Marian Francis Sawa (born January 12, 1937 in Krasnystaw) was a composer, organist and teacher. He first learned organ from his father, an organist at Lopiennik, then attended the Salesian Society’s School for Organists in Przemysl (1951-55). In 1955 he moved to Warsaw and enrolled in the State Music School No.2, studying under Professor Feliks Raczkowski, who continued to be his teacher when Sawa became a student at the State College of Music in Warsaw. He obtained his diploma in 1963 and entered a class of composition conducted by Professor Kazimierz Sikorski, graduating in 1968.

Music for organ, and religious choral music, became his main focus of composition. He took special account of church acoustics in his writing, so that venues with appropriate reverberation bring out the full intent of the composer. He also maintained the importance of melody as being irreplaceable in the vocal arts.

While his choral works are written in a relatively conservative style, his organ works often venture into quite modern means of expression, as in his one-part atonal fantasy entitled Witraze (stained-glass windows). His choral works often incorporate Gregorian chant and modal elements but do not go beyond a broadened tonality that sometimes takes on a very refined character, as in his Sacris solemniis. His most ambitious choral work is his oratorio Via crucis (2000) for solo voices, narrator, mixed choir and concert band (published by Cantus Quercus Press in 2007). Marian Sawa’s body of work includes about 200 choral compositions. [From biographical notes by Marcin Lukasz Mazur]. Marian Sawa died on April 27, 2005 at the age of 68.

For a list of his works, check here.

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