Krzysztof Penderecki

Krzysztof Penderecki, born in 1933, Polish composer, one of the leading composers of the mid-20th century. Born in Dbica, he studied and later taught in Kraków. His works, admired for their power and humanity, draw on sources as diverse as avant-garde instrumental techniques, aleatoric or chance music, quarter-tone and traditional harmonies, and Renaissance counterpoint. His Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (1961), for 52 strings, derives its impact partly from such effects as eerie notes of unspecified high pitch and glissandos for clusters of semi-tones. For that work and others, including the Symphony No. 1 (1973), he devised new modes of musical notation. His other notable early works include Dimensions of Time and Silence (1961), for orchestra and chorus, with whistling, hissing, and percussive vocal rhythms; and the Saint Luke Passion (1966), which uses a twelve-tone row as well as Gregorian and baroque elements. A sequel to the Saint Luke Passion, Utrenia (1970-71), is based on Orthodox ritual. His operas include The Devils of Loudun (1968, based on a text by English writer Aldous Huxley); Paradise Lost (1978, based on the poem by English poet John Milton), The Black Mask (1986, based on a play by German writer Gerhart Hauptmann), and Ubu Rex (1991, based on the play by French dramatist Alfred Jarry). Other later works include four more symphonies (no. 2, 1980; no. 3, 1988; no. 4, 1989; no. 5, 1992) and concertos for violin (no. 1, 1977, written for American violinist Isaac Stern; no. 2, 1992, for German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter), cello (no. 1, 1972; no. 2, 1982), viola (1983), and a wind concerto written for flute or clarinet solo (1992).