Between the Lines: Reading Into Marek Stachowski’s Self-Reflections

Abstract

Abstract Marek Stachowski: composer, teacher, and vice-chancellor, one of cultural Kraków’s most outstanding figures, died prematurely in 2004. The tenth anniversary of his death is an occasion to review the works he left behind as well as his extensive reflections on his own output and on the state of art in general. Reading into the numerous opinions regarding his own activity as a composer, we have found significant statements that confirm three distinctive qualities of Marek Stachowski’s artistic personality. First and foremost, his deep conviction of being predestined for the profession and an awareness of his aesthetic roots; secondly, the ability to analyse his own creative achievements; and finally, the rationalisation of the creative act while maintaining a distance towards his own work. Marek Stachowski’s oeuvre comprises 56 catalogued compositions, both small- and large-scale, vocal and instrumental, reflecting the various paths of Polish music in the second half of the 20th century: from sonoristic avant-garde to the “New Classicism.” Throughout these transformations, however, we can perceive some stable individual qualities of his musical language, namely: clarity of structure, sophistication of sound and the leading role of expression.