Series / Sounds

Gdańsk, as we have testified for years, is renowned for its carillons, that is, sets of many bells played from a keyboard. The city’s largest carillon is mounted in the tower of St Catherine’s Church, a smaller one – at the Main City Hall. There is also a third mobile carillon that can be moved around, as the name suggests. For the last several years, the City of Gdańsk and Museum of Gdańsk have been commissioning new works for these instruments. Their premieres take place in September. Through the courtesy of PWM Edition, these compositions have also been recorded and released.

Bells have for centuries remained an element of the Polish audiosphere. ‘For the Angelus bells are ringing…’ wrote Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer of these sounds which have been as natural to the landscape as thatched roofs, village graveyards, rivers and woods. Even so, the carillon (a set of at least 23 tower bells activated by means of a special keyboard) still appears to be an exotic instrument and its potential largely remains unrecognised.

Does music need parity? Probably not, it defends itself. But it is worth noting and emphasising the artistic advantages of outstanding contemporary composers and their unforgettable predecessors - women in Polish music are a voice as separate as it is expressive. The album is the result of cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, and more specifically the Polskie Heroiny Dźwięku (Polish Heroines of Sound) program conducted by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the wider Polska Music campaign.

The eminent composer and pianist Zygmunt Krauze claims that he shunned Fryderyk Chopin through much of his artistic life. When he finally realised that he could not avoid facing that music, rather than piously worshipping the national saint he is getting to grips with Chopin’s art on his own terms.

Music history abounds in paradoxes. Take the Rhodes piano, for instance. Commissioned by the US army as an easy-to-transport instrument for military bands, it reached the wide audience thanks to The Doors, the band that remains an icon of rock-music pacifism.