Non-Fiction and History Books Published by Moonrise Press 

Album 50-lecia Klubu Kultury im. Heleny Modrzejewskiej - Album of 50-Years of the Modjeska Club, 2021

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Moonrise Press is pleased to announce the publication of the history of the Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club, in Polish (July 2021) . Edited by dr. Maja Trochimczyk, Elżbieta Kanski and dr. Elżbieta Trybuś, this nearly 380-page volume documents 50 years of cultural activities of the Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club in Los Angeles, established in 1971 by actor-director Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetyński and other Polish emigres in California. The volume consists of essays, interviews, lists of club's events and other documents, richly illustrated with color photographs taken over the 50 years of the Club's history.  Texts by: Anna Maria Anders, Tadeusz Bociański, Krysta Close, Zofia Cybulska-Adamowicz, Dorota Czajka-Olszewska, Zofia Czajkowska, Witold Czajkowski, Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetyński, Jadwiga Inglis, Michal Jasień, Elżbieta Kański, Krystyna Kuszta, Jarosław Łasiński, Andrzej Maleski, Dr. Mira N. Mataric, Marta Ojrzyńska, Edward Piłatowicz, Maria Piłatowicz, Dr. Kleofas Rundzio, Andrzej Seweryn, Katarzyna Śmiechowicz, Jan Świder, Dr. Maja Trochimczyk, Dr. Elżbieta Trybuś and Jolanta Zych. More information, in Polish: https://klubmodrzejewskiej.blogspot.com/2021/07/album-50-lecia-klubu-kultury-im-heleny.html.
ISBN 978-1-945938-49-8.  Free PDF download, 32.4MB. 380 pages (368 pages of text plus xii pp.), large format 8 by 11.5 inches. Click on the link. The publication of this volume was made possible by a grant to Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club awarded by the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles, and by the generous support of Moonrise Press. 

An Alphabet of Birds by Toti O'Brien, A Collection of Nature Stories from the Garden (October 2020)

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Moonrise Press is pleased to announce the publication of ​An Alphabet of Birds by Toti O'Brien in October 2020. This prose collection of 34 short stories describes the vagaries of birds, animals, plants, seen and described by a keen and talented observer. The author has patience, a gift of attentive focus on their behaviors and transformation, and a talent to write down the reflections on the meaning of these behaviors and transformation in the constant flow of daily life. Toti O'Brien author is a multi-talented poet, writer, artist, musician, and a friend of all living beings, the whole Earth.
BUY IT NOW: ISBN 978-1-945938-41-2, paperback, 184 pages, $15.00
BUY IT NOW: ISBN 978-1-945938-42-9, ebook in ePub format, $10.00
 
ABOUT THIS BOOK. An Alphabet of Birds encompasses an entire bestiary, from its namesake birds to the squirrel that owns the narrator’s backyard to the bears that own the salmon streams. The ground of these short prose pieces is everyday life, the “daily display of splendor.” Toti O’Brien invokes a world where what is wry and wise meets what is whimsical and surreal. Questions tumble, pile on top of one another, full of possibilities and speculation. O’Brien’s language has a rolling rhythm that unspools like an incantation. Fall under her spell and journey with her into the  mysteries of the quotidian. ~ Cynthia Anderson, author of Now Voyager and Route
​More information and Table of Contents: https://moonrisepress.blogspot.com/2020/09/an-alphabet-of-birds-stories-from-home.html

Górecki, Penderecki - Diptych, a New Book by Andrzej Wendland (October 2019)

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Moonrise Prees is proud to announce the publication of e-Book version (PDF Format) of  a book by Andrzej Wendland, with two studies of music, published in Poland in 2018 and in the U.S. (e-book only) in 2019.  Entitled Górecki, Penderecki - Diptych and celebrating the 85th birth anniversary of both composers. Born in 1933, Gorecki died in 2010 and Penderecki in 2020. The book consists of two extended essays: a) "Two Tristan Postuldes and Chorale. Górecki – Wagner, intelektual reflection" and b) "Elegy for the Dying Forest - Krzysztof Penderecki VIII Symfonia „Lieder der Vergänglichkeit”  The paperback edition is only available in Poland, and includes essays in Polish and English. The PDF Book edition is available from lulu.com worldwide, and is in English only. Cover design by Maja Trochimczyk. The essays, translated into English by Maja Trochimczyk, deal with "Two Tristan Postludes and Chorale" by Henryk Mikolaj Górecki (1933-2010) and The Eight Symphony by Krzysztof Penderecki (1933-2020). They draw from philosophy, aesthetic and poetry of importance to each composer to place each work in a broad cultural context.  http://moonrisepress.blogspot.com/2019/09/new-music-book-andrzej-wendlands.html

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Gorecki in Context: Essays on Music, Edited by Maja Trochimczyk (December 2017)

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This volume gathers interviews and studies of the music of the Polish composer,  Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (1933-2010). Contributors include the composer himself – in a series of interviews spanning his entire career, from 1962 to 2008 – as well as leading Górecki scholars from Poland, the U.K., the U.S., and Australia. Chapters highlight three of the four symphonies: the Second Copernican (Kinga Kiwała), the Third, The Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (Maja Trochimczyk) and the Fourth Tansman Episodes (Andrzej Wendland). Two studies by eminent Polish scholar and Górecki’s personal friend, Prof. Teresa Malecka present the composer’s links to Polish musical traditions and an overview of his piano music.  An overview of Górecki’s life and career and a case study of his visit to Los Angeles in 1997, when he conducted his Third Symphony for the first time outside of Poland, round up the volume. The collection includes also a list of works, music examples, portraits, photographs, and a bibliography.
Details: ISBN 978-1-945938-10-8. Paperback. B/W interior, color cover, 420 pages, with bibliography, list of works, index and 66 illustrations (photos and music examples).
http://www.lulu.com/shop/maja-trochimczyk/g%C3%B3recki-in-context-essays-on-music/paperback/product-23454033.html

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​Ethics: An Outline by Benedict Spinoza, edited by Maja Trochimczyk (2017)

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​This is an abridged reprint in gender-neutral language of a 19th century translation of "Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata" by Benedict de Spinoza (Baruch Spinoza, 1632-1677) first published in 1677. The 1883 translation by William Hale White (1831-1913), was rendered gender-neutral by Dr. Maja Trochimczyk. (This means that instead of "God, His" we use "God, God's" and instead of "man, men" we use "person, human being, people, humans.") This second volume of Moonrise Press's Classic Wisdom Book Series, consists of five parts: I. Of God; II. Of The Nature and Origin of the Mind, III. Of The Origin and Nature of the Affects; IV. Of Human Bondage, or of the Strength of the Affects. And V. Of The Power of the Intellect, or Of Human Liberty. Born in a Jewish-Portuguese family in Amsterdam in 1621, at 23, Spinoza was expelled from the Jewish community and is buried in a Christian church in The Hague (he died at 44, in 1677). He was neither Jewish nor Christian in his views, and, from today’s perspective may be called one of the Classics of Awakened Wisdom, aware of the intrinsic unity of the Universe with God, the Source of all.
Paperback, 156 pages, $12.00. ISBN 9781945938085  http://www.lulu.com/shop/maja-trochimczyk-and-benedict-spinoza/ethics-an-outline/paperback/product-23183837.html.
EBook (EPub format) ISBN 9781945938092 http://www.lulu.com/shop/maja-trochimczyk-and-benedict-spinoza/ethics-an-outline/ebook/product-23200408.html​ 

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Ethics by Benedict Spinoza, translated by William Hale White (2017)

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This is a reprint of a 19th century translation of "Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata" by Benedict de Spinoza (Baruch Spinoza, 1632-1677) first published in 1677. The  translation by William Hale White (1831-1913), first published in 1883, was prepared for publication by Dr. Maja Trochimczyk, as the first volume of Moonrise Press's Classic Wisdom Book Series. The book consists of five parts: I. Of God; II. Of the Nature and Origin of the Mind, III. Of the Origin and Nature of the Affects; IV. Of Human Bondage, or of the Strength of the Affects; And V. Of the Power of the Intellect, or Of Human Liberty. Born in a Jewish-Portuguese family in Amsterdam in 1621, at 23, Spinoza was expelled from the Jewish community and is buried in a Christian Nieuwe Kerk, The Hague (he died at 44, in 1677). He was neither Jewish nor Christian in his views, and, from today’s perspective may be called one of the early Classics of Awakened Wisdom, aware of the intrinsic unity of the Universe with God, the Source of All. Paperback, 292 pages; with a preface by the translator, and index, $20.00. ISBN 9781945938061   http://www.lulu.com/shop/benedict-spinoza/ethics/paperback/product-23183808.html .  EBook (EPub Format), $8.00; ISBN 9781945938078; www.lulu.com/shop/benedict-spinoza/ethics/ebook/product-23201939.html

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​The Maska Dramatic Circle: Polish American Theater in Schenectady, New York (1933-1942) 
​by Phyllis Zych Budka (2016)

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Published in June 2016, The Maska Dramatic Circle: Polish American Theater in Schenectady, New York (1933-1942), contains a detailed history of the Maska Dramatic Circle, a Polish American theater group active before and during World War II. It was formed by first generation Polish Americans, who contributed a lot to the cultural life of their community in Schenectady, New York, between 1933 and 1942. The Maska members were multi-talented, completely bilingual, and dedicated to the cultivation of Polish culture. Plays were staged in Polish, a newsletter was printed in both English and Polish, and newspaper articles appeared in local newspapers, in Polish and English. The book contains facsimiles and transcriptions of programs, newsletters and reviews. The Maska Circle included the parents of the author, Sophie Korycinski Zych and Stanley Zych.  The author, PHYLLIS RITA ZYCH BUDKA was born in Schenectady, New York, and lives in nearby Niskayuna. All her grandparents came to Schenectady in the early 20th century. After graduating from the University of Rochester with a Bachelor of Arts in Russian Language, she married Alfred J. Budka. She received a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Union College and worked as a metallurgical engineer, retiring in 2007. Interested in genealogy and local family history, she made many trips to Poland and Lithuania to discover ancestral history. ISBN 978-0-9963981-4-5 (paperback), $30, x plus 254 pages 
ISBN 978-0-9963981-5-2 (eBook – PDF format), $10 download

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​Across the Atlantic: The Adamowicz Brothers, Polish Aviation Pioneers by Zofia Reklewska-Braun and Kazimierz Braun (September 2015)

​During the summer of 1934, two Polish amateur-pilots, Joe (Józef) and Ben (Bolesław) Adamowicz, who immigrated to the US more than twenty years earlier, flew over the Atlantic on a single-engine plane Bellanca. Their trip took them from New York to Warsaw; they were the first Poles to do so. They became instant celebrities, favorites of the journalists, photographers, and the public on both sides of the Atlantic. Alas, their triumph was short-lived, followed by a fall from grace, to imprisonment and bankruptcy. This richly illustrated book brings to life their forgotten story. Written by a historian, journalist and educator Zofia Reklewska-Braun and director, writer, scholar, and author of over 50 books, Dr. Kazimierz Braun. 
Across the Atlantic: The Adamowicz Brothers was originally published in Poland in 2011. Moonrise Press, September 2015.  
ISBN 978-0-9963981-2-1, paperback, 240 pp., 56 illustrations, bibliography, index, $20.00 
ISBN 978-0-9963981-3-8, e-Book (ePub format), download, 4.97MB, $10.00
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Intriguing and diligently researched, Across the Atlantic is a must-read for enthusiasts of aviation history, as well as those interested in Polish American history. The story of the Adamowicz brothers and their deft flight is a story of triumph and disappointment, victory and defeat, fame and oblivion. The authors are giving those aviation pioneers their second chance in history.                                                                  ~ Anna D. Jaroszynska-Kirchmann, Professor of History

Zofia Reklewska-Braun and Kazimierz Braun’s book narrates the many entanglements and paradoxes of brothers Adamowicz life and achievements, as well the history of their times. Only seven years after Lindbergh, they were the first Poles, to cross the North Atlantic on a tiny Bellanca aircraft. The book is written with passion, care for the details, and perfectly documented; it is based on years’ lasting research in archives and on comparative analysis of various sources. All in all it is a fascinating story of the career, ascent, and catastrophe. 
                                                                                ~ G. Eberhardt, author of "The World is Normal Anyway," 2014

____________________________________________________________________ Space and Spatialization in Contemporary Music - Doctoral Dissertation
​by Maria Anna Harley (1994, published in 2011)

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​​Ph.D. Dissertation of Maria Anna Harley (McGill University, Faculty of Music, 1994). Dissertation Advisors: Prof. Bo Alphonce and Prof. Susan McClary. Award: First Prize in Mu Phi Epsilon Fraternity Dissertation Competition in 1998.  ​Details: xvii pp., 391 pp. plus 52 pp. of unnumbered pages with music examples; includes charts, diagrams, music examples, bibliography, and index. Paperback: 482 pages 8.5 in. X 11 in., BW interior with color cover, ​ISBN 9780996398169, $40.00.​ ​PDF, 34.89MB, ISBN 9780996398176, $10.00. Abstract: This dissertation presents the history of space in the musical thought of the 20th-century (from Kurth to Clifton, from Varese to Xenakis) and outlines the development of spatialization in the theory and practice of contemporary music (after 1950). ​The text emphasizes perceptual and temporal aspects of musical spatiality, thus reflecting the close connection of space and time in human experience. A new definition of spatialization draws from Ingarden's notion of the musical work; a new typology of spatial designs embraces music for different  acoustic environments, movements of performers and audiences, various positions of musicians in space, etc. The study of spatialization includes a survey of the writings of many composers (e.g. Ives, Boulez, Stockhausen, Cage) and an examination of their compositions. The final part of the dissertation presents three approaches to spatialization: Brant's simultaneity  of sound layers, Xenakis's movement of sound, and Schafer's music of ritual and soundscape.

_________________________________________________________________________________________     A A Romantic Century in Polish Music ​ ​Studies edited by Maja Trochimczyk (2009)

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A collection of essays about Polish music history of the 19th and 20th centuries. Edited by Maja Trochimczyk. Essays by European scholars: Magdalena Dziadek, Martina Homma, Krzysztof Rottermund, Krzysztof Szatrawski, Maria Zduniak, and the editor. Topics include: Lipinski in Wroclaw, Lipinski's violins, Wieniawski's virtuosity, the reception of Wagner, Paderewski's inspirations with the wild landscapes and gorale music of the Tatra Mountains, the career paths of 19th-century women composers, and other issues.
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