So who was Witold Lutoslawski..?

Polish composer, born in Warsaw in 1913 (died Warsaw in 1994) whose orchestral and chamber works are centerpieces of modern composition.

His music after the War is characterised by Polish folk melody and rhythm. Works such as the 'Little Suite for Orchestra'(1951) show the influence of Bela Bartok.

In the late 1950's he was attracted by the 12 tone system, but from 1961 he bacame fascinated with the creative potential of aleatoric music (music of chance). In this he was greatly influenced by American composer John Cage

Lutoslawski was greatly moved by a performance by John Cage of his music at darmstadt in 1961.

It is interesting to speculate that Lutoslawski may well have heard Cage's 'Winter Music'

Compositions such as 'Venetian Games' for chamber orchestra in 1962 contain passages where the synchronicity between instruments is deliberately disturbed.

Most of his subsequent works were orchestral, fully chromatic, finely orchestrated,and developed from an opposition between aleatory and metrical textures. An example is the Third symphony (1983).

In later life Lutoslawski displays an increasing concern with expansive melody The symphony No. 4 (1993) is a particularly good example. Click here for reviews.

Other links

Polish music reference centre web site

This is a very comprehensive web site for Polish culture maintained by Professor Maria Anna Harley of the University of Southern California. An Online encyclopedia is being developed for Polish composers as part of the site.

It already contains a useful bibliography and discography for Lutoslawski