Henryk Górecki, Composer Of 'Symphony Of Sorrowful Songs,' Dies At Age 76
Polish composer Henryk Górecki died today at age 76. The news was announced this morning by the Polish National Radio Symphony.
Górecki was little known outside Poland until a 1992 recording of his Symphony No. 3, subtitled the "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs," shot up the charts, eventually selling well over a million copies, and was heard on radio stations around the world.
The symphony, which Górecki wrote in 1976, is centered on three texts — including a prayer inscribed by a teenager on a cell wall of a Gestapo headquarters — which the composer turned into haunting laments, backed by simple, slowly churning surges of beautiful music.
continued...http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecaden ... -at-age-76
