Born on 5th of July 1954 in Warsaw. Wielecki studied double bass with Alfred Wieczorek and Andrzej Mysiński and composition with Włodzimierz Kotoński at the Warsaw Academy of Music. In 1986 he was granted a Witold Lutosławski scholarship. In the years 1986-87 he continued his composition studies with Isang Yun in West Berlin and Klaus Huber in Freiburg im Breisgau.
As a bassist, Wielecki performs contemporary solo works, giving concerts in a number of European and Asian countries as well as in the United States. His composition Concerto à rebours for violin and orchestra (1998) was listed as one of the recommended works at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Paris in 1999.
He has also been involved in the promotion of contemporary music and artistic education, leading programs on the new music for children and youth in the Polish Radio. He also collaborated with the Children’s Art Centre of Poznań. In 1992 Wielecki chaired the Artistic Committee of the World's Music Days of the International Society of Contemporary Music in Warsaw. In 2004 he was invited to give lectures during the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music and in 2005 at Florida State University (Tallahassee) he presented his double bass works and modern playing techniques on the instrument, including his own solutions.
Since 1999 Tadeusz Wielecki has been the director of the 'Warsaw Autumn' International Festival of Contemporary Music. In 2008 he was awarded the Polish Composers’ Union’s annual award.
Wielecki is one of the most interesting Polish composers of the middle-aged generation. On the one hand, his attitude to composing is marked by emotional expressiveness. On the other hand, his approach to the process of composing is highly intellectual. A number of his works reveal intellectual experimenting. It goes without saying that Wielecki's compositions are influenced by his experience as a bassist. Wielecki is particularly interested in modifying the traditional technique of playing stringed instruments. In his 1998 Concerto à rebours for violin and orchestra, the composer develops a special method of playing that could be referred to as "sliding". It is about continuous movement, fingers sliding along the strings, as opposed to the traditional technique where fingers are statically placed on the fingerboard of the instrument. According to the composer, this technical innovation has musical consequence as it impacts the sound of music.
A special musical category and, equally, an important element of the composing technique is for Wielecki the "musical gesture". The composer elaborated on it:
Its essence is the dramaturgic indivisibility of a motif, of a musical unit. It is therefore a kind of a musical event, one that cannot be reduced to some very simple form without detriment to its basic function - the function of the element of a musical action. And then it is something that should have the nature of a sign. A mere motif or some abstract music cell will not be a gesture. As a matter of fact, it is about taking the principle of gesture as a body reflex to the territory of musical discourse. The reflex conveys a message, though without words. A man makes a gesture to communicate his feeling about something, his own, innermost truth. Yet a gesture has a musical value in having its own energy, rhythm, tempo, a specific duration. It is feasible to transfer these characteristics to sounds. However - and here we are touching the essence of the issue - these elements also convey expressions and meanings. And since the key aspect of a musical gesture is its distinct and specific character, I can see the gesture-using method of composing opening up opportunities for music which plays with expressions and energies. There is also the possibility to achieve higher plasticity of the music matter and, independently, to give sounds a humanistic sense of a higher degree than the one they have when treated as a pure construction.
Wielecki has put his idea of the musical gesture to practice particularly in his three compositions entitled A Study of the Gesture and composed, respectively, for clarinet, piano and cello (1995), for piano (1997), and for clarinet, trombone, piano, cello and double bass (2000).
In general terms, Wielecki explains the idea of his music in the following way:
My purpose is to relate to the deep, innermost layers of the psyche. When dealing with music, we face the unlimited, the transcendent. A musical, artistic action comes from communicating with another person, but with God, the Absolute, in perspective.
Compositions:
- Trio na trąbke, róg i puzon / Trio for trumpet, horn and trombone (1978)
- Szesc miniatur na fortepian / Six miniatures for piano (1979)
- Nokturn / Nocturne for a capella mixed choir (1979)
- Muzyka na klarnet / Music for clarinet (1979)
- Tango for clarinet, trombone, cello and piano (1980)
- Misterioso for percussionist-actor (1980)
- Tydzień/ A Week for recorder, percussion, piano and double bass (1980)
- Kaczuszka / Duckling [version I] for accordion, piano, percussion, double-bass and reciter (1980-88)
- Kaczuszka / Duckling [version II] for bassist-reciter (1980-88)
- Muzyka poważna / Serious Music for violin, trombone and percussion (1981)
- Glos wewnętrzny / Inner Voice for chamber orchestra (1981)
- Melodia z akompaniamentem / Melody with Accompaniment for chamber ensemble (1981)
- Opened Series I - IV pieces for double bass solo (1982-85)
- Trio na skrzypce, kontrabas i fortepian / Trio for violin, double bass and piano (1985)
- Muzyka recytatywna / Recitative Music for percussion, piano, violin, viola and double-bass (1985)
- Collage-Tango for piano (1985)
- Dukt / Ductus for small string orchestra and harpsichord (1986)
- Poemat kameralny / Chamber Poem for two violins, double bass and piano (1986)
- Liczne odnogi rozgalezionych splotow / Numerous Branches of Ramified Plaits for clarinet, piano and cello (1987-88)
- Badrulbudura for percussionist and actor (1988)
- Opened Series V for double bass solo (1988)
- Gesty duszy / Gestures of Soul for organ, accordion, synthesizer, guitar and percussion (1989)
- Powtarzanka / Counting Game for 4 speaking musicians (1990)
- Ballada metafizyczna / Metaphysical Ballad for chamber orchestra (1990)
- Przedzie sie nic... / Thread is Spinning... for solo cello (1991)
- Tchnął Nań... / He Breathen Upon Him... for solo bassoon, strings and mimeartist (1992)
- Przędzie sie nić... / Thread is Spinning... II for violin solo(1992)
- Przędzie sie nić... / Thread is Spinning... III for double bass solo (1992)
- Two Questions and One Guess for chamber orchestra (1992)
- Opened Series VI for double bass solo (1993)
- Z głębokości śpiewam... / From the depths I sing... for wind instruments, strings and percussion (1993)
- Ballada dziadowska / Beggar Ballad for chamber ensemble (1994)
- Poemat egocentryczny / Egocentric Poem for amplified piano and tape (1994-95)
- Collage-Tango for chamber orchestra (1995)
- Studium gestu / A Study of the Gesture for clarinet, piano and cello (1995)
- ID for orchestra (1996)
- Studium gestu II / A Study of the Gesture II for piano (1997)
- Koncert à rebours / Concerto à rebours for violin and orchestra (1998)
- Studium gestu III / A Study of the Gesture III for clarinet, trombone, piano, cello and double bass (2000)
- Thesis for flute solo (2000)
- Grań/Crest for orchestra (2000)
- Credo, quia absurdum for tape and female-dancer (2001)
- Tafle for symphony orchestra (2002)
- Czas kamieni/Time of Stones na amplified bass and chamber orchestra (2002)
- String Quartet (2003-2004)
- Szmer półtonów for bass and ensemble (2004)
- Ławice/Shoals na orkiestrę symfoniczną (2005)
- Rycerze okrągłego stołu/The Knights of the Round Table, document opera for soprano, tube, instrumental ensemble and electronic media (2006)
- Konieczność i przypadek/ Necessity and Chance for string quartet and electronic media (2006)
- Dolina Suchej Wody/ The Valley of Dry Waters for chamber orchestra (2007)
- Music for the play Obrock (2008)
- Drżenie strun / String Vibration for harpsichord (2008)
- Piano Concerto (2008-2009)
- Na początku było… / At the Beginning there was... for slammer, sampler and chamber ensemble (2009)
- Ćwierćtony i półcienie / Quartertones and Half-shades for double bass, two percussions and trumpet ad libitum (2009)
- Koła zębate, sprężynki i tryby / Gear Wheels, Springs and Modes for violin and guitar (2010)
- Przędzie się nić… IV / The Thread is Spinning ... IV for double bass and chamber ensemble (2012)
- Model subiektywny. Forma dramatyzowana / Subjective Model. Dramatised Form for viola, tuba, tape and informal group of performers (2012)
- Punkty słyszenia / Points of Hearing for chamber ensemble (2012)
- Sen o Podlasiu / Dream about Podlasie, intuitive audiovisual composition to a photograph by M. Wideryński [together with M. Litwiński, K. Knittl, R. Latecki, T. Sudnik] (2012)
- Łagodne kołysanie / Gentle swaying dramatic music piece for bass clarinet, violin, tape and informal ensemble (2013)
- Czytanie na orkiestrę / Reading for orchestra (2014)
- Romania Mea, intuitive audiovisual composition to a photograph by V. Dumitrescu, version for 4 improvisers (2014)
- Dać słowu dźwięk / To give sound to a word for small orchestra (2014)
- Kompozycja dynamistatyczna / Dynamistatic composition for orchestra (2015)
- Wyrazy / Words for piano and ukulele (2016)
- Haiku from Romania [together with z S. Esztényi, R. Latecki, H. Zemler] (2016)
- Quartet for clarinet in B/bass clarinet, violin, piano and percussion (2016)
Author: Polish Music Information Center, Polish Composers' Union, March 2002. Updated: June 2016, AG.