DARKNESS AND LIGHT:

HENRYK GÓRECKI’S SPIRITUAL AWAKENING AND ITS SOCIO-POLITICAL CONTEXT

By

CHRISTOPHER W. CARY

A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF MUSIC

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

2005

Copyright 2005

by

Christopher W. Cary

iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Christopher Caes, who provided me

with a greater understanding of Polish people and their experiences. He made the topic

of Poland’s social, political, and cultural history come alive. I would like to acknowledge

Dr. Paul Richards and Dr. Arthur Jennings for their scholarly ideas, critical assessments,

and kindness. I would like to thank my family for their enduring support. Most

importantly, this paper would not have been possible without Dr. David Kushner, my

mentor, friend, and committee chair. I thank him for his confidence, guidance, insights,

and patience. He was an inspiration for me every step of the way. Finally, I would like

to thank Dilek, my light in all moments of darkness.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS page

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iii

ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... vi

CHAPTER

1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................1

Purpose of the Study.....................................................................................................1 Need for the Study and Methodology...........................................................................2

2 POLAND’S SOCIO-POLITICAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY: WORLD WAR II THROUGH 1968............................................................................................4

Socialist Realism: 1949-54 ...........................................................................................8 Years of Transition and “The Thaw”: 1955-1960 ......................................................11 The October Revolution of 1956 ................................................................................13 The “Warsaw Autumn” Festival: 1956.......................................................................15 “Our Little Stabilization”: 1960-1968 ........................................................................16

3 BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: GÓRECKI, THE MAN..................................17

Life and Works ...........................................................................................................17 War, Health, and Nationalism ....................................................................................21 Catholicism and Folk Culture.....................................................................................23

4 POLAND’S SOCIO-POLITICAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY: 1968 (THEWATERSHED YEAR) AND BEYOND..........................................................27

Negative Spirituality...................................................................................................29 Positive Spirituality: a Cultural Renaissance..............................................................30 1970 and 1976.............................................................................................................35

5 BASIC STYLE FEATURES: GÓRECKI, THE COMPOSER..................................37

Early Period ................................................................................................................37 Transition to Middle Period........................................................................................40 Introduction to Middle Period: The Lyrical and Spiritual Turn .................................41

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Consistent Style Features and New Approaches ........................................................43

6 A NEW SIMPLICITY: WORKS FOR VOICE AND ORCHESTRA.......................46

Do Matki (Ad Matrem) Op. 29 (1971) for Soprano Solo, Mixed Choir, and Orchestra ................................................................................................................46

Symphony No. 2 “Copernican” Op. 31 (1972) for Baritone Solo, Mixed Choir, and Orchestra ................................................................................................................51

Symphony No. 3 “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs” Op. 36 (1976) for Soprano Solo and Orchestra.................................................................................................54

Beatus Vir Op 38 (1979) for Baritone Solo, Choir, and Orchestra.............................59

7 CONCLUSIONS AND OBSERVATIONS ...............................................................64

Solidarity: 1980 and Beyond ......................................................................................64 “Vintage 33” and Artistic Counterparts......................................................................67 Górecki’s Current Style and Musical Legacy.............................................................70

LIST OF REFERENCES...................................................................................................74

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .............................................................................................77

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Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School

of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Master of Music

DARKNESS AND LIGHT: HENRYK GÓRECKI’S SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

AND ITS SOCIO-POLITICAL CONTEXT

By

Christopher W. Cary

December 2005

Chair: David Z. Kushner Major Department: Music

The music of Henryk Górecki (b. 1933) holds a unique place in the pantheon of

Western music. This reclusive Polish composer achieved sudden and unforeseen acclaim

during the last decade of the twentieth century, and his compositions have become an

important addition to the art music repertoire. “Darkness and Light” examines the

religious, social, political, and personal currents of Górecki’s life, and seeks to illuminate

how these forces shaped his unique artistic aesthetic. This investigation recounts the

composer’s stylistic evolution as he emerged from the avant-garde decade of the 1960s

following the post-Stalin cultural “thaw” into a period of spiritual and religious

awakening during the 1970s. Górecki’s middle period was characterized by large-scale

orchestral compositions artfully combined with vocal resources. During these years, he

composed many of his most ambitious works, including Ad Matrem Op. 29 (1971), two

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of his three symphonies [Symphony No. 2 “Copernican,” Op. 31 (1972), and Symphony

No. 3 “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs,” Op. 36 (1976)], and Beatus Vir Op. 38 (1979).

Górecki’s religiosity emerges with great forcefulness in his middle compositional

period. With the vestiges of Stalinist formalism and the ravages of communism a painful

memory, Górecki finally enjoyed the freedom to write a personal and spiritual music.

These emotional works are replete with references to the composer’s firsthand

experiences and Poland’s embattled heritage. This body of music stands in direct contrast

to his avant-garde explorations of the previous decade, and it brought the composer

recognition and admiration by many audiences throughout Europe and the United States.

What accounts for the composer’s stylistic shift? This study demonstrates that

Górecki’s transition to a simplified and spiritual music was prompted by strong personal

convictions awaiting an appropriate time for expression. It also establishes that his music

was influenced by a sweeping cultural current that defined the decade for many Polish

artists, including fellow composers Krzystof Penderecki (b. 1933) and Wojciech Kilar (b.

1932). Members of a younger generation, such as the renowned poet and essayist Adam

Zagajewski (b. 1945), were likewise inspired by this cultural shift. The origin of this

current is isolated and discussed in the context of Poland’s socio-political environment.

This atmosphere reveals Poland’s struggle against the imposed influence of neighboring

powers. Finally, this presentation addresses the complex dilemma that faced many Polish

artists who experienced the challenges of developing a uniquely Polish aesthetic in a war-

ravaged nation with continually shifting physical boundaries.

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Purpose of the Study

One of the intriguing trends currently underway in musicological study involves the

role of historical, political, and sociological context. In the past, many musicologists

have reached no further than musical scores as a reservoir of meaning. Others have

chosen a more humanistic approach and have sought to place musical works decisively in

their historical context before drawing conclusions about the nature of the compositions.

This study serves two purposes: first, I demonstrate the need for historical context by

presenting an extreme example of a composer whose works simply cannot be fully

understood without knowledge of the events that frame them. Secondly, I establish

important links in the socio-political context of twentieth-century Poland that account for

the Polish composer Henryk Górecki’s compositional turn to a more lyrical and spiritual

language in the 1970s.

For many listeners, there seem to be two conflicting sides of Górecki’s personality:

the avant-garde composer of the 1960s and the composer of tonal and accessible works

written in the 1970s. An investigation of several important works establishes a

connection between Górecki’s compositional styles, and important events within

Poland’s changing socio-political environment at that time. Prior musicological research

(including the writings of Adrian Thomas, Bernard Jacobson, and Luke Howard) has

established the presence of a transition in his music, but the reasons behind the lyrical

turn have never been fully investigated. I demonstrate that Górecki’s transition was not

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only a product of his own spiritual awakening (or at least an awakening to the possibility

of a renewed spirituality), but it must be viewed in the context of a sweeping cultural

movement that is rooted in political and sociological events. I discuss Górecki’s stylistic

shift in the context of a nationwide spiritual renaissance that had far-reaching

ramifications among Poland’s artistic intelligentsia. An analysis of several important

works illustrates the change in aesthetic direction, and demonstrates how events in

Poland and in Górecki’s personal life contributed to and defined his musical direction. In

order to illuminate contrasts of musical style, I also mention compositions written during

Górecki’s formative years, and music of an earlier generation that was composed under

the watchful eye of the Soviet Union, Poland’s Eastern neighbor.

Need for the Study and Methodology

Henryk Górecki has become one of the most important Eastern-European

composers of the late Twentieth century. His unique artistic voice and his spectacular

rise in popularity in the 1990s have propelled him to the forefront of the international

music scene. Although his name is recognizable to many musicians and aficionados,

Górecki’s name still does not appear in most reputable music textbooks on twentieth-

century music.1 The majority of scholarly investigations have focused upon his

Symphony No. 3, Op. 36, but a more expansive account of his life and works is necessary

for an understanding of his compositional output. The vast stylistic range of his artistic

production can best be understood when viewed in the context of the turbulent and

repressive artistic environment of post-war Poland. In the case of Górecki, research that

is divorced from the socio-political context creates a fundamental misunderstanding of

1 Górecki’s name, for example, is absent from Robert P. Morgan’s book entitled Twentieth-Century Music.

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his music. This occurrence lead to the critical backlash that was levied against his Third

Symphony in the 1990s.

This investigation proceeds from the general to the specific, and provides

conclusions drawn from research and analysis. Chapters two, three and four provide

historical and biographical information. Chapter five is an overview of the composer’s

stylistic evolution and includes general style features. These features illuminate a

transition to a new musical direction from the decade of the 1960s to the 1970s. The

ensuing discussion accounts for the stylistic shift in musical and socio-political terms. In

chapter six, individual works are examined to illustrate middle period features. Chapter

seven provides conclusions and observations, establishing the presence of a cultural

movement toward the possibility of renewed spirituality. It also provides a glimpse of

Górecki’s current musical activities. Questions for further study are also raised

concerning Polish music of this era.

4

CHAPTER 2 POLAND’S SOCIO-POLITICAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY:

WORLD WAR II THROUGH 1968

The history of Poland is clouded by both political instability and conquest by

foreign powers. These occurrences were particularly evident in the middle and late

twentieth century. After an independent existence for twenty years following the

conclusion of World War I, a dark period in Poland’s history began with the clandestine

design of Germany and Russia to eliminate the Polish nation and absorb it into their

boundaries. The signing of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact signaled a great period of

hardship for the Polish nation. Its secret clauses defined the zones of territorial expansion

for both Germany and the Soviet Union, and this plan included a new partition of Poland.

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland without declaring war, and with

this act Adolph Hitler initiated the Second World War. Britain and France declared war

on Germany on September 3rd and Soviet troops invaded Poland from the east on

September 17th. Despite insurmountable odds, the Polish generation of 1939 stood up in

defense of their homeland. Confronted with the enormous military prowess of the

enemies, Poland suffered a military defeat. The struggle ended at the beginning of

October, and Poland was subsequently divided into two partition areas. German and

Soviet occupation of Poland rapidly occurred, and the ensuing years saw the decimation

of Poland’s physical and intellectual resources. Polish dreams of a free homeland were

shattered as the country was occupied by two totalitarian states.

5

The Soviet Union occupied approximately half of Poland’s territory inhabited by

14.3 million people. During 18 months of occupation, hundreds of thousands of people

were arrested and sent to Soviet concentration camps. Together with their families,

upwards of 1.5 million Poles were imprisoned in the Gulag system, and most died of

exhaustion and famine. In the spring of 1940, 15,000 Polish officers who had been taken

prisoners of war were murdered at Katyn, Kharkov, and Miednoie.

The fate of Polish citizens under German occupation was equally horrific. A

primary goal of the German occupiers was to turn Poles into unskilled laborers. High

schools and universities were closed. Mass arrests and executions went on unabated

throughout the occupation period. A network of concentration camps was established in

which slave labor force was inhumanely exploited. Countless people were murdered or

died of hunger, disease, or exhaustion. Some three million Polish Jews along with Poles

and citizens of other countries perished in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Majdanek, and

Treblinka death camps.

A Polish government in exile was finally assembled and it was recognized by the

states of the anti-Nazi coalition. Wladyslaw Sikorski became the Prime Minister and the

Home Army was formed in Poland. At its peak, the army numbered some 250,000

soldiers. In December 1940, the Government Delegation in the Homeland was set up to

operate clandestinely. Despite arrests and terror, the Polish underground state functioned

throughout the entire period of occupation. Hundreds of underground newspapers and

printing houses developed during the occupation, and clandestine forms of schooling

were organized.

6

When Germany declared war on the USSR in June, 1941, a Polish-Soviet

agreement was established and a Polish army was formed in the USSR. The Soviet

attitude towards Poland changed, however, when the Polish government in exile asked

the International Red Cross to investigate atrocities that occurred at Katyn after the

Germans discovered the massive gravesite. The USSR responded by severed diplomatic

relations with the Polish government. In January, 1944, the advancing Soviet troops

entered Poland’s prewar territory and confiscated the lands as Soviet property. Military

cooperation between the Soviet army and the Polish Home Army lasted only until the

Germans were defeated. Upon victory, Polish units were often taken prisoner and

transported to Gulag camps and Siberia. After Soviet troops crossed the Bug River, the

USSR set up the Polish National Liberation Committee, a political voice that was entirely

dependent upon their own government.

The Warsaw Uprising was the final attempt to win full independence for Poland.

The rebellion broke out on August 1, 1944, and lasted until October 2nd. The losses of

the insurgents amounted to some 17,000 killed and 6,000 wounded. When the fighting

was over, nearly 180,000 civilians were dead. After the uprising, the remaining

population of nearly one million people was expelled from the city, and the Germans

destroyed everything that remained. The Red Army took no action during the rebellion.

In January of 1945, Soviet troops crossed the Vistula and occupied the shattered city of

Warsaw. In March, the Soviet authorities proposed talks with the leadership of the Polish

underground. When the talks finally materialized, sixteen Polish leaders (including the

Commander-in-Chief of the Home Army) were treacherously imprisoned.

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Poland’s political destiny was resolved by the three major powers at the Yalta

conference held from February 4-11, 1945, but the Poles were not in attendance. The

powers decided that a “Provisional Government of National Unity” was to be established,

made up of members of the pro-Soviet government and émigré politicians. Poland

emerged from the war with a government imposed from the outside and comprised of

officials whom the nation’s citizens did not trust.

Under the agreement reached at the Potsdam Conference held from July 17th to

August 2nd, 1945, the former German territories east of the rivers Oder and Niesse came

under Polish sovereignty. Poland’s frontier with the USSR was also shifted westward.

Accompanying these changes were the expulsion of the German population, as well as

the resettlement of millions of Poles from the lost Eastern territories into recently

acquired lands. The factors that most defined the dramatic situation of the Polish people

included the change of borders, mass migrations, the imposition of the Soviet political

system, the continuing presence of Soviet troops, and the loss of independence.

Especially tragic were the fates of the heroic leaders and soldiers of the Home Army who

were arrested, killed, or deported to Siberia. The onslaught of official propaganda added

to the ongoing physical abuses. Russian occupation and influence created a Soviet-style

political and economic system, a system that survived essentially intact until the late

1980s. Poland became a “people’s democracy” based on the Soviet model.

During the German occupation of Poland from 1939 to 1945, most of the country’s

intellectual and cultural resources were either suppressed or destroyed. Polish music was

systematically downgraded, while the importance of German music was elevated to new

heights. Polish composers who survived the war often submerged themselves into the

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underground. In the period immediately following World War II, a Soviet-dominated

leadership attempted to impose values of “Socialist Realism” on Polish composers.

During this period, there were times of political suppression in which considerable

artistic freedom was denied, paralleling similar events in the Soviet Union. A closer

examination of this period will set the stage for the artistic direction that followed.

Socialist Realism: 1949-54

The dictatorship of Joseph Stalin was not only oppressive in the USSR. The years

from 1949 to 1954 were equally stultifying in Poland. At its inception, political factions

with close ties to the Soviet Communist Party dominated the postwar government in

Poland. The Provisional Government of National Unity was comprised of representatives

of the Polish Workers Party (PWP), the Polish Socialist Party, and the Polish Peasant

Party. For a time, the government included both pro-Communists, led by Wladyslaw

Gomulka, and anti-Communists from the Polish Peasants Party led by Stanislaw

Mikolajczyk. The actual power, however, rested with the PWP who enjoyed Soviet

support and had full control over the army and secret police. After remnants of the

underground organizations were liquidated, the Soviets directed their political attack at

the Polish Peasant Party. In January 1947, when parliamentary elections were held, it

was clear that Mikolajczyk had lost the power struggle. Although he counted on social

support, his party proved to be powerless in the face of violence and fraud in the

referendum and election. The Polish Peasant Party was dispersed and Mikolajczyk

escaped from Poland. Gomulka’s Communist-Socialist coalition, claiming that it had

won an eighty-percent majority in the voting, set about remaking the country as a

socialist state.

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The next step was the liquidation of the Polish Socialist Party, and in this case a

different strategy was employed. In December 1948 the communist PWP merged with

the Polish Socialist Party to form the Polish United Worker’s Party (PUWP). After this

measure, the communists had a monopoly on power. They introduced a centrally

controlled economy and initiated costly investment projects, such as the construction of

gigantic steel mills, metal refineries, and armament factories. In addition, the party began

a forced collectivization of farming. It was clear that Poland’s economic structure was

being adjusted to meet the needs of the USSR.

Stalin’s policies, which began as an adoption of Marxist-Leninist ideology (later

dropped in lieu of more extreme measures), inundated the country. Statues of Lenin and

Stalin proliferated throughout Poland, the Polish army was forced by conscription to

grow to 400,00 men, the Roman Catholic Church was openly attacked with the

expropriation of property, and priests were routinely arrested.2 In politics, these were the

worst years of the Stalinist terror. The height of the campaign against the Church was

reached in 1953 when the state assumed the power to control all church appointments and

demanded an oath of loyalty from all clergy. The peak moment of the struggle came with

the imprisonment of Poland’s Primate Cardinal, Stefan Wyszynski, who publicly refused

the oath.

Gomulka soon encountered difficulties of his own, for Poland remained under

heavy political pressure from her Eastern neighbor. Stalin resolved to replace the

independent-minded Gomulka and his “Polish road to socialism” with a more easily

controlled regime. The process was completed in 1949: Gomulka was stripped of power,

2 Kirk, p. 11, 2001.

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Boleslaw Bierut was installed as the head of the Party, and the dismal atmosphere of

Stalinism referred to as “the cult of personality” enveloped Poland and Eastern Europe.3

On February 10th, 1948, the Soviet Communist Party’s Central Committee

published the infamous resolution “On the Opera The Great Friendship by Vano

Muradeli,” attacking the “cult of atonality, dissonance, and disharmony…confused,

neuro-pathological combinations that transform music into cacophony, into a chaotic

conglomeration of sounds.”4 Following this pronouncement, none of the leading Soviet

composers were spared. Khachaturian, Shebalin, Kabalevsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev

were each reprimanded with vicious criticism. A “new order” in Soviet music was

publicly ratified at the All-Union Congress of Composers that convened in Moscow,

April 19-25, 1948.5

During this period, the influence of Soviet “Socialist Realism” was very real in

Poland.6 Musicologist Steven Stucky states:

The furor over formalism quickly spread to the new Socialist states of Eastern Europe. In Poland the question had arisen in the ZKP [the composer’s union in Poland] as early as 1947, and by 1948 it was being widely discussed in the press. In May 1948 the Russians convened a Second International Congress of Composers and Musicologists in Prague in order to press their views on their

3 Stucky, p. 34, 1981.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 The term “Socialist Realism” was coined in 1932 and was initially applied only to literature; Maxim Gorky was declared its founder, and partiinost’ (or party-mindedness) its backbone. The term probably first occurred in print in an article in the Literary Gazette in May of 1932. In 1933, Gorky published an important article entitled “On Socialist Realism,” in which he talked of “a new direction essential to us – socialist realism, which…can be created only from the data of socialist experience.” Officially the term signifies, according to the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, the “artistic method whose basic principle is the truthful, historically-concrete depiction of reality in its revolutionary development, and whose important task is the Communist education of the masses." However, in practice both terms (“formalism” and “Socialist Realism”) proved extraordinarily vague and thus marvelously flexible as polemical weapons (Stucky, pp. 34-35, 1981).

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neighbors. The declaration adopted in Prague on 29 May called for composers to renounce ‘extreme subjectivism’ in favor of expressing the ‘aspirations of the popular masses and progressive ideals of contemporary life’ and turn away from cosmopolitanism toward nationalism. Composers were urged to cultivate ‘concrete’ genres – opera, oratorio, cantata, mass song – and to take their inspiration from folk art. The musicologist Zofia Lissa signed the statement on behalf of the Polish delegation.7

The vice-minister of culture in Poland, Włodzimierz Sorkorski, took immediate steps to

emulate the Soviet model. He organized a conference of composers and critics in the

town of Łagów Lubuskie on August 5-8, 1949. He proclaimed the new guidelines for

music during the session, and he called upon musicians to express “socialist content in a

national form.”8 Although most Polish composers (such as Witold Lutoslawski) opposed

the new doctrine, they were forced to compose “functional” music that fell within the

parameters of the Soviet doctrine.

Years of Transition and “The Thaw”: 1955-1960

Poland’s artistic community languished in a curious sort of cultural vacuum under

the Stalinist government of Boleslaw Bierut after the year 1949. Polish musicians,

though conversant with recent developments in the music of the Soviet Union and other

Eastern states, were quite literally cut off from the West at the very moment when the

most radical changes within the European avant-garde were transforming the nature of

new music. In the West, the first electronic studios were established, Musique concrete

was developed, and Stockhausen, Boulez, and Nono emerged as international figures.

Messiaen in Europe and Babbitt in America experimented with extending the serial

7 Stucky, p. 35, 1981.

8 Ibid.

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principle, and John Cage explored graphic notation. All the while, Polish composers

labored on in profound and stultifying isolation.

The sun, however, began to rise in the East after Stalin died on March 5th, 1953.

The straightjacket on the arts in Poland finally began to work loose, as a fundamental

change in the party was beginning to have an echo in the arts. The government’s strict

control eased slightly with the death of the Soviet leader. The change in cultural

direction within the Soviet Union is evident in the fact that several prominent Soviet

painters were sent to paint the dead leader in his coffin, but the state did not bother to buy

much of their work. An article published in Pravda in November, 1954 stated that:

“Attempts to express great themes through the huge scale of pseudo-monumental, self-

consciously ceremonial compositions; to show the brightness of life by means of a garish

diversity of colors; to find naradnost by showing a crowd of lifeless figures, have proved

barren.”9 On February 14, 1956, the 20th Congress of the Party opened in Moscow and

behind closed doors the new Russian leader Khrushev delivered his famous denunciation

of Stalin. Although the speech was not published in the Soviet Union, news of it began

to circulate among the intelligentsia. Consequently, a new era of aesthetic activity began

to emerge. The change in direction revived the creative imaginations of many artists, as a

period of true artistic freedom could finally be realistically imagined. This event in the

Soviet Union likewise signaled a shift in the policies of the Polish government

concerning the production of art.

With the death of the dictator, the Soviets embarked on the period of relative

tranquility known as “The Thaw” (after Ilja Ehrenburg’s novel of the same title), and in

9 Ibid.

13

Poland composers began to sense a gradual relaxation of the aesthetic canons enforced by

the Bierut regime. Among Polish composers and other artists it became possible, little by

little, to speak out against the excesses of socrealizm. In the ZKP dissatisfaction with the

status quo was unexpectedly dramatized in the summer of 1954 by the defection to

England of Andrzej Panufnik, the famous Polish composer who had been prominent in

the union’s affairs for several years. In the general assembly, the prevailing cultural

policies were openly criticized. A series of hairline fractures began to weaken the Soviet

influence, and cultural communication with the West was finally initiated.

Forces other than artistic also threatened the Polish government’s grip on the

country. There was intense dissatisfaction among all segments of society. This

sentiment was exacerbated by a dismal economic record under state planning and a

widespread aversion to the ruthless methods of Bierut’s secret police. The traditional

anti-Communist and anti-Russian biases of the Poles in general destabilized the

government. The unshakable alliance to the Catholic Church by the vast majority of the

population contributed to the general unrest. These forces coalesced to produce a volatile

mood throughout the country and they paved the way for a revolution to come.

The October Revolution of 1956

The Polish people often discuss history in terms of important dates, and the year

1956 is an important one. De-Stalinization was already proceeding in Moscow when the

Polish leader Bierut died unexpectedly on March 12, 1956. The situation became worse

for the Soviets when some 15,000 workers of the Cegielski and Stalin Works

demonstrated in 1956 after discovering they had been cheated of some of their wages.

When they were attacked, a riot ensued. The armed uprising broke out in Poznan on June

28th, and it left 48 dead and hundreds wounded. It became clear to the Soviet regime that

14

only substantial liberalization could avert a full-scale revolt in Poland and inevitable

armed intervention by the Soviet army. Wladyslaw Gomulka, only recently released

from house arrest, managed to persuade the Soviet Premier Khrushev that he could

control the situation, and he was invited to take over the leadership of the country.

Gomulka became the First Secretary of the PUWP as his renewed promise to embark

upon the “Polish road to socialism” won social support from the Polish people. Cardinal

Wyszynaski was released and the authorities desisted from further persecution of the

Catholic Church. The collectivization of farming was discontinued and the illegally

imprisoned soldiers of the Home Army were set free. The ascension of Gomulka and the

ensuing climate of relative freedom which prevailed, albeit briefly under the new regime,

constitute the second great watershed in mid-century Polish cultural life. The events of

this month are now referred to as “The Polish October.”

Cultural activities played an important role in shaping social attitudes during this

period. Antoni Slonimski’s “Poetic Manifesto” and especially Adam Ważyk’s “Poem for

Adults” both published in 1955, played an important role in preparing the road to “The

Polish October.” After 1956, despite censorship and administrative interference, the

patronage of the state permitted the development of the Polish film school, theater, arts,

literature, and music. Andrzej Wajda’s war films were critically acclaimed and hailed as

breakthrough cinematic events, and Stanislaw Lem embarked upon a career that would

establish him as Poland’s most famous science-fiction writer.

The artistic and scientific activities of distinguished Poles in exile were also

important to the loosened fetters of censorship. Radio Free Europe played a significant

role in molding public opinion, as did the Paris-based periodical “Kultura” and a number

15

of similar publications. During this period, the creative intelligentsia managed to

maintain a degree of cultural independence unknown in other socialist states, owing to

both the high prestige traditionally accorded to this class in Polish society and the

international recognition their efforts were earning for their country. Artists of all sorts

seized on the opportunity to reclaim their independence and learn about new

developments in Western Europe and America. As a result, Poland quickly assumed a

vanguard role among Eastern European nations in the arts and letters, particularly in film,

theater, and music. As if a dam had burst, an astonishing flood of pent-up creativity from

Polish composers rushed to meet the flow of Western scores, books, and recordings that

now resumed. The names not only of Lutoslawski and his generation (including

Bacewicz, Seroki, Szabelski), but also a number of younger Polish composers led by K.

Penderecki, W. Kilar, T. Baird and H. Górecki quickly became known in the West.

The “Warsaw Autumn” Festival: 1956

If a modern music was to succeed in Poland, however, an audience had to be

created for it. The principal weapon in this campaign and an abiding symbol of the

changing climate for musicians became known as the “Warsaw Autumn” International

Festival of Contemporary Music. First proposed in 1955 by composers Tadeusz Baird

and Kazimierz Serocki, the festival was inaugurated in the Fall of 1956 under the

sponsorship of the ZKP. The original festival presented twentieth-century classics still

unknown to the Polish public: works of Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Berg, Bartók, and

others, including Lutoslawski who was represented by the Little Suite and his Concerto

for Orchestra. At the second Warsaw Autumn Festival in 1958 (it was originally

planned as a biennale), the works of Webern, Boulez, Berio, Nono, and Stockhausen

were added, along with the twelve-tone works of Polish composers such as Serocki and

16

an emerging talent named Henryk Górecki. The experience was as invigorating for the

public as it was for the participants. The combination of receptive audiences and an

energetic group of local composers made the “Warsaw Autumn” a forum for the newest

trends in international music and made the Polish capital an important center of

contemporary music – a development which would have been unthinkable a few years

before.

“Our Little Stabilization”: 1960-1968

Regarding the political environment, Poles refer to the period between 1960 and

1968 as “Our little stabilization.” It was a period of reflection in Polish artistic and

political circles. With the advent of the political thaw, universities had once again

become centers for discussion and learning. Although the relationship between the state

and the Church were complicated after 1961, the socio-political environment was one of

relative stability. It is in this renewed and feverish environment that Górecki emerged

from anonymity. An examination of his life and works will frame the musical

compositions that contributed to his ascension as an important musical figure in the

1960s.

17

CHAPTER 3 BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: GÓRECKI, THE MAN

Life and Works

The Polish composer/pianist Henryk Mikolaj Górecki was born on December 6th,

1933 in the village of Czernica, Silesia. His birth town is near Rybnik in the Silesian

coal-mining area close to the Czech border. The thought of a musical career occurred

much later with him than with most other composers, as there was little musical activity

in Czernica. After leaving school in 1951, he taught for nearly two years in a primary

school before his serious musical studies began.10 He began his formal music education

in 1952 while still a teacher, and the shortly thereafter he completed three years in the

pedagogical department of the Intermediate School of Music in Rybnik. Górecki

enrolled in the State Academy of Music in Katowice (his home city since that time), and

studied composition with Boleslaw Szabelski, composer of five symphonies and student

of Karol Szymanowski from 1955 to 1960. In 1959, a year before graduating with

honors, he married a piano teacher named Jadwiga Rurańska. The couple later became

colleagues on the teaching staff at the Academy.11

While still a student, he made a name for himself as a member of Poland’s talented

young generation of composers. On February 27, 1958, Górecki gave his debut concert as

a composer in Katowice, and the event marked the first time that a concert was devoted

to the works of a single student. Five pieces were performed at the concert, including the 10 Jacobson, p. 170, 1996.

11 They now have two children – Anna, who is a pianist, and a son, Mikolaj, who is a composer.

18

first version of Songs of Joy and Rhythm, Op. 7 (Piesni O Radosci I Rytmie, Op. 7) for

two pianos and chamber orchestra (1956) and the Concerto for Five Instruments and

String Quartet, Op. 11 (1957). The same year, Górecki debuted some of his own works

at the “Warsaw Autumn” International Festival, where his Epitafium, Op. 12 for mixed

choir and instrumental ensemble (1958) was performed. The success of his compositions

at these important events signaled the beginning of Górecki’s reputation as one of

Poland’s most radical avant-garde composers.

In 1960, he graduated with distinction from the class of Szabelski. During the

same year, his Monologhi (Monologues), Op. 16 for soprano and three instrumental

groups (1960) was awarded the first prize at the “Young Polish Composers Competition.”

At the “Warsaw Autumn” Festival on September 21, 1960, his Scontri (Collisions), Op.

17 for Orchestra caused a sensation, and his participation culminated in the succes de

scandale for Scontri. The premier of this work challenged audiences and it became an

emblem of the Polish musical avant-garde with its shocking modernity. Scholar Adrian

Thomas states:

It is a stupendous symbol of Górecki’s extraordinary progress since his arrival in Katowice five years earlier….What Scontri represents is the most colourful and vibrant expression of the new Polish wave which he headed since the première of the Concerto in 1958. The première caused an uproar, critical brickbats and bouquets, not least because of the irregular disposition of the large orchestra on stage. The strings form an arc around the stage (not in a conventional sequence), the woodwinds, trombones, and three of the eight percussion players are contained inside, the remaining brass scattered outside the strings, with harps, pianos, the remaining percussion, and conductor forming a loose circle on the periphery. The first trombone and third percussion are at the center of this aural galaxy.12

12 Thomas, Górecki, p. 29, 1997.

19

Górecki’s success and recognition continued during this period. In 1961, he was

active in Paris, where his First Symphony, Op. 14 (1959) won first prize at the UNESCO

Youth Biennale. In these two important works, Górecki explored the musical

possibilities presented by pointillism and massed blocks of sound. The young composer

not only broadened his musical palate, but he also became acquainted with some

important international musicians. At this time, he met the eminent conductor and

composer Pierre Boulez. During his travels in Cologne, Górecki was also introduced to

the avant-garde composer Karl Stockhausen.

In 1965, Górecki began to work at the Academy of Music in Katowice. In 1968 he

was a lecturer, and in 1972 he was given the responsibilities of teaching score-reading,

orchestration, and composition. During the years 1973-74, he spent time in Berlin after

acquiring the support of the Akademischer Austauschdienst (German Academic

Exchange Service). In 1975, Górecki became the Rector of the Academy of Music in

Kotowice, a position that he held for four years. In 1977, he was granted the title of

assistant professor. Among his students were Eugeniusz Knapik, Andrezej Krzanowski,

and Rafal Augustyn. However, his academic career was cut short after a series of

unfortunate events that ultimately led to his resignation. The reasons for his voluntary

departure were a combination of political and religious factors. He explains:

Silesia was much more oppressed by the Party than Krakow or Warsaw. Katowice was a new city, industrial: the coal industry – workers, workers, workers. According to the Party, what they ought to do was just work and be stupid. It was hard to found a university there. At that time, the Music Academy was the oldest high school there – it was fifty years old. All intellectual movements were seen dangerous to the Party. You can’t imagine in the West what a pressure the Party, the Russians, the Soviets were… When Arvo Pärt, the Estonian composer, first

20

came to Poland with a group of Soviet composers, he wasn’t permitted to meet any Polish composers. That was strictly forbidden!13

Although he encountered many obstacles, Górecki continued to establish his

reputation as one of Poland’s leading composers, and his efforts were rewarded by many

organizations. In 1967, his Refren (Refrain), Op. 21 for orchestra (1965) took third place

in the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. It was his first foreign

commission and the work remains one of the most remarkable avant-garde compositions

of the 1960s. In 1968, his Kantata (Cantata), Op. 26 for organ (1968) won first prize at

the Szczecin Composer’s Competition. In 1973, his Ad Matrem (Do Makti), Op. 29 for

solo soprano, mixed choir and orchestra (1971) won first prize at the UNESCO

International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. Górecki was also awarded the Music

Award of Katowice voivodship (both in 1958 and 1975); the award of the Minister of

Culture and Art (Third Prize, 1965; First Prize 1969 and 1973); the Award of the Polish

Composer’s Union (1970); the award for the Committee for Radio and Television Affairs

(1974); the First State Prize (1976); and the Award of the Minister of Foreign Affairs

(1992). In 1994, Górecki was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of

Warsaw. He received two West German radio commissions for Canticum graduum, Op.

27 for orchestra (1969) and the Third Symphony (1976).

Despite his accomplishments, his name and most of his works remained relatively

unknown outside of Poland until the mid-1980s. During this period, chamber works were

commissioned by the Lerchenborg Festival and by the Kronos Quartet. International

fame arrived unexpectedly in 1993 when the fourth recording of his Symphony No. 3,

13 Jacobson, p.184, 1996.

21

featuring soprano soloist Dawn Upshaw and the London Sinfonetta conducted by David

Zinman, became a worldwide phenomenon.

War, Health, and Nationalism

Throughout his compositional career, Górecki has stayed close to his Polish roots,

undistracted by the public round of activities usually made by a high profile composer.

He has not established a performing career, participated regularly in professional

organizations, or traveled much on the festival circuit. He rarely travels to the locations

where his music is being performed. As he remarked in a lengthy press discussion

chaired by David Drew: “I’m not a globetrotter. Where did Beethoven go? Just to

Heiligenstadt – that’s a good model for me.”14 There appears to be a moral element in

Górecki’s stance. He is quoted as saying, “I hate commerce in music” and “I’m not

interested in career.”15 His tendency for reclusiveness has also been reinforced by

recurring bouts of poor health, including serious illnesses in 1973 and 1984.

After examination, it appears that Górecki’s compositional career conceals two

enormous dramas: World War II and a long history of illness.16 Górecki does not talk

much about his family’s sufferings during the Nazi period, though the concentration

camps claimed many victims among his relatives (he had a grandfather in Dachau, an

aunt in Auschwitz). What the composer has revealed about this sensitive topic is

contained in a rare television interview aired on the BBC’s South Bank Show. The

14 Jacobson, p. 167, 1996. In this respect, he certainly stands apart from other Polish composers of his generation such as K. Penderecki.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid, p. 171.

22

images he retains of the period, even in retrospect, are immediate enough and appear to

be part of a process that is far from being over:

I remember, when I was twelve years old, we went on a school visit to Auschwitz. I had the feeling that the huts were still warm…The paths themselves – and this image has never left me – the paths were made from human bones, thrown onto the path like shingle. We boys – how to walk on this? This is not sand, not earth. We were walking on human beings….This was my world. The only way to confront this horror, to forget – but you could never forget – was through music…The world today, it’s the same. Also a nightmare, crushing us. Somehow I had to take a stand, as a witness, as a warning…The war, the rotten times under Communism, our life today, the starving, Bosnia – what madness! And why, why! This sorrow, it burns inside me. I cannot shake it off.17

The internal turmoil caused by these events is certainly not lost in his music.

Regarding Górecki’s personal world, his health suffered the most during times of

hardship. A fall experienced when he was a small child dislodged a hip, and he received

inadequate medical treatment. The hip was improperly treated and a sequence of

operations left him with a permanent limp. He was then struck down by tuberculosis, and

again proper medical attention was difficult to find. The German occupation made

medicine nearly impossible to acquire. A maltreated infection in his fingers and a tumor

in his skull later caused the composer to remark: “That I am alive is a miracle.”18

Górecki’s unfortunate health issues were exacerbated by the fact that his mother died on

his second birthday. Adrian Thomas states in the opening paragraph of his book on the

composer:

From this day, what promised to be an unassuming but musically encouraging childhood for her son all too rapidly became one of hardship and misfortune. And, without overstressing the significance of this private tragedy, it is evident that the

17 Jacobson, pp. 173-174, 1996.

18 Jacobson, p. 174, 1996.

23

resilience and acuteness with which he absorbed this and later afflictions have played an integral part in shaping his distinctive personal and musical character.19

It is a tribute to the composer that, despite all of the hardships he has overcome, he

is able to produce music of such depth and beauty. In his music, many audiences find

that psychological complexities are immediately sensed, although the sounds may be

traditional and unthreatening. In many works, an immense sadness is almost palpable.

Górecki has been singled out by many for his capacity to bring together various groups of

listeners, including mass audience and elitists. This quality inspired Bernard Jacobson to

remark: “There is indeed something Jungian about Górecki’s progressively simplified

language, his rhythmic elan, his simplified taste for extremes of loud and soft, his

luminous concentration, and his quest for artistic bedrock.”20 His style, inescapably

influenced by disturbing non-musical experiences, such as World War II, persecution by

the Communist government, and bouts of ill health, seems to embrace a universal pathos

that speaks directly to the listener. These experiences provide a latent source of inner

tension that has become characteristic of Górecki’s music. This tension is ultimately

released in a reaffirmation of the spirit, and it is strengthened by an innate optimism for

the future.

Catholicism and Folk Culture

Where does one derive the strength to endure such experiences? Upon

examination, two elements in Górecki’s life emerge that continue to have a profound

effect upon his compositional output: his devout Roman Catholic faith and his devotion

to his Polish homeland and native culture. Adrian Thomas points out “ ... It quickly

19 Thomas, Górecki, p.xiii, 1997.

20 Jacobson, p. 200, 1996.

24

becomes apparent that [Górecki] holds Poland’s musical past, its Church, and its folk

culture in unwavering awe; for him they are the unchallengeable rock on which both his

and his country’s identity and true heritage are securely founded.”21 Although the

composer lives in an industrial city, he often composes in a remote hermitage in the Tatra

Mountains, where he is surrounded by a rural community of artisans and farmers. The

sights and sounds of this mountain hideaway color his music with equal strength as

spiritual contemplation of his devout Catholic faith. As will be demonstrated, many of

his works reveal (overtly or with great subtlety) the presence of folk songs.

The influence of Catholicism has emerged as perhaps the strongest influence in his

music since the aftermath of the Soviet socialist realism.22 His deep Roman Catholic

faith has been his inspiration and source of strength during difficult times, and these

elements have been increasingly evident in his works after 1968.

Spirituality is not only important in Górecki’s personal life, but it is a vital force in

his country as a whole. Poland is, after all that it has endured, still a very Catholic place

– one of the most Catholic countries in the world. Historian Norman Davies states:

The position of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland after the Second World War was stronger than at any previous period of its thousand–year mission. Its strength can be explained in part by the suffering of the war years, which turned people’s minds to the solace of religion; in part by the laws of cussedness, which increased people’s loyalties to the Church just because the government forbade it; but largely by the ethnic and cultural remodeling of polish Society after the War.23

21 Moody, p. 283, 1992.

22 Many middle-period works discussed in this investigation, such as Ad Matrem and Beatus Vir, are explicitly religious if not liturgical, and their religiosity and reliance upon folk material will be examined in great detail in later sections.

23 Davies, p. 10, 2001.

25

According to official statistics, 95.4% percent of the population is Roman Catholic, with

over 36,835,000 baptized followers.24 Despite the influence of czars and communism, a

strongly devotional Catholicism still oozes from the national pores. According to the

National Catholic Reporter, Poles know that they have a uniquely tenacious brand of

Catholicism: “walking the streets of Krakow, the nation’s third-largest city and its

cultural capital, the night before the Aug. 18 papal mass, a deep popular faith was on

clear display ... Every church in the city center was packed with pilgrims preparing for

the next day, most on their knees.”25 Perhaps it is in their deep faith that the Poles have

found the strength in body and spirit to endure so much hardship throughout their

national history. Thomas states:

The relationship between Church and State, already severely tested at the time of socialist realism, was to prove crucial on all fronts. The Church became a focus of opposition to the Party as well as a sanctuary within which open discussions and artistic events could take place without hindrance (they sometimes had to be conducted in great secrecy….).26

During the first decade of the socialist period, relations between the church and the

new secular authorities were extremely contentious. After 1956, both sides seemed to

recognize the futility of direct confrontation, and the relationship that followed was subtle

and complex. There is no doubt that the Church was viewed by some Poles as a quasi-

political institution, and as the only possible vehicle for political opposition in a socialist

system at that time. Catholicism remained a patriotic affirmation, but for many others it

simultaneously represented a rejection of the communist ideology. For all Poles, the

24 1998 Catholic Almanac: Our Sunday Visitor, USA (1997), pp. 333-367.

25 National Catholic Reporter, p. 32, 2003.

26 Thomas, Polish Music, p. 253, 2005.

26

Church was an unassailable fortress preserving their faith, moral principles, and national

traditions.

Will Poland maintain its religious status among the most Catholic countries in the

world? Although some leading intellectuals are concerned about increasing secularism in

modern-day Poland, statistics show that Mass attendance has not only increased during

the last decade, but the number of those receiving Holy Communion has nearly

doubled.27 Thomas summarizes:

Given Poland’s history, since the late eighteenth century, of having to establish its national identity against a background of partition, Nazi occupation and Soviet political and cultural pressure, it is hardly surprising that composers sometimes sought to express their national solidarity through works, and materials, which both commemorated and signified their Polishness and the centrality of the Roman Catholic Church during periods of vicissitude.28

Although Catholicism perhaps does not hold as much power in the totalitarian manner

that it once did, it is still a formidable presence in Poland to this day. And in the midst

this spiritual environment, the music of Henryk Górecki reaches the listener with a highly

personal voice.

27 Steele. p. 3, 2001.

28 Thomas, p. 256, 2005.

27

CHAPTER 4 POLAND’S SOCIO-POLITICAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY: 1968

(THEWATERSHED YEAR) AND BEYOND

What was the path to spiritual renaissance of the 1970s? What were the catalysts

that accounted for a new approach to the arts? Many historians view the year 1968 as

one of the most important revolutionary dates in human history, and it was a turning point

in Polish political, social, and cultural history. Unrest in Poland’s political sphere had

immediate consequences in the artistic realm. The Israeli victory over the Soviet–backed

Arabs in 1967 had been greeted with elation, and anti-Russian feelings were on the rise.

With the advent of the political thaw, the universities had once again become centers for

discussion and learning, and Warsaw University in particular was a center for free debate

(a tactical concession by the Russian regime). However, when the authorities banned a

production of Mickiewicz’s anti-Russian play “Forefather’s Eve” (a primary text of

Polish culture) in January, student riots broke out in Warsaw and Krakow. These

demonstrations were forcibly put down, and a period of repression against intellectuals

and Jews ensued.

During the 1960s, Gomulka had essentially abandoned the ideology of Stalinism.

Nevertheless, the leader found himself under pressure from the repressive Nationalist

Partisan faction led by Mieczyslaw Moczar to participate in an anti-Semitic campaign

against the “Zionists.” He reluctantly had to “encourage” Jews to emigrate, despite the

fact that his own wife was Jewish. Mozcar, a communist partisan in WW II and both a

Polish nationalist and anti-Semite, envisioned his own ascent to power after Gomulka’s

28

demise. In order to further his political ambitions, Mozcar engineered the anti-Semitic

campaign and attempted to drive a wedge between the students and workers. Although

Mozcar initiated the Jewish conspiracy, he could not ascend to the top position because

Soviet leaders would not allow a Polish nationalist to become party leader.

The year 1968 fundamentally signaled the end of “revisionism,” as Golmulka

exercised relentless hostility to all types of reform. Many important figures had adopted

a “revisionist” stance (named so because they wanted to revise the system within existing

parameters), including party members and former Stalinists. Although generally

committed to socialism, these individuals were expelled from the country for publicly

criticizing the state of affairs in Poland. Important names included the philosopher

Leszek Kolakowski, and sociologists Zigmunt Baumann and Maria Hirszowicz. Due to

the events of 1968, a generation of students and intellectuals were alienated from the

party. After the party lost its ideological legitimacy, the remaining remnants of

revisionism abandoned the platform. More turbulent times were on the horizon.

In December, 1970, a sudden increase in the price of food led to riots in the Baltic

cities and they were repressed with great bloodshed. The fighting ultimately led to the

resignation of Gomulka as party leader and the ascension of Edward Gierek, who

managed to calm down the situation by preventing the price increases and promising

reform. He then adopted a policy of rapid industrialization based on credits and Western

imports (a policy which would ultimately bankrupt Poland), and an artificial rising of

living standards began.

The social and political unrest within Polish society at this time prompted a return

to foundations and traditions among artists and intelligentsia. This philosophical

29

movement is characterized by a reconnection with traditional Polish values. These values

included a revitalization of national traditions, a return to spirituality and a renewed

reverence for the traditional role of the Polish mother, a heightened artistic interest in the

use folk materials and modality, and a return to a socially-conscious approach to artistic

pursuits characterized by simplicity. Polish society increasingly embraced the possibility

of spiritual expression, believing that meaning and truth could perhaps be recovered in

art. In 1968, the cultural intelligentsia reaffirmed that art and politics go hand in hand,

and that they were not free from the interests of the political arena.

The important role of the Catholic Church in Polish society has been established.

However, during the war and in the Stalinist period that followed, the Church was

increasingly viewed by a segment of the population as a relic. Many Polish people

became relativists and adopted a practical morality – a morality that allowed them to

survive. The morality of the Church seemed outdated in the face of repression,

occupation, and censorship. Many people simply lost their faith in the Church as an

institution capable of creating positive change. The policies of reform that were

promised by the Polish government, however, opened the door for an elevated role of the

Catholic Church in the 1970s, and this trend has continued to the present day. In order to

understand the prevailing perspectives regarding spirituality, a discussion of “negative”

and “positive” spirituality is necessary.

Negative Spirituality

The ideology of negative spirituality was suspicious of every notion that offered a

foundation, and it constituted the prevailing beliefs of the pre-1968 generation of artists.

Negative spiritualists resisted all foundations and emptied all existing foundations of

meaning. For the negative spiritualist, nothing of enduring value could be accomplished

30

in the 1960s because of the events that transpired in the 1940s and 1950s. Due to the

founding of the Polish People’s Republic (Communist Poland that existed for 40 years),

coming to terms with the wartime events was indefinitely postponed for Polish society.

Necessary post-war therapy could not take place within society, and consequently victims

could not heal. These facts exacerbated a tendency among artists of the wartime

generation to believe in a negative spirituality, a philosophy rooted in nihilism and

relativism (a condition Adam Zagajewski refers to as “the Hegelian vaccine”). This

period was characterized by bitter reflection in the arts.

In literary circles, negative spiritualists were also called “Jesters” (by Kolakowski),

relativists, and anarchists. The negative spiritualist was always looking for schemes that

pre-packaged the world. Important artistic examples include Milosz’s The Captive Mind,

Hłasko’s The Eighth Day of the Week, and Wadja’s flm entitled Kanal. These influential

works capture the sentiments of many Poles, and they are filled with bitter irony and a

severe picture of hopelessness.

Positive Spirituality: a Cultural Renaissance

From 1970 to 1976, Polish society experienced a cultural renaissance, a “golden

age” in intellectual life. In contrast to the negative spirituality of the pre-1968 generation,

many artists chose a new approach to their artistic endeavors after 1968. In addition to

important musical compositions, two important books appeared in the year 1972:

November Evening by A. Kijowski and Genealogies of the Defiant Ones (about the

generation of Pilsudski and Dmowski) by B. Cywinski. The Polish poet Adam

Zagajewski also published his book entitled The Unrepresented World in 1974. These

books represented hope for the future by reflecting on past successes as a model. The

authors refused to indulge in the negative ideology that characterized the literary works

31

of the previous generation. Their works were devoid of the irony and bitterness

expressed by Wadja’s film entitled Kanal (1957), and they embraced a positive view of

the future.

The transition toward positive spirituality in the 1970s occurred only after a

redefining of history. Reforms within the Polish government allowed the people to

become unified again. These changes initiated the rejuvenation of traditional values, and

Solidarity (as an institution of the people) was seen as an important vehicle representing

an idealized state. Positive spiritualists desired the recovery of the possibility for

historical truth, and they sought to reclaim foundations, including ethics, religion, and

parliamentary democracy. They sought a return to socially conscious art imbued with

national and folk elements, and artisitc mediums that expressed Polish concerns. Father

Józef Tischner, a spiritual leader of Solidarity, wrote:

There are some who believe that art is above ethics. No ethical principle would concern art since art transcends good and evil. They who think so do not know how much they wrong art. Artistic creativity and works of art are permeated by ethics. There are several factors responsible for this. Artistic creativity is, above all, free creativity, and freedom is the first condition of ethics. This creativity, moreover, is not licentious creativity but follows certain values – this is the second condition of ethics. All the values served by art can be reduced to three: beauty, truth, and goodness.29

These sentiments encapsulate the philosophy of the positive spiritualists, and reflect a

significant change from the aesthetic ideology embraced by the West and followed by

musicians in years prior to 1968.

The middle years of the 1970s were a time of action, not reflection. The action

began in 1976 when the positive spiritualists achieved the legalization of Solidarity. This

29 Tischner, p. 35, 1984.

32

labor movement solidified a “new foundationalism,”30 a philosophical concept indicating

that there are foundations for meaning beyond what occurs at a given moment (as

represented in literature by books such as November Evening and Genealogy of the

Defiant Ones). In literary circles, individuals who supported these ideas were also called

“Priests” (by Kolakowski), non-relativists, and hierarchists.

In his book Solidarity, Solitude, the poet and novelist Adam Zagajewski divided the

world into the pre-1968 period and the post-1968 period. He states:

We know this much: in the mid-seventies there appeared a beneficial mutation in Polish collective life, a consolidation of strength, boldness, faith, a return to traditions. In the monotonous, steppe-like mode of life in the People’s Republic resounded an entirely new music: the challenging tone of struggle and of taking the initiative. The opposition of the seventies was something entirely new: bold and vigorous. Its energy was infectious; a few years were enough to have nine million people affected by the same fervor31

Justifying his movement away from the negative spirituality of the previous generation,

Zagajewski writes:

Negative spirituality did not just make itself the brilliant and severe judge of human reality. Its adherents were even ready to admit that values, norms, why yes, they do happen, they do exist, perhaps not always tainted with resentment and pettiness, but what of it, if there is something dry, artificial, and boring in them. They leave aside the miraculous lushness of life, uncut, uncheckered by the diagram of norms.32

A return to the Roman Catholic Church was also an integral part of the movement

toward positive spirituality. Zagajewski argued that only a strong faith in God could

reconcile the hostile sensibilities of the ethical and ecstatic ways of experiencing reality.

At the heart of his ideology is the desire to recover the fullness of existence. In

Solidarity, Solitude, he states: 30 A term introduced by Dr, Christopher Caes of the University of Florida.

31 Zagajewski, p. 5, 1990.

32 Ibid, p. 16.

33

For a long time the cathedrals were lonely in Poland. No, not completely: ordinary people and the reading intelligensia dropped in once a week; they desperately needed churches. But the writing intelligensia, the best brains of the collectivity, deriving from all its strata, ignored the churches’ stone existence. They went on their anarchic odysseys, quests, ironies….Then it changes. It began to change the minute a hierarchic response to the challenge of totalitarian order began to gain the upper hand over anarchic reaction.33

Is there an excessively positive spirituality? Zagajewski states that “at the same

time, somewhere on a heavenly isle some twenty-year-old is diligently copying the

Statutes of the KPZR and getting goose-bumps when he comes to words like ‘justice,’

‘prosperity,’ and ‘freedom.’”34 Yes, according to the author, a too positive spirituality

gains adherents and also becomes a dangerous ideology. This tendency transforms itself

into a belief in martyrdom and leads to the dangers of martyrology -- an abdication of all

responsibility, black-and-white thinking, and the belief in an absolute division between

totalitarianism and anti-totalitarianism.35 Zagajewski confronts the issue by advocating a

middle ground:

To be in the middle, not to surrender to the pressures of the negating spirit, not to resort to aid from the too positive spirit, not to surrender to despair, not to condemn modern civilization; to be against totalitarianism, but not to define oneself exclusively by this opposition…; to be in the middle, not crying, not shouting, not concocting extraordinary utopian plans. To be in the middle also means to see the whole cobweb of contradictions in which we are inevitably caught and not want to tear at them.36

Zagajewski ask the important question: why did the transition to positive spirituality

occur at this time in Poland’s history. He writes:

33 Ibid, p. 64.

34 Ibid, p. 20

35 In his controversial article “A Treatise on Ticks,” Piotr Wierzbicki also addressed the dangers of a “too” positive spirituality.

36 Ibid, p. 21.

34

How then did it happen that the Polish people triumphed over both the negative and too positive spirits? To what do we owe this upheaval, this Renaissance? And how is it possible that, in spite of the gloomy forecasts of morbid-twentieth century prophets predicting not just the disappearance of metaphysical feelings but also complete capitulation of independent states in totalitarian and mass societies, how did it happen that a longing for truth, freedom, and faith was once again awakened? Was it slavery that brought about this extraordinary change? And why did it happen in the seventies, not sooner or later? … Two elements that had been at odds earlier, Value and Energy, joined forces. Formerly the advocates of value had been Catholics, consumed with loathing for the political temper of postwar Poland and because of this in no hurry to participate in the political life of the country. On the other side were the revisionists, Marxists, full of energy but for the time being preoccupied with the destruction of nothingness, with overcoming the Hegelian vaccine. Later, not in the course of one day but after several years, the arrow found its bow.37

Adam Zagajewski’s belief in a positive spirituality is echoed in the writings of

Adam Michnik, a central revisionist in Polish society, and a distinguished student activist

in 1968. He wrote of his views of positive spirituality in his book entitled Letters from

Prison, directly confronting the issue in a chapter entitled “A New Evolutionism 1976.”

He states that his concept of new evolutionism is “based on the power of the working

class, which, with a steady and unyielding stand, has on occasion forced the government

to make spectacular concessions.”38 Michnik has authored several influential texts on

this subject. His book The Church, The Left, A Dialogue marked a decisive turn in the

political climate of Poland. His strategic agenda was to redefine the relations between

the intellectuals and the two main forces capable of creating change in Poland – the

workers and the Church.

The writings of Adam Zagajewski and Adam Michnik were extremely influential to

the new generation of artists and intellectuals in postwar Poland. Their works discuss the

37 Ibid, pp. 21-22.

38 Michnik, p. 144, 1985.

35

complex series of events that conspired to produce movement within Polish society at the

time. And the middle period works of Henryk Górecki should be viewed as the musical

manifestations of positive spirituality.

1970 and 1976

Many important changes were brought on by the upheavals of 1956, 1968, 1970,

1976, and 1980, but Poland nevertheless remained communist. With his prestige falling,

Gomulka scored his last success on December 7, 1970: Poland and the Federal Republic

of Germany concluded a treaty recognizing the border on the Oder and Niesse Rivers. A

week later, however, strikes broke out in Gdansk, Gdynia, and Szezecin due to sudden

increases in the cost of food. The Party reacted with force, shooting at the defenseless

crowd of workers. Golmulka lost power after this tragic event, and was replaced by

Edward Gierek. The new First Secretary managed to calm the situation down by

promising reforms, and he adopted a policy of rapid industrialization based upon Western

imports and credits -- a policy that would eventually bankrupt the country.

By 1976, Gierek had to adopt extreme measures to ease foreign debt. He

reluctantly increased the price of “luxury” consumer goods, and he imposed a 60%

increase in food prices in June. Violent strikes in Warsaw and Radom led to the

cancellation of price increases, but also led to the repression by the Citizens’ Militia and

severe sentences. In the aftermath of the strikes and persecution of their participants, the

Committee for the Defense of Workers (KOR) was established. Members were prominent

intellectuals including Adam Michnik and Jacek Kuron. The Students’ Self-Defense

Circles originated at universities, the institution of the underground Alternative

University was reinstated to teach the truth about Polish history, and other dissident

groups were established. Most importantly, the elevation of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla to

36

the papacy in October, 1978 and his homecoming as Pope John Paul II in June 1979 were

breakthrough events. In hailing the Pope, Polish society recovered its unity and sense of

dignity. The nation was inspired by a sense of destiny.

37

CHAPTER 5 BASIC STYLE FEATURES: GÓRECKI, THE COMPOSER

Early Period

As Poland opened up to Western influences, Górecki and many of his

contemporaries had rapidly absorbed serial techniques and aesthetics. Nearly every

composer, regardless of age embraced elements of the avant-garde as a natural escape

from the confines of socialist realism. While familiarizing himself with avant-garde

procedures popular in the West, he worked with great determination to develop his own

compositional voice. He assimilated the techniques of his predecessors (mainly Bartok

and Szymanowski) and those active around him, including Boulez, Xenakis, and Nono.39

He then stripped away all extraneous elements, and arrived at a profoundly personal

expression. In the 1950’s, the composer demonstrated the influence of Webern in

Epitafium, the first of many works to be given a detailed spatial layout, and he evoked a

Boulezian-atmosphere in Monologhi.40 These compositional processes were expanded in

the 1950s and 1960s, beginning with Four Preludes for Piano from 1955 (his first

numbered opus), and reaching full maturity with Old Polish Music from 1969. This was

the most radical and dissonant period in his compositional output. In 1957, Górecki

revealed the extremes of his musical temperament in the neo-classic Sonata for Two

Violins, which contains powerful dynamic and rhythmic contrast and a taste for the

grotesque that would resurface in later works. From the start, Górecki’s work was 39 Harley, p. 2, 1999.

40 Thomas, Grove, p.159, 2001.

38

typified by that which the composer called the “utmost economy of musical material”;

this artistic tenet has remained a noticeable feature throughout his compositional

evolution, despite major changes of harmonic idiom.41

In the 1960’s, Górecki belonged to the small group of the most avant-garde

composers of his time. Together with Penderecki, Serocki, and others, he established a

dissonant new pattern for music: the more dissonance, the better, the harsher the sounds,

the better.42 This style of writing, associated with the so-called “Polish School of the

1960’s” is also known as “sound mass composition.” In order to reduce music to its

fundamental components, composers from this school stripped away all elements except

tone color. In the works of Górecki, this path is epitomized by Scontri –the aggressive

work filled with large clashes of vertical and horizontal sound patterns, often serially

organized -- and his award–winning Symphony No. 1, opus 14, “1959.” Górecki’s First

Symphony is notable for its use of massed sounds and pointillism. In Genesis Cycle

(1962-63), the three-part chamber music cycle that followed, Górecki developed the

essence of a new musical language – a language in which he explored serial-derived

procedures and the predominance of indeterminate pitch, and he exhibited it with

brutality. Stanislaw Kosz states: “If the style of Górecki’s compositions during his first

years of study could be described as ‘vital-explosive’ with a significant element of post-

Bartok moto perpetuo, by the start of the following decade it had been supplanted by

features of post-Webern expressionism and the free use of serial technique.”43

41 Maslowiec, p.1, 2003.

42 Harley, p. 2, 1999.

43 Kosz, p. 2, 2000.

39

The title “Polish composer’s school” was popularized in the early 1950’s by

German music critics. This term was coined to name the specific style of Polish music in

which the tone of sound is a foundation of the structure of a musical piece. The

emergence of the “Polish composer’s school” was possible as a result of the political

climate after Stalin’s death which in Poland led to a political crisis in 1956. This period

was a time of rejecting the personality cult in the sphere of politics, and socialist realism

in the area of culture. The inauguration of the “Warsaw Autumn” festival of music in

October 1956 also played a significant role in the establishment of this compositional

school.

The stage of the “Warsaw Autumn” festival became the site of the first Polish

performances of works that make up the canon of contemporary music. This festival also

became a manifestation of new aesthetic tendencies in Polish music. At first those

tendencies were related to the use of dodecaphonism, and later to the use of a technique

called “sonorism” in Poland (which was based on the priority of the tone of sound over

all other parameters of a composition). These aesthetic tendencies are represented in

Polish music mainly by Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994), Krzysztof Penderecki (b.

1933), and Gorecki (b. 1933).44 Many critics praised Górecki’s serial-based works such

as Scontri as the greatest revelations of the Warsaw Autumn Festival. However, some

audience members did not share the enthusiasm. Polish critic Jerzy Waldorff suggested

that “in his next work Górecki might include dead rats to be flung at the audience.”45

44 Other important Polish composers that explored this style of composition include Kazimierz Serocki (1922-1981), Tadeusz Baird (1928-1981), Wojciech Kilar (b. 1932), Witold Szalonek (b. 1927), Boguslaw Schaeffer (b. 1929), and Wlodzimierz Kotoński (b. 1925).

45 Howard, p. 14, 1997.

40

A major landmark in Górecki’s compositional career was his Symphony No. 1,

“1959,’ Op. 14 for string orchestra and percussion (1959). Górecki provides the four

movements with titles that recall early music, including “Invocation,” “Antiphon,”

“Chorale,” and “Lauda.” Although the primary instrumental forces are unpitched

percussion and strings, the scoring includes the “antique” sounds of the harpsichord as

part of a substantial pitched percussion and keyboard section.46 The strings pitch

organization is straightforwardly based on a twelve-note matrix. The first movement,

“Invocation,” was innovative because it represents perhaps the first time a Polish

composer had concentrated so intently on the use of massed blocks of sound.

Transition to Middle Period

After his flirtation with works influenced by Boulez, Stockhausen, and the

Darmstadt school, Górecki turned in a new direction: the distant past. A period of self-

examination led to a renewed formal and technical clarity, and an emphasis upon cultural

icons of the past. Adrian Thomas states:

I believe that, soon after 1960, most Polish composers saw the European avant-garde of Boulez and Stockhausen as a new type of cultural tyranny, evoking memories of Szymanowski’s rejection of German music after the First World War. Very quickly, they established their personal identities and, in one of the most surprising moves of the time, … returned to old Polish material.47

The first hints of this shift are found in Górecki’s Three Pieces in Old Style of 1963. The

Three Pieces anticipated the “white note” modal idiom of works written after 1971; the

first work, however, to clearly move towards the style that came to be known as “new

46 Thomas, Górecki, p. 19, 1997.

47 Thomas, “Squaring the Triangle,” p. 15-16, 1997.

41

simplicity” was Refrain, written in 1965.48 The composer developed new pitch schemes

after abandoning serialism, although he maintained many of the manipulative procedures.

During this transitional period, Górecki focused even more on putting restricted amounts

of musical materials to maximum use. Scholar Wilfred Mellers states: “Already in the

early 1960s … there are hints of a renouvellement, whereby his music is purged of

harmonic, rhythmic, and textural sophistications in re-organizing the plain modalism of

Polish folk song and of liturgical incantation harkening back to the Middle Ages.”49

Introduction to Middle Period: The Lyrical and Spiritual Turn

The years from 1970 to 1986 were dominated by vocal music, as if Górecki was

attempting to humanize the technical explorations of the earlier decade.50 In many ways,

particularly regarding his choice of thematic material, he becomes pays homage to the

traditions of Polish Catholicism. During the 1970’s, beginning with Ad Matrem (1971)

and continuing to Symphony No. 3 (1976) and Beatus Vir (1979), Górecki worked to

achieve a direct link between the emotional and spiritual content of vocal texts and his

musical architecture. He sought inspiration from such diverse sources of early Polish

music as a 13th-century conductus and a 16th-century polyphonic song. This gradual

movement away from dissonance towards consonance, and away from aggressive,

dramatic music towards a more introspective style, can be witnessed in Do matki (Ad

Matrem) Op. 29 (1971) for soprano solo, mixed choir, and orchestra. This work signals a

new direction in which the text provides important emotional content. It is of primary

48 Masloweic, p.1, 2003.

49 Mellers, p. 23, 1989.

50 Thomas, p. 160, 2001.

42

importance because it marks Górecki’s return to vocal music – a trend that would

characterize his works for the next two decades.

Bernard Jacobson points out that “Only three of Górecki’s first twenty-eight works

had been vocal: from Ad Matrem onwards, twenty-five of the thirty-nine composed

between 1971 and 1994 were to use voices.”51 The focus on vocal music led naturally to

an emphasis on melody, with a resulting simplification of the harmonic and textural

elements. After Ad Matrem, Górecki once again begins pondering works on a

monumental scale. Thomas states: “His focus is partly on the wonder of the universe

(Second Symphony) and partly on the celebration of his faith (Beatus Vir). In between

these two works is the Third Symphony, in which he explores the ascendancy of good

over evil.”52 Górecki’s compositional shift is also vividly expressed in the two

contrasting movements of Symphony No. 2 (1972). This process was further clarified in

the landmark “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs” and Beatus Vir. During this period,

Górecki’s musical focus shifts to a fully diatonic and modal language in which the

repetitive element is essentially rooted in folk and church music.

Górecki’s stylistic transition is a representative example of the spiritual renaissance

that was occurring in Poland. Many members of the artistic intelligentsia were active

participants, as a new social consciousness and a movement toward positive spirituality

can be seen in the works of Polish artists as the decade progressed. In music, as the

sonoristic experiments of the previous decade ran their course, the unusual became the

ordinary and previously rejected sounds and aesthetics became attractive again. In the

51 Jacobson, p. 181, 1996.

52 Thomas, p. 263, 2005.

43

post-1968 environment, forbidden fruits such as consonance, a chord of thirds, and lyrical

beauty became tempting once again. The new phenomena appeared in the music of many

composers: a new simplicity, a new brand of Romanticism, and eventually post-

modernism. Many composers were now tempted by the possibility of a return to

simplicity, to spirituality.53 Indeed, Górecki musical journey has been characterized by

an elemental drive to the center of his experiences. Adrian Thomas views the stylistic

shift as a move by the composer toward the inner core of his world. He states:

Górecki’s shift since Refren to a fully diatonic modal language, in which melody plays the supreme role and in which the repetitive element is essentially rooted in folk and church music, combined with frequent incorporations of pre-existing music, represents his search for personal authentication in both Polish and broader musical terms. In the last two major large scale-choral works of the period, Beatus Vir and Miserere, Górecki connects directly to the Roman Catholic traditions that are central to his sense of heritage and also, by association to the church’s political role in communist Poland.54

Many stylistic features have remained consistent throughout Górecki’s stylistic

evolution, but the spiritual renaissance of the 1970s also brought about significant

changes.

Consistent Style Features and New Approaches

General style characteristics of Górecki’s music from the avant-grade period of the

1960s include an exploration of instrumental textures, horizontal and vertical symmetries

(parametric concerns), a free use of serialism, and the use of blocks of sound. As the

composer transitioned to a simplified musical aesthetic, he abandoned many of the avant-

53 In 1972, Krzysztof Penderecki premiered his work entitled The Awakening of Jacob (or “The Dream of Jacob”) which may rightfully be viewed as a prelude to his new Romanticism. The premier of Wojciech Kilar’s Krzesany during the Warsaw Autumn Festival of 1974 also created a sensation. Kilar, one of the most radical composers of the Polish avant-garde, wrote a piece that he himself would have revolted against only ten years earlier.

54 Thomas, p. 160, 2001.

44

garde techniques that characterize his earlier works (such as a serial approach).

However, there are many stylistic characteristics that have remained constant throughout

Gorecki’s compositional development.

Most of his works can be characterized by a directness of expression and elemental

vigor. A tendency toward extremes, frequently involving the clash of diametrical

opposites, is also apparent. His works consistently feature the use of temporal extremes,

sharp dynamic contrasts, general pauses and the use of silence for dramatic effect, sharp

textural contrasts, blocks of massed sounds (often in relative stasis), and an economy of

musical materials. Among the most enduring characteristics are melodic influences

derived from chant and folksong, the iconographic importance of citations from other

sources, and ingrained passion for dynamic, textural, and temporal extremes. He has

always followed an individual path without regard for critical assessments of his work

As Górecki transitioned into his middle compositional period, he explored several

new approaches. Perhaps the most obvious change is the move toward a greater

emphasis upon vocal works in which the text provides the emotional focus. During this

middle period, he increasingly refined his use of modal harmony and he reverted to the

simplest of textures. His works increasingly featured a move away from compositional

complexity, and his style was defined by a reduction of harmonic and melodic

sophistications. The move away from dissonance toward consonance also profoundly

influenced his new aesthetic. Górecki believes that beauty lies in utter simplicity, and the

human voice became the most natural means of expression for his stripped-down musical

language. This language was often designed to express a profoundly religious outlook.

45

The move from secular to religious themes was driven by his desire to define his own

Christian identity in music.

Górecki began to draw inspiration from older sources of music – even ancient

sources -- instead of continuing his earlier fascination with the avant-garde. He

increasingly emphasized traditional Polish values, such as the veneration of the maternal

figure and musical materials derived from folk sources. To illustrate the stylistic changes

in Górecki’s music, four of the most representative compositions from the 1970s will be

examined. New style features will be highlighted in the discussion of these important

works.

46

CHAPTER 6 A NEW SIMPLICITY: WORKS FOR VOICE AND ORCHESTRA

Górecki is very much his own man when dealing with the outside world, and his compositional career has shown the same single-minded purpose. Although he is not given to theoretical or philosophical musings, he is passionately concerned with musical materials and how the ear moulds them. So the shift of his attention in the 1970s away from the previous decade’s objective explorations of instrumental textures, horizontal and vertical symmetries, and detailed parametric concerns was made in his own time and for his own reasons: to harness his discoveries to overtly expressive and sometimes highly personal compositions. An integral part of this new focus was the desire to return to the human voice.55

Do Matki (Ad Matrem) Op. 29 (1971) for Soprano Solo, Mixed Choir, and Orchestra

Do Matki (Ad Matrem), Op. 29, concludes one period and simultaneously opens a

new phase in which the text provides an aesthetic basis and has a decisive impact on the

character of the music. Ad Matrem marks Górecki’s return to vocal music (it was his first

work since 1963 to include human voice). It is also his first sacred work in that the brief

text is a fragment from the Sabat Mater sequence: “Mater mea, lacrimosa dolorosa.” The

primary focus of the piece is the Virgin Mary, but it is simultaneously dedicated to the

memory of his mother.56 The 1972 Warsaw Autumn Festival provided the ideal

opportunity for Ad Matrem to be heard, and the piece made a formidable impression at its

premiere due to the directness of its musical imagery.

From the beginning, Górecki’s compositions have been characterized by what the

composer calls the “utmost economy of musical material,” and Ad Matrem continues his 55 Thomas, p. 70, 1997.

56 The reverence of mother, and more specifically the Mother Mary is a truly Polish value – and Gorecki chose this form of expression for his first religious/vocal work in many years.

47

movement in this direction.57 It is clearly a hybrid work; the text provides another

dimension to the music, but the piece still retains the main characteristics of his earlier

instrumental pieces written in the late 1960’s. Like previous works, Ad Matrem is a one-

movement composition that consists of several sections divided by general pauses and

sharp textural and dynamic contrasts. The musical vocabulary is likewise a direct

descendent from the avant-garde works of the previous decade. Following the pattern

established in Three Pieces in the Old Style, however, Ad Matrem enjoys a traditional

ensemble: a standard orchestral scoring with chorus and soprano soloist.

Scholar Luke Howard states: “Górecki’s own Latin text for Ad Matrem – ‘Mater

mea, lacrimosa, dolorosa’ – also harkens back to the tradition and over-riding

conservatism of Polish Catholicism. It brought to the surface the latent religiosity that

the composer fleetingly addressed in the movement titles from Epitafium and the First

Symphony, the 1968 Cantata for organ, and the quoted Benedicamus Domino in Muzyka

Staropolska.”58 Many critics were inclined to reject Ad Matrem’s reconciliation of

traditional instrumentation, overtly religious content, and newly synthesized language.

The division between proponents of avant-garde music and the emerging trend of the

1970s was still decisive. Howard continues:

The religious content in Ad Matrem signified a crucial element of Górecki’s fully-fledged compositional voice. Religion was conspicuously absent from Górecki’s works from the 1960s, yet he immediately followed Ad Matrem with the Two Sacred Songs for baritone and orchestra in 1971, and the vast majority of Górecki’s subsequent works contain some element of religious content, in either text, title, or

57 Maslowiec, p. 1, 2003.

58 Howard, p. 28,1997.

48

musical quotation. Ad Matrem demonstrated unmistakably to Górecki’s audience that he was reestablishing a connection in his music with Poland’s heritage.59

Although the critics seemed indifferent, if not thoroughly opposed to Ad Matrem,

Górecki’s fellow composers responded positively. The work was awarded first prize at

the 1973 UNESCO International Composer’s Rostrum in Paris, and was consequently

given several performances throughout Europe. The popular appeal of simplicity and

clear emotional content in music were gradually encroaching on the hegemony of the

European avant-garde.60 Despite critical pronouncements, Ad Matrem was a popular

success.

The work appears to be one of his most sharply etched compositions, because he

adopts a fundamentally linear approach and strips away the massiveness of many of his

earlier works.61 The development of structure through the use of blocks is still apparent,

but his blocks are positioned horizontally instead of vertically. The piece opens with a

lengthy crescendo on pulsating unpitched percussion. Two choral interjections with the

words “Mater Mea” follow, revealing an orchestral passage based on a dominant

thirteenth chord. (See musical examples.) The diatonic harmony in the second section is

somewhat surprising. After a dirge-like section, the audience hears the only appearance

of the soprano solo singing the motto “Mater mea, lacrimosa dolorosa.”

The musical materials are varied in style and frugal in their deployment. It is a

remarkable synthesis of the abstract and programmatic, and it convincingly marks (along

with the Second Symphony) Górecki’s musical journey into a new period.62

59 Howard, p. 30, 1997. 60 Ibid. 61 Thomas, p. 70, 1997. 62 Howard, p. 262-3, 1997.

49

Reprinted with the permission of the publisher.

50

Reprinted with permission of the publisher.

51

Symphony No. 2 “Copernican” Op. 31 (1972) for Baritone Solo, Mixed cCoir, and Orchestra

There were few hints within Górecki’s previous works to prepare audiences for

what was to come, but all of the seeds were there. In 1972, Górecki completed his

Symphony No. 2 for soprano and baritone solo, mixed choir and orchestra. The work was

commissioned by the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York and written to celebrate the

500th anniversary of the birth of the famous 15th-century Polish astronomer Nicolaus

Copernicus, who “stopped the sun and moved the earth.”63 Górecki did a great deal of

background research for what emerged as the Second Symphony. When attempting to

crystallize his thoughts about the construction of the symphony, Górecki realized that

Copernicus’s discovery was one of the greatest tragedies in the history of the human

spirit. Górecki stated:

An entire system of thought – the way of thinking on which man’s attitude to the reality out there was based – was in ruin. We were no longer at the center of the universe, we became nothing. It was then that the entire subject became clear to me and obvious in its musical form. Hence the duality of the two-movement symphony: first, the whole mechanism of the world, followed by contemplation.64

In this ambitious work, Górecki seems to be depicting the horror of the Polish

astronomer’s discovery that, in effect, what Western civilization had been told for

centuries about the cosmos was simply wrong. The first movement represents the

summation of his previous compositional methods, and the second movement indicates a

turning point towards the adoption of a more direct and consonant language. In this

63 Through his seven axioms, Copernicus made the controversial discovery that the earth is not the center of the universe.

64 Thomas, pp.74-75, 1997.

52

respect, Symphony No. 2 demonstrates his past and present compositional approaches.

Indeed, Górecki has a foot in both doorways in this monumental score.

The essential musical idea of movement one is heard immediately in great blocks

of orchestral tutti – a primordial explosion of sound which assault the senses with their

concentration and directness of musical expression. The wall of orchestral sound is

overwhelming. The symphony begins with a sharp report on percussion and a massive

six-octave whole-tone chord. Raymond Tuttle states:

Hammering chords, in which the interval of a falling minor second is prominent, sound like the primitive chant of a people suddenly realizing their intellectual vanity – or perhaps the musical equivalent of a cosmic big-bang. There are quieter, contrasting passages, but the movement mostly shrieks with impersonal violence. At the movement’s end, the chorus invokes a God who may have pulled the rug out from under them with words ‘Deus, qui fecit caelum et terram’ (‘God who created the heavens and earth’).65

A second movement, whose proportions are expanded in order to resolve the earlier

tensions, answers the thunderous vision. The symphony ends with four-part choral

singing, expressing man’s delight in the beauty and order of God’s creation – citing

Copernicus’s own words from the De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.

For his brief text, Górecki juxtaposes an excerpt of Copernicus with sentences from

Psalms, celebrating God’s creation of heaven and earth. The translated Latin text reads:

God

Who created the heavens and the earth, Who created the great givers of light: The sun To rule by day, The moon and stars to rule by night. Yet what is fairer than the heavens,

65 Tuttle, p. 1, 2001.

53

That place which holds all things fair? Lord, hear me in your righteousness.

Górecki finds musical inspiration from the antiphonary of the “15th century Canons

Regular of the Holy Sepulchre” of Miechow. As part of his search for harmonic

resonance, Górecki makes use of 12-note bimodality: a Dorian fifteenth-century choral

antiphon is complemented by a “black note” pentatonic chord -- symbolizing

Copernicus’s view of heaven as containing all things of beauty.66 Bernard Jacobson

describes the work: “Written on huge manuscript pages, with as many as fifty-eight

staves in places to accommodate the profuse subdivisions of the string parts, the score

retains a cosmic vastness of sound commensurate with its subject…The message of the

work seems quintessentially Góreckian in its untroubled juxtaposition of scientific with

religious concepts.”67

Symphony No. 2 represents the deconstruction of an omnipotent world-view and

represents Górecki’s own movement toward his new aesthetic language. The

“Copernican” symphony is a brilliant sonic representation of this catastrophic event and

the subsequent restoration of order. Stanislow Kosz states:

At the same time this final chorale has a certain correspondence with the Symphony “Die Harmonie der Welt” by Paul Hindemith, which refers to the thinking of another renowned astronomer, Johannes Kepler, and whose final passacaglia becomes the expression of universal order. We cannot fail to recognize another of Górecki’s musical gestures: this time it is a post-Creation symbolic pause which allows the melody of the soprano to rise ‘where the light is,’ ‘luminaria magna.’ Time inevitably destroys the old order so that it may be replaced by the new.68

66 Ibid.

67 Jacobson, p. 182, 1996.

68 Kosz, pp. 2-3, 2000.

54

Symphony No. 2 is a truly original work and serves to solidify Górecki’s musical

direction for the next decade.

Symphony No. 3 “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs” Op. 36 (1976) for Soprano Solo and Orchestra

During this period of spiritual awakening, Górecki’s musical focus shifts to a fully

diatonic and modal language in which the repetitive element is essentially rooted in folk

and church music. Many of the musical gestures in this work point to redemption or

salvation through faith, and the “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs” now holds a prominent

place in the post-WW II repertoire of music. While the general public was ultimately

spellbound by this work, many scholars and critics were less enthusiastic. The symphony

has been dismissed by some, particularly in Western Europe, as lacking in musical and

intellectual substance, and being too reliant upon religious and personal sentiment.69 This

contention, however, is based upon a fundamental misunderstanding of the work and its

roots in European secular and sacred musical traditions, and the socio-political context of

its creation.70 The origins of the work may be found in Polish folksong, and in the

horrors of World War II and the traumas of the Silesian Uprisings. The Third Symphony

also displays the composer’s individual explorations of compositional techniques, and it

reflects his attempt to define his own Christian identity in music. All of these elements

coalesce throughout this moving tribute to the power of prayer in the face of recurrent

inhumanity.

Górecki’s Third Symphony for soprano solo and orchestra, dedicated to the

composer’s wife, was written in 1976. Commissioned by Sudwestfunk in Baden-Baden,

69 Thomas, p.160, 2001.

70 Ibid.

55

the composition was premiered on April 4th, 1977 during the 14th annual International

Festival of Contemporary Art in Royan (with Stefania Woytiwicz as soloist). The work

is a new manifestation of “sonoristic reductionism,” according to which all details and

modifications of tone color are significant. Malgorzata Gasiorowska states: “By

conferring on the movements of the composition a form of mystery which negated a

rational sense of time and made the work dissolve into a seemingly infinite continuum,

the composer managed to bring the Third Symphony within the sphere of the folk

ceremonial tradition.”71

The Third Symphony is constructed in three slow movements, lasting almost one

hour. It concentrates primarily upon the maternal figure of the soprano soloist. The first

movement (Lento – sostenuto tranquillo ma cantabile) is dominated by a setting of a

15th-century Polish prayer known as the “Holy Cross Lament” of the Lysagora Songs.

Introduced by the double basses, the movement’s outer sections consist of two halves of a

symmetrical ten–part canon for strings. In the first half, the instrumental voices enter by

a stairway of fifths that rise through four octaves and eventually encompass all eight

pitches of the Aeolian mode on E.72 After the climax of the canon, a reduction in the

sound mass occurs in preparation for the entrance of the solo soprano and the eight-part

polyphony is resumed. The descent proceeds by the same stairway as before, but the

movement offers new contrapuntal and textural perspectives along the way.

The symmetrical approach of the second and third movements balances the

structure of the first movement in combined length, but it is contrasting in texture and

71 Gasiorowska, p.V, 2000.

72 Drew, p.5, 1992

56

atmosphere. The third movement (Lento – cantabile semplice) is an anguished emotional

crescendo. The text is taken from a folk tune of the Opole region, preserved in Adolf

Dygacz’s collection. A sequence from this section utilizes a two-chord alternation from

Chopin’s Mazurka Op. 17, No. 4, and alludes to the climax from the development section

of the first movement of Beethoven’s Third Symphony. Gasiorowska states:

This homogeneous stream of music, marked by slight changes in pace, meter, and dynamics, and suffused by the prevailing minor mood (a minor followed by e minor), is eventually crowned with a prolonged cadence in major. This A major chord, placed at the end of three Sorrowful Songs, has – as it does in medieval, baroque, and renaissance music – some symbolic connotations, implying, as it were a ‘holy chord,’ ‘the eternal flame of Faith.’73

A simple contrast of sound provides the dramatic core of the second movement

(Lento e Largo – tranquillissmo). The moving prayer of a young woman prisoner held in

the Gestapo “Palace,” a prison headquarters in Zakopane, is preceded by a short

instrumental introduction based on the open fifth of A – E with a sustained G#. (See

musical example.)

The second movement is memorable for its primary motif and the unconventional

way in which the soprano begins her imprisoned prayer – like a single shaft of sunlight

that holds the harmony in place.74 The prayer rising heavenward is ended with words

taken from a song of Jurek Bitschan, the legendary 14-year-old “Lwow Eaglet,” a

volunteer who in death became a symbol of patriotism for Lwow defenders: Most chaste

73 Gasiorowska, p. VI, 2000.

74 Drew, p. 5, 1992.

57

Reprinted with permission of the publisher.

58

Queen of Heaven, support me always.75 The soprano soloist bequeaths a promise that is

powerfully reaffirmed later in the movement, but is not fully realized until the end of the

third movement when the folksong’s ending verse finally discovers the transcendent

radiance of A major.

Górecki had intended to write a musical expression about Auschwitz for a long

time. He was, however, concerned that the problem of Auschwitz might not embrace

more than the subject of Auschwitz, and he has cautioned against a narrow interpretation

of the Third Symphony, despite its sources and references of its texts.76 The important

theme to derive from this work lies in the universality of its anguish and man’s ability to

transcend it, rather than the specific horror of catastrophic events.

Henryk Górecki’s compositional output may be justly characterized as a musical

journey towards his center, and the three symphonies chart his course. The First

Symphony stands as a notable achievement, but it only hints at the musical personality

that was waiting in the wings. The Second and Third Symphonies portray profound

emotional depth with music of immense proportions.

In February of 1993, a new recording of Górecki’s “Symphony of Sorrowful

Songs” reached the No. 6 position on the British pop album chart, outselling recent

releases by Madonna and REM. It was the fastest climber on that chart, achieving silver

and gold status in the same week, and in the United States it appeared on Billboard’s

classical charts for an amazing 134 consecutive weeks. Never before had a recording of

any art music composition attained such sudden and spectacular success; that it should

75 Gasiorowska, p.VI, 2000.

76 Jacobson, p.191,1996.

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happen to a slow and somber contemporary symphonic work by a relatively unknown

composer was to many observers simply inexplicable. Why did this happen? Some

people have attributed it to masterful marketing, Hollywood exposure, and the

symphony’s plaintive accessibility to contemporary ears. Many critics have accused the

composer of pandering to public tastes. Perhaps there is a deeper explanation.

If indeed the 20th century was “the century of death” and Gustav Mahler was its

prophet at the beginning of the century, perhaps Symphony No. 3 represents the musical

evocation and summation of humanity’s suffering at the century’s conclusion. Designed

to transcend evil rather than express it, the work summons an unprecedented universal

anguish that grieves not only for the victims of Auschwitz, but for all mankind. It is a

mournful reminder that despite all of his incredible accomplishments, perhaps man’s

greatest ability in his inclination to destroy. The 20th century embraced not the romantic

“easeful” death that poets such as John Keats evoked in the past, but a death that is

colder, more ominous, and severe; it is not the welcomed romantic death of an individual,

but the annihilation of all humanity and civilization. Perhaps in 1993, the world finally

discovered a musical voice that expressed the inexpressible: an understated voice of

reflective mourning, delivered in a context that remains relevant and beautiful.

Beatus Vir Op 38 (1979) for Baritone Solo, Choir, and Orchestra

Beatus Vir, Op. 38, was the first major work to follow Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3,

and it is scored for baritone solo, choir, and orchestra. In 1977, Cardinal Wojtyla

commissioned Górecki to write a work commemorating the nine-hundredth anniversary

of the death of his illustrious predecessor, Bishop Stanislaus, who was put to death by

King Boleslaus II in 1079. When Wojtyla was elevated to the papacy in 1978, the

political significance of the commission and its approaching performance was greatly

60

magnified. The undertaking caused Górecki great problems with the Party, and it was

partly responsible for the resignation of his rectorship at the Higher School of Music in

Katowice. Accepting this position had been a mistake, for at every turn Górecki found

himself in confrontation with the Party that infiltrated all major institutions. Górecki

stated:

I had been commissioned to write a piece by the Pope – well, when he commissioned it he was still a cardinal. It was a piece to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Stanislaw. Then the cardinal suddenly became Pope. And when the Party hierarchy discovered that I was in the organizing committee for his visit, and that I was writing a piece for him, there was great public outcry. It was the Music Academy’s jubilee year. I was the Principal, but I was no Principal – no music by Górecki was to be performed for the jubilee. And the Party people were always asking: “Who’s studying with Górecki?” So that’s the answer to the question why I resigned. I conducted the premiere of the new piece [Beatus Vir] myself in the cathedral of Kroków, in the presence of the Pope. That was the only concert of my music.77

The premiere was given on June 9th in Krakow on the occasion of Pope John Paul’s

first pilgrimage back to Poland since being elevated to the papacy – and it was a

phenomenal success. Adrian Thomas states: “Górecki realized that there was great

interpretive leeway in the ancient story of Church-State relations, one which would not

escape the attention of any living Pole. He therefore dismissed any idea of a narrative

account, determined instead to emphasize the spiritual doubts and moral aspects, again in

an attempt to transcend tragedy with meditation.”78 Beatus Vir is constructed as a single

movement lasting approximately 35 minutes, built from a number of contrasting sections,

and each fashioned from relatively simple and often repetitive material.

77 Jacobson, p. 184, 1996.

78 Thomas, p. 264, 2005.

61

The work begins with an orchestral and choral tutti and a repeatedly chanted cry of

“Domine,” and this gives way to a baritone solo with choral outbursts. The music

ascends into the brightest sunlight only to return to darkness more than once. The score

is austere, featuring no real decorative elements until the conclusion.

This unique work derives its power from tonal conflicts that are stated and resolved

over the course of the work. The motivic and harmonic materials are built upon a four-

note trope (B-C-D-Eb) which are derived from Polish folk and hymnal patterns.79 The

tonal architecture of the work features effective contrasts of C minor and Eb major. (See

musical example.) The middle portion features a grand crescendo and gradual

accelerando. The overall momentum is achieved from a number of smaller crescendos

that are scaled back each time, building gradually to a climax that arrives at the same

time that the accelerando reaches its apex.80

While searching for a formula for this work, Górecki turned to the Book of Psalms.

He chose some verses which emphasize man’s indefinite submission to the Will and

Providence of God, ending with the words: “Blessed is the man whose hope is in the

Lord.” In this work, Górecki remained faithful to the idea of condensed music: the

simplest musical motifs, the simplest harmonic references and rhythms determine the

course of the sonic narrative.81 It contains two dominant sections with symbolic

meaning, preceded by words of pleading (“answer my prayer”) and submission “my

79 Harley, “Charting,” p. 4, 2000.

80 Ibid.

81 Kosz, p. 3, 2000.

62

destiny is in your hands”). A characteristic of this work is that the bells and glockenspiel

can only be heard in these “dominant” moments. Stanislaw Kosz states:

The first of the dominants refers to the person of Pope John Paul II: a huge ostinato

of two chords, played sixteen times, associated with the E flat major chord repeated ten

Reprinted with permission of the publisher.

63

times, symbolizing the day when the Cardinal was elevated to St. Peter’s. The second

one consists of bells announcing the day and the month of the martyrdom of Bishop

Stanislaw: eleven and four. This dominant outlines the end of the composition in C

major, which …recalls nine centuries of Polish history.82 This remarkable composition

brought Górecki widespread exposure in Poland, and solidified his direction as a

composer of spiritual works. Text of Beatus Vir:

I have stretched out my hands to you: my soul longs for you, like a thirsty land water. Hasten to hear me, O Lord; do not turn your face from me. In the morning let me know your loving kindness. Teach me to do you will; for you are my God. Your gracious spirit will lead me into the land of righteousness --------Psalm 142, 6ssq Lord, you are my God. My fate is in your hands. ------Psalm 30: 15-16 Lord God of my salvation. ------Psalm 37, 23 The earth gave forth its fruit. May God, our God, bless us. ------Psalm 66, 7 Taste and see, for the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him. ------Psalm 33, 9

82 Kosz, p. 3, 2000.

64

CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSIONS AND OBSERVATIONS

Solidarity: 1980 and Beyond

The decade of the 1980s brought about more critical changes in Poland’s political

situation. In July, 1980, the introduction of higher meat prices led to strikes in factories

near Warsaw. A wave of labor unrest began to spread through the country, and many

industries and services were disrupted. Worker’s demand for higher wages developed

into unprecedented protests against the economic and political management of the

country. Lech Walesa assumed leadership of the strike committee at the Gdansk

Shipyard and many Polish intellectuals became advisors to the workers. The influence of

these intellectuals brought about to many concessions by the authorities, including pay

raises, the end of censorship, and the establishment of free trade unions. From the onset,

the leadership of Solidarity regarded Pope John Paul II as a spiritual father to their cause.

The Pope’s pilgrimage back to Poland in June of 1979 is widely recognized as the spark

that led to the development of Solidarity’s massive, non-violent resistance. His steadfast

support remained a beacon of inspiration in times of crisis. In 1983, Zbigniew

Brzezninski wrote:

Solidarity’s hope for a better tomorrow has been fueled by a profound belief in God. Its religious nature is spontaneous, widespread and genuinely profound. One need only recall the picture of Gdańsk workers on their knee during luncheon break in order to have their confessions heard and to receive Holy Communion. Such faith was given philosophical content by a few outstanding individuals who

65

addressed themselves publicly to questions that truly mattered, to issues that were burning, to concerns that were intensely heartfelt.83

Within two months, the Solidarity trade union emerged with over ten million members.

It was not only a union, but also a reform and independence-minded social movement

that aspired to peaceful methods of change.

In September 1980, Gierek was taken ill and removed from the PUWP leadership,

and Syanislaw Kania was promoted to the post of First Secretary of the Central

Committee. In January 1981, the Central Council of Trade Union was formally dissolved

and the country was paralyzed by a number of national strikes. The formal recognition of

Rural Solidarity in May ended the dispute between the Government and Poland’s private

farmers. The worsening shortage of food and other commodities led to increasingly

turbulent labor unrest.

In October 1981, General Wojciech Jaruzeiski replaced Kania as First Secretary of

the PUWP. Martial law was imposed on December 13th, 1981, followed by the curtailing

of basic freedoms (including curfews, no available communication, censorship of mail,

suspension of schools, and bans on strikes and travel). A Council of National Salvation

led by General Jaruzelski was organized. All trade union activity was suspended and

Lech Walesa and other Solidarity leaders were detained. Members of Solidarity and

other independent organizations were persecuted, arrested, kept in jail, and often were

forced to flee the country. Labor strikes were punished by the use of force, and violent

clashes between workers and the security forces resulted in thousands of arrests and

several deaths. Underground Solidarity started to organize massive strikes in Gdansk at

83 Tischner, p.vii, 1984.

66

the Nowa Huta steelworks. The movement rapidly spread to other sectors, leading to the

most serious industrial unrest since 1981. Martial law remained in effect until July 1983.

From 1986 onwards, there was great discussion concerning the direction of the

country, and negotiations led to a referendum and new elections in 1988. These

proceedings opened the door for massive changes that foreshadowed the return of

democracy. In September 1988, the Government of Professor Zbigniew Mesner resigned

and Dr. Mieczyslaw Rakowski was appointed chairman of the new Council of Ministers.

The new Government offered negotiations on the contentious question of the legal status

of Solidarity, and in February the “round-table talks” on the future of Poland finally

began.

In December 1989, the National Assembly approved a change of name, and the

“Republic of Poland” was founded. The local election of May, 1990, was the first full

free election for more than 50 years. On December 9th, 1990, Lech Walesa resigned as

the chairmanship of Solidarity and later was sworn in as the country’s President for a

five-year term. Solidarity was legalized and the first non-communist government was

established. The Polish government, which escaped from Poland to England after the

outbreak of World War II and acted as the Polish government in exile, formally

transferred its authority to the government of Lech Walesa and ceased to exist. Poland

became an independent democratic nation once again. Changes in the constitution and

reforms in Poland initiated the processes of freedom across Eastern and Southern Europe.

Following the example of Poland, communist countries in this part of Europe underwent

major changes of government.

67

“Vintage 33” and Artistic Counterparts

Born in 1933, Górecki endured the trauma of Nazi occupation as a child. Like his

contemporaries, he also survived another form of totalitarianism for forty years in Soviet-

dominated Poland. The cumulative effect of such events upon his music is undeniable,

and his stylistic transition in the 1970s places him in great aesthetic harmony with the

positive spiritualists of the time.

As previously indicated, Górecki was not the only composer influenced by the

movement toward a positive spirituality. The music of many Polish composers

demonstrated the trend toward a simplified and spiritual compositional approach. In

1970, Zygemunt Krauze composed his Folk-Music, a year before Górecki wrote Ad

Matrem. In 1973 Wlodzimierz Kotonski unveiled his Aolean Harp, a work that marked

the beginning of the composer’s new lyricism. Roza Wiatrow’s Wind Rose quickly

followed.

Two Polish composers that are nearly exact contemporaries of Henryk Górecki are

Wojceich Kilar (b. 1932) and Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933). Due to their close

proximity in age and compositional tendencies, they are sometimes referred to as

“Vintage 33.”84 These highly respected composers also simplified their compositional

styles in the 1970s. Penderecki composed his Awakening of Jacob in 1974, a work that

can rightfully be viewed as his prelude to the new romanticism, and one in which

demonstrates a rare economy of musical materials. His First Violin Concerto written for

Isaac Stern can also be viewed as a musical turning point. Adrian Thomas states: “Like a

number of his contemporaries and compatriots, Penderecki relaxed his compositional

84 Chtopecki, “Wojceich Kilar,”p. 5, 2003.

68

language in the mid-1970s to give lyrical melody the central role in both his vocal and

instrumental music.”85

Having abandoned avant-garde technical means almost entirely, Wojceich Kilar

continues to employ a simplified musical language in which large masses of sound serve

as a backdrop for emotionally potent melodies. These characteristics are frequently

found in compositions that reference folk music, or patriotic and religious settings. The

composer displays this style in many works, such as his famous symphonic poem entitled

Krzesany. Adrian Thomas states:

With Krzesany (1974), the first and best known of several vivid works inspired by the Polish mountains, Kilar became notorious for his unabashed directness of expression: unassuming folk ideas are treated symphonically with recourse to repetitive rhythms, phrasing, and harmonic progressions. A religious side of his art surfaces in Bogurodzica, which uses Poland’s most famous medieval hymn, and in the bolero-derived Exodus.86

The building blocks for Kilar’s film music are similar, and this specialization has helped

the composer gain far-reaching fame.

The visual artists likewise responded the movement. The greatly admired Polish

photographer, sculptor, and painter Zdzislaw Beksinski turned from abstract artistic

methods to more representation modes of expression following the year 1968. He is most

known for his fantastic artworks that reveal startling images of death and decay, and he

retains the philosophy of a relativist despite his transition to representational forms.

While under the spell of the positive spiritualists, a unique artistic trend also

developed in the 1980s. Marek Świca states:

85 Thomas, “Penderecki,” p. 307, 2001.

86 Thomas, “Kilar,” p. 590, 2001.

69

After martial law was imposed in Poland on December13, 1981, aimed at crushing the Solidarity trade union movement, artists continued to collaborate with official exhibition salons while others refused to have anything to do with the state. The Catholic Church provided a refuge from its patronage. Thus a movement sometimes called “Churchborne” came about. Church buildings proved to be as suitable for art shows as exhibition halls, with the advantage of being beyond the reach of political censorship. The first spontaneous individual and collective shows expressed religious and patriotic feelings. This common need to participate in a debate on the social order and in a moral revival, and to refer to national and religious tradition, made the artists seek to establish contact with the viewer through intelligible forms.”87

The first theme exhibition, entitled: Sign of the Cross, was held in the church on Żytnia

Street in Warsaw. An iconography based on national symbols, such as the sign for hope,

became popular. Świca states that “artists such as Tchórzewski, S. Rodziński, Sobocki,

Waltoś, and T. Boruta, also often designed settings for religious celebrations.”88

One of the most interesting ironies is that Polish musicians returned to folk-based,

accessible, modal music only two decades after they rejected similar principles in the

doctrine of socialist realism imposed upon them by the Soviet Union. The difference is

that they came to these musical principles on their own terms and for their own purposes

-- and they were free to express it in their own way. Their compositions glorified their

Polish heritage, the religion that had sustained them, and national traditions that secured

their identity. They wrote about truly Polish concerns rather than imposed ideals from

beyond their borders. It is indeed ironic that the artistic backlash from the oppressive

aesthetic tenets of communism prompted the preservation of romantic doctrines in art

87 Świca. p. 11, 1991.

88 Ibid.

70

music! In many respects, the heritage of Western European concert music is now

preserved in Eastern European traditions.

Górecki’s Current Style and Musical Legacy

It is an interesting development that the music of many late twentieth-century

Eastern European composers has found a great following among Western audiences.

One reason for this development is that there is a division between the East and West

over the purpose of culture. Many Western artists are composing individual, avant-garde

music that exploits the “art for art’s sake” philosophy, while many Eastern artists have

chosen to recover foundations in music. Artists such as Avro Pärt, Giya Kancheli, and

Henryk Górecki have cultivated large followings because their music speaks to audiences

in a highly personal way. Inherent in their works is a palpable atmosphere of spirituality

and a depth of expression that eludes many contemporary works.

For Górecki, the move to a more simplistic tonal style is the result of many factors.

The change in the socio-political climate in Poland provided much more freedom to

explore his spirituality in music and reflect his devout Catholic faith. The establishment

of a formidable compositional reputation provided opportunities in the way of

commissions that coincided with his spiritual emphasis in music. The effort to

incorporate more folk materials and religious texts is also a conscious attempt to speak

directly to the Polish people. Górecki’s music represents his desire to speak with a Polish

voice – confronting Polish issues, and through music, transcend the difficulties of an

embattled past with dignity. This approach is consistent with the artistic aesthetic

espoused by the positive spiritualists and their desire to return to Polish foundations in an

effort to create change within their boundaries. If these aspects of his compositional

development are ignored, audiences cannot fully understand the aesthetic content of his

71

music. The socio-political context of Górecki’s music must be considered when

attempting to fully appreciate the emotional depths of his musical utterances.

Symphony No. 3 arrived less than halfway in Górecki’s output to date, but for many

people his achievement as a composer is fixed there. However, the composer has moved

far beyond the Third Symphony, while at the same time carrying forward the musical,

emotional, and spiritual concerns that occupied him from the beginning. The influential

choral work Miserere was an inspired protest against government provocation of the

Solidarity trade union in March, 1981, and could not be performed until 1987 because of

the imposition of martial law. During the remainder of the 1980s, Górecki composed a

substantial body of a cappella choral music, most of it in gentle arrangements of folk and

church songs and most of it for personal reasons rather than for public consumption.89

The composer also returned to instrumental genres during this period. This interest

resurfaced with the Concerto for Piano (or Harpsichord) and String Orchestra, whose

two short movements appeared to be the antithesis of his musical output from the

previous vocal-dominated period.90

The 1980’s saw an expansion of Górecki’s compositional resources to encompass

contrasts in tempo, dynamics, density, and harmonic dissonance. These elements

conspire to create a highly concentrated musical expression, manifested in a remarkable

series of chamber works from the trio Lerchenmusik (1984) to Little Requiem for a Polka

for an ensemble of fourteen instruments (1993). James Harley states:

These works resound with echoes of Chopin, Beethoven, and Szymanowski. They also draw inspiration from the colors and rhythms of folk music: the strong accents,

89 Thomas, p. 160, 2001.

90 Ibid.

72

harsh timbres, and relentless ostinati of mountain dances from the Tatras and Podhale region, the melancholy clarinets of Gorecki’s native Silesia, or the impetuousness of the Czech or Silesian polka.91

Since the successful recording by the Kronos Quartet of his String Quartet No. 2 (“Quasi

una Fantasia”), many other works demonstrate Górecki’s continuing musical proclivities.

In 1991-92, he composed a Concerto-Cantata, Op. 65 for solo flute and orchestra. In

1993, he composed his Klienes Requiem für Eine Polka for piano and thirteen

instruments. The same year, he composed his Piece for String Quartet. The year 1996

brought his song cycle for voice and piano entitled Trzy Fragmenty do slow Stanislawa

Wyspianskiego. During the years 1997 to 2000, Górecki published only six opus

numbers. He was immersed in the sketching of a series of religious cantatas dedicated to

Polish saints, the first of which was Salve Sidus Polonum, his “Cantata about St.

Adalbert,” Op. 72 for large mixed choir, two pianos, organ, and group of percussion

instruments. Maja Trochimczyk states:

This work marked a definite change in Górecki’s approach to religious themes; after years of exploring the “via dolorosa” of suffering, he consciously strove to write a truly “blessed’ and uplifting piece. In music, as in life, happiness is harder to find than suffering, and Salve Sidus Polonum, though highly pleasing to its author, was welcomed with mixed critical responses. According to Andrew Clement’s review in The Guardian, the St. Adalbert Cantata is “uncomplicated, designed to be emotionally direct and almost liturgical in its intentions.” This is clearly not music for non-believers.92

The year 1999 featured the completion of his String Quartet No. 3 and his

Lobgesang for Mixed Choir and Tubular Bell. Górecki completed his work for vocal

group entitled Neich Nam Zyja I Spiewaja in the year 2000, and he completed five songs

from the Kurpie region for a cappella choir entitled Hej, Z Gory, Z Gory! Koniku Bury in

91 Harley, p. 3. 1999.

92 Trochimczyk, p. 3, 2003.

73

2002. His compositional direction continues to be dominated by vocal works and

instrumental chamber works. Górecki’s deep religious commitment and devotion to

musical materials drawn from Polish folklore has continued unabated throughout his

most recent stylistic period. His music continues to follow an individual path rooted in

the traditions of his homeland – a path that remains consistent with the ideas espoused by

the positive spiritualists in post-1968 Poland.

Maja Trochimczyk poses the question: By returning to his Polish roots and

expressing a greater variety of religious sentiments, does the music of Henry Górecki lose

relevance for the outside world?93 Perhaps the opposite is true. The composer’s

simplified and spiritual works certainly resonate loudly with countrymen who have

experienced both the triumphs and horrors of the Polish experience in the twentieth

century. Górecki’s music speaks to them in a personal voice that is perhaps difficult for

outsiders to understand. Audiences in Western nations have nevertheless embraced the

spiritual and emotional depths of these compositions, as the notes on the staff reveal

layers of cultural history when they are realized in musical sounds. Henryk Górecki’s

music speaks not only to the specific experiences of his homeland, but in the spirit of

positive spirituality, his music seeks to illustrate a journey from darkness to light that is

shared by all of mankind. Only music possessing the duality of transcendence and

accessibility can bridge the cultural differences -- and unite the community of man in

such a universal and ecstatic experience.

93 Ibid.

74

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Górecki, Henryk: Concerto for Piano and Strings (notes by Bernard Jacobson). New York: Conifer Records Limited, 1994. (CDCF 246.)

Górecki, Henryk. Do Matki (Ad Matrem) (Op. 29). Krakow: PWM Edition, 1971.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Christopher Cary was born in Aurora, Illinois, but he has been a Floridian since his

youth. After completing his secondary education, Cary matriculated to Stetson

University in DeLand, Florida, where he completed and Bachelor of the Arts in English

and American literature. While at Stetson, Cary began serious study of the classical

guitar with Dr. Stephen Robinson and remained at the university to complete a Bachelor

of Music degree in classical guitar performance. Throughout the past decade, he has

been an active pedagogue, solo and ensemble performer, and participant in many

international guitar festivals.

After completion of his undergraduate degrees, Cary moved to Gainesville where

he studies musicology/music history with Dr. David Kushner at the University of Florida.

He was awarded a Master of Music degree in 2005 and will remain at the University of

Florida until he completes a Ph.D. in musicology. He is currently a graduate teaching

assistant and an active classical guitar instructor.

Christopher Cary has received awards for his scholarly work, and he has presented

numerous papers at national and international conferences. He is a participant in several

scholarly organizations, including the southern chapters of the College Music Society and

American Musicological Society. His diverse scholarly interests include the works of

late 20th century Polish composers, Turkish art music inspired by Anatolian folk

melodies, and Renaissance/Baroque lute and vihuela music.