PT Journal
AU Drozdzewska, A
TI Recent State of Research on the Life and Work of Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf in Poland
SO Musicologica Olomucensia
PY 2019
BP 116
EP 130
VL 30
IS 2
DI 10.5507/mo.2019.017
DE Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf; Poland; Silesia; Wroclaw; state of research; source studies; musicology; opera; church music; symphonies; cataloguing
AB The paper presents the current state of research conducted by Polish scholars in the field of exploration and analysis of sources related to the work of Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf. This Vienesse-based composer played an important role in shaping the image of musical culture of Silesia at the end of the 18th century, especially due to his activity as a director of music at the bishop's court in Javornik castle. Another reason was his artistic contacts with most important cultural centers of the entire region, such as Wroclaw, Nysa, Bila Voda and Olesnica.First remarks concerning preserved sources on Dittersdorf in Poland appeared in 1960s in various papers on several different musical collections. Inspired by the activity of German (Hubert Unverricht) or Czech (Rudolf Zuber) researchers, comprehensive source studies on Dittersdorf were initiated at the turn of the 20th and the 21st Century in Poland: Maria Zduniak at the Academy of Music in Wroclaw aimed attention at contacts between Dittersdorf and Wroclaw, while Piotr Tarlinski and Remigiusz Pospiech at the University of Opole set his work in the wider context of Silesian and Polish music culture. The initial focus on sources from various Silesian centers (e.g. Wroclaw, Olesnica, Nysa, Klodzko, Krzeszow) was later extended to other music collections in Poland. As it turned out, the work of Dittersdorf (mainly symphonies, opera arias and church music) constituted an important part of music collections from various regions of Poland (e.g. Jasna Gora, Krakow-Mogila, Gidle, Staniatki and other). This circumstance enabled broader research in the field of music reception.Currently, the research on various aspects of the work of Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf is being conducted at the Institute of Musicology at the University of Wroclaw by Remigiusz Pospiech (religious music, especially in Silesian monasteries, reception of works in Silesia and Poland), Agnieszka Drozdzewska (late stage works for the ducal stage in Olesnica, contrafacta from the monastery collections, artistic contacts with Silesian centers), and Milosz Kula (sources and reception of symphonies). Bachelor and master theses on Dittersdorf's music also appear in musicological centers at the universities in Warsaw, Wroclaw, Poznan and Krakow, which shows a gradual increase of the interest in this topic. Works by Dittersdorf, preserved in Polish archives and libraries, are also gradually becoming available to a wider audience through the CD-recording series, including the project Musica Claromontana.
ER