SOCIETY FOR POLISH MUSIC


JAN STESZEWSKI

| Biography | Selected Writings | Honorary Membership |



BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

Jan (Maria Stanislaw) Stęszewski, born on 20 April 1929 in Kozmin Wielkopolski, is a Polish musicologist and ethnomusicologist. He studied musicology with Adolf Chybiński and Marian Sobieski, while simultaneously taking classes in ethnography at the University of Poznań. He graduated from the University in 1952. In the same period, he studied piano performance at the State Higher School of Music in Poznań (1951-1953). In 1951-1975, Stęszewski worked at the Institute for the Arts, Polish Academy of Sciences (known earlier as Polish Institute for the Arts). In 1965 he presented his doctoral dissertation Problematyka historyczna kurpiowskich pieśni [Historical Issues of Kurpian Songs] with Prof. Józef M. Chomiński serving as his dissertation supervisor. In 1994, Stęszewski received his "habilitation" degree from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, where he worked since 1975. Until 2000, he served as the director of the Institute of Musicology at UAM. In addition to teaching in Poznań, Prof. Stęszewski conducted field work in many regions of Poland and among Polish minorities living outside of Poland, in Belorus, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Romania. Prof. Stęszewski has continued to lecture at a number of universities, including the Jagellonian University in Kraków, Warsaw University, Catholic University in Lublin, European Academy of the Arts, Götingen University, Giron University and the Freie Universität in Berlin.

He has served in many capacities for numerous national and international, scholarly and artistic organizations. In 1969-73, Stęszewski was the president of the Musicology Section of the Polish Composers' Union; in 1973-1979 - the President of the Board of the Polish Composers' Union and in 1977-1983 a member of the Board of the International Music Society. In 1979-1999, he served as the President of the Polish Music Council. In 1982-1983 he was a member of the Board and in 1984-1987 a Vice President of the International Music Council. Since 1976, Prof. Stęszewski also worked as a member of the Central Committee and a jury member for the Artistic Olimpic Competitions in Poland (Olimpiady Artystyczne). Since 1961, he worked as a member of the Editorial Committee of the Complete Works of Oskar Kolberg and from 1996 as the Vice President of the Editorial Committee of Complete Works of Henryk Wieniawski. He also serves as a member of many scholarly councils and committees, for instance the Program Council of the National Chopin Institute, or committees of the Polish Academy of Sciences (scholarship on the arts and ethnography). A co-founder of the Museum of Musical Instruments in Szydłowiec, Stęszewski served as the President of the Museum Council in 1987-2003 and remains on the Museum Council as a regular member until the present day. He also worked on the Musicology Committee of the Poznań Association of Friends of Sciences and a co-editor of musicological studies published by the Association.

Prof. Stęszewski served on editorial boards of several other multi-volume publications, including Rocznik Chopinowski and Chopin Studies (until 1992), Res Facta and Res Facta Nova, AMI, Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology, and Polish Musicological Studies. He has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the Cavalier Cross of the Order Polonia Restituta (1979), Medal for Distinguished Activist of Culture (1977), the Award of the President of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the Award of the Polish Composers' Union (1989).

Stęszewski's scholarly interest center on ethnomusicology, especially Polish folklore, the research methods of musicology and the discipline's interdisciplinary nature, as well as on the history of Polish music from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Of great interest to all musicologists are his studies of fundamental concepts appearing in all musicological texts, for instance, Apokope, pattern and model.


SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

  • "Morfologia rytmów mazurkowych na Mazowszu Polnym. Studium analityczne" [Morphology of Mazurka Rhytms in Field Mazovia Region]. Muzyka, vol. 4 (1949): 147-158; vol. 5 (1960): 29-51.

  • "Pieśni kurpiowskie w twórczości Karola Szymanowskiego," in Zofia Lissa et al., eds., Karol Szymanowski. Księga sesji naukowej poświęconej twórczości Karola Szymanowskiego Warszawa, 1964.

  • "Zur Genese und Chronologie des Mazurkarhythmus in Polen," co-edited with Zofia Steszewska, in Zofia Lissa, ed.,

  • "Chmiel", Szkic problematyki etnomuzycznej wątku" [The Hops Song: An Outline of Ethnomusicological Issues]. Muzyka 10, no. 1 (1965).

  • "Apokope, eine Eigentümlichkeit im Volksliedervortrag," in Festschrift für Walter Wiora, Kassel, 1967.

  • "Sachen, Bewusstsein und Benennungen in ethnomusikologischen Untersuchungen. Am Beispiel der polnischen Folklore," in Jahrbuch für Volksliedforschung 17 (1972).

  • "Uwagi o etnomuzycznej regionalizacji Polski" [Remarks about the Division of Poland into Ethnomusical Regions], in J. M. Michałowski, ed., Dyskurs o tradycji [A Discourse on Tradition]. Wrocław, 1974.

  • "Geige und Geigenspiel in der polnischen Volksüberlieferung," in W. Deutsch and G. Haid, eds., Die Geige in der europäischen Volksmusik. Vienna, 1975.

  • "Ethnomusikologische und etnographische sowie dialektologische Regionalisierung im polnischen Sprachgebiet," in K. Penusliski, B. Ristovski, eds., Rad XIX Kongresa Saveza Druzenja Folklorysta Jugoslavije. Skopje, 1977.

  • "Problem wartościowania kultur muzycznych" [The Question of Valuation of Music Cultures], in Mieczysław Tomaszewski et al., eds., Muzyka w kontekscie kultury Kraków, 1978.

  • "Muzyka ludowa" [Folk Music], in M. Biernacka et al., eds., Przemiany kultury ludowej [Transformations of Folk Culture]. Wrocław: Ossolineum, 1981.

  • "Chopins Mazurka Op. 41 Nr 2 - Audruck des Heimwehs oder der nationalen Verpflichtung des Komponisten?" in N. Dubovy and S. Meyer-Eller, eds., Festschrift Rudolf Bockholdt . Pffanenhofen, 1990.

  • "Über charakteristische Rhytmen im Fünf- und Achtachteltakt," in M. Fink and G. Mössmer, eds., Musica privata. Die Rolle der Musik im privaten Leben. Festschrift für Walter Salmen . Innsbruck, 1991.

  • "Zur Geschichte des Terminus 'ethnomusicology'," in R. Schumacher, ed., Vielfalt musikalischer Kultur. Festschrift für Josef Kuckertz. Salzburg, 1992.

  • "The Credibility of Oskar Kolberg's Ethnomusicological Collection. A Contribution to the Problem of Historical Criticism," in M. P. Baumann, ed., Intercultural Music Studies vol. 4. Wilhelmshaven, 1992.

  • "Probleme der Theorienreduktion in der Musikwissenschaft. Einleitende Bemerkungen," in M. Jabłoński and Jan Stęszewski, eds., Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology, vol. 1. Poznań, 1993.

  • "La teoria dello sviluppo di Robert Lach," in Michal Bristiger et al., eds., Il pensiero musicale degli venti na trenta. Acta des Convegno. Firenze, 1995.

  • "Some Remarks on the Relationship between Musicology and Ethnomusicology," in R. Pozzi, ed., Tendenzi e Mrtodi nelle ricerca musicologica. Atti del Convegno internazionale Latina . Firenze, 1995.

  • "Polish National Character in Music: what is it?" in T. Walas, ed., Stereotypes and Nations. Kraków, 1995.

  • "Zygmunt Mycielski, kompozytor, pisarz, myśliciel, autorytet" [Zygmunt Mycielski - composer, writer, thinker, authority] in Z. Mycielska-Golik, ed., Zygmunt Mycielski. Dziennik 1950-1959, Warszawa, 1999.

  • "Lexikon der Juden in der Musik z perspektywy współczesnej i polskiej" [Lexicon der Juden in der Musik from contemporary Polish perspective], in M. Jabłoński and N. Tatarska, ed., Muzyka i totalitaryzm, Poznań, 1996.

  • "Zur 'Entdeckung' von Beständen der ehemaligen Berliner Preussischen Bibliothek in Polen," in Die Beziehungen der Berliner Staatsbibliothek nach Polen. Reflexionen zur Zeit- Bestandsgeschichte. Berlin, 1997.

  • "Volks- oder populäre Musik. Eine Fallstudie zur Musik des 17. Jahrhunderts," in D. Stockmann and H. Koudal, eds., Historical Studies on Folk and Traditional Music, Copenhagen, 1997.

  • "Polnische Volks- und Populäre Musik und das Schaffen von Fryderyk Chopin. Gibt es eine Lösungmöglichkeit für das alte Problem?" in Irena Poniatowska et al., eds., Chopin and his Work in the Context of Culture, Kraków: Musica Iagellonica, 2003.

  • "Wzór czy model, a może wzór i model? Do problemów jezyka muzykologii" [Pattern or Model, or Perhaps Pattern and Model? To Problems of Language in Musicology], in Sz. Paczkowski, ed., Muzyka wobec tradycji. Idee, dzieło, recepcja. Warszawa, 2004.


SELECTED EDITIONS

  • Tańce polskie z Vietoris-codex, ZHMP, vol. 1, co-edited with Zofia Z.Steszewska.

  • M. Fedorowski. Lud białoruski. Materialy do etnografii słowiańskiej zgromadzone w l. 1877-1905, [M. Fedorowski. The Byelorussian peasans. Materials for Slavic Ethnography Collected in 1877-1905], vols. 5-7. Warszawa, 1958, 1960, 1969.

  • Muzyczne silva rerum z XVII wieku, rkp 127/56 z BJ, ZHMP, vol. 16; co-edited with Jerzy Gołos.

  • Stanislaw Mierczyński. Muzyka Huculszczyzny, Kraków, 1965.


© Copyright 2004 by Society for Polish Music, Los Angeles
Updated in October 2004.