Sonorism is an approach to musical composition that focuses on the characteristics and qualities of sound. Emphasis is placed on a search for new types of sounds on individual instruments, as well as the creation of textures by combining different instrumental sounds in unusual and unique ways.
In sonorism the form-creating element highlighted was the same wording, usually extracted from non-traditional modes of traditional instruments (scraping, creaking and thumping on the box of a cello). This trend was started by the Train and I Krzysztof Penderecki's String Quartet, the two songs composed in 1960. It was followed and developed by Henryk Górecki (Genesis I, II, Choros I), Wojciech Kilar (RIFF 62, Generique), Kazimierz Serocki (symphonic frescoes), Andrzej Dobrowolski, Zbigniew Rudzinski. Witold Szalonek (including Les sons) distinguished himself by exceptionally revelatory approach to wind instruments, which developed such technique of playing multiple stops (the sounds combined - in the Oboe there are about 160). The choral music was the most original contribution Andrzej Koszewski. The youngest Polish sonorist was Krzysztof Meyer (first string quartets and symphonies).
In sonorist works there is no melody, rhythm or harmony in the traditional sense of those terms - they assume the role of different types of sounds. Determine changes in the form of a song sounds and textures and dynamics, which becomes the primary way to develop a drama piece. Are common in the works sonorystycznych two types of conduct forms:
characteristic sound idea - the idea of contrasts - a synthesis of both ideas at the end of the track the culmination of the gradual growth of the whole team performed, the maximum dynamic - or, on the contrary, the reduction (as in the chorus Gorecki) Sonorystycznym works often accused of being 'directory results. In fact, arose during the period, which you later composers as "experimental". Of the measures developed in later years to compose a work much more complex, closer to the traditional symfonice or chamber music, which is exemplified above all Penderecki's St. Luke Passion.
As a movement, sonorism was initiated in the 1960s in the avant-garde of Polish music.