Zbigniew Bujarski belongs to the generation of the Polish avant-garde composers whose debut has fallen in the turn of the fifties. It was just in that time that the composers have changed their aesthetical views and compositional techniques. Bujarski's musical interests and explorations were concentrated on the matters concerning sound material and its enrichment by adding the quarter-tones.
His early creative period (Burning Bushes, Synchronies I and II, Zones, Chamber Composition, Kinoth) is characterized by sonoristic experiments, an enlarged scoring (i. e. the use of amplifiers and sound reproduction) as well as searching for unconventional articulation and avoiding of distinct pulsation by means of employing a free metre notation. His oratorio El Hombre (45') for large symphony orchestra, mixed choir and soloists, to fragments of various texts (from psalms to contemporary English and French poetries), written in the years 1969-73, constitutes a climax of this early period of Bujarski's composition.
Among the compositions written in later years are, especially, the cycles Similis Greco (I - for orchestra, III - The Birth - for choir and orchestra), Concerto per archi (for violin and for cello) and, above all, the most frequently performed and, consequently, the most popular work, according to the composer's intention - Musica domestica (a music of one's home, of one's abode, of an ideal place, of one's native country).
Bujarski's chamber music has become the most perfect form of his creative expression of several last years, his three string quartets and a cycle of pieces entitled The Fear of Birds (characterized by an unusual expressive power, the reduction and, at the same time, the compression of compositional devices) being the best examples of the compositions written at that time.
The music of Zbigniew Bujarski is a phenomenon characteristic of our times. Difficult in perception, through both its ambiguity and its form which is difficult to grasp, it absorbs the listener's attention. It is lively thanks to an inner movement of a continually changing musical 'tissue', and rather devoid of sharp outlines and rapid contrasts in dynamics. It constitutes a kind of a composer's very personal pronouncement, posing questions rather than uttering truths. The listener is the composer's partner entering into discourse with him.
Zbigniew Bujarski's creative output finds its own individual place among the musical phenomena which accompany it. Its characteristic feature is a continual improvement of the compositional technique by means of driving into musical material, elaborating the form to perfection in its minute details in search of its ideal shape. An unusual painter's sensitiveness to colour is very important in Bujarski's composition since his another passion, cultivated together with his musical profession is painting. In this field of art Zbigniew Bujarski has also a considerable output.
Elżbieta Widłak
