The Magic of the Poles

[Maciek]

Ha, that was smart, wasn't it? I seem to have driven everyone away!

[greg]

After all - he's a favorite composer of yours, isn't he?

yes he is, a top 10 composer for me  0:)
he can charm my ears and move me in whichever way he likes, in any style (and i mean, he has some VERY different and numerous styles he writes in  ), but all of it's just awesome. Whether it's the 3rd symphony that just sends you into a deep trance filled with deep sadness and yearning mixed together (very close, as someone has said before, to Mahler) or the fun Old Style Pieces or the banging 2nd Symphony, the experimental and challenging 1st Symphony, the mystically transcendent modern Choros I, or the String Quartets which are pretty undescribable, yet mean a lot to me personally.......

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 I can't find anything appropriate in English - the PMC page is out of date.

i might take a while to get that one...... i go to schott and it looks like you have to order the catalogue to get the list of works. I thought before you could just browse, but maybe that was another publisher.
i see what you mean by the PMC being out of date 

[Maciek]

i might take a while to get that one......

Hey, don't worry! I'm here to help (see, I really want you, or anyone, to actually guess this one).

i go to schott and it looks like you have to order the catalogue to get the list of works. I thought before you could just browse, but maybe that was another publisher.

What I meant was this page - it's not the complete catalog, but it contains the piece you're looking for (I don't know any German, I just got there by some random clicking, LOL).

[greg]

Hey, don't worry! I'm here to help (see, I really want you, or anyone, to actually guess this one).

What I meant was this page - it's not the complete catalog, but it contains the piece you're looking for (I don't know any German, I just got there by some random clicking, LOL).

Ok, my guesses are....... all of them on that page. Ha! See, i told ya i could get it. 

Hmmmmm ok ok i'll narrow it down. My first guess is Credo. I think I might have it on CD, either that or i've listened to it on my computer and deleted it. But obviously, i haven't heard it for a very long time.

[Maciek]

My first guess is Credo.

There, see? I told you you could do it!

The only piece with a children's choir he has written in ages - AFAIK.

[greg]

There, see? I told you you could do it!

The only piece with a children's choir he has written in ages - AFAIK.

Yeah, well the 9th symphony is going to be scored for 15 children's choirs, a canon, mute guy, elephant, dancing leper, 6 chainsaws, zebra in heat, dead guy, meteor shower, and 7 1/2 electric toothbrushes, so i think he's making somewhat of a comeback with the children's choir thing.

[Drasko]

B01 - Ignacy Jan Paderewski - ? ? ?

A minor Piano Concerto?

[Maciek]

No.

And that, in practice, means I've given the answer away.

[The new erato]

A minor Piano Concerto?

I think his concerto is major, particularly as played by Earl Wild.

[Maciek]

Well, OK, as far as Paderewski is concerned, it's even the major Piano Concerto, as he has written only one.

[Drasko]

No.

Then Fantaisie polonaise sur des thèmes originaux, op.19, now, you were mentioning prizes, no?

[M forever]

So Maciek, sorry, Qudsiya - is it Chopin or Szopen?

[Maciek]

Then Fantaisie polonaise sur des thèmes originaux, op.19

Yes.

, now, you were mentioning prizes, no?

Yes. (Be patient.)

So Maciek, sorry, Qudsiya - is it Chopin or Szopen?

No.

[M forever]

No.

That's not an answer (well, technically, it is, but it is not a reply which actually answers the question).

[Maciek]

OK then: yes.




Alright, if you want my answer: I've never seen the spelling Szopen used in English. In Polish it's completely outdated (therefore odd and funny), though not incorrect.

[Maciek]

Couldn't you all at least pretend?

Hmph!

[Maciek]

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; has very short complete catalog of pieces
A04 - this is from a mass; AFAIK, the only one this composer of lots of film music 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"; does a lot of conducting nowadays
A07 - Krzysztof Penderecki - Credo
A08 - my recent screen moniker had something to do with this composer; there was a festival devoted solely to his music in Warsaw in 2006
A09 - Henryk Mikołaj Górecki - Refrain
A10 - might be the most famous Polish mass for the dead - heck, practically the only relatively well known one!

B - (mostly) 19th century

B01 - Ignacy Jan Paderewski - Polish Fantasy
B02 - Mieczysław Karłowicz - Violin Concerto
B03 - virtuoso pianist who played a double-keyboard piano, one of Liszt's favorite students
B04 - often accused of being too obsessed with form and not being melodic enough; his son, a doctor, was probably Poland's most famous translator - he singlehandedly transalted the bulk of the French canon (complete Moliere, Proust, most of Balzac, Voltaire etc. etc. etc.)
B05 - actually lived past 1950, but was always a very much late-19th century composer; this comes from a ballet score of his, which was probably his most popular piece - gained immense popularity before the war, an astonishing number of performances (don't remember the exact number right now)
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); the very famous singer in this recording is a champion of this composer, she has recorded his songs at least 3 times
B07 - wrote 2 pieces in this genre, and both received several awards in their time; both have been recently released by Hyperion.
B08 - this composer is usually associated with tone poems (first Polish efforts in that genre), but this orchestral miniature 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, thanks to a disc of piano concertos, and then another one, with solo piano music; both on Hyperion
B10 - this composer's only larger piece of purely symphonic writing; it was in its time (mid-19th century) quite popular in Russia

C - ?? (somebody is kidding me...)

The Chopin and Lutoslawski are still up for grabs!

[mahler10th]

This quiz was too hard for me.  The magic of the Poles was too overwhelming to fathom the mystery composers.  Meanwhile I'll keep playing the brainwave transforming stuff and continue to wobble in the most unusual ways to Karol Szymanowski, Witold Lutosławski, Andrzej Panufnik, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Paweł Szymański, Sebastian Krajewski and even Maurucy Moszkowski, most or all of whom probably feature in the answers to Macieks' quiz.
Sorry Maciek, I can't get my head around it - I think too much Lutoslawski has sent me too far nto the other dimension(s) to figure out the answers.

[Maciek]

What, not even the C batch? This is a bit worrying. Somebody has to have some sort of idea about the two pieces in the C batch?!

Wait, but what about the clues? You should be easily able to guess which one the Lutoslawski is using clues alone! Simply eliminate from the A batch all the pieces that can't be Lutoslawski. Also, I've added some significant information to the B batch clues (in red). And I think two of the earlier clues are really telling:

B - (mostly) 19th century

B08 - this composer is usually associated with tone poems (first Polish efforts in that genre), but this orchestral miniature actually appears to be his best known piece in Poland
B10 - this composer's only larger piece of purely symphonic writing; it was in its time (mid-19th century) quite popular in Russia

Substitute "symphonic" for "tone" in the first clue, and Wikipedia should give you the answer...

[mahler10th]

Curses.
I will download the darn things again and when  get some peace and quiet tonight I will embark on a quest of discovery.  Fair enough, with so many clues going and some of them already solved, I would be surprised if I didn't come up with some after all.