The Museum of the City of Łódź just sent us a great publication, Paweł Klecki i Muzyka Łodzi/Paweł Klecki and the Music of Łódź. This compact and richly illustrated book presents one of the city’s prominent musicians—the world-famous conductor and recently rediscovered composer, Paweł Klecki (1900-1973) —and serves as a companion to an exhibit at the Łódź City Museum.
As it happens, Łódź was the birthplace of many prominent artists, including virtuoso pianist Artur Rubinstein (1887-1982), composers Aleksander Tansman (1897-1986), Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969), and Roman Ryterband (1914-1979), and poet Julian Tuwim (1894-1953). Held in the opulent space of the former Poznański Palace now occupied by the Łódź City Museum, the Klecki Exhibit was opened in September 2023 and held on display until early October 2024.
Besides providing interesting details about Klecki’s origins, this book features numerous photographs of the conductor, his concert programs and posters, as well as images of his friends, including Artur Rubinstein, Aleksander Tansman and Julian Tuwim. Without a doubt, this bilingual Polish-English publication will greatly enrich our library and will be shared with all kinds of researchers visiting the USC Polish Music Center.
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Rich Wideryński, a longtime friend and supporter of PMC, sent us a very interesting book entitled Horn Man—The Polish-American Musician in Twentieth Century Detroit. Written by Laurie A. Gomulka Palazzolo, the so-called “Horn Man’s” daughter, this richly illustrated volume is a treasure trove of beautifully presented programs, posters, manuscript facsimiles and photographs. These countless fascinating images illustrate the history of Polish folk and popular music bands in Detroit during the greater part of last century. Although Laurie’s dad, Ted Gomulka (1919-1998), holds the pride of place in this book (along with his relatives Tom and Wally Gomulka), many other great Polish-American musicians are also given their due with separate chapters on Stanley Adamus, Johnny Sadrack, Staś Wisniach, Ted Kotlowicz, Eddie Gajec, Eddie “Krzyk” Schick, Ted Lach, Ted Gorczyca-Gordon, Eddie and Helen Rowinski-Nabozny, Wally Duda, Clarence Witkowski, John Chrzaszcz, Ernie Skuta, Walt Lipiec, and Walt Cieslik.
The introductory chapters of this study cover various aspects of Polish culture in exile and the history of Detroit’s Polish community, summarizing a century of ethnic music-making in Detroit with an in-depth exploration of cultural values and ideals. An extensive bibliography and detailed index add to the great value of this resource for anyone interested in the subject of Polish popular and folk music in the United States. As such, this fine addition to our holdings will be an excellent reference resource to anyone exploring the PMC’s large collection of LP and CD recordings, as well as the many rare popular music scores and arrangements—often hand-written or published in a limited local print run—contained in the PMC’s one-of-a-kind library.
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Marek Żydowicz, another friend of PMC as well as the founder and director of the CAMERIMAGE Film Festival in Poland, recently visited Los Angeles and carried with him an unusual and very interesting gift for us. It is a promotional brochure for the feature film Moonlight Sonata, where Ignacy Jan Paderewski appears not only as a lead but also as a virtuoso pianist, performing a recital that includes works by Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt as well as his very famous Menuet. Interestingly, this brochure is in Polish; it may have been produced either in the U.S. by United Artists, or in England (where Pall Mall Films was the producer), or by the local distributor in Poland for an audience of Paderewski’s compatriots keen to see his screen debut in this 1937 film released locally as Sonata księżycowa. In any case, this rare and precious item will be added to the unprecedented Paderewski Archive—Paso Robles Collection, owned by the PMC.
As always, to all our donors: Dziękujemy! Thank you!