Maja Trochimczyk, ed

The selection of writings by Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) reprinted here continues the documents published in the previous issue of the Journal. The text about Fryderyk Chopin is a reprint of a 1911 edition of Paderewski’s 1910 speech translated by Laurence Alma-Tadema. The composer gave this lecture at the celebrations of a 100th anniversary of Chopin’s birth in Lwów (also known as Lemberg and, presently, Lviv). In 1908, Paderewski commissioned a monument to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the victory of Polish-Lithuanian army over the Teutonic Knights on the fields of Grunwald (known in Germany as Tannenberg). The Grunwald Monument was unveiled in Kraków in 1910 and Paderewski’s speech, given on this occasion, was praised for its rhetorical values and political effectiveness. In 1915 Paderewski began a fund-raising campaign in the U.S. to raise charitable donations for the Polish Victims’ Relief Fund; the fund itself was established in May 1915 and the selection of Paderewski’s texts associated with this effort includes publications in concert program, newspapers, and music journals from May, September and October of that year. These speeches have been gathered from miscellaneous sources, press clippings and concert programs in the collection of the Polish Music Center. Finally, Paderewski’s political speech to Polish Americans who met in Chicago under the auspices of the National Security League in 1918 was first published in Józef Orłowski, ed., Ignacy Jan Paderewski i odbudowa Polski, 2 vol. (Chicago: The Stanek Press, 1939-1940).

Ignacy Jan Paderewski: Fryderyk Chopin (1910)
Ignacy Jan Paderewski: Address at the Unveiling of the Grunwald Monument (1910)
Ignacy Jan Paderewski: Appeals for the Polish Victims’ Relief Fund (1915)
Ignacy Jan Paderewski: Speech to the National Security League (1918)