The Life and Works of Andrzej Panufnik (1914-1991)

Beata BolesÅ‚awska studied at the Institute of Musicology at Warsaw University (Poland). In 2000 she was commissioned by PWM Edition (Polish State Music Publishers) to write a monograph on Sir Andrzej Panufnik, which was published in September 2001. In 2010 she completed her doctoral studies at Cardiff University, with a thesis entitled ’Symphony and Symphonic Thinking in Polish Music after 1956’. In 2013 and 2014, PWM Edition also published her collected conversations about Górecki (Górecki: A Portrait in Memory) and Panufnik (Panufnik: Architect of Emotion). In addition BolesÅ‚awska has written for websites devoted to both Górecki (threecomposers.pl) and Panufnik (panufnik.polmic.pl and ninateka.pl/kolekcje/Panufnik). BolesÅ‚awska has taken part in many Polish and international musicological conferences, presenting papers on Panufnik, Górecki, Mycielski and the Warsaw Autumn Festival. She has also published numerous articles and reviews on Polish contemporary music for musicological journals and music magazines both in Poland and abroad. From 1997 to 2005 she worked for the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music. Since 2005 she has worked for Polish public television and is currently with the Culture Channel, TVP Kultura. She is a member of the Main Board, and Board of the Musicological Section, of the Polish Composers’ Union.

Contents: Foreword; Preface; Early years; Education and first attempts at composition; The Second World War and the Nazi occupation; The new reality - The first years after the war; Socialist realism and the decision to emigrate; Escape from Poland and first years in a new homeland; Birmingham - The conductor and a return to composition; Success of Sinfonia Sacra, marriage and beginning of stabilisation; The search for a new musical language, and artistic flourishing after 1968; The last decade - The years of fulfilment; Andrzej Panufnik’s compositional style - A sketch; Symmetry in the composer’s self-reflection; Symmetry in terms of harmony and tonality; Symmetry in terms of musical syntax; Symmetry of form; Afterword; Chronological list of compositions; Index.