'The Utmost Economy of Musical Material:' Structural Elements in the Works of G6recki from Refvain (1965) to Ad Matrem (1971) Anna Mastowiec The emergence of Henryk G6recki (born 1933) as a leading Polish composer in the sixties,' closely linked to the first Warsaw Autumn Festivals (1956-), is now largely eclipsed by his recent popularity as the composer of the Third Symphony (1976). However, the path to the Third Symphony can be traced back to the mid-1960s, a fascinating period in G6recki1s compositional output which has received little scholarly attenti~n.~From the start, Gorecki's work was typified by what the composer subsequently called the 'utmost economy of musical mate~-ial'~-that is, the use of deliberately restricted musical materials-and this has remained a feature of his I I work in the seventies and beyond, despite major changes of harmonic idiom. I It was in the midst of a primarily cluster-orientated period, typical of the Polish avant-garde in the early sixties, that modal and triadic structures as well as elements drawn from medieval Polish music appeared in Gorecki's music for the first time; the Three Pieces in the Old Style written in 1963 anticipated the 'white note' modal idiom of works written after 1971. However, the first work to clearly move towards the style that came to be known as 'new ~implicity'~was Refrain, written in 1965. ' By 1960 Leon Markiewicz was already writing that 'Henryk Gbrecki, who made his debut only three years ago, today, as a composer, has established an important position.' Markiewicz, '0 zderzeniach, radoSci i...katastrofiAmie,' Ruch Muzyczny 21 (1960): 5. Translated from the Polish by Anna Masiowiec. The articles by Adrian Thomas The Music of Henryk Mikohj Gbrecki: The Fit Decade,' Contact, 27 (1983): 10-20, and 'A Pole Apart: The Music of G6recki since 1965,' Contart 28 (1984): 20-31, written well after the pieces were composed, reflected a renewed interest in G6recki's music outside Poland. Thomas' recent book Ghecki (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997) is the first monograph of G6recki's music from the avant-garde pieces of the fifties to the latest chamber works written in the early nineties. The book includes a complete list of works and a select bibliography. The phrase 'utmost economy of musical material' comes from the conversation between the composer and Tadeusz Marek; see Tadeusz Marek and David Drew, 'Gbrecki in Interview (1968)-And Twenty Years After,' Tempo 168 (1989):25. G6mki used this phrase to desaibe the prinaple of the Muzyczkn cycle, but, I arguably, it applies to all Gbrecki's work of this period. 'New simplicity' is a movement which emerged in the late seventies, often associated with G6recki and Arvo Part whose music, often religious in inspiration, is often characterised by simple homophonic rhythms, slow tempi, and diatonic melody and harmony. 16 Context 14 (Summer 1997-98) The following analysis examines five major works written between 1965 and 1971: Refrain and Canticum graduum (1969) for orchestra, Old Polish Music (1967-69) and Muzyczka 11 (1967) for large ensemble, and Ad matrem (1971) for soprano, mixed choir and orchestra, which concludes this period and simultaneously 'opens a new phase in which, for the majority of works, the text provides an aesthetic basis and has a decisive impact on the character of the m~sic.'~ These five works retain many traces of G6recki1s interest in serial technique and clusters during the late fifties and early sixties. Yet they introduce important new features such as rhythmic and harmonic palindromes, harmonic mirrors, whole-tone scales and the use of dynamics to shape form, all of which became integral to much of his work after Ad Matrem. Refrain will be examined in greatest detail for two reasons: firstly, as the most 'schematic' of these pieces, it is the logical starting point for demonstrating the individual structural elements; secondly, it clearly illustrates the process of building form with these elements. Refrain is the first work in which these compositional ideas are extensively worked out, and thus the first mature example of these new techniques. Palindromes are the principal structural elements of Refrain. The word 'palindrome' applies here to symmetrical numerical structures, for example 5-3-5, which are apparent either in the internal structure of a single bar, or the relative lengths of several bars. These could also be regarded as 'mirror forms;' however, in this paper, the word 'mirror' will mainly be used to describe vertical elements, for example chord structures symmetrical around a central pitch axis.6 The piece consists of three main sections: a fast central section enclosed by two slow outer sections that are related through texture and dynamics. Within these sections, there are smaller formal sections separated by general pauses, a feature characteristic of many works that followed Refain . The opening section (see Example 1) consists of six 'refrains,' each separated by a general pause. Each of the 'refrains' is a rhythmic and harmonic palindrome, in which the harmony is reversed after the central point of the rhythmic palindromes. The rhythmic palindromes of the opening section are based on units of one to six beats in a bar. Beginning with a three-bar palindrome, (5+3+5beats), the first five refrains develop by generally extending the number of bars in each palindrome, up to 13 bars, although the longest one is the fourth, not the fifth; Table 1shows the palindromic bar lengths. The rhythms within each bar also form an overall palindrome: 5-3-5 equals (3+2)+3+(2+3)crotchets. In these palindromes, G6recki uses Fibonacci numbers but they do not play a significant systematic role. The fifth refrain is an inexact palindrome in that it is extended by an extra bar of two crotchets. The sixth refrain comprises two palindromes, separated by a three-beat bar (see Table 2 overleaf). The beginning of the first palindrome of the sixth refrain is identical to the first Krzysztof Droba, 'Gbrecki, Henryk Mikolaj,' Encyklopedia Muzyczna, ed. Ehbieta Dziebowska, vol. 3 (Krak6w: Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne, 1987) 429. Translation by Anna Maslowiec. It is worth noting that, in his article and book on Gbrecki, Adrian Thomas uses the word 'palindrome' to describe certain horizontal symmetries in Refrain. In the Polish sources, Droba only mentions the use of 'symmetries.' In my own conversation with the composer (recorded on tape, Dec. 1995), G6recki described these symmetries as 'crab constructions' [rak konstrukcyjny]. 'The Utmost Economy' 17 Example 1: Refrain, the first three 'refrainsf-palindromes. Transposing instruments are notated at sounding pitch. le8afissifno e be11 fenlrfo mp sempre br. SU. IS - 3 - 51 [5 - 3 - 2 -3 -51 Table 1: Refrain, the opening section, Refrains I to V 1st refrain: (1) 5 - 3 - 5 (3) [Rhythmic palindrome] P.G. C - Db -C P.G. [Harmonic palindrome] 2nd refrain: 5 - 3 - 2 - 3 - 5 (3) C-D-C -D-C P.G. 3rd refrain: 5 - 5 - 2 - 3 - 2 - 5 - 5 (2) C-Db-C-D-C- Db-C P.G. 4threfrain: 3-2 -3-6-1 -3-2-3-1 -6-3-2 -3 (3) C-Db-C-D-Db-Eb-D-Eb-Db-D-C-Db- C P.G. 5threfrain: 3- 2-3 - 4 - 1 - 4 - 3-2 - 3 - 2 (3) C-D-C-Db-Db-Db-C-D-C- C P.G. Numbers designate the number of beats in a bar; the number and pitches in bold type mark the centre of the palindrome. Numbers in brackets refer to the number of beats in silent bars whilst letters indicate the bottom pitch of the chords. 18 Context 14 (Summer 1997-98) Table 2: Rebin, palindromes in Refrain VI and Coda 1st palindrome: 5-3-5-6-5-5-5-5-5-6-5-3-5-3 2nd palindrome: 6-3-3-6-3-3-6 coda: 5-3-5-6-5-5-5-5-5-6-5-3-5 2-6-3-3-6-3-3-6-2 3-5-3 Table 3: Refrain, first rhythmic palindrome in the central section chords: 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 rests: 44 11221144 Table 4: Refiain, string and woodwind palindrome in the central section 1st palindrome (2nd bar of Fig. 9 to Fig. 12): [I532 2135 5213 5312-2135 3125 5312 23511 2nd palindrome (Figs 12-14): 12135 5213 5312-2135 3125 53121 Table 5: Refrain, palindromes in the central section 2351 3125 3125 2351 3125 3125 2351 3125 3125 2351 Example 2: Refrain, first palindrome in the central section. O 1967, Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyune. Reprinted by permission of Boosey & Hawkes Ltd. marcatissirno e inquiefo ff cresc. 1.4. 1.1. cl 1.4. 1.2. 47 '3.1. 7 7 1.1. tr 3.4. 1.1. cr 3.4. 1.1. tn 3.4. I 'The Utmost Economy' 19 refrain. With slight variations, both palindromes are repeated in the coda. The second palindrome is extended by a two beat bar followed by a 3-5-3 palindrome to conclude the whole piece. Thus the two palindromes of the sixth refrain can be regarded as a microcosm of the whole piece. The harmonic structure of the opening section exactly parallels the rhythmic structure. tn each refrain, the individual melodic lines move in parallel motion by tones or semitones, and in each new refrain the harmonic content of each chord is extended by systematic addition of a new whole tone or semitone step to the original tritone (C-F#) of the first refrain. Thus by the sixth refrain all twelve pitches are present, harmonically arranged in two whole-tone scales beginning on C and Db respectively In this opening section, only strings and brass are used, the former to build the main texture, the latter to provide formal punctuations consisting of just one pitch, F#.