November 2nd, 2008 A glimpse of Gorecki Symphony No. 3
I
My son, my chosen and beloved
Share your wounds with your mother
And because, dear son, I have always carried you in my heart,
And always served you faithfully
Speak to your mother, to make her happy,
Although you are already leaving me, my cherished hope.
(Lamentation of the Holy Cross Monastery from the “Lysagóra Songs” collection. Second half of the 15th century)
II
No, Mother, do not weep,
Most chaste Queen of Heaven
Support me always.
“Zdrowas Mario.” (*)
(Prayer inscribed on wall 3 of cell no. 3 in the basement of “Palace,” the Gestapo’s headquarters in Zadopane; beneath is the signature of Helena Wanda Blazusiakówna, and the words “18 years old, imprisoned since 26 September 1944.”)
(*) “Zdrowas Mario” (Ave Maria)—the opening of the Polish prayer to the Holy Mother
III
Where has he gone
My dearest son?
Perhaps during the uprising
The cruel enemy killed him
Ah, you bad people
In the name of God, the most Holy,
Tell me, why did you kill
My son?
Never again
Will I have his support
Even if I cry
My old eyes out
Were my bitter tears
to create another River Oder
They would not restore to life
My son
He lies in his grave
and I know not where
Though I keep asking people
Everywhere
Perhaps the poor child
Lies in a rough ditch
and instead he could have been
lying in his warm bed
Oh, sing for him
God’s little song-birds
Since his mother
Cannot find him
And you, God’s little flowers
May you blossom all around
So that my son
May sleep happily
(Folk song in the dialect of the Opole region)
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Three movements, father talking to son (or daughter), son (or daughter) talking to mother, and mother talking about his son. It may be alluding to God, Jesus and Mary, and yet it may be just a simple story of every human.
It is so deeply moving.
How can Gorecki write the music with the least material and develop it into three long movements, simple structure, and yet so profound and perfect?
A simple and perfect structure.
Not that simple at all. First movement, growing a single-line melody by double bass (this theme share some similarity to the double bass theme Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, 3rd movement), to a highly contrapuntal 8-part canon. Dissonance and resolution between the lines are like breaths and sighs. How does he construct an 8-part canon, and it is a stretto, that each part’s entry is actually just a bar apart? And how does this 8-part canon gradually trim down to 2-part, and then back to a single note, E?
A primitive sketch of his first movement. Sorry for my primitive drawing that looks like the “Boa constrictor eating an elephant”. I am trying to convey how perfect the architecture is:
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The third movement develops simply from two chords (according to programme notes, it is two chords extracted from Chopin’s mazurka). After struggling for so long in A minor, oscillating between two chords, it slips into A major suddenly! From the darkness of E minor in the first movement, and finally, the bright and peaceful A major. Gorecki restricted himself to use two chords only until this tiny little change. And this tiny change is a big change. That’s a magical moment. It sounds like everything is resolved and we are now in heaven.