Authors
Tadeusz Baird
The composer’s musical education first took the form of piano lessons (with Maria Rzepko), followed by formal studies under Bolesław Woytowicz (composition) and Kazimierz Sikorski (harmony and counterpoint) in German-occupied Warsaw. Deported deep into the German Reich after the fall of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, Baird found himself in Emsdetten, Münster, and Neuengamme concentration camp, among others. On his return to Poland after WWII, he continued his composition studies with Piotr Rytel and Piotr Perkowski at Warsaw’s State Higher School of Music, while also studying musicology at the University of Warsaw.
In 1949, jointly with Kazimierz Serocki and Jan Krenz, he founded Group ’49. He was also one of the originators and initiators of the Warsaw Autumn festival. From 1974, he taught composition at Warsaw’s State Higher School of Music (now the Chopin University). He was also a member of the Akademie der Künste Berlin.
His musical output has been divided into three stages – a periodisation accepted by the composer himself. The first stage (1949–1956) was dominated by Neoclassical style, predominantly cheerful moods, numerous references to native folklore, stylisation and archaization. In his second period the composer adapted dodecaphony in a highly individual manner. The third period was a kind of dialogue with postmodernism, undertaken from the stance of the ‘New Romantic’ aesthetic.
Major works include: Colas Breugnon – suite in old style for string orchestra and flute (1951), Four Love Sonnets to words by William Shakespeare (1956–1969), Tomorrow (1966), Concerto lugubre for viola and orchestra (1975), and Canzona for orchestra (1980). Baird’s music thrice won the main prizes in the Paris International Rostrum of Composers (Four Essays, 1959; Variations without a Theme, 1963; Four Dialogues, 1966). The artist also received the Award of the Polish Composers’ Union for all his entire musical output (1966), the Arthur Honegger Prize (1974), and the Jean Sibelius Composition Medal (1976).
In 1949, jointly with Kazimierz Serocki and Jan Krenz, he founded Group ’49. He was also one of the originators and initiators of the Warsaw Autumn festival. From 1974, he taught composition at Warsaw’s State Higher School of Music (now the Chopin University). He was also a member of the Akademie der Künste Berlin.
His musical output has been divided into three stages – a periodisation accepted by the composer himself. The first stage (1949–1956) was dominated by Neoclassical style, predominantly cheerful moods, numerous references to native folklore, stylisation and archaization. In his second period the composer adapted dodecaphony in a highly individual manner. The third period was a kind of dialogue with postmodernism, undertaken from the stance of the ‘New Romantic’ aesthetic.
Major works include: Colas Breugnon – suite in old style for string orchestra and flute (1951), Four Love Sonnets to words by William Shakespeare (1956–1969), Tomorrow (1966), Concerto lugubre for viola and orchestra (1975), and Canzona for orchestra (1980). Baird’s music thrice won the main prizes in the Paris International Rostrum of Composers (Four Essays, 1959; Variations without a Theme, 1963; Four Dialogues, 1966). The artist also received the Award of the Polish Composers’ Union for all his entire musical output (1966), the Arthur Honegger Prize (1974), and the Jean Sibelius Composition Medal (1976).
