Music
See also: Music of PolandThe traditional Polish music composers include world-renowned pianist Frédéric Chopin as well as famous composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Karol Szymanowski, and others.
Between the wars, a group of composers formed the Association of Young Polish Musicians; these included Grażyna Bacewicz, Zygmunt Mycielski, Michał Spisak and Tadeusz Szeligowski.
The music of Fryderyk Chopin, influenced by Polish folklore, conveys the essence of Polish Romanticism. Since 1927, the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition has been held every five years in Warsaw.
Following World War II, some composers, such as Roman Palester and Andrzej Panufnik, fled the country and remained in the exile. In the early 1960s, however, a number of composers known as the Polish Composers' School arose, characterized by the use of sonorism and dodecaphonism. The style emerged out of the political crisis in 1956, following Stalin's death; that same year saw the Warsaw Autumn music festival inaugurated, from whence came additional popularity for the Polish Composers' School. Composers included Tadeusz Baird, Boguslaw Schaeffer, Włodzimierz Kotoński, Witold Szalonek, Krzysztof Penderecki, Witold Lutosławski, Wojciech Kilar, Kazimierz Serocki and Henryk Mikołaj Górecki.
More modern composers include Krzysztof Meyer, Paweł Szymański, Krzesimir Dębski, Hanna Kulenty, Eugeniusz Knapik and Paweł Mykietyn.
Poland has always been a very open country to new music genres and even before the fall of the communism, music styles like rock, metal, jazz, electronic, polka music,and New Wave were well-known. Since 1989, the Polish scene has exploded with new talents and a more diverse style. Contrary to most European countries, pop music is not dominant in Poland.
Every year, a huge gathering of young Poles meet to celebrate the rock and alternative music in Jarocin or Żary. These events often attract more than 250,000 people and are comparable to the gatherings in Woodstock and Roskilde.
Poland has a very active underground extreme metal music scene. Some of the bands that have heralded and helped the cause are Vader, Behemoth, Yattering, Decapitated, Graveland, Baphomets Throne, and Dissenter. This has paved ground for a large underground movement. One of the biggest record labels of death metal in Poland is Empire Records.
In jazz music, polish musicians created a specific style, which was most famous in 60s and 70s. Most famous polish jazz artists are: Krzysztof Komeda, Adam Makowicz, Tomasz Stańko, Michał Urbaniak.
Two contemporary big Polish music festivals are Opole Festival and Sopot Festival.
Read more about this topic: Culture In Modern Poland
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“A woman drew her long black hair out tight
And fiddled whisper music on those strings
And bats with baby faces in the violet light
Whistled, and beat their wings
And crawled head downward down a blackened wall....”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“The basic difference between classical music and jazz is that in the former the music is always greater than its performance—Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, for instance, is always greater than its performance—whereas the way jazz is performed is always more important than what is being performed.”
—André Previn (b. 1929)
“The manner in which Americans “consume” music has a lot to do with leaving it on their coffee tables, or using it as wallpaper for their lifestyles, like the score of a movie—it’s consumed that way without any regard for how and why it’s made.”
—Frank Zappa (1940–1994)