Partita II for orchestra (1978) is Paweł Szymański's diploma work crowning his composition studies with Włodzimierz Kotoński at the Warsaw Academy of Music. While it is rare for a composer to attach importance to a work written as a student, Szymański sees his Partita II as a turning point in his career:
"Since then I have moved within a circle of specific music ideas. Earlier, when I was young, I kept looking for new inspirations. I was interested in serialism and fascinated by Lutosławski, and reached out for elements of the sonoristic techniques, though did so with some reservations. I found my real world of music ideas while writing 'Partita II'. Everything I have since done has been the exploration of that area ... What got me fascinated at that time was the idea of understanding music at two levels. Music at its physical level, realized when performed, would be a reflection of something non-existent, suggesting that there is some deeper layer. Translating that into the composing technique, I am interested in writing music in a way that involves the transformation of certain simple structures and allows the listener to guess at a layer that has generated what is heard and runs parallel to it ... There is a lot of elements of music of the past in my music. In particular, there are frequent, transformed references to Baroque polyphony. The distinction between the starting point of the transformation from transformation itself is a factor of tension. Why do I refer to tradition, to the elements of some stylistic conventions? Because this is a common language of music, known to the listener. If I break this language and the continuity of expression in this language, deforming its grammar and syntax, I provoke the listener to guessing."
This game with the listener is in fact central to Paweł Szymański's music:
"It is very pleasing when someone is able to correctly decode my intentions when listening to my music. It does happen sometimes. But then I can imagine that someone may receive my music in a way which is totally different from the one I had intended and which I would not have even thought about, and will still get esthetic satisfaction. I believe that in such a case art has played its role, although communication has failed. But then I do not find full communication with the listener absolutely necessary. ("Studio" 9/1996)
Prepared by the Polish Music Information Center, Polish Composers' Union, December 2001.