Polish Composer Henryk Górecki Dies, Aged 76 ('Symphony of Sorrowful Songs')

[Hissyspit]

Source: Guardian UK

Polish composer Henryk Górecki dies, aged 76
Classical musician achieved unlikely fame with Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, composed in memory of the Holocaust

guardian.co.uk, Friday 12 November 2010 13.19 GMT
Article history

Polish composer Henryk Górecki, photographed in 1993. Photograph: Van Parys/Corbis/Sygma
The Polish composer Henryk Górecki, whose desolate Symphony of Sorrowful Songs became an unlikely crossover hit, has died in Katowice, aged 76.

He had been ill for some time, but lived long enough to be awarded the Order of the White Eagle, the highest honour of his country, which was presented last month. He was due to attend a performance in London earlier this year of his fourth symphony, but it was cancelled owing to ill-health.

Górecki's international reputation grew through his work with orchestras like the London Sinfonietta and the Kronos Quartet, in the years after he resigned his post as professor of composition in Katowice, in protest against the communist authorities' refusal to welcome a visit by the Polish pope John Paul II.

He had been regarded as a pioneer of modernism in his own country, though later adopted a more pared-down, minimalist style and became noted for religious music. In 1992, a recording of his then 15-year-old third symphony, also known under the title of the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, was released to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust: it became a worldwide critical and popular success. The material he incorporated included a 15th-century lament, a Silesian folk song, and words written by a teenage girl on the wall of her Gestapo prison cell. At one point, the disc reached number 6 in the general album charts, and it became a staple at funerals. It has since sold more than a million copies

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/nov/12/polish-composer-henryk-gorecki-dies?CMP=twt_fd

[Myrina]

1. :( RIP

I *love* that piece!

[JackintheGreen]

2. One of the few pieces of music

that I absolutely remember the first time I heard it. I stood frozen by it. Incredible.

And a very nice man, too. My mother met him in Chicago and (like mothers do) talked to him about me. I was studying music and Polish in college pursuing an interest in medieval music in eastern Europe. Apparently he asked her for my address because several weeks later I received a letter from Poland. He had written to me unsolicited to encourage me in my studies.

[Psephos]

4. That's better than any ten newspaper eulogies. n/t

[harmonicon]

7. That's a great story.

It's been my general experience that great musicians are also great people. I can't remember if I ever met the man (if I did it was just a hand-shake), but I played in a youth orchestra which performed in a retrospective of his works in the 90's where he was in attendance.

[Psephos]

3. His choral piece Misere is achingly beautiful.

A musical light has been dimmed. RIP

[dave29]

5. RIP

What astounding music he gave to us.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Thanks for posting, I hadn't heard of him. And I am astonished that my rec ...

led to a total of zero, since someone has apparently unrecced an *obituary*.

[rasputin1952]

8. Hauntingly beautiful.This link...

goes to a place none of us should ever allow us to go again...It's a serious tearjerker:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chwDoQuD77g

[emilyg]

9. RIP

[hedgehog]

10. I haven't listened to this in a while because it rips out my heart every time.

They're playing excerpts on NPR now and it's like I listened to it yesterday.....

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

11. I was walking around in Tower Records about 18 years ago

And I froze.

I was hearing this beautiful ethereal piece of music that I could actually feel inside my body. When it ended, I strode to the counter and asked what on earth had been playing.

The magic I had heard was the third piece from Three Pieces In The Old Style

I want it for my funeral.

Please listen to it all the way through - it starts off slow. Turn it up and close your eyes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21v8GHatA0A&feature=related

[Loki]

12. How can anyone describe that music, it came from another place

the pain, the sorrow the loss expressed in some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard. Almost a plea ........never let it happen again. I was, and am still in awe of it.