ABSTRACT
The final chapter deals with over the last two decades of symphonic writing in Poland. The discussion starts with explaining the significant caesura observed on the field of the symphony in the mid and late-1990s. This coincided with the death of Lutosławski in 1994, which often is perceived as the end of a certain epoch in Polish music. In case of symphonic writing, the absence of Lutosławski coincided with a kind of crisis in writing the abstract, instrumental symphony and moving the emphasis into the vocal model of the genre. This change is strongly visible in the new century, also in the music by composers so far connected with writing the orchestral symphonies, such as Penderecki and Meyer. Hence, besides some significant instrumental symphonies, which are discussed in the first part of the chapter, the second part is devoted to the phenomenon of vocal symphonies, both spiritual and public in tone. The names of new generation of symphonic composers in Polish music appear, including Mykietyn, Zych, Łukaszewski and Zubel, among others. The discussion concludes with the observation that the symphony seemed to lose its significance and status recently, and it is difficult to foresee any direction of its possible development in the future.
