Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki

Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki was a Polish composer of contemporary classical music, who became a leading figure of the Polish avant-garde during the post-Stalin cultural thaw. He was influenced by Anton Webern, Luigi Nono, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and other modernist composers, as well as by Polish folk music and sacred music. He composed works in various genres, such as symphonies, chamber music, choral music, and vocal music. He is best known for his Symphony No. 3, also known as the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, which became a worldwide commercial and critical success in the early 1990s. The symphony is a lament for the victims of war and oppression, featuring three texts sung by a soprano soloist: a 15th-century Polish lament, a prayer written on the wall of a Gestapo cell by a young Polish woman, and a folk song from the Silesian uprisings. The symphony has been used in several films, such as Fearless, The Thin Red Line, and Beautiful Boy. Gorecki was also a respected teacher and academic, who served as the rector of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. He received many honors and awards, such as the Order of the White Eagle, the highest Polish state decoration, and honorary doctorates from several universities. He died in 2010 at the age of 76, after suffering from a lung infection. He left behind a large body of work, including some unfinished compositions, such as his Symphony No. 4 and his String Quartet No. 4.