Lecture About Dabrowski's Mazurka, Polish National Anthem by Prof. Tadeusz Trzaskalik, 21 May 2022, at 11 am PST, Zoom

The Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club has a pleasure to invite you to a Zoom lecture (in Polish) by Prof. Tadeusz Trzaskalik of Katowice, Poland, for a lecture dedicated to the history of Polish national anthem, Dabrowski Mazurka, based on Piesn Legionow Polskich we Wloszech by Jozef Wybicki. The year 2022 is the 200th anniversary of General Wybicki's death, and the year to learn more about the complicated history of our national anthem. The lecture will be on Zoom on Saturday May 21, 2022 at 11 am PST, with slides and fragments of a documentary film "Jeszcze Polska nie zginela" about the history of the anthem, with fragments of many musical compositions relating to the Mazurka.  The whole video can be watched on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKyXCg120ug 

TADEUSZ TRZASKALIK 

Tadeusz Trzaskalik graduated from the Silesian University in Katowice with a degree in mathematics. Since 1975 he has been employed at the University of Economics in Katowice, where he also obtained his doctorate, habilitation, and the title of Profes¬sor of Economic Sciences. 

At his university, he was vice-rector in charge of international relations, director of graduate studies and a long-term head of the Department of Operational Research. At present he is a member of the Bureau of the Committee for Statistics and Econo¬metrics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is the author and editor of many scien¬tific and educational publications, scientific organizer of international and national conferences, editor-in-chief of the annual “Multiple Criteria Decision Making”, and member of editorial boards of several scientific journals. 

He graduated with distinction from the State High School of Music in Katowice, where he studied in Tadeusz Myrdacz’s piano class. In 2011 he obtained a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the Academy of Music in Katowice where he studied the piano under Józef Stompel’s supervision. He concertizes as solo and chamber music performer in Poland and abroad. His musical interests focus on solo and chamber music of the Baroque and Classical eras, as well as on popular music of the turn of the 20th century. His seven compact discs were recorded in the studio of the Polish Radio in Katowice and published jointly by the University of Economics in Katowice and the Association Pro Musica Organa.

Poland has not perished yet. The musical history of Dabrowski's Mazurka 

2022 is the bicentenary of the death of Józef Wybicki, the author of the words to the Song of the Polish Legions in Italy, known today as the Dabrowski Mazurka, which is the current national anthem of Poland. It is worth adding that the Sejm of the Republic of Poland announced the year 2022 as Józef Wybicki Year, justifying its decision with the following anniversaries: the 200th anniversary of the death of the general, the 225th anniversary of the first performance of the Song of the Polish Legions in Italy and the 275th anniversary of the birth of Wybicki. Above all - the reason for declaring 2022 the year of Wybickie was due to all his achievements .

The history of Dabrowski's Mazurka is connected in the first period after its creation with the persons of Michał Kleofas Ogiński, Tadeusz Kościuszko, Józef Poniatowski, Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, Napoleon and, of course, Józef Wybicki. Prof. Tadeusz Trzaskalik, a long-term lecturer at the University of Economics in Katowice. 

This presentation uses his recordings of piano music from the beginning of the 19th century, referring directly to the Dąbrowski Mazurka, as well as scans of the exhibits presented at the National Anthem Museum in Będomin - the birthplace of Józef Wybicki. It is worth adding that the presentation begins with the recording of the Song of the Polish Legions in Italy in the original version from 1797 performed by the Choir of the University of Economics in Katowice.

The musical history of the song from its creation to the present day will be presented.

Illustration from a set of postcard by Kossak about the Song of the Legions, 

Private collection of Maja Trochimczyk