User:Ceoil/Gorecki

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Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (born December 6, 1933) is a Polish composer of classical music.

Though his earlier work in the late 1950s and 1960s was characterised by a dissonant modernism influenced by Nono, Stockhausen and contemporaries Penderecki and Serocki, Gorecki moved in the mid 1970s towards a 'pure' sacred minimalist sound encapsulated by the 1976 Symphony No. 3. Gorecki has since progressed through several distinct styles, from the reverence of Beatus Vir (1979), to the meditative Miserere (1981), to the spiritualism of Good Night (1990).

Until 1992, Górecki was known only to a few connaisseurs, primarily as one a number of composers responsible for sparking the postwar Polish music renascence.[1] That year, however, Elektra-Nonesuch released a recording of his fifteen year-old Symphony No. 3, topped the classical charts in both Britian and the UK. Within two years, Symphony No. 3 had sold more than 700,000 copies world wide—at least four hundred times the expected lifetime sales of a recording of a symphony by a relatively unknown twentieth-century composer. However the recording's success failed to arouse interest in other works by the composer.[2] Gorecki was as surprised as any one else at the recordings sucess: "Perhaps people find something they need in this piece of music. . . . Somehow I hit the right note, something they were missing. Something, somewhere had been lost to them. I feel that I instinctively knew what they needed." (In conversation with Vladimir Levitski).[1]

He is married to pianist Jadwiga Ruranska and has two children - Anna, also a pianist, and Mikolaj, a composer.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early years (1933-1953)

Henryk Górecki was born on 6 December 1933, in the village of Czernica, near Silesia, in Poland. The Gorecki family lived modestly, though both parents had a love of music; his father Roman (1904-1991) was an amature musician, while his mother, Otylia (1909-1935) played piano. Otylia died when her son was just two years old.[3] Many of his early works were dedicated to her memory.[4]

He developed an interest in music from an early age, though he was discouraged by both his father and stepmother, to the extent that he was not allowed to even tough his mother old piano. However, he persisted, and in 1943 was allowed to take violin lesson with Pawel Hajduga, a local amature musician, instrument maker, and 'chłopski filozof' (peasant philosopher).[5]

Around 1935, Górecki slipped while playing in a neighbours yard, and dislocated his hip. The resulting suppurative inflammation was misdiagnosed by local doctors, and led to tubercular complications in the bone. The illness went largely untreated for two years, by which time permanent damage had been sustained. He spent the following twenty months in a hospital in Germany, during which time he underwent four seperate operations.[6] Górecki has continued to suffered ill health throughout his life, and says he has talked with death often.[7]

  • Left him with a heavy limp; diseased heart, lungs, and kidneys; a brain tumor, and generally frail health. He

Between 1951 and 1953, Górecki taught 10 and 11 year olds at school outside of Rydułtowy, in southern Poland.[5] In 1952, he began a teacher training course at the Intermediate School of Music in Rybnik, where he studied clarinet, violin and piano, as well as music theory. Through intensive studying Gorecki finished the course in just uinder three years. He began to compose his own pieces, usually songs and piano miniatures, though occasionally he attempted more ambitious projects - in 1952 he adapted the Adam Mickiewicz ballad Świtezianka for ballet, though the work was left unfinished.[8]

[edit] Katowice (1952-)

Gorecki began his formal study of music in 1952 at the pedagogical department of the Music High School in Rybnik.[9] In 1953, he enrolled at the Katowice State Higher School of Music, where he studied under the composer Bolesłav Szabelski. Góreckis' first public performance was held in Katowice in February 1958, and showed clear influence from both Szymanowski and Bartók. By 1961 he had progressed to the modernism of Webern, Xenakis and Boulez, and was at the forefront of the Polish avant-garde, with his Symphony No. 1 gaining international acclaim at the Paris Biennial Festival of Youth.

  • In February 1958, the Silesian State Philharmonic in Katowice gave a concert devoted entirely to his music, a remarkable opportunity for a twenty-four-year-old composer. This led directly to a commission to write for that year's Warsaw Autumn Festival. His response introduces a new Górecki, who has joined the advance guard - Epitaflum (Epitaph) - five minutes.[10] The following year he contributed his Symphony No. 1. The Warsaw Autumn Festival introduced the composer on the international scene, and he quickly became a favorite of the West's avant-garde elite.[11] "Gorecki was seen as a Polish heir to the new aesthetic of post-Webernian serialism; with his taut structures, lean orchestrations and painstaking concern for the logical ordering of pitches."[11]

"From 1958 the annual Warsaw Autumn Festival became a veritable Mecca of the avant garde, a place to which composers and musicians from throughout the world made pilgrimages to hear the works of Bacewicz, Panufnik, Serocki, Tadeusz Baird, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Krzysztof Meyer.[12]

  • Graduated with honours from the Academy in 1960.[9] In September 1960, the Warsaw Autumn Festival, his SCONTRI (COLLISIONS), OP. 17, for orchestra, caused a sensation.[9]

Gorecki began to lecture at the Academy of Music in Katowice in 1968(?), teaching score-reading, orchestration and composition. In 1972 was promoted to assistant professor.[9] Known for his often blunt personality, Gorecki developed a fearsome reputation amongst students. The Polish composer Rafal Augustyn remembers "When I began to study under Gorecki it felt as if someone had dumped a pail of ice-cold water over my head. He could be ruthless in his opinions. The weak fell by the wayside but those who graduated under him became, without exception, respected composers."[13]

  • With Witold Lutosławski, Górecki's senior by twenty years, providing spiritual, moral, and artistic leadership, the late 1950s and the 1960s were an exciting time for music in Poland. Witold Lutosławski, Tadeusz Baird (died early), Krzysztof Penderecki, Górecki.[10]

[edit] Earlier modernist works (1960-71)

  • Since 1958 headed the the new Polish wave.[14]
  • "Scontri" was a sensation at the 1960 Warsaw Autumn, and impressed Stockhausen and Nono. It reveals the new sound of unpitched string clusters, even before Penderecki made them a trademark in his Threnody.[15]
  • "Scontri" represents "the most colourful and vibrant expression of the new Polish wave".[14]
  • Michael Gielen directed the first complete performance of his serially composed Symphony no. 1 at Darmstadt in 1963.[15]

[edit] A change of direction: "Ad Matrem" (1971-75)

  • Moves away from early career as radical modernist, and towards a more traditional, romantic mode of expression. His change of style seemed an affront to the avant-garde establishment, and though he continued to recieve comissions from variuos Polish agencies (which), he had ceased to be a composer that mattered. "Gorecki's new material was no longer cerebral and sparse; rather, it was intensely expressive, persistently rhythmic and often richly colored in the darkest of orchestral hues."[11]
  • Progressively rejected the crunching dissonances, serial techniques, and emphasis on pure sonorism that had originally brought him international renown. During the 1970s he radically simplified his musical materials, favoring modality, large slow gestures, and repetition of small motifs.[15]

In 1975 Górecki was promoted to Professor of Composition at the State Higher School of Music in Katowice. However, the academy at the time recieved a lot of interferance from the Communist authorities. Gorecki, as a senior administrator, but not a member of the party, was in almost perpetual warfare with them to to protect his school, staff and students from political interference. He quit his post in 1979, and formed a local branch of the "Catholic Intellectuals Club", an organisation that devoted itself to the struggle against the party.[13] He remained political through the late 1970s and 1980s. In 197?, he composed to celebrate Pope John Paul II's visit to Poland. 1981's Miserere was written to commemorate police voilence enacted against the Solidarity movement.

[edit] Ill health, Minimalism (1980s)

  • Disappeared from public view during early 80s. 'Stan wojenny' (state of war, martial law, Jaruzelski), hip operation (1982).
  • Abandones large scale orchestral work, towards unaccompanied choir (Amen, and then Miserere), chamber music.[16]

[edit] Symphony 3

Premieur at Royan. The symphony drew much hostility from critics who felt he had moved too far away from the established avant-garde style, and was accoring to Dietmar Polaczek (writing for Österreichische Musikzeitschrift) "simply adding to the decadent trash that encircled the true pinnacles of avant-gardism".[17] Six western critics reviewed the Royan Festival performance, and all were harshly critical.[18] Heinz Koch in Musica wrote that the symphony "drags through three old folk melodies (and nothing else) for an endless 55 minutes.[19]

The symphony was not often performed after this, and recordings became the main medium for audience exposure to the work.A recorded of a 1978 performance led by soprano Stefania Woytowicz was released in Poland but it was poorly distributed elsewhere. In 1982, the German label Schwann taped a performance, again sung by Woytowicz, that was made available accross western Europe, and though it recieved a review by the American Record Guide it did not generate significant publicity. [20]

Schwann re-released their recording in 1986. In 1988 (?) the label was taken over by the much larger Koch International, who made a further pressing later that year. Koch had more money at their disposal and were able to generate much wider distribution.[21] A more enthusiastic response followed, with both the American Record Guide[22] and Fanfare[23] printing highly favourable reviews.

[edit] Style

Górecki's music covers a variety of styles, but tends towards relative harmonic and rhythmical simplicity. Considered the founder of theNew Polish School, his first works were in the avant-garde style of Pierre Boulez and other serialists, but his later music is more often compared to minimalism, often being labeled “holy minimalism”. Like Arvo Pärt and John Tavener, (both also better known to CD buyers than symphony hall attendees - stein.) his works often reflect his deeply held religious beliefs.

  • Attempts to contextualise Gorecki's work usually draws spurious parallels with US minimalism or Pärt, Giya Kancheli and Tavener. Such comparisons need to be treated carefully -
  • compositional chronology
  • seperate cultural enviroments (Tavener - Beatles, Pärt - Lutheranism?

More aligned with Messiaen and Ives; Bach, Hayden, and Mozart. Schubert - tonal design, "extended swathes of harmonically stable ideas" (Miserere).[24]

  • Concentration since 1970s on monumental structures, built from simple modal mofits.
  • Górecki's most popular piece is his Third Symphony, subtitled Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (Symfonia pieśni żałosnych). Slow and contemplative, the three movements are composed for orchestra and solo soprano. The words of the first movement are taken from a 15th century lament; the second from a teenage girl, Helena Błażusiak, written on the wall of a Gestapo prison cell in Zakopane to invoke the protections of the Virgin Mary; the third movement is taken from a Ploish folk song.

[edit] Works

Main article: List of compositions by Henryk Górecki

[edit] Symphony No. 2, Op. 36

The symphony was commission by the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York, and presented Górecki with his first opportunity to reach an audience outside of his native Poland. As was usual, he undertook extensive research on the subject, and was in paticular concerned on the philosophical implications of Conernicus's discovery, not all of which he viewed as positive.[25] As Norman Davies commented: "His discovery, of the earth's motion round the sun, caused the most fundamental revolutions possible in the prevailing concepts of the human predicament".[26]

  • "What do you write about copernicus - that he stopped the sun and moved the earth?. Thats banal."[27]

The Second Symphony has been played less than some of his other work, in part because it demands a particularly large orchestra as well as soprano and baritone soloists with a large choir.[13]

[edit] Symphony No. 3, Op. 36

  • Composed in the Autumn of 1976 on commission from the Southwest German Radio, BadenBaden.[28]
  • Its popularity led Gorecki to be seen as a 'one-piece composer' in the eyes of some.[29]
  • Was essentially a CD phenomenon. While live performances to sell, they are not always sold out. It's sucess exposed a gap between the record audience and the concert audience.[30]
  • Górecki myth - "a reclusive mystic who lives near Auschwitz and composes spiritual music; his minimalist/ new age Symphony no. 3, the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, is a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, and its spectacular success on a 1992 recording has made it a symbol for decades of Eastern European suffering." [31]
  • Górecki never intended the Third Symphony to be specifically a memorial to the victims of Nazi atrocities, and he has consistently distanced himself from that reading of the work. But..grew up "in the shadow of Auschwitz, the composer readily recalls friends and relatives who perished in its gas chambers (uncle on mother's side)[32]

[edit] Criticism

  • "Are people really listening to this symphony? How many CD buyers discover that fifty-four minutes of very slow music with a little singing in a language they don't understand is more than they want? Is it being played as background music to Chardonnay and brie?"[1]
  • It brings to mind the Doctor Zhivago phenomenon of 1958. Everybody rushed to buy the book; few managed actually to read it. The appearance of the movie in 1965 rescued us all from the necessity.[1]
  • "initially treated as a fluke by many hostile critics, some of whom undoubtedly were angered as much by Gorecki's overt piety as by his musical conservatism. Skillful marketing, too, has obviously played a central role in the vogue of the holy minimalists." [33]
  • EMI rush released a cleverly packaged CD of Gregorian chants sung by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos - became one of the fastest-selling classical recordings of all time.

[edit] Odds and Ends

  • Gorecki's trenchant personality elicits a certain amount of fear, even among those closely acquainted with him. The Polish conductor Wojciech Michniewski, recalls: "He's not afraid to let you know if he's not pleased with your rendition. I've seen him walk out of his concerts waving his fists and screaming, 'This is a scandalous outrage' on at least two occasions."[13]
  • "Gorecki has dismissed the New Age analysis, that the music fits the spiritual needs of this particular time, as an explanation for the success of Symphony No. 3."[13]

[edit] Selected Works

  • Four Preludes, Op. 1, (Piano), 1955
  • Three Songs, Op. 3, 1956
  • Sonata for Piano, Op. 6, (Violins), 1956
  • Songs for Joy and Rhythm, Op.7, 1956
  • Sonata, Op. 10, 1957
  • Epitafium, Op. 12, (Choir and Instrumental), 1958
  • Symphony No. 1, Op. 14, (Strings and Percussion), 1959
  • Monologhi, Op. 16, (Soprano and three instrumental groups), 1960
  • Three Pieces in an Old Style, (String Orchestra), 1963
  • Genesis III, Op. 19, 1963
  • Choros I, Op. 20, (String Orchestra), 1963
  • Cantata for organ, Op. 26, 1968
  • Ad Matrem, Op. 29, 1971
  • Two Sacred Songs, Op. 30, 1971
  • Symphony No. 2 'Copernican', Op. 31, 1972
  • Amen, Op 34, 1975
  • Symphony No. 3 'Symphony of Sorrowful Songs', Op. 36, 1976
  • Beatus Vir, Op. 38, (Baritone, Choir and Orchestra), 1979
  • Miserere, Op. 44, (Choir a Cappella), 1981
  • O Domina Nostra, 1985
  • Totus Tuus, Op. 60, 1987
  • Good Night, Op. 63, 1990
  • Male Requiem Dla Pewnej Polki, Op 66, (Piano and Instruments), 1993
  • Five Kurpian Songs, Op. 75 (Choir), 1999
  • Niech Nam Zyja I Spiewaja, (Choir), 2000

[edit] Sound Files

Year Song title Work Instrumentation
1972: "Symphony No. 2"
Listen (help·info)		 Symphony No. 2 'Copernican', Op. 31 Baratone and orchestra
1981: "Miserere"
Listen (help·info)		 Miserere, Op. 44 Mixed choir
1986: "Molto Lento"
Listen (help·info)		 Lerchenmusik, Op. 53 Flute, Clarinet, Soprano,
Trumpet, Trombone, Percussion.

[edit] Sources

  • Howard, Luke. "Motherhood, Billboard, and the Holocaust: Perceptions and Receptions of Górecki's Symphony No. 3". Musical Quarterly 82.1, 1998.
  • Steinberg, Michael. "The Symphony: A Listener's Guide". New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
  • Thomas, Adrian. "Gorecki (Oxford Studies of Composers)". Clarendon Press, April 1997. ISBN 0-1981-6394-0
  • Harley, Maria Anna. "Gorecki and the Paradigm of the "Maternal". The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 82, No. 1, (Spring, 1998), pp. 82-130.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Steinberg p. 171
  2. ^ Steinberg p. 170
  3. ^ Thomas, p. xiii
  4. ^ Howard (1998), pp.131-133
  5. ^ a b Thomas, p. xvi
  6. ^ Thomas, p. vi
  7. ^ Howard P.134
  8. ^ Thomas, p. xviii
  9. ^ a b c d Adam Mickiewicz Institute. "Henryk Mikołaj Górecki". Polish Music Information Center, November 2001.
  10. ^ a b Steinberg p. 172
  11. ^ a b c Wierzbicki, James. "Henryk Gorecki". St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1991.
  12. ^ Stegemann, Michael. "Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki". Linear notes, "Symfonia No.1 1959". KOCH int GMBH. (1990).
  13. ^ a b c d e Perlez, Jane. "Henryk Gorecki". New York Times, 27 February 1994.
  14. ^ a b Thomas, p29
  15. ^ a b c Howard p.135
  16. ^ Thomas, p.101
  17. ^ Polaczek, Dietmar. "Neue Musik in Royan", Österreichische Musikzeitschrift 32, July-Aug. 1977. p.358
  18. ^ Howard (1998), p136
  19. ^ Koch, Heinz. "Mit wichtigen bundesdeutschen Beiträgen". Musica 31, no. 4. 1977. p 332. Da schleift einer drei alte Volksliedmelodien (und sonst nichts) 55 endlose Minuten lang.
  20. ^ Howard (1998), pp. 136-137.
  21. ^ Howard (1998), pp. 137-138.
  22. ^ Vroon, Donald. "Górecki". American Record Guide 51, no. 3 (May 1988) p.32-33
  23. ^ Strickland, Edward. "Górecki". Fanfare 11, no. 1 (Sept-Oct. 1988). pp. 205-6
  24. ^ Thomas, p. 135
  25. ^ Thomas, p.74
  26. ^ Davies, Norman. "God's Playground: A history of Poland". Oxford, 1981. p.150
  27. ^ Gorecki, Henryk. 'Powiem panstwu szczerze..." ViVO 1, 43-48. Cracow, 1994. p. 45
  28. ^ Steinberg (1998), p. 169
  29. ^ Steinberg (1998), p. 170
  30. ^ Steinberg (1998), p. 171
  31. ^ Howard p.131
  32. ^ Howard p.133
  33. ^ Teachout, Terry "Holy Minimalism", Commentary Apr. 1995

[edit] External links