Monika Pasiecznik
Composers in Free Poland
The last three decades have brought great political, social and technological changes. While Communism was falling in Eastern Europe, the Internet was entering commercial circulation in the West. In 1998, the Google search engine was built, and Poland began discussions about joining the European Union. When Poland’s membership in a united Europe became a fact in 2004, Facebook and Skype were already in use.
New media
An indubitable sign of the times is electronics, which took music by storm. The freedom with which composers of the younger generation use the computer in the composition and performance process is without precedent. One virtuoso of the computer is Cezary Duchnowski (*1971), who has made it into a full-fledged musical instrument. For example: Monad 3 (2006) for voice, piano and computer. Following in the footsteps of Duchnowski, his professor and colleague from the Academy of Music in Wrocław, is Sławomir Kupczak (*1979). In his witty works, such as Figliki (2015) for piano and electronics, the composer combines various idioms: classical instrumental composition meets the club sound of electronics.
Another artist from Wrocław is Katarzyna Głowicka (*1977), who now lives in The Hague and teaches computer composition at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels. The composer is inspired by experimental electronics, visual arts and Minimalism – as can be heard, for instance, in Retina (2010) for piano, electronics and video. In turn, United States resident Ewa Trębacz (*1973) explores possibilities in spatial projection of electronic sound. In her work entitled Minotaur (2005; 2011) for French horn and electronics, the soloist moves while playing, and the horn’s sounds are electronically processed in real time and emitted through multiple channels.
Sławomir Wojciechowski (*1971) delves into the politics of new media, studying how the digital revolution affects the condition of new music. In the work …play them back… (2016) for ensemble and electronics, he uses a compositional technique similar to sampling.
The body and performance art
One side effect of technological expansion in music has been the appearance in musical discourse of the category of the body and, together with it, of performance art. Artists who have become involved in delving into the corporeal aspects of composition, of playing instruments, include Jagoda Szmytka (*1982) and Wojtek Blecharz (*1981). Szmytka’s interests have focused on composing a language of sound gestures, on emphasizing the significance of the performer’s physical presence on the stage, as well as the power of expression flowing out of the fact of contact with the instrument. Critical reflection on perception, on the manner of feeling, even touching of sound inspired Blecharz to compose Body Opera (2017). The Berlin-resident composer also sets himself the goal of showing through music that which pertains to the minority, that which is disowned, that which is stigmatized by virtue of its differentness. In turn, Frankfurt-am-Main resident Szmytka identifies with artists living out of suitcases, constantly migrating, who are building a new type of communication mediated by technology (the work sky me, type me). From studying the relationship between music and the body, in recent years the composer has moved in the direction of transmedia performance art, the subject of which is the condition of the millennials, as well as criticism of consumerism and extreme individualism.
Musical performance art – so, music playing out onstage – is also present in the œuvre of Marcin Stańczyk (*1977) – a composer and a lawyer. Fascinated with Władysław Strzemiński’s idea of after-images – that is, the phenomenon of a closed eye’s memorizing the outline of a previously-seen image – the composer seeks ways of achieving similar perceptive effects on the ground of music, for example in Three After-images (2008) for double bass solo. This idea began to contribute to the theatricalization of performance itself, as well as to the undermining of the relationship between what is seen and what is heard.
Space and sound source motion are combined in the œuvre of Prasqual (*1981) with ritual and symbolism. Resident in Köln, the composer admits to a fascination with the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen, who exercises quiet patronage over the Polish artist’s refined and not infrequently mystical works, for example the Architecture of Light cycle.
Connections with the culture of the Netherlands are very strong in the œuvre of Andrzej Kwieciński (*1982), who was educated and lives in Holland. His music is a peculiar reinterpretation of Baroque music: its forms (the passacaglia), vocal aesthetics (the composer has also trained as a countertenor) and rhetorical figures (in the spirit of Salvatore Sciarrino).
An important discovery for young Polish composers was French Spectralism, which most strongly affected Dobromiła Jaskot (*1981). In her work, composition based on analysis of the natural harmonic series is combined with musical ritual in the spirit of Giacinto Scelsi.
For the youngest composers, such as Mikołaj Laskowski and Jacek Sotomski, a key figure is Irish composer and performance artist Jennifer Walshe.
One composer who admits being inspired by the œuvre of Witold Lutosławski, on the other hand, is Wrocław resident Paweł Hendrich (*1979). The composer’s structural way of thinking about composition arises out of his academic interests, as is attested by even the titles of Hendrich’s works, such as Diversicorium, Diaphanoid and Liolit.
Aside from Lutosławski, the most important Polish composer for the younger generation is Paweł Szymański. His characteristic style is alluded to by Sławomir Kupczak and Paweł Mykietyn (*1971). The latter gained recognition with his original deconstructions of classical music, including genres, as in Passion According to St. Mark (2008) for soprano, reciting voice, natural voice, choir and chamber orchestra, in which the story of Jesus is told starting at the end.
For Mykietyn and Hendrich, non-classical music is also important. Hendrich has experience performing in a heavy metal group; Mykietyn likes rock interludes.
Similarly, Artur Zagajewski (*1978) also has idols from outside the classical music world. In many of his works, one can hear a punk energy; and the composer’s DIY spirit induces him to construct his own instruments. For Zagajewski, what also turns out to be inspiring is the brutalist architecture of Eastern Europe, as attested by his work entitled Brut (2014).
The Zubel phenomenon
Today, the brightest star of Polish contemporary music is indubitably Agata Zubel (*1978), whose versatile talent (she is not only a composer, but also a singer) has been appreciated by audiences all over the world. Zubel has to her credit solo, chamber and orchestral works that have won awards at numerous competitions and are performed at the most prestigious events. The composer enjoys availing herself of great literature. To texts by Samuel Beckett, she wrote the works Not I and What is the Word. To a text by Heiner Müller, Bildbeschreibung; to texts by Shakespeare, Cleopatra’s Song and Lullaby; to a text by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Charter 13; to words by Wisława Szymborska, Labyrinth; and to words by Czesław Miłosz, Aphorisms on Miłosz. Agata Zubel performs all of her vocal compositions personally, giving them a unique atmosphere. It is worth knowing that in the past, she played percussion. It is perhaps this instrument which permitted her to develop her coloristic and rhythmic imagination.
Today, Polish composers in their 40s are collaborating in the creation of the new music panorama in Poland and around the world. The political and civilizational circumstances in which they debuted have turned out to be extraordinarily favorable.