A Compositional Study On Henryk Gorecki’s Symphonies

After selecting the first, second and third symphony of Henryk Gorecki (the famous Polish composer in modern and contemporary age) as the research object, the paper strives to make comprehensive analyses about compositional techniques as well as comparative studies in terms of these three pieces of works with the same genre covering different styles; moreover, the author then reveals the trajectory of its style changes as well as its technique composition before concluding its main creation features and extracting its general creation law, so as to obtain the reference and inspiration from the personalized symphony creation with rich characteristics of composers.The whole paper consists of three parts, namely, introduction, main body in four chapters and conclusion. In details, the introduction part elaborates the significance of this thesis, overseas and domestic research status as well as research method, and then combines this with related literatures before trying to divide the musical creation life of Gorecki into four periods. The first, second and third chapter respectively makes a systemic analysis about his three symphonies, with the same three parts set in each chapter: the first part is work summary, including creation background and the cast of orchestra, and the second and third symphonies also concern brief analyses about the lyrics text; the second part is structural analysis, including musical form division and structural characteristics summary, which presents the overall perspective of work and makes subsequent technique analyses more targeted through brief explanations about main musical forms and technical features of each structural part as well as supporting music scores; the third part is the key content of each chapter, namely, technique analysis, which makes comprehensive and in-depth analyses aimed at the perspective core creation technology of three symphonies with different styles and makes the classification from the perspective of entry angle, parameter selection and analytical methods selected, so as to find its characteristic technical essence. The fourth chapter involves comparative studies on two sides, and it concurrently summarizes the significance; the one is the comparative study about technique and style in three symphonies composed by Gorecki; the other is that about Gorecki and the relevant extension of his musical creation. Aimed at two viewpoints widely accepted by the current outside world, this chapter offers different opinions:1. The style of the second and third symphonies should be named as "Holy Simple Style" rather than "Holy Minimalism";2."Holy Simple Style" doesn’t come down in one continuous line with "Minimalism" with American composers as representatives, since there are fundamental differences between them. The conclusion part makes summarization and extension of the content in the full text, and provides expectation and prospect for the follow-up study of this thesis, namely, the unfinished The Fourth Symphony before Gorecki’s death.