Wojciech Kilar has died

[edashtav]

Wojciech Kilar has died aged 81 in Katowice, Poland. It's difficult to sum up his ouevre that ranged from Radio 3's greatest delight: film music (e.g. The Pianist), through readily accessible pseudo-modern concert music to hardcore experimental pieces. I do find that his music is often memorable both in terms of melodic shape - frequently derived from Polish folk-music - and its clear, striking scoring.

Whilst I doubt if posterity will pay him much heed, he made a significant contribution to Polish music in the 20th century.

[Roehre]

Wojciech Kilar has died aged 81 in Katowice, Poland. It's difficult to sum up his ouevre that ranged from Radio 3's greatest delight: film music (e.g. The Pianist), through readily accessible pseudo-modern concert music to hardcore experimental pieces. I do find that his music is often memorable both in terms of melodic shape - frequently derived from Polish folk-music - and its clear, striking scoring.

Whilst I doubt if posterity will pay him much heed, he made a significant contribution to Polish music in the 20th century.

The two works of his I know (both quite recently on TtN) do sound interesting in their merging of a range of techniques and influences: Modern Poland (Szymanowski et al), folk-music as well as Lutoslawski and a whiff of Penderecki (the revolutionary one, that is) in a not too straight a musical mould, film music techniques not too far away, colourful orchestration. But I do agree: it sounds well, but even remotely cannot be called original, and I fear with edashtav that posterity will not be kind to him.

RIP Wojciech Kilar

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Sad news: his "Clog Dance", Krzesany (coupled on LP with Lutoslawski's Livre pour Orchestre) is a wonderfully bonkers piece that I find irresistable:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDcxDNHFslw

And I wonder if Jayne Lee Wilson remembers Libor Pesek programming this when he was in charge of the RLPO (it got him into a lot of trouble with The Board):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r04OPLjIwno

A wider audience will know him for his score for Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks for letting us know, edashtav.

I first heard Kilar's music on Music In Our Time back in the late 60s, iirc, at which time he seemed very much in the mould of his fellow countrymen Serocki and Penderecki: later I obtained the Lp coupling with Luto's "livre" mentioned above by Ferney, and every piece I have subsequently heard broadcast has been in that neo-minimalist folk-dance mould, interestingly closer to Panufnik than anybody else I can conjure at the moment. Perhaps we underestimate him, and Radio 3 will oblige with a wider panorama of his output sometime, even though I have my doubts?

[jayne lee wilson]

Panufnik, a "Neo-minimalist folk dance" composer?! Eh, what? Which pieces, SA? Did I miss something here?

Don't recall Pesek with Exodus... but if this was the mid-80s I was probably listening to Janice Long and buying 12-inch remixes of Indie bands...

[edashtav]

Panufnik, a "Neo-minimalist folk dance" composer?! Eh, what? Which pieces, SA? Did I miss something here?

Surely, S-A is referring to Panufnik in his Sinfonia Rustica period, Jayne, a work that can't have passed you by.

[teamsaint]

Sad news: his "Clog Dance", Krzesany (coupled on LP with Lutoslawski's Livre pour Orchestre) is a wonderfully bonkers piece that I find irresistable:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDcxDNHFslw

And I wonder if Jayne Lee Wilson remembers Libor Pesek programming this when he was in charge of the RLPO (it got him into a lot of trouble with The Board):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r04OPLjIwno

A wider audience will know him for his score for Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Thanks for that Ferney, your description of Krzesany seems spot on. Excellent stuff indeed.

Very sad news though.
RIP

[Serial_Apologist]

Surely, S-A is referring to Panufnik in his Sinfonia Rustica period, Jayne, a work that can't have passed you by.

The Sinfonia Sacra, too.

[jayne lee wilson]

Surely, S-A is referring to Panufnik in his Sinfonia Rustica period, Jayne, a work that can't have passed you by.

Possibly so, but "minimalist" of any hue surely isn't the first term that comes to mind when you listen to it. The rhythms & tempi are far too inventively varied, and the expressive effect goes well beyond any folk roots in its material. And in his later compositions there is an almost wilfully elaborate structural complexity beneath a surface of constant thematic variation or evolution... not to mention the sheer emotional intensity of Symphonies 5-7... Minimalist? Only in the sense of "distant relations", maybe not even that....

[edashtav]

Possibly so, but "minimalist" of any hue surely isn't the first term that comes to mind when you listen to it. The rhythms & tempi are far too inventively varied, and the expressive effect goes well beyond any folk roots in its material. And in his later compositions there is an almost wilfully elaborate structural complexity beneath a surface of constant thematic variation or evolution... not to mention the sheer emotional intensity of Symphonies 5-7... Minimalist? Only in the sense of "distant relations", maybe not even that....

Minimalism and emotional intensity are not mutually exclusive, Jayne. If you permit minimalism to include music using few ideas then many of Panufnik's works are minimalist. Frequently, he builds his structure from simple figures. Panufnik doesn't use the same techniques as the Amercan minimalists but he can be seen as a master of European minimalism. Katyn Epitaph and the Tragic Overture, with its 4-note cell, are, essentially, minimalist works that set in train similar compositions by Gorecki and other Polish contemporaries. Symmetry often plays an important role in Panufnik's works and that procedure is evident in his Sinfonia Rustica which consciously adopts the repeating model of North Polish paper "cut-outs". Note the instrumentation, the two "bands", and their stereophonic dialogues.

I love that early symphony because of its colourful material but I find some of his later symphonies to be sterile because their materials -whilst skillfully employed- lack variety and memorable identity. Sometimes, Panufnik's patterns become predictable and, therefore, boring upon repetition. One work that fails on that account for me is the Violin Concerto. I belong to the school of thought that believes that living in an unreceptive Britain sapped Panufnik's creative spirit. Nevertheless, I rate Panufnik sufficiently highly to look forward to a thorough exploration of his works during 2014.

[Boilk]

Frequently, [Panufnik] builds his structure from simple figures. Panufnik doesn't use the same techniques as the Amercan minimalists but he can be seen as a master of European minimalism. Katyn Epitaph and the Tragic Overture, with its 4-note cell, are, essentially, minimalist works that set in train similar compositions by Gorecki and other Polish contemporaries. Symmetry often plays an important role in Panufnik's works and that procedure is evident in his Sinfonia Rustica which consciously adopts the repeating model of North Polish paper "cut-outs". Note the instrumentation, the two "bands", and their stereophonic dialogues.

AP's building of several works from basic 3- or 4-note cells came straight from an admiration of Webern (with whom he had hoped to study); and in this respect of extreme economy of raw materials from which to build a work organically, Webern is an ealier European minimalist. I would say that whilst AP's pieces might have been minimalist in this regard, what he achieved from the technique was not always 'maximalist' in scope (unlike,say, the motif in Beethoven #5).

Sometimes, Panufnik's patterns become predictable and, therefore, boring upon repetition.

I would say that Metasinfonia (7th symphony) is an example par excellence of the slippery slope into note-spinning. The later stuff, whilst not devoid of striking moments, is generally more forgettable. I think he was 'guilty' of hanging his musical ideas onto overly-predetermined macro and micro-structures, so it often sounded rather contrived and ponderous.

[edashtav]

Getting the Max out of Minimalism

AP's building of several works from basic 3- or 4-note cells came straight from an admiration of Webern (with whom he had hoped to study); and in this respect of extreme economy of raw materials from which to build a work organically, Webern is an ealier European minimalist. I would say that whilst AP's pieces might have been minimalist in this regard, what he achieved from the technique was not always 'maximalist' in scope (unlike,say, the motif in Beethoven #5).

I hadn't realised that AP wanted to study with Webern. Your comparison of AP's use of minimal materials with what Beethoven achieved in his 5th symphony is illuminating and telling, boilk!

A most helpful post. Thank you.