Silence

This chapter offers a history of martial law (1981–84) in Poland to argue that music was a mode of civil resilience as well as a crucial means of conveying information and writing histories from below. The declaration of martial law brought about economic hardship and the curtailment of civil liberties, but also stimulated music making in three zones: public streets, church sanctuaries and private homes, and internment camps/prisons. This chapter revisits oral histories and diaries from the time to rehear the interplay between singing and military sounds during protests against the declaration. Experimental scores, concert programs, and observational songs played in domestic salons complicate the assumption that martial law effected a cultural hold—a metaphorical silence. The material culture of music in detention reveals that song—religious hymns, ballads, and legion songs—provided internees and prisoners the opportunity to reclaim authorship over their own histories.