1. biografia

[amministratore_1]

Augustyn BLOCH
http://culture.pl/en/artist/augustyn-bloch
Grudziądz (Polonia),1948 - Warsaw (Polonia), 2006

He was an organ student of Feliks Raczkowski and a composition student of Tadeusz Szeligowski at the National Higher School of Music. In 1947-57, when still a student, Bloch gave organ concerts in Wrocław, Oliwa and Warsaw. In 1954-77 he had a contract with the Polish Radio Theatre to write music for its plays. In 1977-9 and 1983-7 Bloch was the Vice-President of the Association of Polish Composers, and in 1979-87 he chaired the Program Committee of the "Warsaw Autumn" International Festival of Contemporary Music.

In 1969 Bloch was third at the UNESCO's International Composers' Tribune in Paris for his Dialoghi per Violino ed Orchestra (1964). In 1989 the composer received the Brighton Festival award for the Oratorium for organ, strings and percussion, composed in 1982. He is also a two-time winner of the Minister of Art and Culture award: for Enfiando per Orchestra (1970) and for the ballet Gilgamesh (1968), received in 1971 and 1985, respectively.

Bloch's radio compositions for children earned him the award of the Radio and Television Committee in 1960 and of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers (for his music for children and youth, and in particular for the opera-ballet The Beauty is Very Much Asleep) in 1973. In 1981 Bloch received the annual award of the Association of Polish Composers. He is also the holder of the Chevalier Cross and the Officer Cross of the Poland's Revival Order, conferred in 1969 and 1979, respectively.

Augustyn Bloch's compositions are to a large extent determined by his interest in the organ.

After a short spell of playing concerts as an organist, his own music included, Bloch gave up that career to focus exclusively on composing. Initially influenced by neoclassicism, he got briefly interested in dodecaphony. Yet it is the sound that has always been central to Bloch's composing language. One of his most interesting sound experiments is Anenaiki (1979), a piece in which the composer uses a choir consisting of sixteen voices to obtain unusual sound effects, including aliquot sounds. Sonorous effects are an important means of expression even in Bloch's religious pieces.
The religious trend, in the most general understanding of the word, is very important in Bloch's compositions, presumably owing to his family roots and organ experience.
Of special note are also Bloch's accomplishments in the area of stage music. He has written five ballets, a "miracle opera" based on a Biblical text - to use the composer's own words - entitled Alejet, Jefte's Daughter (1967), a musical Pan Zagłoba (1971), a children opera The Beauty is Very Much Asleep (1973) and a children musical The Tale of a Violin Soul (1979).