Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Witold Lutosławski

Witold Lutosławski

This nomination predates the introduction in April 2014 of article-specific subpages for nominations and has been created from the edit history of Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests.

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the TFAR nomination of the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page unless you are renominating the article at TFAR. For renominations, please add {{collapse top|Previous nomination}} to the top of the discussion and {{collapse bottom}} at the bottom, then complete a new {{TFAR nom}} underneath.

The result was: not scheduled (withdrawn by nominator). Archived talk page discussion.

Witold Lutosławski (1913 –1994) was one of the major European composers of the 20th century, and one of the preeminent Polish musicians during his last three decades. His compositions (of which he was a notable conductor) include four symphonies, a Concerto for Orchestra, a string quartet, several instrumental concertos and orchestral song cycles. His style encompasses a wide range of rich atmospheric textures. His early works were influenced by Polish folk music. After World War II, Stalinist Polish authorities banned his First Symphony for being "formalist"—allegedly accessible only to an elite. Lutosławski believed this anti-formalism was an unjustified retrograde step, and he resolutely strove to maintain his artistic integrity. He began to develop his own characteristic composition techniques in the late 1950s; his music from this period onwards incorporates his own methods of building harmonies from small groups of musical intervals, and also uses aleatoric processes, in which the rhythmic coordination of parts is subject to an element of chance.

With Lutosławski's centenary coming up, I feel it is my duty to propose this article for the main page on the day. It has been a featured article since July 2005. It was previously on the main page, in November 6, 2005, over 7 years ago: I feel that the rule that no featured article should appear on the main page more than once could in this case be ignored because of the importance of the centenary (the BBC is making quite a feature of it). I feel it is the sort of occasion that a serious mainstream encyclopedia would mark. I have tentatively suggested it in discussion to the FAR director and his assistants, and none of them has said "no". What do you think? By the way, I arrived at 8 points by adding 6 (centenary) + 2 (featured > 2 years ago). --RobertG ♬ talk 16:20, 13 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose on both counts (IAR and re-appearance). On IAR, the instructions specifically mention items like this should be brought to Raul's talk, where they will be considered. They should not take a slot here that another article might use. Neither do I feel we should make an exception in this case for a re-appearance. This request should be removed and discussed on talk or with Raul or a delegate. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:39, 13 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
- You mean here and here? Yes, I tried that. --RobertG ♬ talk 16:43, 13 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  - Yes, and it will be considered. The request does not belong here, and is potentially depriving another article of the spot, when your request has already been lodged where it belongs. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:47, 13 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]