Henryk Mikołaj Górecki

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Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (1993)

Henryk Mikołaj Górecki [ˈxɛnrɨk mʲiˈkɔwaj ɡuˈrɛtski] (born December 6, 1933 in Czernica , † November 12, 2010 in Katowice ) was a Polish composer .

Life

Henryk Mikołaj Górecki was born in a small village near Rybnik and grew up in Upper Silesia . He initially worked as a teacher before studying composition with Bolesław Szabelski , a student of Karol Szymanowski , at the Kattowitz Conservatory .

Górecki was the forerunner of the Polish avant-garde of the late 1950s and had initial successes at the Warsaw Autumn Festival . After receiving the trade union award of Polish composers, he studied in Paris in 1961 and 1963 , where he met Olivier Messiaen , Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen .

In 1975 he was appointed rector of the Conservatory in Katowice, but resigned from this office in 1979 due to political developments. After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, his work became better known abroad. Górecki was the guest of honor at numerous performances of his works in Western Europe and North America.

family

Henryk Mikołaj Górecki's son Mikołaj Górecki , born in 1971, is also a composer.

plant

Górecki's early work such as Scontri (1960) is based on the one hand on serial music . On the other hand, his music, such as B. the Three Pieces in the Old Style (1963) show, clearly determined by folk music and the religious tradition of Poland.

His main works include Epitaphium (1958), Scontri (1960), the 3rd symphony - "Symphony of Lamentations" (1976), Beatus Vir (1979), concerto for harpsichord and string orchestra (1981) and the three string quartets that he for the Kronos Quartet wrote: Already It Is Dusk (1988), Quasi una fantasia (1991) and ... songs are sung (1994/1995).

With his third symphony, written in 1976 as a commission for Südwestfunk Baden-Baden , Górecki had his greatest success in 1992.

On May 8, 2005, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the prisoners, a concert with works by Górecki was held in the Goldbacher tunnel near Überlingen as part of the 17th  Lake Constance Festival.

Awards

Górecki was a member of the Polish Academy of Scholarship . The University of Warsaw , the Jagiellonian University in Cracow and the Catholic University of Lublin awarded him honorary doctorates.

In 1997 he was awarded the Silesian Culture Prize of Lower Saxony .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. http://www.thenews.pl/national/artykul143328_composer-gorecki-dies-aged-76.html
  2. Memorial concert commemorates the horror. In: Südkurier from May 4, 2005. Accessed April 17, 2010.