Andrzej Dobrowolski

Composer and pedagogue. Born on 9th September, 1921 in Lviv, died on 8th August, 1990 in Graz.

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Andrzej Dobrowolski

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Andrzej Dobrowolski at the festival Warsaw Autumn, 1970, photo: Sławek Biegański/Forum

During the occupation years, he took organ playing classes from Bronisław Rutkowski, learned clarinet from Ludwik Kurkiewicz, and studied singing under Stefan Belin-Skupiewski at the Warsaw Conservatory. In 1945-1951, he continued his studies at the State Higher School of Music in Kraków, under Stefania Łobaczewska – who taught him theory, and Artur Malawski – who taught composition. Between 1947 and 1954, he gave theory classes at the State Music High School and State Higher School of Music in Kraków. Later, in 1954-76, he taught theory (as associate professor) at the Higher State School of Music in Warsaw, where in 1964 he also started teaching a composition class. In 1976, having received full professorship, he started lecturing at Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Graz. He gave classes on composition and electronic music. In 1979, he also took the position of the dean of the Faculty of Composition, Theory, and Conducting at the same school. Moreover, he collaborated with the Polish Radio Experimental Studio in Warsaw, and with Institut für Elektronische Musik, adjacent to Hochschule für Musik in Graz. In 1969, he was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit. In 1971, he received the award from the Minister of Culture and Art, in 1972 – the lifetime achievement award from the Association of Polish Composers, while in 1990 – the Johann Joseph Fux Music Award of the Government of Styria.

Andrzej Dobrowolski is the author of the theoretical publication titled Metodyka nauczania harmonii w szkołach muzycznych II stopnia (Methodology of Teaching Harmony in Secondary Music Schools, Kraków: Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne, 1967).

The Musical Milestones of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio

In 1958, when the Polish Radio Experimental Studio was founded as one of the first studios for tape music in the world, Andrzej Dobrowolski was one of its first users. He also, along with Włodzimierz Kotoński, Zbigniew Wiszniewski, and Bogusław Schaeffer, played a key role in the history of Polish tape music, determining its growth up until the 1970s. Dobrowolski's first composition incorporating electroacoustic technology was Music for Tape no.1, which he realized at the Studio in 1962. The composer based his piece on sounds from a variety of sources, which at the time was a novel project, as up until that time, works produced at the Experimental Studio were based on sounds from a unique source. Dobrowolski used generator-obtained multitones, piano chords, voices, and resonance sounds from a piano box, into which someone uttered single vowels. In spite of such a wide variety of source material, Music for Tape no. 1 is characterised by harmony of sound, with a distinctly 'electronic' character, as the composer subjected all of the collected sounds to the same structuring manipulations. Publication of its score of this piece by the Polish Music Publishing House marked a significant musical event. Compositions for tape are usually documented in the form of a one-of studio performances and they are practically never published in the form of scores.

Electroacoustic Music in Poland

Music for Tape no. 1 was performed, or, to be more precise: recreated, a the Warsaw Autumn festival twice: in 1962 and in 1963. After that, nearly every electronic composition written by Andrzej Dobrowolski was included in various festival programmes, usually marking an important position in a given event's calendar. In 1966, his Music for Magnetic Tape and Oboe Solo was presented, inaugurating a whole series of pieces combining a 'live' performer with a music played from loudspeakers. The later examples of such arrangements included Music for Strings, Two Groups of Wind Instruments, and Two Loudspeakers, composed in 1967, Music for Tape and Piano (1971), Music for Tape and Double Bass (1977), as well as Music for Tape and Bass Clarinet (1980). S For S, Electronic Music (1973) featured electronic music only, while in 1988 the nearly seventy years old composer created Passacaglia für TX.

Electroacoustic activity was not dominant in Andrzej Dobrowolski's oeuvre. Throughout his life, he was engaged in various music genres, but even in his purely symphonic music, one could trace 'electronic' sounds, obtained by means of intervening in the conventional aural structure of traditional orchestra music.

Major compositions

Symphonic Variations for orchestra (1949)
Overture for symphony orchestra (1950-1951)
Concerto for bassoon and orchestra (1953)
Symphony No. 1 (1955)
Trio for oboe, clarinet and bassoon (1956)
Eight Studies for oboe, trumpet, bassoon and double-bass pizzicato (1958-1959)
Music for Magnetic Tape No. 1 (1962)
Music for String Orchestra and Four Groups of Wind Instruments * (1964)
Music for Magnetic Tape and Solo Oboe (1965)
Music for Strings, Two Groups of Wind Instruments and Two Loudspeakers * (1966-1967)
Music for Orchestra No. 1 (1968)
Krabogapa for clarinet, trombone, cello and piano (1969)
Amar. Music for Orchestra No. 2 (1970)
Music for Magnetic Tape and Solo Piano (1971-1972)
Music for Solo Tuba (1972)
Music for Orchestra No. 3 (1972-1973)
S for S (Study for Synthi) for tape (1973)
A-LA. Music for Orchestra No. 4 (1974)
Music for Mixed Choir, Two Groups of Wind Instruments, Double-Basses and Percussion (1975)
Music for Magnetic Tape and Solo Double-Bass (1977)
Music for Three Accordions, Mouth-Organ and Percussion (1977)
Pas. Music for Orchestra No. 5 (1978-1979)
Music for Magnetic Tape and Solo Bass Clarinet (1980)
Music for Orchestra No. 6 (1981-1982)
Musik für Grazer Bläserkreis for 8 trumpets, 8 horns, 8 trombones, 2 tubas and percussion (1984)
Music for Orchestra and Solo Oboe (1984-1985)
Flüchten - music for chamber ensemble and reciting voice to a text by Wilhelm Muster (1985-1986)
Music for Orchestra No. 7 (1986-1987)
Passacaglia für TX [1st version] computer music for tape (1988)
Passacaglia für TX [2nd version] computer music for tape (1989)
String Quartet (1989)

Polish Music Information Centre Informacji Muzycznej, Association of Polish Composers, April 2002, transl., AM, May 2016.

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