Page 313 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

CONTEMPORARY 311

See also: Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony 274–279 ■ Spartacus 309 ■
Lutosławski’s Fourth Symphony 323 ■ Ligeti’s Études pour piano 324

music and planned to call it 8'37",
in reference to its length. However,
even though the work had not been
inspired by the detonation of the
atomic bomb, he retitled the work
A profoundly disturbing Threnody for the Victims of
piece of apparently hopeless Hiroshima to increase the piece’s
cataclysmic atmosphere emotional impact before entering it
in a highly individual for a UNESCO prize in composition.
technique of composition. Penderecki also devised a
Karl H. Wörner unique, graphic way of notating Krzysztof Penderecki
Author his music. Instead of bar lines, the
composer gave timings in seconds Born in De˛bica, Poland, in
at regular points in the score to 1933, Krzysztof Penderecki
denote tempo. Blocks of quarter was educated at the Krakow
steps are shown on the score Academy of Music. Within
as horizontal bands. Penderecki two years of graduating in
also created additional symbols, 1958, he became well known
As the piece begins, these four such as a note stem that instructs for Threnody for the Victims
groups all play a note cluster near the player to bend the pitch up of Hiroshima. Many of his
the top of their registers. From or down a quarter step and subsequent pieces also
there, and throughout the piece, wavering lines indicating a pitch- employed unconventional
the group members play at different bending vibrato. Threnody made instrumentation, such as
pitches just a quarter step apart Penderecki’s name and influenced the typewriter and musical
saw. Still more popular
from each other in clusters of notes, other eastern European composers, was Penderecki’s St. Luke
causing a sense of unease that such as Henryk Górecki and Passion (1966), which
permeates the piece. Kazimierz Serocki, in Poland, and combined unusual textures
the Hungarian György Ligeti, to with a traditional form and
Playing with technique explore new sounds and textures Christian theme.
The Threnody is not structured and ways of writing music based In the 1970s, Penderecki
conventionally but around blocks on blocks of sound. ■ became a professor at the Yale
of sound—some of them based on School of Music. His output
the opening note cluster, others returned to a more conventional
on thinner textures, instrumental musical style in pieces such
lines, or other material. Much of as his Symphony No. 2 (1980).
the piece sounds striking because With a catalogue of works
of Penderecki’s instructions that in various forms, Penderecki,
players produce unusual timbres This was not really political who is still composing music,
is widely regarded as Poland’s
by means of irregular techniques. music … but it was music greatest living composer.
These include bowing the strings that was totally appropriate
on the bridge of the instrument, to the time during which
along the fingerboard, or between we were living. Other key works
the bridge and the tailpiece, or Krzysztof Penderecki
hitting the body of the instrument 1960 Anaklasis, for 42 strings
and Percussion
with the bow, or their fingers. 1970–1971 Utrenja
The result is a composition quite 1984 Polish Requiem
unlike any of its time. Penderecki 1988–1995 Symphony No. 3
conceived of the work as abstract

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