Published: 2019-10-041

Andrzej Nikodemowicz’ Piano Concerto no. 2 – Search for the Original Sound

Ewa NIDECKA
Edukacja Muzyczna
Section: Research articles
https://doi.org/10.16926/em.2017.12.03

Abstract

The piano concertos by the Polish composer Andrzej Nikodemowicz (1925–2017) belong to the late and mature period of his creativity. The Piano Concerto no. 2 discussed in this article was composed in 2002 and is in fact the first autonomous concerto composed for the piano by this artist, as his Piano Concerto no.1 (1994) is a modification of his own Violin Concerto written in 1973. The piece was being conceived with a sense of stability and full creative freedom. Living in Poland, in Lublin since 1980, the composer no longer felt the psychological pressure that he had been experiencing during his stay in Lviv. Due to the regime ruling there, most of the works creat- ed in Lviv had no chance of being performed.

As far as the structure is considered, in the Piano Concerto No. 2, the composer abandoned the classical three-movement structure and the symmetrical arrangement, which he had favoured in many of his compositions, in favour of the constrasting parts form. The Piano Concerto No. 2makes apparent the overlapping of two trends connected with the rules of shaping musical materi- al. One of them is a tradition with neo-romantic roots, expressive and lyrical, but undergoing a significant transformation of its own vision, the other uses the energy of the rhythm and the percussive properties of the piano. The composer uses a strongly dissonant 12-tone sound material and complex rhythmic divisions, complementary rhythms, thus creating a dense sound structure. Ultimately, they contain a recognizable stylistic idiom, the essence of which is lyricism and ex- pression. It is the result of a permanent variability and diversity and the application of develop- ment at the microform stage. The major aim of the compositional technique is to achieve a sublime sound. The development factor is one of the main features of Andrzej Nikodemowicz’ style.

Keywords:

Andrzej Nikodemowicz, Andrzej Nikodemowicz' Piano Concerto no.2, Polish composers’ works in the first decade of the 21st century, lyricism and expression

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NIDECKA, E. (2019). Andrzej Nikodemowicz’ Piano Concerto no. 2 – Search for the Original Sound. Edukacja Muzyczna, 12. https://doi.org/10.16926/em.2017.12.03

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