Profile of Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki on Famous Like Me

Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (born December 6, 1933) is a Polish composer of classical music.

Górecki was born in Czernica, in southern Poland. He did not study music seriously until he was in his twenties, when he began to study in Katowice. Later, while continuing his studies in Paris, Górecki was able to hear works by Anton Webern, Olivier Messiaen and Karlheinz Stockhausen, which were suppressed by the Polish government. Górecki eventually became a professor of music in Katowice, but he resigned his post in the late 1970s in protest against the government's refusal to allow Pope John Paul II to visit the city.

Górecki's music covers a variety of styles, but tends to be harmonically relatively simple. His first works were in the same avant-garde style as that of Pierre Boulez or other serialists, but his later music is more often compared to minimalism, often being labelled “holy minimalism”. Like Arvo Pärt, with whom he is also compared, his works often reflect his religious beliefs (Górecki is a Catholic).

Górecki's most popular piece is his third symphony, subtitled Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (Symfonia pieśni żałosnych). Slow and contemplative, the three movements are composed for orchestra and soprano solo. The words of the first movement are from a 15th century lament; the words of the second were written by a teenage girl on the wall of a Gestapo prison cell in Zakopane and invoke the protections of the Virgin Mary; the third movement is a folk song. The first movement, an extended canon for strings, takes up around half the playing time; it uses a battery of double basses to build slowly to an exquisite outcry from the soprano, before retreating to its foundation. Of the three movements, the second - lasting about eight minutes - is probably the most frequently listened to. A typical performance of the work lasts about fifty five minutes. The work was written in 1976, and premiered the following year; after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it was performed in Poland at an emotional commemorative event. An acclaimed recording of the symphony - the London Sinfonietta conducted by David Zinman and the solo part sung by Dawn Upshaw - was released in 1993 and has sold 2 million copies.

More recently, the first movement of Górecki's Pieces in the Old Style (Trzy utwory w dawnym stylu) was reinterpreted by the pop/dance music producer William Ørbit in the album Pieces in a Modern Style (1999), an examination of orchestral pieces through electronic medium.

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