1940
Palester earns his living by playing in the Gastronomia restaurant.
After the first few turbulent months of occupation, we all got used to the total lack of stability and a situation in which no one could be sure of anything. Irzykowski claimed that this time was a gift from God in the sense that we were exempted from any extraneous duties and could focus exclusively on our creative work. But this time was conducive only to small notes, journals, sketches and artistic minutiae; work on any large form was extremely difficult. Hence, for instance, the profusion of poems and at the same time complete lack of novels. Perhaps this was not so evident in music, but some of my colleagues could not force themselves to do their normal, everyday work. Only people with very strong nerves could do real creative work.
On 8 May the composer is arrested and sent to the Pawiak prison. He is released after 6 weeks thanks to Barbara Podoska’s efforts. In the autumn he leaves for Jędrzejów.
Palester writes Divertimento for 6 instruments and Sonatina for 4 hands.Powstaje Divertimento na 6 instrumentów i Sonatina na 4 ręce.
1941
During his stay in Jędzejów Palester composes Violin Concerto.
In the end it came out as a large, forty-minute long piece, more of a sinfonia concertante than a classical concert, but this was what I wanted at the time. It was an exceptionally clear synthesis of all the components of my "new" style. A broadly sketched form in which various themes would grow into whole "groups of themes", frequent and numerous changes of tempo and the character of the music, a characteristic romantic breadth, still not quite expressionistic but already carried decidedly on the wave of atonality and integral chromaticism (though without serialism yet) – all these were characteristic of almost all my works written during the war, but they are at their most evident in this concerto.
1942
16 June – Palester marries Barbara Podoska. Around that time he writes the pastoral Kołacze which is a wedding present for his wife, and begins working on Symphony no. 2 and Concertino for piano and orchestra.
In the early 1942 I began putting into practice an idea I had been considering for a long time. It was Szymonowicz’s pastoral "Kołacze" the text of which is a very beautiful and impressive example of Baroque epithalamic poem. I wanted to compose this as a present for Barbara for our wedding, which took place in June 1942 in St. James’ church in Narutowicz Square. The piece is written for a four-part female choir accompanied by a chamber orchestra comprising 20 solo instruments and consists of seven parts. But it is not a suite and that is why I avoid this term in the title, which simply reads as follows: Kołacze, an epithalamic poem for female choir and chamber orchestra to words by S. Szymonowicz'.
The newlyweds spend the summer and autumn in Żerosławice (with Barbara’s relatives). They return to Warsaw in late autumn.
1943
Palester spends most of that year with his wife in Żerosławice. He composes there Polonaises by Michał Kleofas Ogiński and begins working on an opera based on Wacław Berent’s novel The Living Stones.
But then, towards the end of the occupation period dear Edziomundzio[director of the underground radio – Edmund Rudnicki] had this idea of reviving at least some of the work of Michał Kleofas Ogiński. Spurred by the substantial fee, I immediately got down to work and wrote a piece for a small orchestra entitled Polonaises by Michał Kleofas Ogiński. It was in fact a difficult, painstaking work and I spent more time on it than I did on various complex compositions. I simply had to extract from Ogiński’s oeuvre anything that could be still regarded as valuable, put these pieces together, join them sometimes even mid-phrase and, preserving the classical harmony, enliven it by instrumentation, figuration and various internal voices.
1944
Palester’s younger brother, Krzysztof, is killed during the Warsaw Uprising.
Palester’s father dies on 19 November.
The Palesters stay in Żerosławice until November. After the manor is burnt down, they go to Cracow and then to Zakopane.
During the last two years of the war I devoted quite a lot of time to The Living Stones. To turn Berent’s famous novel into an opera – I had been tempted by the idea for a long time. I cut the text myself, adding several fragments from medieval Carmina burana anthologies to choral parts. I wrote the music fairly quickly, even after the Warsaw Uprising in a village near Cracow and towards the end of the Nazi occupation in Zakopane I did not stop working.
1945
Palester spends January-February in Zakopane (he is arrested and briefly detained by the Germans).
In March the Palesters move to Cracow. The authorities assign them a flat no. 8 at 51 Lea Street.
4 April – Palester’s work Polonaises by Michał Kleofas Ogiński is performed during the inaugural concert of the Cracow Philharmonic.
Palester becomes deputy rector and professor of the State Music Conservatory. At the 1st Congress of the Polish Composers’ Union Palester is elected vice-president of the Board and president of the Cracow Branch. He also becomes member of the Musical Education Programme Committee and member of the Cultural Council at the Ministry of Culture and Art.Polonaises by M. K. Ogiński are performed during the 1st Festival of Contemporary Music.
Palester writes music to the film Zakazane piosenki [Forbidden Songs].
[…]initially we weren’t really very serious about our contacts with the new authorities. We saw their incompetence and organisational deficiencies, and we thought that in such conditions it would be possible to salvage more. So we started to get money from them money for various projects – an opera house here, a concert hall or a school of music there, and the ministers would benevolently nod and say: excellent, excellent…
1946
14 July – Palester’s Violin Concerto is performed in London during the ISCM Festival. The concerto, performed by Eugenia Umińska and conducted by Grzegorz Fitelberg, was a great success.
27 September – Palester receives the first musical prize of the City of Cracow for his musical achievements. He is regarded in Poland as one of the most important composers of his generation, a successor to Szymanowski. As Jan Krenz recalls, he was referred to as that great Roman Palester.
5 December – Symphony no. 2 performed in Paris.
Palester writes Serenade for two flutes and String Trio no. 1.
1947
At the beginning of the year Palester takes a sabbatical from the school and leaves for Paris. He does not break all ties with Poland, however; PWM Editions still commissions and publishes his works. The composer outlines the reasons of his departure for Paris in a letter to the head of the PWM, Tadeusz Ochlewski, of 17 January: I can’t see any possibility for me to work in peace in Poland, if the vast majority of my colleagues are furious with me only because I’m writing music and they are not. In the end, I could name only few of my colleagues – Wiechowicz, Lutosławski or Malawski – who have always been loyal to me.
However, as early as 19 October he writes a letter to Feliks Łabuński, a composer who lived in the USA at the time, in which he is much more severe:The extraordinarily unhealthy and demoralising political climate in Poland has a devastating effect both on creativity and human characters. Colleagues bicker among themselves in a most extraordinary fashion and, most importantly, they hardly write anything.
In Paris Palester composes Nocturne and Little Serenade.
1948
Palester completes a monumental vocal and instrumental work - Requiem - dedicated to the victims of the war.
He writes a lot; works from that period include Wedding Suite for string orchestra, Divertimento for 9 instruments and Sinfonietta.
He begins working on the cantata Vistula.
His refusal to participate in the World Congress of Intellectuals in Wrocław is another manifestation of his increasing detachment from the situation in Poland.
At that time I was in Paris where Putrament – the then ambassador – managed to persuade the entire intellectual left in France. That was fairly easy as almost all French intellectuals at the time were either communists orpoputchiks. […] when Warsaw demanded that I take part in the Congress as a member of the Polish delegation, I refused and did not go to Wrocław. It was a rather irrational decision, I was carried away by my passion.
1949
5-9 August – Palester comes to Łagów to take part in the National Congress of Composers and Music Critics. His works are severely criticised by minister Sokorski, who chairs the meetings, and the composer himself is classified as a formalist. At the same time Sokorski offers Palester the posts of either rector of the State School of Music in Warsaw or director of the Warsaw Philharmonic. Palester returns to Paris, not discounting the possibility of eventually coming back to Poland, a fact confirmed by letters written in that period.
He works very intensely, completing Symphony no. 3 for two string orchestras and the cantata Vistula.