Abstract

The subject of this article is home music-making during meetings with close friends of Maria Szymanowska’s family, at the pianist’s residence in St. Petersburg (1828–1831) and at the house of her daughter, Helena Szymanowska-Malewska (c.1832–1838). The work was inspired by documents from the collection of the Adam Mickiewicz Museum at the Polish Library in Paris, ref. 956, 957, 958. These are handwritten notebooks with the texts of patriotic songs and poems, collected by Helena Szymanowska-Malewska and her twin brother, Romuald Szymanowski.

The model for the home performance of patriotic songs was undoubtedly Śpiewy Historyczne by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, to which Szymanowska composed five songs, three of which were published in 1816. Knowledge about the circumstances of practicing this tradition in her salon is provided by the diary of her daughter, Helena Szymanowska-Malewska, written in 1827–1857, before and after her marriage to Franciszek Malewski (1800–1870), a friend of Adam Mickiewicz and a fellow deportee sent to Russia as a punishment for his activities in the patriotic student Philomath Society (Towarzystwo Filomatów).

Group performance of national songs served to convey knowledge about national history and ideals of patriotism. As new research in the psychology of music proves, this type of singing also has multiple positive health, psychological and social effects – it strengthens both group bonds and individual body resistance; leads to positive emotional changes. In the discussed context, three important aspects of the collective practice of musical patriotism combine: the ideology of ruthless self-sacrifice in the armed struggle for the freedom of the homeland, present in most of the lyrics of the songs from the notebook no. 956, leading to the destruction and perdition of the biological fabric of the nation; the attitude of compromise and hiding patriotism in the sphere of domestic everyday life, enabling national survival; and the need to unite and strengthen social ties, which was facilitated by both patriotic and humorous songs and couplets.