R.I.P. Henryk Gorecki

[themythicalman]

Polish Composer Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki passed away earlier this week at the age of 76.  Tim Rutherford-Johnson has written an insightful article about Gorecki's music and compositional style.  Here's an excerpt:

Górecki will be remembered in many of the obituaries that are due to him in the coming days as the composer of The Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, his 3rd symphony. Since being picked up by one enterprising film maker in the 1990s it has become the soundtrack to a thousand Holocaust documentaries, an emblem of approachable new music and a lightning rod for all who would defend new music against charges of ivory-towered elitism.

What is sad about this is that Górecki’s music was undeniably diminished in the process: the first Holocaust documentary made thematic sense, and was an astute piece of music research. But when the Third Symphony, or a generic derivative, is heard every time a cat is stuck up a tree, the music has been cheapened beyond recovery. And that is a shame, because the very best of Górecki’s music is exceptionally subtle; perhaps its only real flaw is that it is too subtle, not robust enough to defend itself against an encroaching commercialisation.

There are instances all over Górecki’s music that point to a composer with an  acute ear: the blend of strings and piano used in the Third Symphony and elsewhere is a carefully judged mix of sustained and decaying tones that give even single notes a rich bloom. Likewise the tam-tams at the end of Good Night. The paradox of Górecki’s music - one that, for me, gives it its real allure - is that these extremely delicate, lush, even sentimental touches are coupled with an expressive vision that is relentlessly, rigidly, unbendingly focused. That focus is a more obvious surface aspect the earlier into Górecki’s worklist you explore - the simple to-and-fro of Old Polish Music, the brutalism of Genesis II: Canti strumentali - but it remained throughout his life.

This musical devotion to directly emotive blocks, slammed up against one another instead of developing or evolving, can attract accusations of monotony and naivety from Western European musical ideologies beholden to an organicist ideal. But they also betoken a startling commitment that is shared by several of Górecki’s Eastern European contemporaries, including not only Arvo Pärt and Sofia Gubaidulina but also Galina Ustvolskaya, Alexandre Knaifel and Horatiu Radulescu.

Instead of linking to the obvious, here's a piece he wrote for choir, titled Totus Tuus, Op. 60:

Click to view

Thank-you, sir, and good-night.