Chair of Humanities
The history of the Chair of Humanities, one of the organisational structures of the Institute of Musical Sciences at the Department of Composition, Conducting and Music Theory, is very short. In 2002 the Senate decided to incorporate the Unit of Humanities and Foreign Languages in Department I, first as a Unit then as a Chair, and in 2004 the Chair was incorporated in the newly founded Institute of Music Studies.
The functions which this didactic and research unit serves in the system of education of musicians - humanistic and linguistic - are not new. From the very beginning of artistic schooling in Poland those who were responsible for developing educational programs for future composers and conductors were sensitised to the problem of how to ensure that graduates had a general knowledge base. Jozef Elsner was already aware of the need of a comprehensive education worthy of the age, as we know from Fryderyk Chopin's correspondence: he studied for six hours a week with Brodzinski, Bentkowski and others - and therefore successfully completed the literature and history courses at the university level.
Elements of the general humanities were present in the curriculum of the Warsaw Institute of Music. One of the subjects was aesthetics and students took this course along with history of music after passing their examination in the Polish language. We know very little about how aesthetics were actually taught. „I shall be teaching general aesthetics according to Liebelt, the aesthetics of music and critical-aesthetic analysis”, wrote Adam Krasinski. After an interval of several years a new class was opened at the Institute in 1872 headed by Boleslaw Wilczynski - „The history and aesthetics of music”. The curriculum, approved by the board, covered such subjects as: general aesthetics and its basic categories (beauty, value), an outline of the history of other areas of culture (literature, the fine arts). Since the problems to be taught were complex, students took this course in their second last and final year. Lack of textbooks forced students to take „very exact notes” of the lectures. Prior to 1930 the only humanistic subject in the curriculum of the State Conservatory in Warsaw was a combination of aesthetics and history of music, taught by Boleslaw Wilczynski who was succeeded in 1919 by Henryk Opienski.
Karol Szymanowski, the rector, suggested changing the system of education for musicians. He believed that it was necessary to broaden the spectrum of humanistic education considerably if the school was to educate open-minded and intellectually savvy musicians. Not only did Szymanowski suggest the need to enrich the education offered with the basic concepts of philosophy and aesthetics so as to show music?s due and proper and „place in the history of the spiritual development of humanity”, he also made sure that his ideas would be implemented by introducing a new subject, philosophy (taught by Fr. Hieronim Feicht).
After World War II, when music education in Poland was incorporated in the academic system, it was necessary to broaden the range of the humanities. The objectives of this education were defined as follows:
(1) continuation and expansion of general education;
(2) broadening of intellectual horizons in order to enable conscious formation of world view and approach to social, political and cultural reality;
(3) development of the dispositions which are necessary in interpersonal communication.
The complicated political history of communist Poland was reflected in changes of the syllabus and its contents. Students in the 'fifties had to listen to lectures on Marxism-Leninism and then, in the next decades, on political economy and cultural politics. The compulsory block of so-called „social-political” subjects was fixed by appropriate instructions from the ministry of culture. This block included the following subjects: introduction to the social sciences, philosophy, the foundations of political sciences, history and theory of culture. The educational offer was occasionally broadened to include sociology of culture, sociology of art or cultural politics and cultural economics. The organisation framework education was also defined. The Inter-college Institute of Socio-political Sciences was founded at the State Higher School of Drama in Warsaw in 1975. This institute supervised the Socio-political Sciences Units at every higher educational establishment (until 1981). During martial law a new unit was created at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw - the Institute of Socio-political Sciences.
The Interdepartmental Social Sciences Unit, soon to be renamed the Humanities Unit, functioned at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music until the early 'nineties.
For many years lectors who taught foreign languages at the AMFC were affiliated with Department I. In the 'nineties an independent, interdepartmental organisational unit, the Foreign Language Unit, was created. It did not last very long and was soon incorporated in the Unit of Humanities and Foreign Languages.
The humanistic education curriculum was greatly expanded after 1991: humanistic subjects were now in the group of facultative subjects. Students had to get credit for 180 hours of humanistic subjects of their own choice and 240 hours of one foreign language (before they had to learn two foreign languages). This rule still obliges.
In order to fill all the vacancies for the humanistic subjects it was necessary to employ a group of specialists: philosophers (Paweł Beylin, Henryk Hinz, Janusz Skladowski), historians (Bozena Krzywoblocka, Bogdan Jagiello, Jerzy Adamski, Bozena Fabiani), economists (Hanna Kawalla, Maria Sikorska) and several AMFC graduates (Tadeusz Maklakiewicz, Mieczysława Demska, Blanka Lukomska, Jagna Dankowska, Bogusław Strobel). The lector staff has remained fairly stable. Antoni Platkow, French language lector, worked here for almost half a century. Throughout the 35 years of its independent existence at the AMFC the Humanities Unit has been managed by: Bozena Krzywoblocka (1970-75), Lidia Kalestynska (1975-78), Mieczyslawa Demska (1978-84), Bogdan Jagiello (1984-91), Jagna Dankowska (1991-2005), Mieczysława Demska (2005 -). Dr Ryszard Pankiewicz was periodically the head of Foreign Language Studies.
Music education is a specific form of education and sometimes requires special didactic materials. Such materials have been developed from time to time. At the turn of the nineteen-seventies and nineteen-eighties several volumes of teaching materials were published including history of culture (M. Demska-Trebacz, B. Fabiani), aesthetics (J. Dankowska) and sociology of art (M. Demska-Trebacz). Several attempts have also been made to prepare special foreign language course books. Two course books were eventually published: for English and German.
Research
The faculty of the Chair of Humanities not only teaches but also conducts research, individually and in several work groups: philosophy and aesthetics of music, anthropology of music and dance, theory and history of music culture, history of art. Research findings are published in cyclic editions of the AMFC scientific press called On Music and Humanistic Ideas (10 issues have been published so far). Several monographs (philosophy, science of culture) and conference proceedings have also been published. The most recent publication is: Teresa Grzybkowska (Ed.), The musical motif in Jacek Malczewski's painting, Warsaw 2005.
Didactic objectives
The Chair's basic function is the teaching of humanistic subjects and foreign languages (lectures and language courses).
Different musical specialities offer slightly different humanistic education programs.
Within the humanistic education instruction AMFC students must get credit for three humanistic subjects (one year, 60 hours per subject) which end with examinations. Most specialities allow students to choose their own humanistic subjects. The following facultative subjects are taught: ancient and mediaeval philosophy, modern philosophy, 20th century philosophy, aesthetics, history of ancient and mediaeval art, history of modern art, 20th century art.
Some specialities have a set, obligatory humanistic course, however. For example, students studying „church music” must read the social teaching of the church and signum temporae theology and students of „music education” must read knowledge of the fine arts, integration of the arts and history of culture.
Students must also choose one of the following foreign languages: English, French, German or Russian. Each language is taught in a three-year course (240 hours) which ends with an examination. Students of the Vocal Department must also study Italian (three years, 180 hours).
The Chair of Humanities in Warsaw currently has a faculty of 12 including three titular professors, three associate professors with post-doctoral degrees and five masters of art. Academic teachers who teach at the AMFC Branch in Bialystok are also members of the faculty.
The Faculty
AMFC Warsaw
Jagna Dankowska, Ph.D., associate professor - Director of the Institute of Music Sciences
Mieczyslawa Demska-Trebacz,Ph.D., full professor - Head of the Chair
Teresa Grzybkowska, Ph.D., full professor
Tadeusz Kobierzycki, Ph.D., associate professor
Father Jerzy Lewandowski, Ph.D., associate professor
Elzbieta Lesiak-Bielawska, M.A., senior lecturer
Bogdan Goniarski, M. A., lecturer
Wojciech Medrzejewski, M. A., senior lecturer
Alicja Ogrodzinska, M. A., senior lecturer
Stanisław Szadyko, Ph.D., associate professor
Lidia Szpilewska, M. A., lecturer
Elzbieta Zeiske-Krawczyk, senior lecturer
Compiled by: The Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music