b. 1939, Warsaw – d. 1988, Warsaw
Biography
Tomasz Sikorski was born om May 19, 1939, in Warsaw, where he died on 12 November 1988.
He studied music at the State Higher School of Music in Warsaw – compositions under Kazimierz Sikorski and piano under Zbigniew Drzewiecki (1956-62). From 1965 to 1966 he was in Paris on a scholarship granted by the French Government. In the years 1975-6 he was a recipient of a scholarship granted by the U.S. Government (Senior Fulbright Program). During this period he worked at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York, his composition Solitude of Sound being the result of his work there. At very beginning of his career as a composer, Sikorski clearly defined teh path he would take and never departed from it. What he always found the most important was the sound itself – the acoustic object with its initial phase, its resonance, its vibration and its inner substance. His primary interest was always in the tonal gesture, the sounding phenomenon and pinned them to a piece of paper rather as some people pin butterflies. Indeed, Sikorski’s musical compositions have something of the character of collector’s albums. Sikorski’s compositions have been frequently performed at the International Contemporary Music Festival “Warsaw Autumn” and at the Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music – in Stockholm (1966), Athens (1979) and Brussels (1981), as well as in many other European countries, in America and Japan.
List of Works
Chamber Ensemble
Echoes II for 1-4 pianos, 2 gons, 2 tam-tams – 1961-63
Monodia e sequenza for flute and piano – 1966
Diaphony for 2 pianos – 1969
Intersection for 4 percussions
Music for brass instruments, tam-tams and chimes
For Strings for 3 violins and 3 violas – 1970
Homophony for 4 trumpets, 4 horns, 4 trombones, piano, and gong – 1970
No Title for piano and 3 optional instruments -1972
Listening Music for 2 pianos – 1973
Strings in the Earth for 15 strings – 1979-80
Passaggio d’inverno for strings – 1982
La notte for strings – 1984
Recitativo ed Aria for strings – 1984
Orchestral works
Concerto breve for piano, 24 wind instruments and 4 percussions – 1965
Sequenza I – 1966
Holzwege – 1972
Other Voices for 24 wind instruments, 4 gongs and – 1975
Music in Twilight for piano and orchestra – 1978
Monophony – 1979-80
Lontano
Ositato – 1979-80
2 Portraits – 1981-82
Autoritratto for 2 pianos and orchestra – 1983
Little Concerto
Omaggio per quattro pianoforti ed orchestra – 1987
Musica concertante for piano and orchestra
Three Sketches
4 Pieces for Orchestra
Sequenza II
Solo Instruments
Sonant for piano – 1967
Zerstreutes Hinausschauen for piano – 1971
Hymnos for piano – 1979
Autograph for piano – 1980
Modus for solo trombone – 1980
Euphony for piano – 1982
Rondofor harpsichord – 1984
Moderato cantabile for solo cello – 1986
Das Schweigen der Sirenen (nach Kafka) for cello
Voices and Instruments
Antiphones for soprano, piano, horn, chimes, 2 gongs, 2 tam-tams – 1963
Prologues for female choir, 2 solo pianos, 4 flutes, horns – 1964
Vox humana for mixed choir, 2 pianos, 12 brass instruments, 4 gongs and 4 tam-tams
Music from Afar for mixed choir and instruments – 1974
Sickness Unto Death for reciter, 2 pianos, 4 trumpets and horns – 1976
Afar a Bird for reciter, clavichord and tape – 1981
Song about Wit Stwosz for solo soprano, choir of sopranos and orchestra
Electronic Music
Solitude of Sounds for tape – 1975
Dario for tape and reciting voice – 1987
Stage Works
Adventures of Sindbad the Sailor – radio opera for 6 reciting voices, soprano, tenor, female choir and orchestra – 1971-72
Manuscripts at USC
None
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