composer and teacher, b. 9th September 1921 in Lwów (Lvov), d. 8th August 1990 in Graz. During the war he studied organ with Bronisław Rutkowski, clarinet with Ludwik Kurkiewicz and singing with Stefan Belina-Skupiewski at the Warsaw Conservatoire. In 1945-51 he continued his studies with Stefania Łobaczewska (theory) and Artur Malawski (composition) at the State Higher School of Music in Cracow. From 1947 to 1954 he taught theory at the State Secondary Music School and at the State Higher School of Music in Cracow. Subsequently, in 1954-76, he was associate professor of theory at the State Higher School of Music in Warsaw, where (from 1964) he also taught his own composition class. From 1976, after his state nomination to the academic title of professor, he was a lecturer at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Graz, where he taught classes in composition and electronic music. From 1979 he also held the post of dean at the Department of Composition, Theory and Conducting at that academy. Dobrowolski was also engaged in the activity of the Experimental Studio of the Polish Radio in Warsaw as well as the Institut für Elektronische Musik at the Hochschule für Musik in Graz. In 1969 he was decorated with the Gold Cross of Merit. In 1971 he received the Minister of Culture and Arts Award, in 1972 - the Award of the Polish Composers' Union for all his artistic achievements, and in 1990 - the Johann Joseph Fux Music Award of the Government of Styria.
Dobrowolski wrote a theoretical study entitled Metodyka nauczania harmonii w szkołach muzycznych II stopnia [Methodology of teaching harmony in secondary music schools] (PWM, Cracow 1967).
Creation
When in 1958 one of the world’s first studios of music for tape - the Experimental Studio of the Polish Radio - was founded in Warsaw, Andrzej Dobrowolski was one of its first users. Together with Włodzimierz Kotoński, Zbigniew Wiszniewski and Bogusław Schaeffer, he played a key role in the history of Polish music for tape, determining the directions in which it developed until the 1970s. Andrzej Dobrowolski’s first work in which he applied the new electro-acoustic technology was Music for Tape No. 1 recorded in the Experimental Studio of the Polish Radio in 1962. The input sound material was derived from a variety of sources, which was a new idea, as the earlier pieces from the Warsaw Studio had been based on homogeneous sound material. Dobrowolski used polytones from generators, piano chords, voices and the sounds of the piano resonating box into which individual vowels were exclaimed. Despite such heterogeneous sources, Music for Tape No. 1 is characterised by a unity and integrity of sound, which is distinctly “electronic” in character. This is due to the identical structuring processes to which the composer submitted all the sounds collected on the tape. The publication of the score of this piece by PWM Edition was an extraordinary event: works for tape usually exist only as a unique studio recording and are virtually never published as a score. Music for Tape No. 1 was performed, or rather - played back - twice at the “Warsaw Autumn” festival (in 1962 and 1963). Virtually each subsequent electronic piece by Andrzej Dobrowolski was later presented at that festival, almost invariably becoming a major event in the programme. In 1966, Music for Magnetic Tape and Solo Oboe inaugurated a series of pieces which combined a “live” performer with music from loudspeakers. This work was followed by Music for Strings, Two Groups of Wind Instruments and Two Loudspeakers (1967), Music for Tape and Piano (1971), Music for Tape and Double-Bass (1977), Music for Tape and Bass Clarinet (1980). S for S, Electronic Music from 1973 was purely electronic; finally, in 1988, Dobrowolski wrote Passacaglia für TX in which the almost 70-year-old composer applied computers.
Electro-acoustic works were by no means the dominant of artistic expression for Andrzej Dobrowolski. Throughout his life, he made use of various musical genres, but even in the field of purely symphonic music one can hear in his works “electronic” sound which he created by breaking the conventions related to the traditional sound structure of the orchestra.
Compositions
Symphonic Variations for orchestra (1949)
Overture for symphony orchestra (1950-51)
Concerto for bassoon and orchestra (1953)
Symphony No. 1 (1955)
Trio for oboe, clarinet and bassoon (1956)
Eight Studies for oboe, trumpet, bassoon and double-bass pizzicato (1958-59)
Music for Magnetic Tape No. 1 (1962)
Music for String Orchestra and Four Groups of Wind Instruments (1964)
Music for Magnetic Tape and Solo Oboe (1965)
Music for Strings, Two Groups of Wind Instruments and Two Loudspeakers (1966-67)
Music for Orchestra No. 1 (1968)
Krabogapa for clarinet, trombone, cello and piano (1969)
Amar. Music for Orchestra No. 2 (1970)
Music for Magnetic Tape and Solo Piano (1971-72)
Music for Solo Tuba (1972)
Music for Orchestra No. 3 (1972-73)
S for S (Study for Synthi) for tape (1973)
A-LA. Music for Orchestra No. 4 (1974)
Music for Mixed Choir, Two Groups of Wind Instruments, Double-Basses and Percussion (1975)
Music for Magnetic Tape and Solo Double-Bass (1977)
Music for Three Accordions, Mouth-Organ and Percussion (1977)
Passacaglia. Music for Orchestra No. 5 (1978-79)
Music for Magnetic Tape and Solo Bass Clarinet (1980)
Music for Orchestra No. 6 (1981-82)
Musik für Grazer Bläserkreis for 8 trumpets, 8 horns, 8 trombones, 2 tubas and percussion (1984)
Music for Orchestra and Solo Oboe (1984-85)
Flüchten - music for chamber ensemble and reciting voice to a text by Wilhelm Muster (1985-86)
Music for Orchestra No. 7 (1986-87)
Passacaglia für TX [1st version] computer music for tape (1988)
Passacaglia für TX [2nd version] computer music for tape (1989)
String Quartet (1989)
Publications
Metodyka nauczania harmonii w szkołach muzycznych II stopnia [Methodology of teaching harmony in secondary music schools], PWM, Kraków 1967
Wpływ festiwali "Warszawska Jesień" na rozwój życia muzycznego w Polsce [The Influence of “Warsaw Autumn” Festivals on Music Life Development in Poland], "Muzyka" 1975 nr 3
Literature
Stawowy Ludomira, Dobrowolski Andrzej, In: PWM Music Encyclopaedia (biographical section ed. by Elżbieta Dziębowska), vol. “CD”, PWM, Kraków 1984
Jaraczewska-Mockałło Krystyna, Dobrowolski Andrzej. Katalog twórczości i bibliografia [Catalogue of Works and Bibliography], Akademia Muzyczna w Warszawie, Warszawa 1996
Chodkowski Andrzej, Dobrowolski Andrzej, In: PWM Music Encyclopaedia (biographical section ed. by Elżbieta Dziębowska), vol. “CD – Supplement”, PWM, Kraków 2001
