Wokół ostatnich dzieł Henryka Mikołaja Góreckiego. Styl późny a styl ostatni
On the Last Works of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki. The Late Style and the Last Style

Author(s): Teresa Malecka
Subject(s): Fine Arts / Performing Arts
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Summary/Abstract: “[…] for me, the time for […] authoritative claims, judgments or expressions had long passed. It has been replaced with the time of reflection, doubt and deliberation. It hasbeen replaced with the time of questions—what have I done right, and what have I donewrong? Was it worth it? Is it still worth it? Should I just stop talking now…?” The openingpassage comes from a speech by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, delivered in 2008 at the ceremonyof bestowing upon him an honorary degree at the Academy of Music in Kraków;it was probably the last official statement made by the composer and, at the same time,a kind of an artistic and ideological last will of the artist. When one takes into account thetime of conception of his last works, still unfinished at that time (2004—The Song of theKatyń Families; 2005—Kyrie; 2006—4th Symphony), it becomes apparent that he utteredthose words in the period of reflection, not of intense work. The vocal and instrumentalKyrie—his penultimate work—as a verbal and musical whole constructed on the basis ofthree basic categories: contrast, ostinato and expression, constitutes a point of departurefor the discussion on the categories of the late and last style, which refer to the typologyproposed by Mieczysław Wallis and Mieczysław Tomaszewski, grounded in the contextof auto-reflection in the last years of the composer’s life.

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