Three Mazurkas (the story behind)

’Three Mazurkas’ (2025)

1. Mazurka No. 1 – “Bright”
2. Mazurka No. 2 – “Dim”
3. Mazurka No. 3 – “Dark”

The story goes like this: during a zoom with Mateusz Kowalski and Zosia Kowalska, I casually threw out the idea of writing, a triptych of mazurkas for Mateusz’s new album, which would include one of my pieces.

Both of them, laughing, said: “You have 48 hours, because that’s when Mateusz is flying from Poland to São Paulo.” I replied: “Of course, that’s impossible.” We said our goodbyes.

After the conversation, I asked myself a hypothetical question: would I be able to compose three mazurkas in one day, and the next day input them into the software, edit, make corrections, finger, finalize, and send them? No – it was simply impossible. These couldn’t be simple miniatures; they had to be full concert pieces.

However… around midnight I went to the piano, and soon two sketches 'came to me’ for the main themes of clearly two contrasting mazurkas…

The next morning, bright and early, I started composing. I did nothing but write.

After ten hours, I had complete sketches for three mazurkas – nearly 180 bars of compositional material. Around midnight, I began entering them into the program.

The following day – Mateusz’s day of departure – I finished inputting the scores, started adapting them for guitar, and did the editing (fingerings, dynamics, tempos). I played them repeatedly, listened, made changes, listened again, and changed… until finally, it was done.

Mateusz was already on a plane from Warsaw to Portugal. He had to receive the score during a layover in Lisbon, giving him time for some “mental practice” on the flight to São Paulo.

I managed to send it. Mateusz had the entire, completed score.

After landing in São Paulo, between hours in the recording studio, Mateusz quickly mastered the technical aspects of the mazurkas, created a beautiful interpretation, sent me rough recordings, and by the end of the recording session, he performed them in perfect tempos, musically mature, as if he had been playing them for weeks… it took him all that around one working day.

Mateusz is simply brilliant.

The album, inspired by Chopin’s music and the Polish idiom, will be released in a few weeks. It’s a new project by Guitarcoop.

The core of the album will be the 24 Preludios Chopinianos by Sergio Assad, but it will also include my piece Szopen (Re:Membering), as well as the Three Mazurkas.

These mazurkas would never have come to life without this remarkable pair, Mateusz and Zosia Kowalska, and they are dedicated to them.