Moryto, Stanisław (EN)

Moryto Stanisław, *8 May 1947 Łącko (near Nowy Sącz), †5 June 2018 Warsaw, Polish composer and organist. He studied organ playing at the State Higher School of Music (PWSM) in Warsaw with F. Rączkowski (diploma in 1971) and composition with T. Paciorkiewicz (diploma in 1974). In 1973–81, he was the chairman of the Jeunesses Musicales de Pologne, and in 1981–97 the president of the Ludowy Instytut Muzyczny [People’s Institute of Music]. He is the initiator and artistic director of the contemporary music festival Conversatorium in Legnica. From 1996, he served as vice-rector of the Academy of Music in Warsaw. Winner of the 1^st prize at the ZKP Young Composers’ Competition (1975 – for Nocturnes). Moryto also gave concerts as an organist, making numerous premieres and archival recordings in Poland and abroad.

Moryto’s work focuses on organ, accordion and choral music. The heritage of the second avant-garde is its interest in sonoristic technique, which resulted in numerous attempts to use percussion instruments (Vers libre, A tre, Per uno solo). Moryto’s latest compositional work was based on a summary of his achievements to date. The composer’s interests focus on strict polyphonic thinking within various sound systems, among which Messiaen’s modality is particularly close to his heart. Moryto’s most representative piece is Cello Concerto. It is a kind of sound and expression treatise in which the traditional formal arrangement (fast-slow-fast part) is filled with sound structures based on Messiaen’s mode, ordered with strict contrapuntal discipline in symmetrical-concentric sound planes. The musical structure is complemented by varied articulation and dynamics, varied, dense texture, and inventive rhythms and melodies. The effect is a neat synthesis of constructivist thinking with the spontaneity of creative inventiveness.

Literature: W stałym kontrapunkcie, “Ruch Muzyczny” 1994 no. 6 (interview of E. Gajkowska with Moryto); B. Błaszczyk Koncert wiolonczelowy Stanisława Moryto, “Ruch Muzyczny” 1996 no. 16.