Aluzba Polsce - men's chorus and piano (1951) The pitch organization of this piece is also very carefully planned out. The first movement begins with a conducted aleatoric section (thin arrows), in which the orchestra alone is heard giving the listener a wash of sound that at any given time contains all 12 pitches of the octave, or the "chromatic whole." This sea of notes is soon punctuated by sforzandos in the brass and leads up to a free section for the chorus alone. Throughout this work, the actual rhythmic notation, although not strictly adhered to, is also tightly organized. Rhythmic cells are usually repeated or augmented and reduced in a steady, logical way. This orchestra prelude is organized in that way. There are four stanzas to this first poem, and they are set off in the music by these orchestral interludes, the first and fourth being the most similar and the second and third being slightly similar to each other. Along with Lutoslawski's radical new approach to musical composition comes a radical new approach to text setting. Rather than setting the text in such a way as to make the individual words audible and clearly understood, Lutoslawski instead sets the mood of each poem to appropriate music. The chorus consists of 20 singers - 5 sopranos, 5 altos, 5 tenors, and 5 basses - and the instructions to the work state that, depending on the size of the performance site and available resources, this number could be doubled or even tripled. Since most of the chorus work is done in the new aleatoric manner, with each individual singing his or her own part without regard to exact simultaneity of attack, there is really no way to bring across the text in a clearly enunciated manner. Yet the overall effect is stunning and clearly in keeping with the mood of the text. The orchestra that Lutoslawski uses is also unique. No strings are employed, and a large ensemble of winds and brass, two pianos, harp, and four separate percussion batteries gi |
