AI notes: Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937) was a pioneering Polish composer and pianist whose work marked the transition of Polish music into the modern era. Born into a cultured landowning family in what is now Ukraine, Szymanowski was initially influenced by late-Romantic composers such as Wagner, Strauss, and Chopin, before developing a distinctive voice that fused impressionism, orientalism, and Polish folk traditions. His career evolved through several stylistic phases: early lush Romanticism, a middle period of exotic, color-rich harmonies exemplified in Myths (1915), The Song of the Night (1916), and the opera King Roger (1918–1924), and a final phase grounded in the rhythms and melodies of the Tatra Highlands, notably in Harnasie (1923–1931) and the Mazurkas for Piano, Op. 50. As director of the Warsaw Conservatory, he sought to modernize Polish musical education and elevate national culture through art. Despite ill health and financial hardship in his later years, Szymanowski’s synthesis of sensuality, spirituality, and national identity secured him a lasting place among Europe’s foremost early 20th-century composers.
