Devil’s Fiddle

The idea of fiddlers selling their soul to the devil for special musical gifts or being linked to the supernatural in some way is a widespread one. This is the music to a Polish stage work on this subject by electronic composer Cezary Duchnowski with the Radical Polish Ansambl. The booklet includes some spooky fairy-tale-like illustrations.

Separated from the stage action and narrative, it’s hard to make out the meaning of the musical tracks. The opening ‘Tartini’ presumably refers to the Baroque composer of ‘The Devil’s Trill Sonata’, who was said to be in touch with Lucifer himself, but the track is electronic with a treated voice, although a violin appears towards the end. There are then three ‘Incantations’ with sound effects, electronics and treated voices followed by a musical interlude with an acoustic ensemble. The first more-or-less traditional track opens a sequence called ‘The Invisible Hand of the Market’ with a mazurka tune. The evocative vocals of Maniucha Bikont and her tuba playing feature as well. The penultimate track, ‘Bilocation’ is a vigorous fiddle and percussion workout. But, to be honest, from the music alone, it’s pretty hard to make any coherent sense out of this score.