Henryk Gorecki

Holy crap. In the last post I mentioned Henryk Gorecki, not realizing that today (woah) is the guy's birthday. Gorecki was a pretty influential composer who sought a transitional movement between avant-garde modernism and traditional expressionism. Fucking beautiful shit, 'yo.

[WIKI SEZ] When placing Górecki in the context of the history of modern art, musicologist and critics generally compare his work with such composers as Olivier Messiaen and Charles Ives. He himself has said that he also feels kindred with such figures as Bach, Mozart, and Joseph Haydn, though he has said he feels most affinity towards Franz Schubert, particularly in terms of tonal design and treatment of basic materials.

Since Górecki's move away from serialism and dissonance in the 1970s, he is frequently compared to composers such as Arvo Pärt, John Tavener, and Giya Kancheli. The term holy minimalism is often used to group these composers, due to their shared simplified approach to texture, tonality and melody, in works often reflecting deeply held religious beliefs. However, none of these composers has admitted to common influences.

[Discussing his audience in a 1994 interview] I do not choose my listeners. What I mean is, I never write for my listeners. I think about my audience, but I am not writing for them. I have something to tell them, but the audience must also put a certain effort into it. But I never wrote for an audience and never will write for because you have to give the listener something and he has to make an effort in order to understand certain things. The same thing is true of poetry, of paintings, of books. If I were thinking of my audience and one likes this, one likes that, one likes another thing, I would never know what to write. Let every listener choose that which interests him. I have nothing against one person liking Mozart or Shostakovich or Leonard Bernstein, but doesn't like Górecki. That's fine with me. I, too, like certain things.

Symphony No. 3 ("Symphony of Sorrowful Songs")
Lento e Largo (Isabel Bayrakdaraian with the Sinfonietta Cracovia, conducted by John Axelrod; taken from "Holocaust - A Musical Memorial Film from Auschwitz")


Górecki Piano Sonata, 1st mvt.
(Roger McVey, piano; Mercer University, Georgia)


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