dr Małgorzata Pawłowska
Małgorzata Pawłowska (PhD)
Music theorist and lecturer at the Department of Theory and Interpretation of the Musical Work of the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow, where she teaches music literature, musical analysis, methodology of academic work, and contemporary analytical methods; member of the editorial board of the journal Res Facta Nova. Teksty o muzyce współczesnej [Texts on Contemporary Music].
Her research interests are rooted in anthropologically and hermeneutically oriented music theory. Musical narratology and the semiotics of music have played an important role in her research to date. Her work has engaged with music by, among others, Georg Anton Benda, Vincenzo Bellini, Hector Berlioz, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Charles Gounod, Sergei Prokofiev, Leonard Bernstein, Pascal Dusapin, Zbigniew Bujarski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Bronius Kutavičius, and Nino Rota. Her current research focuses on the poetics of night in contemporary music, including works by George Crumb, Henri Dutilleux, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Kaija Saariaho, Per Nørgård, and Bent Sørensen.
Małgorzata Pawłowska graduated with distinction in Music Theory from the Academy of Music in Kraków, completing part of her studies at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels. Both her master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation were written under the supervision of Professor Mieczysław Tomaszewski. Her master’s thesis, The Devil in 19th- and 20th-Century Music: Selected Examples, received an award in the 15th National Competition for Master’s Theses by Graduates of Polish Music Academies. Her doctoral dissertation, The Myth of Romeo and Juliet in Music from the Perspective of Narratology, was awarded the Prime Minister’s Award and received honorable mentions in the 10th National Centre for Culture Competition for Best Doctoral Thesis in Cultural Studies and the H. Feicht Competition organized by the Polish Composers’ Union. The dissertation also received an award in the Foundation for Polish Science “Monographs” competition and was published in revised form by Nicolaus Copernicus University Press as Muzyczne narracje o kochankach z Werony. Wprowadzenie do narratologii muzycznej [Musical Narratives about the Lovers of Verona: An Introduction to Musical Narratology] in the “Monografie FNP” series (2016). The English version, translated by Marta Robson, appeared in the U.S. as Exploring Musical Narratology: The Romeo and Juliet Myth in Music in the Interplay: Music in Interdisciplinary Dialogue series by Pendragon Press (2018).
malgorzata.pawlowska@amuz.krakow.pl
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Monographs
Exploring Musical Narratology: The Romeo and Juliet Myth in Music, series Interplay: Music in Interdisciplinary Dialogue, Pendragon Press, New York 2018.
Muzyczne narracje o kochankach z Werony. Wprowadzenie do narratologii muzycznej, series Monografie FNP, Nicolaus Copernicus University Press, Toruń 2016, ISBN 9788323137214.
Selected Academic Articles
– Correspondences: Music Inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night, in: Musicologica Olomucensia 37(1), 2025, pp. 162–205.
– Musical Narratives on the Gates of Jerusalem by Bronius Kutavičius and Krzysztof Penderecki, in: M. Janicka-Słysz (ed.), Music of Change. Expression of Liberation in Polish and Lithuanian Music before and after 1989, Musica Iagiellonica, Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow, 2023, pp. 183–232. [This publication emerged from the DAINA 1 research project no. 2017/27/L/HS2/03240 funded by the National Science Centre of Poland. The monograph received a Gold Diploma at the 4th International “Music Eagles” Competition 2024 in the “Scientific Publication” category.]
– The Presence of Great Myths in Music: Faust, Romeo and Juliet, Don Juan, in: K. Kiwała (ed.), Re-Interpreting Music. Mieczysław Tomaszewski’s Kraków School of Music Theory. Studies – Syntheses – Constructs, Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow 2022, ISBN 978-83-67055-12-3, pp. 501–514.
– Narrative and Time in Music. A Few Insights, in: M. Aydintan, F. Edler, R. Graybill, L. Krämer (eds.), Gegliederte Zeit. 15. Jahreskongress der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie, Berlin 2015, Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim, Zürich, New York 2020, pp. 344–356.
– Narratology in Music Analysis: Reconnaissance, Perspectives, in: A. Granat-Janki (ed.), Musical Analysis. Historia – Theoria – Praxis, vol. V, Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław, 2019, pp. 57–74.
– Intermedial Transposition – From Verbal Story to Music. Narrative in Musical Works on “Romeo and Juliet”, in: J. Pier, P. Roussin (eds.), Emerging Vectors on Narratology, series Narratologia, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston 2017, pp. 285–313.
– A Story or Not a Story? Pascal Dusapin’s “Roméo & Juliette” and New Ways of Musical Narratives, in: M. Reybrouck, C. Maeder (eds.), Music, Semiotics, and Intermediality. New Perspectives in Musical Semiotics, Leuven University Press 2015, pp. 257–273.
– Narrative and Music: On the Global “Narratological Effect” and Its Consequences in Thinking about Music, in: Kultura współczesna 3, 2014, pp. 166–178.
– “Une aventure extraordinaire”: Pascal Dusapin’s “Roméo & Juliette”, in: Res Facta Nova. Texts on Contemporary Music 14 (26), pp. 17–44.
– The Faces of Sonorism in the Early Works of Zbigniew Bujarski, in: T. Malecka et al. (eds.), Teoria Muzyki. Studia, Interpretacje, Dokumentacje, no. 5, 2014.
– Musical Narratology – An Outline, in: J. Alber, P. K. Hansen (eds.), Unnatural and Transmedial Narrative and Narratology, series Narratologia, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2013, pp. 197–220.
– Diabolus in Musica, in: G. Branny, G. Holland (eds.), Fictions and Metafictions of Evil, Peter Lang Edition, 2013, pp. 187–198.
– The Story of Romeo and Juliet Liberated From Words. A Narratological Analysis of the Works by Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, in: M. Zatkalik et al. (eds.), Histories and Narratives of Music Analysis, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013, pp. 160–194.
– The Semantics of Love in Musical Interpretations of the Romeo and Juliet Myth, in: T. Malecka, M. Pawłowska (eds.), Music: Function and Value. Proceedings of the 11th International Congress on Musical Signification, 27 IX–2 X 2010, Kraków, Poland, Akademia Muzyczna w Krakowie, vol. 1, 2013, pp. 304–317.
– Eero Tarasti’s “Semiotics of Classical Music. How Mozart, Brahms and Wagner Talk to Us” (2012), in: T. Malecka et al. (eds.), Teoria Muzyki. Studia, Interpretacje, Dokumentacje, vol. II, no. 2, 2013, pp. 129–134.
– The Myth of Romeo and Juliet in Music from a Narratological Perspective, in: T. Malecka et al. (eds.), Teoria Muzyki. Studia, Interpretacje, Dokumentacje, vol. II, no. 2, 2013, pp. 107–115.
– The Operatic Hero between the Sacred and the Profane: Epiphanic Religious Motifs in “Robert the Devil” by Meyerbeer, “Faust” by Gounod, and “Doktor Faust” by Busoni, in: K. Turek, B. Mika (eds.), Religious Music – Between Epochs and Cultures, vol. II, University of Silesia Press, Katowice 2009.
Editorial Work
– Małgorzata Pawłowska (ed.), Res Facta Nova. Texts on Contemporary Music, no. 24 (33), PWM 2023 [volume dedicated to topic theory and topical analysis of music].
– Teresa Malecka, Małgorzata Pawłowska (eds.), Music: Function and Value. Proceedings of the 11th International Congress on Musical Signification 27 IX–2 X 2010, Kraków, Poland, Musica Iagiellonica, Akademia Muzyczna w Krakowie 2013.
– Teresa Malecka, Małgorzata Pawłowska (eds.), Music as a Message of Truth and Beauty, Akademia Muzyczna w Krakowie 2014.