Oh, this is sad. I love his music. I can vividly remember the first time I heard it, sitting in a friend's living room. posted by Forktine at 7:20 AM on November 12, 2010
How sad. His music has moved me tremendously. posted by elmono at 7:23 AM on November 12, 2010
#3 was heartbreakingly beautiful. But I tried listening to some of his other stuff and just didn't get it - too avant-garde for my uneducated ear, I guess. posted by richyoung at 7:26 AM on November 12, 2010
Although I like "Amen" better: http://www.amazon.com/Ikos-Gorecki-Tavener-interleaved-Plainchant/dp/B000002RU6 posted by LMGM at 7:32 AM on November 12, 2010
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This makes me a lot more sad than I would have expected. His "Totus Tuus" has been in my head more than usual recently; I think I'll put it on again when I get home this evening. RIP, sir. posted by dorque at 7:33 AM on November 12, 2010
But I tried listening to some of his other stuff and just didn't get it - too avant-garde for my uneducated ear, I guess.
Yes, before his turn to minimalism in the 70's Górecki's work was much more modernist and experimental. The string quartets recorded by Kronos are kind of in the middle ground between the two styles (which I personally like the best). posted by aught at 7:35 AM on November 12, 2010
It seems to be pretty hard to find the beginning of Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, which I believe is the most alone, the most solitary piece of music that can be heard. It is the only section of any piece that I've heard that can convey the sense of surviving a desolation. Gorecki cuts to the heart of why minimalism exists. posted by curuinor at 7:40 AM on November 12, 2010 [2 favorites]
I love his work -- listening and performing. I was just getting into my first college musicology classes at the time I became more familiar with his work, so when I had to do a paper on a 20th century composer I picked him right away. I ended up learning a lot about Poland and modern works inspired by Catholicism, including the greater genre of sacred minimalism. From there, he was the gateway to works by Part, Tavener, and (kind of in the opposite direction!) Penderecki.
So when I became more serious about my choral singing and encountered each of these composers, I could probably track it back to listening to that Symphony #3. I was so thankful that I had more to think about when I sang these works.
(And a huge thanks goes to Dawn Upshaw, the reason I listened to it in the first place, for great recordings and fearless promotion of living composers.)
Symphony #3 one the few pieces of music that I have a distinct memory of hearing for the first time. I was at my brother's house when he was in college; I was still in high school. Not an easy time for either of us. The room was dully lit by a gray sky and he was sketching while I laid on the couch. As we listened to the first movement I found myself unable to move a single muscle in my body. It was a singular experience for which I thank them both.
I too remember the first time I heard Gorecki - foolishly reaching for a notebook and pen while driving to work one morning many years ago, to write down what it was when the announcer finally identified that gorgeous, haunting stuff. posted by zoinks at 8:32 AM on November 12, 2010
Damn. I'm sure I will not be the only me-fi to dig out a CD of Górecki tonight. #3 definitely helped me get through some hard times in my youth. Simply put - wonderfully intoxicatingly powerful music.
Symphony #3 is one of the more treasured pieces in my music library. I remember how hard I had to work to find a copy when it was first released. I also remember how I played it for a lover one night, and he told me it was the most banal, boring piece of music he'd ever heard. I don't see much of him anymore.
I remember the first time I heard Gorecki, which was, like it is for many, a recording of the 3rd symphony (the Dawn Upshaw recording). I was so moved and it left such a deep impression on me that his musical vocabulary infected my own in ways that I still can't quite shake. I was a young composer at the time and had been working on a piece for string orchestra. I was having an impossible time getting started on the piece and nothing seemed to be flowing. Then late one night at the piano I got a brilliant, beautiful idea and wrote furiously over several days. I wrote several minutes of the music, so happy with how profound I thought the music was, before I stepped back and thought 'wait a second...' And I realized I had basically just transcribed the third movement of the Gorecki 3.
Rest in beautiful, ethereal peace Henryk. Thank you for leaving us so much of yourself before you left.
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.
This breaks my heart! posted by Lutoslawski at 9:45 AM on November 12, 2010
In some interview around the middle of the last century, Xenakis was asked where he saw the influence of his style. He pointed to the Polish avant-garde, Gorecki and Penderecki, and said that he felt they were developing the kinds of sounds he innovated, but suggested that they might do well to study math. Kind of ironic that their work divulged from that path to this monumental sonorous attenuated music.
I agree with aught in appreciation of the String Quartets (which post-date Symphony no.3). Also his Piano Sonata (first movement, YT).
It's difficult to find his pre-Symphony no.2 works (catalog of works). I'll have to search my CDs this weekend and see what I find.
hippybear we've not met, right? I've gotten over that opinion in the past few years, though. posted by Prince_of_Cups at 9:55 AM on November 12, 2010
I love Górecki. But more than anything, I'll be forever grateful for the lifeline his music was for a very dear friend of mine when he was struggling with severe depression and PTSD years ago. To have this river of beauty and sadness run through the desert our lives can turn into, it's such a precious gift, it changes lives, heals...
What a loss for us all. posted by sively at 10:04 AM on November 12, 2010
When I am sad there are a couple of composers I turn to in order to renew my faith that there is beauty in existence. Górecki and Arvo Pärt are two of them.
I think I'm going to cry for a man I don't even know, but whose work has touched me so deeply.
My first introduction to Gorecki was Symphony #3. Time literally stopped when I heard the second movement, Lento e largo—Tranquillissimo. It was such a wonderful aesthetic moment rarely found in contemporary art music. Another personal favorite piece is the Miserere. Unfortunately, this is only a 4 minute clip but the whole work is fantastic. posted by bodywithoutorgans at 12:10 PM on November 12, 2010
I can remember seeing a documentary on Symphony #3 some years ago on TV. Gorecki said he was partly inspired by the words found scrawled on a Gestapo prison. Those words have haunted me ever since - "Oh Mama do not cry." Whenever I think of what circumstances must have lead a child to write those words, my heart breaks. Gorecki captures that heartache so wonderfully and movingly. I like to think a small part of that child's and mother's immense suffering was not entirely in vain because of Gorecki.
The Symphony #3 is really miraculous and utterly profound. I heard it the first time at work-- I had the radio on all day, back when CBC 2 was worth listening to in the daylight hours (don't get me started)-- and the music just reached out to me and drew me in, leaving me sitting awestruck beside the radio, everything else forgotten, and (and I swear to god this is the truth) when the voice finally arose from those shifting clouds of strings, I actually saw in my mind a vision of a woman standing in a grey barracks becoming suddenly illuminated with light.
I remember being on a mailing list (remember those?) during the mid 90s and a comment there that I kept for years, from a guy who had the late shift at his college radio station. I can't quote it perfectly, but it went something like this: As soon as the vocal part entered in the first movement, it was grand slam time on the phone lines. People were levitated over to their phones to find out the name of this music; all different kinds of people, from every walk of life imaginable.
Gorecki came to Vancouver to conduct the Third Symphony at one point, and I attended a seminar at which he spoke. It was a small meeting room, and his presence absolutely filled it.
I can remember seeing a documentary on Symphony #3 some years ago on TV. Gorecki said he was partly inspired by the words found scrawled on a Gestapo prison.
I remember that documentary, it was profoundly moving. Do you remember what exactly it was called? Anyone who loves the 3rd should see it. posted by homunculus at 9:55 PM on November 12, 2010
posted by everichon at 7:18 AM on November 12, 2010