, which makes Warsaw the 7th most-populous city in the European Union . The city area measures 517 km (200 sq mi) and comprises 18 districts , while
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#17328760547429152-791: The Domestic Economy Bank , the directorate of the Polish State Railways , the Supreme Audit Office , and the campus of the Warsaw School of Economics . New districts were also established in Żoliborz , Ochota , and Mokotów , often designed around a central square with radiating streets ( Narutowicz Square , Wilson Square ). Examples of new large urban projects are the Staszic and Lubecki colonies in Ochota . Exceptional examples of
9328-629: The East End of London and London Docklands . Poorer religious and ethnic minorities, such as the Jews, settled in the crowded parts of northern Warsaw, in Muranów . The Imperial Census of 1897 recorded 626,000 people living in Warsaw, making it the third-largest city of the Empire after St. Petersburg and Moscow as well as the largest city in the region. Grand architectural complexes and structures were also erected in
9504-677: The Gdańsk Shipyards strike of 1970—which led to a violent clampdown by the authorities, both caused significant political and social tension in Poland. Lutosławski did not support the Soviet regime, and these events have been postulated as reasons for the increase in antagonistic effects in his work, particularly the Cello Concerto of 1968–70 for Rostropovich and the Royal Philharmonic Society . Indeed, Rostropovich's own opposition to
9680-664: The General Government , a German Nazi colonial administration. All higher education institutions were immediately closed and Warsaw's entire Jewish population – several hundred thousand, some 30% of the city – were herded into the Warsaw Ghetto . In July 1942, the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto began to be deported en masse to the Aktion Reinhard extermination camps, particularly Treblinka . The city would become
9856-614: The Grawemeyer Award and a Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal . In 1994, Lutosławski was awarded Poland's highest honour, the Order of the White Eagle . Witold Roman Lutosławski was born on 25 January 1913, in Warsaw , Poland. His parents were both born into the Polish landed nobility; they owned estates in the area of Drozdowo . His father Józef was involved in the Polish National Democratic Party ( "Endecja" ), and
10032-548: The Red Army was deep into Polish territory and pursuing the Nazis toward Warsaw. The Polish government-in-exile in London gave orders to the underground Home Army (AK) to try to seize control of Warsaw before the Red Army arrived. Thus, on 1 August 1944, as the Red Army was nearing the city, the Warsaw uprising began. The armed struggle, planned to last 48 hours, was partially successful, however, it went on for 63 days. Eventually,
10208-648: The Royal Castle , Sigismund's Column , Market Square , and the Barbican . Further south is the so-called Royal Route , with many historical churches, Baroque and Classicist palaces, most notably the Presidential Palace , and the University of Warsaw campus. The former royal residence of King John III Sobieski at Wilanów is notable for its Baroque architecture and eloquent palatial garden. In many places in
10384-726: The Tom and Jerry cartoons. After the First World War, composers started returning to the past for inspiration and wrote works that drew elements (form, harmony, melody, structure) from it. This type of music thus became labelled neoclassicism . Igor Stravinsky ( Pulcinella ), Sergei Prokofiev ( Classical Symphony ), Ravel ( Le Tombeau de Couperin ), Manuel de Falla ( El retablo de maese Pedro ) and Paul Hindemith ( Symphony: Mathis der Maler ) all produced neoclassical works. Italian composers such as Francesco Balilla Pratella and Luigi Russolo developed musical Futurism . This style often tried to recreate everyday sounds and place them in
10560-524: The Variations on a Theme by Paganini (1941), the Concerto for Orchestra (1954), and his cello concerto (1970). During his youth, Lutosławski studied piano and composition in Warsaw . His early works were influenced by Polish folk music and demonstrated a wide range of rich atmospheric textures . His folk-inspired music includes the Concerto for Orchestra (1954)—which first brought him international renown—and Dance Preludes (1955), which he described as
10736-934: The Varso Place is the tallest building in the European Union. The city's primary educational and cultural institutions comprise the University of Warsaw , the Warsaw University of Technology , the SGH Warsaw School of Economics , the Chopin University of Music , the Polish Academy of Sciences , the National Philharmonic Orchestra , the National Museum , and the Warsaw Grand Theatre ,
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#173287605474210912-425: The Vistula River. It is located in the heartland of the Masovian Plain , and its average elevation is 100 m (330 ft) above sea level. The highest point on the left side of the city lies at a height of 115.7 m (380 ft) ("Redutowa" bus depot, district of Wola), on the right side – 122.1 m (401 ft) ("Groszówka" estate, district of Wesoła, by the eastern border). The lowest point lies at
11088-484: The Vistula escarpment were constructed. In the architecture of Catholic churches, the Counter-Reformation type became a novelty, exemplified by the Church of St. Anthony of Padua , the Carmelite Church and the Holy Cross Church . Warsaw Baroque from the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries was characterized by building facades with a predominance of vertical elements close to the wall and numerous ornaments . The most important architect working in Warsaw at that time
11264-416: The Warsaw Uprising . During the complete destruction of the city by Germans after the failure of the uprising, most of his music was lost, as were the family's Drozdowo estates. He was able to salvage only a few scores and sketches; of the 200 or so arrangements that Lutosławski and Panufnik had worked on for their piano duo, only Lutosławski's Variations on a Theme by Paganini survived. Lutosławski returned to
11440-409: The Wedel factory and the extensive Municipal Gasworks complex . In the architecture of the 1920s, national historicism and other historical forms were dominant. Art Deco forms also appeared, and towards the end of the decade, avant-garde functionalism emerged. The creation of urban plans for the capital of Poland can be traced back to 1916, when, after the retreat of the Russians from Warsaw and
11616-453: The bourgeois architecture of the later periods were not restored by the communist authorities after the war or were remodelled into a socialist realist style (like Warsaw Philharmonic edifice originally inspired by Palais Garnier in Paris ). Despite that, the Warsaw University of Technology (Polytechnic) building. is the most interesting of the late 19th-century architecture. Some 19th-century industrial and brick workhouse buildings in
11792-430: The expressionism that arose in the early part of the 20th century. He later developed the twelve-tone technique which was developed further by his disciples Alban Berg and Anton Webern ; later composers (including Pierre Boulez ) developed it further still. Stravinsky (in his last works) explored twelve-tone technique, too, as did many other composers; indeed, even Scott Bradley used the technique in his scores for
11968-463: The Śródmieście district, with many located in the commercial district of Wola . A concentric zone pattern emerged within the last decades; the majority of Warsaw's residents live outside the commercial city centre and commute by metro , bus or tram. Tenements and apartments in the central neighbourhoods are often reserved for commercial activity or temporary (tourist, student) accommodation. The nearest residential zones are predominantly located on
12144-458: The 1920s and later, including Albert Roussel , Charles Koechlin , André Caplet , and, later, Olivier Messiaen . Composers from non-Western cultures, such as Tōru Takemitsu , and jazz musicians such as Duke Ellington , Gil Evans , Art Tatum , and Cecil Taylor also have been strongly influenced by the impressionist musical language. At its conception, Futurism was an Italian artistic movement founded in 1909 by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti ; it
12320-448: The 19th century that had survived in a reasonably reconstructible form were nonetheless demolished in the 1950s and 1960s, like the Kronenberg Palace . The Śródmieście (central) region's urban system was completely reshaped; former cobblestone streets were asphalted and significantly widened for traffic use. Many notable streets such as Gęsia, Nalewki and Wielka disappeared as a result of these changes and some were split in half due to
12496-460: The 20th century. The former trends, such as Expressionism are discussed later. In the early part of the 20th century, many composers wrote music which was an extension of 19th-century Romantic music, and traditional instrumental groupings such as the orchestra and string quartet remained the most typical. Traditional forms such as the symphony and concerto remained in use. Gustav Mahler and Jean Sibelius are examples of composers who took
12672-537: The 880-meter Piaseczyński Canal on the axis of Ujazdów Castle , the Ujazdów Calvary and the Saxon Axis . The Visitationist Church also dates from this period. The neoclassical architecture began to be the main style in the capital's architecture in Warsaw in the second half of the 18th century thanks to King Stanisław August Poniatowski . It can be described by the simplicity of the geometrical forms teamed with
12848-672: The Eastern Front in 1917, the Lutosławskis were prevented from returning home. The brothers were interned in Butyrskaya prison in central Moscow, where Witold—by then aged five—visited his father. Józef and Marian were executed by a firing squad in September 1918, some days before their scheduled trial. After the war, the family returned to the newly independent Poland , only to find their estates ruined. After his father's death, other members of
13024-708: The Home Army fighters and civilians assisting them were forced to capitulate. They were transported to PoW camps in Germany, while the entire civilian population was expelled. Polish civilian deaths are estimated at between 150,000 and 200,000. Hitler, ignoring the agreed terms of the capitulation, ordered the entire city to be razed to the ground and the library and museum collections taken to Germany or burned. Monuments and government buildings were blown up by special German troops known as Verbrennungs- und Vernichtungskommando ("Burning and Destruction Detachments"). About 85% of
13200-662: The Lutosławski family became intimate with its founder, Roman Dmowski (Witold Lutosławski's middle name was Roman). Józef Lutosławski studied in Zürich , where in 1904 he met and married a fellow student, Maria Olszewska, who later became Lutosławski's mother. Józef pursued his studies in London, where he acted as correspondent for the National-Democratic newspaper, Goniec . He continued to be involved in National Democracy politics after returning to Warsaw in 1905, and took over
13376-497: The Polish capital and his royal court from Kraków . Warsaw served as the de facto capital of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1795, and subsequently as the seat of Napoleon 's Duchy of Warsaw . The 19th century and its Industrial Revolution brought a demographic boom, which made it one of the largest and most densely populated cities in Europe. Known then for its elegant architecture and boulevards, Warsaw
13552-811: The Praga district were restored, though many have been poorly maintained or demolished. Notable examples of post-war architecture include the Palace of Culture and Science , a soc-realist and art deco skyscraper based on the Empire State Building in New York. The Constitution Square with its monumental socialist realism architecture (MDM estate) was modelled on the grand squares of Paris, London, Moscow and Rome . Italianate tuscan-styled colonnades based on those at Piazza della Repubblica in Rome were also erected on Saviour Square . Contemporary architecture in Warsaw
13728-477: The Russians Artur Lourié, Mikhail Matyushin , and Nikolai Roslavets . Though few of the futurist works of these composers are performed today, the influence of futurism on the later development of 20th-century music was enormous. Sergei Prokofiev , Maurice Ravel , Igor Stravinsky , Arthur Honegger , George Antheil , Leo Ornstein , and Edgard Varèse are among the notable composers in the first half of
13904-479: The Soviet regime in Russia was just coming to a head (he shortly afterwards declared his support for the dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ). Lutosławski himself did not hold the view that such influences had a direct effect on his music, although he acknowledged that they impinged on his creative world to some degree. In any case, the Cello Concerto was a great success, earning both Lutosławski and Rostropovich accolades. At
14080-452: The Vistula terraces is asymmetrical. The left side consists mainly of two levels: the highest one contains former flooded terraces and the lowest one is the floodplain terrace. The contemporary flooded terrace still has visible valleys and ground depressions with water systems coming from the old Vistula – riverbed. They consist of still quite natural streams and lakes as well as the pattern of drainage ditches. The right side of Warsaw has
14256-413: The additive process in which short phrases are slowly expanded. La Monte Young's Compositions 1960 employs very long tones, exceptionally high volumes and extra-musical techniques such as "draw a straight line and follow it" or "build a fire". Michael Nyman argues that minimalism was a reaction to and made possible by both serialism and indeterminism. (See also experimental music .) Arnold Schoenberg
14432-693: The architectural landscape of the city only began in the mid-1920s. The forming state structures needed headquarters, leading to the construction of many monumental public buildings, including the buildings of the Sejm and the Senate , the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education , the Ministry of Public Works , the National Museum , the State Geological Institute , the State Agricultural Bank,
14608-491: The artists from the court circle of King Sigismund III Vasa (the early Warsaw Baroque is referred to as Vasa Baroque). Among the first structures of the early Baroque, the most important are St. Hyacinth's Church and Sigismund's Column , the first secular monument in the form of a column in modern history. At that time, part of the Royal Castle was rebuilt in this style, the Ujazdów Castle and numerous Baroque palaces on
14784-928: The balanced forms and clearly perceptible thematic processes of the 17th and 18th centuries, in a repudiation of what were seen as exaggerated gestures and formlessness of late Romanticism. Because these composers generally replaced the functional tonality of their models with extended tonality, modality, or atonality, the term is often taken to imply parody or distortion of the Baroque or Classical style. Famous examples include Prokofiev's Classical Symphony and Stravinsky's Pulcinella , Symphony of Psalms , and Concerto in E-flat "Dumbarton Oaks" . Paul Hindemith ( Symphony: Mathis der Maler ), Darius Milhaud , Francis Poulenc ( Concert champêtre ), and Manuel de Falla ( El retablo de maese Pedro , Harpsichord Concerto ) also used this style. Maurice Ravel 's Le Tombeau de Couperin
14960-489: The beginnings of the German occupation, the territories of the surrounding municipalities were annexed to the city. Even before Poland regained its independence, parallel to the creation of the administration of the future state, the first urban visions were emerging. These included, among others, the construction of a representative government district in the southern part of Śródmieście . However, major changes in urban planning and
15136-565: The bounds of post-Romantic symphonic writing . At the same time, the Impressionist movement, spearheaded by Claude Debussy , was being developed in France. Debussy in fact loathed the term Impressionism: "I am trying to do 'something different—in a way realities—what the imbeciles call 'impressionism' is a term which is as poorly used as possible, particularly by art critics". Maurice Ravel 's music, also often labelled as impressionist, explores music in many styles not always related to it (see
15312-415: The capital of Poland and the country's centre of political and economic life. After World War II, the "Bricks for Warsaw" campaign was initiated and large prefabricated housing projects were erected in Warsaw to address the major housing shortage. Plattenbau -styled apartment buildings were seen as a solution to avoid Warsaw's former density problem and to create more green spaces. Some of the buildings from
15488-509: The capitals of the Commonwealth's two component parts, Poland and Lithuania, which were Kraków and Vilnius respectively, Warsaw became the capital of the Commonwealth and the Polish Crown when Sigismund III Vasa transferred his royal court in 1596. In the subsequent years the town significantly expanded to the south and westwards. Several private independent districts ( jurydyka ) were
15664-502: The centre of urban resistance to Nazi rule in occupied Europe. When the order came to annihilate the ghetto as part of Hitler 's " Final Solution " on 19 April 1943, Jewish fighters launched the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising . Despite being heavily outgunned and outnumbered, the ghetto held out for almost a month. When the fighting ended, almost all survivors were massacred, with only a few managing to escape or hide. By July 1944,
15840-487: The century who were influenced by futurism. Characteristic features of later 20th-century music with origins in futurism include the prepared piano , integral serialism , extended vocal techniques, graphic notation, improvisation , and minimalism . In the early part of the 20th century, Charles Ives integrated American and European traditions as well as vernacular and church styles, while using innovative techniques in his rhythm, harmony, and form. His technique included
16016-623: The city across the Vistula . Warszawa Główna railway station (1932–1939) was not completed due to the outbreak of the Second World War . Stefan Starzyński was the Mayor of Warsaw between 1934 and 1939. After the German Invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 started the Second World War, Warsaw was defended until 27 September. Central Poland, including Warsaw, came under the rule of
16192-569: The city are the house of the Baryczko merchant family (1562), a building called "The Negro" (early 17th century), and Salwator tenement (1632), all situated on the Old Market Place . The most interesting examples of Mannerist architecture are the Royal Castle (1596–1619) and the Jesuit Church (1609–1626). Baroque architecture arrived in Warsaw at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries with
16368-605: The city centre, including the Warsaw Philharmonic , the Church of the Holiest Saviour and tenements along Marszałkowska Street . During World War I , Warsaw was occupied by Germany from 4 August 1915 until November 1918. The Armistice of 11 November 1918 concluded that defeated Germany is to withdraw from all foreign areas, which included Warsaw. Germany did so, and underground leader Józef Piłsudski returned to Warsaw on
16544-538: The city in a style similar to Dresden . The year 1727 marked the opening of the Saxon Garden in Warsaw, the first publicly accessible park. The Załuski Library , the first Polish public library and the largest at the time, was founded in 1747. Stanisław II Augustus , who remodelled the interior of the Royal Castle , also made Warsaw a centre of culture and the arts. He extended the Royal Baths Park and ordered
16720-738: The city include the Warsaw Metro , buses , commuter rail service and an extensive tram network . The city is a significant economic centre for the region, with the Warsaw Stock Exchange being the largest in Central and Eastern Europe . It is the base for Frontex , the European Union agency for external border security, and ODIHR , one of the principal institutions of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe . Warsaw has one of Europe's highest concentrations of skyscrapers , and
16896-682: The city the Jewish culture and history resonates down through time. Among them the most notable are the Jewish theater , the Nożyk Synagogue , Janusz Korczak 's Orphanage and the picturesque Próżna Street. The tragic pages of Warsaw's history are commemorated in places such as the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes , the Umschlagplatz , fragments of the ghetto wall on Sienna Street and a mound in memory of
17072-675: The city was destroyed, including the historic Old Town and the Royal Castle. On 17 January 1945 – after the beginning of the Vistula–Oder Offensive of the Red Army – Soviet troops and Polish troops of the First Polish Army entered the ruins of Warsaw, and liberated Warsaw's suburbs from German occupation. The city was swiftly freed by the Soviet Army, which rapidly advanced towards Łódź , as German forces regrouped at
17248-400: The city's reconstruction), sets of Polish Carols , and the study pieces for piano, Melodie Ludowe ("Folk Melodies"). In 1945, Lutosławski was elected as secretary and treasurer of the newly constituted Union of Polish Composers (ZKP— Związek Kompozytorów Polskich ). In 1946, he married Danuta Bogusławska. The marriage was a lasting one, and Danuta's drafting skills were of great value to
17424-528: The city, and the Saxon Palace underwent a complete reconstruction, where the central body of the building was demolished and replaced by a monumental 11-bay colonnade . In the mid-19th century, the industrial revolution reached Warsaw, leading to the mass use of iron as a building material. In 1845, the Warsaw-Vienna Railway Station was opened. Another important aspect of the developing city
17600-551: The classes in the two precincts led to a minor revolt in 1525. Following the sudden death of Janusz III and the extinction of the local ducal line, Masovia was incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland in 1526. Bona Sforza , wife of Sigismund I of Poland , was widely accused of poisoning the duke to uphold Polish rule over Warsaw. In 1529, Warsaw for the first time became the seat of a General Sejm and held that privilege permanently from 1569. The city's rising importance encouraged
17776-540: The composer formed a lasting friendship.) Shortly after this, Lutosławski started work on his Second Symphony , which had two premieres: Pierre Boulez conducted the second movement, Direct , in 1966, and when the first movement, Hésitant , was finished in 1967, the composer conducted a complete performance in Katowice . The Second Symphony is very different from a conventional classical symphony in structure, with Lutosławski using his many compositional innovations to build
17952-556: The composer four years to complete. This work brought international recognition, and the annual ZKP prize and the International Rostrum of Composers prize in 1959. Lutosławski's harmonic and contrapuntal thinking were developed in this work, and in the Five songs of 1956–57, as he introduced his twelve-note system, he realised the fruits of many years of thought and experiment. Another new feature of his compositional technique became
18128-474: The composer: she became his copyist , and solved some of the notational challenges of his later works. In 1947, the Stalinist political climate led to the adoption and imposition by the ruling Polish United Workers' Party of the tenets of socialist realism . The political authorities condemned new compositions deemed to be non-conformist. This artistic censorship, which ultimately came from Stalin personally,
18304-416: The composition classes at the Conservatory. His only composition teacher was Witold Maliszewski , a renowned Polish composer who had been a pupil of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov . Lutosławski was given a strong grounding in musical structures, particularly movements in sonata form . In 1932, he gave up the violin, and in 1933 he discontinued his mathematics studies to concentrate on the piano and composition. As
18480-471: The conductor Witold Rowicki for the newly reconstituted Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, earned the composer two state prizes in the following year. Stalin's death in 1953 allowed a certain relaxation of the cultural totalitarianism in Russia and its satellite states. By 1956, political events had led to a partial thawing of the musical climate, and the Warsaw Autumn Festival of Contemporary Music
18656-410: The conductor gives a cue to the flutes, celesta and percussionist, who then play their parts in their own time, without any attempt to synchronise with the other instrumentalists. The harmony of this section is based on a 12-note chord built from major seconds and perfect fourths . After all the instrumentalists have finished their parts, a two-second general pause is indicated ("P.G. 2" at top right of
18832-409: The conductor gives another cue at number 9, the players each continue until they reach the repeat sign , and then stop: they are unlikely to end the section at the same time. This "refrain" (from numbers 8 to 9) recurs throughout the movement, slightly altered each time, but always played by double-reed instruments which do not play elsewhere in the movement: Lutosławski thus also carefully controls
19008-496: The construction of Plac Defilad (Parade Square), one of the largest of its kind in Europe. Much of the central district was also designated for future skyscrapers. The 237-metre Palace of Culture and Science resembling New York's Empire State Building was built as a gift from the Soviet Union. Warsaw's urban landscape is one of modern and contemporary architecture. Despite wartime destruction and post-war remodelling, many of
19184-497: The construction of a new set of defenses, including the landmark Barbican . Renowned Italian architects were brought to Warsaw to reshape the Royal Castle , the streets and the marketplace, resulting in the Old Town's early Italianate appearance. In 1573, the city gave its name to the Warsaw Confederation which formally established religious freedom in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . Due to its central location between
19360-519: The construction or refurbishment of numerous palaces, mansions and richly-decorated tenements. This earned Warsaw the nickname Paris of the North . Warsaw remained the capital of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1795 when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the third and final partition of Poland ; it subsequently became the capital of the province of South Prussia . During this time, Louis XVIII of France spent his exile in Warsaw under
19536-574: The discussion on Neoclassicism, below). Many composers reacted to the Post-Romantic and Impressionist styles and moved in different directions. An important moment in defining the course of music throughout the century was the widespread break with traditional tonality, effected in diverse ways by different composers in the first decade of the century. From this sprang an unprecedented "linguistic plurality" of styles, techniques, and expression. In Vienna , Arnold Schoenberg developed atonality , out of
19712-542: The end of the 19th century (often called the Fin de siècle ), the Romantic style was starting to break apart, moving along various parallel courses, such as Impressionism and Post-romanticism . In the 20th century, the different styles that emerged from the music of the previous century influenced composers to follow new trends, sometimes as a reaction to that music, sometimes as an extension of it, and both trends co-existed well into
19888-431: The example). The conductor then gives a cue at number 8 (and indicates the tempo of the following section) for two oboes and the cor anglais . They each play their part, again with no attempt to synchronise with the other players. The harmony of this part is based on the hexachord F ♯ –G–A ♭ –C–D ♭ –D, arranged in such a way that the harmony of the section never includes any sixths or thirds. When
20064-444: The expansion and modernisation of trams, street lighting, and gas infrastructure. Between 1850 and 1882, the population grew by 134% to 383,000 as a result of rapid urbanisation and industrialisation. Many migrated from surrounding rural Masovian towns and villages to the city for employment opportunities. The western borough of Wola was transformed from an agricultural periphery occupied mostly by small farms and windmills (mills being
20240-471: The face of the anti- formalist authorities under which he formulated his methods. In the 21st century, Lutosławski is generally considered the most important Polish composer since Szymanowski, and perhaps the most outstanding since Chopin. This evaluation was not apparent after World War II, when Panufnik was more highly regarded in Poland. The success of Lutosławski's Concerto for Orchestra and Panufnik's 1954 defection to England brought Lutosławski to
20416-538: The face" of Poland. These words were meaningful for Varsovians and Poles who understood them as the incentive for liberal-democratic reforms. In 1995, the Warsaw Metro opened with a single line. A second line was opened in March 2015. On 28 September 2022, three new Warsaw metro stations were opened, increasing the number of Warsaw Metro stations to 36 and its length to 38.3 kilometers. In February 2023, Warsaw's mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski , announced plans to more than double
20592-509: The family played an important part in Witold's early life, especially Józef's half-brother Kazimierz Lutosławski , a priest and politician. At age six, Lutosławski started two years of piano lessons in Warsaw. After the Polish-Soviet War the family left Warsaw to return to Drozdowo, but after a few years of running the estates with limited success, his mother returned to Warsaw. She worked as
20768-408: The first Grawemeyer Prize from the University of Louisville , Kentucky. The significance of the prize lay not just in its prestige but in the size of its financial award (then US$ 150,000). The award is intended to remove recipients' financial concerns for a period to allow them to concentrate on serious composition. In a gesture of altruism , Lutosławski announced that he would use the fund to set up
20944-467: The forefront of modern Polish classical music . Initially, he was coupled with his younger contemporary Krzysztof Penderecki , due to their music's shared stylistic and technical characteristics. When Penderecki's reputation declined in the 1970s, Lutosławski emerged as the major Polish composer of his time and among the most significant 20th-century European composers. His four symphonies, the Variations on
21120-497: The genre of Polish actors' songs . Their place in Lutosławski's output may be seen as less incongruous in light of his own performances of cabaret music during the war, as well as his relationship by marriage to his wife's sister-in-law, the famous Polish cabaret singer Kalina Jędrusik . In 1963, Lutosławski fulfilled a commission for the Music Biennale Zagreb , his Trois poèmes d'Henri Michaux for chorus and orchestra. It
21296-584: The harmonic and melodic aspects of his style, and between foreground and background. The Double Concerto for oboe, harp and chamber orchestra —commissioned by Sacher—was finally finished in 1980, and the Third Symphony in 1983. In 1977, he received the Order of the Builders of People's Poland . In 1983, he received the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize . During this period, Poland was undergoing yet more upheaval: in 1980,
21472-464: The historic streets, buildings, and churches were restored to their original form. John Paul II 's visits to his native country in 1979 and 1983 brought support to the budding "Solidarity" movement and encouraged the growing anti-communist fervor there. In 1979, less than a year after becoming pope, John Paul celebrated Mass in Victory Square in Warsaw and ended his sermon with a call to "renew
21648-473: The influential movement Solidarność was created, led by Lech Wałęsa ; and in 1981, martial law was declared by General Wojciech Jaruzelski . From 1981 to 1989, Lutosławski refused all professional engagements in Poland as a gesture of solidarity with the artists' boycott. He refused to enter the Culture Ministry to meet any of the ministers, and was careful not be photographed in their company. In 1983, as
21824-828: The isotherm used; although the city used to be humid continental regardless of isotherm prior to the recent effect of climate change and the city's urban heat island . Meanwhile, by the genetic climate classification of Wincenty Okołowicz , it has a temperate "fusion" climate, with both oceanic and continental features. The city has cold, sometimes snowy, cloudy winters, and warm, relatively sunny but frequently stormy summers. Spring and autumn can be unpredictable, highly prone to sudden weather changes; however, temperatures are usually mild, especially around May and September. The daily average temperature ranges between −1.5 °C (29 °F) in January and 19.7 °C (67.5 °F) in July and
22000-573: The largest of its kind in the world. The reconstructed Old Town , which represents a variety of European architectural styles, was listed as a World Heritage Site in 1980. Other landmarks include the Royal Castle , Sigismund's Column , the Wilanów Palace , the Palace on the Isle , St. John's Archcathedral , Main Market Square , and numerous churches and mansions along the Royal Route . Warsaw
22176-443: The management of the family estates in 1908. Witold Roman Lutosławski, the youngest of three brothers, was born in Warsaw shortly before the outbreak of World War I . In 1915, with Russia at war with Germany, Prussian forces drove towards Warsaw. The Lutosławskis travelled east to Moscow, where Józef remained politically active, organising Polish Legions ready for any action that might liberate Poland (which had been divided over
22352-504: The mean year temperature is 9.0 °C (48.2 °F). Temperatures may reach 30 °C (86 °F) in the summer, although the effects of hot weather are usually offset by relatively low dew points and large diurnal temperature differences. Warsaw is Europe's sixth driest major city (driest in Central Europe ), with yearly rainfall averaging 550 mm (22 in), the wettest month being July. Warsaw's long and eclectic history left
22528-515: The means to write dense chords without resorting to tone clusters , and enabled him to build towards these dense chords (which often include all twelve notes of the chromatic scale) at climactic moments. Lutosławski's twelve-note techniques were thus completely different in conception from Arnold Schoenberg 's tone-row system, although Musique funèbre does happen to be based on a tone row. This twelve-note intervallic technique had its genesis in earlier works such as Symphony No. 1, and Variations on
22704-526: The metropolitan area covers 6,100 km (2,355 sq mi). Warsaw is classified as an alpha global city , a major cultural, political and economic hub, and the country's seat of government. It is also the capital of the Masovian Voivodeship . Warsaw traces its origins to a small fishing town in Masovia . The city rose to prominence in the late 16th century, when Sigismund III decided to move
22880-679: The most notable examples are the Great Theater , buildings located at Bank Square , headquarters of the Warsaw Society of Friends of Sciences ( Staszic Palace ), St. Alexander's Church , the Belweder . Many classicist tenement houses were built on Senatorska Street and along Nowy Świat Street . After the outbreak of the November Uprising , the Warsaw Citadel was constructed in the north of
23056-476: The names of Polish cities derived from personal names usually end in -ów/owo/ew/ewo (e.g. Piotrków, Adamów). Folk etymology attributes the city name to Wars and Sawa . There are several versions of the legend with their appearance. According to one version, Sawa was a mermaid living in the Vistula with whom fisherman Wars fell in love. The official city name in full is miasto stołeczne Warszawa ("The Capital City of Warsaw"). A native or resident of Warsaw
23232-432: The namesake of Wola's central neighbourhood Młynów ) to an industrial and manufacturing centre. Metallurgical , textile and glassware factories were commonplace, with chimneys dominating the westernmost skyline. Like London , Warsaw's population was subjected to income segmentation. Gentrification of inner suburbs forced poorer residents to move across the river into Praga or Powiśle and Solec districts, similar to
23408-482: The next mobile. In his orchestral music, these problems of notation were not so difficult, because the instructions on how and when to proceed are given by the conductor. Lutosławski's called this technique of his mature period "limited aleatorism". Both Lutosławski's harmonic and aleatory processes are illustrated by example 1 , an excerpt from Hésitant , the first movement of the Symphony No. 2. At number 7,
23584-417: The orchestral palette. The combination of Lutosławski's aleatory techniques and his harmonic discoveries allowed him to build up complex musical textures . According to Bodman Rae, in his later works Lutosławski evolved a more mobile, simpler, harmonic style, in which less of the music is played with an ad libitum coordination. This development first appeared in the brief Epitaph for oboe and piano, around
23760-586: The outskirts of the inner borough, in Ochota , Mokotów and Żoliborz or along the Vistula in Powiśle . A seat of Polish monarchs since the end of the 16th century, Warsaw remained a small city with only privately owned palaces, mansions, villas and several streets of townhouses. These displayed a richness of color and architectonic details. The finest German, Italian and Dutch architects were employed, among them Tylman van Gameren , Andreas Schlüter , Jakub Fontana , and Enrico Marconi . The buildings situated in
23936-434: The parts of the ensemble are not to be synchronised exactly. At cues from the conductor, each instrumentalist may be instructed to move straight on to the next section, to finish their current section before moving on, or to stop. In this way, the random elements within compositionally controlled limits defined by the term aleatory are carefully directed by the composer, who controls the architecture and harmonic progression of
24112-454: The piece precisely. Lutosławski notated the music exactly; there is no improvisation , no choice of parts is given to any instrumentalist, and there is thus no doubt about how the musical performance is to be realised. For his String Quartet , Lutosławski had produced only the four instrumental parts, refusing to bind them in a full score, because he was concerned that this would imply that he wanted notes in vertical alignment to coincide, as
24288-482: The plain moraine plateau and the Vistula Valley with its asymmetrical pattern of different terraces. The Vistula River is the specific axis of Warsaw, which divides the city into two parts, left and right. The left one is situated both on the moraine plateau (10 to 25 m (33 to 82 ft) above Vistula level) and on the Vistula terraces (max. 6.5 m (21 ft) above Vistula level). The significant element of
24464-443: The process of gradually substituting beats for rests (or rests for beats); (2) the gradual changing of timbre while rhythm and pitch remain constant; (3) the simultaneous combination of instruments of different timbre; and (4) the use of the human voice to become part of the musical ensemble by imitating the exact sound of the instruments”. Drumming was Reich’s final use of the phasing technique. Philip Glass's 1 + 1 (1968) employs
24640-654: The property of aristocrats and the gentry, which they ruled by their own laws. Between 1655 and 1658 the city was besieged and pillaged by the Swedish, Brandenburgian and Transylvanian forces. The conduct of the Great Northern War (1700–1721) also forced Warsaw to pay heavy tributes to the invading armies. The reign of Augustus II and Augustus III was a time of great development for Warsaw, which turned into an early-capitalist city. The Saxon monarchs employed many German architects, sculptors and engineers, who rebuilt
24816-478: The pseudonym Comte de Lille . Warsaw was made the capital of a newly created French client state , known as the Duchy of Warsaw , after a portion of Poland's territory was liberated from Prussia, Russia and Austria by Napoleon in 1806. Following Napoleon's defeat and exile, the 1815 Congress of Vienna assigned Warsaw to Congress Poland , a constitutional monarchy within the easternmost sector (or partition) under
24992-481: The radio unit for the Kraków Army . He was soon captured by German soldiers, but escaped while being marched to prison camp, walking 250 miles (400 km) back to Warsaw. Lutosławski's brother was captured by Russian soldiers and later died in a Siberian labour camp . To earn a living, Lutosławski joined "Dana Ensemble", the first Polish revellers, as an arranger-pianist, singing in "Ziemiańska Cafe". He then formed
25168-429: The relief, in this part of Warsaw, is the edge of moraine plateau called Warsaw Escarpment. It is 20 to 25 m (66 to 82 ft) high in the Old Town and Central district and about 10 m (33 ft) in the north and south of Warsaw. It goes through the city and plays an important role as a landmark. The plain moraine plateau has only a few natural and artificial ponds and also groups of clay pits . The pattern of
25344-420: The ruins of Warsaw after the Polish-Soviet treaty in April 1945. During the postwar years, Lutosławski worked on his First Symphony —sketches of which he had salvaged from Warsaw—which he had started in 1941. It was first performed in 1948, conducted by Fitelberg. To provide for his family, he also composed music that he termed functional , such as the Warsaw Suite (written to accompany a silent film depicting
25520-469: The same day which marked the beginning of the Second Polish Republic , the first truly sovereign Polish state after 1795. In the course of the Polish–Soviet War (1919–1921), the 1920 Battle of Warsaw was fought on the eastern outskirts of the city. Poland successfully defended the capital, stopped the brunt of the Bolshevik Red Army and temporarily halted the " export of the communist revolution " to other parts of Europe. The interwar period (1918–1939)
25696-454: The same year by the first performance of his orchestral song-cycle Paroles tissées . This shortened title was suggested by the poet Jean-François Chabrun, who had published the poems as Quatre tapisseries pour la Châtelaine de Vergi . The song cycle is dedicated to the tenor Peter Pears , who first performed it at the 1965 Aldeburgh Festival with the composer conducting. (The Festival was founded and organised by Benjamin Britten , with whom
25872-415: The size of the city's metro system by 2050. With the entry of Poland into the European Union in 2004, Warsaw is experiencing the large economic boom. The opening fixture of UEFA Euro 2012 took place in Warsaw and the city also hosted the 2013 United Nations Climate Change Conference and the 2016 NATO Summit . As of August 2022, Warsaw had received around 180,000 refugees from Ukraine, because of
26048-494: The social impact of communism and subsequently had to work within the strictures of socialist realism in their music. Other composers, such as Benjamin Britten ( War Requiem ), explored political themes in their works, albeit entirely at their own volition. Nationalism was also an important means of expression in the early part of the century. The culture of the United States of America, especially, began informing an American vernacular style of classical music, notably in
26224-478: The sound or the philosophy of the music, Cage's explorations of indeterminacy set off a train of thought which resulted in Lutosławski finding a way to retain the harmonic structures he wanted while introducing the freedom for which he was searching. His Three Postludes were hastily rounded off (he had intended to write four) and he moved on to compose works in which he explored these new ideas. In works from Jeux vénitiens , Lutosławski wrote long passages in which
26400-865: The source material was acoustical sounds from the everyday world, the term musique concrète was used; when the sounds were produced by electronic generators, it was designated electronic music . After the 1950s, the term "electronic music" came to be used for both types. Sometimes such electronic music was combined with more conventional instruments, Edgard Varèse 's Déserts (1954), Stockhausen's Hymnen (1969), Claude Vivier 's Wo bist du Licht! (1981), and Mario Davidovsky 's series of Synchronisms (1963–2006) are notable examples. Some prominent 20th-century composers are not associated with any widely recognised school of composition . The list below includes some of those, as well as notable classifiable composers not mentioned earlier in this article: Citations Sources Warsaw Warsaw , officially
26576-437: The technique called phasing in which a phrase played by one player maintaining a constant pace is played simultaneously by another but at a slightly quicker pace. This causes the players to go "out of phase" with each other and the performance may continue until they come back in phase. According to Reich, “ Drumming is the final expansion and refinement of the phasing process, as well as the first use of four new techniques: (1)
26752-399: The techniques of his mature compositions, he stopped using folk material explicitly, although its influence remained as subtle features until the end. As he said, "[in those days] I could not compose as I wished, so I composed as I was able", and about this change of direction he said, "I was simply not so interested in it [using folk music]". Also, Lutosławski was dissatisfied with composing in
26928-424: The time Lutosławski was struggling to find the technical means to complete his Third Symphony. In chamber works for just two instrumentalists the scope for aleatory counterpoint and dense harmonies is significantly less than for orchestra. Lutosławski's formidable technical developments grew out of his creative imperative; that he left a lasting body of major compositions is a testament to his resolution of purpose in
27104-550: The town housed approximately 4,500 people at the time. During the 15th century, the population migrated and spread beyond the northern city wall into a newly formed self-governing precinct called New Town . The existing older settlement became eventually known as the Old Town . Both possessed their own town charter and independent councils. The aim of establishing a separate district was to accommodate new incomers or "undesirables" who were not permitted to settle in Old Town, particularly Jews . Social and financial disparities between
27280-413: The traditional symphonic forms and reworked them. (See Romantic music .) Some writers hold that Schoenberg's work is squarely within the late-Romantic tradition of Wagner and Brahms and, more generally, that "the composer who most directly and completely connects late Wagner and the 20th century is Arnold Schoenberg". Neoclassicism was a style cultivated between the two world wars, which sought to revive
27456-402: The use of polytonality , polyrhythm , tone clusters , aleatoric elements, and quarter tones . Edgard Varèse wrote highly dissonant pieces that utilized unusual sonorities and futuristic, scientific-sounding names. He pioneered the use of new instruments and electronic resources (see below). By the late 1920s, though many composers continued to write in a vaguely expressionist manner, it
27632-430: The vicinity of the Warsaw Old Town represent nearly every European architectural style and historical period . Warsaw has excellent examples of architecture from the Gothic , Renaissance , Baroque and Neoclassical periods, all of which are located within walking distance of the centre. This architectural richness has led to Warsaw being described by some commentators as a " Paris of the East ". Gothic architecture
27808-594: The work's première with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra , Arthur Bliss presented Rostropovich with the Royal Philharmonic Society's gold medal. In 1973, Lutosławski attended a recital given by the baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau with the pianist Sviatoslav Richter in Warsaw; he met the singer after the concert and this inspired him to write his extended orchestral song Les Espaces du sommeil ("The spaces of sleep"). This work, Preludes and Fugue , Mi-Parti (a French expression that roughly translates as "divided into two equal but different parts"), Novelette , and
27984-525: The works of Charles Ives , John Alden Carpenter , and (later) George Gershwin . Folk music (Vaughan Williams' Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus , Gustav Holst 's A Somerset Rhapsody ) and jazz (Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein , Darius Milhaud 's La création du monde ) were also influential. In the last quarter of the century, eclecticism and polystylism became important. These, as well as minimalism , New Complexity , and New Simplicity , are more fully explored in their respective articles. At
28160-440: Was Tylman van Gameren . His projects include the Krasiński Palace , Palace of the Four Winds , Ostrogski Palace , Czapski Palace , Brühl Palace , and St. Kazimierz Church . The most significant Baroque building of this period is the Wilanów Palace , built on the order of King John III Sobieski . The late Baroque era was the epoch of the Saxon Kings (1697–1763). During this time, three major spatial projects were realized:
28336-432: Was bombed and besieged at the start of World War II in 1939. Much of the historic city was destroyed and its diverse population decimated by the Ghetto Uprising in 1943, the general Warsaw Uprising in 1944, and systematic razing . Warsaw is served by three international airports, the busiest being Warsaw Chopin , as well as Warsaw Modlin and Warsaw Radom Airport . Major public transport services operating in
28512-418: Was a performance of this work and the Third Symphony at the Warsaw Autumn Festival in 1988 that marked the composer's return to the conductor's podium in Poland, after substantive talks had been arranged between the government and the opposition. Around 1990 Lutosławski also worked on a fourth symphony and his orchestral song-cycle Chantefleurs et Chantefables for soprano . The latter was first performed at
28688-574: Was a sensuous experience, rather than an intellectual or ethical one. He urged his countrymen to rediscover the French masters of the 18th century, for whom music was meant to charm, to entertain, and to serve as a "fantasy of the senses". Other composers associated with impressionism include Maurice Ravel , Albert Roussel , Isaac Albéniz , Paul Dukas , Manuel de Falla , Charles Martin Loeffler , Charles Griffes , Frederick Delius , Ottorino Respighi , Cyril Scott and Karol Szymanowski . Many French composers continued impressionism's language through
28864-435: Was a time of major development in the city's infrastructure. New modernist housing estates were built in Mokotów to de-clutter the densely populated inner suburbs. In 1921, Warsaw's total area was estimated at only 124.7 km with 1 million inhabitants–over 8,000 people/km made Warsaw more densely populated than contemporary London. The Średnicowy Bridge was constructed for railway (1921–1931), connecting both parts of
29040-433: Was being supplanted by the more impersonal style of the German Neue Sachlichkeit and neoclassicism . Because expressionism, like any movement that had been stigmatized by the Nazis, gained a sympathetic reconsideration following World War II, expressionist music resurfaced in works by composers such as Hans Werner Henze , Pierre Boulez , Peter Maxwell Davies , Wolfgang Rihm , and Bernd Alois Zimmermann . Postmodernism
29216-407: Was ensuring access to water and sewage disposal. The first modern Warsaw water supply system was launched in 1855, designed by one of the most outstanding architects of that period – Enrico Marconi , who designed also All Saints Church . The dynamic development of the railway became a factor that enabled equally dynamic development of Warsaw's industry. Among the establishments built at that time were
29392-478: Was fired upon by Russian troops. Five people were killed. The Underground Polish National Government resided in Warsaw during the January Uprising in 1863–64. Warsaw flourished throughout the 19th century under Mayor Sokrates Starynkiewicz (1875–92), who was appointed by Alexander III . Under Starynkiewicz Warsaw saw its first water and sewer systems designed and built by the English engineer William Lindley and his son, William Heerlein Lindley , as well as
29568-414: Was founded. Conceived as a biennial festival, it has been held annually ever since 1958 (except under Martial law in 1982 when, in protest, the ZKP refused to organise it). The first performance of his Musique funèbre (in Polish, Muzyka żałobna , English Funereal Music or Music of Mourning ) took place in 1958. It was written to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Béla Bartók , but took
29744-424: Was later coined to include all forms of music involving magnetic tape , computers , synthesizers , multimedia , and other electronic devices and techniques. Live electronic music uses live electronic sounds within a performance (as opposed to preprocessed sounds that are overdubbed during a performance), John Cage 's Cartridge Music being an early example. Spectral music ( Gérard Grisey and Tristan Murail )
29920-413: Was made at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival . In addition, he was awarded honorary doctorates at several universities worldwide, including Cambridge . At this time Lutosławski was writing his Piano Concerto for Krystian Zimerman , commissioned by the Salzburg Festival . His earliest plans to write a piano concerto dated from 1938; he was himself in his younger days a virtuoso pianist. It
30096-406: Was premiered by the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Grzegorz Fitelberg , with the performance broadcast on radio on 9 March 1939. Like most young Polish composers, Lutosławski wanted to continue his education in Paris. His plans for further musical study were dashed in September 1939, when Germany invaded western Poland and Russia invaded eastern Poland . Lutosławski was mobilised with
30272-429: Was quickly embraced by the Russian avant-garde. In 1913, the painter Luigi Russolo published a manifesto, L'arte dei rumori (The Art of Noises), calling for the incorporation of noises of every kind into music. In addition to Russolo, composers directly associated with this movement include the Italians Silvio Mix, Nuccio Fiorda, Franco Casavola , and Pannigi (whose 1922 Ballo meccanico included two motorcycles), and
30448-407: Was the Wind Quintet , Op. 26, written in 1923–24. Later examples include the Variations for Orchestra , Op. 31 (1926–28), the Third and Fourth String Quartets (1927 and 1936, respectively), the Violin Concerto (1936) and Piano Concerto (1942). In later years, he intermittently returned to a more tonal style ( Kammersymphonie no. 2 , begun in 1906 but completed only in 1939; Variations on
30624-424: Was the first work he had written for a commission from abroad, and brought him further international acclaim. It earned him a second State Prize for music (Lutosławski was not cynical about the award this time), and he gained an agreement for the international publication of his music with Chester Music , then part of the Hansen publishing house. His String Quartet was first performed in Stockholm in 1965, followed
30800-405: Was the only way in which the Poles of German-occupied Warsaw could hear live music; putting on concerts was impossible since the Germans occupying Poland prohibited any organised gatherings. In café Aria , where they played, Lutosławski met his future wife Maria Danuta Bogusławska, a sister of the writer Stanisław Dygat . Lutosławski left Warsaw in July 1944 with his mother, just a few days before
30976-419: Was to some degree prevalent over the whole Eastern bloc , and was reinforced by the 1948 Zhdanov decree . By 1948, the ZKP was taken over by musicians willing to follow the party line on musical matters. Lutosławski resigned from the committee, implacably opposed to the ideas of socialist realism. Lutoslawski's First Symphony was proscribed as "formalist", and he found himself shunned by the Soviet authorities,
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