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Stanisław Moniuszko (Polish pronunciation: [stãˈɲiswaf mɔ̃ˈɲuʃkɔ]; May 5, 1819 – June 4, 1872) was a Polish composer, conductor and teacher. He wrote many popular art songs and operas, and his music is filled with patriotic folk themes of the peoples of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. </ref> He is generally referred to as "the father of Polish national opera".

Life

Moniuszko was born into a noble landowning family in Ubiel, Minsk Governorate (now Belarus). He initially took piano lessons with his mother and then continued his musical education in Warsaw, Minsk, and in Berlin under Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen. In 1858 he was appointed conductor at the Warsaw Opera and later became professor at the Warsaw Conservatory. He died in Warsaw, Congress Poland and was buried at Powązki Cemetery.

Works

For a complete list, see List of compositions by Stanisław Moniuszko

Moniuszko composed more than 300 solo songs, mainly to texts of Polish poets, and around two dozen operas. His series of twelve song books is notable and contains songs to the words of Adam Mickiewicz, Antoni Edward Odyniec, Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Stefan Witwicki, Antoni Malczewski, and Wincenty Pol.

Moniuszko noted that his songs, which were published under the collective title Śpiewnik Domowy (Domestic Songs), had a national character. Their 'Polishness' is found in his use of and reference to traditional Polish dance rhythms like Polonaise, Mazurka, Kujawiak, and Krakowiak and the propagation of texts written by Polish national poets. The songs formed the basis of repertoire of Polish choirs in the Austrian, German, and Russian territories, and became a point of reference for later Polish composers. Moniuszko's opera style bears similarities to that of Rossini and Auber, but with greater emphasis on chorus and melodies based on Polish dances.

Halka is an opera to a libretto written by Włodzimierz Wolski, a young Warsaw poet with radical social views. Following its production in Warsaw in 1858, it became the most popular Polish opera and is part of the canon of Polish national operas.

Modern performances

An English version of Straszny dwór (The Haunted Manor, or The Haunted Castle) was created and premiered by the student operatic society at Bristol University in 1970; this version has been performed since, specifically in 2001 by Opera South, which company also presented the world premiere of a specially created new English version of Verbum Nobile in 2002.

In 2008, Pocket Opera, of San Francisco, CA, USA, premiered Artistic Director Donald Pippin's English language translation of The Haunted Manor.

Moniuszko's opera Flis (The Raftsman) was performed and recorded in the Grand Theatre of Polish National Opera at the 2019 Chopin and his Europe International Music Festival, marking the 200th anniversary of Moniuszko's birth.

Paria was performed at Poznań Opera in June 2019, directed by Graham Vick and conducted by Gabriel Chmura.

Notes

1. The Moniuszko family had roots in the area of Goniądz in Podlachia.

References

1. Prosnak 1980, pp. 15, 173.
2. ^ Samson, Jim, ed. (2001). The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music. Cambridge University Press. p. 718. ISBN 978-0521590174.
3. ^ Jones, Barrie, ed. (1999). The Hutchinson Concise Dictionary of Music. Routledge. p. 424. ISBN 978-1579581787.
4. "Stanisław Moniuszko – Ojciec polskiej opery". poland.us.
5. ^ Murphy, Michael (2001). "Moniuszko and Musical Nationalism in Poland". In White, Harry; Murphy, Michael (eds.). Musical Constructions of Nationalism: Essays on the History and Ideology of European Musical Culture 1800-1945. Cork University Press. p. 166-167. ISBN 9781859181539.
6. Prosnak, Jan (1980). Moniuszko. Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne. p. 7. ISBN 8322400012.
7. ^ Balthazar, Scott L. (2013). Historical Dictionary of Opera. Scarecrow Press. p. 226-227. ISBN 978-0810867680.
8. Prosnak 1980, p. 174.
9. Chrenkoff, Magdalena (2017). "Stanisław Moniuszko's Oeuvre as a Builder of National Identity During Partition Times". In Povilionienė, Rima (ed.). Sounds, Societies, Significations: Numanistic Approaches to Music. Springer. p. 61. ISBN 978-3319836522.
10. ^ Grazia, Donna M. Di, ed. (2012). Nineteenth-Century Choral Music. Routledge. p. 384. ISBN 978-0415988537.
11. Murphy 2001, p. 168.
12. "Opera: Moniuszko's Haunted Castle"; by Bernard Holland, The New York Times, April 23, 1986
13. "Festiwal "Chopin i jego Europa"" [Chopin and his Europe]. Fryderyk Chopin Institute (in Polish). 2019. Retrieved August 13, 2020.

External links

• Free scores by Stanisław Moniuszko at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
• Free scores by Stanisław Moniuszko in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• List of works, lieder.net
• "Stanisław Moniuszko", biography, list of works, Polish Music Center, University of Southern California
• How Family Shaped the Father of Polish Opera
• The Lesser Known Faces of Stanisław Moniuszko
• Sound examples and discussion of String Quartet No. 1 and No. 2, editionsilvertrust.com
• Collection of works by Stanisław Moniuszko in National Digital Library of Poland (Polona)
• Stanislaw Moniuszko. Musical Romantic from Minsk Region to the 200th anniversary of his birth
• Works by Stanislaw Moniuszko on the Belarusian stage

v t e Stanisław Moniuszko
List of compositions
Operas	Halka (1848) Hrabina, The Countess (1860) Verbum nobile (1861) The Haunted Manor (1865) Paria (1869)
Category

• Biography
• Classical music

• 1819 births
• 1872 deaths
• 19th-century classical composers
• 19th-century conductors (music)
• 19th-century organists
• Belarusian composers
• Burials at Powązki Cemetery
• Chopin University of Music faculty
• Male conductors (music)
• Male opera composers
• Male organists
• People from Chervyen District
• People from Igumensky Uyezd
• Polish classical organists
• Polish conductors (music)
• Polish male classical composers
• Polish opera composers
• Polish people of Armenian descent
• Polish Romantic composers