Four Essays for orchestra (1958)
The piece was commissioned by the Ministry of Kulture and Art, and was dedicated to Witold Rowicki. It consists of four expressively contrasting movements, each of which is written for a different line-up of performers coming from the symphony orchestra.
According to Baird himself, the work is “99% dodecaphonic”. The composer showed here his love of literature, modelling the work on a literary essay – a subjective and reflective statement by its author in a loose and fragmentary form.
Essay I: Molto adagio
It is written for two harps and string quintet with the instruments treated as solo instruments. It is based on a eleven-note prime series and twelve-note auxiliary series. Its structure is a monolith with an undulating progression. The essay highlights the beauty of the string sound as well as the melody, which is the primary component of a musical work. An expressive and beautiful cantilena-like theme is the basis for a meditative narrative.
Essay II: Allegretto grazioso
This movement is an auto-transcription of the first section of Divertimento with some changes in its musical syntax and instrumentation, but with its prime series preserved and treated thematically. In its structure the section resembles a rondo with a thrice-recurring refrain. The entire essay is cheerful with some grotesque overtones (the refrain), though there are also reflective fragments (the couplets). The essay is a “brilliant aphorism” in the entire cycle.
Essay III: Allegro
This movement was modelled on a fragment of incidental music to a production of Henry IV after William Shakespeare. The domineering, violent sound of the essay results from its instrumentation (two pianos and percussion) as well as rhythm and dynamics raised to the status of form-creating elements. There are clear references to Béla Bartók and Paul Hindemith. The whole movement has a three-phase form: ABA1, with the outer sections being based on the material from the prime series and the middle section using the auxiliary series.
Essay IV: Molto adagio
It recalls the songlike, improvising and contemplative nature of the first essay.
The Four Essays constitutes an important point in the development of Baird’s individual style. By scaling down the orchestral ensembles, the composer emphasised the expressive significance of the colour element. He also demonstrated that the serial technique did not contradict expression in music. With regard to the musical form, the composer abandoned the existing neo-classical models and referred to a literary genre.
The composition won Baird the 1st Prize at the Grzegorz Fitelberg Competition in Katowice (1958) and the 1st place at UNESCO’s International Rostrum of Composers in Paris in (1959). It is an obligatory piece at the Dimitri Mitropoulos Conducting Competition in New York. After its great success at the 6th International Congress of the ISCM in Rome, the Essays became one of the most representative Polish compositions in international circulation.
After the work was performed at the 2nd Warsaw Autumn in 1958, Bohdan Pociej said:
this music is brilliantly written and sounds brilliant [...], it is full of sophisticated colour effects. Clarity and formal rounding, French sonic traditions are combined here with “Polish” lyricism. Perhaps it would be an exaggeration to say that Baird has discovered some new sound horizons; references to Martin or Stravinsky are sometimes evident. Still, listening to the Essays gives one real satisfaction, it is not difficult to develop a taste for the work’s refined atmosphere.
The great popularity of the Essays prompted various artists to use the work in ballet productions. It provided a musical setting for productions by Janina Jarzynówna-Sobczak (Gdańsk 1961, Warsaw 1962), Yvonne Georgi (Hannover 1963), Tadeusz Gołębiowski (Łódź, no date given), Pierre de Villard (Munich 1966), Gulbenkian de Bailado Group (Lisbon 1970), Covent Garden Ballet Ensemble (London 1971) and Bat-Dor Dance Company (Tel Awiw 1975). Jarzynówna-Sobczak’s version was also filmed by Franciszek Fuchs (1962).
