Uploaded May 2015 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
Polymorphia is a musical composition for 48 string instruments (twenty-four violins and eight each of violas, cellos and basses) composed by the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki in 1961. The piece was commissioned by the North German Radio Hamburg. It premiered on April 16, 1962 by the radio orchestra and was conducted by Andrzej Markowski. Polymorphia is dedicated to Hermann Moeck, the first of Penderecki’s editors in the West.
At the end of the 1950s and in the early 1960s (Penderecki’s post student years), he sought out new sonic and technical possibilities of instruments, particularly strings, by unconventional means of articulation and peculiar treatment of sound-pitch. In doing so, Penderecki abandoned the traditional notation system and invented his own graphic notation, which was inspired by electroencephalograms. His earlier composition, Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960), received the first success of this type of work. Polymorphia was composed soon afterward as a result of his continuation with such experimental innovation.
In Greek, poly means "many" and morph means "shape" or "form" (from the Greek morphe), therefore Polymorphia can be understood as “many shapes or forms.” Polymorphia literally means “the same meaning in many different forms.” The “forms” here do not refer to musical forms but sound effects. Penderecki’s biographer Wolfram Schwinger associates the title Polymorphia, with “the broadly deployed scale of sound...the exchange and simultaneous penetration of sound and noise, the contrast and interflow of soft and hard sounds.” Similar to Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, Penderecki constructed the piece by sound events. Instead of “melody”, dense clusters, microtones and glissandi are heard. Perhaps most notable, the dissonant sonorist piece ends with a C major triad.
Video created with vokoscreen and Sonic Visualizer on an Kubuntu 14.04 LTS Linux System.
Polymorphia is a musical composition for 48 string instruments (twenty-four violins and eight each of violas, cellos and basses) composed by the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki in 1961. The piece was commissioned by the North German Radio Hamburg. It premiered on April 16, 1962 by the radio orchestra and was conducted by Andrzej Markowski. Polymorphia is dedicated to Hermann Moeck, the first of Penderecki’s editors in the West.
At the end of the 1950s and in the early 1960s (Penderecki’s post student years), he sought out new sonic and technical possibilities of instruments, particularly strings, by unconventional means of articulation and peculiar treatment of sound-pitch. In doing so, Penderecki abandoned the traditional notation system and invented his own graphic notation, which was inspired by electroencephalograms. His earlier composition, Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960), received the first success of this type of work. Polymorphia was composed soon afterward as a result of his continuation with such experimental innovation.
In Greek, poly means "many" and morph means "shape" or "form" (from the Greek morphe), therefore Polymorphia can be understood as “many shapes or forms.” Polymorphia literally means “the same meaning in many different forms.” The “forms” here do not refer to musical forms but sound effects. Penderecki’s biographer Wolfram Schwinger associates the title Polymorphia, with “the broadly deployed scale of sound...the exchange and simultaneous penetration of sound and noise, the contrast and interflow of soft and hard sounds.” Similar to Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, Penderecki constructed the piece by sound events. Instead of “melody”, dense clusters, microtones and glissandi are heard. Perhaps most notable, the dissonant sonorist piece ends with a C major triad.
Video created with vokoscreen and Sonic Visualizer on an Kubuntu 14.04 LTS Linux System.
![Farthest South - Spheres & Constellations [Excerpt] (2013)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/u58CHUgKgVc/mqdefault.jpg "Farthest South - Spheres & Constellations [Excerpt] (2013)
On their sophomore album Spheres & Constellations, Israeli psychedelic improv group Farthest South sound like a completely different band. Whereas their debut Omens & Talismans generated a somewhat free-jazz meets electronica vibe, the new recording by the exploratory trio comes from a radically different aesthetic. With no rhythmic foundation to speak of, Spheres & Constellations instead treads a path of ambient synth washes, abstract harmonies, impressionistic melodic fragments, processed vocal samples and mystical drones. Influenced by a highly personal and spiritual experience shared by the band members during one long night spent in the Israeli desert, S&C is the culmination of a collective transformation on the most basic level.
Consisting of one nearly 35 minute long track, the album tells the story of a journey into inner space through 3 spheres of consciousness external, internal and eternal to the essence of Being, that place at the core of every human where time and space hold no meaning. This is an expedition to reach the archetypal home, the home we all carry within us, by navigating non-physical constellations not those which are formed by stars, but rather personal ones, the ones all individuals create for themselves and which stem from the very ability we all possess to choose our own destiny.
(http://farthest-south.com/)")
