Sikorski, Tomasz (EN)

Sikorski Tomasz, *19 May 1939 Warsaw, †13 November 1988 Warsaw, composer and pianist, son of Kazimierz. He studied at the State Higher School of Music in Warsaw: in 1956–62 composition under his father (obtaining a diploma with distinction) and in 1956–61 piano with Z. Drzewiecki. In 1961–63, his interests focused on electronic music; at that time, pieces for tape were created: Antifons and Echoes II, for which the composer received an honourable mention at the 5^th Young Competition of the Polish Composers’ Union (ZKP). In 1965, thanks to a scholarship from the French government, Sikorski studied with N. Boulanger in Paris. In 1963–68, he lectured instrumentation and score reading at the State Higher School of Music in Warsaw. In 1963, alongside Z. Krauze and J. Tilbury, he was one of the initiators of the “Music Workshop,” a band performing contemporary music. In 1967, he founded the band Ad novum, whose permanent members, apart from the composer, included Z. Rudziński (piano), A. Wojakowski (flute) and K. Woźniak (drums). Sikorski was a talented pianist, he performed at the MTMW festivals in Stockholm (1966), Athens (1979) and Brussels (1981), and many times at the International Festival of Contemporary Music “Warsaw Autumn” as a performer of his own compositions. In 1965–74, he participated in the work of the repertoire committee of the “Warsaw Autumn” festival, from 1971 to 1974, he was its chairman, and from 1973 to 1975 a member of the Main Board of the Polish Composers’ Union. In 1975–76, he stayed in the United States on a Senior Fulbright Program scholarship. At that time, he worked at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York, where he composed the piece Samotność dźwięków, and at the Electronic Music Studio at Yale University in New Haven. In the 1980s, he focused on composing. The publishers of Sikorski’s works are PWM, Edition Modern, Moeck and Agencja Autorska.

Tomasz Sikorski was one of the main representatives of the minimalist movement in Polish music. He created an original music style, characterised by the combination of minimalism and sonorism. The aesthetics of his music was also distinguished by its programmatic nature. In Sikorski’s work, there is an evolution visible from the compositions from the 1960s and the 1^st half of the 1970s, characterised by a greater role of sonoristic means, to the compositions from the 2^nd half of the 1970s and the 1980s, which are clearly minimalistic.

In his compositions, Sikorski used procedures typical of the minimalist trend: repetition of structures, limitation of the musical material and techniques, use of small musical motifs, and the phase shift technique. A characteristic feature of his work was the introduction of various types of repetition: with simultaneous acceleration or deceleration (Vox humana), using the phase shift technique (Diafonia, Choroba na śmierć), irregular (Vox humana) and aperiodic, i.e. repetition with an aperiodic change in the duration of sounds and pauses (Music in Twilight, Inne głosy), “ad libitum” repetition (Concerto breve, Inne głosy), undulations (ondulazione), consisting in alternating acceleration and deceleration during repetition, up to simple repetition (Struny w ziemi). Despite the limited techniques and musical material, this diversity of repetition techniques produced interesting sound results and made Sikorski’s music stand out for its great wealth of colour nuances. The greatest material limitation in Sikorski’s work – reduced to only one sound – was characteristic of Samotność dźwięków. In other compositions, he applied less stringent material restrictions, e.g. the musical material of a given composition consisted of several sonoristic qualities, which were subjected to the repetition technique. The material of Vox humana consisted of three such qualities: a chord in the piano part, simultaneous, long-lasting trills in brass instruments and long-lasting sounds.

Sikorski used the phase shift technique in several works in various variants. It involved, among others, the simultaneous start of playing by both pianists, performing the same sound material (Diafonia) or playing the same piano parts at two different tempos (Muzyka nasłuchiwania). In Paesaggio d’inverno for string orchestra, an interesting colour effect was achieved by using the phase shift technique for two groups of chords with the same rhythm, but slightly different in terms of interval structure; the phase shift was the result of performing these chord groupings at two different tempos.

The sonoristic features of Sikorski’s music consist in the use of structures with original timbre, associated with specific instruments, various types of articulation, clusters and other interesting sound effects (e.g. soprano glissandos in Antiphons or the sound effects associated with silent pressing the lower part of the piano keyboard in Sequenza and Vox humana). The composer’s interest in the phenomenon of attack and decay of sound is visible in the piece Sonant for piano. The contrast between attack and decay was used in this composition in the form of a two-part structure. The first part is a fragment composed of 2 or more chords, played once, in sf or sff and pp dynamics, at a tempo of il più presto possibile (symbolising “attack”). The symbol of “sound” is the second part of the structure, which is usually composed of two chords played in free succession, in quiet dynamics, repeated from 3 to 15 (or more) times. The sonoristic trend in Sikorski’s works is also associated with subtle, minor colour differences, as well as rhythmic (achieved by using the phase shift technique, e.g. Pejzaż zimowy) and melodic (Struny w ziemi). These features indicate similarities between his music and the impressionist trend.

Sikorski used unusual arrangements in his works (e.g. Echa II for 1–4 pianos, percussion and tape, Inne głosy for 24 wind instruments, 4 gongs and bells, Vox humana for an 80-people mixed choir, 2 concert pianos, brass instruments, 4 gongs and 4 tam-toms). The composer preferred the piano in his works; he composed both solo pieces for this instrument and entrusted it with concertante parts in orchestral and vocal-instrumental works. The combination of the piano part with a group of wind instruments and percussion (Homofonia, Concerto breve) was also typical of Sikorski’s music; he also used vocal-instrumental works (Vox humana, Prologi). A characteristic feature of his style was subdued dynamics, although at the same time, he introduced various dynamic terms.

Another distinguishing feature of Sikorski’s music was the presence of symmetry, both in the structure of chords (Holzwege, Na smyczki) and in changes in dynamics (Sequenza I) and tempo (Echa II). Symmetry sometimes also characterised entire musical fragments lasting several bars.

Sikorski drew inspiration from literature (in Struny ziemi, it is an early poem by J. Joyce, in Zertstreutes Hinausschauen and Milczenie syren – prose by F. Kafka characterised by pessimistic expression, in the composition W dali ptak – a work by S. Beckett), the existentialist philosophy of M. Heidegger (Holzwege) and the works of the precursors of this trend, S. Kierkegaard (Choroba na śmierć) and F. Nietzsche (La notte). The humanistic aspect is also clearly visible in his work, e.g. in the way he treats the voice in Vox humana, where the choir (singing without text: with a closed mouth or on the vowel a) actually expresses a variety of human behaviours and feelings, from laughter to suffering, pain. The connection between his music and nature is equally strong – the composer both suggests an image of a landscape in the titles of the pieces (Muzyka z oddali, Pejzaż zimowy) and creates a poetic musical metaphor in Struny ziemi, referring the listener to Joyce’s poem describing the music born in a landscape – “Ze strun w powietrzu, w ziemi…”. Sikorski’s work, through the synthesis of minimalist and sonoristic features as well as programmatic elements, is one of the most original phenomena in Polish music of the 20^th century.

Literature: T. Kaczyński „Antyfony” Tomasza Sikorskiego oraz „Concerto breve” Tomasza Sikorskiego, “Ruch Muzyczny” 1963 no. 22 and 1965 no. 17; J. Jaroszewicz „Sequenza I” Tomasza Sikorskiego, “Ruch Muzyczny” 1966 no. 22; T. Marek Composers Workshop. Tomasz Sikorski, “Polish Music” 1971 no. 4; A. Chłopecki Cztery dominanty, “Ruch Muzyczny” 1989 no. 24; E. Grosman Tomasz Sikorski – zarys monograficzny twórczości, master’s thesis, Academy of Music in Krakow, 1992 (includes a calendar, list of works and bibliography); E. Wójtowicz Sylwetka Tomasza Sikorskiego (1939–1988), in: Muzyka polska 1945–1995, ed. K. Droba, T. Malecka and K. Szwajgier, Kraków 1996; V. Przech Utwory na fortepian solo Tomasza Sikorskiego (struktura, aspekty wykonawcze, wobec nurtu minimal music), «Muzyka Fortepianowa» XI, in: «Prace Specjalne Akademii Muzycznej w Gdańsku» no. 56, ed. J. Krassowski et al., Gdańsk 1998; J. Miklaszewska Repetycje i metamorfozy struktur brzmieniowych w twórczości minimalistycznej Tomasz Sikorskiego, in: Minimalizm w muzyce polskiej, Kraków 2003.