|
|
born in Kraków, she studied at the city’s State
Higher School
of Music (now the Music Academy), gaining the diplomas in music theory
(1981) and composition with Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar (1987). She
continued her studies with Wolfgang Hufschmidt at
the Folkwang Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Tanz in Essen-Werden
(1986–87). She collaborated for many years with the Expe-rimental
Music Studio of Polish Radio in Warsaw and the Electro-acoustic Studio of
the Music Academy in Kraków. In 1983–86 she participated in the
International Courses for Young Composers
in Kazimierz Dolny in Poland, where she had a chance to work
with Lutosławski, Xenakis, Szalonek, Shinohara, and MČche. Her chamber,
symphonic and electroacoustic pieces have had many
performances in Poland (at all major contemporary music festi-
vals) and abroad (Belgium, Holland, Finland, Norway, Japan, Germany, France,
Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine). Ever since graduating from the Kraków Academy
she has been a member of its faculty, currently running a composition class
and lecturing in theoretical subjects.
Selected works: A due for double bass and tape (1980), Landscape for two
guitars and string orchestra (1983), Senza for double bass (1984),
Esoterikos for soprano and oboe quartet (1985), Girare for percussion and
tape (1986), Ingradimenti – a Picture in Five Aspects for choir and
orchestra (1987), Ornamental Improvisations for two violins, clarinet, cello,
vibraphone and piano (1991), Blades of Grass for percussion (1992),
Rhetorical Figures for three string quartets, strings, oboe, harpsichord and
piano (1993), Poco a poco piu... for viola and piano (1995), Trio contra
punctum for flute, oboe and bassoon (1996), Glissbigliando for oboe and tape
(1997), Mozartkugeln for flute (1998), Mirrors for string orchestra (1999),
Fantasie and chorale for piano (2001), Stained Glass II for clarinet, cello,
vibraphone and accordion, Metaphrases for string quartet (2001), Cadenza for
string quartet (2001), Concerto
for Eight-string Guitar and String Orchestra with piano (2002),
Tanvio-lingo-metamorphrases for violin and piano (2003).
Concerto for Eight-string Guitar and String Orchestra
with Piano was inspired by Krzysztof Sadłowski, who played the eight-string
guitar of his own design. The work’s dedicatee, he has performed it
several times.
The solo guitar part is not of a virtuoso character. Rather, it is ascetic
and subordinated to the overall concept of form. It focuses on aural nuances
and ‘playing with time’. Instead of exploring the virtuoso
formula of the concerto I was more interested in coupling the timbral
qualities of guitar and orchestra (while maintaining the identity of the
solo instrument) within a single-movement monolithic form whose successive
sections lead to something like a utopian ‘halting of time’. The
radical narrowing of texture, as the form develops, to solo guitar with
violin or guitar with piano, lead to the intended simulation of a candenza (before
the cadenza proper) and the suspension of narration. In this way the
convention of the ‘time of form’ of the concerto is broken. The
orchestral piano plays a timbral-resonant role.
Anna Zawadzka-Gołosz
|
