Google Doodle has paid tribute to a man who endeavoured to create a national Polish style of music in tribute to his ancestry.
Composer Karol Szymanowski would have turned 141 today, and the search engine has remembered him with a special illustration to mark the occasion.
Mr Szymanowski helped provide Poland with its distinct musical identity shortly after the country gained its independence in 1918.
Google said: “He changed minds both on and off the conductor’s podium, whether it was about his music or identity. Perhaps his life’s forte was helping to establish a young country’s cultural identity amidst a changing world. Happy birthday, Karol Szymanowski!”
Karol Szymanowski’s early life
Originally born in 1882, to Polish nobility who had been outcast to the Ukrainian suburb of Timoshovka, he was a young boy when he learned to play the guitar. He then moved to Warsaw in Poland as a young adult in 1901 to learn more about his history and to develop his love of music. There, he learned about harmony, counterpoint, and composition, deciding to become a composer.
From 1901 until 1905, he attended the State Conservatory in Warsaw, and went on to co-found the Young Polish Composers’ Publishing Company. It was through this group that he was able to develop opportunities to perform his own pieces live on stage in Berlin and Warsaw, but he also travelled widely to undertake more opportunities.
The First World War, however, brought a halt to creative freedom in the country and Mr Szymanowski went back to his home, where he explored Mediterranean cultures and ancient Greek philosophy.
After World War I
Mr Szymanowki returned to Poland in 1919, and was drawn to the country as it had recently found independence. He believed that Poland lacked its own musical identity and style, and it was this that drove him forward.
The composer was said to have loved spending time in the Polish highlands for inspiration and created his own harmonies influenced by Polish folk music.
He became the director of the State Conservatory in Warsaw from 1926 until retiring in 1930, after developing acute tuberculosis, which was to plague him until his death in 1937.
However, during this time, he met many influential people, with whom he spoke about his dreams, such as poet JarosÅaw Iwaszkiewicz, dancer Borys Kochno, and actor Witold Conti.
Awards and recognition
Mr Szymanowski has mostly been appreciated for his impact on the music scene since his death, but in life he was recognised with many honours.
He was awarded the National Prize for Music in 1935 and even briefly served as the rector of Warsaw Conservatory while being an honorary member at many of the prominent music academies across the globe.
Mr Szymanowski was also awarded the highest national honors, including the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, as well as the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.
