A few works composed by Szymanowski in 1920, the year when Polish troops fought under Marshall Józef Piłsudski against the Bolsheviks and the Red Army.
Marsz uroczysty / Solemn March for orchestra, Marsz 3. Pułku Ułanów / March of 3rd Regiment of the Uhlans for wind orchestra, Do dziewczyny / To a Girl - mazurka for voice and piano, O zawiedzionym żołnierzu / The Disappointed Soldier - song for voice and piano to lyrics by Kornel Makuszyński, Wyszywała raz Hanka / Hanka Was Embroidering - song for voice and piano to lyrics by Kazimierz Andrzej Czyżowski.
In 1920, the year when Polish troops fought under Marshall Józef Piłsudski against the Bolsheviks and the Red Army and when the dramatic yet victorious battle of Radzymin - an event which determined the eastern border of the Polish state - took place, Szymanowski was in Warsaw. Feeling very strongly about what was going on, in July he joined the Central Committee for the Promotion of Art Associations, a body which organized cultural events for soldiers, such as concerts in the barracks and field hospitals. That summer, mostly in August, he composed a few works for such events, namely three songs for voice and piano (mazurka Do dziewczyny, song O zawiedzionym żołnierzu to lyrics by Kornel Makuszyński, song Wyszywała raz Hanka to lyrics by Kazimierz Andrzej Czyżowski as well as Marsz 3. Pułku Ułanów for wind orchestra and Marsz uroczysty for orchestra.
None of these works has ever been published except Marsz 3. Pułku Ułanów, whose instrumentation for wind orchestra by Feliks Konopasek appeared in print, but has not survived. The song Wyszywała raz Hanka is supposed to have been published in 1928 by the Committee for the Celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the Restitution of Poland, but must have been withdrawn from circulation; it was also printed in 1938 as a facsimile of the manuscript in the journal "Muzyka" (no. 1/2, p. 21).
Author: Anna Iwanicka-Nijakowska, September 2007.