Foreign Models, Familiar Themes: The Aesthetic Function of Folklore in Works by Szymanowski and Górecki

Abstract There is an overwhelming tendency for scholars of Polish music to politicize the presence of folk music references when they appear in art music compositions. This has particularly been the case in studies of Frédéric Chopin, where certain myths pertaining to that composer’s extramusical intentions have long dominated how his music was unpacked in musicological literature. In this article, I demonstrate that our understanding of later Polish composers suffers similarly from the politicization of folklore. In an examination of the discourse surrounding both Karol Szymanowski and Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, I argue that a myopic understanding of the compositional possibilities bound up in folk music engagement has limited the scope of our interrogations into their compositional practices. I then reposition folk music as an aesthetic tool in their works that has enabled these artists to negotiate the compositional challenges confronting their respective generations. In addition to improving our understanding of these two composers’ methods, my analyses highlight how folk music models can lend a sense of familiarity and cohesion to the modern musical aesthetic.