https://doi.org/10.16926/em.2018.13.04
The introduction of the socialist realism method to music composition in Poland in the 1950s, considered by politicians as one of the successive stages of building a socialist society – liberated from class conflicts – implied practical solutions in the field of compositional technique. The com- posers were expected to:
1) re-evaluate the hierarchy of musical genres and forms (the need for musical creativity to be based on vocal and programme forms, as well as forms of utility music);
2) use (in the verbal or programme layer) topical subjects supporting the process of shaping the new system;
3) make references in their works to national and European tradition (excluding the elements of the 19th century tradition) and to Polish folk music.
Tadeusz Szeligowski’s opera Bunt żaków (The scholars’ revolt) was the first opera to be com-
posed in Poland after 1945. Its creators were awarded the Level I State Prize in 1951. The preview of the piece, which took place in Wrocław, and subsequent performances in Warsaw, Kraków, Po- znań, Moscow and Dresden were enthusiastically received by listeners and music critics. The piecewas presented as a model realisation of the socialist realism method in musical creation in Poland. High artistic values and spectacular attractiveness of the piece were pointed out as well.
The article attempts to describe the opera in the context of cultural policy in Poland in the period 1945–1956. The analysis of the piece results from the adoption of the assumptions of the Russian national musical drama and includes: the plot of the opera - with a focus on the sources of conflicts, the main character, the dramatic and musical form, opera elements, melodics and harmonies, texts and leitmotifs.
On the basis of the conducted analyses, it can be stated that the implementation of the instruc- tions issued by politicians and party activists to the composers is performed in the piece in question on three levels: dramaturgical, linguistic and musical. The opera The scholars’ revolt constitutesa kind of response of its creators (composer and librettist) to a specific “social demand” (in thewords of the propaganda of that time). Thus, the piece is a part of the process of the ideologization of musical culture taking place in Poland in the 1950s.
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