Zych Wojciech Ziemowit, *4 April 1976 Warsaw, Polish composer and teacher. He studied composition in the class of M. Stachowski at the Academy of Music in Kraków (diploma 2001). Since 2002, he has been lecturing at his alma mater, and in 2006 he obtained a doctorate in musical arts. He also studied at the Rotterdam Conservatory with P.-J. Wagemans and K. de Vries (2001–02) and at composition courses (Radziejowice, 1997; Gdańsk, 1998; Buckow near Berlin, 1999; Darmstadt, 2008). In 2000, he made his debut at the International Festival of Contemporary Music “Warsaw Autumn”; his music is performed in Poland and abroad. He has been commissioned to compose by the Friends of the Warsaw Autumn Foundation, Deutschlandfunk, the Polish Composers’ Union [ZKP] (as part of the project “60 commissions for the 60th anniversary of the ZKP”), the “Wratislavia Cantans” and “Sacrum Profanum” festivals (Made in Poland – Miłosz Sound project in the Year of Miłosz 2011). He is a laureate of composition competitions, including the T. Baird Young Composers’ Competition (1997), the A. Panufnik Young Composers’ Competition (2000). He was also awarded the annual ZKP Award (2017) and the bronze medal “For Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis” (2018). The CD with a recording of his orchestral works (Wojciech Ziemowit Zych. Orchestral Works, DUX 2009) received the “Pizzicato Supersonic Award” from Radio Luxembourg (2010).
Zych’s work is characterised by attention to technical correctness and formal discipline. The composer constructs the musical narrative from sound figures with distinct melic-rhythmic-colour features, arranged simultaneously or in segments similar in terms of material. Thanks to this, he obtains a multi-layered texture (Symphony No. 1) and a diversified musical progression (Hommage à Tadeusz Kantor). The dramatic factor plays an important role in Zych’s music, and his preference for repetitive rhythmic structures and the selection of instruments bring it closer to the aesthetics of Dutch composers. In reference to Gerard Grisey’s manifesto, which deals with a change in approach to musical matter (composing sounds instead of notes), he draws on his own experience as an instrumentalist (he learned to play the clarinet at music school), searching for idiomatic articulatory and textural means, especially in relation to woodwind instruments, which can be observed since 2010. These effects are also related to the reinterpretation of harmonic phenomena, close to the French spectralists, and the search for relationships between structures created based on the equal temperament system and those shaped with the use of microintervals. He interprets music from a philosophical perspective as “a path to the truth.”
Literature: M. Nyffeler, Im Bewusstsein der Freiheit. Die nächste Generation von Komponisten aus Polen, “Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Das Magazin für neue Töne” 2009 no. 6 (170); P. Roemer, Sztuka skomplikowana. Rozmowa z Wojciechem Ziemowitem Zychem, “Teoria muzyki. Studia, interpretacje, dokumentacje” 2013 no. 2; W.Z. Zych, Koło czy spirala? Uwagi do dyskusji o relacji teorii muzyki i praktyki kompozytorskiej wobec dawnego i aktualnego stanu języka muzyki w zakresie organizacji wysokości dźwięków, “Teoria Muzyki. Studia, interpretacje, dokumentacje” 2018 no. 7 (12).
Compositions:
Soliloquy no. 1 “Boiling” for chamber ensemble, 1999, performed at the Warsaw Autumn Festival 2000
Soliloquy no. 2 “Landscape of frozen thoughts” for bass clarinet and 20 string instruments, 1999
Mille coqs blessés à mort for large chamber ensemble, 2000
Concerto for alto saxophone and chamber orchestra, 2001, revised 2003
Symphony no. 1, 2001–02, performed at the Warsaw Autumn Festival 2002
Ballad no. 1 for bass clarinet, cello and harp, 2002
Dutch Toccata for bass clarinet and 2 pianos, 2002
Meanders — Layers — Mechanisms for large chamber ensemble, 2002–03
Ballad no. 2 for bass clarinet, marimba and violin, 2003
Bagatelle no. 1 for alto saxophone and baritone saxophone, 2003
Bagatelle no. 2 for clarinet and bass clarinet, 2003
Hommage à Tadeusz Kantor for orchestra, 2003, performed at the Warsaw Autumn Festival 2005
Concerto for bass clarinet and orchestra, 2003
Enfant terrible for chamber ensemble, 2003–04
Symphony no. 2, 2004–05
Kaspar Hauser’s Friends for flute, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, vibraphone, harpsichord, and string quartet, 2004, performed at the Warsaw Autumn Festival 2004
Bagatelle no. 3 for 2 trombones, 2004
Cooperative no. 1 for alto saxophone and accordion, 2005
Inquietude for bass clarinet, 2005
P.S. for harpsichord, 2005, also version for piano
Passacaglia in memoriam Alfred Schnittke for bass clarinet and piano, 2005
Stale obecna tęsknota for bass clarinet, percussion, piano and violin, 2005
Initials for the PrimaryMusic School in Grajewo [Inicjały dla Szkoły Muzycznej w Grajewie] for 8 violins, 2005 (educational composition)
Hommage à György Kurtág for violin and bass clarinet, 21 miniatures, 2005–06
Poruszenia woli for orchestra, 2005–06
Rozedrgranie for 2 pianos, 2006, performed at the Warsaw Autumn Festival 2007
Poetics of un – …/Un… poetics for solo harpsichord, 2007
Rhetorics of un – …/Un… rhetorics for string quartet, 2007, revised 2015
Difference for 2 pianos and percussion, 2007, revised 2010, w performed at the Warsaw Autumn Festival 2010
Accusal in a form of rondo for two percussions, 2008
A letter unfished…, a letter discovered… for 2 percussions, 2008
Chorągwie for 4 bass recorders, 2010
Gesture and pulse for amplified violin, 2010
Cooperative no. 2 for cello and accordion, 2010
Postgrammar by Milosz for 15 instruments, 2011
Symphony no. 3 for soprano, baritone, piano for 4 hands and chamber orchestra in spatial arrangement, 2011–13
α Binomial for two flutists, 2012
ß Binomial for tenor saxophone and bass clarinet, 2012
Contr-atrophy for (tenor) saxophone, 2012
(Tenderly) Applied Micrology for cello, 2013
Roundflow/Throughflow/Outflow for 8 spatially amplified cellos, 2014
Zmienna ulotna for piano and percussion, 2015
The Derivative for flute (bass flute) and spatially amplified piano, 2016
Air Paths. Entangled Echoes, double concerto for amplified contrabass flute, amplified contrabass clarinet B and chamber orchestra in spatial arrangement, 2016–17
Halfsparkling – Halfdreaming for percussion and spatially amplified piano, 2017
Flarea for flute and harp, 2017–18
The Ray of Ultimate Whiteness for accordion duet and string quartet, 2018
Upwind upstreaming for two flutes and orchestra, 2018–19
Affective Trajectory for bass saxophone and piano, 2019
Cooperative no. 3. Square of vibrant impresence for bass clarinet and accordion, 2019–20
Writings:
Gerard Grisey uwagi w X rocznicę śmierci 10 XI 2008, [2008?], online: https://wojciechziemowitzych.com/teksty
Duch tchnie, kędy chce. Nieortodoksyjne kontynuacje i rozwinięcia idei dodekafonii Arnolda Schoenberga w II połowie XX wieku na przykładach z utworów Witolda Lutosławskiego, Alfreda Schnittkego i Pera Nørgård, 2013, online: https://wojciechziemowitzych.com/teksty
Perspektywa topofoniczna. Doświadczenia – obserwacje – wnioski, 2014, online: https://wojciechziemowitzych.com/teksty
Rozwój instrumentarium muzyki artystycznej, 2015, online: https://wojciechziemowitzych.com/teksty
Opływ/Przepływ/Upływ na osiem amplifikowanych wiolonczel w rozmieszczeniu przestrzennym. Prezentacja najważniejszych sposobów organizacji materiału wysokościowego, 2015, online: https://wojciechziemowitzych.com/teksty
Peter-Jan Wagemans, 2017, online: https://wojciechziemowitzych.com/teksty
Koło czy spirala? Uwagi do dyskusji o relacji teorii muzyki i praktyki kompozytorskiej wobec dawnego i aktualnego stanu języka muzyki w zakresie organizacji wysokości dźwięków, “Teoria Muzyki. Studia, interpretacje, dokumentacje” 2018 no. 7 (12)
