Although he was already established as a major Polish composer, Henryk Górecki's commission from the Kosciuszko Foundation of New York for a work celebrating the 500th anniversary of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was his most important to date. The Polish Renaissance scientist is particularly significant because his confirmation that the earth revolved around the sun revolutionized the European conception of humankind's place in the cosmos. Górecki responded with a monumental piece for soprano and baritone soloists, choir, and large orchestra. His music reflects the awe and the terror of the universe, with the texts placing these reflections into a religious context. The symphony is organized in two large movements, the first almost entirely orchestral, the second featuring the soloists.

The first movement is an almost relentless evocation of the imperturbable machinations of the universe. The piece launches into a grinding, dissonant "chorale," featuring the entire orchestra filling out an ambiguous whole-tone chord. Punctuated by pounding drums, these massive sonorities circle slowly around a narrow progression, not leaving, not arriving. There are just a couple of episodes distributed throughout the fifteen minutes of this movement. The first is a quiet, sustained passage for strings, colored by woodwind chords. The harmonic material isn't significantly different apart from a "black-note" pentatonic sonority. This relative consonance casts a ray of light on the dark musical universe thus far portrayed, and points to the more uplifting second movement. The next episode is a more active passage, first for low brass and strings. Sharp punctuating chords from the rest of the orchestra signal shifts in register, and the music rises incrementally until all the brass, and then the reeds, fill out the middle register with densely scored, narrow figurations. A third, related, episode leads to the final section, this time with the addition of the choir. The massed material remains the same, but the voices add the words "Lord, Creator of heaven and earth. He made the sun and the moon." The movement ends with no resolution, just as the universe, seen from the material, scientific perspective, offers none. Any resolution must be found in the spiritual domain, and Górecki moves to that perspective in his finale.

As this movement opens, it is immediately apparent that we are in a different musical universe. The strings open with the luminous pentatonic chord that had been hinted at briefly in the first episode of the opening movement. And, for the first time, a solo voice enters, the baritone, who intones the same Psalm text heard just prior. The static setting draws one toward contemplation and prayer rather than terror and awe. As the baritone line climbs, the dynamics rise and the orchestra fills out, though the pentatonic chord remains the primary sonority. The soprano takes over from the baritone, climbing up the scale in a manner that points to Symphony No. 3. The harmony shifts to Ab major before repeating the previous passage in compressed form, finishing with a climactic intoning of the rest of the Psalm text: "The sun to rule over the day. The moon and the stars to rule over the night." After a repetition of the text and the musical material, Górecki inserts an extraordinary choral passage which quotes an anonymous fifteenth-century modal phrase. Appropriately enough, the choir sings a quote from Copernicus himself: "What is more beautiful than the heavens, since they contain everything that is beautiful?" The piece concl udes with a huge swelling and dying away of the pentatonic chord, which then resolves to the A flat triad, a dramatic, though prayerful, close to a remarkable work.

© All Music Guide