Some old music today

Well, today I haven't done much... but I decided I will post some of my old music so that any hypothetical reader of this blog can see what other things I have done in the past.

Here is a MIDI version of the first movement of my Piano Sonata. I wrote it this winter (Northern winter, that is during December - January) in Poland, while I studied in Łódź (you pronounce it like "woodge") with Prof. Zygmunt Krauze. I consider this piece to be one of the few things that I've written that actually reflects what I wanted to do. It is exactly as it should be.

This is Łódź, a view from ul. Pomorska to the church I could always see from my room.

Here you can listen to the longest piece I've written up to now. It was a commission from the Crested Butte Music Festival in Colorado, USA. The piece was performed by the American String Quartet... yes I cannot believe that either, but as Justin Bieber said, never say never. I really like this piece also, although you can tell is a little bit more immature (it certainly is more tonal anyway).

Feel free to listen to the other tracks in my SoundCloud.

And now so that you don't get any more bored, I just wanted to share some poetry. It's one of the Holy Sonnets by John Donne. It appears also as an aria at the end of act I of Doctor Atomic, by John Adams, one of my 2 favorite operas (the other one is Turandot). You can see the performance here.

Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town to another due,
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

(I apologize since I copied the poem from another website and I didn't realize it still had the white background and was barely readable...)