Józef Władysław Krogulski (1815–1842)
Józef Władysław Krogulski was born in Tarnów into a family with strong musical traditions. His father, Michał Krogulski, was a pianist, organist, and teacher who first introduced him to music. From an early age, Józef performed publicly, and at the age of nine, he played Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s Concerto in A minor, which was noted in the Warsaw press. Soon after, he moved with his family to Warsaw, where he began performing in musical salons and at the Conservatory of Music. In the summer of 1825, he embarked on a concert tour through Greater Poland, Silesia, Berlin, and Dresden, where he performed before King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony. He also gave concerts in Leipzig and Weimar, where he briefly studied under Hummel.
After returning to Warsaw in 1826, he continued his extensive concert activity, performing in cities such as Lublin, Zamość, Lviv, and Kyiv. In 1828, he settled permanently in Warsaw and began his studies at the Main School of Music, initially learning thoroughbass under Karol Kurpiński and later composition under Józef Elsner. During this period, he composed his first mature works, published by Warsaw music publishers. Among his most significant compositions were Fantasy and Variations in G minor “La bella Cracovienna” Op. 1, String Quartet in D major Op. 2, Second Piano Sonata in A minor Op. 3, and two piano concertos.
Following the outbreak of the November Uprising in 1830, Krogulski became involved in patriotic activities. At a concert on December 15, 1830, at the National Theatre, he performed his own works, and in the following months, he composed Wartime Mazur, National March, and Battle, a medley of patriotic songs arranged for piano.
After the dissolution of the Main School of Music in 1831, to support his continued studies with Elsner, he began giving private piano lessons. In 1832, he founded a free singing school at the St. Casimir Institute on Tamka Street, and from 1836, he led his own choir at the Piarist church. His choral activities included performances of masses, hymns, and cantatas, featuring both amateur singers and professional vocalists from the Warsaw opera. He soon established another free school to train singers for the Piarist choir, and its graduates, including Ignacy Marceli Komorowski and Maurycy Karasowski, later founded their own vocal schools.
In addition to sacred music, Krogulski composed secular works and collaborated with Warsaw’s Merchants’ Resursa, where he performed and created new compositions. He was also actively involved in an organization supporting musicians in distress, founded in 1837 by his friend Józef Cichocki. On January 17, 1838, he married Ludwika Katarzyna Gargulska, but both of their daughters died in infancy.
Krogulski’s most significant sacred composition was the Oratorio for Good Friday “Miserere”, completed in April 1841. Exhausted by illness, he reportedly told his friend: “I have fulfilled my undertaking; now I can die in peace.” He passed away on January 9, 1842, in Warsaw, and his grave at Powązki Cemetery remains preserved to this day.
Krogulski’s oeuvre comprises approximately one hundred religious and secular compositions, over thirty of which were published during his lifetime. Manuscripts of his works are preserved in institutions such as the Jagiellonian Library, the National Library, and the Municipal Public Library in Tarnów.
Based on the biography on portalmuzykipolskiej.pl. by
Mariusz Lesław Krogulski
