Half-filled Diary

for cello, percussion and strings (2013)

Jan B. lived through most of the 20th and a small part of the 21st century. He was born and raised near Wieluń, spent the war in Dresden, and his adult life in Gliwice.

In his youth, he wanted to be a pilot, but eventually became a mechanical engineer. Most of the time, including free time, he spent alone in the garage. He patented several technological solutions in the field of machine building. He designed a perpetual motion machine without success. He was abusing alcohol and tobacco.

He had a wife, two children and five grandchildren. He broke off contacts with his extended family in the middle of his life. In the years 1943-53 he wrote a journal; he filled half of the 300-page notebook.

The composition consists of five parts: Prologue; Black river; A song about almost nothing; Grinder and hammer; Epilogue.

The piece was written in 2013, commissioned by the Art Reading Room of the Museum in Gliwice, with Magda Bojanowicz as a soloist in mind.

Performance history:

PREMIERE: April 10, 2014 (premiere); Magdalena Bojanowicz (vc), Chamber Orchestra LEOPOLDINUM, Ernst Kovacic (dir); Musica Polonica Nova Festival; Wrocław Philharmonic

May 29, 2015; Magdalena Bojanowicz (vc), AUKSO Chamber Orchestra, Marek Moś (dir); Opening of the new seat of the National Audiovisual Institute; Promised Land Hall, NInA, Warsaw

Recordings history:

November 24, 2019; Magdalena Bojanowicz, AUKSO, Marek Moś; realization: Beata Jankowska-Burzyńska; Concert Hall of the Academy of Music in Katowice; recording for the Museum in Gliwice