Długi wiek XIX w muzyce [The long nineteenth century in music], vol. 2
eds Ewa Bogula, Małgorzata Sułek, Grzegorz Zieziula
We hereby present the second volume in our cyclical collective publication entitled Długi wiek XIX w muzyce. Pytania – problemy – interpretacje [The long nineteenth century in music: questions, issues and interpretations]. The idea for this series, launched in 2020, arose among the organisers of the Polish ‘symposia for historians of nineteenth-century music’, held since 2019. Our principles have remained constant from the outset: we want every volume to contain not just the most outstanding works to emerge from our annual conferences (initial versions of which were presented in the form of papers), but also articles submitted outside the conference programmes by Polish musical ‘dix-neuviemists’, recommended to us by expert reviewers. Our invitation to collaborate is addressed particularly to young scholars at the start of their academic careers. It is their optimism, irrepressible energy, genuine commitment and huge enthusiasm that have helped us since the beginning to realise all of our grassroots initiatives. Despite the great range of issues and differing methodological foundations to the works that make up the present volume – as well as the varied academic and literary temperaments of their authors – the contents of the book appears to reflect the four most crucial directions taken in recent years by Polish musical dix-neuviemists. Of course, given the commemorations in 2021 of the centenary of the death of Władysław Żeleński, the content of the first part of our publication was determined in part by that anniversary, since the figure of Żeleński – composer, conductor, critic, journalist, distinguished teacher at the Warsaw Institute of Music and later initiator, founder and long-serving director of the music academy in Cracow – symbolically links the four articles that open our book, devoted to the life and work of Żeleński and three of his contemporaries: Henryk Melcer-Szczawiński, Zygmunt Stojowski and Henryk Opieński. Stojowski and Opieński also belonged to the ‘Żeleński school’, so they are linked to their master by a discreet, but at the same time very strong and – it would seem – exceptionally durable, thread of artistic affinity.

We hope that the contents of this book will prove sufficiently interesting to absorb readers from the first page to the last. We are convinced that these articles, despite their thematic and methodological diversity, will inspire readers and encourage scholars to enter into constructive and committed – albeit devoid of the excessive emotion that has occasionally arisen during our symposia – scholarly dialogue with the authors.

from Editors