ABSTRACT

The presence of Oriental elements in Szymanowski’s music is symptomatic of a more general interest in exotic subject matter that developed in all artistic spheres during the final years of the nineteenth century and early part of the twentieth century. In some measure, the more sympathetic attitude toward non-European cultures that developed in the course of the nineteenth century was an offshoot of the nationalist movements that sought to break away from the central European mainstream. In this respect it is intriguing to note that Szymanowski himself believed that Chopin played a vitally important role in the context of Russian national music [see Chopin in Szymanowski’s Writings]. Not only did he show the Russian nationalists

how to proceed from a narrow parochialism to a vast new world in which their music could … be both great and truly original. Finally Chopin’s inexpressibly subtle harmony revealed the way the strange foundations of their unsettled and magical exoticism could be laid. 1