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Born in Warsaw in 1947, he
studied sound engineering and composition with Tadeusz Baird, Andrzej
Dobrowolski, and Włodzimierz Kotoński at the Music Academy in Warsaw. He
also studied computer music with Lejaren Hiller and completed a course in
computer programming organized by the Institute of Mathematics of the
Polish Academy of Sciences (1973–74). Since 1973 he has collaborated
with the Polish Radio Experimental Studio. He took part in the Summer
Courses for New Music in Darmstadt (1974, 1976). In 1978 he worked in the
Center for the Creative and Performing Arts in Buffalo. Apart from works
for acoustic instruments, Knittel has also written computer and
electro-acoustic music, created performances, built sound installations
and played in improvised music ensembles.
He is a co-founder of creative groups including the kew Composers’ Group
(1973–76), Cytula Tyfun da Bamba Orkiester (1981), the Independent
Electroacoustic Music Studio (1982–84), Light from Poland (1985–87),
Freight Train (since 1986), the ch&k Studio (since 1989), the European
Improvisation Orchestra (1996–98), the ch&k&k Group (since 1999)
and ‘Kawalerowie Błotni’ (since 2004).
He has performed his music in most of the European countries, Asia, and
North and South America (Brazil, the Czech Republic, Spain, Germany,
Russia, Ukraine, Hungary).
In 1981 he worked for the Cultural Commission of the Solidarity Union and
was a co-founder of the Circle of Independent Artists. During martial law
he was active in the promotion of independent culture. After 1989, as
journalist and critic, he contributed to the periodicals ‘Tygodnik
Literacki’, ‘Ruch Muzyczny’ and ‘Studio’ and freelanced for the
Music Department of Polish Television.
He served as Vice-chairman of the Polish Section of the iscm (1989–92),
the Director of the Warsaw Autumn International Contemporary Music
Festival (1995–98) and President of the Polish Composers’ Union
(1999–2003). He also co-founded the Audio-Art Festival at the Centre for
Contemporary Arts in Warsaw (1992). He is a Deputy President of the Polish
Music Council, and a member of the Supervisory Council of Polish
Television and of the Programme Council of the ‘Zachęta’ National
Gallery of Art.
His honours include the Solidarity Prize (1985), the Cyprian Kamil Norwid
Award (2003), the Award of the Foundation for Contemporary Performing Arts
in New York (1998) and the Award of the Polish Composers’ Union (2003).
He has been on the faculty of the Music Academy in Łódź since 2001.
Selected works (since 1990): Borders of Nothing for voices, synthesizer
and computer (1990), Histoire III for harpsichord and tape (1990), low
sounds for various instruments and tape (1979–1991), Man-Nature,
a collection of 16 computer graphical compositions (1991), Homage to
Charles Ives for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, piano, percussion, viola
and double bass (1992), 14 Variations by Piotr Bikont and Krzysztof
Knittel on 14 Variations by Edwin Morgan on 14 Words by John Cage for
voices and instruments (1992), instant reactions for voice, instruments
and synthesizer (1992), Negev for voice, percussion instruments and
synthesizer (1993), Satan in Goray, ballet after I. B. Singer (1993),
Between for piano and tape (1993), The Legs, installation (1993), Passage,
installation (1994), Radio Sculpture, installation (1994), Sonatas da
camera Nos. 1–11 for voice, instruments, synthesizer and sampler
(1994–2002), Der Erwählte, ballet to a libretto by M. Wortman after T.
Mann (1995), Raum der Begegnung, installation (1995), Homage to Barbara
Zbrożyna for synthesizer and sampler (1997), surface en rotation for tape
(1997), Awakenings, ballet by P. Bikont after O. Sachs (1998), The
HeartPiece – Double Opera, chamber opera after H. Müller (with John
King; 1999), Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord… psalms
for mixed choir and electronic sounds (2000), El maale rahamim... for
choir and symphony orchestra (2001), Spiegelverkehrte Reise for soprano,
autor and tape, libretto by P. Bikont (2001), Norwid Songs for soprano and
piano (2001), Trio for optional melodic instruments (2001), To Touch (the
Serpent from Inside), installation (2003), Live from cnn for trombone,
voice, synthesizer and tape (2003), The Circus Has Come! for soprano,
flute, cello, piano, prepared piano, dancer and tape (2003), Trio V2R for
clarinet, violin, piano and electronic sounds (2003), St Matthew Passion
(2004), A Memoir of the Warsaw Uprising (after Miron Białoszewski) for
actors, female choir, cello, piano and symphony orches-tra (2004),
Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra (2004), Sonatas da camera Nos.
12-14 (2004–05), Vagante for soloists, orchestra and tape (2005).
Silent films with live music (by ‘Freight Train’): Schatten, dir.
Arthur Robison, 1923/1994, Orlaks Hände, dir. Robert Wiene, 1924/1996,
Faust, dir. Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1926/1999, Aelita, dir. Jakov
Protazanov, 1924/2000, Eden, dir. Andrzej Czeczot, 2001.
Vagante
The Italian adjective ‘vagante’ describes someone who ‘wanders’ or
‘roams’, and it therefore aptly reflects the character and sense of
this spatial composition in which the soloists and orchestra are placed
around the listeners, whereas the loudspeakers form a gigantic ellipse
over their heads. The most important theme of the piece is the wandering
of sound – between loudspeakers, from one soloist to another, from one
group of instruments to another. In their wanderings, the sounds follow
the trajectories which sometimes are very much like the symmetrical forms
of mandalas whose patterns stem from the crisscrossing of differently
shaped lines. These lines join 12 points which are evenly placed on a
circle, very much like the hours on the dial on a clock. The majority of
the remaining musical parameters, such as pitch, registers, duration,
rhythms and articulation, are subordinated to these wanderings.
Incidentally, in many places of the score these parameters are decided by
algorithms based on random selections. These probabilistic decisions
depend, however, on the full score describing the movement of sounds in
space. The solo instruments are clarinet plus bass clarinet, violin,
percussion (mainly marimba) and piano, performed by members of the
Warsaw-Gdańsk Kwartludium Ensemble. It was for Kwartludium, the Polish
Radio so and the conductor Daniel Gazon that the piece was written. In
realizing the electronic part, reproduced from multi-channel tape, I was
assisted by Jacek Partyka. The video projection accompanying the
performance is by Miłosz Łuczyński. Planned duration – ca. 18’.
Krzysztof Knittel
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