Nocturne
Digital music visualisation
Digital music visualisation
Nocturne is an atmospheric piece of digital music visualisation that harmonises a true war-time family story with a beautiful piece of classical solo piano music.
My grandfather Jan Stepek was aged 15 at the outbreak of World War II. He lived with his parents Wladyslaw and Janina and his two younger sisters Danka and Zosia in a wooden farmhouse in the small village of Haczów in south-east Poland.
Wladyslaw was tipped off that the Soviet Red Army planned to arrest and kill him as he was considered a potential resistance leader. He went into hiding into Nazi occupied Poland. The rest of the family never seen their father again. They were interrogated, tortured and threatened with their lives for his whereabouts by Ukrainian soldiers and the Red Army.
On the 9th February 1940 my grandfather’s family were woken up at 2am by Red Army soldiers. They were taken to a train station and forced into cattle trucks for deportation. They were enclosed in the cattle truck for four weeks travelling northwards to the Archangel region of northern Russia, situated at the edge of the Arctic Circle, for ethnic cleansing in a gulag.
After the Poles gained their Freedom, my grandfather’s family journeyed over 6,000 miles to Persia. The three children survived this odyssey but Janina did not make it. She died, slowly and wretchedly, of starvation, finally expiring shortly after reaching freedom in Teheran, Persia, where she lies buried.
My grandfather had been close to Death several times from malaria, dysentery and typhus. A few months after recovering he enlisted in the Polish Navy in 1943 aged 20. His tour took him through Italy, Greece and France and he took part in the Battle of Monte Cassino and the Invasion of Normandy. At the end of the war he arrived, demobbed, orphaned, and stateless in Scotland.
The people of Scotland met the Polish refugees with warmth and kindness. Decades later through hard-work, perseverance and with the everlasting support of my grandmother he became a wealthy businessman and repaid the Scots’ kindness with charitable donations and by aiding the homeless, including bringing them into the family home for meals and giving them jobs.
The Soviet Union forcibly deported 1.7 million Polish citizens to labour camps during World War II. Only around 250,000 are known to have survived. Everyday, I find myself inspired by my ancestors’ perseverance and will-power. I have nothing but pride and admiration for them and my Polish ancestry. I often find it difficult to find the words to convey much I admire my grandfather so I used this digital piece to create a visual outlet for my feelings and more importantly, create something I can use as a dedication to my grandfather and my predecessors who were taken from us far too early.
I have used Chopin’s Nocturne C-Sharp Minor as a sound track to bring this visualisation to life. The Polish composer wrote his music inspired by the glories and sufferings of his home nation. As a master of the romantic classical music era, Chopin brings such depth and emotion to his pieces and this Nocturne is no different. This beautiful piece of piano solo music swells from sorrowful lows to joyful highs. I believe that this perfectly encapsulates my family’s history, from the traumatic war-times to the happier untroubled times with a much loved family.
My grandfather Jan Stepek was aged 15 at the outbreak of World War II. He lived with his parents Wladyslaw and Janina and his two younger sisters Danka and Zosia in a wooden farmhouse in the small village of Haczów in south-east Poland.
Wladyslaw was tipped off that the Soviet Red Army planned to arrest and kill him as he was considered a potential resistance leader. He went into hiding into Nazi occupied Poland. The rest of the family never seen their father again. They were interrogated, tortured and threatened with their lives for his whereabouts by Ukrainian soldiers and the Red Army.
On the 9th February 1940 my grandfather’s family were woken up at 2am by Red Army soldiers. They were taken to a train station and forced into cattle trucks for deportation. They were enclosed in the cattle truck for four weeks travelling northwards to the Archangel region of northern Russia, situated at the edge of the Arctic Circle, for ethnic cleansing in a gulag.
After the Poles gained their Freedom, my grandfather’s family journeyed over 6,000 miles to Persia. The three children survived this odyssey but Janina did not make it. She died, slowly and wretchedly, of starvation, finally expiring shortly after reaching freedom in Teheran, Persia, where she lies buried.
My grandfather had been close to Death several times from malaria, dysentery and typhus. A few months after recovering he enlisted in the Polish Navy in 1943 aged 20. His tour took him through Italy, Greece and France and he took part in the Battle of Monte Cassino and the Invasion of Normandy. At the end of the war he arrived, demobbed, orphaned, and stateless in Scotland.
The people of Scotland met the Polish refugees with warmth and kindness. Decades later through hard-work, perseverance and with the everlasting support of my grandmother he became a wealthy businessman and repaid the Scots’ kindness with charitable donations and by aiding the homeless, including bringing them into the family home for meals and giving them jobs.
The Soviet Union forcibly deported 1.7 million Polish citizens to labour camps during World War II. Only around 250,000 are known to have survived. Everyday, I find myself inspired by my ancestors’ perseverance and will-power. I have nothing but pride and admiration for them and my Polish ancestry. I often find it difficult to find the words to convey much I admire my grandfather so I used this digital piece to create a visual outlet for my feelings and more importantly, create something I can use as a dedication to my grandfather and my predecessors who were taken from us far too early.
I have used Chopin’s Nocturne C-Sharp Minor as a sound track to bring this visualisation to life. The Polish composer wrote his music inspired by the glories and sufferings of his home nation. As a master of the romantic classical music era, Chopin brings such depth and emotion to his pieces and this Nocturne is no different. This beautiful piece of piano solo music swells from sorrowful lows to joyful highs. I believe that this perfectly encapsulates my family’s history, from the traumatic war-times to the happier untroubled times with a much loved family.
