Wear your Heart on your Sleeve: An Interview with Roxanna Panufnik
The famed, equally-musical, daughter of Andrzej Panufnik, Roxanna Panufnik’s artistic goal is to build musical bridges between religions. Iza Smelczyńska interviews the contemporary classical music composer and finds out how she approaches religious themes and who her favourite Polish composers are.
Iza Smelczyńska: Growing up, you were a member of many choir groups. What did you learn from these experiences? Can being in a choir also teach a child or teenager how to collaborate and be part of a team?
Roxanna Panufnik: I loved my time at school choirs and it taught me the very valuable lesson of learning to really listen to those around you and to create connections with them. This has been great training in collaboration, for being a composer! Several years ago, I joined a choir again for a few months to remind myself what it was like to learn new music. I think all choral composers should do this.
IS: Many of your compositions are religious pieces. Do you consider them to be religious works or rather ‘about’ religion?
RP: Both. Many of my religious works have been commissioned for use in a religious service [e.g. Westminster Mass (1997) for Choir and Orchestra, Hal'lu Alleluia (2019) SSATBB for Choir and Organ – ed.] but there are also my interfaith works which are usually for concert use and about the relationship between different religions [e.g.Three Paths to Peace (2008) for orchestra]
IS: Have you thought about why there is a continued conviction that religious music needs large ensembles (choirs, orchestras)?
RP: Faith is bigger than all of us! Imagine the biggest choir and orchestra, linked digitally, sending up a musical prayer to God, from all over the world…
IS: While composing choral works, do you think about the acoustics of the place where they will be performed?
RP: Definitely. Much of the music I write for churches and cathedrals relies on the reverberant acoustic to help blend my overlapping harmonies
IS: Do you have to be religious to write religious music?
RP: No, not at all. It’s about setting the words to reflect and enhance their meaning – whether religious or not.
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Andrzej Panufnik with his daughter Roxanna, photo: © Camilla Jessel Panufnik FRPS
IS: Could you say something more about the compositions you are preparing for Joy & Devotion, the new annual UK festival of Polish sacred music [at St Martin-in-the-Fields from 2nd to 5th November 2021]?
RP: I have several works on two different nights – Modlitwa (1990/99) for string sextet is by both my father and I, and has been especially arranged for the Gesualdo Six with organ. In the final concert, with the Echo choir, O Hearken (2015), a peace acapella that was a raffle prize at a fund-raiser for Westminster Abbey Choir School and Love Endureth (2012) for acapella mixed choir which was commissioned for Westminster Cathedral and is built with Spanish Sephardic Jewish chant, in English and Hebrew.
IS: Melody, harmony, rhythm, dynamics, tessitura, timbre or tempo – which element of music is the most attractive for you?
RP: Harmony – always!
IS: What was the most valuable music lesson you got from your father?
RP: Always be true to yourself. He had such integrity.
IS: Do you remember the first concert your father took you to? Where did you go? What were you listening to?
RP: I remember going to my father’s concerts as a child – particularly in London – and feeling so proud of him. I also remember feeling very uneasy much of the time and I realise now it was because the music was so much part of me already, it was like someone was reading my mind.
IS: Did your father support your composing choices? He came from a generation in which female composers were exceptions.
RP: He was always very encouraging. Sadly my successes only came after he died but I feel his presence in my dreams and when I compose. My mother tells me often that he would have been very proud of me.
IS: Will you pass the torch on to the next generation of Panufniks? Do your children like music, and would they want to work in music in the future?
RP: My children love music. My son is particularly interested (he was Senior Chorister at Westminster Abbey and now plays piano and tuba and is learning to conduct!). If anyone follows me and my father, it will be him.
IS: Do you have any favourite Polish composers?
RP: I also love Szymanowski (how could I not, being named after his Queen Roxana?!) and Górecki.
IS: How do you perceive traditional Polish music? Is it something you grew up with? Do you feel any identity with this musical language?
RP: I come back to traditional Polish folk music time and time again. I feel such an affinity to it. I particularly admire the contemporary use of it by bands such as Vołosi and Kapela ze wsi Warszawa.
IS: From the perspective of a person who views Polish culture from a distance (not only geographically), do you feel able to define what characterises Polish sensitivity in art?
RP: For me, Polishness in art is an ability to ‘wear your heart on your sleeve’ – passion and direct emotionality.
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Roxanna Panufnik talks to a harpist from the London orchestra just before a concert, 2001, photo: Adam Hawałej / PAP
IS: In your biography, I found a very interesting episode that caught my attention. You taught music in Barbados. Can you tell me more about this experience? How did you come to be there, and did you learn anything from the experience?
RP: I was reconstructing an 18th-century dialogue opera (one that has speaking between the arias) based on an old Barbadian legend, for an opera festival out there. We ran educational projects in local schools where the children wrote their own mini-operas on the same story. They were inspirational!
IS: A lot has been said about the effects of Brexit on the local economy or in the context of international relations. We hear little about how it can also have negative consequences for culture. Do you notice in your profession any limitations in relation to Brexit?
RP: Most of my musician colleagues are absolutely devastated about Brexit. It is the biggest mess for everyone but especially musicians who rely on travelling to international festivals for work. I am praying fervently that there won’t be Polexit – Poles, learn the lessons from our terrible mistake!
IS: Finally, what does silence mean to you – as a composer and as a human being who lives in a noisy city?
RP: Luckily, we live in a very quiet part of London but I find silence in activities such as cycling and praying. Unfortunately I developed tinnitus recently, but I’m learning to distract myself from it!
Interview conducted via email, Oct 2021
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