I don't write political music. Political music is immediately obsolete. — Krzysztof Penderecki Music Copy Share Image
The circumstances In which I grew up In Poland were not auspicious for humor. — Krzysztof Penderecki 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
That is our dilemma in Poland. We don't like to be ruled by the East. — Krzysztof Penderecki Dilemma Copy Share Image
I wrote 'Threnody,' then I wrote several works where I changed my music completely. — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
I have written many works to accompany Old Church Slavonic texts. — Krzysztof Penderecki Church 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
Writing music is something very natural... this is the way to communicate with other people. — 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… — Krzysztof Penderecki Art Copy Share Image
I'm not a minimalist, not at all. I feel much better, safer even, having a large piece. — 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 Death Copy Share Image
At school, I wrote in the style of the Dutch composers. After I graduated, a new style set in. — Krzysztof Penderecki Composers Copy Share Image
For years, my favorite composers had been Monteverdi and Bach. Then I began to rediscover the 19th century, see it from another… — Krzysztof Penderecki Copy Share Image
I used to do most of my composing at a little table in a cafe. Composing for 52 instruments, I had to… — Krzysztof Penderecki Cafe 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
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
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
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 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 have always had an audience for my music, even in the very avant garde, crazy times. — Krzysztof Penderecki 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
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
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
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
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
I have about 1,700 species of trees, almost everything that can grow in our climate. — 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
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
Listening to classical music is like reading philosophy books. Not everybody has to do it. — Krzysztof Penderecki Books 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
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
When Kubrick called me about 'The Shining,' it was very strange. He first asked me to write music for his film, but… — Krzysztof Penderecki Film Copy Share Image
