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Reviews
Joseph A. Herter. Zygmunt Stojowski: Life and Music. Los Angeles: Figueroa Press, 2007. xxi, 327 pp. Paperbound. ISBN 1932800263.
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Zygmunt Stojowski, born near Kielce in Russian Poland in 1870, was once a much celebrated post-romantic composer and pianist whose work has disappeared from the concert repertoire for some years. Recently, however, Joseph Herter espies a modest revival of interest. This sympathetic effort to reconstruct the "life and music" of Stojowski is the product of extraordinarily diligent research. |
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Stojowski spent his childhood in Kraków and went to Paris in 1887 where he was a brilliant student of piano and composition. He also became a student, and life-long devotee, of Paderewski as well as associating with the elite of French musical society. He came to the United States in 1905 and spent the remainder of his life here. During the First World War he was deeply involved in relief activities on behalf of Poland and became entangled in the politics of international Polish relief. |
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Stojowski's active career as a composer waned markedly after he came to the United States, virtually ceasing between 1916–1922. Thereafter he was an open critic of the changing musical world and his popularity faded. He was again active in Polish relief and associated politics during World War II, but his musical career was essentially over. Herter has set himself the task of rescuing Stojowski from obscurity and, by discussing his musical accomplishments, of helping to revive his artistic reputation. |
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The efforts Herter has made to assemble this work are exemplary. There is a "catalog," extensively annotated, of Stojowski's compositions assembled from literally scores of repositories. This appendix is more than one-hundred pages in length. A reconstruction of all his performances follows as does a discussion of Stojowski's manuscripts and a detailed bibliography. The volume is moreover richly illustrated with many photographs and reproductions. |
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The text is rather brief, excluding illustrations perhaps only eighty-five pages. Herter is at great pains to reconstruct all of his hero's associations and musical works and occasionally becomes perhaps too detailed. Stojowski's personality remains elusive. The author, in a striking passage acknowledges that he has not consulted Stojowski's voluminous writings—"these efforts [i.e. his writings] have not yet been researched or used in [the] writing of this book" (p. 122). Whereas Stojowski was, of course, a man of music, his writings on Poland and politics in general would be a valuable source. He was, after all, rather intimately involved in the politics of Polish relief during both World Wars; and the author claims—not convincingly—that Paderewski offered Stojowski a position in his brief 1919 government (p. 119). Hence, it would be most useful to know of his views beyond music. |
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The Paderewski-Stojowski relationship was very intimate, and Herter is deeply respectful of both men. Paderewski's historic role appears perhaps a bit too large. Hence, the author's devotion to both men led him to write critically of this reviewer's remarks concerning Paderewski and Stojowski made at a public lecture some time ago. This requires disclosure from a reviewer but justifies no additional comment. |
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There are a few, very few, minor slips, but these are most trivial. We have in sum a devoted effort to save a worthy man and his efforts from oblivion; an effort, moreover, of commendable diligence. |
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| M. B. B. Biskupski
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| Central Connecticut State University |
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