Zygmunt Noskowski - Step

Orchestra: Sinfonia Varsovia
Conductor: Grzegorz Nowak

Zygmunt Noskowski (1846 - 1909) was a Polish composer and pedagogue who had a profound influence on Polish music in both the 19th and 20th centuries. He taught all of the members of the Młoda Polska (Young Poland) group and captured Polish patriotic feelings at a time where Poland did not have a country.

Noskowski himself was forced to contend with the harsh reality of Russian occupation, witnessing the brutality of a progrom in 1861. He took part in the January Uprising in 1863 [1]. His later vacations to Morskie Oko in the Tatras and his experience of Kraków combined with his own experiences in Warsaw to form a robust patriotism. This patriotism would diffuse throughout most of his work.

This work, first performed in 1896, was a manifestation of this patriotism, and it was originally designed to be part of a grand Polish opera. Noskowski wanted to create an opera based on Henryk Sienkiewicz's With Fire and Sword (Ogniem i Mieczem) [2]. In the Positivist movement in Poland, the goals of art became the preservation of national identity and patriotic expression [3][4]. This opera would be a perfect fulfillment of those goals. Though, after writing the introduction, he scrapped the idea of an opera and transformed the introduction into Poland's first symphonic poem [2]. Despite the abandonment of his epic project, Noskowski's piece fulfilled his Positivist designs and very quickly became a symbol of "Polishness" and "Polish patriotic pathos" [3].

The piece itself is designed to evoke the Ukrainian steppe. According to Paweł Kotla, the steppe best reflects the "...spirit of a nation seeking freedom..." in a "...fight for survival and peaceful existence at the gateway into Europe" [4]. After being transformed into a symphonic poem, the structure took a more comprehensive scope that had to bring out all of these complex ideas. The symphonic poem was tasked of telling practically the whole story on its own, so its structure evolved accordingly.

The introduction is rather long, but it introduces two ideas. Paweł Kotla identifies one as "The motive of wild flats", which can be heard in the sparse melodies in the strings along with the Dumka melody that reflects a Ukrainian character [3]. The other is the "motive of the steppe" which can be heard in the horn and oboe.

Kotla identifies a polonaise-like treatment of the exposition and likens the dotted melodies that follow with approaching Hussars [4]. The explosive exposition dies down and a the steppe motifs from the introduction return with a peaceful atmosphere that grows in intensity until broken by low brass. What comes next is an oriental dance [4]. This could likely represent the Tatars coming to aid the Cossacks as depicted in the novel. What comes next is the return of the hussar's theme, this time accompanied with a dramatic dotted melody and Wagnerian flairs. This culminates in triplets in the brass with Wagnerian flairs all over the place, clearly denoting the chaos of the hussars and the Tatars colliding. The hussar motif reappears triumphantly and the steppe motif follows with a kind of lamenting peace. The cycle then repeats itself with the hussar motif reappearing more playfully. Finally, the atmosphere of the introduction returns, signifying the indomitability of the steppe, which is "eternally beautiful and serene."

Bibliography

[1] "Zygmunt Noskowski," Genealogia.okiem.pl. [ Ссылка ]
[2] S. Żerańska-Kominek, "Deconstructing the Myth of Polishness in Music." Musicology Today. Vol. 15, 2018. [Online]
[3] P. Kotla "Zygmunt Noskowski: The Steppe," Repertoire-explorer.musikmph.de. [ Ссылка ]. 2013.
[4] F. Starostka, "Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła: Discovering the Life and Music of Zygmunt Noskowski," Ph. D. dissertation. LSU, Baton Rouge, USA, 2021.

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