31 Days – Marek Pasieczny

I promised something less geeky (and less Greeky) today, so here’s some classical guitar music by Marek Pasieczny.

I thought the intensity of his performance in the first video earned it a place among 31 Days of Wonder. My favorite movements are the opening fugue and the nocturne that comes next. He plays the fugue with a conviction that will make your hair stand on end, as one of the YouTube commenters put it. In the nocturne (4:08), he grabs you with a simple idea and will not let go.

Now here’s a young man playing something Pasieczny wrote when he was young – only 19, in fact. If everyone on Earth were to either play or compose music like this for an hour a day, we would all be at peace.

Pasieczny, who is Polish, loves to explore the musical idioms of other cultures. If you’re up for some musical adventure, here are his variations on a traditional Japanese tune. There is an introduction, and then you’ll recognize the tune once it appears at 0:47 (and is stated even more clearly at 1:30). Pasieczny exploits the many tone colors of the guitar to produce an authentic, Japanese esthetic.

Marek Pasieczny is a wonder, is he not?