Page 325 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained
P. 325
CONTEMPORARY 323
I COULD START OUT
FROM THE CHAOS AND
CREATE ORDER IN IT
FOURTH SYMPHONY (1993)
WITOLD LUTOSŁAWSKI
he life of Polish composer
IN CONTEXT Witold Lutosławski
T coincided with a turbulent
FOCUS period in Eastern Europe. At the
“Controlled aleatory” time of his birth in 1913, Poland
composition
was partitioned between Austria, It [music] always fascinated
BEFORE Prussia, and Russia. In World me, and I couldn’t imagine
1958 John Cage composes his War II, the composer was briefly any other profession
Concert for Piano and Orchestra. imprisoned by the Nazis, and after than musician, and
the war, he was hounded by the even composer.
1961 After hearing a snippet communist authorities. Only in Witold Lutosławski
of Cage’s Concert on the radio, his last years was Poland free.
Lutosławski uses “controlled While Lutosławski believed in
aleatory” for the first time in the autonomy of art, critics often
his Jeux vénitiens. perceive the reflection of outside
tensions in his music. Like many of
AFTER his pieces, his Fourth Symphony,
2003 Lutosławski’s Polish whose composition spanned the fall up is only partly predictable—they
colleague Wojciech Kilar of communism, has two halves—a may start at different times, for
composes September halting introduction, followed by a example. The method is evident in
Symphony (Symphony No. 3) decisive and conclusive statement. the Fourth Symphony’s first section:
to commemorate the 9/11 at three points, rhythmic music
attacks in New York City. An element of chance dissolves into disarray, like a false
From the early 1960s, a consistent start to a race, creating a sense of
2011 Liza Lim’s Tongue of feature of his music was his use of anticipation that is resolved in the
the Invisible is one of many “controlled aleatory” passages, in work’s more assertive second half.
contemporary works since which the coordination between The Fourth Symphony was
Lutosławski’s death that instrumental parts is partially Lutosławski’s last work. He died
combine controlled governed by chance. They may be in 1994, a year after conducting
improvisation with passages fully written out, but how they line its Los Angeles premiere. ■
in conventional notation.
See also: Webern’s Symphonie, Op. 21 264–265 ■ Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony
274–279 ■ 4´33˝ 302–305 ■ Gruppen 306–307
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