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born in 1951 in Wrocław, he studied composition with
Ryszard Bukowski at the city’s State Higher School of Music and with
Henryk Mikołaj Górecki at the State Higher School of Music in Katowice. He
also graduated from the Department of Polish Studies at Wrocław University,
where he has been teaching ever since. He is a prizewinner at the
‘Jazz on the Odra’ Festival (1972) and at the Young Composers’
Competition of the Polish Composers’ Union (now the Tadeusz Baird
Competition) in 1979. His pieces have had numerous performances at the
‘Warsaw Autumn’ and other festivals in Poland, many European
countries, the United States and the Far East. In 2001 a series of concerts
‘Rafał Augustyn i Danmark’ was held in Denmark on the
initiative of the violinist Christine M. Pryn (with ‘Nordlys’
Ensemble).
Rafał Augustyn is also a respected critic and writer on music, contributing
to the periodicals ‘Ruch Muzyczny’ and ‘Odra’. He is
also the author of tv programmes. As an organizer of music life, he served
as a member of the Programme Committee of the ‘Warsaw Autumn’
Festival (1981–98), was co-Director, with Marek Pijarowski, of the
‘Musica Polonica Nova’ Festival in Wrocław (1984–96) and
organized the concerts ‘Seasons of Polish Composers’ Union’
in Wrocław (1990–2000). Last year he launched, together with a group
of young composers and performers in Wrocław, the ‘Double Exposure’
project.
He occasionally performs as pianist. In 2001 he gave the first performance
of his Itinerarium with the Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra. He collaborates
with visual artists and the architect Tadeusz Sawa-Borysławski on
multi-media projects. As a composer of incidental music for the theatre, he
has worked with prominent directors, including Konrad Swinarski, Tadeusz Łomnicki,
Kazimierz Braun and Henryk Tomaszewski.
Selected works (since 1984): Long Island Rail Road…
for violin and accompanying objects (1984), Devil’s Frolics, ballet in
one act after Adam Münchheimer and Stanisław Moniuszko (1984–85),
Cyclic Piece No. 1 for solo violin (1986), Three Roman Nocturnes for mixed
choir (1986–90), Seven Day King, pantomime in two acts to libretto by
Henryk Tomaszewski (1988), Auftakt for orchestra (1989), Cyclic Piece No. 2
for amplified solo double bass (1990), Cinq calligrammes d’Apollinaire
for soprano and piano (1990), Stela for string orchestra (1987/91), sphae.ra
(Cyclic Piece No. 3), music in 24 movements for tapes and soloists (1992),
Cantus puerorum, sacra rappresentazione to script by Henryk Tomaszewski
after the Book of Daniel (1993), deutsche Fragmente for mixed choir (1994),
Miroirs for five performers (1997), Missa anni mirabilis for soprano, alto,
organ and choir (1998), Osobne. Four Poems by Miron Białoszewski for
soprano, flute and harp (1999), image/illusion, sound collection (audiovisual
installation, with Jerzy Olek and Tadeusz Sawa-Borysławski, 1999), Symphony
of Hymns for two sopranos, trumpet, keyboard, mixed choir and orchestra
(1984–
2004), Au pair, solo for violin and piano (2001), Itinerarium, concertino
for orchestra and piano (2001).
The original idea for an extended vocal-instrumental work,
which I eventually entitled the Symphony of Hymns, dates back to the early
1980s. Initially I thought the project would take a year or two to complete.
I had not anticipated that I would spend almost twenty years on it.
The full version of the symphony, lasting over an hour, consists of three
movements of similar structure but entirely different character. The
character and dimension of all the movements make it possible to perform
them as separate pieces.
The structure of each movement is similar to that of ancient hymns and
consists of an introduction, alternating strophes and antistrophes, and a
hymnic, melodic epode. The fairly short solo parts are of a virtuoso
character. In fact, it would be more appropriate to talk about two duets (sopranos,
and trumpet with electronics), because both pairs of performers closely
cooperate with each other.
An important role in the work is assigned to the choir. It is taken from
Greek tragedy (though, understandably, unlike in Greek tragedy it does not
dance). The most important, however, is the orchestra. It is the orchestra
that has to communicate the most meaningful musical content and it has the
most to do.
The texts used in the symphony are taken from various epochs (from classical
antiquity to the 20th century) and many languages. In each movement they are
arranged in the same sequence: brief Latin and Greek epigraphs (in the third
movement also a Hebrew fragment) are followed by longer texts in Romance
languages, and an English-
language text at the end. The first movement, Aster (Greek
‘star’), includes fragments from Pindar, Ennius and Euripides,
an invocation from De rerum natura by Lucretius, the famous Canticle of the
Sun by St Francis of Assisi, and, finally, an excerpt from A Greenwich
Palimpsest by Thomas T. Andrews. The second movement, Nyx (‘night’),
includes quotations from Homer, Aeschylus, Virgil, Michelangelo, Pierre
Ronsard and Dylan Thomas, while the third movement, Phos ek photós (Greek
‘light from light’) – from the Bible, and works by
Plotinus, St John of the Cross and the English mystic
g. m. Hopkins. All the texts are in the original languages.
The common theme of the texts – and the symphony – is light (a
popular theme among composers…). The three movements form a fairly
lucid ‘plot’. The first explores the day and the light of nature,
conceived above all as life-giving powers; hence the key role of Venus as
‘proto-mother’ in Lucretius’ invocation. In the second
movement, ‘the night descended from the sky’, as the choir sings
at the beginning (Homer). The light of the night is primarily fire: in
Michelangelo it is the fire kindled by the smith-poet, in Ronsard it is the
fire of amorous passion, in Thomas it is an apocalyptic fire that consumed
war-time London, a fire both destructive and purifying. The third movement
is the dawn of a new day and the inner, mystical life. The choir sings a
psalm verse: ‘In Your light we see light’.
The Symphony of Hymns was commissioned by the ‘Wratislavia Cantans’
Festival and written with financial support from the zaiks Association of
Authors and Composers and the Ministry of Culture. The first movement of the
work was premiered in September 2001 during the ‘Wratislavia Cantans’
Festival. The Choir and Orchestra of the Silesian Philharmonic was conducted
by Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk, the solo parts were performed by Olga
Pasiecznik and Urszula Jankowska (voices), Matthias Kamps (trumpet) and
Dariusz Noras (electronics).
The Symphony of Hymns is dedicated to Henryk Mikołaj Górecki.
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