The database of information on Polish contemporary composers and their works is an electronic collection of data related to 20th and 21st-century Polish music. The principal source of information for this database are the publications and other collections of the Polish Composers’ Union’s Library - Recording Archive: the world’s largest, unique stock of books on Polish contemporary music (more than 5,000 vols.), a collection of scores (over 20,000 vols.), and recordings of works by Polish contemporary composers (13,900 LPs and over 2,500 CDs). The Polish Composers’ Union archives also include information about more than 500 music authors, derived exclusively from the composers themselves. This information was the basis for the Card Catalogue of Contemporary Polish Composers’ Works (developed in the 1950s and later), which in turn served as the starting point for the formation of the present database.
The database has been developed since 1995 in co-operation with Arka, an IT company. In 2003 its first internet version was made available at http://www.polmic.pl/. It included. however, only basic data concerning the composers and their compositions, moreover it was updated rather extremely rarely.
The new project, aimed for making available online full content of the POLMIC database, was launched in January 2021 and it was successfully finalised in September this year.
Now, the new database may be accessed from any place through the address
https://www.bazapolmic.infoforhumans.eu/index.php
Apart from basic information, it includes many interesting and useful details like information on texts and other contexts used by composers, scoring, dedications, first performances, and others. The databaser will be permanently developed and enlarged. At present its content are:
1015 names of contemporary Polish composers and 49135 descriptions of their works.
Everybody is welcome to use the new database. It may be accessed in two different ways:
without registering (you will be able to read its limited version, with selected data only) or
as registered user (strongly recommenended) with full content available without limitations).
Please contact us by mail if you wish to know more:
Rynek Starego Miasta 27
00-272 Warsaw, Poland
e-mail:
tel: +48 785 370 000
The website was modernised thanks to the support of the Minister of Education and Science under the Science for Society II program.