Paweł Malinowski

A composer particularly interested in playing with social, historical and musical contexts. He artfully conceals references in quiet yet dramatic pieces, sometimes inspired by cinema.

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Paweł Malinowski, photo: Wojciech Gumiński, courtesy of the artist

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Paweł Malinowski was born in 1994 in Olsztyn. He studied composition with Wojciech Widłak and music theory with Agnieszka Draus at the Academy of Music in Kraków; he also studied with Niels Rønsholdt and Simon Steen-Andersen at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus. Malinowski also expanded his skills in workshops and masterclasses with Richard Ayres, Bernhard Lang, Stefan Prins, Kaija Saariaho, Marco Stroppa and Jennifer Walshe, amongst others. In 2016, he won first prize at the 58th Tadeusz Baird Competition for Young Composers. His works have been performed during the following festivals: Sacrum Profanum, Ostrava New Music Days, Warszawska Jesień, Musica Electronica Nova, Örebro Contemporary Music Festival and International Organ Music Festival.

Malinowski is a co-organiser (along with Monika Szpyrka) of the Elementi student conference at the Academy of Music in Kraków, which has grown into the most important events of its kind in Poland. Apart from performing at its numerous editions, he has also published texts on the work of Michael Beil and the aesthetics of camp in the journal Meakultura.

Malinowski’s music, like that of many of his peers and slightly older composers, is strongly inspired by a variety of contexts: from the Polish economic transformation (Dziś Wydaje Mi Się, że Jest Lepiej [Today I Think it's Better]) to personal coming-of-age stories (C’mon Join to Joyride). However, it seems that amongst these references, nods to great predecessors dominate: Purcell (ZMRÓŻ), Bach (...über BWV 971), Schubert (I <3 Franz), Wagner (...still untitled:( [love songs]), Mahler (Nachtwanderung) or Szymanowski (Op.50/No. 1).

Paweł Malinowski, however, is stylistically far from his namesakes – the ‘surconventionalist’ Szymański or the postmodernist Mykietyn – situating his music closer to the works of Lachenmann or Beil. He often approaches the material from an ironic position, such as in his use of a kitschy, almost camp quotation from the TV series Twin Peaks (It helps relieve tension) or a literal illustration of a German-language presentation of an old synthesiser (Robotron). Another important source for Malinowski are films, especially classics by Stanley Kubrick (the installation Sommer Resort Darmstadt, based on The Shining or Faites vos jeux inspired by Barry Lyndon). These samples and quotations are sometimes the starting point and the awaited culmination, and at other times they are only a way to bounce off to barely recognisable sonoristic variations and transformations.

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I think rather in terms of context, in the sense of Mikhail Bakhtin. How a musical language is received depends on what is in front of it and behind it, where it comes from. That’s why I can’t start composing for so long because I can’t just sit down and write. The sound doesn’t come by itself. I have various ideas, which I eliminate as I write because they could disturb the clarity of the thought or add an additional interpretation, which in this case would not be advisable. [...] Lachenmann wrote a beautiful sentence, that if we used instruments out of context, we would find ourselves at an airport, where people come from everywhere and don’t know each other at all. It makes sense at an airport, but not in music.

Author

Mateusz Ciupka, Jan Topolski, To Nie Może Być Wszystko Na Poważnie: Rozmowa z Pawłem Malinowskim (This Can’t Be Serious: A Conve

Although Paweł Malinowski’s music remains entangled in the aforementioned contexts, in terms of pure sound it can also satisfy listeners who do not want to engage in erudite games of association. The composer chooses his casts and sounds very carefully, often alluding to historical sources of sound, such as cassette recorders, analogue synthesisers and television sets, a string quartet or a piano trio. This immersion in the past, understood also as a reservoir of stories, contributes to the significant narrative potential of Malinowski’s music, which is not infrequently revealed explicitly in the form of recited parts or quotations from reportages or films. Sometimes these translate into the performative character of the pieces, where the musicians are given stage directions (untitled, driven by rhythm), at other times it is conquered by video (They Can't See Me Like I Can). In his most recent works, the composer seems to focus on sound, as in the highly original timbre of ZMRÓŹ, where the parts of individual instruments of the orchestra and the tape seamlessly intertwine.

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At the end, the most powerful and overwhelming sounding composition of the whole concert was Płótno (Canvas) for amplified organ and video (prepared by Konrad Żukowski). Paweł Malinowski, a young composer inspired by Greenaway, Bjork, new media and various contexts of sound, writes extensively and sweepingly. He amplifies the sound of the organ with various, puzzling overtones; he does not avoid powerful dissonances, clusters, exploiting the instrument to the limit. Again, a nod to expressionism and drone music, a composition mixing pure sonorism with dissected organ passages. The performance of both musically challenging themes was taken up by Julian Gołosz, who also invited the audience to take a look at his EEG scan.

Author

‘Gesualdo vs. Organ Undergound’ by Kaśka Paluch

Selected pieces:

Transgressions for piano (2014)
Pantheistic for soprano and ensemble (2015)
Romantic Landscape for flute, clarinet, percussion, violin and cello (2015)
...still untitled:( [love songs] for saxophone, percussion, piano, double bass and electronics (2015)
Canvas for amplified organ and video (2015-2016)
schwarzeis for bass clarinet, percussion and cello (2016)
Future is calling us for electronics (4.1) (2016)
quick guide to contemporary guitar for electric guitar, video and electronics (2016)
I <3 Franz for string quartet (2016)
no właśnie co for voice, sampler and cello (2016)
Viens! Maman va te prendre en photo for 7 musicians, video and electronics (2016)
Smuga cienia for piano and electronics (2016)
...über BWV 971 for flute and string trio (2016)
Dziś wydaje mi się że jest lepiej for ensemble, video and electronics (2017)
It helps relieve tension for bass flute, double bass and electronics (2017)
C'mon Join to Joyride for 3 performers, tape recorders and video (2017)
Op.50/No. 1 for piano (2017)

Originally written in Polish by Jan Topolski, translated into English by P. Grabowski, June 2021

paweł malinowski

sonorism

contemporary music

contemporary polish composers