Saturday November 18th 2007

Wojtek "Albert" Lukaszewicz
of the
Global Village School of English Language and Culture

University of Bialystok Students

A cold wind from Siberia blew into Bialystok today. It was cruelly cold today as I walked the Russian Market for the last time. I bought a few items as I made my way through the labyrinth that makes up the market. I said my goodbyes to a few of the merchants that I bought from regularly and listened to the Russian Accordion player as I walked back to the Academy. I brewed a warm cub of herbata and prepared for my final lecture which was to be about Broadway theatre. My students were all waiting for me as I entered the lecture hall. I always amazed by the things that my students teach me during the course of my lectures. At times I tend to be critical of the entire Broadway musical theatre movement, critical of its lack of serious dramatic material. These wonderfully eager and interested Polish students very gently reminded me that the American musical is exactly that…American. We previewed portions of West Side Story, A Chorus Line, and The Producers. As I listened to them react to the musicals, to their laughter at the scenes from The Producers, I began to realize the musical’s importance to the American Theatre and its message of joy and hope. As Mel Brooks once said “If you live in the Bronx nothing happens there but if you come to Broadway…Anything can happen!”

I finished my lecture and realized that my journey was almost over. My students from the University of Bialystok presented me with their Indeks, which are their official academic records. I signed each student’s official transcript giving each student credit for attending my course. They had attended each lecture and were sad to see the course end as was I. We took some photos together and said our farewells. That evening I had cappuccino and desert with my friend “Albert” Wojtek Lukaszewicz from the Global Village School. I did a bit of shopping and returned to my apartment at the Academy for the evening.

Moscow Nights

Moscow at Night

Bialystok's Russian Accordion Player

In my previous post I spoke of the song Moscow Nights. Here are the lyrics for this song:

Подмосковные вечера

• Не слышны в саду даже шорохи,
• Всё здесь замерло до утра.
• Eсли б знали вы, как мне дороги
• Подмосковные вечера.
• Речка движется и не движется,
• Вся из лунного серебра.
• Песня слышится и не слышится
• В эти тихие вечера.
• Что ж бы, милая, смотришь искоса,
• Низко голову наклоня?
• Трудно высказать и не высказать
• Всё, что на сердце у меня.
• А рассвет уже всё заметнее.
• Так, пожалуйста, будь добра.
• Не забудь и ты эти летние
• Подмосковные вечера.

Moscow Nights

• Even whispers aren't heard in the garden,
• Everything has died down till morning.
• If you only knew how dear to me
• Are these Moscow nights.
• The river moves, unmoving,
• All in silver moonlight.
• A song is heard, yet unheard,
• In these silent nights.
• Why do you, dear, look askance,
• With your head lowered so?
• It is hard to express, and hard to hold back,
• Everything that my heart holds.
• But the dawn's becoming ever brighter.
• So please, just be good.
• Don't you, too, forget
• These Moscow nights.
  

Link for Moscow Nights aka Midnight In Moscow

Link for Jazz Version

A Bit Of Polish Culture

Vladimir Posner, Radio Moscow News Announcer

Joe Adamov, Radio Moscow Announcer, Moscow Mail Bag

Radio Moscow Radio Reception Card

Radio Moscow Radio Reception Card

Mieczyslawa FoggaPARK W DUBOJU / THE PARK IN DUBOJ, 1897

RYNEK STAREGO MIASTA W WARSZAWIE NOCA / OLD TOWN SQUARE AT NIGHT, 1892

Targ na Kwiaty

Józef Pankiewicz

DOROZKA W NOCY / HORSE-DRAWN CARRIAGE AT NIGHT, 1896

NOKTURN - LABEDZIE W OGRODZIE SASKIM NOCA / NOCTURNE - SWANS IN SASKI PARK AT NIGHT, 1894

Friday November 16, 2007

Today I am preparing my lecture for tomorrow on Broadway. I accompanied Pawel to the Savona Pizza Club for lunch and afterwards stopped at Empyk which is the multimedia shop in town. I found a three disk set of Piaf and another disk by Mieczyslawa Fogga with music of 1933 to 1939. While I have been here I have been absorbing Polish arts and culture. My favorite Polish painter is Józef Pankiewicz, of the school of Polish Impressionism. The excellent and informative web site Culture.Pl provides the following about Pankiewicz:

“one of the first Impressionists and Symbolists in Polish art at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries…Jozef Pankiewicz was born in 1866 in Lublin and died in 1940 in Marseille…He was one of the outstanding figures of 20th century Polish art. In the 1920s Pankiewicz was the initiator of the Colorist movement in Poland, which was a derivative of French post-Impressionism. As an educator he shaped the artistic stance of an entire generation of Polish painters and graphic artists, above all those who were part of the KOMITET PARYSKI / PARIS COMMITTEE (Capists), a group that included artists of stature like Jan Cybis, Artur Nacht-Samborski, Jozef Czapski, Zygmunt Waliszewski, and Tadeusz Potworowski. … In 1892-1893 the artist abandoned enchanting Impressionistic colors in creating monochromatic harmony in a series of nightscapes. Pankiewicz's nostalgic nocturnes are among the most outstanding works in Polish Symbolism (RYNEK STAREGO MIASTA W WARSZAWIE NOCA / OLD TOWN SQUARE AT NIGHT, 1892; ZAULEK NOCA - WASKI DUNAJ / WASKI DUNAJ LANE BY NIGHT, c. 1892; DOROZKA W NOCY / HORSE-DRAWN CARRIAGE AT NIGHT, 1896; PARK W DUBOJU / THE PARK IN DUBOJ, 1897). His unusual combination of disappearing forms and bristling light reflections produce a melancholy mood characteristic of the decadent attitudes of the end of the 19th century (NOKTURN - LABEDZIE W OGRODZIE SASKIM NOCA / NOCTURNE - SWANS IN SASKI PARK AT NIGHT, 1894). Shapes, made unreal by nighttime sfumato, become the visual equivalent of the artist's emotional states, akin to those metaphorically yet so accurately expressed in the poetry of Stéphane Mallarmé.

In Italian sfumato is derived from the word fumo meaning smoke. In painting it is a technique which overlays translucent layers of color to create perceptions of depth, volume and form. It refers to the blending of colors or tones so subtly that the eve observes no perceptible transition. Leonardo da Vinci is said to have used this technique in his painting The Mona Lisa and possibly the use of this effect is what begs the question of whether she is, in fact, smiling.

Pankiewicz’s handling of night as a subject matter is superb. Night is alive in paintings like my favorite, RYNEK STAREGO MIASTA W WARSZAWIE NOCA / OLD TOWN SQUARE AT NIGHT, 1892. I must admit walking around at night in the centrum of Bialystok looks exactly as if one was in a painting by Pankiewicz. One night in particular, I was walking along on the cobblestones of the city square with Dasia. The cobblestones were glistening in the light of the night, soaked with fresh rain. Dasia tugged at my sleeve and pointed to the landscape in front of us and said “Pankiewicz”. I nodded in agreement. Later that evening I was walking alone and encountered the Russian accordionist. It should be understood that this man is considered by the residents of Bialystok not as a panhandler, but rather as a part of the city centrum, a musician. People pass by and freely drop zlotys into his open accordion case. He smiled as I approached and I hummed a few bars of a favorite Russian song, Midnight In Moscow. I first learned this song as a young boy listening late into the night to my shortwave radio. I would tour the world as I turned the dial. Click here to hear what short wave radio sounded like in my early adulthood. The voices of the world’s capitols filled my ears. Click here for the old Radio Moscow Sign On. Radio Moscow was always loud and clear with its broadcasts to North America. I would listen to Joe Adamov and his Moscow Mailbag Bag program or Vladimir Pozner with the news from Moscow. It was during these broadcasts during the cold war years that I learned song. As I hummed a few bars of the song his smile widened and he began to play the melody for me. I smiled and he began to sing in Russian for me. One of those moments that I will carry forever.

Links to check out!

Polish Culture. PL

Pankiewicz's Paintings

University Of Bialystok

University Of Bialystok Seal

University Of Bialystok
My Student Monika (in blue)

I have been invited by the English Philology department at the University of Bialystok to present a lecture on American Drama. This lecture will be on Monday morning followed by a luncheon in my honor. What a busy trip this has been.

Puppetry Class

The Naked Marionette

The Marionette March

Walking

Walking

My last entry was just before marionette class. Great training but very steep learning curve in the beginning. The had control developed by the professor here is specialized and uses your bottom three fingers to hold the grip while your thumb and index finger operate the center pinned cross bar which raises and lowers the marionette’s legs. The difficulty is that we humans do not normally use just the three bottom fingers on the had to grip something. This problem is further compounded by attempting to perform another operation with the thumb and index finger of the same hand. I have been assured by all parties here at the school that your hand becomes after a few weeks of working with the control. The students pictured above and in the video are first year, first semester students. Amazing control already!

I have also been attending puppet construction classes specializing in construction using liquid latex. These classes are being taught by puppetry artist Mr. Timothy Velraeds of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Thus far I have completed two heads constructed of latex. The process begins with sculpting the head in clay and then building up the head using a form of paper and latex built up on the clay form. The second method I have learned uses clay sculpting and then making a mould from the clay master followed by a casting made from the mould.

Thursday November 15th 2007

Drama Theatre rehearsal spaces

Warsawa Street

The Drama Theatre

My Polish Sis

Flowers on Independence Day

Independence Day On The Square

New Development

Cold Gnome

Funny Glasses

More Fun

At The Kiosk

Pawel and Dasia's House

What a busy week this has been.

Last Saturday night Pawel and Dasia held a cousin’s party and we had a wonderful evening. Pawel made chicken wings and I prepared flour tortillas and chicken fajitas filling. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed the evening till approximately 3:30 AM. I slept at Pawel and Dasia’s house on Saturday night as it is illegal to consume alcohol in Poland and then operate a motor vehicle. We all enjoyed a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast at noon on Sunday. Pawel dropped me off at the Academy where I worked on my lectures until I met him at the Drama Theatre’s Kabaret Theater. Sunday evening Pawel was appearing in a version of Spamlot in Polish. Another great show here in Bailystok and it was nice to sit at a table and enjoy a nice glass of wine from Armenia while enjoying the show.

On Monday night I was invited to lecture on American Drama at the Global Village English School here in Bialystok. The lecture was a brief overview of 20^th Century American Drama. The lecture was well attended by students, faculty, and staff. On their web site they posted the following:

Monday evening lecture presentation

Professor Mark F. Tattenbaum (a Fulbright Program Senior Scholar) is soon closing a series of his lectures on American drama of the 20th century, given at Bialystok’s Theatre Academy. Courtesy of Prof. Tattenbaum and the Academy, Global Village students and teachers will hear him on Monday, 12 November, at 8.15 pm, presenting selected works of Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams and the likes. Admission free.

On Tuesday I stayed in as it was very cold and I worked on Wednesday night’s lecture. Tuesday came and went and on Wednesday I had dinner with Pawel. Dasia is away in the Ukraine as a judge for a children’s festival. I miss my Polish sister but will see her before I return to the states.

Wednesday night’s lecture went well and the Academy was very busy that night as the semester projects were presented in the school’s theatre. Pawel has been very busy with these projects.

Thursday I went again to the Russian Market and spent the evening building another puppet. Well, that is about all for now.

Stefan Czarniecki Statue In Tykocin

Stefan Czarniecki

Stefan Czarniecki or Stefan Łodzia de Czarnca Czarniecki 1599-1665. He was a military commander, regarded as Polish national hero. Czarniecki is remembered as one of the most able Polish commanders of all times. His pursuit of the retreating Swedes to Pomerania and Denmark (1658-1659), particularly his crossing with his entire army to the Danish isle of Alsen, was commemorated in the Polish national anthem, the "Dąbrowski's Mazurka", with the words:

Click Here to Listen to the Polish National Anthem

Mazurek Dąbrowskiego (Dąbrowski's Mazurek)

Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła,	Poland has not yet perished,
Kiedy my żyjemy.	So long as we live.
Co nam obca przemoc wzięła,	What foreign violence has taken from us,
Szablą odbierzemy.	We will reclaim, sword in hand.
Marsz, marsz, Dąbrowski,	March, march, Dąbrowski,
Z ziemi włoskiej do Polski,	From the land of Italy to Poland,
Za twoim przewodem	Behind your leadership
Złączym się z narodem.	We will unite as a nation.
Przejdziem Wisłę, przejdziem Wartę,	We'll cross the Vistula, we'll cross the Warta River,
Będziem Polakami,	And we shall be Poles,
Dał nam przykład Bonaparte,	Bonaparte has shown us
Jak zwyciężać mamy.	How to be victorious.
Marsz, marsz, Dąbrowski...	March, march, Dąbrowski...
Jak Czarniecki do Poznania	As Czarniecki to Poznań
Po szwedzkim zaborze,	After the Swedish occupation,
Dla ojczyzny ratowania	To save our country
Wrócim się przez morze.	We will return across the sea.
Marsz, marsz, Dąbrowski...	March, march, Dąbrowski...
Już tam ojciec do swej Basi	A father was saying to his (daughter) Basia
mówi zapłakany:	With tears in his eyes:
"Słuchaj jeno, pono nasi	"Listen, now, are those our boys
Biją w tarabany."	Beating the drums."
Marsz, marsz, Dąbrowski...	March, march, Dąbrowski...

The song originated during the formation of the Polish Legions in Italy under the command of General Henryk Dąbrowski. Józef Wybicki, a close friend of Dąbrowski, wrote it in Reggio Emilia between 15-21 July, 1797, to the tune of a mazurka. Beginning with the words, "Poland has not yet perished," it was a nationalist call to arms to save the Polish state which had fallen under foreign occupation. The "Anthem of the Polish Legions in Italy" ("Pieśń Legionów Polskich we Włoszech") quickly became very popular with the Polish Legionnaires, but also gained wide currency within Poland. It became one of the most popular hymns during Poland's November 1830 and January 1863 uprisings.

During the European Revolutions of 1848, it won favor throughout Europe as a revolutionary anthem. This led the Slovak poet Samuel Tomašik to write the anthem, Hey Slavs, based on the melody of the Polish Anthem. This was later adopted by the First Congress of the Pan-Slavic Movement in Prague as the Pan-Slavic Anthem. During the Second World War, a translation of this anthem became the national anthem of Yugoslavia, and later, Serbia and Montenegro. Similarity of the anthems sometimes caused confusion during the matches of football or volleyball representations of these countries. However, after the 2006 split between the two, neither Serbia nor Montenegro kept the song as its national anthem, choosing instead Bože pravde and Oj, svijetla majska zoro respectively.

Historical context:

* Dąbrowski: General Henryk Dąbrowski, was one of the leaders of the Polish Legions. The anthem was originally written as an inspiration to his troops, who had been organized on Italian soil by Bonapartist France to fight against the occupiers of Poland.

* "Poland is not yet lost, so long as we live": At the time the anthem was written, the Polish State had been erased from the political map of Europe by Russia, Prussia and Austria in 1795. See Partitions of Poland.

* As Czarniecki to Poznań: Hetman Stefan Czarniecki was one of the leaders of Poland's ultimately victorious war against the 17th-century Swedish invasion. At the time of the occupation, he returned to Poland to fight the invaders alongside the King who was then at the Royal Castle in Poznań. In the same castle, Józef Wybicki, the author of the anthem, started his career as a lawyer (in 1765).

* Basia: A diminutive form of "Barbara." In this verse, "Basia" is meant to symbolize a generic Polish daughter, while her father is meant to symbolize a generic Polish man. The thought of young girls back at home who would be overjoyed to hear their brethren returning in arms to liberate the country was doubtless a morale booster for the Polish Legionnaires.

* Racławice: A village in Poland, and the site of a significant battle during the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising, in which the Polish insurgents' victory against invading Russian forces was largely assured through the valor of peasants armed with scythes.

The Czarniecki connection to Tykocin is that the statue was erected there as he was a village elder in Tykocin.