Krzysztof Penderecki Quotes

Krzysztof Penderecki

Profession : Composer

Birth : November 23, 1933

Writing music is something very natural... this is the way to communicate with other people.

Krzysztof Penderecki

As a young man I couldn't travel, nobody could travel, they wouldn't give us a passport. For many years I was trying to go abroad. And then one day I read in the newspaper about a new competition for composers, and the first prize was a trip to the West. I decided I must get the first prize, so I wrote three pieces in three different styles.

Krzysztof Penderecki

I wrote 'Threnody,' then I wrote several works where I changed my music completely.

Krzysztof Penderecki

I love Shostakovich. We were good friends.

Krzysztof Penderecki

I don't really think my work breaks into periods. In fact, if you listen to my work in all its so-called periods, what you should hear is continuity.

Krzysztof Penderecki

There's a kind of passionate expression in all my pieces. It's just that the nature of the expression takes different forms.

Krzysztof Penderecki

At school, I wrote in the style of the Dutch composers. After I graduated, a new style set in.

Krzysztof Penderecki

I started studying counterpoint and theory with a physicist whose hobby was music.

Krzysztof Penderecki

I used to do most of my composing at a little table in a cafe. Composing for 52 instruments, I had to figure out how to accommodate myself to the small table.

Krzysztof Penderecki

I think the best publicity I can get for my music is to conduct it.

Krzysztof Penderecki

I'm not a minimalist, not at all. I feel much better, safer even, having a large piece.

Krzysztof Penderecki

Everyone is born lazy.

Krzysztof Penderecki

Usually composers need a reason to write. I need a deadline.

Krzysztof Penderecki

I take commissions because I know I'll have to get up early in the morning and work.

Krzysztof Penderecki

I grew up at the time of Social Realism in Poland, when everyone was supposed to be 'writing for the workers.' But I soon became allergic to this. I have never written for audiences. I like it if they appreciate my music. But I would never change my style for them.

Krzysztof Penderecki

The circumstances In which I grew up In Poland were not auspicious for humor.

Krzysztof Penderecki

Conducting is a natural way to participate in one's own music. Almost every 19th-century composer Mendelssohn, Mahler was conducting or playing his own music. Mozart did both.

Krzysztof Penderecki

I don't believe in a composer who is only able to compose, who can't play or conduct, can only use a computer. If that trend continues there will be no more symphonies, no more oratorios.

Krzysztof Penderecki

The isolation of Eastern Europe actually helped me to be so original. I couldn't travel so much, I had to find my own things, such as making the strings sound like electronic music.

Krzysztof Penderecki