ANALYSIS OF WITOLD LUTOSLAWSKI’S ‘SACHER VARIATION’ FROM THE POINT OF COMPOSITIONAL TECHNIQUE

This article discusses Witold Lutoslawski’s ‘Sacher Variation’ of 1975, one of ‘12 Hommages à Paul Sacher’ composed in honor of Paul Sacher’s 70th birthday, from the point of the composition technique and explains the principles used in the pitch organization and the formal construction. It is intended the analysis also to provide a basis for the further comparative analyses of the works of ‘12 Hommages à Paul Sacher’, which will make it possible to shed light on the approach of each of the composers and also on the musical expectations and quests of Europe in the second half of the 70’s through exposing the similarities and differences in the handling of the musical material by technical and aesthetic aspects. It will be seen that Lutoslawski, who excludes serial techniques and works with extremely limited pitch material, provides the formal development through a mechanical system and also uses the looseness as a formal element beside the organization. The work is also interesting in that it clearly reveals some important characteristic features of Lutoslawski’s music