MACIEJ
GOŁĄB
Józef Koffler: Compositional Style and Source Documents
Translated by Maksymilian Kapelański, Marek Żebrowski and Linda Schubert
With a foreword by Prof. Antony Polonsky (Albert Abramson Chair of Holocaust
Studies at Brandeis University and U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum) and a CD of music edited by Mateusz Gołąb [47 examples, 43 minutes].
Hardcover. ISBN 0-916545-07-5
(Polish Music History Series, Vol. 8)
Los Angeles: Polish Music Center Usc ©2004
Book & CD; 24 cm.; xxv, 318 p.
Polish version published by Musica Iagellonica in 1995
Cloth
The first monograph about a Polish-Jewish composer, Józef Koffler, Poland's
first twelve-tone composer, a pioneer of neoclassicism and folklorism in Polish
music, who died in the Holocaust in 1944. Koffler's oeuvre includes symphonies,
piano concerto, numerous chamber pieces, including Ukrainian Sketches
for string quartet, chamber cantata Die Liebe, songs, works for solo
piano (withe arrangements of Polish and Ukrainian folklore). Prof. Gołąb's study
is a detailed examination of Koffler's life, music, and compositional style,
based on newly discovered sources (manuscripts for pieces that were considered
lost, especially the Piano Concerto).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Antony Polonsky: Foreword
Maciej Golab: Introduction
PART I:
THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPOSITIONAL STYLE
CHAPTER I:
Style in the Making: From Neo-Romanticism to Twelve-Tone Serialism (1917-1927)
1.1. Between Salon Music and Neo-romanticism: Chanson slave and Zwei Lieder, Op.
1
1.2. National-Folkloristic Orientation: 40 polskich piesni ludowych [Forty
Polish Folksongs], Op. 6
1.3. Twelve-Tone Compositions: Musique de ballet, Op. 7; Musique. Quasi una
sonata, Op. 8; 15 Variations d'aprčs une suite de douze tons, Op. 9
1.4. Conclusions
CHAPTER II:
An Individual Neoclassical Idiom: Between Twelve-Tone Serialism, Parodism, and
Sonorism (1928-1940)
2.1. Music for Orchestra: Symphony No. 1, Op. 11; Symphony No. 2, Op. 17;
Symphony No. 3, Op. 21; Symphony No. 4, Op. 26
2.2. Music for Solo Instruments and Orchestra: Concerto pour piano, Op. 13
2.3. Chamber Music: String Trio, Op. 10 and Capriccio, Op. 18
2.4. Piano Music: Sonatine, Op. 12 and Variations sur une valse de Johann
Strauss, Op. 23
2.5. Vocal Music: Cantata Die Liebe, for Voice, Clarinet, Viola, and Cello, Op.
14, and Quatre Počmes for Voice and Piano, Op. 22
2.6. Music for Stage: Alles durch M. O. W., Op. 15
2.7. Conclusions
CHAPTER III:
The Final Change of Style: Concessions to Social Realism (1940-1941)
3.1. A Safe Refuge: Four Pieces for Children for Piano
3.2. The Return to Folklorism: Ukrainian Sketches, Op. 27
3.3. Conclusions
CHAPTER IV:
Historical Significance or Artistic Quality? An Evaluation
PART II:
SOURCE DOCUMENTS FOR KOFFLER'S LIFE AND WORKS
V. LIFE, ACTIVITY, RECEPTION - A CALENDAR
5.1. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1896-1918)
5.2. In the Republic of Poland [Rzeczpospolita Polska] (1918-1939)
5.3. In the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1939-1941)
5.4. In German-occupied Poland [General Government] (1941-1943)
VI. CHRONOLOGICAL CATALOGUE OF KOFFLER'S WORKS
6.1. Introduction
6.2. Completed Compositions
6.3. Music for Theater and Arrangements of Music by Others
6.4. Unfinished, Planned and Dubious Works
VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF KOFFLER'S WRITINGS (by Katarzyna Madej)
7.1. Publications About Koffler's Music
7.2. Musicological Studies. Critical and Popular Writings.
VIII. BIBLIOGRAPHY
LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
CONTENTS OF THE CD RECORDING (by Mateusz Golab) *
INDEX
* Compact disc contents:
Zwei Lieder
15 Variations
First symphony
Second symphony
Third symphony
Piano concerto
Capriccio
Die Liebe
Quatre poèmes
Ukrainian sketches
Goldberg variations.