They are two hundred kilometers apart, but you can quickly cover them by taking the S8 expressway. Although Wrocław and Łódź do not have the official status of twin cities, this year’s Musica Polonica Nova will connect them with a strong bond of artistic relationship, symbolically represented by the numbers 71/42. The five-episode festival miniseries with this title will begin with a presentation of music by this edition’s resident composers. Students of the Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz in Łódź Academy of Music will be responsible for it, performing as the Soundcheck – New Music Ensemble, under the direction of Maciej Koczur – curator of the Łódź-Wrocław cycle.
The residents of the 34th Musica Polonica Nova also represent both Wrocław and Łódź. Cezary Duchnowski works at his alma mater – the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław. Currently, he teaches composition and production of computer music there. Fascinated by electroacoustic sounds, he was one of the initiators of organizing the Computer Composition Studio at his alma mater. Duchnowski’s Parallels was commissioned by the Warsaw Autumn festival and premiered there in 2014. Although the drum set on stage suggests the rock nature of this music, the motto of the piece was taken by the artist from Shakespeare’s The Tempest: “We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” Common elements, fluid borders, connections... this is what interests us this year during Musica Polonica Nova.
Marta Śniady is based in Łódź. It was there that she completed her studies in composition (she also studied at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark), and currently lectures at Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz the Academy of Music. Her piece, which will be presented by Soundcheck – New Music Ensemble, was premiered in 2016 during Musica Moderna. The title of the work – (lm) – refers the listener to the world of physics. The lumen is an SI unit used to measure luminous flux. “The piece is an attempt to translate the light-darkness relationship and various degrees of light emission intensity into musical means,” writes the composer.
