1970
16–17 January
Baird’s composer concerts in Poznań. The Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra performs his suite Colas Breugnon, Five Songs to words by Halina Poświatowska, Sinfonia breve, Four Love Sonnets and Symphony No. 3.
February
Baird leaves for Budapest, where the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Witold Rowicki performs and records his Concerto for Orchestra.
Summer
Baird is in Rio de Janeiro, at the 3rd American Festival, as a member of the jury in a composers’ competition.
The visit to South America was an important event for the composer. This is how he recalled it many years later:
It seems to me that we in Europe are not quite aware of the fact that in those countries [Brazil and Japan] in recent years or decades there has emerged a whole generation of young composers with some considerable achievements to their credit. For me, the most interesting among them was a group of Brazilian composers, called the Group of Bahia. Several composers, including Ernesto Widmer, Carlos Nobre and Lindenbergue Cardoso, are currently active in this oldest Brazilian centre of culture. Their works have been a surprise for me, and a very positive surprise at that. I have also been very impressed with the music of two or three leading representatives of the young generation of Argentinian composers, above all, Hilda Dianda. This music bears a mark of distinctiveness, which I, an enemy of all anonymity in art, value probably above everything else.
October
Baird visits Japan for a concert of his works in Tokyo. The programme features the String Quartet, Five Songs to words by Poświatowska and Four Novelettes.
Many years later Baird remembered the visit in the following manner:
Courtesy of Professor Todo from the Faculty of Music of the University of Tokyo, I had an opportunity to hear a large number of works by contemporary Japanese composers, including those unknown outside Japan, and I was struck by a puzzling phenomenon. The degree of distinctiveness of Japanese music or art in general – in any case we can talk about all spheres of this nation’s life – is marked by some incredible strangeness, uniqueness or even lack of similarity to other cultures.
Baird receives the State Prize, 1st class, for his Symphony No. 3 and Five Songs to words by Poświatowska.
1971
29 January
Baird receives the Alfred Jurzykowski Prize from the Jurzykowski Foundation in New York.
June
The composer travels to Dresden, where his Goethe-Briefe is premiered during the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Dresden Philharmonic.
26 September
Death of the composer’s father – Edward Baird.
November
Baird travels to Copenhagen to attend the premiere of his string quartet Play, which takes place on 21 November. This is how he reported on the preparations for the concert:
Play – v.v. difficult, the ensemble – they’re sweating. But I’m working with them a lot and perhaps I can get something out of them.
Polish Television produces a documentary, Tadeusz Baird – A Portrait, directed by Ludwik Perski.
Tadeusz Baird – A Portrait, dir. Ludwik Perski (TVP 1971) – beginning
1972
5 June
An all-Baird concert at the National Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw featuring his chamber works.
3 September
Baird begins his work as a teacher at the State School of Music in Warsaw. His first students include Elżbieta Sikora and Krzysztof Knittel. However, owing to a lack of agreement over the conditions of employment, Baird resigns already in November (the problem probably concerned the fact that without a degree in composition, Baird could not be employed as a contractual professor).
November
Baird travels to Norrköping to attend the premiere of Psychodrama.
1973
January
Tadeusz Baird is appointed member of the Music Council.
6 July
Tadeusz Baird passes his MA exam in composition at the State School of Music in Florian Dąbrowski’s class and obtains his Masters of Arts degree. A year before the composer resumed his composition studies, interrupted in 1951.
23 September
Premiere of Baird’s Concerto for oboe and orchestra at the Warsaw Autumn.
November/December
Baird travels to Canada, where his Elegeia is premiered in Ottawa.
1974
6 February
The composer’s mother – Maria Baird née Popov – dies after a serious illness.
The composer was very close to his mother, whom he cared for till the end of her life. As he recalls in a conversation with Izabela Grzenkowicz:
One day after the funeral, I went to the wintery Baltic seaside. I stayed there alone for about a fortnight.
11 February
Baird receives the Arthur Honegger Prize for his compositional achievements in 1973.
13 February
The rector of the State School of Music in Warsaw, Tadeusz Wroński, submits a request to the Ministry of Culture and Art to award the title of contractual professor to Baird.
1 April
Baird begins his work as a contractual professor at the State School of Music in Warsaw. At the same time he is appointed chair of the Department of Composition at the Faculty of Composition, Conducting and Music Theory at the School.
11 April
First broadcast on the Polish Television of the film Tomorrow, directed by Bogdan Hussakowski, after Baird’s opera.
Tomorrow, dir. Bogdan Hussakowski (TVP 1973) - beginning
14 October
Baird takes part in a Polish-Swedish symposium in Stockholm.
1975
May
Tadeusz Baird goes on an artistic tour of Georgia. As he writes to his future wife:
It’s very beautiful here, everything is nice except the music.
September
Despite the fact that the Warsaw Autumn is taking place in Warsaw, the composer goes on a holiday to Bulgaria.
14 October
Baird receives the Award of the Minister of Culture and Art, 1st Class.
November
Baird travels to Munich and Frankfurt.
1976
21 April
Baird is appointed head of the Polish section of the ISCM (International Society for Contemporary Music).
May
The composer travels to Nuremberg to attend the premiere of his Concerto lugubre.
June
Baird and a group of students are in Budapest on an exchange of music school students.
September/October
Baird goes on an artistic tour of the USSR (Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Baikal and Moscow).
21 October
Tadeusz Baird marries his long-time companion, Alina Sawicka.
December
The composer decides to resign as the chair of the Department of Composition at the Warsaw School of Music. However, the Ministry persuades him to remain in his post.
The composer receives the Jean Sibelius Medal.
1977
February
Tadeusz Baird goes on an artistic trip to Berlin.
5 October
The composer writes a letter to the rector of the State School of Music, Tadeusz Maklakiewicz, about his promised promotion to full professorship.
29 October
Baird is awarded the title of full professor of music.
1978
1 February
Baird again becomes the chair of the Department of Composition of the State School of Music in Warsaw.
February
Baird goes on an artistic trip to West Germany and Holland (Utrecht, Cologne).
April
Tadeusz Baird goes to Moscow to attend the Polish Music Festival.
May
The composer again goes on an artistic tour of West Germany (Gelsenkirchen, Frankfurt am Main, Bonn), where the premiere of his Scenes takes place.
10 May
Akademie der Künste der DDR in Berlin chooses Tadeusz Baird to be a corresponding member of the music section.
26 July
The composer celebrates his 50th birthday. He receives many congratulatory letters, both from the authorities and from friends.
This is how Baird himself commented on this moment of his life:
To be fifty is nothing special, it’s no breakthrough; it was worse when one’s youth was coming to an end, it’ll be even worse, when old age comes (sooner rather than later...). For the moment, one doesn’t feel any weakening of physical strength and one’s mind, so it seems to me, is functioning quite well. [...] At the moment it seems to me that it’s not a bad time for intense and effective work: the worldview is formed but not fossilised yet, one’sinterest in affairs, in people and in the world hasn’t diminished, on the contrary, one has acquired some (good and bad, what’s more important, I wonder?) experiences and has a clear goal in mind (which is probably not going to be achieved, but that’s the fate of almost all people), the resistance of the sound matter is weakening, it’s easier to achieve what one wants (though perhaps this is just an illusion or evidence – horror of horrors! – of getting into a rut?).
September
Baird travels to Kraków (the venue of the Polish premiere of the Scenes) and Katowice.
Krzysztof Zanussi directs a film devoted to three Polish composers (Baird, Witold Lutosławski and Krzysztof Penderecki).
1979
January
Baird travels to Berlin.
March
Baird goes on an artistic trip to Paris (premiere of his Variations in Rondo Form).
May
Baird goes on an artistic tour of West Germany.
16 and 23 May
Baird’s composer concerts at the Łańcut Festival and the National Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw.
26 July
The composer receives the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Prime Minister, 1st class.
August
Holidays in Spain.
Not so long ago I went once again to my beloved Spain, this wonderful and unique country, with which only Greece can compete in my sentiments and memories (perhaps because it’s so different, but it prompts similar general reflections). In fact, these were two separate trips to Spain – the first during which I personally visited the Balearic Islands (one of the few parts of the country I hadn’t seen), and the second, just as interesting, during which I accompanied Théophile Gautier in his 1840 journey from Irun through Burgos, Valladolid, Madrid and Toledo as far as Granada, Seville, Cordoba, Málaga and Cadiz. So much has changed over those nearly 140 years, and yet so little, today, as then, as always, the country fascinates, makes you think, arouses love and some fear, from which a true love is apparently never free.
15 November
The composer decides to resign for good as the chair of the Department of Composition at the Warsaw School of Music.
15-17 November
Baird is in Łodź for the National Festival of Contemporary Music for Children and Young People DO-RE-MI.
