Andrzej Korzyński (1940–2022)

Abstract

During Easter 2022 Poland lost one of its most famous composers of film music: Andrzej Korzyński (b. 1940). Korzyński scored six Andrzej Wajda films, including two of his most successful films internationally: Czlowiek z marmuru/Man of Marble (1976) and Człowiek z żelaza/Man of Iron (1981). Others included Polowanie na muchy/Hunting Flies (1969) and Brzezina/Birch Wood (1970). Korzyński also composed music for almost all films by Andrzej Żuławski. His other achievements include scoring an adaptation of the Henryk Sienkiewicz young adult novel W pustyni i w puszczy/In Desert and Wilderness (1973), directed by Władysław Ślesicki and three movies about the adventures of Mr. Kleks/Mr Blob, based on a popular book by Jan Brzechwa and directed by Krzysztof Gradowski, made in 1983, 1985 and 1988. Gradowski’s films broke records of popularity in the 1980s thanks to attracting families to Polish cinemas. Korzyński also composed for films produced in Italy, France and East and West Germany. He was a prolific composer, able to work on as many as three films at any given time and finish them within a month. Korzyński was a classically trained musician with a university degree in composition. However, rather than pursuing a career in classical music, he decided to turn to popular and electronic music. In his own words, his fascination with electronic instruments came early, when as a child his parents gave him an East German ‘Szmaragd’ tape recorder which allowed its user to play recordings at two speeds, as well as backwards. This encouraged Korzyński to experiment on this instrument with his then school friend, Andrzej Żuławski. During his studies Korzyński became involved in music journalism, which put him in contact with a radio journalist and a fellow pioneer of electronic music, Mateusz Święcicki. Thanks to Święcicki he also helped to organise the first festivals of Polish songs in Opole in the early 1960s. In the same decade he started writing popular music for multiple purposes, including songs and film music. As a songwriter, his first achievement was discovering the talent of the then student and amateur singer from Lublin, Piotr Szczepanik, for whom he wrote such hits as ‘Żółte kalendarze’ (Yellow Calendars) and ‘Kochać’ (To Love). A record with these songs, released in 1967, was most likely the best-selling Polish record during the entire period of state socialism. Many years later,