Henryk Górecki 1933 -2010

[Z-Tuba Dude]

Polish composer of classical music, Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki dies at 76

WARSAW, Poland - Polish composer Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki, best known for his Symphony 3 "Sorrowful Songs," has died in his home city of Katowice following a serious illness. He was 76.

Joanna Wnuk-Nazarowa, director of Polish Radio orchestra in Katowice, told The Associated Press that Gorecki died Friday in the cardiology ward of a hospital in the city, in southern Poland. He was suffering from a number of ailments, chiefly a lung infection, she said.

Wnuk-Nazarowa said she and another Polish composer, Krzysztof Penderecki, had visited Gorecki in the hospital on Wednesday.

"Penderecki insisted on seeing him," Wnuk-Nazarowa said. "We tried to joke, make plans for the future. Penderecki promised he would direct (Gorecki's) 'Beatus vir' for the 80th birthday" that both would celebrate in 2013.

Gorecki was best known internationally for his Symphony 3, "Sorrowful Songs," for soprano solo and orchestra, which was published in the United States in 1994. It later became a best-selling recording, with more than one million copies sold.

Although his early works were more avant-garde, Gorecki was later influenced by traditional Polish music and themes of his nation's history, as reflected in works such as Symphony 3. In the second movement, the composer set to music a prayer inscribed by a prisoner on the wall of her cell in a German Nazi police prison during World War II.

"Beatus vir", the work mentioned during the visit to Gorecki's hospital room, was commissioned by Karol Wojtyla before he became Pope John Paul II to mark 900 years since the death of Roman Catholic martyr, Stanislaw, bishop of Krakow, whom Pope John Paul II later made a saint. The composition, completed in 1979, is a psalm for baritone, choir and orchestra.

In awarding him an honorary fellowship in 2008, Cardiff University praised Gorecki for "his independence of thought and independence of spirit. His work is grounded in a profound humanity and is rooted in the folk and religious culture of his native Poland."

Gorecki was born Dec.6, 1933 in Czernica, near Rybnik in the coal mining Silesia region in southern Poland.

He is survived by his wife Jadwiga, a piano teacher, daughter Anna Gorecka-Stanczyk, a pianist, and son Mikolaj Gorecki, a composer.

[Steve Marcus]

Which of his pieces have the most interesting tuba parts?

[peter birch]

I'm not sure that he used a tuba in any of his music, I did attend a concert of his famous 3rd symphony, it is a monumental piece of great intensity and emotion, the poor bass trombone player sat through it in order to play just a few bars.
Just because it doesn't have a tuba in it, doesn't mean we should listen to it and be inspired by it.

[Steve Marcus]

Just because it doesn't have a tuba in it, doesn't mean we should listen to it and be inspired by it.

Agreed. One of my favorite pieces, perhaps my #1 favorite (maybe tied with Tchaik 4) is Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms. There are reduced instrumentation versions of that piece; but even in the full orchestral version, there is no tuba. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful, remarkable, inspiring composition. I may have stated on this forum previously that I'd like the 3rd movement of Chichester Psalms played at my funeral, which I hope is not any time soon.

[a2ba4u]

While it isn't all that well-known (even among tuba players in my experience), Gorecki did write a tuba solo entitled "Aria" for tuba, piano, and percussion (tam tam and bass drum if I'm not mistaken). It's a very stark piece, and it unfolds at a gruelingly slow pace over about 15 minutes. It's also a first-class chop killer as the tuba plays mostly long tones that gradually ascend to the upper ranges while getting louder and louder.

I played it once and really loved the music, though I'm not sure that I had the endurance necessary to really do it justice. Not sure if anyone has recorded it, but it would be a great addition to our recorded repertoire if someone did.

Kyle

[musikfind1]

Górecki, Henryk Mikolaj 1933- 2010
Aria : scena (scena operowa) : op. 59, for tuba, piano, tam-tam and bass drum
Dur: 15:00.
1 piano score (11 p.) + 2 parts ; 31 cm.
Publ. no. M-060-09433-0 set $21.95
Publisher: London ; New York : Boosey & Hawkes, ©1994.

Górecki scored some of his orchestra works for
4 4 4 4 — 4 4 4 0 — perc — str. Why did he not use tuba?

This one is an exception:
Beatus vir, op.38
solo baritone chorus and orchestra
4.4.4.4(III,IV=dbn)-4.4.4.4*-perc(2):glsp;t.bells-2 harps- pft(4hands)-strings
*if four tubas are not available, the 1st and 2nd tuba parts may be played by two (additional) trombones

These works include 1 tuba:
Concerto-Cantata (1992) for flute and orchestra
Scontri, op.17 (Collisions)
Symphony No.2 `Copernican' op. 31 (1972) for sop, bar, mixed choir, large orch.
Three Dances for Orchestra, op.34 (Trzy tance na orkiestre)
Two Sacred Songs (1971) for Baritone voice and orchestra