The Influence of Functional Music on Witold Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra

Grant Coughlin
 Coughlin !1

Prelude to a Concerto

Witold Lutosławski referred to his Dance Preludes of 1954 as his “farewell to folklore.” 1

The five-movement suite for piano and clarinet was the first composition he completed after the

Concerto for Orchestra and was the last composition to utilize folk songs. It was not disdain

which caused Lutosławski’s change of heart, as he did not turn his back on folk music per se, but

rather, he found a new way forward. As the composer foreshadowed after his first symphony, he

“could not develop in that direction anymore;”2 he had to “create something for himself.”3 These

words would echo for several years while he wrote as he was able, since he could not yet write as

he wished.4 It was only after he had exhausted all of the latent potential within the songs of his

native Poland, that his technical abilities were ready to solve the problems faced by composers of

the post-war generation. But before the development of his melodic/harmonic systems, the

implementation of ad libitum sections, his chain forms, and of course, the lucrative commissions

that went along with his accolades, Lutosławski hustled for work.

Lutosławski was the sole provider for his family, living in a country literally picking up

the pieces to rebuild itself from the destruction of World War II. Unfortunately, Poland’s

autonomy was short-lived, as one authoritarian power was replaced by another. Thus, for the

second time in Lutosławski’s life, his home was subjugated, and he was confronted with the

burden of composing under a regime suspicious of the avant-garde, which wielded the economic

1 Steven Stucky, Lutosławski and his Music (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 59.
2 Ibid., 32.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid., 59.
 Coughlin !2

leverage to impose its stubbornly backward ideological will. But despite the lack of support for

progress, Lutosławski refined his craft by treating the opportunities available to him as a litmus

test. So-called “functional music” served as the medium for his experimentation,5 which, as the

term implies, was composed for a specific purpose, often pedagogical or incidental. It could be

thought of as utility music, in reference to Paul Hindemith, a similarity which Lutosławski

himself seemed to acknowledge in his reference of it as Gebrauchsmusik.6

For the better half of the 20th century, this part of Lutosławski’s oeuvre has been

relatively neglected, and has thus succumbed to its current status of collecting academic dust.

The reasons for this are twofold: 1. The lack of primary sources due to historical circumstances,

and 2. The composer’s mixed feelings about the music, which were apathetic at best. The

consensus among Steven Stucky and Charles Bodman Rae, two preeminent subject-matter

experts in this field, regarding their critical opinion of Lutosławski’s functional music, is that he

only composed it for profit. Stucky writes, “It would be a mistake to take too seriously the

functional music by which Lutosławski supported himself and his family from the war’s end

until about 1960, for clearly he himself did not take these works to be serious artistic statements.

So little importance did he attach to them that many of the manuscripts have disappeared.”7 Rae

writes, “Lutosławski was obliged to engage in this form of professional activity for purely

practical and financial reasons, rather than ideological or philosophical ones.” 8 The problem with

5 Stucky, Lutosławski and his Music, 37.

6 Translates literally to “music for use.”
7 Stucky, Lutosławski and his Music, 38.
8 Charles Bodman Rae, The Music of Lutosławski. (London: Faber and Faber, 1994), 19.
 Coughlin !3

these generalizations is that they do not account for Lutosławski’s attestation that he had planned

to compose folk music well-before the doctrine of socialist realism9 had taken effect, a fact

evidenced by the abandoned Kurpian Suite, which he began composing before his conscription

into the Polish army.10

On the surface, these seemingly utilitarian works appear to conform to the aesthetics

“suggested” by the government, but beneath their melodic simplicity reveals an imagination that

does not toe the line. Atonal counterpoint and metrical obfuscation breathe new life into old

songs, and an astute understanding of psychology, bestowed by his sensitivity to the

manipulation of musical form, serves his developing sense of dramaturgy. If the Concerto for

Orchestra is the culmination of Lutosławski’s middle period, as Steven Stucky considers it to

be,11 then his functional music was a sherpa to the summit.

Working Conditions

The politically charged environment in Poland after its liberation from Germany

following World War II left a vacuum for government. Both pro and anti-communist

sympathizers vied for power, a fight which was eventually won by the Soviets, not by violence,

however, but by corrupt politics.12 The ramifications of this silent coup had a stifling effect on

the arts. Understanding the working conditions in Poland during the mid to late 1940s facilitates

a better understanding of the music Lutosławski composed during these years.

9 A termused to describe the communist ideology of truth, simplicity, and most importantly,
party-mindedness.
10 Stucky, Lutosławski and his Music, 14.
11 Ibid., 48-9.
12 Ibid., 34.
 Coughlin !4

Although it would be melodramatic to describe the situation as tyrannical, as composers

were not subjected to the same censorship as writers who were deemed dissidents by the

government, there were repercussions for works which were perceived as being formalist, the

catch-all term used to stigmatize a work for complexity, or worse, Western influence.13

Lutosławski experienced this firsthand after the premier of his Symphony No. 1, which was

condemned by critics and banned from the repertoire, not to be performed again for ten years.14

State-sponsored competitions and selective commissioning processes functioned as

vehicles to promote the government’s political agenda. Even those who were fortunate to have a

job as a professor or conductor relied on the prize money to supplement their salaries and the

prestige to further their careers.15 This subsidization of music resulted in the begrudging

cooperation of composers, which according to David G. Tompkins, was the norm rather than the

exception:

Nearly all Polish composers eagerly accepted commissions to create socialist-realist

works during this period … Increasingly, however, they grew reluctant to follow the
PZPR’s drive to push through a rigid program of commissioning works that fit a narrowly
defined socialist-realist paradigm … In the late 1940s, party officials frequently
employed the ingenious but unreliable method of contests as a way to solicit large
numbers of desired works from composers.16

Contrary to retrospective statements purported by Lutosławski, in which he distanced himself

from his participation in and acceptance of competition and commission awards, the reality is

13David G. Tompkins, Composing the Party Line: Music and Politics in Early Cold War Poland
and East Germany. (Ashland: Purdue University Press, 2013), 20.
14 Rae, 31-32.
15 Tompkins, Composing the Party Line, 131.
16 Ibid., 132-133
 Coughlin !5

that he had neither of the aforementioned jobs as a backup and was therefore relatively

dependent on the income from these projects.17

The ministry helped to organize a first major contest in 1948 and offered sizeable [sic]
prize money … Some contests had a more subtle message, as in the case of one in 1949
to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Alexander Pushkin’s birth and thereby promote
a positive view of Russians and Russian culture. First place went to Alfred Gradstein with
A Winter Evening (Wieczór zimowy) and second to Witold Lutosławski for Avalanche
(Lawina).18

The composer’s disassociation is understandable, considering the prevalent misconception that

he was coerced into composing against his will, a falsity which Lutosławski said “haunts [him]

in concert programmes, commentaries, [and] record sleeve notes.” 19 But relying solely on his

account mirrors the biographical inaccuracies which frustrated him, a problem which Stucky

argues is the result of composers unwilling to relinquish their legacies to the “dicey fate”20 of

musicology, as well as “intense historicism,”21 exemplified by a blind trust in the infallibility of a

composer’s word. Lutosławski said “the very thought that people believed [he] collaborated with

the regime was bitterly painful, and that [he] never made a compromise,” 22 but Tompkins’

research of the subject presents compelling evidence which proves otherwise, including a

handwritten letter by Lutosławski agreeing to compose music for Joseph Stalin’s seventieth

17 Stucky, Lutosławski and his Music, 37.

18 Tompkins, 132-133.
19
Tadeusz Kaczyński, Conversations with Witold Lutosławski. translated by Yolanta May and
Charles Bodman Rae. (London: Chester Music, 2012), 9.
20 Stucky, quoted in Skowron, Lutosławski Studies, 130.
21 Ibid.
22 Tompkins, 135.
 Coughlin !6

birthday celebration.23 As it is often the case when there are two sides to a story, the truth usually

lies somewhere in the middle.

The consequence which Soviet ulterior motives had on the patronage of the arts is

observable within the art itself. This is not necessarily bad, however, as the byproduct, which if

Lutosławski’s children’s songs are used as an example, were praised by both the composer and

critics for their aesthetic and pedagogical value. Lutosławski’s plan to compose folk music

before it became a bullet point in the doctrine of socialist realism24 is interesting because it

demonstrates that the internal and external factors which influenced his contributions to the

genre of functional music were not mutually exclusive, but coincided with each other.

Early Commissions

When Tadeusz Ochlewski, founder of the Polish Music House (PWM) commissioned

Lutosławski to compose music for piano students, it marked the beginning of a business

relationship between the composer and the PWM which would last a lifetime. This specific

commission was important to Lutosławski, who felt it was the civic duty of a composer to offer

their service for the benefit of society.25 The commission was completed in 1945, and fulfilled by

twelve short miniatures known as Melodie Ludowe. Like the abandoned Kurpian Suite predating

the drop of the iron curtain, Melodie Ludowe is also based on folk songs from several regions of

Poland.26

23 Tompkins, 135.
24 Ibid., 22.
25 Kaczyński, 9.
26 Rae, 21-22.
 Coughlin !7

The first of the twelve Melodie Ludowe, “Ach moj Jasienko” (“Oh, My Johnny”),

presents a melody in G-minor, and is accompanied by a series of broken intervals which relate to

the pitch center of G, but the inclusion of both Bb and B-natural, as well as Eb and E-natural

preclude a specific modality (ex.1).

Sostenuto e = ca 126
3 j j
&8 œ œ œ œ œ bœ œ œ œ #œ œ
bœ œ
Piano p M3 A2 = m3 m3 M3 M3
?3 ‰ ‰ ‰ œ ‰ ‰
{
6
8 &œ œ
° *
bœ #œ
° *
nœ
° *
#œ œ
° *
œ œ
° *
œ œ bœ œ j ™™ œ œ
& bœ J œ œ J
m3 m3
Pno. poco f
‰ j ? nœ nœ ™™ j œ bœ
{& bœ
° *
#œ œnœ
° *
bœ b œj
° * ° *
b œœ
° *
1.1 “Ach moj Jasienko” (mm. 1-9)

This ambiguity is the byproduct of the lefthand’s intervallic composition. Seven out of the eight

bars which comprise the A-section of the binary form are comprised solely from the pairing of

seconds and thirds, first ascending, then descending. A reduction of the passage illustrates how it

could also be analyzed as a tritone moving by half step in contrary motion around an axis of a

minor second (ex. 1.2)

& bn#w
www nbw bn#w
www www

1.2 Reduction of “Ach moj Jasienko” (mm. 1-6)

 Coughlin !8

The technique of interval pairing, which was already present in his earlier works, such as the Two

Etudes for Piano, albeit in a prototypical form, would become a defining characteristic of the

pitch organization for all of the music he composed which would follow,27 including the

Concerto for Orchestra. The quasi cadential fifth in bar eight (i.e., B-E) functions as an implied

tonic a tritone away from Bb, the pitch center of the B-section. The allusion to Bartók’s axis

system28 is obvious, but what is more significant is that this figure and its transpositions are

added to the intervals previously used to establish an increased secondary collection of intervals

consisting of seconds, thirds, and now, fifths. This technique of progressively increasing the

number of different intervals used has an analogue in the Intrada of the Concerto for Orchestra,

where the buildup of perfect fifths which gradually rise upward from the bottom of the orchestra

with the imperceptibility of a Shephard’s tone, subsequently fall downward in their inverted

form, perfect fourths.

The last four of the Melodie Ludowe (numbers 9-12) were repurposed as Four Melodie

Ślaskie by Lutosławski in 1954, the same year that the Concerto for Orchestra was completed.

Comparing the original piano part of number ten, Gaik (the Grove), to the arrangement he made

for violin quartet exemplifies the composer’s preoccupation with texture. Lutosławski’s “blurred

toccata”29 style, which Stucky attributes to the Capriccio Notturno of the Concerto for

27 Rae, 25.
28 A term used by Ernõ Lendvai in his book Béla Bartók: An Analysis of His Music (England:
Stanmore Press Ltd., 1971), to describe the harmonic substitution of a tonic with pitch centers a
minor third and tritone apart. Not to be confused with the compositional technique of melodic
axes systems.
29 Stucky, Lutosławski and His Music, 58.
 Coughlin !9
Album for the Young: Folk Melodies | Alexander Street 10/2/17, 11:59 PM

Orchestra, and which became a distinguishing feature of his mature style, can actually be

observed here in the first four measures of the adaptation. The two-voice homophonic version is

not merely transcribed, but transformed into a heterophonic sound mass.

Four Silesian Melodies | Alexander Street

1.3 Gaik (mm. 1-4) from Melodie Ludowe,1945

1.4 Gaik (mm. 1-4) from Four Melodie Ślaskie, 1954

From these examples it seems plausible that Lutosławski’s decision to revisit the functional

music from his past was not exclusive to the early commissions, and that perhaps, there might be
Page 27 of 40

further signs of similar modernization elsewhere in his future music.

 Coughlin !10

Concerto for Orchestra

By 1954, the Concerto for Orchestra was three years in the making, well-past conductor

Witold Rowicki’s informal proposal that Lutosławski write something for the newly

reestablished Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.30 Lutosławski approached the request as an

opportunity to elevate what he had learned from functional music, and integrate it into a

composition of symphonic proportions befitting of the concert hall:

The whole series of ‘functional’ pieces which I wrote based on folk themes gave me the
possibility of developing a style which though narrow and limited, was nevertheless
characteristic enough … I thought at the time that this marginal style would not be
entirely fruitless and that despite its having come into being while I was writing typical
‘functional’ music, I could possibly make use of it in writing something more serious.

The original plan was to compose an orchestral work similar in style and scope to the frequently

referred to “little brother” of the Concerto for Orchestra, the folk-based Mala Suite,31 which was

commissioned for radio broadcast the same year, but not even the composer himself knew how

significant his undertaking would become:

This was to be something not difficult, but which could, however, give the young
orchestra an opportunity to show its qualities. I started to work on the new score not
realizing that I was to spend nearly four years on it … A work came into being, which I
could not help including among my most important works, as a result of my episodic
symbiosis with folk music and in a way that was for me somewhat unexpected.32

Although a complete analysis of the Concerto for Orchestra would be impractical to

include, a brief overview of its salient features is essential to perceiving the correlation between

30 Stucky, Lutosławski and his Music, 48.

31 Rae, 37.
32 Stucky, Lutosławski and his Music, 45
 Coughlin !11

it and Lutosławski’s functional music. Stylistic traits of the concerto include: harmonic

aggregates built from the accretion of motivic cells, rhythmic irregularity controlled by the

expansion and contraction of phrases, coloristic orchestration, and a mastery of musical form to

effectively direct a dramatic course of action, or “akcja.”33 Obviously, folk songs are also

inextricably part of the concerto too. Stucky cites eight primary folk songs, which originate from

Masovia, a region near Warsaw.34 The songs are primarily from a compendium of folk music

compiled by the Polish ethnographer Oskar Kolberg, whose work Lutosławski was already

familiar with from the settings of the Dwadziesci koled (twenty Polish Christmas carols) he

composed in 1946. Number four on Stucky’s list is the folk song “Przedzierzgnę się

golębica” (“I’m Turning into a Gray Dove”), shown below.

3 j j Ϫ
&4 œ œ œ œ œ œ œJ œJ œ œ œJ œ œ
j j j
œ œ œ œJ œJ œj
J J J J J J
5

&
œ™ œ œJ œJ œ œ ˙
J J
œ™ œ œJ œJ œ œ ˙
J J
J J
1.5 “Przedzierzgnę się golębica”

According to Stucky, this melody “presents the most radical transformation of a folk source in

the entire concerto.” 35 He continues by writing that it is “distorted beyond audible recognition,

though the intervals are preserved.”36 The preservation he refers to is paramount to

33Nicholas Reyland, "Lutosławski, 'Akcja', and the Poetics of Musical Plot,” Music and Letters, 88, No. 4
(2007): 11.
34 Stucky, Lutosławski and his Music, 49-50
35 Stucky, Lutosławski and his Music, 53.
36 Ibid.
 Coughlin !12

comprehending the correlation between it and the theme from a film score composed by

Lutosławski several years earlier, which will be examined in detail.

Referring to the sections of the concerto as “movements” is somewhat of a misnomer as

the seamlessness between its constituent parts is not easily divisible without disrupting the

overarching continuity of its macroscopic form. Perhaps a better description would be to use the

terms which Lutosławski’s composition teacher, Witold Maliszewski, taught him in his class on

musical form. The idea of “character” was used to describe the different parts of a composition,

and most importantly, the function of those parts, whose purpose was: 1. Introductory, 2.

Transitional, 3. Expository, and 4. Concluding. With the title of Intrada, there is no confusion as

to which one of Maliszewski’s “characters” Lutosławski put into play to initiate the concerto. For

the transitional section, Lutosławski composed a scherzo, which he gave the designation

Capriccio Notturno, for its fast paced nocturnal feel. In contrast to the murmuring effect of the

A-section’s nimble string runs, the scherzo’s B-section, or Arioso, is marked cantando, but four

trumpets with a dynamic marking of fortissimo do not sing as much as they shout. Lutosławski’s

presentation of the theme is punctuated by two responses to its call. The first is a set of

woodwind chords doubled by percussion, which outline three minor triads each a minor third

apart (i.e. G# minor, B minor, D minor). The second, is a wedge-shaped series of descending

minor thirds juxtaposed with an ascending series of major thirds separated by a semitone. In the

ensuing measures, these accompanimental patterns are then systematically transposed in the

same manner as the inner voices were in the example from Melodie Ludowe.
 Coughlin !13

Æj Æ
Stesso movimento (h. = q_q_q = 57) fl.+ob.+cl.
Æj
n œ ‰ n œœj ‰
œ œ
# œ #‰œ nœœ#œ nœœœ œ ™
9 ∑ Ó™
Winds &4 #œœœ œ Ó
' ' ' ' ''
ff
9tpt. #˙ œ œœ
Brass & 4 #˙ ™ ˙ œ œ œ#œ œ ˙ #w ™
ff cantando quasi legato
°B 9 Ó™ Ó™ ∑
4 œ bœ œ œ
vla. ' ' œ ' n œ '
Strings ' '
ff
Æ Æ Æ Æ Æ Æ
?9 œ ™ Ó™
¢ 4 #œœ#bœœnnœœ#œœn#œœ œ Ó
∑
vlc.+db.' ' ' ' ' '

Winds & ∑ ∑

w™ ˙™ ˙ œ œ œ #œ œ œ
Brass & #œ œ ˙ œ œœ
°B Ó™ Ó™ bœ bœ' œ œ' nœ œ ˙ ™ ˙™ ˙™
' ' ' '
Strings Æ Æ Æ Æ Æ Æ
? Ó™ Ó™ œ #bœœnnœœ#œœn#œœ œ ∑
¢ œ œ
' ' ' ' ' '
Æ Æj Æj
5 œœj ‰ n œœ ‰œ bnb œœœœ ‰œ w ™ œ™ œ™ nœ ™ bœ™
#œn#œœ nœ œ™ œ™
Winds & œœœ œ
' ' '' ' '
Brass & œ œ ˙™ ˙™ œ œ œ œ #œ œ œ
œ œœœ œ œ œ œ ˙
œ œ œ
°B ≤ ≥
˙™ ˙™ ˙™ ˙™ ˙™ ˙™
Strings
? ∑ ∑
¢

1.6 Reduction of the Arioso theme (mm. 311-316)

Lutosławski’s palette of compositional resources which he draws from are all connected by the

systemization in which they are used. It is ironic that the music of a composer best known for

limited aleatory, is in actuality, highly ordered.

The origins of the Concerto for Orchestra are manifested not only in the early

commissions composed for the PWM, such as Melodie Ludowe, but also in another genre,

seldom discussed, and never performed.

 Coughlin !14

Film Scores

Polish avant-garde films of the 1920s and 30s experienced a precipitous decline in

production during the 1940s, a consequence of World War II. As the demand for representation

of current events in cinema increased, it created a burgeoning new market for documentary films,

which in turn, was supplied by an influx of recent film-school graduates.37 Lutosławski was not

new to film scoring at this time. In fact, he was relatively well-practiced, having worked on three

previous films in the mid 1930s while studying at the Warsaw Conservatory. These films were

akin to our modern-day public service announcements. Titles such as Gore (Fire), Uwaga

(Beware), and Zwarcie (Short Circuit), had practical messages about workplace safety and home

fire prevention. Although these films no longer exist, there are indirect records of their initial

reception in the form of newspaper reviews. One critic praised his music by writing that the

soundtrack “merged with the film harmoniously.”38 Scholars can only speculate what the music

sounded like, but it probably reflected the neo-classical style which was representative of his

concurrent works from this period, most notably, the Symphonic Variations.

For a few sovereign years between shifting governance, directors enjoyed the creative

freedom afforded to a privately funded industry, but when the Soviets nationalized it during the

rise of Stalinism, documentaries became an effective means to dispense propaganda. 39 Reluctant

37Kamila Kuc, The Struggle for Form: Perspectives on Polish Avant-Garde Film 1916-1989.
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2014), 58.
38 Review from Kronika filmowa, “Wiadomości Literackie” 1934, nr 47, s. 6, quoted in Wioleta
Muras, “Kadry muzyką opatrzone. O krótkiej współpracy Witolda Lutosławskiego z
filmowcami” Kwartalnik Młodych Muzykologów, UJ, No. 28 (2016): 10.
39 Kuc, 59.
 Coughlin !15

to concede the audio of their films to the censurability of narration, directors tried to limit the

aural space to only music, opting for wall-to-wall score in lieu of commentary.40 The 1946

documentary film, Odrą do Bałtyku, is an exception, which unashamedly features a loud,

boisterous narrative, which buries the film’s score underneath its overt nationalistic sentiment.

Odrą is director Stanisław Urbanowicz’s thirty-eight-minute vision depicting Poland’s

reacquisition of its homeland from Germany. The film is divided into three parts: 1. An

introduction explaining the extent of the land seized and liberated; 2. The rebuilding of the

nation’s infrastructure, depicted by factory workers and coal miners; 3. The monuments along the

Oder river which survived the war.41 Enhancing these images and accompanying the narrator’s

dialogue is the film score, which Lutosławski worked on for two months from December 1945 to

January 1946.42 Stylistically, the score to Odrą is comparable to Melodie Ludowe, and like that

composition, predates the Concerto for Orchestra by at least five years. It also prefigures it too,

sometimes with remarkable exactness. Twenty-three minutes and thirty-six seconds into the film,

a theme is introduced by the brass (ex. 1.7).

3 #œ
Oboe 4 Œ #œ
q = ca 76 p

4
&4
2 3 4 2 3
Brass 4 4 4#œ œ ˙ 4 #œ # œ 4 ˙ ™
# œ- œ- ˙ # œ. # œ # œ ˙™ - - . œ.
.
° 4f ∑ 2 3 j j 4 2 3 j
&4 4 ∑ 4 #œœ ‰ Œ œœ ‰ 4 ‰ ‰ Œ Ó 4 ‰ ‰ Œ 4 #œœ ‰ Œ Œ
>œ >œ >œ
Strings f
j j j
?4 ∑ 2 ∑ 3 #œœœ ‰ Œ œœ ‰ 4 ‰ ‰ Œ Ó 2 ‰ ‰ Œ 3 #œœœ ‰ Œ Œ
¢ 4 4 4 œ 4 4 4
œ> >œ
>œ
1.7 Transcription of the brass theme from Odrą do
Bałtyku at 23:36-23:50.
40
Kuc, 59
41 Muras, “Kadry muzyką opatrzone,” 17.
42
Ibid.
 Coughlin !16

The antecedent phrase begins and ends on a G#, with only its neighbors A# and F# as auxiliaries

tones. The consequent phrase begins and ends on a C#, with only its neighbors D# and B as

auxiliaries. This theme, presented in a modally mixed C#,43 has its counterpart in the Arioso

theme of the Concerto for Orchestra—both being transformations of the folk song

“Przedzierzgnę się golębica.” (“I’m turning into a gray dove”) previously mentioned (ex. 1.5). A

side-by-side reduction illustrates their likeness (ex. 1.8).

& #˙ œ œ #œ œ ˙ #˙ œ œ œ œ ˙
# ˙ # œ # œ ˙ # ˙ #œ œ ˙

1.8 A. Reduction of Arioso. B. Reduction of Odra.

Due to the frequency shifts in the score to Odrą, determining precise notes can be

difficult at times, which means, disregarding the octave displacement, that it is possible that the

Arioso theme is not a step lower than the theme from Odrą, but could actually be the same pitch-

class. This would not be as significant as the resemblance between the two themes itself, but it

would be interesting nonetheless as further proof of a possible subconscious connection by the

composer. The fluctuations in the audio are within the range of a phenomenon of reproduction

43The major-minor interplay of this theme is consistent with that of “Ach moj Jasienko”
analyzed on pages 6-7.
 Coughlin !17

devices known as “wow and flutter.” 44 In Sound for Film and Television, Holman Tomlinson

describes the peculiarities of the machines used before the advent of digital technology:

Analog mechanical tape and film transports, and phonograph records, are subject to pitch
variations as the speed of the mechanism varies slightly around the normal playback
speed … For instance running a tape machine at half-speed produces frequencies that are
one-half the original on playback. It should thus not be surprising that speed variations
result in pitch variations.

Using a standard electric tuner, the brass’ unaccompanied G# at 23:38 is approximately twelve

cents flat and deviates in pitch by plus/minus four cents. This is more than enough to be

detectable by the human ear:

Human hearing is particularly attuned to pitch variations and is able to distinguish a very
small fraction of 1 percent variation under optimum conditions … Measurements are
standardized differently in different parts of the world, so the numbers derived in Europe,
the United States, and Japan are not necessarily comparable … Unfortunately, like noise,
wow and flutter is something that accumulates over generations, and performance that is
fine for one generation may well be audible when accumulated over multiple generations.

The warbling becomes especially noticeable at 23:49 when an oboe dovetails with the

end of the brass phrase. This instrument, according to Tomlinson, is particularly susceptible to

the side effects of analog playback: “Wow and flutter is typically most audible on music,

including solo instruments such as oboes and piano.” 45

44Tomlinson Holman, Sound for Film and Television (Independence: Taylor and Francis, 2010),
50.
45 Ibid.
 Coughlin !18

Functional Music

After the success of the Concerto for Orchestra, Lutosławski’s reputation as the

preeminent composer in Poland was being solidified. The prestige granted him the luxury to be

more selective about which offers he was willing to accept, but he still composed functional

music up until the early 1960s. The thaw of the Cold War allowed unprecedented access to

Western culture, whose sounds of light music and jazz were imported into a new and welcoming

Central European home. Lutosławski capitalized on this by writing popular dance music of the

time, such as tangos and foxtrots under the pseudonym “Derwid,”46 a reference to a literary

character doomed to a menial existence. By the mid 1960s, most propositions for functional

music were politely declined; the reason was simple—they could no longer compete financially

with the orchestras soliciting for his creativity.

Lutosławski’s functional music was not a digression, but a path which ran parallel to the

development of what he considered to be his serious music. The end of his folkloristic period in

the late 1950s was just the beginning of his avant-garde period in the early 1960s. Even with

hindsight in mind, it never ceases to amaze that at this point in Lutosławski’s history, Jeux

Vénetien was right around the corner. Based on the traceability of the Concerto for Orchestra’s

style, it is evident that the functional music, which Lutosławski seemed to flip-flop his opinion

on from interview to interview, was more valuable than even the composer himself would give

credit to. These stepping stones, on one occasion described by Lutosławski as a “pleasure,”47 and

46 Adrian Thomas, “Your Song is Mine” The Musical Times, 136, No. 1830 (2005): 407.
47 Kaczyński, 9.
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on another occasion described by him as merely “left-handed”48 (implying that his right hand

was busy composing masterpieces), were not able to be objectively evaluated by a composer as

notoriously critical as Lutosławski, but as Steven Stucky eloquently wrote in regards to the

composer’s self-depricating comment, Lutosławski had a “superb left hand.”49 Regardless of

why Lutosławski composed the music, it undoubtedly contributed to his growth as a composer,

and for that reason alone deserves to be vindicated from its pejorative connotation. A newfound

perspective is well overdue in light of its influence, which was, in the truest sense of the word,

functional.

48 Stucky, quoted in Skowron, Lutosławski Studies, 131.

49 Ibid.
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Bibliography

I. Transcripts, musical scores, and audio-visual sources

Kaczyński, Tadeusz. Conversations with Witold Lutosławski. translated by Yolanta May and
Charles Bodman Rae. London: Chester Music, 2012.

Lutosławski, Witold (composer and conductor). Concerto for Orchestra. Polish National Radio
Symphony Orchestra. Warner Classics, reissued in 1994, remastered in 2008, 3 compact
discs. Recoded in 1976.

Lutosławski, Witold (composer and conductor). Dance Preludes. Bavarian Radio Symphony
Orchestra. Phillips, reissued in 1990, compact disc. Recorded in 1986.

Lutosławski, Witold. Concerto for Orchestra. London: Chester Music, 1982.

Lutosławski, Witold. Dance Preludes. London: Chester Music, 1989.

Lutosławski, Witold. Melodie Ludowe. London: Chester Music, 1991.

Makarczyński, Tadeusz. Odrą do Bałtyku. YouTube video, 38:01, posted by “Mariusz

Agnosiewicz” on January 12, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzNhPREKLdI.

Rust, Douglas. "Conversation with Witold Lutosławski." The Musical Quarterly 79, no. 1
(Spring, 1995): 207-23.

II. Biographical and analytical sources

Muras, Wioleta. “Kadry muzyką opatrzone. O krótkiej współpracy Witolda Lutosławskiego z

filmowcami” Kwartalnik Młodych Muzykologów, UJ, No. 28 (2016): 5-30 (my translation).

Rae, Charles Bodman. The Music of Lutosławski. London: Faber and Faber, 1994.

Reyland, Nicholas. "Lutosławski, 'Akcja', and the Poetics of Musical Plot."

Music & Letters 88, no. 4 (2007): 604-31.

Skowron, Zbigniew. “Lutosławski’s Aesthetics: A Reconstruction of the Composer’s Outlook”

In Lutosławski Studies, edited by Zbigniew Skowron. Oxford: Oxford Univesity Press,
2001: 3-15.

Stucky, Steven. Lutosławski and his Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Thomas, Adrian. "Your Song Is Mine" The Musical Times 136, no. 1830 (1995): 403-08.