I Sing to Myself and the Muses … Poetry and Music in the Works of Wanda Warska

This article concerns the artistic activity of Wanda Warska, especially in the field of sung poetry, of which she was an outstanding representative. At the beginning of her career, she was hailed as the lady of Polish jazz, but it was her musical interpretations of Polish poetry by such composers as Jan Kochanowski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński, Halina Poświatowska, and Czesław Miłosz that brought the artist recognition and fame. The article essentially consists of two main parts, preceded by a general introduction to the subject of the relationship between poetry and music in a historical perspective. The first part presents an extraordinary figure of the artist who was active in various fields of art. The second part introduces the musical interpretations of poetry performed by Warska.