Tadeusz Baird
Tadeusz Baird (26 July 19282 September 1981) was a Polish composer.
Tadeusz Baird

Tadeusz Rudzki · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Name
- Tadeusz Baird
- Born
- 26 July 1928
- Birthplace
- Munich, Bavaria, Germany
- Died
- 2 September 1981
- Place of death
- Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Poland
- Occupation
- Composer
- Nationality
- Poland
- Fields
- music
- Education
- Chopin University of Music
- Honours
- Medal of the National Education Commission · Polish State Award · Work Flag Order, 1st class · Work Flag Order and 2nd class · Gold Cross of Merit · Knight of the Order of Polonia Restituta
- Languages
- Polish
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Tadeusz Baird (26 July 19282 September 1981) was a Polish composer.
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Note VALÉORINE
Tadeusz Baird (1928–1981) was a composer, film score composer and music educator, among other activities, of Polish nationality. The composer was born in Grodzisk Mazowiecki and died in Warsaw.
Tadeusz Baird was educated at Chopin University of Music. The composer worked for Chopin University of Music and was a member of Academy of Arts of the GDR and Union of Polish Composers. Tadeusz Baird worked in Warsaw. Activity centred on music.
The work spans atonality, classical music and opera. Languages used include Polish. Honours include Gold Cross of Merit, Knight of the Order of Polonia Restituta and Medal of the National Education Commission, among others.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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museum · 6501d004-700c-4ddc-9d55-6b162009a63f · wikidata · Q545594 · wikipedia · Tadeusz Baird
In this article
Biography
Biography
Tadeusz Baird studied at Chopin University of Music. The recorded working language is Polish. The field of work recorded is music. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are classical music, opera and atonality. Places of work recorded in the authority are Warsaw. Employment is recorded with Chopin University of Music. Distinctions recorded are Medal of the National Education Commission, Polish State Award, Work Flag Order, 1st class and Work Flag Order, 2nd class.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Tadeusz Baird • Born — 26 July 1928 • Birthplace — Munich, Bavaria, Germany • Died — 2 September 1981 • Place of death — Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Poland • Occupation — Composer • Organizations — * Warsaw Autumn Tadeusz Baird (26 July 19282 September 1981) was a Polish composer.
Biography
Biography
Baird was born in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, in Poland. His father Edward was Polish, while his mother Maria (née Popov) was Russian. In 1944 at the age of 16 he was deported to Germany as a forced labourer, and after a failed escape attempt was imprisoned in a concentration camp. After liberation by the Americans he spent six months recovering at the military hospital in Zweckel before returning to Poland. Between 1947 and 1951 Baird studied composition and musicology in Warsaw under Piotr Rytek and Kazimierz Sikorski, and piano with Tadeusz Wituski. 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 socialist realism, the dominant ideology in the Eastern Bloc at the time. After Stalin's death in 1953 he increasingly turned to serialism. In 1956, along with Kazimierz Serocki, he founded the Warsaw Autumn international contemporary music festival. In 1974 he began to teach composition at the National College of Music (currently the Music Academy) in Warsaw. In 1977, now a full professor, he was offered a post to teach a composition class at the Warsaw Academy of Music, and also membership in the Academie der Künste der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik – Berlin in 1979. He died suddenly in Warsaw on September 2, 1981 at age 53, as a result of a brain aneurysm.
Music for solo instruments
Music for solo instruments
• Sonatina I (1949) for solo piano • Sonatina II (1952) for solo piano • Little Suite for Children (1952) for solo piano
Chamber music
Chamber music
• Two Caprices for Clarinet and Piano (1953) (2nd Prize, Polish Composers' Union) • Cztery Preludia [Four Preludes] for Bassoon and Piano (1954) • Divertimento for Flute, Clarinet, Oboe, and Bassoon (1956) • String Quartet (1957) • Play for String Quartet (1971) • Variations in Rondo Form for String Quartet (1978)
Orchestral works
Orchestral works
• Sinfonietta (1949) • Symphony I (1950) - Polish National Prize, 1951 • Colas Breugnon: a suite in the old style for string orchestra with flute (1951) • Symphony II, quasi una fantasia (1952) • Concerto for Orchestra (1953) • Cassazione per orchestra (1956) • Four Essays (1958) - UNESCO Prize, 1959 • Variations Without a Theme (1962) • Epiphany Music (1963) • Four Novelettes for chamber orchestra (1967) • Sinfonia Breve (1968) • Symphony III (1969) - National Prize, 1970 • Psychodrama (1972) • Elegia (1973) • Canzona (1980)
Concertos
Concertos
• Piano Concerto (1949) • Four Dialogs for oboe and chamber orchestra (1964) - UNESCO Prize 1966 • Oboe Concerto (1973) • Scenes for cello, harp and orchestra (1977) • Concerto Lugubre (1975) for viola and orchestra
Vocal-instrumental works
Vocal-instrumental works
• Four Love Sonnets for baritone and orchestra (1956) to texts by Shakespeare • Exhortation for reciting voice and orchestra (1960) to old Hebrew texts • Erotyki for soprano and orchestra (1961) to texts by Małgorzata Hilar • Five Songs for mezzo-soprano and six instruments (1970) to texts by H. Poświatowska - National Prize, 1970 • Goethe Letters: Cantata for Baritone for mixed choir and orchestra (1970) to texts by Goethe and Charlotta von Stein • Głosy z oddali [Voices from Afar] for baritone and symphony orchestra (1981) to texts by J. Iwaszkiewicz (1981)
Opera
Opera
• Tomorrow, a musical drama to a libretto by J. S. Sito (1964-66)
Career and activity
Career and activity
Tadeusz Baird worked in music. He was employed by Chopin University of Music. He belonged to Academy of Arts of the GDR and Union of Polish Composers. He worked at Warsaw.
Identity
Identity
Tadeusz Baird is recorded with the occupation film score composer. Recorded with the occupation university teacher. Recorded with the occupation music educator. Classed in the genre classical music. Recorded as a citizen of Poland. Classed in the genre atonality.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1981
Tadeusz Baird died on 2 September 1981.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Tadeusz Baird was born at Grodzisk Mazowiecki.
Birthplace
Tadeusz Baird died at Warsaw.
Deathplace
Grodzisk Mazowiecki.
Birth place
Warsaw.
Death place
Compositions
He wrote both large-scale symphonies and chamber music; however, of great importance in his output are numerous vocal cycles inspired by poetry. He was also a composer of film and theatre music. Baird's music is usually melodic, lyrical, very expressive, and intensely subjective. It is often rooted in the post-Romantic tradition, despite the use of serial techniques. Alistair Wightman identifies Baird as "a late Romantic lyricist and successor not only to Berg, but Mahler and Szymanowski". Like Berg, his use of serialism was always very free and expressive, as in his String Quartet (1957). But the later works, starting with the 1966 one-act opera Jutro ("tomorrow", based on the short story by Joseph Conrad) become darker, particularly in the orchestral piece Psychodrama (1972) and in his final work, the song cycle for baritone and orchestra Głosy z oddali (‘Voices from afar’), which sets a bleak text by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz on the subject of death and personal extinction. This change in perspective was a result of the traumatic experiences he faced during World War II and on into the early 1950s. Barbara Literska sees him as "a prophet of the future of music (postmodernity)".
Film Music
• Warsaw In Canaletto Paintings (Warszawa W Obrazach Canaletta) (1955) • The Noose (Pętla) (1958) • The Stone Sky (Kamienne Niebo) (1959) • Year One (Rok Pierwszy) (1960) • April (Kwiecień) (1961) • The Artillery Sergeant Kalen (Ogniomistrz Kalen) (1961) • Night Train (Ludzie Z Pociągu) (1961) • Samson (1961) • Between The Shores (Między brzegami) (1962) • Those Who Are Late (Spoznieni Przechodnie) (1962) • Manhunter (Naganiacz) (1963) • The Passenger (Pasażerka) (1963) • Room For One (Miejsce Dla Jednego) (1963) • Their Every Day Life (Ich Dzien Powszedni) (1963) • The Unknown (Nieznany) (1964) • Visit At The Kings (Wizyta U Królów) (1965) • Rugged Creativeness (Szorstka Twórczość) (!967) • When Love Was A Crime (Kiedy Miłość Była Zbrodnią) (1967)
Reception
Tadeusz Baird is recorded as having received Medal of the National Education Commission, Polish State Award and Work Flag Order, 1st class.
Recordings
• Eastern Discoveries. MSR MS1517 (2015). Four preludes for bassoon and piano • Epiphany Music. Olympia OCD 312 (1989). Epiphany Music for orchestra, Elegia For orchestra, Four Love Sonnets, Symphony No 3 • Film Music, Volumes 1 and 2. Olympia OCD 604 (1994) and OCD 607 (1995) • Günter Wand: The Radio Recordings. Profil PH13038 (2016). Four Dialogues for oboe and orchestra • Orchestral Works. Koch 3-6770-2 (2001). Psychodrama, Oboe Concerto, Scenes for cello, harp and orchestra, Conzona for orchestra, Concerto Lugubre for viola and orchestra • Polish Piano Concertos. Dux 0651 (2009). Piano Concerto • Polish Songs. Acte Prealable APO 274 (2013). Trouveurs’ Songs • Psychodrama. Olympia 326 (2000). Psychodrama, Tomorrow • Songs and Orchestral Music. Olympia OCD 388 (1993). Voices From Afar, Goethe-Briefe, Scene For cello and harp With orchestra, Canzona for orchestra • Streichquartette. Colosseum 0648 (1986). Play for string quartet, Variations on Rondo Form, String Quartet No 1 • Szymanowski, Gorecki, Baird. EMI 5 65418 (1995). Colas Breugnon Suite
Recognition and collections
Where the work is held
Recognition and collections
Tadeusz Baird received Medal of the National Education Commission, Polish State Award, Work Flag Order, 1st class, Work Flag Order, 2nd class, Gold Cross of Merit and Knight of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
scholarly publication
- Baird, Tadeusz (opera), Oxford Music Online, 2002
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2002
- Baird, Tadeusz, Oxford Music Online, 2001
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2001
Institutional database
- MusicBrainz artist record for Tadeusz Baird
Scholarly · MetaBrainz Foundation
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q545594: Tadeusz Baird
Scholarly · Wikimedia Foundation
reference work
- “Tadeusz Baird”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Literature
Literature
Baird, Tadeusz, Oxford Music Online, 2001
Baird, Tadeusz (opera), Oxford Music Online, 2002
Baird, Tadeusz, Komponisten Lexikon, 2003
Baird, Tadeusz, Metzler Komponisten Lexikon, 1992
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Biography ('The War Years'). Polish Music Information Centre
- 2.Wightman, Alistair. 'Baird, Tadeusz' in Grove Music Online
- 3.Obituary, The Times, 15 September 1981, p 14
- 4.Obituary, Musical Times, November 1981, p 768
- 5.Wightman, Andrew. 'Tadeusz Baird at 50' in Musical Times, October 1978, p 847-50
- 6.Thomas, Adrian. 'Baird, Tadeusz (opera)' in Grove Music Online
- 7.Literska, Barbara. Tadeusz Baird: The Composer, His Work, and Its Reception. Peter Laing (2020)
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Baird, Tadeusz (opera), Oxford Music Online, 2002Crossref registry
Verifiedscholarly publication
Baird, Tadeusz, Oxford Music Online, 2001Crossref registry
VerifiedInstitutional database
MusicBrainz artist record for Tadeusz BairdMetaBrainz Foundation
VerifiedInstitutional database
Wikidata, structured authority record Q545594: Tadeusz BairdWikimedia Foundation
Verifiedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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