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!"
another website about the composer
Full text of review here : Review by Henry Doktorski:
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