Rudnik, Eugeniusz

(1932-2016)

Composer and sound engineer, he graduated from the Department of Electronics of the Warsaw University of Technology in 1967. He worked at the Polish Radio from 1955, and at its Experimental Studio from 1957. In 1967-68 he worked at the West German Radio Experimental Studio in Cologne, where he authored the first Polish quadraphonic composition, Vox humana. In the mid-1970s, he lectured in electroacoustic music technology at the Music Academy in Warsaw, followed by the Journalist Centre in Warsaw in 1994-95.

He was a pioneer of electroacoustic music in Poland, contributing to many electroacoustic and electronic works, sound installations, and lm music notably by Krzysztof Penderecki, Andrzej Markowski, Włodzimierz Kotoński, Bogusław Schaeffer, Stanisław Radwan, Andrzej Dobrowolski, and Arne Nordheim, with whom he also created the sound for the Scandinavian pavilion at the World Fair in Osaka in 1970. He authored or recorded soundtracks for shows at the Polish Radio Theatre, Polish TV Theatre, as well as around 300 Polish animated films by directors such as Walerian Borowczyk, Jan Lenica, Daniel Szczechura, and Jerzy Kalina. Apart from Warsaw and Cologne, he also worked at the experimental studios of Stockholm, Paris, Bourges, BadenBaden, Brussels, and Ghent. He received many prizes, including at the electronic music competition in Hanover, New Hampshire (1968, for Dixi), Prix Italia (1968, for the collage soundtrack to Conrad Drzewiecki's ballet lm Games), the electroacoustic music competition in Bourges (1st Prize for Mobile, 1972; 3rd Prize for Ostinato, 1973; 2nd Prize for Homo ludens, 1984). The latter composition represented Poland at the Documenta VII exhibition in Kassel in 1985. In 1993, Eugeniusz Rudnik was awarded the Euphonie d'Or Prize for Mobile, judged the best work presented through the twenty editions of the Bourges electroacoustic music competition. In 2002, he was awarded the 1st Prize (together with Maria Brzezińska) for the radio feature Friends from Żelazna Street at the 17th International Catholic Film and Multimedia Competition and the Two Theatres Festival in Gdańsk. His other accolades include the 1st Class Award of the Radio and TV Committee Chairman for lifetime achievements in electroacoustic music (1987), Golden Microphone for achievements in radio art and autonomous electroacoustic music (1993), and the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2000). In 2012 at the Soundedit Festival in Łódź, he was awarded the statue of the Man with a Golden Ear for his pioneering achievements in music production.

Selected works (from 1995): Major Second, Little documentary suite for adults (1995), Girl, Your Papers Please (1995), Friends from Żelazna Street (1995), Pourquoi Cocteau (1997), Homo radiophonicus, Documentary radio ballade (1998), The Wanderings of Mister Cadet, or the Vistula Querns (1999), Autumn of Nations (1999), The Luncheon on the Grass in the Lascaux Cave (2002), Pastoral Agony (2003), Frivolous Rhapsody in Memory of John (2004), Manoeuvres or Lady and Hussars, Lyrical sound poem (2004), Ecce homo (2005), Epitaph, In memory of those who perished in the stone hell of Gross­Rosen (2005), Ruratorium (2006), Epilogos (with Bolesław Błaszczyk and Jarosław Siwiński, 2007), Neomobile for tape (2007), Larum - "For God's sake, what happened to you, soldiers " (2008), John III Sobieski and Comrades in Arms (2008), The Clover Glowed for stereo tape (2010, inspired by meeting composer Aleksandra Gryka), ERdada 80/50/39'40" (2012), Memini tui - Im Gedanken an Arne Nordheim (2013).