In memory of Krzysztof Penderecki (1933-2020), who is arguably the greatest Polish composer after Chopin. Composed at the same time as Anaklasis and Threnody, Dimensions of Time and Silence is an equally important example of Penderecki exploring the limits of sound. In the first version for mixed choir, percussion and strings, written in 1960, the choral part includes the Latin Sator Square (“Sator arepo tenet opera rotas”) as well as rotations of consonants in clusters. The composer’s commentary explained the use of these elements as an attempt to translate into the language of music ideas from the paintings of Klee and Yves Klein – particularly those related to combinations of colours.
Having deleted the choral fragment with its Latin sentence, he arranged the whole as a sequence of “sound images” among which sound varied depending on instrumentation and on choice of articulation. The audience listens to clatter and noises, to sonorous percussion sounds and those produced by membranophones, to whistling and glissandi. Penderecki makes sophisticated use of uniting all the dimensions of musical space and their symmetries, the idea represented by the Sator Square. Techniques of reversing direction of movement and of permutation, or rearranging elements, are applied to larger sections of the piece and to tiny fragments such as consonant clusters, pronounced sharply and abruptly. As a result, the music contained between numbers 1 and 102 in the score makes up a kind of palindrome.
(Notes adapted from
**No copyright infringement intended**
0 Comments