3. Interest in Podhale folklore
While thinking of Karol Szymanowski as a composer, we need to remember that his relationship with folk music evolved through the years. His personality and compositional style were greatly influenced by the historical events which took place in Poland and Europe at that time. These included World War I, the October Revolution, Poland regaining independence after 100 years, the rebirth of the country and the development of musical life in Poland. He was also influenced by other composers of the time, such as Béla Bartók and Igor Stravinsky. As he once said about Stravinsky and his compositional style :
We should be specially concerned with his work because of the treatment he accorded in his music to national elements. As Chopin once did for us, he probed in search of inspiration the depths of his soul, inevitably fiding there the genetic heritage of the race, accumulated over generations - and discarding the superficial disguise of the folksy garb, found in that treasure the priceless ore from which he forged his great vision.1
Over the course of several years, Szymanowski became intimately acquainted with the authentic music of Podhale. During that period in his artistic development he explored the relationship between musical folklore and musical creativity, and at the same time went searching for a new national music, in which he hoped the spirit of the nation would find its purest expression.2 It was a period of reaction against his own past work, a period of strong internal struggle, because it began during the completion of works of great style- from the second compositional period, such as the opera Król Roger (King Roger), for which Szymanowski was losing conviction.3
It is actually interesting how big Szymanowski’s interest in folk music was in the 1920s. Especially since before that time he rather avoided anything to do with nationalism. Probably this had to do with the unfolding events and wars shaking Europe.
However, despite the political and historical events, the strongest influence on Szymanowski’s new compositional style was Chybiński whom he met in Lviv in March 1920. Chybiński conducted research into old folk music. His interest was focused especially on the folklore of Podhale, which was also important for Szymanowski's further creative work. Chybiński got the composer interested in the originality of the Podhale music, showed him its beauty, and undoubtedly in some way caused a change in Szymanowski's previous creative attitude to Polish folk music.4 The musicologist was also the one who introduced to the composer the Sabała tune*. (examples) As Chybiński remarks:
“It (Sabała tune) attracted particular attention from Szymanowski with its tonal distinctness. He made himself repeat it. I repeated it to him eagerly in several variants, in fact, hardly differing from one another, as they had the same "centre", condensing in themselves the "Podhale style". I repeated it with the thought that “perhaps something would come of it”.(...)”5
Interestingly enough, Szymanowski uses the Sabała tune as the main melody at the very beginning of Harnasie ballet, in the first Mazurka and in the song cycle Słopiewnie for soprano and piano. I will discuss this further in the next chapter.
The above history demonstrates that Szymanowski's ‘Nationalist style’ grew gradually out of his life experiences, sensitivity and emotional reaction to the music of the Podhale region. His compositional language was constantly evolving and his interaction with the Podhale people and their music helped him forge a distinctive musical style.
