She has the ability to hear "in color" not only pitches and chords, but also percussive timbres; indeed, her music is often inspired by painting and colorful images from poetry. Looking e.g. at a painting of Wassily Kandinsky, Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst or Paul Klee, I am able to hear music which I feel already exists in i painting in its "frozen state" or as an immobile form. Despite the focus of her large-scale "public" pieces on issues of current patriotic and political relevance, Ptaszyńska’s lasting contribution to 20th century music consists in the imaginative development of means of expression associated with percussive instruments, and the perfect marriage of structural and sonoristic aspects of her compositions resulting from the subtle and sophisticated use of instrumentation as a vital element of musical structure. The Red Sea of flowers is reflected by a saturated, tertian harmony and rich percussive colors; the following greenness of the "wildwood pool" is evoked by the fourths and fifths in the piano part.

The mixture of a "timbral" color (marimba - pink) and a "harmonic" color (blue-green of chords built from fourths and fifths) leads to the creation of the "pale lavender" of the second song. The first movement’s colors include the blue and turquoise of the sea, appearing in the chords of superimposed fourths and fifths as well as the blue-green timbres of the metallic glockenspiel and mark tree (a set of cylindrical chimes hanging from a bar and played by sweeping a finger or stick through their length). Her affinity for percussion timbres is apparent in her choice of such instruments as soloists in concerti (Concerto for Percussion Quartet and Orchestra, 1974; Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra; and The Drum of Orfeo) or as important elements of chamber settings (Siderals for two percussion quintets and light projection, 1974; Mobile for two percussionists 1975; Dream Lands, Magic Spaces for violin, piano and percussion, 1979; Ajikan - Unfolding Light for flute and percussion, 1989; and Letter to the Sun for frame drum, narrator and percussion quartet, 1998-2000). She also wrote pieces for percussion solo and in ensembles, e.g. The paintings that she mentions made a prominent appearance in her classic work Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra (1985) where every movement is a musical exploration of a different painting by Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, and Graham Sutherland.

Obviously, my compositions are not literal descriptions of the paintings, but rather, purely musical reactions inspired from viewing these paintings. Splashes of yellow, reflections of the sun playing at the sea surface are captured by the warm yellow tones of the woodblocks. Over time, I developed a deep passion for playing with numbers, and this interest can now be clearly seen in my music, which is often structured according to numerical and geometric ideas. Such large scale images captured the composer’s imagination in such works as Inverted Mountain for orchestra (2000), Of Time and Space for percussion, tape and orchestra (2009-2010), and the earlier Mobile for two percussionists (1976), reflecting in music the movable structure of Alexander Calder’s eponymous sculptures. The vivid visual inspirations, coupled with kaleidoscopic colors and timbres, based on individual "synaesthetic" hearing is one of the most original characteristics of Ptaszyńska’s music. The combination of sonic allure and structural strength is a principal trait that Ptaszyńska shares with Lutosławski and that endowes her music with its lasting value.

This "ekphrastic" principle of poetry based on art is frequent in the literary world, but rare in music. In addition, like many of her colleagues, starting from Bèla Bartók and including Lutosławski himself, Ptaszyńska used the "golden mean" articulated by the Fibonacci series to structure large-scale proportions of major works. These works are discussed in their context in Maria Anna Harley (Maja Trochimczyk), Bogurodzica Reborn: A Medieval Anthem in Contemporary Polish Music, chapter in Mittelalter-Sehnsucht? The two children’s operas have few precedents in Ptaszyńska’s output of dramatic works that includes, besides the recent critically-acclaimed Chopin opera, Lovers from the Valldemosa Cloister (2009-10) to a libretto by the composer, a TV opera Oscar of Alva (based on zaś ballad by Lord Byron, composed in 1971-1972, and produced in 1988). The composer’s forays into musical theater started with a comedic Soiree snobe chez la princesse (1979), instrumental theatre for two keyboard instruments, prerecorded tape, mimes and lighting, commissioned by the Theatre European de Musique Vivante, Brussels, Belgium.

Since Lutosławski refused to hold a teching position, he did not have official students, but he included Ptaszyńska mong his favorite „mentees” along with younger composers, Paweł Szymański, b. Since my early childhood I have been fascinated by the logic of the digital universe, by the elegance of mathematical progressions, and, above all, by the beauty of geometric symmetries. https://skutecznepodstawy.pl/artykul/5083/balladyna-kartkowka-ze-znajomosci-lektury and structures like the famous Pythagorean theorem also play decisive roles in the organization of my musical material. However, while others heard chords and scales in color, Ptaszyńska also hears percussion instruments that way. Let us review an example from Liquid Light, a song cycle to poetry by Modene Duffy, set for soprano and an array of percussion instruments. While percussion is often seen as a source of rhythmic drive, in Ptaszyńska’s music the timbral variety of percussive instruments takes a priority. 199-201; 2001, p. 291-294); and James Briscoe, Contemporary Anthology of Music by Women, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997, p. Women & Music, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991 p.