Sad news from Adrian Thomas that the Polish composer Włodzimierz Kotoński has died, aged 89.
Along with Jan Krenz (b.1926) and Bogusław Schaeffer (b.1929), Kotoński was the last major surviving Polish composer born before 1930. He was renowned as a composition teacher at the Music Academy in Warsaw and his roster of pupils reads like a list of many of the most significant Polish composers born after World War II, including Krzysztof Knittel (b.1947), Stanisław Krupowicz (b.1952), Paweł Szymański and Tadeusz Wielecki (b.1954), Hanna Kulenty (b.1961) and Paweł Mykietyn (b.1971). Kotoński also wrote a number of reference books: Percussion Instruments in the Modern Orchestra (1963), Electronic Music (1989) and Lexicon of Contemporary Percussion (1999).
Only a couple of months ago I wrote some words here on one of the few Kotoński discs available and the extraordinary Aeolian Harp of 1973. Adrian’s post indicates this disc is already out of print, but here’s hoping more of Kotoński’s remarkable music will now make it, belatedly, to disc.
The Rambler 
Thanks, Tim. The CD sold out during last year’s Warsaw Autumn and I got my copy through contacts. It may well have resurfaced. I’m looking to the National Audiovisual Institute (NiNA) or Polish Radio/TV to do something about Kotoński’s more recent pieces. It’s possible (I’ll ask later this month) that the Polish Music Information Centre (POLMIC) might decide to create one of its composer websites on him, to follow Serocki, Baird, Panufnik and Tomasz Sikorski (whose site is being unveiled during this year’s Warsaw Autumn).