Feliks Nowowiejski

Feliks Nowowiejski (7 February 1877 – 18 January 1946) was a Polish composer, conductor, concert organist, and music teacher. Nowowiejski was born in Wartenburg (today Barczewo) in Warmia in East Prussia, German Empire. He died in Poznań, Poland.

Feliks Nowowiejski was born the fifth of 11 siblings. His father, Franz Adam Nowowiejski, born in 1830 in Wartenburg, East Prussia, had Polish roots (his grandfather Jan Nowowiejski, born in 1730 in Warmia. married the Pole Anna Jablonska from Tollack). Franz Adam Nowowiejski was a master tailor with his own workshop in Wartenburg, where he alo managed a public library of Polish books. Feliks Nowowiejski’s mother, née Katharina Falk, born in 1847, was the second wife of Franz Adam Nowowiejski ; she was a German from the neighboring village of Wuttrienen. While Franz Adam Nowowiejski enthusiastically promoted Polish culture, Feliks Nowowiejski’s mother displayed a strong interest in the arts, particularly as a pianist. With her participation in performances of Polish folk songs and recitations of noted poets from Poland and Germany as well as her own poetry, she fostered the formidable musical talent of her son, likely an inheritance from her. Despite the patriotic Polish stance of their father, his children spoke better German than they did Polish. As a result, even before his time in Berlin, Feliks Nowowiejski could only write in German.

Nowowiejski’s family had lived in Warmia for several generations. In 1883 Feliks Nowowiejski became a pupil at the elementary school in Wartenburg at the rectory of St. Anne’s Church. Due to his musical talent—he composed his first piano work, a suite of classical and contemporary dances, he entered the convent school in Heiligelinde, where he was taught harmony, violin, cello, French horn, piano, and organ. However, he was unable to complete his studies because of the necessity of providing the sole support for his family. With the bankruptcy of his father’s workshop, the impoverished family resettled in Allenstein in 1893. In 1893 Nowowiejski became a violinist in the orchestra of the Prussian Regiment of Grenadiers, a development that enabled him to support his parents and siblings. He then composed works for military bands and amateur orchestras. Thanks to a composition prize for his march Pod sztandarem pokoju (Under the Banner of Peace), he was able to study at the Stern Conservatory from April to September 1898. From 1888 to 1900 he assumed the post of organist at St. James’ Church in Allenstein. After being awarded a second prize, he completed a three-month course in counterpoint, Palestrina, and Gregorian chant at the College of Catholic Church Music and Musical Education in Regensburg, Bavaria. He subsequently studied at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin, learning theory and counterpoint under Ludwig Bussler, composition under Wilhelm Taubert, and Gradus ad Parnassum under Heinrich Bellerman, simultaneously perfecting his organ playing under Otto Dienel and playing in the orchestra under the baton of Gustav Hollaender. After submitting a cantata to the Royal Academy of Arts, Berlin, he was accepted into a master class for composition under Max Bruch from 1900 to 1902. At the same time he began studies in musicology and aesthetics at Frederick William University. In Berlin he came into contact with Polish intellectuals and developed a strong Polish patriotism that would often later be reflected in his works, e.g. his Warmian Motifs, Polish Courtship, or Quo Vadis.

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