Polish Folk Music - ZESPOL LEMKOWYNA (Lemkos' Folk Music)

ZESPOL LEMKOWYNA
Polish Folk Music
Lemkos' Folk Music

Polonia Records' Polish Folk Music series focuses on the origins of Polish folk music that have always had roots in local villages music. The series present comprehensive selection of music from village folk musicians in Poland. Each CD of the series is enhanced with detailed essay (in Polish language only).

Label: Polonia Records 1997
Catalogue No: CD 112
Format: CD

Tracks:

1. Tecze woda z Jawora
2. A tam dolom, pid oblaczkom
3. Jak jem iszow z lubuwania
4. Spiwanoczki moi
5. Lisom, lisom przy dolyni
6. Kazala m mama
7. Hore malyniaczkom
8. Kupyly mi mama korowu
9. Pasla Hancia pawy
10. Kolysanka
11. Kied ja w poly trawyczku zberala
12. Samohonka
13. Zrodyla sia Terky
14. Poletiw bym na kraj swita
15. Hory naszy
16. Hlan Bozy okom na Lemkowynu
17. Na pohidnim, tychim nebi

Line-up:

Band and Choir Lemkowyna

Recorded:

in Polish Radio Rzeszów Studio, December 1996

About:

This group hails from the town of Bielanka located in the Tatra mountain region of southeastern Poland just east of Nowy Sacz. They represent an ethnic group called Lemkos who have traditionally lived along the borders of Poland and the Ukraine.
Lemkos (Ukrainian: Лeмки, Lemko: Лeмкы) one of several quantitatively and territorially small ethnic groups who also call themselves Rusyns (Ukrainian: Русини, Lemko: Руснакы) are one of the ethnic groups inhabiting the Carpathian Mountains.
The name "Lemko" derives from the common expression Lem (Лeм), which can mean "but", "only", or "like" in the Lemko dialect. This word is commonly used in many dialects mainly around eastern Slovakia, Polish and Ukrainian border, and is one distinction between the languages. "Lemko" came into use as an endonym after having been used as an exonym by the neighboring Lyshaks, Boykos and Hutsuls, who do not use that term in their respective dialects. The term in Slovak dialects would be Lemko, in Rusyn dialect it is Lemkiv, in Polish Lemkwich.
The ethnogenesis of the Lemkos is still being discussed by scholars. According to one theory, the Lemkos (and other Carpatho-Rusyns) are descendants of the White Croats. Some Polish scholars claim that they developed from a Vlach - Rusyn migration in the 14th and 15th centuries. There is also a view that they are refugees from Rus who moved to the Western side of the Carpathian Mountains in the 14th century to escape the Mongol invasion. Some scholars suggest that settlers from Rus' may have arrived earlier to the area traditionally inhabited by Lemkos. Analysis of population genetics shows statistical differences between Lemkos and other Slavic or European populations.
It is estimated that about 130,000 to 140,000 Lemkos were living in the Polish part of Lemkivshchyna in 1939. Only 5,863 people identified themselves as Lemko in the 2002 census. However, as many as 60,000 ethnic Lemkos may reside in Poland today.
An important aspect of Lemko culture is their deep commitment to Eastern Christianity which was introduced to the Eastern Slavs from Byzantium via Kiev through the efforts of Saints Cyril and Methodius in the 9th century. Originally the Lemko's adhered to Orthodoxy, but in order to avoid latinization directly entered into union with Rome in the 17th century. Most Lemkos today are Eastern rite or Byzantine-rite Catholics. In Poland they belong to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church,

The distinctive wooden architectural style of the Lemko churches (as opposed to their neighbouring sub-ethnic groups such as the Boikos) is to place the highest cupola of the church building at the entrance to the church, with the roof sloping downward toward the sanctuary.
The Lemkos' language is considered by Ukrainian linguists to be the most western of Ukrainian dialects. The homeland occupied by the Lemkos was not politically part of Ukraine, and the language used by the Lemkos has been influenced greatly by the language spoken by neighboring or ruling peoples, so much so that some consider it a separate entity.