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Krzysztof Penderecki (born November 23, 1933) is a Polish composer of classical music.He was born in Debica and after taking private composition lessons with Franciszek Skolyszewski, he studied music at Krakow University and the Krakow Academy for Music under Artur Malawski and Stanislaw Wiechowicz. After graduating in 1958 he took up a teaching post there himself, teaching Iannis Xenakis amongst others.
Penderecki's early works show the influence of Anton Webern and Pierre Boulez (he has also been influenced by Igor Stravinsky). The piece which brought him international fame was Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (originally called 8' 37", perhaps in a nod to John Cage), written for 52 string instruments. In it, Penderecki makes used of extended instrumental techniques (for example, playing on the wrong side of the bridge, bowing on the tailpiece), and creates novel textures. He makes great use of tone clusters (notes close together played at the same time) to evoke the effects and aftermath of a nuclear bomb explosion.
The St. Luke Passion (1963-66) brought Penderecki popular acclaim. Various different styles can be seen at work. The experimental textures such as were seen in the Threnody are balanced by the baroque form of the work and the more traditional harmoniesThis article is about musical harmony. For other uses of the term, see Harmony (disambiguation) . Harmony is the art of using pitch simultaneity (or chords, actual or implied) in music. It is sometimes referred to as the "vertical" aspect of music, with m seen in places. The Stabat Mater section ends on a simple major chordIn music and music theory a chord (from the middle English cord, short for accord) is now three or more notes sounding simultaneously, or near simultaneously over a period of time. Originally however, a chord simply meant the sounding together of differen. Penderecki makes use of serialismSerialism is a rigorous system of composing music in which various elements of the piece are ordered according to a pre-determined ordered set or sets, and variations on them. The elements thus controlled may be the pitch of the notes, their length, their in this piece, and the tone row he uses includes the BACH motif, which acts as a bridge between the conventional harmonies and the more experimental work.
Around the mid- 1970sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Years: 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 Events and trends Penderecki's style began to change. The ViolinThe violin is a stringed musical instrument that has four strings tuned a fifth apart. It is the smallest and highest-tuned member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola, cello and double bass. The lowest string (and hen ConcertoOrigin Etymology Concerto (from the latin concertus from certare to strive, also confused with concentus , in its most general sense, is a name for a piece of classical music in which there are two distinct groups of instruments, one larger than the other No. 1 largely leaves behind the dense tone clusters with which he had been associated, and instead focuses on two melodicIn music, a melody is a series of linear events or a succession, not a simultaneity as in a chord. However, this succession must contain change of some kind and be perceived as a single entity (possibly gestalt) to be called a melody. Most specifically th intervals: the semitone and the tritone. Some commentators went so far as to compare this new direction to Anton Bruckner.
This direction continued with the Symphony No. 2, Christmas (1980), which is rather straightforward from a harmonic and melodic standpoint for a composer who had been one of the most experimental in Europe. It makes frequent use of the tune of the Christmas carol, "Silent Night".
In 1980, Penderecki was commissioned by Solidarity to compose a piece to accompany the unveiling of a statue at the Gdansk shipyards to commemorate those killed at anti-government riots there in 1970. Penderecki responded with the Lacrimosa, which he later expanded to become one of the best known works of his later period, the Polish Requiem (1980-84, revised 1993). Here again the harmonies are quite lush, although there are moments which evoke his earlier work in the 1960s. The tendency in recent years has been towards more conservative romanticism, however, as seen in works like the Cello Concerto No. 2 and the Credo.
