For 78 years of its existence, Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne has collected hundreds of thousands material of an invaluable cultural worth. Thanks to the digital Polska Biblioteka Muzyczna (Polish Music Library), everyone will be able to take a look into the publishing house’s archives and get to know the history of the Polish culture even better.
In the online collections of Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne, there are solo, chamber and orchestra scores, works from the Middle Ages to the present day representing various styles and genres, intended for the youngest adepts of the art of music as well as for professionals.
Among the composers whose works are included in the collections of Polska Biblioteka Muzyczna, there are: Grażyna Bacewicz, Tadeusz Baird, Frédéric Chopin, Janina Garścia, Wojciech Kilar, Witold Lutosławski, Marta Ptaszyńska, Witold Szalonek or Romuald Twardowski.
The iconographic collection includes photos and graphics presenting everyday life of composers such as: Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Frédéric Chopin, Stanisław Moniuszko, Karol Szymanowski, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Claude Debussy, Georg Friedrich Händel, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as well as their relatives and close friends.
Among the resources, there are also pictures depicting scenes of everyday life from the 19th century to the 1st half of the 20th century, panoramas of cities, photos of monuments, buildings of theatres, operas, palaces and castles. The Polska Biblioteka Muzyczna website also contains reproductions of correspondence, music manuscripts, concert bills as well as programmes and press cuttings referring to the cultural life of the said period.
Quick and easy access online to digital material is the opportunity for Polish music to be present more frequently in the concert repertoire and in the media; it is also a step towards popularising the knowledge of the history of our native music and the achievements of its present creators.
Resources collected on the website are for everyone. Both the institution and the private persons – professionally connected with music, but also pupils, students and music lovers – everyone can find valuable and previously unavailable materials on Polska Biblioteka Muzyczna.
In the coming years, Polska Biblioteka Muzyczna will expand with new digital collections. As part of the project, Music Encyclopaedia online is also being created, which is a selection of entries from the famous monumental lexicographic series, including 12 volumes, 2 supplements and 5 special volumes.
The website of Polska Biblioteka Muzyczna was created as part of the project co-financed from European Funds “Digitalisation of resources held by Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne – continuation.”
The main objective of the project is the systemic development of the digitalisation process, improvement of the quality of digitally shared resources and the increase of online availability of music cultural heritage for the effective use of its potential for popularisation in the country and abroad.
The activities are aimed at digital sharing of cultural resources as well as accessibility and usefulness of public sector information.
Total value of the project: 11 534 171,29 PLN
EU funding: 8 797 815,16 PLN
Duration of the project: from 05.06.2020 to 31.12.2023
Subsidised by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
