After graduating from theAcademy of Music in Krakow, he became a teacher there and began his career as a composer in 1959 during theWarsaw Autumn festival. HisThrenody to the Victims of Hiroshima forstring orchestra and the choral workSt. Luke Passion have received popular acclaim. His first opera,The Devils of Loudun, was not immediately successful. In the mid-1970s, Penderecki became a professor at theYale School of Music.[2] From the mid-1970s his composition style changed, with his first violin concerto focusing on thesemitone and thetritone. His choral workPolish Requiem was written in the 1980s and expanded in 1993 and 2005.
Penderecki was born on 23 November 1933 inDębica, the son of Zofia and Tadeusz Penderecki, a lawyer. His grandfather Michał Penderecki was a native of Tenetnyky village nearRohatyn (nowUkraine)[6] and belonged to theUkrainian Greek Catholic church.[7] He married Stefania Szylkiewicz of Armenian origin[7] from Stanislau (nowIvano-Frankivsk inUkraine)[8] and they later moved to Dębica. The rest of the Penderecki family retained Ukrainian identity and some still live in their ancestral village.[9] Krzysztof met them upon his visits to Ukraine in the 1990s.[6] On his mother's side his grandfather, Robert Berger, was a highly talented painter and director of the local bank at the time of Penderecki's birth; Robert's father Johann, a GermanProtestant, moved to Dębica from Breslau (nowWrocław) in the mid-19th century. Out of love for his wife, he subsequently converted toCatholicism.[8][10]
Krzysztof was the youngest of three siblings; his sister, Barbara, was married to a mining engineer, and his older brother, Janusz, was studying law and medicine at the time of his birth. Tadeusz was a violinist and also played piano.[10]
When theSecond World War broke out in 1939, Penderecki's family moved out of their apartment, for the Ministry of Food was to operate there. After the war, Penderecki began attending grammar school in 1946. He began studying the violin under Stanisław Darłak, Dębica's military bandmaster who organized an orchestra for the local music society after the war. Upon graduating from grammar school, Penderecki moved to Kraków in 1951, where he attendedJagiellonian University.[11]
He studied violin with Stanisław Tawroszewicz and music theory with Franciszek Skołyszewski. In 1954, Penderecki entered theAcademy of Music in Kraków and, having finished his studies on violin after his first year, focused entirely on composition. Penderecki's main teacher there was Artur Malawski, a composer known for his choral and orchestral works, as well as chamber music and songs. After Malawski's death in 1957, Penderecki took further lessons withStanisław Wiechowicz, a composer primarily known for his choral works.[12] At the time, the 1956 overthrow ofStalinism in Poland lifted strict cultural censorship and opened the door to a wave of creativity.[13]
Upon graduating from the Academy of Music in Kraków in 1958, Penderecki took up a teaching post at the academy. His early works show the influence ofAnton Webern andPierre Boulez (Penderecki was also influenced byIgor Stravinsky). Penderecki's international recognition began in 1959 at theWarsaw Autumn with the premieres of the worksStrophen,Psalms of David, andEmanations, but the piece that truly brought him to international attention wasThrenody to the Victims of Hiroshima (seethrenody andatomic bombing of Hiroshima), written in 1960 for 52string instruments. In it, he makes use of extended instrumental techniques (for example, playing behind the bridge, bowing on the tailpiece). There are many novel textures in the work, which makes extensive use oftone clusters. He originally titled the work8' 37", but decided to dedicate it to the victims of Hiroshima.[14]
Fluorescences followed a year later; it increases the orchestral density with more wind and brass, and an enormous percussion section of 32 instruments for six players, including a Mexican güiro, typewriters, gongs and other unusual instruments. The piece was composed for theDonaueschingen Festival of contemporary music of 1962, and its performance was regarded as provocative and controversial. Even the score appeared revolutionary; the form ofgraphic notation that Penderecki had developed rejected the familiar look of notes on a staff, instead representing music as morphing sounds.[13] His intentions at this stage were quiteCagean: 'All I'm interested in is liberating sound beyond all tradition'.[15]
Another noteworthy piece of this period is theCanon for 52 strings and 2 tapes. This is in a similar style to other pieces in the late 1950s in its use of sound masses, dramatically juxtaposed with traditional means although the use of standard techniques or idioms is often disguised or distorted. Indeed, the Canon brings to mind the choral tradition and indeed the composer has the players sing, albeit with the performance indication ofbocca chiusa (with closed mouth) at various points; nevertheless, Penderecki uses the 52 'voices' of the string orchestra to play in massed glissandi and harmonics at times – this is then recorded by one of the tapes for playback later on in the piece. It was performed at the Warsaw Autumn Festival in 1962 and caused a riot although curiously the rioters were young music students and not older concertgoers.[16]
At the same time, he started composing music for theater and film. The first theater performance with Penderecki's music wasZłoty kluczyk (Golden Little Key) by Yekaterina Borysowa directed by Władysław Jarema (premiered on 12 May 1957 in Krakow at the "Groteska" Puppet Theater). In 1959, at theCartoon Film Studio in Bielsko-Biała, he composed the music for the first animated film,Bulandra i diabeł (Coal Miner Bulandra and Devil), directed by Jerzy Zitzman andLechosław Marszałek.[17]
In 1959, he wrote the score forJan Łomnicki's first short fiction film,Nie ma końca wielkiej wojny (There is no End to the Great War, WFDiF Warszawa). In the following years he created over twenty original musical settings for dramatic and over 40 puppet performances, and composed original music for at least eleven documentary and feature films as well as for twenty-five animated films for adults and children.[18]
The large-scaleSt. Luke Passion (1963–66) brought Penderecki further popular acclaim, not least because it was devoutly religious, yet written in an avant-garde musical language, and composed within Communist Eastern Europe. Various different musical styles can be seen in the piece. The experimental textures, such as were employed in theThrenody, are balanced by the work'sBaroque form and the occasional use of more traditionalharmonic andmelodic writing. Penderecki makes use ofserialism in this piece, and one of the tone rows he uses includes theBACH motif, which acts as a bridge between the conventional and more experimental elements. TheStabat Mater section toward the end of the piece concludes on a simplechord of D major, and this gesture is repeated at the very end of the work, which finishes on a triumphant E major chord. These are the only tonal harmonies in the work, and both come as a surprise to the listener; Penderecki's use of tonal triads such as these remains a controversial aspect of the work.[19]
Penderecki's preoccupation with sound culminated inDe Natura Sonoris I (1966), which frequently calls upon the orchestra to use non-standard playing techniques to produce original sounds and colours. A sequel,De Natura Sonoris II, was composed in 1971: with its more limited orchestra, it incorporates more elements of post-Romanticism than its predecessor. This foreshadowed Penderecki's renunciation of the avant-garde in the mid-1970s, although both pieces feature dramaticglissandos, dense clusters, use of harmonics, and unusual instruments (themusical saw features in the second piece).
Towards the end of the decade, Penderecki received a commission to write for the 25th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. The result wasKosmogonia, a piece of twenty minutes for three soloists (soprano, tenor, bass), mixed choir and orchestra. TheLos Angeles Philharmonic premiered the piece on 24 October 1970 withZubin Mehta as conductor andRobert Nagy as tenor. The piece uses texts from ancient writersSophocles andOvid in addition to contemporary statements fromSoviet and American astronauts to musically explore the idea of thecosmos.[23]
In the mid-1970s, while he was a professor at theYale School of Music,[24] Penderecki's style began to change. TheViolin Concerto No. 1 largely leaves behind the dense tone clusters with which he had been associated, and instead focuses on two melodic intervals: thesemitone and thetritone. This direction continued with theSymphony No. 2 (1980), which is harmonically and melodically quite straightforward; the symphony is sometimes referred to as the "Christmas Symphony" due to the opening phrase of theChristmas carolSilent Night appearing three times during the work.[25]
Penderecki explained this shift by stating that he had come to feel that the experimentation of the avant-garde had gone too far from the expressive, non-formal qualities of Western music: 'The avant-garde gave one an illusion of universalism. The musical world ofStockhausen,Nono, Boulez and Cage was for us, the young — hemmed in by the aesthetics of socialist realism, then the official canon in our country — a liberation...I was quick to realise however, that this novelty, this experimentation, and formal speculation, is more destructive than constructive; I realised the Utopian quality of its Promethean tone'. Penderecki concluded that he was 'saved from the avant-garde snare of formalism by a return to tradition'.[15] Penderecki wrote relatively little chamber music. However, compositions for smaller ensembles range in date from the start of his career to the end, reflecting the changes his style of writing has undergone.[26]
In 1975 theLyric Opera of Chicago asked him to write a work to commemorate theUS Bicentennial in 1976; this became the operaParadise Lost Owing to delays to the project, however, it did not see its premiere until 1978. The music continued to illustrate Penderecki's move away from avant-garde techniques. It is tonal music, and the composer explained: "This is not music by the angry young man I used to be".[27]
In 1980, Penderecki was commissioned bySolidarity to compose a piece to accompany the unveiling of a statue at theGdańsk shipyards to commemorate those killed in anti-government riots there in 1970. Penderecki responded withLacrimosa, which he later expanded into one of the best-known works of his later period, thePolish Requiem (1980–84, 1993, 2005). Later, he tended towards more traditionally conceived tonal constructs, as heard in works such as the Cello Concerto No. 2 and theCredo, which received theGrammy Award for best choral performance for the world-premiere recording made by theOregon Bach Festival, which commissioned the piece. The same year, Penderecki was awarded thePrince of Asturias Prize in Spain, one of the highest honours given in Spain to individuals, entities, organizations or others from around the world who make notable achievements in the sciences, arts, humanities, or public affairs. Invited byWalter Fink, he was the eleventh composer featured in the annualKomponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival in 2001. He conducted the Credo on the occasion of the 70th birthday ofHelmuth Rilling, 29 May 2003.[28] Penderecki received an honorary doctorate from theSeoul National University, Korea, in 2005 and theUniversity of Münster, Germany, in 2006. His notable students includeChester Biscardi and Walter Mays.
In celebration of his 75th birthday, he conducted three of his works at the Rheingau Musik Festival in 2008, among them Ciaccona from thePolish Requiem.[29]
In 2010, he worked on an opera based onPhèdre byRacine for 2014, which was never realized,[30] and expressed his wish to write a 9th symphony.[31] In 2014, he was engaged in the creation of a choral work to coincide with theArmenian genocide centennial.[32] In 2018, he conducted Credo inKyiv at the 29thKyiv Music Fest, marking the centenary of Polish independence.[33]
Penderecki had three children, firstly a daughter Beata with pianist Barbara Penderecka (née Graca), whom he married in 1954; they later divorced.[34] He then had a son, Łukasz (b. 1966), and daughter, Dominika (b. 1971), with his second wife,Elżbieta Penderecka [pl] (née Solecka), whom he married on 19 December 1965.[35] He lived in the Kraków suburb ofWola Justowska. Penderecki was a keen gardener, and established a 16-hectarearboretum near hismanor house inLusławice.[36][37]
Penderecki died at his home in Kraków, Poland, on 29 March 2020, after a long illness.[38] He was buried at theNational Pantheon in Kraków on 29 March 2022.[39]
Bust of Krzysztof Penderecki in Celebrity Alley inKielce
In 1979, a bronze bust by artistMarian Konieczny honouring Penderecki was unveiled in The Gallery of Composers' Portraits at thePomeranian Philharmonic inBydgoszcz.[40] His monument is located on the Celebrity Alley at the Scout Square (Skwer Harcerski) inKielce.[41]
TheLed Zeppelin guitarist and founding memberJimmy Page was an admirer of the composer's groundbreaking workThrenody to the Victims of Hiroshima during his teenage years. This would be reflected later by Page's use of the violin bow on his guitar.[42]
The composer andRadiohead guitaristJonny Greenwood cited Penderecki as a major influence.[43] For Radiohead's 1997 albumOK Computer, Greenwood wrote a part for 16 stringed instruments playingquarter tones apart, inspired by Penderecki.[44] Greenwood visited Penderecki in 2012 and wrote a work for strings,48 Responses to Polymorphia, which Penderecki conducted in various performances throughout Europe.[43] Penderecki credited Greenwood for introducing his music to a new generation.[43]
Krzysztof Penderecki composed between 1959 and 1968 original music for at least eleven documentary and feature films, includingThe Saragossa Manuscript (1965), as well as for twenty-five animated films for adults and children.[45]
1959: 2nd Competition for Young Polish Composers in Warsaw organised by thePolish Composers' Union – Penderecki was awarded the top three prizes for the works he anonymously submitted:Stanzas,Emanations, andPsalms of David;[48]
1961: Prize of theUNESCO International Tribune of Composers in Paris forThrenody;[49]
1966: Grand Art Prize of North Rhine-Westphalia forSt. Luke Passion;[50]
1967: Prix Italia for theSt. Luke Passion;[50] Sibelius Gold Medal;[48]
1993: distinguished Citizen Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study atIndiana University, Bloomington, Prize of the International Music Council / UNESCO for Music;[54] Cultural Merit of thePrincipality of Monaco[54]
^Jakelski, Lisa (2017).Making new music in Cold War Poland: theWarsaw Autumn Festival, 1956–1968. University of California Press. pp. 80–83.ISBN978-0-520-29254-3.
^"Bulandra i diabeł".telemagazyn.pl (in Polish). 10 February 2020. Retrieved31 January 2023.
^"O projekcie" (in Polish). Muzyczny Ślad Krakowa. Retrieved17 December 2020.
^Szalsza, Piotr."Penderecki, Krzysztof".Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon online (in German). Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage, Abteilung Musikwissenschaft. Retrieved29 March 2020.
Schwinger, Wolfram (1989).Krzysztof Penderecki: His Life and Work – encounters, biography and musical commentary. Translated by Mann, William. London, England: Schott.ISBN978-0-946535-11-8.
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