311
See also: Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony 274–279 ■ Spartacus 309 ■
Lutosławski’s Fourth Symphony 323 ■ Ligeti’s Études pour piano 324CONTEMPORARY
As the piece begins, these four
groups all play a note cluster near
the top of their registers. From
there, and throughout the piece,
the group members play at different
pitches just a quarter step apart
from each other in clusters of notes,
causing a sense of unease that
permeates the piece.Playing with technique
The Threnody is not structured
conventionally but around blocks
of sound—some of them based on
the opening note cluster, others
on thinner textures, instrumental
lines, or other material. Much of
the piece sounds striking because
of Penderecki’s instructions that
players produce unusual timbres
by means of irregular techniques.
These include bowing the strings
on the bridge of the instrument,
along the fingerboard, or between
the bridge and the tailpiece, or
hitting the body of the instrument
with the bow, or their fingers.
The result is a composition quite
unlike any of its time. Penderecki
conceived of the work as abstractmusic and planned to call it 8'37",
in reference to its length. However,
even though the work had not been
inspired by the detonation of the
atomic bomb, he retitled the work
Threnody for the Victims of
Hiroshima to increase the piece’s
emotional impact before entering it
for a UNESCO prize in composition.
Penderecki also devised a
unique, graphic way of notating
his music. Instead of bar lines, the
composer gave timings in seconds
at regular points in the score to
denote tempo. Blocks of quarter
steps are shown on the score
as horizontal bands. Penderecki
also created additional symbols,
such as a note stem that instructs
the player to bend the pitch up
or down a quarter step and
wavering lines indicating a pitch-
bending vibrato. Threnody made
Penderecki’s name and influenced
other eastern European composers,
such as Henryk Górecki and
Kazimierz Serocki, in Poland, and
the Hungarian György Ligeti, to
explore new sounds and textures
and ways of writing music based
on blocks of sound. ■Krzysztof Penderecki
Born in De ̨bica, Poland, in
1933, Krzysztof Penderecki
was educated at the Krakow
Academy of Music. Within
two years of graduating in
1958, he became well known
for Threnody for the Victims
of Hiroshima. Many of his
subsequent pieces also
employed unconventional
instrumentation, such as
the typewriter and musical
saw. Still more popular
was Penderecki’s St. Luke
Passion (1966), which
combined unusual textures
with a traditional form and
Christian theme.
In the 1970s, Penderecki
became a professor at the Yale
School of Music. His output
returned to a more conventional
musical style in pieces such
as his Symphony No. 2 (1980).
With a catalogue of works
in various forms, Penderecki,
who is still composing music,
is widely regarded as Poland’s
greatest living composer.Other key works1960 Anaklasis, for 42 strings
and Percussion
1970–1971 Utrenja
1984 Polish Requiem
1988–1995 Symphony No. 3A profoundly disturbing
piece of apparently hopeless
cataclysmic atmosphere
in a highly individual
technique of composition.
Karl H. Wörner
AuthorThis was not really political
music ... but it was music
that was totally appropriate
to the time during which
we were living.
Krzysztof PendereckiUS_310-311_Penderecki.indd 311 26/03/18 1:02 PM