Działalność kompozytorska, naukowa i pedagogiczna Alicji Gronau w świetle biografii kompozytorki

Abstract

“High-caliber artists who happen to be women”, read the motto of the exhibition "Polish Women Composers 1816-1939”, held in Katowice in 2003. In the 19th centuiy, professional composers were almost exclusively men. Only a handful of women earned a reputation that went beyond amateur music-making. In the 20th century, women made their presence felt in various forms of artistic activity, including composition. Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969) is regarded as the patron of Polish women composers of last century. She gained a worldwide reputation and ranks among the most outstanding 20th-century Polish composers, alongside Karol Szymanowski, Witold Lutosławski and Krzysztof Penderecki. Alicja Gronau, bom in 1957, is one of the most interesting Polish women composers. She began her musical education in 1971, in one of Warsaw’s music high schools, attending eurhythmies classes conducted by Barbara Turska and studying piano improvisation under Szabolcs Esztényi, a Hungarian pianist and composer living in Poland. It was thanks to Esztényi that improvisation became the basis of her future career. Having graduated from high school, Gronau went on to study at the Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw, where she obtained two diplomas: one in the theory of music (under Witold Rudziński) and then in composition (under Marian Borkowski). During her studies, she collaborated with the Experimental Eurhythmies Workshop at her Alma Mater. She participated in the workshop’s study visit to Hungary, the 14th Congress of the International Society for Music Education in Warsaw, and in the eurhythmies courses organized by the E. Jaques-Dalcroze Institute in Geneva and Zakopane (Poland). Gronau stresses that eurhythmies and improvisation played an important role in the development of her compositional techniques. Gronau’s first composition, written during her studies under Marian Borkowski, was Przenikanie (“Interpenetration”) for solo clarinet (1981). It was followed by Mironczarnie I for an a cappella vocal sextet (1982), Gioco per voci e batteria (1982), Open for clarinet, viola and hom (1983), Flowing for orchestra (1984), String Quartet No. 1 (1984) and Versioni for 24 performers (1984). In these works, she employed a wide range of techniques. She supplemented her knowledge at numerous master classes, including those in Kazimierz Dolny. She has been awarded many prizes in composition competitions (including many first prizes), as well as grants and state distinctions (see the final fragment of the Polish version of the article). Her interests as a composer evolved from freely treated dodecaphony to controlled aleatorism and a search for her own individual musical idiom. One of her latest major compositions is Poemat ‒ Requiem for orchestra, which is her post-doctoral work. By 2011, her entire output comprises several dozen compositions for various performing groups, characterized by diverse style and expressiveness (see the list of compositions at the end of the Polish version of the article). Gronau has also followed a teaching career. She entered the faculty of the Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy (now the Fryderyk Chopin Music University) in 1983. She obtained a PhD in 1997 and became assistant professor in music composition in 2007. She collaborated with the University of Warsaw and the University of Zielona Góra, as well as with universities in Romania and Chile. At her Alma Mater, she is head of postgraduate studies in music theoiy and composition, and of doctoral studies. She also organizes scholarly conferences and concerts in the Composer Portraits series. In her research, she concentrates on her own compositional method (see the list of publications in the Polish version of the article), the problems of eurhythmies, the theory of rhythm, musical graphics and the analysis of other composers’ techniques (e.g. Marian Borkowski, Jani Christou, Piotr Perkowski, Witold Rudziński, Kazimierz Sikorski). She has written several books and numerous articles in Polish and foreign journals.