Metamorphoses for Piano by Edward Sielicki – in the Shackles of Postmodernity and in the Light of Polish Piano Variations after 1989

Abstract

The article describes Edward Sielicki's Metamorfozy in the light of Polish piano variations written after 1989 and in the context of the concept of postmodernism. The composer (born in 1956) belongs to the generation of artists born in the 1950s. Generally, it is akin to the „Stalowa Wola generation”. Metamorfozy, created in 2013/2017, are close to the variational form, although they are not directly variations. In the music material, Sielicki used, in a processed manner, motifs taken from, among others, from the Prelude in B flat minor, Op. 28 No. 16 and the Etude in A flat major, Op. 25 No. 1 by Chopin and the Prelude in A minor, Op. 32 No. 8 of Rachmaninoff. He deformed them, blending them into the sound material of his own invention. The way of using the set material brings Metamorfozy closer to postmodern aesthetics with such categories as allusiveness, grotesque, viewing oneself and others' creativity in the „crooked mirror”.