Marcin Stańczyk’s Afterimages and Aftersounds – Reflections and Self-Reflections

One of the most frequently recurring topics in Marcin Stańczyk’s (b. 1977) self-commentaries is the idea of translating the phenomenon of afterimages into music, in the form of his original concept of aftersounds. Direct inspiration for this concept came from a cycle of solarist paintings by Władysław Strzemiński entitled Afterimages of the Sun. The concept of aftersounds can be considered on the level of music material (resonances and reflections of various kinds, contrasts on the sound level) as well as metaphorically (when the composition becomes an afterimage of an external phenomenon). Particularly important to Stańczyk’s work as a composer are explorations in the field of music perception and the theatricalisation of performance, which turns every gesture of the performers into a meaningful element of the composition, as well as an element of expression. This paper aims to present an outline of the ways in which Stańczyk implements the idea of aftersounds in music. The text is based on the composer’s own statements as well as on characteristic examples from his works.