PAWEŁ ŁUKASZEWSKI While it is difficult to categorise Łukaszewski’s DAYLIGHT DECLINES compositional style, it has a timeless element Choral Works by PaweŁ Łukaszewski Paweł Łukaszewski was born in southern and is, in his own words, in a renewed tonality. Poland in 1968 in the city of Częstochowa, a Any description of this genre risks being centre of religious pilgrimage owing to the subjective but it seems to centre around presence there of a statue of the Black Madonna the use of conventional, choral sonorities, at the Jasna Góra Monastery. There is a often in a clear, homophonic format, yet in a 1 Cantate Domino [4.26] Lamentationes predominantly sacred thread to most of his manner which does not lead the listener on a 0 Lamentatio I [6.23] compositions and his international reputation predictable journey, involving unexpected turns Shakespeare Sonnets q Lamentatio II [3.53] seems to have blossomed on account of his in harmonic juxtaposition and rhythmic 2 Like as the waves [4.04] w Lamentatio III [8.35] choral output, the majority of it settings techniques which make demands of the 3 Weary with toil [4.14] of Latin and English texts as opposed to his listener as much as of the performers. In a e Beati [9.59] native tongue. Revered in his homeland, the sense he has a foot firmly in the ancient style 4 Daylight Declines [4.54] list of awards and accolades is substantial of sacred choral writing, something shared Total timings: [69.49] including numerous for the Fryderyk by many major composers such as Brahms, Responsoria Tenebrae Award and, most recently, the Feniks Prize in Bruckner and Stravinsky when they wrote 5 Tenebrae factae sunt [4.25] 2017. He was composer-in-residence with for choirs. Some textural methods appear 6 Caligaverunt occuli mei [5.19] the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra idiosyncratic and intricate on paper but lend 7 Recessit pastor noster [3.46] (2011/2012) and has taught composition in soft borders to the effects of the music, as 8 O vos omnes [4.54] the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in if metaphorically viewed through lenses and 9 Ecce quomodo moritur [4.53] Warsaw since 1996, where he himself had filters. There is an easily-discernible cultural been a student and was awarded a doctorate link with his Polish predecessors, such as in composition. He is Vice-Rector of the Lutosławski and Penderecki, but the influence university and Professor of Composition. He of Henryk Górecki and the Estonian Arvo has garnered prestigious, national honours and Pärt is evident in the fervent but restrained, his work has a loyal following around the globe, spiritual aspect of Łukaszewski’s music, TENEBRAE with over 110 CDs of his work to date. and his individual voice never stoops to Nigel Short conductor mere imitation. www.signumrecords.com - 3 - Cantate Domino the effect within a wider, starker context. At doubled at the octave. The timeless mood hear a familiarity in this composer’s conventional This most optimistic and exuberant psalm is times there is a unlikely resemblance to some is amplified by continual progressions of use of key-areas and modes, but unexpected shifts set for subdivided choir in a most joyful of the favourite dissonances used by the unresolved second-inversion chords and, as to new tonal territory always lurk around the corner. fashion, with a great deal of word-painting English composer, Gerald Finzi. But mention an additional feature, there is a reflected of the praises of the psalm and swinging, should be made of a unique metrical device symmetry using the interval of the perfect 1. Tenebrae factae sunt repeated bursts of happiness. Rapid vocal for the repetition of the word ‘time’. The fifth in opposing motion up and down. Łukaszewski uses the term, placido for each passages are biased towards the upper voices unanimous chords sung on this word are given This is reminiscent of the effect of string movement of the Responsories, in conjunction with much of the rejoicing and singing to changing bars in two, three and four-beat instruments playing their open strings, or looking with a tempo annotation. In this first movement, the Lord illuminated by triplet activity in metre, but there is a trick employed which at ones own reflection in water. There is relief the calmness pervades even the manner with different proportions: choral laughter and the listener could hardly be aware of without from Łukaszewski’s typical homophonic texture the loud voice of Jesus is portrayed. The dancing. The only ominous note is the heavily- the aid of a printed score. Silences are built in with little waves of forward motion with canonic musical description is more of a personal scored declamation about the Lord’s coming to the sequences of the repeated ‘time’, but imitation, lending a little buoyancy and soothing. reflection than a dramatic enactment, which to judge the earth: Quoniam venit iudicare the silent bars are devoid of the printed previous composers’ versions perhaps lead terram. The short piece is bookended by rest symbols which are the universally Daylight Declines us to expect. Extensive use is made of meditative vocalisations which are evocative of conventional symbol for gaps in sound. It A commission from the Netherlands Cantatrix rhythmic dissonance, where the note-values of gentle chiming, and a final whispered ‘Domino’. might be argued that the strange look of Choir, this text is by the 16th Century Wacław z successive, incanted phrases are paced these empty musical bars invites the musicians Szamotuł in a translation by Marek Żebrowski. slightly out of phase, lending a feeling of Like as the Waves (Shakespeare’s Sonnet LX) to freeze, to hold their breath, reinforcing the There is an element of a Compline prayer in the turbulence or uncertainty. There is a moment From the outset of this Sonnet, the pulling of word-play, suspending time. requests for protection through the approaching of wide-spaced minor-chord consonance on the waves and the pebbles are represented night. The music is a soothing treatment the word: Spiritum, when Jesus gives up his in the outward stretching of the choral writing Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed of the text, using reflected scales between last breath. Significantly, the other occurrence which, with displaced rhythms between women’s (Shakespeare’s Sonnet XXVII) opposing voice-parts, hovering around the of this harmony is the only loud moment of the and men’s voices, seems to be hesitant, almost It speaks a considerable amount about William plainchant Mode 1 which Łukaszewski has also movement: the word Iudaei, near the beginning. stuttering. There is an unconventional spacing Shakespeare’s universal appeal that a Polish employed in his Responsoria Tenebrae. Drone- of the choral lines, often leaving the highest composer sets his Sonnets, in this case for fifths are predominant in the bass part and 2. Caligaverunt oculi mei part very remote and Łukaszewski’s preferred, unaccompanied choir and with an extended the declining daylight is evoked by falling Is there perhaps weeping, or drops of tears, stark fifths make an appearance, in this feeling of being held in time, or lulled to triplet figuration throughout the voices, and built into the choral sound of this movement, instance combined with semitone clashes, sleep. Particular use is made of slow, downward a noticeable hint of the Lydian mode with its in the oscillating upper bass line, or in the inverted as sevenths and ninths to temper gestures and a thick chordal sound, usually jagged sharpened fourths. The listener can constant mordent-clusters of the first alto - 4 - - 5 - part? This composer makes swift progress 4. O vos omnes dolor meus’ - which is strangely reminiscent of sets text from the Book of Lamentations through myriad choral techniques and, in this An impassioned plea from the condemned the vocal writing of Claudio Monteverdi. in the Bible, including a musical inscription: setting, some of the text is divided out from top Jesus himself for the passerby to stop and ‘Here begin the Lamentations...’ and the voice to bottom, and vice versa, splitting up consider His plight, and further to realise that the 5. Ecce quomodo moritur iustus Hebrew equivalents of page numbers in words among the vocal parts. This effect is debts of all humankind are now heaped on the The text, from the Book of Isaiah, deals with the song, in the tradition established by composers rather like a spread chord on a harp or Saviour’s shoulders. Tomas Luis de Victoria created injustice of an innocent man being led away such as Thomas Tallis (c.1505-1585). In the lute. There is also a contrary motion between perhaps his most perfect work in setting these to the slaughter, portrayed figuratively as a Hebrew Bible, the Lamentations form part of the outer parts with opposing leaps of octaves words in his own Responsories, and much lamb to the shearer which does not bleat the books of the Ketuvim, and are a poetic and sevenths. The sevenths reappear at the climax is expected of a fresh version of this text. in complaint. The division of text is, in this lament for the destruction of Jerusalem by of the responsory whose clashing, unresolved Łukaszewski’s treatment certainly employs instance, repeated phrases which alternate Babylon. In the Christian Bible it is ascribed dissonance returns at the related text in dissonance but, imaginatively leaves the around the voices and not subdivided words. to Jeremiah, but only by tradition, and its responsory no.4: O vos omnes. resolution of such tension either in a Use is made of an accompanying moto perpetuo role is as a metaphor for the death of Christ silence in that particular area of the choral vocalisation, sounding like slow trills in thirds, which is celebrated in the Liturgy of Holy Week.