composer, pianist and organist; b. 19th August 1947 in Szczecinek. He studied composition with Witold Szalonek, piano under the supervision of Olga Dąbrowska and organ with Heinz Wunderlich. Having received the Oscar and Vera Ritter-Stiftung scholarship in Hamburg, he participated in master classes conducted by György Ligeti.
He is the winner of the Boris Blacher prize in Berlin, the George Mufat prize in Salzburg and the Beethoven Prize of the city of Bonn. His works include choral, vocal- instrumental, orchestral, solo and chamber music.
He also performed as a pianist, specializing in chamber and vocal music, and as an organist, playing concerts of J.S. Bach music in Germany, Switzerland, Poland and Denmark.
Currently Jacek Domagała lives and works in Berlin.
updated: 2020 (ac)
In the early years of his activity as a composer, Jacek Domagała was strongly influenced by his interest in J.S. Bach and in jazz music, which inspired such early works as his Cantique I for organ (1976), Priere for organ (1978) Surrexit Christus Hodie for organ (1977), On Impuls for string quartet (1980) and Chorale for symphony orchestra (1982) – a piece with organ-like texture with connection to gregorian chant wich was the first example of dodecaphonic technique in the composer's output.
The second stage of Jacek Domagała’s artistic development owes much to the Second Viennese School (Schönberg, Berg, Webern), which had a powerful impact on the composer’s musical language and the technique that he himself calls “neoserialism” (String Quartet No. 2 – 1995, Three Inventions for Piano – 1996, String Quartet No. 3 – 2006). The musical substance is based on the ideas of structuralism (Segments for symphony orchestra – 1998) and displays homogeneity in its mostly short, precise and varying melodies perfectly incorporated into the dense harmony. Their foundations are mainly twelve tones using as well, apart from small interval steps, its huge interval space of differing metres, rich rhythms and maximal varied dynamics, aiming simultaneously at the greatest possible musical depth. The composer applies precise notation and distances himself from aleatoricism except for former works as his Priere for organ (1978) or Cadenza for cello and three strings (1979).
Contact with the Viennese modernist tradition had not only led to an evolution of Domagała’s musical language, but also – and most importantly – influenced his way of building musical narration and the type of expression, rooted in post-Romantic sound concepts.
