The decision was made by the composer’s widow Lady Camilla Panufnik and her children Jem Panufnik and Roxanna Panufnik, both of whom are musicians.
The archive consists of Panufnik’s correspondence, his programme notes, typescripts of his interviews and radio talks, concert programmes, photographs and a wide range of materials documenting his life, musical career and worldwide reception of his music.
It also includes documentation relating to a ceremony at which the composer received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 1991, the year of his death.
The Panufnik archive will be part of the Musical Collection of the Warsaw University Library.
Musicologist Beata Bolesławska-Lewandowska, who has written extensively on Panufnik, has described the archive as “a priceless collection and a wonderful gift to Poland.”
She added that it would be made available to Polish and foreign researchers.
Meanwhile, a revised and expanded edition of Panufnik’s autobiography, Composing Myself, has been published by Toccata Press in the "Musicians on Music" series.
Panufnik was born in Warsaw in 1914. He studied composition and conducting in Warsaw, Vienna and Paris.
He spent the years of the German occupation in his hometown, making a living as a pianist, including playing in cafes in a duo with Witold Lutosławski.
After World War II, he developed a career as a conductor and composer, winning prestigious awards, including the Banner of Labour, the highest state distinction in communist Poland.
In 1954, unable to reconcile himself with the limits on creative freedoms imposed by the communist regime, Panufnik left Poland and settled in Britain.
Having served for several years as music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, he devoted himself solely to composing.
From the time of his defection in 1954 until 1977, the publication and performance of his works were almost entirely banned, and even his name was rarely mentioned in publications and other media in Poland.
In 1977, as a result of efforts by the Polish Composers’ Union, the censor’s ban on Panufnik and his music was lifted, and that same year his Universal Prayer was performed at the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music.
In 1984, Panufnik became an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London, and in 1987 of the Polish Composers’ Union, from which he had been expelled in 1954.
Panufnik made his first, and only, visit to Poland in 1990. That same year he received an award from the Polish foreign minister for his services to national culture.
He died on October 27, 1991 at the age of 77.
(mk/gs)