Sonorism

Sonorism is a term which is mainly used in Polish musicology and a noise- oriented style in contemporary music describes. The most well-known representative of the Krakow composer Krzysztof Penderecki, the so- style-defining works such as the Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima or De natura sonoris one of his oeuvre. The sonorism was in the 1960s and 1970s, the most dominant flow within the new music scene in Poland. The next generation turned part vigorously against this dominance, so among other things, the generation of '51 to Aleksander Lason, Eugeniusz Knapik and Andrzej Krzanowski, or Minimalist Paweł Szymański. However, the original representative of the sonorism adopted gradually by their avant-garde concepts. Thus transformed Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, for example, to a composer who writes primarily sacred, slow music. Also Penderecki changed his style, at least since the composition of his controversial Symphony No. 2 ( Christmas Symphony ).

Important composers of sonorism

• Tadeusz Baird
• Zbigniew Bujarski
• Andrzej Dobrowolski
• Henryk Mikołaj Górecki
• Wojciech Kilar
• Witold Lutosławski
• Krzysztof Meyer
• Krzysztof Penderecki
• Bogusław Schaeffer
• Kazimierz Serocki
• Witold Szalonek
• Avet Terterian

Further Reading

• Gerd Sannemüller: New Music in Poland. In: Schweizer Monatshefte 46 (1966 /67), pp. 1053-1059
• Krzysztof Droba: Sonoryzm polski, w: Kompozytorzy Polscy 1918-2000. TI Eseje, M. Podhajski ( red.), Gdańsk - Warszawa 2005.
• Danuta Gwizdalanka: Historia muzyki. XX wiek. , Kraków 2009