I think the best publicity I can get for my music is to conduct it. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
I wrote 'Threnody,' then I wrote several works where I changed my music completely. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
I started studying counterpoint and theory with a physicist whose hobby was music. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
I have always had an audience for my music, even in the very avant garde, crazy times. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
In my own works I am an obsessionist. Though I write humorous music too, much of it has been obsessed by death… — Krzysztof Penderecki 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
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 Copy Share Image
Melody was banned from music by the composers of the avant-garde. I was unique among them in always using and writing melody… — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
The isolation of Eastern Europe actually helped me to be so original. I couldn't travel so much, I had to find my… — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
There was this kind of dictatorship of the Darmstadt school, composers like Boulez and Stockhausen, who were very strict and orthodox. They… — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
So many new things have been discovered in the 20th century that now, at the end of the century, we need some… — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
I started to write religious music at a time when it was absolutely impossible. The first religious work I wrote was the… — Krzysztof Penderecki 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 think in work like 'Passion According to St Luke,' which I wrote when the Church was being persecuted by the Communist… — 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 Copy Share Image
When Kubrick called me about 'The Shining,' it was very strange. He first asked me to write music for his film, but… — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
Conducting is a natural way to participate in one's own music. Almost every 19th-century composer Mendelssohn, Mahler was conducting or playing his… — 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
With Orff it is text, text, text - the music always subordinate. Not so with me. In 'Magnificat,' the text is important,… — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
Writing music is something very natural... this is the way to communicate with other people. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
Listening to classical music is like reading philosophy books. Not everybody has to do it. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
I don't write political music. Political music is immediately obsolete. — 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 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 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 Copy Share Image
I started to write religious music at a time when it was absolutely impossible. The first religious work I wrote was the 'Psalms of… — 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 music, and… — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
The communists saw what we did in the arts as the only product of socialism that was known in the West, so they tolerated… — Krzysztof Penderecki 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 what happened… — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
I must never change my way - because of critics who may not like it - I preserve my language and my style. — Krzysztof Penderecki 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
At school, I wrote in the style of the Dutch composers. After I graduated, a new style set in. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
