Walter Buczynski


review of some of his music from Free Reed Review

"The Canadian composer Walter Buczynski composed Fantasy on Themes of the Past in five movements: 1) Old Polish Folk Airs, 2) Tango, 3) Fast Fingers, 4) Waltz and 5) Square Steady Beat. Due to my Polish heritage I recognized some of the tunes in the first movement, although I must admit that Buczynski (Polish also, I presume) surprised me with his humorous treatment; parts of the piece are really funny. The third movement utilizes some great jazz riffs and progressions and the waltz contains some quotes from popular Strauss waltzes.

Buczynski very cleverly utilizes the free-bass left-hand manual for the serious sections, and utilizes the stradella left-hand manual for the more humorous sections (more fuel for my theory that the stradella accordion is often used by composers as a joki ng comedian). The final movement, Square Steady Beat, caught my ear immediately with its dynamic all-pervasive low string-bass ostinato on the down beat contrasted with the high violin pizzicato ostinato on the upbeats, not unlike a contemporary rock bas s and drum beat. The contrapuntal boogie woogie sections are great!"


Polish-Canadian composer Walter Buczynski's Third Piano Sonata was
commissioned by pianist Antonin Kubalek, and was completed in 1990. Bearing
the subtitle "Textures", it explores the use of various pianistic sonorities
and figurations in creating a single movement soundscape. It was written
during the negotiations of the Meech Lake Accord and the Canadian unity
debates, and Buczynski incorporates within the "textures" his own personal
comment to the political climate of the time - NOTES by Greg Oh

another website about the composer

Full text of review here : Review by Henry Doktorski:


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