Matt Harrison is the composer of the work Śmierć Miasta, a passionate, evocative film-score like work for solo piano.

I wrote it after watching the film “The Pianist” starring Adrien Brody & about the pianist Władysław Szpilman, so the music is supposed to evoke the German occupation of Warsaw & subsequent uprising (ending with a major chord for a reasonably happy ending). I was trying to sound like Chopin but in the end it isn’t anything like him!

A feeling of loose syncopation and hemiola dominates the work, flowing naturally.

It is this loose feeling that allows the work to breathe, feeling natural and human. Dark and gloomy at times, and uplifting at others, this work does remind me a bit of Chopin despite the lack of runs and chromaticism. I’m not entirely sure why that is, but I had that impression before reading Matt’s note. Bridging the gap between film music and concert music, this work is notated in 3/4 but often deviates from the score in this recording, creating some dissonance between the score and the sound.

From Matt Harrison’s BandCamp page:

Śmierć Miasta is a memoir by Polish-Jewish pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman, describing life in occupied Warsaw during World War Two. After being forced with his family to live in the Warsaw Ghetto, Szpilman manages to avoid deportation to the Treblinka extermination camp, and from his hiding places around the city witnesses the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 and the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. He survives in the ruined city with the help of friends and strangers, including Wilm Hosenfeld, a German army captain who admires his piano playing.

I really enjoyed this piece! I think you will too. It has a very intriguing and emotionally rich sound.

Follow Matt Harrison on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/matarison1

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Best,

Dan