Górecki, Totus Tuus

Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (1933-2010) was not among the composers I studied during my years of higher education. We spent quite a lot of time with his fellow Pole and contemporary Krysztof Penderecki, but Górecki‘s works had, for the most part, not yet made it into the U.S. at that point. He had begun composing in the atonal style of Anton Webern and Karl Stockhausen, but in 1963 he began to adopt a new, more expressive and less avant-garde style. Penderecki would make a similar shift in style not long afterwards.

In rejecting the avant garde, Górecki was essentially written off by the musical elites of the time. And this would perhaps explain why his music did not make it past the Iron Curtain. He also came into conflict with the Polish government. He resigned his position as provost of the Music Academy in Katowice in 1979 when the government refused to allow Pope John Paul II visit his native Poland.

Górecki‘s Three Pieces in the Old Style (1963) marked the new direction. He turned to musical themes with roots in Polish folk songs and to expressions of his Catholic faith. He built works around tragic themes. His Third Symphony, the “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs” written in 1976, commemorates the victims of the Holocaust. “I want to express great sorrow,” Górecki said. “This sorrow, it burns inside me.” Fifteen years later, Nonesuch Records released a recording of the symphony and Górecki rose to prominence in the West.

Totus Tuus was written in 1987 for the occasion of Pope John Paul’s third visit to Poland.