Polish composer and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki, one of the most innovative contemporary composers, died Sunday at the age of 86 in Krakow, his family announced to local media.
The author of Threne for the victims of Hiroshima , crowned with numerous awards, died of a long illness, according to media quoting his relatives.
"His work marked a whole era in Polish and world culture , " said Polish President Andrzej Duda, recalling that his monumental Polish Requiem was performed recently on the 80th anniversary of the start of the Second World War.
Quadruple Grammy winner (in 1988, in 1999 - in two categories, and in 2017), he has written scores for film directors like Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese and David Lynch.
One of the most important Polish composers, he began his brilliant career in 1959, when his three compositions, Strophes , Emanations and The Psalms of David , won the first three prizes of a Competition for young composers in Warsaw.
He established himself as one of the avant-garde figures of the 60s with Threne for the victims of Hiroshima (1960), a composition for a large formation of string instruments which earned him wide renown.
The composer then uses unusual intervals, clusters, glissandi and makes the instruments sound unusual. His music is rich in sound effects: sheet metal, whistles, pieces of glass and metal rubbed with a file, rattles, electric sounds, saws, typewriters or alarm sirens give a texture sound to his compositions.
The composer also invented musical notation symbols corresponding to these then unknown means of expression. Thanks to a temporary thaw of the communist regime in Poland at the time, Penderecki's works broke through the iron curtain and enjoyed immediate international success.
Subsequently, Penderecki gradually abandons his avant-garde language. Criticized by the musical community, this development is applauded by the public. He then reconnects with a neo-tonal, postromantic writing, with content and construction accessible to a wider audience.
In 2011, Penderecki collaborated with Jonny Greenwood, lead guitarist of the English rock band Radiohead, and electronic music composer Aphex Twin on an album and a tour.
Unlike most composers of his generation, an essential part of Penderecki's inspiration was of religious origin ( Stabat Mater , Passion according to Saint-Luc ).
Born on November 23, 1933 in Debica (south), Krzysztof Penderecki was admitted to the Cracow Conservatory at the age of 18. At the same time, he studies philosophy, art history and literature. Teaching composition in different great music schools around the world, he gives, as a conductor, concerts with the most famous symphonic orchestras of Europe and the United States. He is a member of the Music Academies of many countries.