The young generations increasing up in the 3rd Polish Republic enter adult life with the false image of Poland in which their parents and grandparents lived. Young people are fed by the imagination of the Polish People's Republic as an era where widespread poverty, economical backwardness prevailed, and in the area of culture and art, ugliness, primitiveism and fascination prevailed all that came from the West. Young people from the Polish People's Republic mock, taunt and almost unilaterally condemn everything that was the product of the work of Poles at that time. Where he conducts the process of annihilating the cultural achievements of the past era are perfectly illustrated by the popularity of Andrzej Korzyński – an outstanding Polish composer of film, electronic, amusement and experimental music.
They died on 18 April 2 years ago Korzyński was born in 1940 in Warsaw. In his hometown, he graduated from the State Higher School of Music. Even in student times, he was active in innovative artistic projects. In 1965, as part of Youth Radio "Rytym", he promoted bigbit music with his colleagues. Since then, he has been 1 of the precursors of innovative trends in Polish amusement music. In the early 1970s he co-founded the ARP Life team. It was 1 of the first Polish groups to have a keyboard and play dance electronic music. It was a combination of disco music, funk with elements of improvisation.
At the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, he had already collaborated with leading American movie labels 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. In the 1970s he composed for the benefit of cinematography in the GDR, and in the next decade for those from the West Germany, including creating music for series aired on SAT channel 1. Although he created in various music streams, he undoubtedly achieved the top successes as the creator of electronic movie music. He collaborated with specified prominent movie directors as Andrzej Żuławski, Andrzej Wajda or Sylwester Chęciński. With the aid of circumstantial movie titles, it is worth recalling specified titles as the controversial movie “Devil”, “Man of Iron”, “Brzezin”, “Big Shu” or 3 parts of the comedy peripeties of Kargul and Pawlak. In addition, he was the author of music for films specified as “Pustyna and the Forest” (1973), “Tulipan”, ringing and rose” or “Tigers of Europe”. As far as movie music is concerned, it is no uncertainty the most recognizable that will stay as the creator of music to 3 parts of Mr Kleks's movie adventures directed by Krzysztof Gradowski, which were then a superproduction not only due to the fantastic scenery, the Crimean outdoors, but besides due to capital movie music without which it is hard to imagine Gradowski's trilogy. “Welcome to our fairy tale”, “Duck the freak”, “Dog the sorrows”, “On the islands of Bergamuts”, “Meluzzina”, all these songs sang and sang to children of respective generations.
In total, Korzyński composed music for 140 films. Korzyński's movie music was characterized by strong stone riffs, funky bass parties, polyrhythmic drums with an first transition to parties in which the motifs of classical dances dominated. But this is not the end, due to the fact that this distinguished Polish composer was the author of music of music hits sung by specified stars as Maryla Rodowicz, Piotr Szczepanik, Czesław Niemen. He was a three-time plebiscite winner for Radio Song of the Year in 1965, 1966 and 1974. Under his pen name Andrzej Spol was the originator of the creation of Frank Kimon, the first figure of Polish pop culture associated with Piotr Fronczewski. The album, which was supported by Gradowski, was created around this project.
Korzyński is the author of the words for the hit of the amusement music "The Fate" to which he did not compose this time and his 16-year-old boy Nicholas. The song, which was to become a cabaret parody of pavement-stragano hits, became an highly popular hit of Polish amusement music, in the opinion of the experts acting as a prologue for the subsequent improvement of disco polo music. In 2016, manager Grzegorz Brzozowicz created a documentary about his individual "The Lost Diamond". 2 years later, the well-known and respected music writer Maria Szabłowska published a book in the form of an interview-river with Korzyński referring in her title to a hit song from Frank Kimono's repertoire – "I Know All Your Numbers". The boy of Korzyński Mikołaj became besides a professional musician making music for theatre performances, serving as a associate of the cabaret group Negliż and the author of the scripts of 2 of the best movie comedies which were created in the 3rd Polish Republic "Boys do not cry" and "Morning coyote".
Surely it cannot be said that the achievements for Polish culture were not seen by Polish authorities. They saw both the Polish People's Republic and the 3rd Republic. In 1977 he received a prize for music for the movie "Red thorns" at the Polish movie Festival in Gdańsk. In 2017, he received the Silver Medal Honored Culture Gloria Artis – Minister of Culture and National Heritage of Poland. In 2018, “The Man with the Golden Ear” award at the global Music Producers Festival Soundedit for “outstanding achievements in music production”. And unfortunately, it was only posthumously in 2023 that he received the Golden Frederick for his full artistic activity.
Despite his tremendous merits and rich achievements, he remained practically unrecognized in Poland. Paradoxically, he was only rediscovered a decade before his death, not in Poland but in large Britain, where his music was fascinated by British DJ and maker Andy Votel, who in 2012, in his author's task "Kleksploitation", reprocessed songs from the trilogy of movie adventures of Mr Kleks. The Votel Finders Keepers description released 5 vinyl and compact albums in an exclusive frame with the work of the Polish composer. Votel with Korzyński's music reached 3 continents and it was only this popularization that reminded the household Poland. In specified circumstances, a biographical documentary movie and book were created in Poland on a wave of popularity in the world.
On the margins of Korzyński's history, it is worth reminding the young generation that the PRL period was not only made by Polish electronic or movie music, but besides by Polish jazz, bigbit, blues, or rock. Although apart from Polish jazz that was more appreciated abroad than in Poland in another genres only individually managed to appear in the awareness of the world's audience, no uncertainty the level of Polish amusement music at that time stood on a much higher level than today. Today, many young Polish artists mock the artistic achievements of the PRL era, but their careers are built on contemporary interpretations of hits, which were created just then.
Arkadius Miksa
