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 Aleksander Tansman

    Alexander Tansman was born in Lodz on June 11th (not 12th) 1897. He studied in Lodz and Warsaw. He was taught harmonics and counterpoint in Warsaw. Tansman's early compositions can be divided into two parallel currents, the first of which was firmly embedded in Polish national tradition and under the strong influence of Chopin. The second current was avant-garde in character and went well beyond the parochial tastes of contemporary Polish musical circles. In the first composer's competition held in Independent Poland, which ended in Warsaw on January 8th 1919, he was awarded the first three prizes.

    In Poland, however, his compositions met with the criticism coming from Warsaw circles. As a result, Tansman decided to leave for France. In Paris he presented his compositions to Maurice Ravel and received his wholehearted approval. Thereafter, Aleksander Tansman's international career progressed at sensational pace. Arthur Honegger and Darius Milhaud induced him to join their Group "Le Six" as the "seventh", but he prized his independence above all else. Soon after his name began to be mentioned in connection with the composers of the "L'Ecole de Paris" - Bohuslav Martinu, Tibor Harsanyi, Marcel Mihalovici and Aleksandr Cherepnin. By the beginning of the twenties Tansman was, alongside Karol Szymanowski, the foremost representative of the "new school of composers" in Poland.

    The 1932-33 season, during which Tansman embarked on a round-the-world concert tour that started in Warsaw and took him across the United States, Japan, China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, the Malay archipelago and Ceylon to Egypt, marked an important stage in his career. In Tokyo he was received by Emperor Hirohito, while in Bombay he was the private guest of Mahatma Gandhi. Everywhere he travelled, he was greeted as one of the greatest Polish artists of the time.

    In 1939 Tansman went on five great concert tours of the United States, and soon became a well known composer in that country. He spent the war years in Hollywood and his friendship with Stravinsky was to result in a biographical book.

    In 1946 he returned to Europe and once again settled in Paris. He was included amongst the most famous representatives of the neo-classical current in world music, alongside Stravinsky, Hindemith, Poulenc and Casella. His outstanding contribution to world music was officially confirmed by many awards and distinctions, the Japanese Ji-ji Shimpo Medal, honorary membership of the Imperial Musical Academy in Tokyo, the Elizabeth Sprague-Coolidge Medal in Washington, the Musical Award of the French Academy, the Prix Hector Berlioz in Paris, a chair in the Royal Belgian Academy, which he inherited from Dmitry Shostakovich, the Commandery of the French Order of Arts and Sciences, and the honorary membership Medal of the Association of Polish Composers.

    In 1983 this list was supplemented by two Polish distinctions: the Gold Decoration of the Order of Merit and the Decoration of Merit for Polish Culture. In 1986 the Academy of Music in Lodz granted him a honoris causa doctorate. In a letter to Polish readers, written in June 1983, the composer stated: "It is obvious that I owe much to France, but anyone who has ever heard my compositions cannot have doubt that I have been, am and forever will be a Polish composer". Tansman's last piece, composed shortly before his death, in 1985, was a miniature composition for viola and piano entitled... Alla polacca.
The composer died in Paris on November 15th 1986