Feliks Nowowiejski - Polish Courtship Overture Op. 6 (Straszyński)

Описание: Feliks Nowowiejski - Swaty Polskie: Uwertura
Published in 1903

Conductor: Andrzej Straszyński
Orchestra: Polish National Radio Symphony

Bio
Feliks Nowowiejski (1877-1946) was a Polish composer born in Barczewo (then Wartenburg). He was a prolific composer who, like Noskowski, faced censorship in his composition. Nowowiejski, however, was much more overt in his Polish patriotism. His composition "Rota" directly protested the Germanization of Poland by taking a patriotic poem and setting it to music. His direct Polish patriotism led to a boycott by the German public, after which his relevancy in Germany quickly dissolved. After the war, He appeared at the East Prussian Plebiscite as a pro-Polish speaker.

To understand Nowowiejski, one must consider the environment in which he was raised. Nowowiejski grew up in Warmia, which was then part of the newly declared Germany. Soon after the declaration of the German Empire, Bismark began his Kulturkampf against the "...Catholic and regionalist tendencies in the empire [1]." These efforts of targeting Catholicism necessarily put the Polish Language in the new German Empire's crosshairs. According to Adam Zamoyski, "...Pomeranian peasants who had never asked themselves whether they were Poles or Germans but knew they were Catholics declared themselves to be Polish, since this had become synonymous with being Catholic [1]." The use of Polish was gradually forbidden, culminating in 1900 with a law prohibiting religious education in Polish, leading to farcical moments involving German police searching churches to ensure no children were being taught to pray in Polish [1].

Nowowiejski was born to patriotic parents. His father, Franciszek, owned a tailor's workshop and supported soldiers who fought in the January Uprising by providing clothing to them as well as distributing flyers and encouraging voting in elections where Poles could be sent to the Prussian Parliament [2]. His mother, Katarzyna, was German by birth, but she and her husband spoke Polish. On paper, Nowowiejski's upbringing was a Polish one, but he and his siblings ended up speaking far better German as a result of Polish being banned in schools [2].

Nowowiejski's home life encouraged music, and Feliks began composing early. His mother sang folk songs and read poetry to her children while her husband was a member of a choir. Nowowiejski went on to study music in Święta Lipka, then to Olsztyn, and then to Berlin. At first, Nowowiejski did not make his Polishness known [3], but after having close contact Ludomir Różycki and Mieczysław Karłowicz at the university, his interest in his homeland was given new life [2]. From there, he began to appreciate the efforts of his father [2] and began to study Polish [4]. Nowowiejski's experience as an organist and a composer combined with his newfound dedication to his homeland to invigorate a whole new creative dimension that broke forth, leading to the compositions Rota, Quo Vadis, Ojczyzna, etc.

This overture was dedicated to Max Bruch, Nowowiejski's teacher, who later led the German boycott of Nowowiejski's work.

Bibliography
[1] A. Zamojski, Poland: A History, Hippocrene Books: New York, 2014.
[2] J. M. Garbula, Obraz rodziny Feliksa Nowowiejskiego. Aspekty Patriotyczne, religijny, ludowe. Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski. Wydział Nauk Społecznych. 2018.
[3] J. Jasiński, Przyczynek do środowiska Feliksa Nowowiejskiego w Świętej Lipce i sprawa początków jego tożsamości narodowej. W: K.D. Szatrawski (red.), Patriotyczne i religijne źródła twórczości Feliksa Nowowiejskiego. Barczewo: Stowarzyszenie Inicjatyw Obywatelskich. 2008.
[4] M. Zientara-Malewska, Moje wspomnienia o Feliksie Nowowiejskim. W: J. Boehm (red.), XV-lecie Państwowej Orkiestry Symfonicznej im. Feliksa Nowowiejskiego w Olsztynie. Olsztyn: Wydział Kultury Prezydium Wojewódzkiej Rady Narodowej. 1962.