2.0 NAROD
Polkowski's biography published in Warsaw set out to challenge the conclu-
sions of Von Hipler's biography published in Berlin, initiating a debate which
has raged with pointless fury every since. The fact that Copernicus himself and
Copernicus's contemporaries, were largely indifferent to nationality, disap-
peared under the deluge of charge and counter-charge. As a native of Royal
Prussia, he never admitted to anything other than a local patriotism, whereby he
described himself as a 'Prussian'. He was a loyal subject of the Jagiellonian
Kings, and a lifelong opponent of the Teutonic Knights and of Albrecht von
Hohenzollern. From the cultural point of view, he came from a family whose
connections in Silesia, and in the bourgeoisie 'of fifteenth-century Cracow, in
Thorn, and in Frauenberg, were with the German-speaking rather than with the
Polish-speaking element; but there is ample evidence that he knew the Polish
language. In his scientific work, like all scholars of this time, he thought and
wrote exclusively in Latin. Taking everything into consideration, there is good
reason to regard him both as a German and as a Pole: and yet, in the sense that
modern nationalists understand it, he was neither. Objective observers might
look with admiration on the fact that in Jagiellonian times a prominent German
churchman and scientist was able to show such marked loyalty to the Polish
kingdom. But in a later world, where Germans and Poles were doing everything
to destroy the bonds of mutual respect and harmony, Polish scholars have felt
obliged to follow the German example and to mount exclusive claims over a
generous man who would turn in his grave to hear their bickerings.^20
Strong emotions have also been generated in interpretations of the works of
Frederyk Chopin (1810-49). Although the French have been slightly less propri-
etorial towards Chopin than the Germans towards Copernicus, the same
debates and disagreements concerning the extent and significance of his
'Polishness' have regularly recurred. Born at Zelazowa Wola in the Duchy of
Warsaw, the son of a French musician, he spent the greater part of his creative
life by choice in Paris, in cosmopolitan artistic circles. He maintained close emo-
tional ties with his family in Poland, writing to his father in French and to his
mother and sisters in Polish. But what this means for his music is difficult to say.
Anglo-Saxon critics with no vested interest in the matter, have tended to dis-
count the national factor. The Polish element in Chopin's music is as urbane as
the Hungarian in Liszt', wrote one critic, 'and ... is not of paramount artistic
importance.' 'Nothing in the outside world', wrote another, 'exercised the
slightest influence on his work, either for good or evil.' To most Polish listeners,
and to people familiar with the Polish way of thinking, such comments are
incomprehensible. For them, Chopin's works were based on his experiences in
the formative years in Warsaw, distilled from the Polish melodies, harmonies,
and rhythms that he heard in his youth, and inspired by a bittersweet nostalgia
for the land of his birth; they represent the quintessence of 'Polishness'. Who is
to say? Listening to the Mazurkas in C Minor (Op. 30, no. 4; Op. 41, no. 1; Op.
50, no. 3), one listener recognizes 'a common mood ... of regal bitterness over
the passing of Poland's glory', another, while feeling the power of the music