“A NEW MODE OF EXPRESSION”: KAROL SZYMANOWSKI’S FIRST VIOLIN CONCERTO OP. 35 WITHIN A DIONYSIAN CONTEXT

Abstract

This thesis examines Karol Szymanowski’s First Violin Concerto, op. 35 as a Dionysian work of music. Written in collaboration with Polish violinist Paweł Kochański, Szymanowski claimed this work heralded a ‘new mode of expression’ for the instrument. One of the primary sources of influence behind this ‘new mode’ can be attributed to the spirit of the ancient Greek god Dionysus, via his late nineteenth-century literary revival by Friedrich Nietzsche and Walter Pater. Tadeusz Miciński’s poem May Night will be examined within the framework of literary movements at the fin-de-siècle. The violin idiom created with Kochański to express this new spirit is examined within the context of the violin concerto genre and late Romantic orchestral repertoire. Finally, Szymanowski and Kochański’s collaborative legacy will be discussed in relation to Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto and the landscape of twentieth-century violin literature.