musicologists (T)

musicologist and editor, b. 17th November 1921 in Poznań. Professor at the Music Academy in Cracow, head of the Department of Musical Work Theory and Interpretation. He represents the humanist-oriented current within musicology. He studied with Stefania Łobaczewska at the Jagiellonian University in 1954-9, and obtained a PhD degree at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań for his dissertation The output of F. Chopin and its reception (1984). From 1952 he worked at PWM Edition in Cracow (becoming editor in chief in 1954, and director in 1965-88). In 1960-6 he taught music theory and aesthetics at the Jagiellonian University. From 1958 he was also lecturer at the PWSM (later Music Academy) in Cracow (becoming reader in 1971, and professor in 1989). In 1966-86 he headed the Post-Graduate Study of Music Editing which he also founded, and later directed the Department of Music Editing from 1967, and the Music Analysis and Interpretation Team in 1976-86. In 1982-5 he was member of the Main Council of Academic Education. He was the editor of numerous editorial series, including Documenta Chopiniana, Chopin Library, Library of Miniature Scores, Musica Viva. He has published writings in ontology, analysis and interpretation of the musical work, the relationship between word and music, theory and history of song, and Chopin. He has headed the Musical Meetings in Baranów, chaired the Scientific Board of the F. Chopin Society and International Chopin Symposium in Warsaw. Today, he is active at the Polish Chopin Academy, and is a member of the Programme Board of the National Fryderyk Chopin Institute.

Tomaszewski's research focuses on Romantic music and the Romantic current in modern Polish music, on the theory of European song, and on the affinity between arts. At the center of his interests is the music of Fryderyk Chopin. Apart from his academic research on Chopin - which culminated in his milestone synthetis Chopin: Man, Work, Resonance (Poznań 1998), he is also the author of popular books and radio programmes on Chopin.

Mieczysław Tomaszewski has lectured on Chopin and Polish music in Paris, Dijon, La Châtre (Nohant), Valldemosa, Mariánské Lázně, Vienna, Graz, Gamming, Dresden, Leipzig, Hamburg, Essen, Düsseldorf, Chemnitz, Aarhus, Vilnius, Bratislava, London and New York. He has been scientific editor of 14 volumes of the Chopin Library (1959-86) and 5 volumes of the Documenta Chopiniana series (1970-90). Currently, he is co-editor of the Rocznik Chopinowski and Chopin Studies. Among his other achievements are a biographical film about Chopin (TVP2/Arte, 1997), a cycle of 44 radio programmes Fryderyk Chopin. Complete Works (Polish Radio 2, 1999-2000), and the first multimedia encyclopedia dedicated to a single composer Fryderyk Chopin. Życie twórcy (F. Chopin. An Artist's Life, 1st version 1990, 2nd version 2000).

In 1999, Mieczysław Tomaszewski received the Polish Science Foundation Award, and the Jan Długosz Publishers' Prize for his Chopin monograph Chopin. Man, Work, Resonance. In 2000, he was also distinguished by the International F. Chopin Foundation for his lifetime work on the output and character of Chopin, with special regard to the book Chopin. Man, Work, Resonance. In 2016 he was honored with Honoris Causa tittle by the Academy of Music in Katowice.

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