Tadeusz Baird

Tadeusz Baird (26 July 1928 – 2 September 1981) was a Polish composer.

Baird was born in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, to Scottish immigrant parents. He studied composition, piano and musicology in Warsaw with, among others, Kazimierz Sikorski. In 1949, he founded Group 49 along with Kazimierz Serocki and Jan Krenz. The aim of Group 49 was to write communicative and expressive music according to the social-realistic ideology of the state. In 1956, with Kazimierz Serocki, he founded the Warsaw Autumn international contemporary music festival. In 1974 he began to teach composition at the State College of Music (currently the Music Academy) in Warsaw. In 1977 as a full professor he was offered a teacher position of a composition class at the Warsaw Academy of Music, and also a membership of the Academie der Künste der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik – Berlin in 1979.

He died in 1981, aged 53.

He wrote both large scale symphonies and chamber music, however, of great importance in his output are numerous vocal cycles inspired by poetry. He wrote Tomorrow, a musical drama based on a short story by Joseph Conrad. He was also a composer of a film and theatre music. Baird's music is usually lyrical, very expressive, and intensely subjective. It is often rooted in the post-Romantic tradition, despite serial techniques.

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

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