Tadeusz Baird was a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 composer.

He was born in Grodzisk Mazowiecki

Grodzisk Mazowiecki

Grodzisk Mazowiecki is a town in central Poland with 26,881 inhabitants in 2006. It is 30 km. southwest of Warsaw.Between 1975 and 1998 it was situated in the Warszawa Voivodeship but since 1999 it has been situated in the Masovian Voivodeship. It is the capital of Grodzisk Mazowiecki...

, to Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 immigrant parents. He studied composition, piano and musicology in Warsaw with, among others, Kazimierz Sikorski

Kazimierz Sikorski

Kazimierz Sikorski was a Polish composer.-Biography:Sikorski studied in Warsaw, first music at the Warsaw Conservatory and then philosophy at the University of Warsaw. He then studied in Lwów, which was Polish at the time, and Paris. In 1926, he became a teacher of composition at the Conservatory...

. In 1956, with Serocki, he founded the Warsaw Autumn

Warsaw Autumn

Warsaw Autumn is the largest international Polish festival of contemporary music. Indeed, for many years, it was the only festival of its type in Central and Eastern Europe. It was founded in 1956 by two composers, Tadeusz Baird and Kazimierz Serocki, and officially established by the Head Board...

 international contemporary music festival. In 1974 he began to teach composition at the State College of Music (currently the Music Academy) in Warsaw.

Compositions

Baird's music is usually lyrical, very expressive, and intensely subjective. It is often rooted in the post-Romantic tradition, despite serial techniques.

Music for solo instruments

• Sonatina I (1949)
• Sonatina II (1952)
• Little Suite for Children (1952)

Orchestral works

• Symphony I (1950) - Polish National Prize, 1951
• Colas Breugnon: a suite in the old style for string orchestra with flute (1951)
• Four Essays (1958) - UNESCO Prize, 1959
• Symphony III (1969) - National Prize, 1970

Concertos

• Four Dialogs for oboe and chamber orchestra (1964) - UNESCO Prize 1966
• Oboe Concerto (1973)
• Scenes for cello, harp and orchestra (1977)
• Concerto Lugubre (1975) for viola and orchestra

Vocal-instrumental works

• Four Love Sonnets for baritone and orchestra (1956) to texts by Shakespeare
• Five Songs for mezzo-soprano and six instruments (1970) to texts by H. Poświatowska - National Prize, 1970
• Tomorrow, a musical drama to a libretto by J. S. Sito

Recordings

Baird's works have limited exposure on record, the principal recordings being a trio of Olympia

Melodiya

Melodiya is a Russian record label. It was the state-owned major record company/label of the Soviet Union.-History:It was established in 1964 as the "All-Union Gramophone Record Firm of the USSR Ministry of Culture Melodiya"...

 CDs, focusing on his orchestral output and including the one-act opera Tomorrow. The Colas Breugnon suite has been recorded twice, notably by the Polish Chamber Orchestra under Jerzy Maksymiuk

Jerzy Maksymiuk

Jerzy Maksymiuk is a Polish orchestra conductor.Maksymiuk studied violin, piano, conducting and composition at the Warsaw Conservatory. In 1964 he won first prize in the Paderewski Piano Composition. Conducting soon became his principal career...

 on EMI

EMI

The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

.

External links

• Baird page at the Polish Music Center