On the eve of World Music Day
By Karol Bachura
Ambassador
On the eve of World Music Day, the Polish Embassy, through joint efforts with the Municipality of Tirana, has renovated the bust and the F. Chopin Garden on the 210th anniversary of the birth of the Polish composer and patriot. The modest ceremony due to COVID-19 was attended on Friday by the Mayor, Erion Veliaj, the Ambassador of Poland, Karol Bachura, the Ambassador of France, Christina Vasak and the President of the Association F. Chopin, Zhani Ciko.
The idea of establishing it was actually born in France, but the Polish accent was not lacking either, because the idea of celebrating World Music Day, the first official summer day, was put forward by Marcel Landowski, a French composer of Polish origin. His initiative was welcomed and popularized by Maurice Fleuret and Jack Lang, the then French Minister of Culture. The most significant figure linking this Franco-Polish idea is Fryderyk Chopin.
Determining the nationality of composer Fryderyk Chopin has been done in different ways. Some define him as Polish, others say he was essentially French, while others still define him as a citizen of the whole world, the latter considering his creativity. These ambiguities and inconsistencies that appear today have existed even in the time of the composer himself. However, it seems that his attitude towards this topic best proves the artist’s nationality. Chopin beautified and ennobled everything. He poured patriotism and yeast of his whole heroic soul into creativity: etudes, ballads, nocturnes, mazurki or poloneze.
The creativity of the great composer has had a colossal impact on world culture and even greater on Polish culture. In Polish cultural life he has always been accepted as one of the most prominent Poles. This is how other Polish composers, but also poets, have seen his life and creativity. We, his compatriots, consider him as such today.
Chopin has written poetry without words. In Chopin’s music, listeners will always find something surprising, stunning, and even the most unfamiliar with music cannot remain indifferent. Chopin’s name, the importance of his music, as it happens with any great creator, began to grow, to take on new meanings, to speak to other generations over the years. The great Chopinian tradition was created hand in hand. Chopin inspires with example, rather with attitude than with compositional technique and originality of style that cannot be imitated – which is the paradox of the Chopinian tradition.
This tradition continues round the clock here in Albania, where the Fryderyk Chopin Association miraculously functions with maestro Zhani Ciko at the helm and where virtuosos of the new generation are cultivated, in love with Chopinian music, such as the young Albanian pianist, Laura Sulaj , whose talent was appreciated, among other things, during specific activities due to COVID-19 in the frame of the European Days, where she reached an interpretive peak in the piano performance of the Albanian National Anthem.
Chopin’s music finds itself in a completely different perspective in the 21st century and is surprisingly well resisting the test of time. Chopin – the embodiment of romanticism, does not exclude Chopin’s portrait in the 21st century – as a great innovator and master of compositional workshop.
Today the Chopin tradition is represented not only by a number of respected institutions, musical and scientific authorities, but it always remains a living field of inspiration, inspiration of new ideas and realizations and above all a source of inspiration for a wide circle of people, for whom the figure of the composer is particularly beloved and close.
I am very happy that this tradition has taken a permanent place in the culture of Albania, and the circle of people who understand it has influenced on the renovation of the bust of Chopin in Tirana and his permanent presence in the capital. The prospects for the future are open and wide, moreover, the Chopinian music will amaze us and amaze us more than once; it will win the hearts of the inhabitants of Tirana and all of Albania.
© Argumentum.
