Czarnecki, Sławomir

Czarnecki Sławomir, *23 July 1949 Jelenia Góra, Polish composer and teacher. He studied composition under P. Perkowski and R. Twardowski at the State Higher School of Music in Warsaw (graduated in 1974). In 1980–81, as a French government scholarship holder, he undertook further studies with O. Messiaen in Paris. Since 1974, he has been teaching theory at the J. Elsner Secondary Music School in Warsaw. Winner of over a dozen prizes and distinctions at composition competitions, including: 1st prize at the competition for pedagogical works in Wrocław (1973) for Piano Concerto No. 1, 2nd prize at the Composition Competition of the 9th Polish Piano Festival in Słupsk (1975) for Concertino for Piano and Orchestra, 1st prize at the ZKP Young Composers’ Competition (1976) for Gradito, honourable mentions at the 19th Concorso Internazionale di Composizione “Premio Città di Trieste” (1980) for Concerto pesante, and prizes from the City of Darmstadt at the Chopin-Gesellschaft competition (1980) for Symphonie concertante, two First Prizes at the Warsaw branch of the ZKP competition: in 1982 for Intrada, Elegia e Postludium and in 1985 for Pieśni Orfeusza, the V. Bucchi Prize in Rome (1986) for Leśne wędrówki, third prize at the K. Szymanowski Competition (1992) for Muzyka z Zawratu, the City of Gdańsk Prize at the competition marking the 1000th anniversary of Gdańsk (1997) for Hymnus Gedanensis.

The starting point for Czarnecki’s work is a rejection of avant-gardism. His aesthetic approach is rooted in a traditional understanding of musical beauty, a pursuit of technical perfection, and a logical progression of form. Czarnecki’s early works draw on neoclassical influences (2 toccatas, Cantata Igor Stravinsky in memoriam), but the composer soon turned towards his own original technical and aesthetic explorations. Czarnecki’s musical language during this period is based on harmonic-interval thinking, in which structures composed of thirds and fifths acquire the status of formative elements (Gradito, Piano Trio); later, the composer introduced purely sonoristic elements (Capriccio for 2 cellos, Concerto pesante, Concerto for Double Bass and Strings). From 1985 onwards (Cantata Laudate Dominum), Czarnecki’s work entered a phase of synthesis that can be placed within the postmodernist current. This approach is expressed through the synthesis of his own experiences and elements drawn from tradition (Via Crucis, Hombark-Concerto). An important element of the dialogue with musical tradition in the broadest sense in Czarnecki’s latest works are folkloric themes, and in particular the ingeniously reworked music of the highlanders of Podhale and Spiš (Hombark-Concerto, String Quartet No. 2 “Spiski”, Wałaski, Sabałowe Interludes).