instrumentation: Piano
ISMN: 9790801507525
cover: Małgorzata Flis
editor: Monika Sikorska-Wojtacha, Marcin Kowalczyk
number of pages: 12
Humoresque for piano was written around 1943, whilst Michał Spisak was staying in Voiron, in France. The work is predominantly a showcase, as can be seen not only at the technical level, but also in terms of the ever-changing shifts of the musical narrative, its scale runs, virtuoso passages interwoven with chordal fragments, its sense of perpetual mutability intensified by the rhythmic motion and the use of a sweeping range of dynamic and articulatory devices. The principle of contrast is also implemented at the formal level by introducing a short, reposeful, andante section in the middle of the work. Zygmunt Mycielski, the Polish commentator and composer, perceived an association with the works of Prokofiev and Stravinsky in the piece, whilst, at one and the same time, emphasising the freshness of its compositional inventiveness.
