Polish contemporary music magazine NO. 6(12), MARCH 2012 | ISSN 2080-4598 An eighty-year-old Wojciech Kilar… by Andrzej Chłopecki Photo: M. Makowski ooking at the history of Polish music of considerable significance. New aesthetic CONTENTS: since 1955, Wojciech Kilar comes impulses and exercising new technology L across an exceptional figure in caused a general stylistic change in Polish 1-4 The aesthetic voyage of composition. A figure which is essentially music of the late ‘50s and ‘60s. It became Wojciech KILAR a paradox – exceptional and emblematic at wide open to the accomplishments of Euro- the same time. pean modernism as well as the ideas of the 5-7 Wojciech KILAR’s sacred works avant-garde – such determinants as inno- When taking into account Polish con- vation, progress, exploration as well as the 8-9 Agata ZUBEL on her new works temporary composition in the context of the more pronounced areas of inspiration: seri- and immediate plans widescreen panorama of aesthetical phe- alism, aleatorism, and sound quality, often nomena leading up to the present day, one treated as the primary value. This situation 10 New operas: should start the diagnosis back in the mid- led to a noticeable loss of interest in (though MADAME CURIE by Elżbieta Sikora fifties of the past century. The breakthrough not a dogmatic dismissal of) the aesthetic and in the history of Polish musical creation was tendencies which dominated Polish music THE TRAP by Zygmunt Krauze marked by the birth of the international con- in the inter-war period as well as in the first temporary music festival called the ‘Warsaw decade after the war – the late-romantic aes- 11-13 Elżbieta SIKORA’s recent works Autumn’ in 1956, opening the Polish musical thetic and particularly the neo-classical ap- scene up to the influence of Western Euro- proach as well as folk inspirations. Music of 13 Paweł MYKIETYN in Oslo pean and North American music, as well as the rational kind, ‘technical’ music had come creating an interest in Polish music among in the foreground, taking precedence and 14 Maciej ZIELIŃSKI’s ‘V-Symphony’ foreign observers. The Experimental Stu- overruling music that illustrated something dio of the Polish Radio, which came to life which is beyond music itself: programme in 1957, becoming one of the first studios of electro-acoustic music in the world was also continued on page 2 quarta • March 2012 { editorial } { personality } Dear Readers, continued from page 1 sic that thrilled with an eruption of sound inventiveness, an orgy of clusters, storming The new issue of QUARTA is dedicated to one of the music as well as music with religious con- cascades of percussion and a romantic ges- most important fi gures in Polish contemporary music – tent. Hence, when one looks at the history ture of ‘savage’ aesthetics. Among the com- Wojciech Kilar on his 80th birthday. of Polish music within this time-frame (1955- posers of the ‘Polish School of Composition’ 2012...), Wojciech Kilar comes across an ex- generation, for whom the idea of sonorism Wojciech Kilar describes himself as a man who is ceptional figure in composition. A figure became one of the main aesthetical determi- „happy-sad, like a minor chord with an added minor which is essentially a paradox – exceptional nants, Kilar was the one to find his own dis- seventh” which he likes and often uses in his works. and emblematic at the same time. tinct idiom within that Polish musical mod- Looking at his achievements as a composer, it is not Though born in 1932 (on July 17th in Lviv), ernism, which exploded before the very eyes diffi cult to see that the music refl ects the dual nature Wojciech Kilar has been considered part of of a European audience both shocked and of various aspects of its creator: the avant-garde – a phenomenon called ‘Born in 1933’ of which impressed by the Polish ‘thaw’. This was the Neo-Romanticism, rhythmical – lyricism, concert Krzysztof Penderecki and Henryk Mikołaj ‘60s. The ‘70s on the other hand, were a dif- music – fi lm music, religious music – music of the Górecki are also a part of (both actually born ferent epoch. mountains. Leszek Polony, in his monograph about in ’33). The debuts of these three composers Back then Riff 62, Générique i Diphthongos Kilar, captured its essence in two words: elemental in the late ‘50s at the newly sprung ‘Warsaw all became hits, thanks to Kilar’s infallible and prayer. Autumn’ all tasted of sensation. The con- intuition. From the beginning, this artistic cept of the ‘Polish School of Composition’ intuition was applied to feeling out the mu- The composer gained international fame as the creator was born, also in reference to older com- sical narration, the musical ‘happenings’, the of fi lm music, about which we wrote in one of the pre- posers as such as Grażyna Bacewicz, Witold sound story which ruled over the obedient vious numbers. This time we have focussed our atten- Lutosławski, Włodzimierz Kotoński, Kazimi- technical means of telling it. References to tion on his concert music, which the composer himself erz Serocki, Bogusław Schaeffer and Tadeusz jazz, simple yet brilliant resolutions in tone values more. In the cover article, Andrzej Chłopecki Baird. colour, a vivid design, often a ferocious per- writes about its aesthetic ‘transition’, about the role it Wojciech Kilar made his debut at the first sistence in holding on to an ostinato until the has played in the development of Polish and European ‘Warsaw Autumn’ in 1956 with his still neo- last possible moment – all of this in Kilar’s music in the second half of the twentieth century and classical Little Overture for orchestra written music was to grab the fellow human, the lis- its current place. On the other hand, Maria Wilczek- in 1955. The piece is listed in the composer’s tener, by the head only to let go after a few Krupa’s text is devoted to Kilar’s sacred works, which catalogue alongside such works as Symphony minutes when the piece – which was usually are an honest and direct expression of his worldview. No. 1 for strings (also 1955), Symphony No. short – came to an end. From the start, it was 2 Sinfonia Concertante for piano and a large music of flesh and blood – not the academic Referring to his famous Orawa, the composer once said symphony orchestra (1956), Beskidy Suite for kind which, tortured by theoretical dilem- with typical philosophical simplicity, that in this work tenor, mixed choir and small orchestra (1956), mas came down with anaemia. At the time, he satisfi es his goal - „to be the best Kilar. Every one Ode to Bela Bartók for violin, winds and 2 sets it was complemented by such achievements of us wants this - Krzysztof Penderecki to be the best of percussion (1957) and the Concerto for of Krzysztof Penderecki as Threnody to the Penderecki, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki to be the best two pianos and percussion orchestra (1958). Victims of Hiroshima, Polymorphia and Fluo- Górecki, and only this has true sense.” Following this Though these pieces don’t really function in rescences, the Scontri and Refrain of Henryk line, on the following pages of ‘Quarta’ we also look for concert programmes of today, they do mark Mikołaj Górecki, Witold Szalonek’s Les Sons what is best in the music of Elżbieta Sikora in recent an aesthetic ‘transition’ in Kilar’s music from and various scores by Bogusław Schaeffer years, including in her opera Madame Curie, named in the neoclassical, marked by a marginal inter- and Kazimierz Serocki. Their power lay in Tri-City as ‘Storm of the Year 2011’ and for which the est in folk elements to drawing inspiration the rebellion against post-serialism, culti- composer was recently awarded the City of Gdańsk from the so-called ‘vitalistic’ music of Bela vated by the western modernists. They put Prize in the Field of Culture ‘Splendor Gedanensis’. We Bartók. He completed his compositional emphasis on tone colour (sonorism) and also recommend our interview with Agata Zubel about studies in Katowice (his second hometown the non-traditional articulation used on tra- her latest, intriguing works that will be premiered later to date, after Lviv, lost to Poland after WWII) ditional instruments rather than interval this year. U.M. under the guidance of Bolesław Woytowicz, combinations – clearly referring more to the a rather conservative composer and teacher, tradition of Edgar Varese, than that of Anton and then (in the years 1959-1960), continued Webern. his studies with Nadia Boulanger, the men- One should note the fact that Riff 62 with tor of the neoclassical style in Paris. He also its solo piano, a large group of winds, two ANNIVERSARIES 2012 participated in the Darmstadt International sets of percussion and an ample string sec- Summer Courses for New Music in 1957. tion (though made up only of violin and Zbigniew BARGIELSKI *1937 ‘The New Kilar’ was born in mid-sixties, double bass) was a piece Kilar dedicated Feliks JANIEWICZ 1762-1848 which is when the following works were to Nadia Boulanger as a “modest tribute in Wojciech KILAR *1932 written and performed: Herbsttag for female celebration of her 75th birthday”. The jazzy Zygmunt KONIECZNY *1937 voice and string quartet (1960), Riff 62 for or- feeling of the score probably was to the taste Andrzej KOSZEWSKI *1922 chestra (1962), Générique for orchestra (1963), of the addressee of the dedication – after all, Bronius KUTAVIČIUS *1932 Diphthongos for mixed choir and orchestra her favourite, Stravinsky, had flirted with Juliusz ŁUCIUK *1927 (1964), Springfield Sonnet for orchestra (1965), jazz more than once – however, as she was Tadeusz MAKLAKIEWICZ 1922-1996 followed by Solenne per 67 esecutori (1967) and the apologist of the neoclassical, the sonic Zygmunt MYCIELSKI 1907-1987 Training 68 for clarinet, trombone, cello and fauvism of the score must have somewhat Karol SZYMANOWSKI 1882-1937 piano (1968).