Keletas štrichų kompozitoriaus Józefo Deszczyńskio (1781–1844) biografijai
LTStraipsnio objektas – Vilniuje gimusio kompozitoriaus ir dirigento Józefo Deszczyńskio (1781–1844) kūrybinė biografija, kuri lietuvių muzikologijoje bent kiek išsamiau netyrinėta, apsiribojant paminėjimais kitoms temoms skirtuose darbuose. Kompozitoriaus gyvenimu ir kūryba daugiau domėtasi Lenkijoje ir Baltarusijoje. Šio straipsnio tikslas yra pateikti daugiau žinių apie Deszczyńskio bajorišką kilmę, atskleisti patriotiškų aspiracijų apraiškas jo kūryboje, aptarti retai minimus ar visai neminimus kūrinius ir kai kurias su jo vardu susijusias vilnietiško muzikinio gyvenimo aplinkybes. Atliekant tyrimą naudotasi tarpdisciplininėmis metodologinėmis prieigomis, pasiremta loginės analizės ir hipotezės, lyginamuoju, analitiniu-kritiniu metodais.
ENJózef Deszczyński (1781–1844) was a composer, conductor and music pedagogue of noble descent (coat of arms Ślepowron), who was born and worked in Vilnius, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Lithuanian state. His biography and creative legacy have not been thoroughly addressed in Lithuanian musicology, except for several mentions in studies dedicated to other topics. This topic has drawn more attention in Polish historiography. More in-depth publications on his church music were published in Belarus. Józef Deszczyński was a popular, well-known musician in Lithuania and Poland: his works were published in Vilnius, Warsaw, Leipzig, Vienna, and Saint Petersburg. The major publications in Vilnius (Wizerunki i roztrzansanie naukowe), Warsaw (Ruch muzyczny), and Leipzig (Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung) wrote about Deszczyński. The entirety of facts indicates that he was known to Józef Elsner; Stanisław Moniuszko; Oskar Korwin-Milewski, the librettist of his operas; and the Zawadzki family. His biography was also known to Dominik Cezary Chodźko (1796–1863), who was responsible for cultural heritage in Lithuania. Deszczyński’s possession of the professional knowledge required by a composer is evidenced by the publication of his very first works in Leipzig (Polonaises for Piano Op. 1 and Op. 2). The same is confirmed through a closer look from the author of this article at his large-scale works of a secular nature—Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in F Major, Op. 25, Piano Quartet in A Minor, Op. 39— which are stylistically close to the opuses of Johann Nepomuk Hummel, John Field, and other composers of a similar creative style. Józef Deszczyński was also known as a music pedagogue. Some sources say that in addition to private lessons, he taught at Vilnius University (1813) when Johann David Holland was in charge of music affairs at the university.Amateur violinist Karol Jelski (1780–1855), the father of violinist and composer Michał Jelski (1831–1904), who is better known in music history, was among his students. At 33 years old (in 1814), he became the conductor of Count Ludwik Rokicki’s manor orchestra in Horodyshche (Rechitsky Uyezd; now Belarus) by actively participating in Vilnius cultural life. That both the count and the head of his orchestra were from the nobility may have helped form the circle of the people he communicated with. The count had family ties with such Lithuanian noble families as Oskierka, Plater, and Prozor. The composer dedicated his works to some of these families. A considerable part of Deszczyński’s works reflects the musician’s patriotic sentiments, his attention to historical topics, and the realities of public life. The topic of his overture for orchestra Bitwa pod Iławą pruską (Battle near Prussian Eylau)—the battle between the French army led by Napoleon and the Imperial Russian army (1807)—was definitely close to Deszczyński’s civic and creative views: the composer was a military officer of the Vilnius National Guard formed during the French Invasion of Russia (1812). He dedicated Dwa marsze na orkiestrę dętą (Two Marches for Wind Orchestra) to the Krasiński Guard (this is the name for the Polish lancers in Napoleon’s army). Count General Wincenty Krasiński (1782–1858) was a military leader highly esteemed by Napoleon in his military campaign of 1812 and, like Deszczyński, he was a supporter of the ideas of Tadeusz Kościuszko.Deszczyński’s attention to the historical theme of Lithuania and Poland is revealed in the music composed for the song Zygmunt III (Sigismund III) according to the text printed in Śpiewy historyczne (Historical Songs) by Polish writer, historian, and playwright Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz in 1816. The composer could have also been driven to take up this work by his sympathy with the author’s patriotic mindset, their common glorification of Tadeusz Kościuszko’s activities and aspirations, and the favorable approach towards the vision of a strong and undivided state. The same vision was also fostered by the character of the song, Sigismund III Vasa, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. There is no doubt that Deszczyński’s attention to the patriotic theme determined his choice to compose music for the play of the Vilnius City Theater—a three-act chivalrous melodrama (otherwise called opera) titled Egbert czyli Połączenie się Anglików w jedno królestwo (Egbert, or the Unification of England into a Single Kingdom) staged in Vilnius in 1810—whose major theme is a desire for a unified and undivided state. A closer look at Józef Deszczyński’s biography and some of his secular works provides yet another proof that the biography and creative legacy of the composer, who was born in Vilnius at the end of the eighteenth century and lived in this city and other former places of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the first half of nineteenth century, are an interesting and important part of the musical cultural heritage of Lithuania.
