(b Czernica, 6 Dec 1933). Polish composer. He studied with Szabelski at the Katowice Conservatory (1955-60) and with Messiaen in Paris. His music has connections with Penderecki, but its deepest affinities are with ancient Polish religious music, and it often shows a saintly simplicity. Most of his works are for orchestra or chamber ensemble; they include the chamber trilogy Genesis (1963) and three symphonies, the third of which achieved striking public success in the early 1990s.

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Górecki, Henryk (b Czernice, 1933). Polish composer. In the 1990s his music became increasingly popular with choreographers who used his concert hall compositions for ballets. They include Nacho Duato's Lament (1990), Christopher Bruce's Crossing (1994) and Mats Ek's She Was Black (1995) and A Sort Of (1997).

(hĕn'rĭk mēkô'lī gôrĕt'skē) , 1933–, Polish composer. He studied (1955–60) at the Katowice State Higher School of Music, joining the faculty in 1968, rising to provost, and resigning in 1979. Górecki made use of a wide variety of modernist techniques in his atonal works of the 1960s. His music became more lyrical during the 1970s and 1980s, reflecting a mystical and characteristically Eastern European brand of minimalism while exploring religious and political themes. Works of this period include Beatus Vir (1979), Miserere (1981), and Totus Tuus (1987). Constantly at odds with Poland's regime, he was little known in the West until the fall of Communism in 1989. Even afterward Górecki was relatively obscure until 1992, when a recording of his haunting, lament-filled Symphony No. 3, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (1976) for soprano and orchestra became a worldwide success; it has since entered the standard classical repertoire. Known particularly for orchestral-vocal works, he has also written much chamber music.