Archives of Silesian Musical Culture - archives operating at the Main Library of the Music Academy Karol Szymanowski in Katowice dealing with the documentation of the musical culture of the Silesian region.
The Archives of Silesian Music Culture was established in 1968 thanks to the initiative of Karol Musioł - a long- time director of the Main Library of the Academy of Music in Katowice, who was interested in the musical culture of Silesia in the context of its multicultural history, and during the time of its operation repeatedly obliterated musicians born in Silesia. The basic task of the Task Archive is to collect, develop and make available to students and students of silesiaks in various languages - Polish, Czech and German: manuscripts and music prints, writings and musical life documents in originals or reproductions and sound recordings. The employees also deal with the dissemination of old and contemporary Silesian music, initiate scientific research, organization of symposia and conferences, and conduct publishing activities.
Due to its location, the majority of its collections concerns musical activity in Upper Silesia. There is also documentation of professional musical life in the period from the interwar period to modern times. The archive has a large collection of publications from publishing houses operating in Silesian cities, including in Bytom (Cieplik), Chorzów, Cieszyn, Czech Cieszyn, Katowice, Ostrava, Opava, Głubczyce, Opole, Racibórz and Wrocław (Allegro, Becher, Bote und Bock, Förster, Goerlich, Grossund, Barth, Hainauer, Hientsch, Korn, Leuckart, Litman et al.).
The Archive contains autographs and rare editions of Józef Elsner's works, a collection of Silesian songbooks, manuscripts of Edward Bogusławski, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Jan Wincenty Hawel, Witold Szalonek and Józef Świder and compositional legacy of Jan Sztwiertnia, Władysław Macura, Stefan Ślązak and Jan Gawlas.
