Witold Roman Lutosławski (January 25, 1913- February 7, 1994) was a Polish classical composer, pianist and conductor. January 25 is the 25th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1913 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... February 7 is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... Classical music is music considered classical, as sophisticated and refined, in a regional tradition. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... A pianist is a person who plays the piano. ... A conductors score and batons Conducting is the act of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. ...

Born into the Polish landed gentry, he spent his early years during World War I in Moscow, where his politically active father was executed by the Bolsheviks. Lutosławski studied piano and composition in Warsaw. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II he was captured briefly, but escaped back to Warsaw and made a living playing popular music in bars. In the postwar years, in an oppressive Stalinist artistic climate, he refused to toe the party line on cultural matters. He emerged as Poland's foremost composer and was presented with a large number of international honours, awards and prizes. In the 1980s Lutosławski was a staunch supporter of the Solidarność movement which eventually achieved an independent identity for the Polish state. He died rather suddenly from cancer shortly after being awarded Poland's highest honour. Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... Moscow (Russian/Cyrillic: Москва́, pronunciation: Moskvá) is the capital of Russia, located on the river Moskva, and encompassing 1097. ... Bolshevik Party Meeting. ... Warsaw (Polish: Warszawa, see also other names, in full The Capital City of Warsaw, Polish: Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa) is the capital of Poland and its largest city. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km (over 11 miles) into the air. ... Stalinism is a brand of political theory, and the political and economic system implemented by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. ... Solidarity (Polish Solidarność) is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980, originally led by Lech Wałęsa. ... Cancer is a class of diseases characterized by uncontrolled cell division and the ability of these cells to invade other tissues, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue (invasion) or by migration of cells to distant sites (metastasis). ...

In his early career, Lutosławski's music was influenced by folk music, but in the late 1950s and early 1960s he developed his own brand of twelve-tone technique and began using carefully-controlled aleatory processes. He composed four symphonies and a Concerto for Orchestra, as well as concertos and song cycles for major figures such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Peter Pears, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and of the people. ... Millennia: 1st millennium - 2nd millennium - 3rd millennium Events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the... This article provides extensive lists of events and significant personalities of the 1960s. ... Twelve-tone technique (also dodecaphony) is a system of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg. ... Aleatoric (or aleatory) music or composition, is music where some element of the composition is left to chance. ... A symphony is an extended piece of music usually for orchestra and comprising several movements. ... Although a concerto is usually a piece of music for one or more solo instruments pitted against an orchestra, several composers have written works with the apparently contradictory title Concerto for Orchestra. ... Origin Etymology Concerto (pl. ... A song cycle is a group of songs designed to be performed in sequence as a single entity. ... Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich (Мстисла́в Леопо́льдович Ростропо́вич) (born March 27, 1927) is a Russian cellist and conductor, considered to be one of the greatest living cellists. ... Peter Neville Luard Pears (June 22, 1910 – April 3, 1986) was an English tenor and life-long partner of the composer Benjamin Britten. ... Missing image Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau The German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (born May 28, 1925) is regarded by many as the finest Lieder singer of his generation. ...

Biography

Lutosławski's family

Lutosławski's parents were both born into the Polish landed gentry (ziemiaństwo); his family owned estates in the area of Drozdowo. His father Józef was involved in the Polish National Democracy Party, or Endecja, and the Lutosławski family became intimate with its founder Roman Dmowski (Lutosławski's middle name was Roman) — Poland was, up to World War I, divided by the 1815 Congress of Vienna, and Warsaw was part of Tsarist Russia. After studying in Zurich, where he met and married Lutosławski's mother, Maria Olszewska, a fellow student, in 1904, Józef continued his studies in London where he acted as correspondent for the Endecja newspaper, Gońca. He continued to be involved in National Democracy politics after returning to Warsaw in 1905, taking over management of the family estates in 1909. The National Democratic Party was a pre-WWII Polish right-wing political party co-founded by Roman Dmowski. ... Roman Dmowski Roman Dmowski (b. ... 1815 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... The Congress of Vienna was a conference between ambassadors from the major powers in Europe that was chaired by the Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel von Metternich and held in Vienna, Austria, from October 1, 1814, to June 9, 1815. ... Warsaw (Polish: Warszawa, see also other names, in full The Capital City of Warsaw, Polish: Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa) is the capital of Poland and its largest city. ... Imperial Russia is the term used to cover the period of Russian history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great, through the expansion of the Russian Empire from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposal of Nicholas II of Russia, the last tsar, at the start... General view showing Grossmünster church. ... 1904 is a leap year starting on a Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster which contains Big Ben Tower Bridge at night A red double-decker bus crosses Piccadilly Circus. ... 1905 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1909 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

After Lutosławski's father's death (when Lutosławski was five), other members of the family also played an important part in his early life. Wicenty Lutosławski, a multilingual philosopher who used literary analysis to establish a chronology of the writings of Plato, was Józef's half-brother; Wicenty was married to the Spanish poet Sophia Pérez Eguia y Casanova, and Józef's other brothers were also intellectuals. Plato (Greek: Πλάτων Plátōn) (c. ...

Early years

Lutosławski was born in Warsaw on January 25, 1913. Soon afterwards, with the outbreak of World War I, Russia found itself at war with Germany, and in 1915 Prussian forces drove towards Warsaw. The Lutosławski family fled east to Moscow, where his father remained politically active, organising Polish Legions ready for any action which might liberate Poland. Dmowski's strategy was for Imperial Russia to guarantee security for a new Polish state. However, in 1917 the February Revolution forced the Tsar to abdicate, and the October Revolution began a new Soviet government which made peace with Germany. Józef now found his activities to be in conflict with the Bolsheviks, who arrested him and his brother Marian. They were sent to the notorious Butyrskaya prison in central Moscow, where Lutosławski (now aged 5) visited him. Józef was executed without trial in September 1918 by firing squad. January 25 is the 25th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1913 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... 1915 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 The word Prussia (German: Preußen or Preussen, Polish: Prusy, Lithuanian: Prūsai, Latin: Borussia) has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia and... Moscow (Russian/Cyrillic: Москва́, pronunciation: Moskvá) is the capital of Russia, located on the river Moskva, and encompassing 1097. ... Polish Legions (Polish Legiony Polskie) was the name of Polish armed forces created in August of 1914 in Galicia. ... 1917 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The February Revolution can also refer to the overthrow of the French Monarchy in February, 1848. ... Nicholas II of Russia - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... The October Revolution, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was the second phase of the Russian Revolution, the first having been instigated by the events around the February Revolution. ... The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (Russian: (СССР)  listen?; tr. ... Bolshevik Party Meeting. ... Butyrka prison (Бутырская тюрьма in Russian) was the central transit prison in pre-revolutionary Russia, located in Moscow. ... 1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

After the war the family returned to Warsaw to find their estates ruined. Lutosławski was able to begin piano lessons for two years from age 6. However, in the Polish-Soviet War Drozdowo again came in the firing line, and after a few years attempting to run the estates his mother returned to Warsaw. This article is about the modern musical instrument. ... Polish-Bolshevik War Conflict Polish-Bolshevik War Date 1919–1921 Place Central and Eastern Europe Result Polish victory The Polish-Soviet War was the war (February 1919 – March 1921) that determined the borders between the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic and Second Polish Republic. ...

From 1924 Lutosławski entered secondary school while continuing piano lessons. A performance of Karol Szymanowski's third symphony deeply affected him; in 1926 he began violin lessons, and in 1927 he entered the Warsaw Conservatory (where Szymanowski was Rektor) part-time. He began to compose, but could not manage both his school and conservatory studies so had to discontinue the latter. 1924 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Karol Maciej Szymanowski (October 6, 1882 - March 29, 1937) was a Polish composer and pianist. ... 1926 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... The violin is a stringed musical instrument that has four strings tuned a perfect fifth apart. ... 1927 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...

In 1931 Lutosławski enrolled at Warsaw University to study mathematics, and he formally entered composition classes at the Conservatory. His teacher was Witold Maliszewski, a pupil of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He was given a strong grounding in structure of musical forms, particularly sonata form movements. In 1933 he gave up his mathematics and violin studies to concentrate on piano and composition. He gained a diploma from the conservatory for piano in 1936 after a virtuoso program including Schumann's Toccata and Beethoven's fourth piano concerto. Lutosławski's diploma for composition followed in 1937. 1931 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Warsaw University (Polish Uniwersytet Warszawski) - the biggest and one of the most prestigious universities in Poland. ... Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space and change. ... Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (Russian: ), also Nikolai, Nicolai, and Rimsky-Korsakoff, (March 18, 1844 – June 21, 1908) was a Russian composer and teacher of classical music particularly noted for his fine orchestration, which may have been influenced by his synaesthesia. ... Sonata form refers to both the standard layout of an entire musical composition and more specifically to the standardized form of the first movement. ... In music, a movement is a large division of a larger composition or musical form. ... 1933 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Robert Schumann (June 8, 1810 – July 29, 1856) was a German composer and pianist. ... Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized December 17, 1770; died March 26, 1827) was a German composer of classical music, who predominantly lived in Vienna, Austria. ... Ludwig van Beethovens Piano Concerto No. ... 1937 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

World War II

Military service followed — Lutosławski was trained in signalling and radio operating, his musical expertise helping him to prove adept at the speedy transmission of messages in Morse code. Although his intention had been to travel to Paris for further musical study, in September 1939 Germany invaded West Poland, Russia invaded East Poland, and Lutosławski was mobilised with the radio unit at Kraków. He was soon captured by Germans, but he escaped while being marched to prison camp, and walked 400km back to Warsaw. (Lutosławski's brother was captured by the Russians and later died in a labour camp.) Morse code is a system of representing letters, numbers and punctuation marks by means of a code signal sent intermittently. ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... 1939 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Motto: none Voivodship Lesser Poland Municipal government Rada miasta Kraków Mayor Jacek Majchrowski Area 326,8 km² Population  - city  - urban  - density 757,500 (2004 est. ... A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are engaged in forced labor. ...

In order to earn a living, Lutosławski joined a cabaret group, and also formed a piano duo with friend and fellow-composer Andrzej Panufnik. In Warsaw bars they played a wide range of music, much of it arranged by Lutosławski, including the first incarnation of the Paganini Variations (which is a brilliantly effective transcription of the original Paganini 24th Caprice for solo violin, rather than a sequence of original variations). Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue - a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting around the tables (often dining or drinking) watching the performance. ... Sir Andrzej Panufnik (September 24, 1914 - October 27, 1991) was a Polish composer, pianist, and a conductor of classical music. ... Niccolò Paganini Niccolò Paganini, (Genoa, October 27, 1782 – May 27, 1840 in Nice) was a violinist and composer. ...

Lutosławski's mother had been in East Poland at the outbreak of the war, but was spirited to Warsaw by friends. Lutosławski left Warsaw with his mother just before the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, only salvaging a few scores and sketches — the rest of his music was lost in the destruction of the city, as were the family's Drozdowo estates. Of the 200 or so arrangements which Lutosławski and Panufnik had worked on for their piano duo, only Lutosławski's Paganini Variations survives. Lutosławski returned to the ruins of Warsaw after the Polish-Soviet treaty was agreed in April. The Warsaw Uprising (Powstanie Warszawskie) was a controversial armed struggle during the Second World War by the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) to liberate Warsaw from German occupation and Nazi rule. ... 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Postwar years

During the postwar years Lutosławski worked on his first symphony, sketches of which he had salvaged from Warsaw, and which was first performed in 1948. In order to earn money to provide for his family he also composed much music which he termed functional — examples are the Warsaw Suite (written to accompany a silent film depicting the city's reconstruction), sets of Polish Carols, and the piano pieces Melodie Ludowe ("Folk Melodies") intended as teaching pieces.

In 1945 Lutosławski was elected as Secretary and Treasurer of the newly constituted Union of Polish Composers (ZKP - Związek Kompozytorów Polskich). In 1946 he married Maria Danuta Bogusławska, daughter of architect Antoni Dygat, herself an architecture student whose first husband had been another architect. Lutosławski had known her brother, the writer Stanisław Dygat, before the war, and both Stanisław and Maria had come to listen to the piano duo performances during the war. The marriage was to be a lasting one, and Maria's draughtsmanship became extraordinarily useful to the composer: she became his copyist, and later solved problems of notation in the full scores of his later works (which avoid exact simultaneity in the different orchestral parts). 1946 was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

In 1947 the Stalinist political climate meant that music in a specifically Polish idiom (including the music of Chopin) was suppressed, and composers were required to write music following the principles of Socialist realism. One of the consequences of this was that by 1948 the ZKP was taken over by musicians willing to toe the party line on musical matters, and Lutosławski was dropped from the committee. Lutosławski was implacably opposed to the ideas of Socialist realism. His first symphony was proscribed, and he found himself shunned by the Soviet authorities, a situation that continued right through the era of Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko. In 1954 the climate of musical oppression drove his friend Panufnik to defect to England. Against this background, he was happy to compose pieces for which there was social need, but in 1954 this earned Lutosławski (much to the composer's chagrin) the Prime Minister's Prize for a set of children's songs. As he commented, "…it was for those functional compositions of mine that the authorities decorated me… I realised that I was not writing indifferent little pieces, only to make a living, but was carrying on an artistic creative activity in the eyes of the outside world." (Varga 1976). 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Frédéric-François Chopin (March 1, 1810 – October 17, 1849) is widely seen as the greatest of Polish composers and among the very greatest of composers for the piano, the instrument for which he wrote almost exclusively. ... Stalin as an Organiser of the October Revolution by Karp Trokhimenko Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style of realistic art which has as its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism. ... 1948 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev  listen (Russian: Леони́д Ильи́ч Бре́жнев) (December 19, 1906 – November 10, 1982) was effective ruler of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, though at first in partnership with others. ... Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (Ю́рий Влади́мирович Андро́пов), (June 2 (O.S.) = June 15 (N.S.), 1914 – February 9, 1984) was a Soviet politician and General Secretary of the CPSU from November 12, 1982 until his death just sixteen months later. ... Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko (Константи́н Усти́нович Черне́нко) (September 24, 1911 – March 10, 1985) was a Soviet politician and General Secretary of the CPSU who led the Soviet Union from February 13, 1984 until his death just thirteen months later. ... 1954 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Royal motto: Dieu et mon droit (French: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area  - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 1st UK 49,138,831 377/km² Religion...

However, it was with his substantial Concerto for Orchestra also completed in 1954 that Lutosławski made his name. Much of the work is based on folk music, and in what may be seen as a cynical attempt to imply that this was in accord with the authorities' principles he was awarded the State Prize for music for the piece. Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and of the people. ...

Maturity

The death of Stalin in 1953 allowed a certain relaxation of the cultural totalitarianism both within Russia and in the satellite Soviet states. By 1956 political events had thawed the musical climate somewhat, if not the artistic climate as a whole, and the Warsaw Autumn Festival of Contemporary Music was founded. Intended to be a biennial festival, this has been held annually ever since 1958 (except under Martial law in 1982 when the ZKP refused to organise it in protest). This was more of an influence on the younger generation of Polish composers who had not known the pre-Stalinist era, but had significant influence on Lutosławski nonetheless. Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვილი; see Other names section) (December 21, 1879[1] – March 5, 1953) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and leader of the Soviet Union. ... 1953 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... During the Cold War, the Eastern Bloc (or Soviet Bloc) comprised the following Central and Eastern European countries: Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Albania (until the early 1960s, see below), the Soviet Union, and Czechoslovakia. ... 1956 was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Cover for the CD of the 2001 Warsaw Autumn festival. ... 1958 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... History of Poland is filled with the struggle to get, keep, and regain freedom—the pride of Poles and main value of Polish culture. ...

1958 saw the first performance of his Muzyka żałobna (Musique funèbre, or "Music of mourning" in Lutosławski's translation), written to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Béla Bartók, which brought international recognition, the annual ZFP prize and the UNESCO prize in 1959. This work, together with the Five songs of 1956-7, saw the fruition of much of Lutosławski's harmonic and contrapuntal development of his own 12-note system. He hit on another feature of his compositional technique which has become a Lutosławski signature when he introduced his method for introducing randomness into the exact synchronisation of various parts of the musical ensemble in Jeux vénitiens ("Venetian games"). These harmonic and temporal techniques became part of every subsequent work, and integral to his style. Béla Viktor János Bartók (March 25, 1881 – September 26, 1945) was a composer, pianist and collector of East European folk music. ... UNESCO logo The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, commonly known as UNESCO, is a specialized agency of the United Nations system established in 1946. ... 1959 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Harmony is the use and study of pitch simultaneity and chords, actual or implied, in music. ... Counterpoint is a very general feature of music (especially prominent in much Western music) whereby two or more melodic strands occur simultaneously – in separate voices, either literally or metaphorically (if the music is instrumental). ... Twelve-tone technique (also dodecaphony) is a system of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg. ... Synchronization is coordination with respect to time. ...

In 1963 Lutosławski fulfilled a commission for the Zagreb Music Biennale, his Trois poèmes d'Henri Michaux for chorus and orchestra. It was the first work he had written for a commission from abroad, and brought him further international acclaim. It earned him a second State Prize for music (there was no cynicism to the award this time), and Lutosławski also gained an agreement for international publication of his music with Chester Music (then part of the Hansen publishing house). Zagreb (pronounced ZA-greb) is the capital city of Croatia. ...

With his String Quartet (1964) Lutosławski (or rather his wife Danuta) solved the problem of how to notate his requirement for a lack of synchronicity between the parts. Originally Lutosławski produced only the four instrumental parts, refusing to bind them in a full score as he was concerned that this would imply that he wanted notes in vertical alignment to coincide, as is the case with conventionally notated classical ensemble music. Danuta solved this by cutting up the parts and sticking them together in boxes (which Lutosławski called mobiles) with instructions on how to signal in performance when all the players should proceed to the next mobile. In his orchestral music these problems were not to prove so difficult because the instructions on how and when to proceed are given to the conductor. Conductor can mean different things in different contexts: In science and engineering, a conductor is material which contains movable electric charges in which an electric current can be produced. ...

The String Quartet was first performed in Stockholm in 1965, and this was followed the same year by the first performance of his orchestral song cycle Paroles tissées. This shortened title was suggested by the poet Jean-François Chabrun, who had originally published the poems as Quatre tapisseries pour la Châtelaine de Vergi. This song cycle is dedicated to the tenor Peter Pears, who first performed it at the 1965 Aldeburgh Festival with the composer conducting. The Aldeburgh Festival was founded and organised by Benjamin Britten, with whom the composer formed a lasting friendship. The Stockholm City Hall Stockholm  listen is the capital and the largest city of Sweden. ... 1965 was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... A song cycle is a group of songs designed to be performed in sequence as a single entity. ... Peter Neville Luard Pears (June 22, 1910 – April 3, 1986) was an English tenor and life-long partner of the composer Benjamin Britten. ... 1965 was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... The Aldeburgh Festival is an English festival, largely revolving around classical music. ... Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (November 22, 1913 – December 4, 1976) was a British composer and pianist. ...

Shortly after this Lutosławski began work on his second symphony, which had two premières: Pierre Boulez conducted the second movement, Direct, in 1966, and when the first movement, Hésitant, was finished in 1967 the composer conducted a complete performance in Katowice. The second symphony is nothing like a conventional classical symphony in structure, but Lutosławski used all of his technical innovations up to that point to build a large-scale, dramatic work worthy of the name. In 1968 the work earned Lutosławski first prize from the Tribune International des Compositeurs, the UNESCO prize for the third time, and confirmed his growing international reputation. Pierre Boulez (IPA: /pjɛʁ. ... 1966 was a common year starting on Saturday (link goes to calendar) Events January January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic. ... 1967 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Katowice (German Kattowitz) (pronounce: [katɔvʲitsɛ], former Polish name Kątowicze, 1953-1956 Stalinogród - Stalin City) is an important city of the historical region of Upper Silesia in southern Poland on the Klodnica and Rawa rivers. ... A symphony is an extended piece of music usually for orchestra and comprising several movements. ... 1968 was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ...

International renown

The second symphony, the Livre pour orchestre, and the Cello Concerto which followed, were all composed during a particularly traumatic period in Lutoslawski’s life. From a personal point of view, his mother died in 1967; in addition, the years 1967-1970 saw a great deal of unrest in Poland. This sprang first from the suppression of the theatre production Dziady, which sparked a summer of protests; later, in 1968, the use of Polish troops to suppress the liberal reforms in Czechoslovakia, and the Gdańsk shipyard strike of 1970 (which led to a violent clampdown by the authorities) both caused a great deal of tension. Lutosławski did not support the Soviet regime, and these events have been postulated as reasons for the increase in antagonistic effects in his work, particularly his Cello concerto written in 1968-70 for Rostropovich and the Royal Philharmonic Society. Indeed, Rostropovich's own opposition to the Soviet regime in Russia was just coming to a head (he shortly afterwards declared his support for the dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn). Lutosławski himself did not hold the view that such influences had a direct effect on his music, although he acknowledged that of course they must impinge on his creative world to some degree. In any case, the Cello Concerto was a great success, earning both Lutosławski and Rostropovich accolades. 1967 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1967 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Dziady for the poem of Adam Mickiewicz. ... 1968 was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... This article refers to a period of history of Czechoslovakia in 1968. ... For alternative meanings of Gdańsk and Danzig, see Gdansk (disambiguation) and Danzig (disambiguation) Motto: Nec temere, nec timide (Neither rashly nor timidly) Voivodship Pomeranian Municipal government Rada miasta Gdańska Mayor Paweł Adamowicz Area 262 km² Population  - city  - urban  - density 461 400 (2003) Ranked 6th 1 035 000 1761/km² Founded... 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich (Мстисла́в Леопо́льдович Ростропо́вич) (born March 27, 1927) is a Russian cellist and conductor, considered to be one of the greatest living cellists. ... The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is an English orchestra based in London. ... Solzhenitsyn was exiled from the Soviet Union for his book The Gulag Archipelago. ...

In 1973 Lutosławski attended a recital given by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Sviatoslav Richter in Warsaw, and this inspired him to write his extended orchestral song Les espaces du sommeil ("The spaces of sleep"). This, and the work Mi-Parti (a French expression roughly translated as "divided into two equal but different parts"), together with a short piece for Cello in honour of the 70th birthday of Paul Sacher, continued to keep Lutosławski busy, while in the background he was working away at a projected third symphony and a concertante piece for the oboist Heinz Holliger. These latter pieces were proving difficult to complete as Lutosławski struggled to produce the more fluent music he wanted to introduce to his sound world. The Double Concerto for oboe, harp and chamber orchestra (which had been commissioned by Paul Sacher) was finally finished in 1980, and the Third Symphony occupied him from 1981-1983. 1973 was a common year starting on Monday. ... Missing image Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau The German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (born May 28, 1925) is regarded by many as the finest Lieder singer of his generation. ... Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter (Святосла́в Теофи́лович Ри́хтер) (March 20, 1915 – August 1, 1997) was a Soviet pianist of German extraction. ... Paul Sacher (April 28, 1906 - May 26, 1999) was a Swiss conductor. ... Modern Oboe The Oboe is a musical instrument of the woodwind double reed family. ... Heinz Holliger (born May 21, 1939) is a Swiss oboe player. ...

During this time Poland undergoing yet more upheaval: in 1978 John Paul II was elected the first Polish Pope, providing a national figurehead of acknowledged world importance; in 1980 the influential group Solidarność was created, led by Lech Walesa; and in 1981 martial law was declared under General Wojciech Jaruzelski. During the period 1981 to 1988-9 Lutosławski refused all professional engagements inside Poland as a gesture of solidarity with the artists' boycott. He refused to enter the Culture Ministry to meet any of the Ministers of Culture and he was careful not to find himself in a position to be photographed in their company. In 1983 he sent a recording of the first performance (in Chicago) of the third symphony to Gdańsk to be played to strikers in a local church, a gesture of support well understood by both sides. In 1983 he was awarded the Solidarity prize, of which Lutosławski was reported to be more proud than any other of his honours. 1978 was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... Official papal image of John Paul II. His Holiness Pope John Paul II, né Karol Józef Wojtyła (born May 18, 1920 in Wadowice, Poland), is the current Pope — the Bishop of Rome and head of the Roman Catholic Church. ... The Pope is the Catholic Bishop and patriarch of Rome, and head of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches. ... 1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... Solidarity (Polish Solidarność) is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980, originally led by Lech Wałęsa. ... Lech Wałęsa (pronounced , born September 29, 1943, Popowo, Poland) was an Polish electrician, a trade union activist, a human rights activist and a politician. ... 1981 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... History of Poland is filled with the struggle to get, keep, and regain freedom—the pride of Poles and main value of Polish culture. ... Term of Office from July 19, 1989 until December 22, 1990 Profession Officer Political Party PZPR First Lady Barbara Jaruzelska Date of Birth July 6, 1923 Place of Birth Kurów near Puławy, Poland Date of Death Place of Death Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski (pronounce: [vɔjtɕεx jaruzεlski]) (born July 6, 1923... 1981 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ...

The third symphony was to earn Lutosławski the first Grawemeyer Prize from the University of Louisville, Kentucky. The significance of the prize lay not just in its prestige (other eminent nominations have included Elliott Carter and Michael Tippett) but in the size of its financial award (then US$150 000), the intention of the award being to remove any monetary worries for a composer for a period to allow him to concentrate on serious composition. In a gesture of altruism, Lutosławski announced that he would use the fund to set up a scholarship to enable young Polish composers to study abroad; Lutosławski also directed that his fee from the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra for Chain 3 should go to this scholarship fund. The Grawemeyer Award for music composition is an annual prize intituted by H. Charles Grawemeyer, industrialist and entrepreneur, at the University of Louisville in 1984. ... The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public, state-supported university located in Louisville, Kentucky. ... State nickname: Bluegrass State Other U.S. States Capital Frankfort Largest city Louisville Governor Ernie Fletcher Official languages English Area 104,749 km² (37th)  - Land 102,989 km²  - Water 1,760 km² (1. ... Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. ... Sir Michael Kemp Tippett (January 2, 1905 – January 8, 1998) was an English composer. ... The San Francisco Symphony is a major orchestra based in San Francisco, California. ...

Final years

Through the mid 1980s Lutosławski hit upon ways of simplifying his style while retaining the freedoms he had gained in his techniques to date. He composed three pieces called Łańcuch ("Chain"), which in simple terms refers to the way the music is constructed of contrasting strands which overlap like the links of a chain. Chain 2 was written for Anne-Sophie Mutter (commissioned by Paul Sacher), and for Mutter he also orchestrated his slightly earlier Partita for violin and piano, providing a new linking Interlude, so that when played together the Partita, Interlude and Chain 2 form his longest work. Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ... Anne-Sophie Mutter (born June 29, 1963) is a German violinist. ...

In 1987 Lutosławski was presented (by Michael Tippett) with the Royal Philharmonic Society's Gold Medal during a concert in which Lutosławski was conducting his third symphony; also that year a major celebration of his work was made at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. In addition, he was awarded honorary doctorates at several universities worldwide, including Cambridge. The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival is held in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England. ... An Honorary degree (Latin: honoris causa ad gradum) is a degree awarded to someone by an institution that he or she may have never attended, it may be a bachelors, masters or doctorate degree - however, the latter is most common. ... The University of Cambridge is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world (after Oxford). ...

Lutosławski was at this time writing his Piano Concerto for Krystian Zimerman, commissioned by the Salzburg Festival. He had had plans to write a piano concerto since 1938, being himself in his younger days a virtuoso pianist. It was this work that marked the composer's return to the conductor's podium in Poland in 1988, after substantive talks had been arranged between the government and the opposition. Krystian Zimerman Krystian Zimerman (born December 5, 1956) is a Polish classical pianist. ... The Salzburg Festival is a prominent music festival in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart The festival was founded in 1877 but was discontinued in 1910. ... 1938 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Lutosławski also, around 1990, worked on a fourth symphony and his orchestral song cycle Chantefleurs et chantefables for soprano. The latter was first performed at a Prom concert in London in 1991, and the fourth symphony in 1993 in Los Angeles. In between, and after initial reluctance, Lutosławski took on the presidency of the newly reconstituted Polish Cultural Council. This had been set up after the reforms in 1989 in Poland brought about by the almost total support for Solidarity in the elections of that year, and the subsequent reinstatement of Poland as an independent republic (Rzeczpospolita Polska as under the Treaty of Versailles, rather than Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa). 1990 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A Promenade concert in the Royal Albert Hall, 2004. ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... This article is about the largest city in California. ... 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Woodrow Wilson with the American Peace Commissioners The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 is the peace treaty created as a result of six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, which put an official end to World War I between the Allies and Central Powers. ...

In 1993 Lutosławski continued his busy schedule, travelling to England, Germany and Japan, and sketching a violin concerto, but by Christmas it was clear that cancer had taken a hold, and after an operation the composer weakened quickly and died on February 7th. He had, a few weeks before, been awarded Poland's highest honour, the Order of the White Eagle (only the second person to receive this since the collapse of communism in Poland - the first had been Pope John Paul II). He was cremated; his devoted wife Danuta died shortly afterwards. February 7 is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Order. ... The Servant of God Pope John Paul II (Latin: ), born Karol Józef Wojtyła [1] (May 18, 1920–April 2, 2005), reigned as pope of the Roman Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City for almost 27 years, from 16 October 1978 until his death in 2005. ...

Music

Detailed and thorough discussions of Lutosławski's music and technique may be found in Stucky (1981) and Rae (1999).

Lutosławski has characterised musical composition as a search for listeners who think and feel as he did - he once called it a "fishing for souls".

Folk influence

Works up to Dance Preludes show marked folk influence, both harmonically and melodically. For instance, the Concerto for Orchestra contains Polish folk melodies more or less distorted, some unrecognisable except after careful analysis.

When Lutosławski discovered the techniques of his mature compositions, he simply stopped using folk material. As he said "[in those days] I could not compose as I wished, so I composed as I was able", and about this change of direction he said, "I was simply not so interested in it [using folk music]".

Pitch organisation

In Muzyka żałobna of 1958 Lutosławski introduced his own brand of 12-tone music, and the work marks his leaving behind of folk influence. This 12-tone technique is not based on Arnold Schoenberg's tone-row system (although Muzyka żałobna does happen to be based on a tone row), but rather serves Lutosławski's ends in allowing him to create his own brand of harmonic techniques based on groups of intervals. This system also enabled Lutosławski to write the dense chords he wanted without resorting to tone clusters, and enabled him to build towards these dense chords (which often including all 12 notes of the chromatic scale) at climactic moments. Twelve-tone technique (also dodecaphony) is a system of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg. ... Arnold Schoenberg, Los Angeles, 1948 For the American music critic and journalist, see Harold Charles Schonberg. ... A chord is a geometric figure. ... A tone cluster, in music and in Western tuning, is a chord or simultaneity comprised of consecutive tones separated chromatically. ...

This 12-note intervallic technique was not a complete break with previous music by Lutosławski, as the use of intervals to build chords can be heard in works such as the Concerto for Orchestra. In music theory, an interval is the distance in pitch between two notes, the lower and higher members of the interval. ...

Aleatory technique

Although Muzyka żałobna was internationally acclaimed, his new harmonic techniques led to something of a crisis for Lutosławski during which he could still not see how to express his musical ideas. Then he happened to hear some music by John Cage. Although he was not influenced by the sound or the philosophy of Cage's music, Cage's explorations of aleatory music set off a train of thought which was to result in Lutosławski finding a way to retain the harmonic structures he wanted while introducing the freedoms he was searching for. His work 3 Postludes on which he was working was hastily rounded off (he had originally intended to write four) and he moved on to new works in which he explored these new ideas. John Cage John Milton Cage (September 5, 1912–August 12, 1992) was an American experimental music composer and writer. ... Aleatoric (or aleatory) music or composition, is music where some element of the composition is left to chance. ...

In works from Jeux vénitiens the parts of the ensemble are not to be synchronised exactly. At signals from the conductor the instrumentalists may be instructed for example to move straight on to the next section, to finish their current section before moving on, or to stop. In this way the "random" element implied by the term aleatory is carefully directed by the composer, who controls the architecture and harmonic progression of the piece precisely. Lutosławski notates the music exactly, there is no improvisation, no choice of parts is given to any instrumentalist, and there is thus no doubt about how the musical performance is to be realised. The combination of Lutosławski's aleatory techniques and his harmonic discoveries allowed him to build up complex textures. Synchronization is coordination with respect to time. ... Music notation is a system of writing for music. ... Improvisation is the act of making something up as you go along. ... In music, the word texture is often used in a rather vague way in reference to the overall sound of a piece of music. ...

In many works of the period this aleatory style is contrasted with sections where the orchestra is asked to synchronise their parts conventionally, in passages notated with a common time signature; for instance the climax of Livre pour orchestre, and passages leading to the climax of Symphony No. 2.

Late style

In his later works Lutosławski evolved a more harmonically mobile (and perhaps less monumental) style, in which less of the music is played with ad lib co-ordination. This development came out of the demands of his late chamber works such as the Epitaph, Grave and Partita, but it may be seen in orchestral works such as the Piano Concerto, Chantefleurs et Chantefables, and Fourth Symphony, which mostly require conventional co-ordination.

Lutosławski's formidable technical developments grew out of his creative imperative; that he left a lasting body of major compositions is a testament to his resolution of purpose in the face of the anti-formalist authorities under which he formulated his methods. Formalism in art theory is the belief that aesthetic values can stand alone and that judgements of art can be detached from other considerations such as ethical or social ones. ...

Selected compositions

• Sonata for piano (1934)
• Lacrimosa for soprano, optional SATB chorus and orchestra (1937 - surviving fragment of a Requiem)
• Symphonic Variations (1936-8)
• Variations on a Theme by Paganini for two pianos (1940-41, arr. piano and orchestra 1978)
• Pieśni walki podziemnej (Songs of the Underground) for voice and piano (1942-4)
• Melodie Ludowe (Folk Melodies), 12 easy pieces for piano (1945)
• Suita Warszawska (Warsaw Suite), 35mm documentary film (1946)
• Dwadzieście kolęd (20 carols) for voice and piano (1946, orchestrated 1984-89)
• Symphony No. 1 (1941-7)
• Little Suite for chamber orchestra (1950)
• Tryptyk Śląski (Silesian Triptych) for soprano and orchestra (1951)
• Children's Songs for voice and piano (1953)
• Children's Songs for voice and chamber orchestra (1954)
• Concerto for Orchestra (1950-54)
• Dance Preludes, for clarinet and piano (1954, orchestrated 1955)
• Muzyka żałobna (Musique funèbre) for string orchestra (1954-58)
• Three Postludes for orchestra (1958-63)
• Jeux vénitiens (Venetian Games) for chamber orchestra (1960-61)
• Trois poèmes d'Henri Michaux for chorus and orchestra (1961-63)
• String Quartet (1964)
• Paroles tissées (Woven words) for tenor and chamber orchestra (1965)
• Symphony No. 2 (1965-7)
• Livre pour orchestra (1968)
• Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (1969-70)
• Preludes and Fugue for 13 solo strings (1970-72)
• Les espaces du sommeil (Spaces of sleep), for baritone and orchestra (1975)
• Mi-Parti (1975-76)
• Novelette (1978-79)
• Epitaph for oboe and piano (1979)
• Double Concerto for oboe, harp and chamber orchestra (1979-80)
• Grave, Metamorphoses for cello and piano (1981)
• Symphony No. 3 (1981-83)
• Chain 1, for chamber ensemble (1983)
• Partita for violin and piano (1984, orchestral version 1988)
• Chain 2, Dialogue for violin and orchestra (1984-5)
• Chain 3 for orchestra (1986)
• Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1987-88)
• Interlude for orchestra (1989, to link Partita and Chain 2)
• Chantefleurs et Chantefables, for soprano and orchestra (1989-90)
• Symphony No. 4 (1988-92)

References

• Charles Bodman Rae (1999). The Music of Lutosławski, (third edn.). Faber & Faber, London. ISBN 0-7119-6910-8.
• Steven Stucky (1981). Lutosławski and his music. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 0-521-22799-2. Contains an enormous relevant bibliography.
• Bernard Jacobson (1996). A Polish Renaissance. Phaidon, London. ISBN 0-7148-3251-0.
• Bálint András Varga ed., Lutosławski profile, Chester Music, London (1974).

Composer Steven Stucky, pronounced [stʌki] (rhymes with lucky) born 1949 in Hutchinson, Kansas, has written commissioned works for many of the major American orchestras, including Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Philadelphia, and St. ...

External links

• Polish Music Center: Witold Lutosławski (http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/VEPM/lutos/lu-title.html)
• Culture.PL: Witold Lutosławski - a classic of 20th-century music (http://www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/es_lutoslawski)
• BBC Music Profile: Witold Lutosławski (http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/profiles/lutoslawski.shtml)
• Nancy Woo, Witold Lutosławski's Mi-Parti A Musical Essay in Sound Textures (http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/harley/nancy.html)