A Polish renaissance /

Polish music has flowered in the twentieth century, with the emergence of artists whose international stature has been achieved by few native composers of earlier generations - Chopin and Szymanowski being foremost among them. Yet the four Poles whose story is told here - Andrzej Panufnik (1914-91),...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jacobson, Bernard
Published: Phaidon,
Publisher Address: London :
Publication Dates: 1996.
Literature type: Book
Language: English
Series: 20th-century composers
Subjects:
Summary: Polish music has flowered in the twentieth century, with the emergence of artists whose international stature has been achieved by few native composers of earlier generations - Chopin and Szymanowski being foremost among them. Yet the four Poles whose story is told here - Andrzej Panufnik (1914-91), Witold Lutoslawski (1913-94), Krzystof Penderecki (b. 1933), and Henryk Gorecki (b. 1933) - are noted for their development of radically differing creative approaches, in spite of a common national background. Key elements in that background are Poland's folk and art music; the Roman Catholic tradition; and the sequence of political regimes - Nazi, Communist, and post-Communist - by which all were affected. For Penderecki and Gorecki, being of a younger generation, the music of Panufnik and Lutoslawski is also part of their shared experience. Against the varied canvas of musical styles practised in the latter half of the twentieth century - including, on the one hand, serialism and its intellectual spin-offs, and on the other, the use of chance procedures, the 'new simplicity', and minimalism - the author dramatizes the position of these four composers, showing how each transcends the musical movements with which they are habitually linked. Their compositional techniques are illuminated by a consideration of their lives and careers, which have so powerfully contributed to the phenomenon of rebirth in modern Polish music.
Carrier Form: 240 pages : illustrations, charts, music, portraits ; 22 cm.
Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (pages 224-225) and index.
Discography: pages 226-234.
ISBN: 9780714832517
0714832510
Index Number: ML390
CLC: K835.135.76
Call Number: K835.135.76/J176
Contents: Andrzej Panufnik --
Witold Lutosławski --
Panufnik and Lutosławski : commentary --
Krzysztof Penderecki --
Henryk Górecki --
Penderecki and Górecki : commentary.