Antiphons for soprano, piano, French horn, chimes, 2 gongs, 2 tam-tams and tape (1963)
Antiphons is a piece with which Tomasz Sikorski made his debut as a composer at the Warsaw Autumn Festival. He was also one of the performers of his debut composition. However, his Festival debut as a pianist took place a year earlier, when, together with the German mezzo-soprano Carla Henius and Zygmunt Krauze, he took part in the first Polish performance of Dieter Schönbach’s Lyrische Gesange II.
The premiere of Antiphons at the Chamber Hall of the National Philharmonic featured Josephine Nendick (soprano), Michał Czerwiński (percussion), Ireneusz Palczewski (horn) and Tomasz Sikorski (piano). An equally important part of the work is that of the tape, which becomes another performer. The extraordinary colour richness of instruments, especially chimes, gongs and tam-tams, finds its reflection in just as complex – in terms of its harmonics – sound material of the tape. It is highly likely that it is based on pre-recorded samples of instruments used in the piece, which were then transformed in the studio.
The composer wrote in the Warsaw Autumn programme booklet:
Antiphons. A work for soprano, tape and instruments, without words, written in January 1963. Approximate duration 7’-10’. In it I have used two completely different types of singing – coloratura singing (staccato) and continuous singing (glissando). The soprano produces sound structures using vowels or bocca chiusa. Antiphons consists of 5 sequences. Sequences I, II and III are based on different structural premises. Sequence IV combines elements of sequences II and III, while sequence V – of all the preceding sequences. The form of the composition is polymorphic. Temporal freedoms used in the piece make for a great variety of interpretations. Freely combining the various layers, which differ both in structural and spatial (stereophony) terms, produces a specific kind of polyphony stemming from the principle of “playing not together”. The principle makes it possible to achieve complete independence of voices and create subtle rhythmic relations between the voices and the layers – which would be impossible without it.
The work is, indeed, based on fairly simple, even basic musical rules, which can be described by means of pairs: question-answer or note (attack)-sustain, which may explain the composition’s title: Antiphons.