Documentation Centre for the Works of Krakow Composers

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Contemporary Krakow is an important cultural centre with centuries-long tradition, where a generation after generation of outstanding artists created their works. The creative work of Krakow composers is one of the most significant phenomena of Polish culture in the 20th and 21st centuries, displaying at the same time the traits characteristic of a generational group referred to as the Krakow Composition School.

The nature of that group of artists has been shaped to the greatest extent by the Academy of Music in Kraków with its 130-year history dating back to the foundation of the Music Society Conservatoire in Kraków by Władysław Żeleński.

The body of work of Krakow composers encompasses tradition and avant-garde, diversified genres and styles, universal and national values, the masterful craft and profound message. The Krakow School was founded by eminent professors of the Academy of Music: Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar, Adam Walaciński, Bogusław Schaeffer, Zbigniew Bujarski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Marek Stachowski and Krzysztof Meyer. They built it on the foundations of the tradition of their predecessors – professors Stanisław Wiechowicz and Artur Malawski. Today, the amazing achievements of that group of composers are cherished at the Academy, and are also continued through the artistic and educational activities of their successors – the middle and the youngest generation of Krakow composers. Due to the wealth and significance of the aforementioned artists’ body of work, it requires serious documentation, reflection and interpretation; in addition, it may serve as a starting point for those who intend to study that entire phenomenon from the historical perspective.

The Academy’s efforts in that respect have already been quite considerable. They include joint publications of analytical nature, monographs on the artists’ body of work, and documentation efforts (catalogues), as well as records with the musical works of several generations of Krakow composers and archival recordings of works performed at concerts held at the Academy. In recent years, the publishing of music scores has also been initiated. Those efforts, taken in conjunction with the existing creative and research potential of Krakow’s music community, form an excellent basis for creating a professional unit at the Academy of Music: The Documentation Centre for the Works of Krakow Composers.