The Magic of the Poles

[Maciek]

Well, I know some people have listened to the clips, and some have downloaded them, so I suppose a few pointers won't hurt:

the A batch - these are all 20th century composers

A01 - the brother of this composer was also a composer, but of a different nationality!
A02 - this is a piece of incidental music
A03 - born at the end of the 19th century, this composer was Poland's foremost neoclassicist, and then, near the end of his life, his music took a surprising turn, and he became a foremost post-Webernian
A04 - this is from a mass; AFAIK, the only one this composer of only a few concert pieces has written
A05 - born a year later than A03 (and still in the 19th century), this composer was a friend of Stravinsky and wrote one of his first biographies
A06 - a member of the "Stalowa Wola generation"
A07 - this composer has written lots of religious oratorios, masses etc., and this is one of them
A08 - my recent screen moniker had something to do with this composer
A09 - as Greg correctly identified, this is an orchestral piece by Górecki; from the 1960s
A10 - might be the most famous Polish mass for the dead

the B batch - 19th century composers, or first half of the 20th century at most

B01 - politician
B02 - mountain-climber
B03 - virtuoso pianist who played a double-keyboard piano
B04 - often accused of being too obsessed with form and not being melodic enough
B05 - actually lived past 1950, but was always a very much late-19th century composer
B06 - the piece, and others like it, are considered by many (including some on this board) to be a very poor effort in the genre (the first half of the clip shows an example of his worst, supposedly)
B07 - wrote 2 pieces in this genre, and both received several awards in their time
B08 - this composer is usually associated with tone poems, but this actually appears to be his best known piece in Poland
B09 - died in the 1940s, refused to adopt a modern musical idiom; seemingly doomed to obscurity, has been experiencing a revival over the last couple of years, especially abroad
B10 - this composer's only larger piece of purely symphonic writing

the C batch - hm, I don't think I should be saying anything just yet; I'm certain most GMGers know at least the partial answer to these; I think the lack of answers means no has simply reached this point just yet

[mahler10th]

I have downloaded but not yet listened.  I'll try get a chance later.

[greg]

It's not!

Now you got me curious - I'll have relisten to the 2nd carefully.

ok, i relistened to the clip more carefully and realize it isn't.
The part of the 2nd symphony that it reminds me of is the bad part of the symphony where it has brass sounds like crickets that last WAYYYYYYYYY too long. I mean, 10 seconds at the most, but what was it, like 30 seconds? At least?
But honestly, I don't really know which one it is! Probably it's something i haven't even heard yet! 
I have no clue, what is it?


A7- is it Penderecki? Polish Requiem?
(just a wild guess there)
i'm sure i've heard a couple of these before, but aren't familiar with them enough to say.....

[Maciek]

Greg, you have a very good "composer detector"! It is Penderecki indeed, not the Requiem though.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

B02

When I saw 'mountain-climber' I knew at once this was a wry reference to Karlowicz (who fell to his death in the Tatra mountains...). It's his Violin Concerto.

[Maciek]

I'm glad you got that one, Johan! Let's face it - it had to be you.

BTW, "mountain-climber" wasn't meant mockingly at all! 0:) Karłowicz was an excellent taternik ("Tatra alpinist" - if that's not a sort of oxymoron ). Some of his achievements: first climb of the Wielka Kołowa Turnia (1907), first climb of the Ciężka Turnia from the NE (1908), first winter climbs of Wołoszyn, Żółta Turnia, and Kościelec (1908) - where he would eventually die. (I'm pilfering all this data from the Polish Wikipedia.)

Similarly, there's no irony in calling A01 "politician", as he was indeed one of the finest Polish politicians of those times!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I'm glad you got that one, Johan! Let's face it - it had to be you.

Similarly, there's no irony in calling A01 "politician", as he was indeed one of the finest Polish politicians of those times!

The only Pole who combines music with politics I can think of at once is Paderewski (and I have never heard any of his music)!

[Maciek]

Bingo! ("A genius, who also knows to play the piano", as Saint-Saens is reported to have said.)













See? It's not as difficult as at first it seemed!

[Christo]

Did'n't check the other ones, yet, because the first one concerns someone we discussed before:

A01 - the brother of this composer was also a composer, but of a different nationality!

Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969) had an older brother, Vytautas BACEVIČIUS (1905-1970). He was born in Łódź too, but he became a citizen of the young Lithuanian republic, and consequently his second name was spelled in the Lithuanian purists' fashon. This rather recent CD of his music was reviewed at Musicweb:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/June07/Bacevicius_TOCC0049.htm

           

[greg]

Greg, you have a very good "composer detector"! It is Penderecki indeed, not the Requiem though.

Well, he once said that once you hear or look at a score of his, right away you can tell it's a Penderecki score. 
I have no idea which one it is, though, I probably never heard it, or haven't listened to it enough to recognize it.
I'd be ashamed if it were the 7th or 8 symphonies or the St.Luke Passion.

[Maciek]

I'd be ashamed if it were the 7th or 8 symphonies or the St.Luke Passion.

You can calm down. It's none of these.

[Maciek]

I'll try to sum up:

batch A 20 MB
batch B 20.01 MB
batch C 3.88 MB
(or stream through embedded player in this and the next two posts)


A - pieces from the 20th century

A01 - Grażyna Bacewicz - ???
A02 - this is a piece of incidental music
A03 - born at the end of the 19th century, this composer was Poland's foremost neoclassicist, and then, near the end of his life, his music took a surprising turn, and he became a foremost post-Webernian
A04 - this is from a mass; AFAIK, the only one this composer of only a few concert pieces has written
A05 - born a year later than A03 (and still in the 19th century), this composer was a friend of Stravinsky and wrote one of his first biographies
A06 - a member of the "Stalowa Wola generation"
A07 - Krzysztof Penderecki - Credo (not the Polish Requiem, not the 7th or 8th Symphony, not St. Luke's Passion, not Dies Irae; a fairly recent work - listen to the set of instruments to narrow down your choices!)[/s]
A08 - my recent screen moniker had something to do with this composer
A09 - Henryk Mikołaj Górecki - Refrain ??? (a piece from the 1960s, not the 1st Symphony, and not the 2nd Symphony)
A10 - might be the most famous Polish mass for the dead

B - (mostly) 19th century

B01 - Ignacy Jan Paderewski - Polish Fantasy
B02 - Mieczysław Karłowicz - Violin Concerto
B03 - virtuoso pianist who played a double-keyboard piano
B04 - often accused of being too obsessed with form and not being melodic enough
B05 - actually lived past 1950, but was always a very much late-19th century composer
B06 - the piece, and others like it, are considered by many (including some on this board) to be a very poor effort in the genre (the first half of the clip shows an example of his worst, supposedly)
B07 - wrote 2 pieces in this genre, and both received several awards in their time
B08 - this composer is usually associated with tone poems, but this actually appears to be his best known piece in Poland
B09 - died in the 1940s, refused to adopt a modern musical idiom; seemingly doomed to obscurity, has been experiencing a revival over the last couple of years, especially abroad
B10 - this composer's only larger piece of purely symphonic writing

C - ???

We've still got the Chopin and Lutosławski (not the Interlude) to track down! Given the amount of clues, I think the Lutosławski should be quite easy by now?

[greg]

the Gorecki is probably Scontri........

and the Penderecki could be anything. Is it an opera? He's written so much vocal music. Paradise Lost?

[Maciek]

the Gorecki is probably Scontri........

Not Scontri, but we're getting closer. It's something from the mid 60s.

and the Penderecki could be anything. Is it an opera? He's written so much vocal music. Paradise Lost?

Not an opera. A setting of a liturgical text.

[not edward]

Not Scontri, but we're getting closer. It's something from the mid 60s.

Not an opera. A setting of a liturgical text.

The Dies Irae, perhaps? (I'm not a fan of that particular work, to be honest.)

[Maciek]

Nope. Remember those are clues to two different works. The Gorecki is from the mid 60s. The Penderecki is much more recent. In fact, I think it might be his last work of that sort - but I'm not 100% sure.





I've just looked through my clues for the A batch, and I'm positive the Lutoslawski can be got by dint of "disciplined elimination".

[not edward]

Nope. Remember those are clues to two different works. The Gorecki is from the mid 60s. The Penderecki is much more recent. In fact, I think it might be his last work of that sort - but I'm not 100% sure.

Clearly I really need to get around to downloading. Oops.

[greg]

Not Scontri, but we're getting closer. It's something from the mid 60s.

Refrain?

Not an opera. A setting of a liturgical text.

Either:
Hymn to St. Daniil (1997)
or
Hymn to St. Adalbert (1997)

[Maciek]

Clearly I really need to get around to downloading. Oops.

Well, you've been doing pretty well all the same. But downloading might help a bit, yes.

Refrain?

There! You nailed it! Used to be a favorite of mine for a long time. Right now - I'm not so sure. Haven't listened to all of it in quite a while.

Either:
Hymn to St. Daniil (1997)
or
Hymn to St. Adalbert (1997)

No. But I'll lead you through this step by step. For some reason, I'm feeling guilty that my clues aren't "easy" enough, but I won't let you off that easy. After all - he's a favorite composer of yours, isn't he?

You already know that:
1) It's by Penderecki.
2) It's fairly recent (say, written after 1990).

Now, you should listen to the clip once more, very attentively, and take note of the scoring. Now, there is one instrument there that he has used only once "recently". All you will need is a web page with a catalog of his works containing scoring information - the Schott page or the Polish Wikipedia might work, if you can deal with the German/Polish terminology (I know you like that kind of thing ). I can't find anything appropriate in English - the PMC page is out of date.

[Maciek]

Will it entice anyone to join in, if I say that there will be prizes? And not just for correct guesses either. So - it's worth a shot, for the heck of it.