The unknown creator of a famous Polish song – the story of Antoni Wincenty Rutkowski

Abstract

The subject of this article shows the current state of the Author’s research on the compositional legacy of Antoni Wincenty Rutkowski, an outstanding Polish composer, pianist and pedagogue, professor of the Warsaw Institute of Music, who lived in the second half of the 19th century. On their basis, the author proves the finding of a song published in Lviv, entitled “Prayer of the oppressed”, composed by Rutkowski to words by Kornel Ujejski, as a work identical to the famous song, commonly known as “Z dawna Polski Tyś Królowa”. This discovery refutes the existing contemporary view of the anonymous authorship of this song, considered one of the most important Polish Marian and patriotic songs. The primary purpose of this work is to document the above discovery, as well as to provide important knowledge, regarding the life and work, as well as the availability of the works of the composer, who, despite his uncommon talent, is one of the lesser-known Polish artists of the second half of the 19th century. The source of the surviving most valuable information about Rutkowski, which became the reason for the Author’s interest in the present topic, is the message left by the outstanding Polish pianist and composer, as well as politician and statesman – Ignacy Jan Paderewski. His essay, dating from 1886 and titled “Posthumous Memoir”, sheds clear light on Rutkowski’s personality and creative profile, and provides a foundation for characterizing the works of which Paderewski was a repeated performer and listener. Unfortunately, as a result of Rutkowski’s untimely death, as well as the difficult political situation of Poland at the time, being a country without sovereignty with all its consequences, the artist’s creative output was gradually forgotten. Compositions that fortunately survived the subsequent turmoil of war remained in poor quality manuscripts or first, 19th century editions and were scattered, in the possession of Polish and foreign libraries. Due to difficult accessibility, they ceased to be made over time. As a result of the research work undertaken by the Author and her editorial cooperation with the Euphonium publishing house, three publications, being collections of Rutkowski’s works, have now been published, while others are in preparation. A CD containing all of the composer’s piano and chamber works, which is being prepared by Chopin University Press, will also be published soon. The author hopes that the results of the research presented in this article will become an impetus for the popularization and interest in the works of Antoni Wincenty Rutkowski – the heir of the most outstanding artists of Polish Romanticism.