Długosz, Magdalena

Born in Cracow in 1954, where she lives and works, she graduated from her native city’s Music Academy where she studied composition with Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar and music theory with Józef Patkowski. Starting with 1979, she worked at the Electroacoustic Music Studio of the Music Academy in Cracow, where she composed her first works for tape. She then worked at the Experimental Studio of the Polish Radio in Warsaw, the EMS in Stockholm, EAS in Bratislava, and GRAME in Lyon. Her compositions have been featured at contemporary music festivals in Poland (Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław, Gdańsk, Cracow) and internationally (Nuremberg, Cologne, Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Stockholm, Oslo, Bratislava, Lyon, Washington, Lviv, Minsk, Bourges, Strasbourg, Seoul, and Taegu). 

Her artistic personality and style are characterised by faithfulness to the fundamental idea of combining instrumental and electroacoustic music. Her work is closely linked to the leading Polish and European centres of computer music, including the Experimental Music Studio at the Cracow Music Academy, Polish Radio Experimental Studio in Warsaw (where she composed notablyTaBar, TaBaMa, and Mictlan I, which was commended at the 3rd International Rostrum of Electroacoustic Music in Oslo), EMS in Stockholm (Pulsations), and CECM at Radio Bratislava (At the Source). She also actively works with electroacoustic music centres in France: she composed Lenyon and Océan Cité at GRAME in Lyon and Beyond Silence at IMEB in Bourges, which was premiered with the use of the Cybernéphone Instrument system. Her two latest compositions were nominated to the OPUS Public Media Award (2008, 2009) and were both shortlisted for the finals. SaxSpiro, written in cooperation with leading saxophonist Daniel Kientzy, is the fruit of her close relations with the Paris music milieu. 

The works she composed in her home ministudio includes Gemisatosfor orchestra, concertante percussion, computer and live electronics, which was commended at the prestigious International Rostrum of Composers in Paris (2009). 

She runs the composition class (including the electroacoustic specialisation) at the Music Academy in Cracow, lectures on modern composition technique, and teaches computer ear training. In the 1980s, she initiated the use of computers in ear training and continues to work on the versatile use of digital devices in music edutation. She heads the Ear Training Unit at the Cracow Music Academy. She organises conferences and composition competitions dedicated to digital musique concrète. 

Her output includes around forty solo, chamber, and orchestral works, predominantly with the use of electronics. 

Selected works (since 1990): Spatial System for small orchestra and electronics (1980), Mictlan II for accordion, digital resonance and tape (1988), Yes and No for tape (1990), At the Roots for tape (1990–91), Lenyon for tape (1994–95),Patjan for percussion and tape (1996–97), TaBaMa for tape (1997–98), TaBar for electronically transformed double bass and computer sound layer (1998–2000), Buried Lyrics for electronically transformed clarinet and computer sound layer (1999–2000), Ombraggio for violin and electroacoustic layer (2002–3), Ombrarchetto for tape (2003), Abamus for cello and electroacoustic layer (2003–4), Nemini molestus for tape to words by 16th-century poet Mikołaj Rej (2004–5), How Far...? for tape to words by Jan Twardowski (2005), Homage to Józef Patkowski for tape (2005), Gemisatos for orchestra, percussion and electroacoustic layer (2005–6), Silent Asphodels for flutes, cello and electronics (2006), Océan Cité, octophonic electroacoustic composition to a French ballet project by Pierre Deloche (2007), Beyond Silence, octophonic electroacoustic music (2007–8), DesAkordaR for accordion, four trombones, percussion and electroacoustic layer (2008), SaxSpaCeS for alto saxophone and electroacoustic layer (2008–9), BisAkordaR, electroacoustic music (2010), SaxSpiro for two saxophones and electroacoustic layer (2011), TReMfor two acoustic instruments and computer (2014), Capriccio movente for solo instrument and computer electroacoustic layer (2017–18), Concertato after Krystyna Moszumańska’s Music for percussion and computer sound layer (2018), ἐλεγεία, electroacoustic composition interpreted live by two performers (2018), On the Edge of Light for large symphony orchestra, solo part of the electroacoustic layer and live electronics (2019).