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Szymanowski and Narcissism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Stephen Downes
Stephen Downes*
Affiliation:
University of Surrey
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Extract

The ‘cultivation of the self’, which Carl E. Schorske has identified as a characteristic of the Viennese bourgeoisie, establishes a ‘link between a devotion to art and a concern with the psyche’. Such a life ‘appropriated the aesthetic, sensuous sensibility’ leading to ‘narcissism and a hypertrophy of the life of feeling’. Szymanowski, who was for many years fascinated by Viennese culture, reflects many of these characteristics. He was, furthermore, greatly influenced by the work of Pater and Wilde, central figures in the English ‘decadent’ scene which, in Arthur Symons's words, was marked by ‘an intense self-consciousness, a restless curiosity in research, an over-subtilizing refinement upon refinement, a spiritual and moral perversity’. It is unsurprising, therefore, to find narcissism appearing as a prominent theme in many of Szymanowski's works.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 121 , Issue 1 , 1996 , pp. 58 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1996

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References

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61 Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Nienasycenie, trans. as Insatiability by Louis Iribarne (London, 1985), 49. ‘Don't knock masturbation’, counters Woody Allen in Annie Hall, ‘it's sex with someone I love’, thus amusingly pre-empting those critics who have seen some of his films as particularly narcissisticGoogle Scholar

62 See Szymanowski, , Pisma, i Pisma muzyczne, ed Kornel Michałowski (Cracow, 1984), 67–88 In 1920 he wrote to Zdzisław Jachimecki, ‘in the present historical and cultural epoch, that sort of artistic breed represented by myself is not only superfluous, but almost injurious There remains only one thing to shake off one's personal life ’ Letter of 29 January 1920, see Wightman, Alistair, ‘Szymanowski's Writings on Music A Comparative Study’, Res facta, 9 (1982), 19–49 (P 23)Google Scholar

63 The psychological issues involved in moving from narcissism to integration in a social, collective context are addressed in Drew Westen, Self and Society. Narcissism, Collectivism and the Development of Morals (Cambridge, 1985) Szymanowski's relationship with nationalism is fascinating and complex. I hope to explore this important area of his work fully in a future study The best discussion in English of Szymanowski's views on the artist's role in society remains Wightman, ‘Szymanowski's Writings on Music‘Google Scholar

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66 Szymanowski, Pisma, ii, 317.Google Scholar