PT Journal
AU Sulek, M
TI Witold Lutoslawski's Radio Bohemica: A Commentary on the Musical Reception of the Manuscript of Dvur Kralove and the Manuscript of Zelena Hora in Poland
SO Musicologica Olomucensia
PY 2025
DI 10.5507/mo.2025.001
DE Manuscript of Dvur Kralove; Manuscript of Zelena Hora; The Legend of Walgierz Wdaly; Vaclav Hanka; Witold Lutoslawski; Stanislaw Nadzin; radio play
AB The discovery of the Manuscript of Dvur Kralove and the Manuscript of Zelena Hora in the Czech lands at the beginning of the nineteenth century aroused great interest among the Polish intellectual and artistic elite, provoking discussions on the prehistory of Slavonic culture and generating numerous more or less faithful Polish translations of the texts included in manuscripts. This article addresses the problem of the musical reception of both forgeries in Poland, which is far more modest than the Polish literary works inspired by the two Czech forgeries or the historical studies addressing the issues outlined in them. To the modest list of composers using the texts from the two manuscripts in their musical works - which so far includes only Wladyslaw Zelenski and Ewa Fabianska-Jelinska - we should add Witold Lutoslawski, thanks to recent research on his works for radio theatre. Among the pieces composed by Lutoslawski for a radio play Legenda o Walgierzu Wdalym (The Legend of Walgierz Wdaly) with text by Stanislaw Nadzin, broadcast on Polish Radio in 1946, a fragment of the Libussa's Judgement performed by one of the play's protagonists has recently been found. This article contains the most important information about the plot and musical setting of the radio play, as well as analysing the vocal excerpts using the Polish translation of the Libussa's Judgement.
ER