Artur Malawski – in search of oneself…
Journal Title: Notes Muzyczny - Year 2014, Vol 1, Issue 1
Abstract
The article is devoted to Artur Malawski, one of the greatest Polish composers of the first half of the 20th century. Artur Malawski was born on 4 July 1904 in Przemyśl. At the age of 7 he started to attend primary and middle school, having private violin lessons with a local teacher, and piano lessons with his mother. In 1920 he moved to Tarnów and soon after that he settled in Cracow, where he started to study at the Conservatory of the Music Society. From that moment Malawski started making his first attempts to compose. They were small violin and piano pieces, a string quartet and a solo piano work. They had more of a composition exercise character. After graduation Malawski started working at the Conservatory as a violin and music principles teacher. At the same time he was very active as a concert performer, both a soloist and a chamber musician. Chamber music was what he was particularly fond of and devoted to. Malawski parallelly started to be active as a composer but this path was difficult for him. He was gnawed at by the lack of consolidated knowledge about the art of composition. At that time he was 30 years old. In 1936 he decided to enter the Conservatory in Warsaw to study composition under Prof. Kazimierz Sikorski and conducting under Valerian Berdyaev. When he graduated with great success, Malawski had many ambitious plans as a composer but their realization was foiled due to the outbreak of WWII. In April 1945, respected and renowned within the music circle, Malawski returned to Cracow with his wife, where he worked at the State Higher School of Music as Professor of composition and conducting, as well as special harmony, counterpoint, fugue and solfeggio. For over 15 subsequent years Malawski wrote the pieces which give a full picture of his talent as a composer. One of his favourite works was Piano Trio, which happened to be one of the greatest pieces of this genre in the Polish music of the first half of the 20th century. Malawski’s aesthetical ideal in a composer’s work was writing music in a contemporary and uncompromising way, standing in a radical opposition to traditionalism. Artur Malawski died on 26 December 1957. After the composer’s death there were articles and memoirs published, and they were written by his friends and closest colleagues for whom he was an outstanding, uncompromising and unique creator. Following the lead of these memoirs we should hope that the memory of Artur Malawski, an outstanding Polish composer, will return.<br/><br/>
Authors and Affiliations
Sylwia Michalik
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