Count Zygmunt Mycielski (17 August 1907 – 5 August 1987) was a Polish

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

music critic ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mus ...

. He was born in

Przeworsk Przeworsk (; uk, Переворськ, translit=Perevors'k; yi, פּרשעוואָרסק, translit=Prshevorsk) is a town in south-eastern Poland with 15,675 inhabitants, as of 2 June 2009. Since 1999 it has been in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship ...

and completed his childhood education in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

, where he was taught by Bernardino Rizzi. In 1928, Mycielski moved to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, where he studied composition at

École Normale de Musique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Sav ...

with

Paul Dukas Paul Abraham Dukas ( or ; 1 October 1865 – 17 May 1935) was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, having abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His b ...

and

Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist. From a ...

. While there, he served as president of the Association of Young Polish Musicians in Paris from 1934 to 1936. In 1936, he moved back to Poland and began his music and writing career. Mycielski served in the Polish military during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and became a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

after being captured by the

German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...

. For the rest of the war, he did compulsory work for a German farmer. After the war ended, he returned to Poland and served two terms as editor for '' Ruch Muzyczny'' (1946–1948 and 1957–1959) before becoming editor-in-chief from 1960 to 1968. His political views clashed with

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

Polish authorities, however. His publications caused him to be ousted as editor-in-chief of ''Ruch Muzyczny''; his writings were then subject to strict censorship and he was forbidden to leave the country. Mycielski continued his political activism though. In 1975, he signed a group letter with other Polish intellectuals protesting proposed changes to the Polish constitution by the Communist party. In 1978, he founded the Academic Education Society, a student organisation that was deemed illegal and later banned. Mycielski died in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

and he was buried in Wiśniowa on the

Wisłok River Wisłok is a river in south-eastern Poland, a tributary of the San River, with a length of 220 kilometres and a basin area of 3,538 km2 (all in Poland). The root of the name ''Vis-lok'' is Indo-European or pre-Indo-European. The first meta ...

References

Zygmunt Mycielski
Polish Music Information Centre. Retrieved on October 22, 2020. *Thomas, Adrian. "Zygmunt Mycielski".
Grove Music Online
'' (subscription required). ed. L. Macy. Retrieved on September 19, 2007. 1907 births 1987 deaths 20th-century composers Polish composers Polish music critics École Normale de Musique de Paris alumni LGBT composers Polish LGBT musicians Recipients of the Order of the Banner of Work

Zygmunt Zygmunt, Zigmunt, Zigmund and spelling variations thereof are masculine given names and occasionally surnames. People so named include: Given name Medieval period * Sigismund I the Old (1467–1548), Zygmunt I Stary in Polish, King of Poland and Gr ...

Recipients of the State Award Badge (Poland) 20th-century LGBT people {{Poland-composer-stub