Morawski, Eugeniusz (EN)

Morawski, Dąbrowa-Morawski, Eugeniusz, *2 November 1876 Warsaw, †23 October 1948 Warsaw, Polish composer, teacher and painter. In 1899–1904, he studied at the Music Institute in Warsaw with T. Mierz-Brzezicki, A. Sygietyński (piano), G. Roguski and Z. Noskowski (composition); during his studies, he became friends with M.K. Čiurlionis. In 1903, Morawski started studying in the drawing class of J. Kauzik, and in 1904 he joined the newly established School of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where until 1907 he was a student of K. Krzyżanowski (portrait), F. Ruszczyc (landscape) and K. Tichy (applied art); he participated, together with Čiurlionis, in open-air events organised by this university in Arkadia (1904), Zwierzyniec (1905), Rybiniszki (1906) and Istebna (1906); they both made a trip to the Caucasus (1905). At the same time, from 1903, Morawski was active in the fighting organisation of the Revolutionary Faction of the Polish Socialist Party. On 3 November 1907, he was arrested for participating in the preparation of an attack on the police and sentenced to 4 years of exile in Siberia, but thanks to his father’s efforts, this punishment was changed to emigration abroad from the Russian Empire. In 1908, Morawski went to Paris, where he studied with A. Gédalge (counterpoint) and C. Chevillard (instrumentation); he also studied painting at the Académie Julien, at the Académie Colorossi, and then sculpture with E.A. Bourdelle. In 1930, he returned to Poland, in March of that year he became the director of the conservatory in Poznań, and in June – the director of the Secondary Music School at the conservatory in Warsaw. In 1932–39, after the reorganisation of the university, he was the rector of the State Conservatory of Music, where he taught instrumentation. His students included, among others, W. Lutosławski, A. Panufnik, B. Wodiczko, S. Kisielewski, H. Swolkień, J. Ekier, Z. Turski, A. Malawski, G. Bacewicz and W. Żuławski. During World War II, he taught at S. Kazuro’s secret conservatory. In 1945, he moved in with his sister in Ruda Pabianicka, where he taught music. In 1948, he returned to Warsaw. Morawski was a founding member of the Société des Artistes Polonais in Paris (1909), the National Opera Society (1932), and the F. Chopin Institute (1934); he was on competition committees and program and artistic councils. He received the MWRiOP music award for the ballet Świtezianka (1933); and was awarded, among others, Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1933), Medal of Independence (1933), Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature (1938).

Morawski freed himself from his fascination with the music of R. Strauss early on and was critical of the works of M. Ravel, C. Debussy and I. Stravinsky. He shaped his own compositional style using only some of the technical elements used by these artists. Individual instrumentation solutions already appear in the earliest preserved symphonic poem Don Quichotte – a fugato for brass instruments or an episode representing the battle with windmills, in which the sharp rhythm realised by strings treated with percussion comes to the fore. The monumental form and expressionistic, elaborate instrumentation, with a dark and dense sound, resulted largely from the programming inspired by Poe’s literary work (symphonic poems), full of a mood of horror and ghostliness. Expressionism was also visible in numerous folk music stylisations (Polish dances in Świtezianka). They also include various folklorising techniques, such as empty fifths in the bass or the articulation of col legno. The composer also moved away from the scales of the major and minor systems in favour of the pentatonic scale, modal scales and the whole-tone scale. Morawski had a predilection for exposing percussion instruments in long sections of a piece, as well as for treating the orchestral texture in a monolithic way and using unconventional harmonic language. He also used polytonality (the opening motif of Świtezianka, representing the title character), as well as the ostinato technique and successive and simultaneous polymeter. The use of a motif representing the ringing of mourning bells is also typical of Morawski’s work. It always takes the form of a harmonic formula: the plagal cadence in the first inversion. It appears in Nevermore, Ulalume, Świtezianka, Miłość and stage music for Lillia Weneda. Morawski was the first Polish composer to take up the theme of machines in his music (Taniec Maszyn in the ballet Miłość). Morawski’s works remained forgotten for a long time, which was due to the lack of access to performance materials and the negative attitude towards him among K. Szymanowski’s apologists caused by the circumstances in which Morawski took over the position of rector of the conservatory in Warsaw after Szymanowski. During his four terms as rector, Morawski organised a musicology department, an opera and bandmaster classes, obtained university status for conservatory diplomas, and initiated the so-called “exchange concerts” of graduates of music universities in various European cities (Berlin 1936, Stockholm 1938). He treated his painting activities, which had many features in common with Čiurlionis’s painting, as a marginal matter, limiting himself to maritime themes.

Literature: J. Kępski, Eugeniusz Morawski, kompozytor niesłusznie zapomniany, “Ruch Muzyczny” 1964 No. 5; J. Čiurlionyte Eugeniusz Morawski, in: Atsiminimai apie Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, Vilnius 1970, ²1973, Russian transl. Wospominanija o M.K Cziurlonisie, Vilnius 1975; W. Malinowski Eugeniusz Morawski – nieobecny, “Ruch Muzyczny” 1979 No. 10; V. Landsbergis Eugeniusz Morawski oglądany z innej perspektywy, “Ruch Muzyczny” 1981 No. 3; J. Kukla Eugeniusz Morawski – kompozytor zapomniany czy wygnany z pamięci?, “Ruch Muzyczny” 1989 No. 14, 15; J. Siedlecka M.K. Čiurlionis, 1875–1911. Preludium warszawskie, Warsaw 1996, M. Gmys, Harmonie i dysonanse. Muzyka Młodej Polski wobec innych sztuk, Poznań 2012; O. Łapeta, Kanon XIX/XX: Morawski, “Ruch Muzyczny” 2014 No. 9; O. Łapeta, Poemat symfoniczny “Don Quichotte” Eugeniusza Morawskiego – źródła i recepcja, “Przegląd Muzykologiczny 2015 No. 10, O. Łapeta, Twórczość Eugeniusza Morawskiego w oczach krytyków i kompozytorów, “Kwartalnik Młodych Muzykologów” 2015 No. 1; O. Łapeta, Relacje Karola Szymanowskiego i Eugeniusza Morawskiego w kontekście sporu o Wyższą Szkołę Muzyczną w Warszawie, “Res Facta Nova” 2015 No. 16; O. Łapeta, Język muzyczny Eugeniusza Morawskiego na przykładzie baletów „Miłość” i „Świtezianka”, “Kwartalnik Młodych Muzykologów” 2019 No. 1; O. Łapeta, Okres francuski (1908-1930) w biografii Eugeniusza Morawskiego, in: Bolesławska-Lewandowska Beata, Guzy-Pasiak Jolanta (ed.) Muzyka polska za granicą, tom 2, Warsaw 2019, O. Łapeta, Zjawisko muzycznych idées fixes w twórczości Eugeniusza Morawskiego: w poszukiwaniu genezy i interpretacji, “Muzyka” 2019 No. 3; O. Łapeta, “Muzyka męska a przytem subtelnie dzika”, czyli o utworach Eugeniusza Morawskiego, “Ruch Muzyczny” 2019 No. 5; O. Łapeta, Recepcja poematów symfonicznych „Nevermore” i „Ulalume” Eugeniusza Morawskiego w prasie polskiej w latach 1924-1949, “Muzyka” 2020 No. 4; O. Łapeta, Eugeniusz Morawski – life and activities during the Nazi Occupation of Poland, in: Fanning David, Levi Erik (ed.), The Routledge Handbook to Music under German Occupation, 1938-1945: Propaganda, Myth and Reality, London, New York 2020; O. Łapeta, Twórczość baletowa Eugeniusza Morawskiego w kontekście poszukiwania polskiej tożsamości narodowej, “Polski Rocznik Muzykologiczny” 2021.