Polish Sonorism

I. SONORISM — THE NOTION AND ITS SCOPE

The term "coloristic" was introduced into the musicological language by J.M. Chomiński in 1956[1]; later, the notion of "sonoristics" became known as a word derived from it. Both designations were understood by Chomiński in a similar way: as a new and fairly characteristic element (factor) in 20th-century music, generally connected with colour, which, during the evolution of music in the 19th century, gradually became increasingly important in relation to other musical elements.

This process of transformation originated mostly from the overcoming of the major-minor tonal system and its functional harmony as the basis for the organisation of a musical work. According to Chomiński, the sonoristic element focuses on qualities of "pure sound", while sonoristics in contemporary music becomes the primary factor in the shaping the sound-structure of a musical work.

In his later studies, Chomiński tries to formulate a theory of sonoristics as the base for the contemporary compositional technique[2], and finally, he defines sonoristics as a new branch of musicology by introducing the notion of "sonology"[3]. Sonology is — according to Chomiński — "a knowledge of pure sound-qualities of a sound-material used as the artistic substance"[4], and "a discipline controlling the composer's operations"[5]. It is symptomatic that in this encyclopaedic entry the term "sonoristics" is no longer mentioned, although there appear adjective phrases, such as "sonoristic regulation" of the formation process, "sonoristic technique", or "sonologically-regulated music"[6].

What makes the study of sonoristics by Chomiński specific is the fact that it is directly connected with research on Polish contemporary music. However, the ambitions of the Polish musicologist were wider: he intended to create a new methodology for the study of contemporary musical works. Whether he created such a universal method is still a subject for discussion. It is certain. Nonetheless, that the Theory of sonorism and, consequently, the analytical methods derived from it are of great importance as far as Polish music is concerned, especially the music contemporary to Chomiński himself. His theory of sonorism is a rare case of theoretical generalization concerning something that has just begun to be realised through the composers’ creative practices. Besides, the methods of description and analysis concerning the technological breakthrough in compositional techniques, and changes in the sonic language in Polish music of the 1950s and 1960s, are still based on the recognition of specific values.

The year 1960 marks the turning point in Polish music after WWII. What happened earlier was only useful for the crystallization of the sonoristic method; this perspective is applied by Chomiński even to serial techniques including for example pointillism. According to Chomiński, the fundamental direction of "the evolution of Polish music after 1960 extends towards the enrichment of sonoristic: devices"[7]. In his reflection and description of some general processes and principles observed in the development of Polish music, there is an axiological aspect hidden: sonorism itself is regarded as a value, and so everything that is sonoristic begins to function as musically valuable. Having assumed a broad definition of sonorism encompassing everything that has a "pure sonic value”, such an axiological factor has conjured up a wide and vastly diversified world of sonoristic reality, embracing different phenomena such as Lutosławski and Penderecki, Bacewicz and Górecki, Serocki and Baird, Turski and Schaeffer, Szabelski and Szalonek, Kilar and Kotoński, Dobrowolski and T. Sikorski, etc.

Later studies by other authors, who describe the Polish sonoristic school, do not argue against Chomiński's concepts, but apparently collect more data by bringing new facts that support his main ideas. Such an absolute dependence on Chomiński's research can be observed, for example, in an extensive monographic study by K. Baculewski on Polish music after WWII[8]. The ideas presented by Chomiński involving a model of sonorism, or Polish sonoristic reality, are certainly worth discussing, especially the theses recognizing sonorism as the main and central tendency of the period, or even a kind of supreme link in the evolution of music (here perhaps one can hear a false, ideological tone). What should be emphasised, however, is the originality and accuracy of Chomiński's observations gathered mainly from the material of Polish music of the 1960s, and so today — a few decades later — it is confirmed that the 1960s were in fact an exceptional phenomenon as a decade of sonoristic euphoria. The beginning of the decade was rather violent and resounding with its manifestos (the strongest was Tren — Ofiarom Hiroszimy [Threnody — to the Victims of Hiroshima] by K. Penderecki, 1960). Its end, however, was much calmer and muted; for instance, the final retreat was heralded by Muzyka staropolska [Old Polish Music] by H. M. Górecki (1969).

II. TOTAL SONORISM

Chomiński's capacious definition makes it possible to regard the majority of Polish music in the 1960s and partly in the 1970s as belonging to the achievements of the sonoristic school. Yet, within the sonoristic sphere, there is a category of specific works that should be classified separately. These are the works that were known previously as sonoristic manifestos and consequently represent total sonorism:

K. Penderecki: Tren — Ofiarom Hiroszimy [Threnody — to the Victims of Hiroshima], 1960; I Kwartet smyczkowy [String Quartet No. I], 1960; Polymorphia, 1961; Fluorescencje [Fluorescence], 1962;

B. Schaeffer: Mała symfonia — Scultura [Little Symphony — Scultura], 1960;

H. M. Górecki: Genesis I and II, 1962-3; Choros I, 1964

W. Kilar: Riff 62, 1962; Générique, 1963; Diphthongos, 1964;

K. Serocki: Freski symfoniczne [Symphonic Frescoes], 1964;

W. Szalonek: Les sons, 1965.

This list is intentionally limited to the first years of the decade, when sonorism was a purely fresh phenomenon with a full impetus to discover and conquer unknown areas of sound. Indeed, such sound-qualities had not been heard in instrumental music before! Total sonorism is extremely radical. The formerly known musical elements do not just become different in their mutual relations, but they disappear altogether. For instance, the melodic and harmonic factors cease to exist. Similarly to atonal music from the beginning of the 20th century, which obsessively avoided any tonal associations, and was in fact anti-tonal, total sonorism is "non-harmonic" and "non-melodic", due to its fundamental principle of eliminating any material defined through the pitch element. The radically non-harmonic and non-melodic attitude presented by the "exploratory daredevils" is by no means neutral. It does sound emotional, and therefore more adequate notions here would be anti-harmoniousness and anti-melodiousness. The works such as Tren [Threnody] by Penderecki, or Genesis by Górecki, are saturated with cognitive optimism and impudence: it is possible to build a new musical world based on new sounds, new textures, and thus to break off the affinity for all the long-lasting tradition of melodic-harmonic thinking.

Total sonorism is the music of new textures. These are textures that replace the melodic and harmonic material. The textures, as well as the elements used for their construction, have a purely sonic value, while the music, i.e. the process of musical formation, becomes a purely textural narration. Alternations, transformations, the whole catalogues of textures – simple versus complex, homogeneous and polygeneous, stable and labile, textures built from both new articulations and "normal" ones, but making up new sound-qualities when summed up together, or cluster and glissando textures – all these devices and ways of organising textures create music characterised by dramaturgy marked with expressiveness. The textural dramaturgy in the above-mentioned works produces highly dramatic tales. The dramatic style of narration involving colour telling a tale about colour, and sound-quality weaving a story through the sounding, seems to be the characteristic of the "Polish school" of the 1960s.

Creating music from full sonoristic material (i.e. entirely from new qualities of colour and sound) proceeded in two stages, with both of them developing as two separate currents of total sonorism: the earlier phase initiated the so-called cataloguing sonorism, and then the slightly later one evolved into the so-called reductionist sonorism.

Penderecki's Tren [Threnody] is the exemplary and representative work for the cataloguing sonorism. The essence of such a sonorism is based on multiplications of new qualities of colour and sound and compiling them into a kind of catalogue of various textures. At the beginning of this current, a free outlining of textures was taking place according to overriding ideas concerning the formal dramaturgy. As time went by, an enlargement of the catalogues by including newer sonoristic qualities and increasingly fastidious method of textural formation could be observed. Nevertheless, the typical formal procedure in the cataloguing sonorism still continued to be based on segmented forms. This current lasted for some time; K. Serocki, for instance, remained its faithful follower until the end of his artistic career.

For reductionist sonorism, the model work is Refren [Refrain] by H. M. Górecki. This kind of sonorism finds its essence in reduction — limitation and selection — of the musical material down to very few sonoristic qualities. In Refren, the reduction comes down to merely two types of cluster: whole-tone, and semi-tone. Constructing a musical work from such radically limited material leads to a different treatment of the form compared with the cataloguing sonorism, i.e. to a specific decision to make the formal process static, and to assigning the prime importance to an architectural model, instead of a process. The reductionist sonorism had its time and scope of rather limited extent, in fact, the current was concentrated around the circle of Silesian composers (including W. Kilar) within just a few years in the mid-1960s.

Total sonorism was a rather short-lived phenomenon in the history of Polish music: as an aesthetic direction, it appeared in, and dominated, the 1960s – but as an element of compositional technique, it was present for much longer (in the 1970s and ­ as a relic – in the 1980s). It fulfilled the idea of a new music constructed from new sounds in a new way, music without melody and harmony, music that is textural par excellence (the music and textures). Because the potential possibilities of total sonorism were not fully penetrated and explored in the 1960s, it may not be a closed chapter yet. What seems to be intriguing nowadays is that the music that represents total sonorism returns to concert halls with increasing frequency, and that it sounds fresh against today's post-modernist background.