Roxanna Panufnik is a composer of Polish descent who followed in the footsteps of her father, Andrzej Panufnik. She completed composition studies at the Royal Academy of Music, and also studied the harp. Her work includes chamber, orchestral, vocal-instrumental and choral music. The artist got the honorable role of composing the song “Sanctus”, which will sound during the coronation of Charles III in Westminster Abbey. About how this dignified cooperation came about, she told in an interview with TVN correspondent Maciej Woroch.
The work composed by the Polish woman will resound during the coronation of Charles III
It all started with a phone call the composer received on December 22, 2022. She was contacted by the newly appointed music director who had just started working at Westminster Abbey. “He wrote earlier that he wanted to talk to me about something confidential, so I’ve been wondering for some time what it could be. And when I heard the words ‘I saw the king recently’ on the phone, my heart sank. (…) It was very exciting and I will never forget the date of December 22nd,” recalls Panufnik.
The emotional artist then had to wait ten days for the next news on the matter. For a moment, she worried that the proposal might not go ahead. However, that did not happen. The director called back and suggested that she compose “Sanctus”. He also gave Panufnik detailed guidelines on how the piece should sound and said at what point in the ceremony it would be played. “Later, I talked to the canon at the abbey about the words to use. He sent me a fragment of the missal that will immediately precede the performance. By then I already had a good understanding of the place and dramatic situation in which my music would appear” – added the composer.
Roxanna Panufnik about the song “Sanctus”
The song “Sanctus” will be sung in English, but Panufnik revealed in an interview with the correspondent of “Fakty” TVN that she initially planned to smuggle some Polish accents into it. However, there was no such option. Mainly due to the song’s limited duration of just two minutes and the guidelines that were given to her. Despite this, the composer is pleased because she managed to encapsulate the change of mood of the work in two minutes: “I go from an astounded aura of mysticism to a loud triumph at the end.”
Roxanna Panufnik is also aware that her work will go down in the history of sacred music and hopes that it will be willingly performed by choirs in the future. On the other hand, when asked by a journalist whether she was aware that she had become a “Polish star of the coronation”, she smiled and proudly stated that she would be honored. “Many people also tell me that my dad would be proud of me. And I think he is somewhere out there and knows that his Polish woman did it,” she emphasized. You can learn a lot about the past and career of the Polish-born composer from an English-language interview she gave for the “Kings Place” portal in 2019. The video is below.
Source: Gazeta
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