Op. 44 for Large Unaccompanied Mixed Choir
Miserere for large unaccompanied mixed choir is Górecki's reaction to the events of 19 March 1981, which took place in Bydgoszcz.
On that day clashes occurred between representatives of the Rural Solidarity and c. 200 militia men, as a result of which many union members sustained wounds; several months later the martial law was declared.
Miserere is Górecki's ''musical manifesto'' (the only one the composer allowed himself to make in his lifetime) directed against the regime of the Polish government of the 1980s.
It is understandable that the work was presented publicly only 6 years after its composition. The treatment of the choir is quite exceptional here, as each of the eight parts (2S 2A 2T 2B; 120 singers at least) has its own line, considerably diversified in the course of the composition. It is also interesting that the entire work remains within one harmonic field, the skeleton of which is formed by a progression of diatonic thirds (from A in the second basses to a' in the second sopranos).
The verbal layer is limited to five words only, but they are very meaningful: ''Domine Deus noster, Miserere Nobis''. Paradoxically, however, that verbal economy, combined with the formal and tonal evolution of the work, requires masterly performance, as Miserere is a work with great emotional charge.
According to Ivan Moody, the author of an article in The Musical Times (1992), the music of Miserere, endowed with ''tension, which is astonishing to the highest degree, is built up to the extremes of almost unbearable intensity, and then freed from the tension (...) in an atmosphere of meditative peace''.
[Based on A. Thomas, Górecki, Cracow 1998, PWM]
A prominent composer of the 20th Century, this work was written for large mixed choir a cappella.
The composer notes that the chorus should consist of at least 120 singers.
Miserere Op.44 was first performed in 1987 in Wloclawek.
Duration 35 Minutes.
