Fantasmagoria per pianoforte e percussione (1971)

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Roger Woodward - piano, Hubert Rutkowski – percussion, „Warsaw Autumn” 1976

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Fantasmagoria – score cover

Fantasmagoria for piano and percussion

Fantasmagoria for piano and percussion

Fantasmagoria for piano and percussion

Just like in his other mature works, Serocki uses here many innovative types of articulation. The piano part is especially rich in them: the instrument is prepared by means of rolls of modelling clay, and the pianist plays its strings as well as internal and external elements of its structure (e.g. metal ribs dividing the register, string pegs, side of the wooden casing). The pianist plays the strings not only using his or her fingers and nails, but also sticks and jazz brushes. The effects generated by “ordinary” keyboard playing are unusual too: they result from the muffling of the strings by modelling clay and from striking of the keys with the forearm or open palm (clusters). Thanks to all these technical solutions, the role of the piano is almost equal to that of its partner instrument – the percussion group, which at the same time remains independent, comprising no fewer than 37 instruments played by a single performer.

As the work is performed, its timbral and sonic structures change kaleidoscopically; none of them is repeated and is at best changed and developed somewhat, as the pulse of the piece tenses and relaxes. The work begins and ends at the lowest volume level – ppp. In-between there are dramatic, emotional eruptions as well as longer sections of delicate and shimmering sounds or sounds that are sombre and mysterious and have a daydreaming quality.

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• Tadeusz A. Zieliński, O twórczości Kazimierza Serockiego [On Kazimierz Serocki’s Oeuvre], Kraków 1985.

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Sheet music available from: PWM, RICORDI