Wlodzimierz Kotonski

Włodzimierz Kotoński, the composer and teacher, was born on 23 August 1925 in Warsaw. Kotonski studied composition at the Warsaw National Higher School of Music (nowadays the Academy of Music) in the class of Piotr Rytel in 1945-51 and, by a private arrangement, with Tadeusz Szeligowski in 1950-51. He also learned the piano from M. Klimont-Jacynowa. In the 1950s Kotonski conducted research on Polish folk music at the National Institute of Art, and presented the findings in his book "Goralski i zbojnicki" (PWM, Krakow 1956). In 1957-61 Kotonski took part in the International Summer School of New Music in Darmstadt, and it was at that time that he embarked upon experimenting with electronic sound transformation. His search for a new sound resulted in Poland's first-ever electronic composition, ETIUDA KONKRETNA (NA JEDNO UDERZENIE W TALERZ) / THE CONCRETE ETUDE (FOR ONE STRIKE OF THE CYMBALS).

Since 1958 Kotonski has contributed regularly to the Experimental Studio of the Polish Radio. He has also worked in other centers of electronic music, including the studio of Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne in 1966-67, Groupe de Recherches Musicales ORTF in Paris in 1970, the studio of Sudwestfunk Baden-Baden in Freiburg (SWF) in 1979, Stiftelsen Elektroakustik Musik i Sverige in Stockholm (EMS) in 1984, and Groupe de Musique Experimentale de Bourges (GMEB) in 1986. In 1970-71 Kotonski was a scholar at Berlin's Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst.

Since 1967 Kotonski has lectured composition at the Warsaw Academy of Music as an associated professor since 1972 and professor since 1983. He is also in charge of the Academy's Electronic Music Studio. Kotonski's composition students have included Pawel Szymanski, Hanna Kulenty, Stanislaw Krupowicz, Tadeusz Wielecki, Edward Sielicki and Jacek Grudzien. As a visiting professor, Kotonski lectured on composition and electronic music at the Stockholm Royal Academy of Music in 1971, the State University of New York in Buffalo in 1978, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles in 1982, Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem in 1990, and in Seoul in 1994-95.

In 1974-76 Kotonski was the Head Music Editor of the Polish Radio and the Head Music Director of the Polish Radio and Television. In 1983 he was appointed President of the Polish Society of Contemporary Music, the Polish section of ISCM/SIMC, a post he held until 1989.

Kotonski is the holder of the Minister of Culture and Art's award (1973), the Union of Polish Composers' award (1976) and the Chairman of Radio and Television Committee's award (1979). In 1963 came out his book "Instrumenty perkusyjne we wspolczesnej orkiestrze" ("Percussion Instruments in a Modern Orchestra", PWM, Krakow 1963, 2nd edition - 1981; Hungarian translation "A modern zenekar utohangszerei", Zenemukiado, Budapest 1967; German translation "Slaginstrumente im modernen Orchester", Schott, Mainz 1968). Kotonski's "Muzyka elektroniczna" ("Electronic Music") and "Leksykon wspolczesnej perkusji" ("A Lexicon of Modern Percussion") were published by PWM, Krakow, in 1989 and 1999, respectively.

A classic of electroacoustic music, Kotonski was the first contributor to the Experimental Studio of the Polish Radio. Established in 1957, the Studio was a major world center of tape-recorded music. Kotonski was the first person in Poland to compose an autonomous work for tape, the CONCRETE ETUDE (FOR ONE STRIKE OF THE CYMBALS). This 2 minutes and 41 seconds long composition was based on a recording of a single strike of a soft stick against a medium-sized cymbal. The sound, selected from a number of similar recordings, was subjected to complex transformations. The resulting extensive material was used to create a work whose every element had a carefully planned structure. Kotonski's ETUDE was one of the purest examples of concrete music - the art looking for new means of expression and adopting the latest developments in electroacoustics for artistic purposes. ETUDE was first performed at the Warsaw Autumn Festival in 1960, to be later repeated at a number of events in Poland and abroad. It has also made it to the textbooks, where Kotonski is named as one of Poland's top creators of the new music. Kotonski has composed many other works for tape as well as has used either pre-recorded or live electronic sounds in compositions for traditional instruments.

http://www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/os_kotonski_wlodzimierz
http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/composer/kotonski.html

See also: Poland#Electroacoustic_music