Witold Szalonek

Witold Szalonek (1927–2001)
Born in Czechowice-Dziedzice (Upper Silesia), in 1949–56 he studied at the State Higher School of Music in Katowice: piano with Wanda Chmielowska and composition with Bolesław Woytowicz.
In 1962–63 he continued his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. In 1967 he began to teach composition at the Katowice State Higher School of Music and in 1970–74 was in charge of the Department of Composition and Theory. At the end of 1970 he was invited by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst to work as artist in-residence at West Berlin’s Hochschule der Künste. In 1973 he won the competition to succeed Boris Blacher as Professor of Composition there , and settled permanently in West Berlin.
He conducted numerous seminars and courses in composition in Poland, Denmark, Germany, Finland and Slovakia. In 1990 he re-
ceived an honorary doctor’s degree from the Wilhelmian University in Münster. He also won the annual award of the Polish Composers’ Union (1994).
His works were featured in major new music festivals such as the International Summer Courses in Darmstadt, iscm World Music Days, ‘Warsaw Autumn’, ‘Time of Music’ in Viitasaari, Gulbenkian Music Festival in Lisbon, ‘Inventionen’ in Berlin, ‘Alternatives’ in Moscow and ‘Contrasts’ in Kiev.
In 1963 Szalonek discovered and classified the so-called ‘combined sounds’ generated by the woodwind instruments. He was also the author of theoretical studies on a wide range of subjects, including ‘combined sounds’, sonorism, Chopin and Debussy.

Selected works: Confessions, triptych for reciting voice, mixed choir and chamber orchestra to words by Kazimiera Iłłakowicz (1959), Concertino per flauto ed orchestra da camera (1962), Les Sons for symphonic ensemble (1965), Quattro monologhi per oboe solo (1966), Mutazioni for chamber orchestra (1966), Proporzioni for flute, viola and harp (1967), Mutanza for piano (1968), Improvisations sonoristiques for clarinet, trombone, cello and piano (1968), 1+1+1+1 per 1–4 strumenti ad arco (1969), Aarhus Music for wind quintet (1970), Connections for ten instruments (1972), Three Sketches for harp (1972), Concerto for Strings (1971–75), Musica concertante per violbasso ed orchestra (1977), Proporzioni III per violino, violoncello e pianoforte (1977), Trio per oboe, clarinetto e fagotto (1978), Take the game… for six percussionists (1981), Alice’s Unknown Adventures in the Fairy Land of Percussion for one percussionist (1981) Little b-a-c-h Symphony for piano and symphony orchestra (1981), d. p.’s Five Ghoulish Dreams for solo alto saxophone (1985), Inside? – Outside? for bass clarinet and string quartet (1987), Toccata e corale per organo (1988, version for piano – 1990), Elegia on the Death of a Friend for clarinet and piano (1989), Invocazioni per due chitarre (1992), Medusa’s Head for one to three flutes in C or one to three recorders (1992), Sept epigrammes modernes according to G. Hoffnung for saxophone quartet (1993), Symphony of Rituals for string quartet (1991–96), Medusa’s Dream of Pegasus for horn and recorder (1997), Hautbois mon amour for oboe solo, two harps, kettledrums and string orchestra (1999), Poseidon and Medusa for two piccolo flutes, alto flute, crotales and bass flute (2001).

Inside? – Outside? for bass clarinet and string quartet was written for Harry Sparnaay, who premiered it, with the Silesian Quartet, at the ‘Time of Music’ Festival in Viitasaari, Finland, on 25 July 1988. I finished the work in the spring of 1987. It is in a single movement.
Duration: ca. 26’30’’

Witold Szalonek
(from the programme book of ‘Warsaw Autumn’ 1988)