Galician family traditions and their role in shaping Zygmunt Mycielski’s life attitude

Abstract

Located near Strzyżów, Wiśniowa is a place that from 1867 to 1944 belonged to the Mycielski family. Born in 1907, Zygmunt Mycielski was the youngest of four sons of Maria née Szembek and Jan Mycielski. He spent most of all the years from 1915 to 1922 in Wiśniowa, when he started his junior high school education in Cracow. Until 1939, Mycielski came to Wiśniowa regularly, composing and spending time in the company of relatives. The family home and – more broadly – the entire family “formation” were of great importance for his development. Zygmunt Mycielski referred to Wiśniowa and the years he lived there throughout all his life. In 1981, he wrote in his diary: “«Naître, vivre et mourir dans la même maison» – To be born, live and die in the same house”. In this sentence there is much of the world that shaped me, despite all my escapes to Paris, Vilnius or Bukowina just before the war. The article presents the family home of Zygmunt Mycielski and its influence on the creative attitude of the future composer.