Without a Title for piano and three optional instruments (1972)

Without a Title is a work characterised by extremely simplified musical material. Written by Sikorski for Zygmunt Krauze’s Warsztat Muzyczny ensemble, it had its Polish premiere in 1973 at the Warsaw Autumn Festival. The programme booklet contains the following comments by the composer:

Without a Title for piano and three optional instruments is a work representing a minimalist tendency, written in 1972. The duration of the composition is discretionary and is always up to the performers.

Although, as Barbara Okoń-Makowska, who had an opportunity to work with the composer on Diario 87 in the late 1980s, notes, Sikorski’s intention was completely different, Without a Title became a musical joke, an irreverent piece, which caused quite a scandal and, consequently, provoked a wave of criticism. This is what Janusz Szprot wrote in Ruch Muzyczny:

Could it be that the composer took to his heart a transposition of the idea of Henry de Montherlant, who wrote in The Death of Cato that the “first reason demanding sympathy for suicide is the fact that it is the object of slander”? It has long been known that in the history of music there have been works without credibility but full of sensationalism. What is sought there is neither truth nor probability, but only astonishment, unhealthy sensationalism, opportunity to show indignation etc. This kind of “fame” may be the worst form of misunderstanding. Owing to its monotony, the piece quickly became so boring that it even proved jolly. I noticed that in all the merriment in the auditorium some seemed to be perplexed; perhaps they were coming to the conclusion that it was no longer worth listening to the piece or even no longer worth listening to Sikorski.

Slightly less harsh, though not without a note of condescension, was Dorota Szwarcman’s opinion in her article “Remembering minimal music”:

There was one big mistake in Sikorski’s oeuvre: the famous Without a Title (1972), loudly booed at the Warsaw Autumn, a work which was to imitate minimalism, but which, in fact, was only not a very wise provocation. Fortunately, it was a one-off and the composer returned to his gongs and tam-tams.

A recording of the concert exists. It is hard to find any boos in it. What can be clearly heard, on the other hand, are very amused audience members, who – as Janusz Szprot reported – after listening for a few minutes to a short phrase based on two notes and performed against the background of a monotonous piano chord, spontaneously begin to join in the performance. Indeed, we can sense some impatience here, but we cannot deny that the audience had a sense of humour.

It would be difficult to say unequivocally today whether the piece was a result of more or less successful creative experiments or a kind of mockery of minimal music as well as those critics who at that time tried to label Sikorski a minimalist, or whether by writing a piece in the minimalist “style” the composer wanted to show perversely that a minimalist he was not.