I don't write political music. Political music is immediately obsolete. — Krzysztof Penderecki Music Copy Share Image
I started studying counterpoint and theory with a physicist whose hobby was music. — Krzysztof Penderecki Education Copy Share Image
The circumstances In which I grew up In Poland were not auspicious for humor. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
That is our dilemma in Poland. We don't like to be ruled by the East. — Krzysztof Penderecki Dilemma Copy Share Image
There is some limit to finding, always, new things. It's rather impossible. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
All I'm interested in is liberating sound beyond all tradition. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
I wrote 'Threnody,' then I wrote several works where I changed my music completely. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
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 Artist Copy Share Image
When the Second World War started, I was only five but I still remember... Being a witness... I wanted people to remember… — Krzysztof Penderecki Country Copy Share Image
I don't like to be alone. I like to have my family around me. They disturb me, of course, but that's OK. — Krzysztof Penderecki Alone Copy Share Image
I must never change my way - because of critics who may not like it - I preserve my language and my… — Krzysztof Penderecki Change Copy Share Image
There is something about performing my own music, and other people's music, that gives me pleasure. I think I learn more by… — Krzysztof Penderecki Education Copy Share Image
I take commissions because I know I'll have to get up early in the morning and work. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
It's no longer possible to find something which will shock other people, because everything has already been done. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
After so many years, I don't really think writing has to be absolutely new. No. It has to be good work. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
I grew up at the time of Social Realism in Poland, when everyone was supposed to be 'writing for the workers.' But… — Krzysztof Penderecki Change Copy Share Image
When writing music for the 'Kaddish,' I evoked the prayers that were sung in Eastern Galicia, Ukraine and Romania. I was advised… — Krzysztof Penderecki Friend Copy Share Image
If I would be born in New Zealand, maybe, I would never write the Polish Requiem or pieces which were connected with… — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
I think in work like 'Passion According to St Luke,' which I wrote when the Church was being persecuted by the Communist… — Krzysztof Penderecki Church Copy Share Image
I was growing up in a communist time, especially, and the other music, the western music, was banned, so on radio half… — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
I don't believe in a composer who is only able to compose, who can't play or conduct, can only use a computer.… — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
After music, trees are my passion. My great-grandfather was a forester, so maybe it is genetic. My father would take me for… — Krzysztof Penderecki Forest Copy Share Image
With Orff it is text, text, text - the music always subordinate. Not so with me. In 'Magnificat,' the text is important,… — Krzysztof Penderecki Caring Copy Share Image
I began as a violinist, not a composer. Thus my contact with orchestral musicians, with the source of music, is very important. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
Listening to classical music is like reading philosophy books. Not everybody has to do it. — Krzysztof Penderecki Books Copy Share Image
I have about 1,700 species of trees, almost everything that can grow in our climate. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
My grandfather taught me trees and the Latin names of trees when I was five or six. His father was a forester,… — Krzysztof Penderecki Father Copy Share Image
Chopin is a great composer who influenced many, many important composers. He was a great innovator, especially in harmony. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
My music is rather abstract and maybe even strange-sounding for some people, so maybe that's why it's been used in so many… — Krzysztof Penderecki Abstract Copy Share Image
Traveling, talking to people, and rehearsing, I'm always finding new ideas. If I stay in one place, maybe I won't have so… — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
In summer, I like to sit and compose on the porch, where I can see people come and go. — Krzysztof Penderecki Come and go Copy Share Image
I'm never satisfied. I don't think about what has come before because I'm trying to find something different than I did before. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
Our house was in the middle of town; behind it was the ghetto, from which Jews were sent to concentration camps. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
I don't really think my work breaks into periods. In fact, if you listen to my work in all its so-called periods,… — Krzysztof Penderecki Continuity Copy Share Image
If I were reborn, if I were a teen-ager now, starting my career as a composer, I would do again what I… — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
Poland is different from the other so-called socialist countries. We have a different background. Poland belongs to the West, not the East.… — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
The 1960s were a time of cultural revolution in Poland. And I was a part of that revolution. For me, those years… — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
Listen to the triple fugue in 'Magnificat' - the first subject is seven voices, the second one has 52 different voices, the… — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
I started with very tonal 19th-century music because I wanted to be a violinist as a child. So this was my first… — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
