ABSTRACT
This chapter charts the life and works of the Polish composer and pedagogue, Eugeniusz Morawski (1876-1948). Particular focus is placed on the situation he faced during the German occupation of Warsaw, and new material about the composer is revealed from previously unpublished documents from the Morawski family archive and the surviving correspondence between Morawski and the Polish Composers’ Union. Although Morawski is almost completely forgotten nowadays, he was once regarded as one of the most talented composers of his generation, and secured an outstanding reputation as an educator, teaching such luminary figures as Witold Lutos?awski and Andrzej Panufnik. To a certain extent, Morawski’s neglect is connected to his self-effacing character, in particular an unwillingness to promote the publication of his works. This reluctance was to have tragic consequences. Following the Warsaw Uprising, the tenement building in which he lived was totally destroyed, resulting in the loss of about 80 per cent of his works in the raging fire. These losses far outweighed those of any other Polish composer during the war. Yet the few works that survived demonstrate a striking originality, making it all the more important to reassess Morawski’s artistic legacy.
