ANTONI SZALOWSKI
David C F Wright PhD
Antoni Szalowski was born in Warsaw on the 27 April 1907. Originally, he studied the violin then
proceeded to the piano, conducting and composition. His studies at the Warsaw Conservatory were
with Pavel Lewski and, in 1930, he obtained a grant to study with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
“It is the duty of Polish musicologists to know more or less as much about us as they do about the
composers who live in Poland ", Roman Palester wrote in his letter to the organisers of a symposium
devoted to the works of Polish émigré composers, organised in Warsaw in 1988 by the Musicologists’
Section of the Polish Composers’ Union. The conference, an event unique in that period, was
supposed to include papers dedicated to Antoni Szałowski (1907-1973); however, in spite of earlier
announcements, they were omitted from the programme. Palester described this as “something of a
scandal” (1989: 28). Referring to the title of the symposium, Music wrongly present, he remarked
that it was inaccurate in relation to the list of artists who were to be the subject of the conference,
since some of them, such as Michał Spisak, used to visit Poland and maintained continuous contact
with their native community, while their works were published and performed in Poland. Others, a
minority, were repressed, since the “wrong presence” implied a ban on the performance and
publication of their works, as well as on writing about their authors. Alongside Andrzej Panufnik,
Tadeusz Kassern and himself, Roman Palester also included Antoni Szałowski in this second group.
He wrote: Szałowski is the only composer whose punishment befell him by way of ricochet. His
views were more or less the same as mine or Panufnik’s, but he did not make them public all that
often. The administrative ban hit him simply because during the 1950s the three of us were regarded
as the official group of émigré composers,Szałowski often emphasised the fact that the situation in
which he found himself after the Second World War was different from that of Palester and Panufnik.
He did not“escape”fromPoland, he just remained in Paris,where he had arrived before the war, on a
scholarship from the Fund of National Culture, having completed with distinction(1930) his
studieswith Kazimierz Sikorski at the Music Conservatory in Warsaw. In a conversation with
Tadeusz Kaczyński, Szałowski admitted that one of his main reasons for going to Paris was the
situation of the music community prior to the Second World War in Europe, and particularly in
Poland. He remarked: “one made music almost in secret, hardly anybody was interested, and some
regarded it with contempt, considering composition as a totally useless activity”.
According to the composer’s wife, Szałowski was not too keen on “émigré circles”. At some point
he came to maintain closer contacts with French composers including Henri Dutilleux and Henry
Barraud than with the Polish ones.
In February 1966 he joined the musicians’ section of the Confédération Générale de Travailleurs. For
many years he would not apply for French citizenship, although this decision had a damaging effect
on his work as a composer and his material situation. He only changed his mind in 1970, on the
advice of his wife Teresa, who was concerned about the family’s future. He received French
citizenship on 23rd October 1970.
Living in Paris, at that time the most important musical centre in the world, enabled Szałowski to
come into contact with outstanding artists and musical authorities such as Stravinsky, Prokofiev,
Ravel, Roussel, and to participate in the changes taking place in music. The need to be close to the
Parisian centre was frequently stressed by Karol Szymanowski, who claimed that a true and
penetrating understanding of the music being created there was one of the necessary conditions for
the future development of Polish music.
During the years 1931-1936 Szałowski studied with Nadia Boulanger, the famous “Princesse de la
Musique”, who supervised the development of many composers of diverse nationalities and ethnic
origins. Boulanger, a proponent of pure art, who at that time was faithful to the ideals of
Neoclassicism, shared the views of the young “Parisian” Stravinsky about the need to nurture an
artistic attitude which would combine musical composition with the classical theory of beauty
Szałowski, who, during his early attempts at composition made while he was still in Warsaw, was
fascinated by the music of Szymanowski and the sound qualities of the works of Debussy and Ravel,
now, as a pupil of Boulanger, turned towards neoclassicism for the fulfilment of his creative ideals.
He underwent something of a metamorphosis, from the stylistically incohesive Sonata for piano to
String Quartet No. 2 (1934), which clearly belongs to the neoclassicist trend. This composition,
together with other works, was presented in 1935 at the École Normale de Musique during the
composer’s concert, entirely devoted to the music of Szałowski. Judging String Quartet No. 2,
alongside Suite for violin and piano (1931) was said, to be the most interesting works performed at
the concert. Szałowski’s successive chamber works continued the stylistic interpretation of the pre-
war school of Nadia Boulanger which he adopted,and which manifested itself in motoric rhythm,
simplification of melody and harmony, textural transparency, glittering instrumentation, structural
clarity and dimensional symmetry, In fact his three string quartets were highly successful.
The carefully restrained comments about Boulanger’s pupil gave way to enthusiastic praise in 1937,
after the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Grzegorz Fitelberg performed Szałowski’s
Overture,his last composition written in Boulanger’s class,at the Théâtre de Champs Élyséesduring
the Festival of Polish Music. This work, which was awarded the Gold Medal at the World Exhibition
in Paris, was judged to be the most important event of the 1936–37 season, alongside Bartók’s Music
for Strings, Percussion and Celeste, by Florent Schmitt, an outstanding music critic and at that time
a highly regarded composer.
The success of Szałowski’s brilliant Overture, achieved through the power of his talent, meant at the
same time a collective victory for the new Polish music in its attempts to establish itself on the world
arena. It also meant that the interest in the young musician in his homeland grew very quickly. In
1938, during the composer’s visit to Poland, a number of concerts took place during which
Szałowski’s works were received with great enthusiasm.
Michał Kondracki wrote, Another important feature of Szałowski’s music deserves particular
emphasis. That is, it is purely Polish. This young composer, who has not indulged in even a shadow of
a quotation of a folk melody in any of his compositions, is Polish through and through in the character
of his inventiveness, in his perfectly crafted arabesques and in his unexpected stylistic and melodic.
The Association of Young Polish Musicians, established in Paris in 1926 on the initiative of Piotr
Perkowski and Feliks Łabuński, also played a not insignificant part in nurturing talented young Polish
musicians, promoting Polish music and creating an atmosphere, which was favourable to it. Szałowski
held various posts in it – that of treasurer, vice-president and president from 1938. With the outbreak
of the Second World War, he took with him the most important part of the Association’s archive and,
together with his mother Felicja, Michał Spisak, Henryk Szeryng and Seweryn Różycki, moved to the
south of France. He did not compose much, suffering from health problems and considerable financial
difficulties, but he was comforted by news from Nadia Boulanger, whose letters from the USA told
him about such events as the performance of his String Quartet No. 3 (1936) at the International Festival
of Contemporary Music in New York (1941), or the presentations of his Symphony (1938/39) and
Sinfonietta (1940), the scores of which she took with her when she travelled overseas.
During the Second World War, Szalowski lived in hiding and was in great financial difficulties and
was hunted by the Nazis.
Szałowski returned to Paris towards the end of 1945. Although it was still at time of serious material
hardships, the post-war years were the most fruitful period in the development and the reception of
his music. A significant role in popularising his music was played by his musician friends such as
Grzegorz Fitelberg, Nadia Boulanger, Paweł Klecki, Andrzej Panufnik, Wacław Niemczyk, Feliks
Łabuński, Grażyna Bacewicz. His works were presented during concerts commemorating important
events, such as the first anniversary of the victory at Monte Cassino in 1945 or the opening of La
Scala, restored after the war, in Milan in 1946. Works by Antoni Szałowski were also presented at
International Festivals of Contemporary Music. His Sonatina for oboe and piano (1945–46) was
performed in Amsterdam in 1948, and the first performance of the concert version of ballet
Zaczarowana oberża [The Enchanted Inn] (1947) took place in Frankfurt am Main in 1951.
During the early post war years, Szałowski’s works occasionally appeared in concert programmes in
Poland, but after 1949, when Polish culture was paralysed by the process of left wing politics, a
profound silence descended on the artistic output of émigré composers. His Symphony, performed
on 24th January 1950 by the Radio Orchestra of Katowice conducted by Grzegorz Fitelberg,was,
according to the composer,his last work to be performed in his homeland before his music came
under the ban of censorship. It was a major disappointment to the artist to be removed from the Polish
Composers’ Union in the early 1950s. He blamed this on Jan Maklakiewicz and Tadeusz Szeligowski
who, according to him, were afraid of competition should Szałowski return to Poland.
By the mid-1950s Szałowski had composed a large number of orchestral, chamber and solo
works.Most of them were commissioned by the FrenchRadio, with which he had begun to collaborate
immediately after the end of the war. As well as being heard in radio concerts, his works were
performed on prestigious occasions at various venues, such as the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels,
where the international orchestra Jeunesses Musicales conducted by Franz André gave the first
performance of his Suite for orchestra in the presence of Queen Elizabeth of Belgium on 9th July
1953. Szałowski’s music was also heard during the Congress of Polish Émigré Culture on 10th
September 1956, when Wacław Niemczyk and the Orchestre Radio-Symphonique de Paris,
conducted by Andrzej Panufnik, presented Szałowski’s Violin Concerto (1948–1954), dedicated to
the composer’s father.
The composition provides an example of a virtuoso concerto with a conventional, three-movement
structure. It is distinguished by the transparency of its construction plan, compact narration and
clearly drawn main thematic thoughts. The element which links all the parts is the principle of
constant differentiation of sound by changes in motion and instrumentation. Rhythm plays an
important part in shaping the form of the concerto. The constitutive role of rhythm is particularly
apparent in the development phase of the sonata allegro and in the final rondo. Its effect is especially
clear in passages with motoric rhythm, where multiple repetitions of the formulae impart a dynamic
value to the motion
In 1955 Antoni Szałowski, together with Roman Palester and Andrzej Panufnik, received the music
award of the Polish Guard Company,attached to the American Army in Europe, for his artistic
achievement. These were the first music prizes to be awarded by the command of the Guard
Company; in previous years such prizes had been given to writers, scientists, plastic artists, printing
artists and creators of beautiful Polish books. The jury, under the leadership of Witold Małcużyński,
included Ludwik Bronarski, Konstanty Régamey, Tymon Terlecki and Paweł Hostowiec (the
pseudonym of Jerzy Stempowski).During the award ceremony, which took place on 7th October 1955
at the General Władysław Sikorski Historical Institute in London, Dr Tymon Terlecki, while
explaining the jury’s decision, referred to Antoni Szałowski in these term
Szałowski, who did not take part in the awards ceremony, sent to the Polish Guard Company a letter,
which included this passage:
You have reached out a helping hand to a musician who, over a quarter of a century, has written 50
chamber and symphonic compositions, half of which have been published by great music publishers
in France, England and the USA and are being performed throughout the world, yet who cannot
support himself out of the royalties and has not even got the right to complain, since it is obvious that
every country takes care of its own artists first of all. In a word, I can only thank you as a human
being, since as an artist I have nothing to say about my music. I hope that it is good music, and I
make an effort to make it so to the extent of my abilities when I write it, but what it is like beyond
that should be judged by others – the listeners and the critics, and I bow to their judgment
The ceremony, broadcast by Radio “Free Europe” and widely reported in the émigré press, was not
mentioned in Poland. The period of oblivion, which lasted a number of years, meant that even later
publications, appearing after the “October thaw” of 1956, did not attach much importance to the
works of émigré artists
Szałowski’s music was heard again during the “Warsaw Autumn” in 1959. At the third festival (15th
September 1959) the Warsaw Reed Trio performed his Trio for wind instruments which, like the
Overture, had been composed in 1936. Positive opinions about Szałowski’s works came from critics
who had been brought up on the same, neoclassical aesthetics. Opposition to them came from young
musicians, passionate about avant-garde trends, for whom neoclassical compositions, which in
Poland carried associations with the period of socialist realism, were no longer viable
The one-act ballet The Enchanted Inn (1943-1945), where the main characters are the Tapstress, a
young and lusty peasant woman, the flirtatious and elegant Prince and the god of wine, Bacchus, is
remarkable for its light, concise, witty narrative, woven around the cult of wine and joy of life.
Moving the action deep into the historical past (sixteenth century) and using a mythical character
enabled Szałowski to maintain the emotional distance postulated for neoclassical music. Maintaining
such a distance is also aided by the aura exuded by the work, one of gaiety and flirtatiousness, of
jocularity, grotesque, and a situation where the conflict is slight. In The Enchanted Inn, Szałowski
recalls the classical models, where dances and pantomime scenes are linked by the threads of one
plot. The treatment of the musical matter: lightness and purity of the phrases, lively rhythms,
sophisticated harmony, attractive orchestral colours, grace and elegance, all allow one to discern
features of the French style in the music of the ballet. The sound layer corresponds perfectly to the
subject of the work, itself close to the French tradition, and fulfils an unobtrusively descriptive, at
times clearly illustrative function in relation to the plot of the ballet.
In spite of his resistance to new trends in music, Szalowski's perfect mastery of the compositional
métier ensured the continued presence of Szałowski’s works on the stages of the world. At a time of
general fascination with the compositions of Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono or Karlheinz Stockhausen he
could not expect the same degree of popularity as previously, but he still received commissions. At
the beginning of the 1960s, among his major works performed in Poland were: Aria and Toccata for
chamber orchestra (1962) and Concerto for reed trio and orchestra (1962), which combined the
features of solo concerto and concerto grosso. Thus, at last, relatively new works by Szałowski were
being performed.
The composer himself never courted recognition or fame. Persevering and confident in the pursuit of
his art, he was also a very private person, keeping his distance from the artistic milieux, indifferent
to artistic fashions and novelties. By remaining faithful to his ideals, he was forced to work in very
difficult material circumstances, isolated from the native community and not fully integrated with the
artistic world of Paris. In 1958 he wrote in one of his letters to his friend, Seweryn Różycki:
These days I do not meet with my former friends at all, there are things that separate me from them;
we do not have any common platform of understanding and each of us is in a sense alone.
It was at that difficult moment in his life that Antoni Szałowski met his future wife, Teresa Bończa-
Uzdowska, a young woman from Warsaw, daughter of General Bończa-Uzdowski. She had
graduated from the Department of History and Archeology of Warsaw University as a student of
Professor Aleksander Gieysztor; and she came to Paris on a scholarship. This was the beginning of a
new stage in the composer’s life and creative activity. At last he had his own family, where he found
support and which gave a deeper meaning to his earthly existence. He cared for his son Piotr with
great devotion,drawing motivation for creative work from his family life. In 1960 Antoni Szałowski
received the first prize of French RTV for the radio ballet La Femme têtue composed in 1958. It was
the first time when the Paris broadcaster awarded a prize to an artist who was not a French citizen.
At the same time, Szałowski completed a commission for compositions inspired by medieval
literature and paintings including Cantata for female voices and orchestra to poems from the Carmina
Burana collection, and symphonic picture Résurrection de Lazare based on Giotto’s fresco, in which
he tried, in a sense, “to go beyond the formal and aesthetic norms of Neoclassicism,”highlighting the
expressive possibilities of harmony and orchestration. Evidence of the composer’s desire to break
out of the classical patterns is also provided by Szałowski’s late works, such as Music for Strings
(1969–1970), a composition integrated in terms of material, which provides an example of
reinterpretation of the traditional model of the sonata form, without the previously expected
symmetry of sections and clear segmentation of the form.
While during the 1970s works of émigré composers such as Palester or Panufnik remained absent
from Polish musical life, Szałowski’s works appearedsporadically in concert programmes(mainly his
prewar chamber compositions and Overture). The Polish première of Szałowski’s last composition,
Six Sketches for chamber orchestra (1971–1972), took place during the sixteenth Music Spring in
Poznań (4th April 1976). On that occasion the orchestra of Wrocław Philharmonic was conducted by
Marek Pijarowski. Zygmunt Mycielski and Władysław Malinowski, who reviewed that concert, both
agreed that the music of Szałowski, one of the greatest composers of his generation, went far beyond
neoclassical formulae and deserved greater attention.
Szałowski’s belief in the need to build the presenton the foundations ofthe legacy of the past found
its expression by adopting the models of form and genre particularly characteristic of the epochs of
Classicism and Baroque, and in referring to the traditional principles of organising sound material.
Turning to tradition thus allowed him to come close to major-minor tonality and modality, the use of
contrapuntal and concerting techniques, and the organisation of the sound material in the forms of
sonata, reprise or series.
His wife had a fall on a slippery floor and in trying to lift her Szalowski had a heart attack. He died
in Paris on 21 March 1973.
Apart from the Overture and the engaging Sonatina for clarinet and piano, his music is ignored.
(3195)
IMPORTANT NOTE Some of this information has been supplied to me from various sources and I
am am unaware of any copyright issues. If there has been any breach of copyright, it is unintentional
and, if necessary, will be remedied
© COPYRIGHT David C F Wright, PhD 1983 revised 2014 – This article or any part of it, however
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