Roztocze, eastern Poland, near the Ukrainian border. Here, wind instruments reigned supreme: Western concert flutes, horns, tubas, trombones. All of these accompanied the fiddle at weddings. The CD recording also contains groups of women singing beautiful and ceremonial songs – you can hear the Ukrainian influences in them.
Music Lost/Found
Traveling through Roztocze
Ethnic folk music from Eastern Europe (Poland)
Recordings from Andrzej Bienkowski's archives from years 2003-2007
www.musiclostfound.com
Label / Muzyka Odnaleziona, Poland (2009)
Catalogue No / 008
Format / Book with CD
Book / 48 pages, size 15 X 14 cm (5.5" x 5.9"), hard cover binding, in Polish language, many photos with detailed description.
CD / 28 tracks, total time 62 min 4 seconds
Traveling through Roztocze Roztocze, eastern Poland, near the Ukrainian border. Here, wind instruments reigned supreme: Western concert flutes, horns, tubas, trombones. All of these accompanied the fiddle at weddings. There are few recordings of this music, but this CD is full of them. The bands in this collection were no longer playing at weddings by the end of the 1970s. The CD recording also contains groups of women singing beautiful and ceremonial songs – you can hear the Ukrainian influences in them.
Andrzej Bienkowski
Program:
1. Polka / Leon Krzos Band: Leon Krzos - 1st fiddle, Jan Jaworski - 2nd fiddle, Bronislaw Skrzypek - tambourine (Zdzilowice, 2004)
2. Polka / Leon Krzos Band (Zdzilowice, 2004)
3. Traveler / Brass Band from Wojciechowo: Stefan Bednarczyk - cornet, Feliks Iwaniak - valve trombone, Slawomir Pyc - accordion, Wladyslaw Maj - baraban drum (1986)
4. Oberek / Józef Góra - fiddle, Wojciech Gzik - tambourine (Krzemien, 1997)
5. Oberek Lazuka / Józef Góra - fiddle, Wojciech Gzik - tambourine (Krzemien, 1997)
6. Oberek / Stanislaw Futyma - vocal, baraban drum (Komodzianka, 1997)
7. Oberek / Band from Stejoszyn: Eugeniusz Palen (ur. 1927) - fiddle, Józefa Albiniak - baraban drum (1985)
8. Wild polka / Katarzyna Kozina - 1st fiddle (ur.1927), Walerian Kozina - 2nd fiddle, Zdzislaw Kozina - tambourine (Chrzanów, 1997)
9. Slider "Graj na caly smyczek" / Brass Band from Tomaszow Lubelski (1987)
10. Jewish Polka / Stefan Moskal - fiddle, Józef Chmiel - tambourine (Biala,1988)
11. Weeding Song / Singers from Zamchu (2004)
12. Traveler / Band from Prawiednik: fiddle, accordion, baraban drum (1985)
13. Jewish Oberek "Rajzerów" / Mieczyslaw Kloc - fiddle (Zakrzówek, 1999)
14. Polka "Wiszowska" / Band from Bilska: Piotr Dziadosz - fiddle, Felicja Dziadosz - tambourine (1985)
15. Traveler / Bronislaw Dudka - 1st fiddle, Tadeusz Dudka - 2nd fiddle, Czeslaw Chmiel - tambourine, Zbigniew Butrym - bass (Janów Lubelski 2003)
16. Majdaniak / Tadeusz Kolano - 1st fiddle, Tadeusz Malec - 2nd fiddle, Józef Jasielski - tambourine (Chlaniówek, 2003)
17. Polka "Old shoes" / Mateusz Cieliszak - 1st fiddle, Bronislaw Bida - 2nd fiddle, Czeslaw Kotula - tambourine (Gródki, 2004)
18. Pastoralka "By the green meadow" / Vocal Ensemble "Rowan" from Kocudzy (2007)
19. Oberek "Oberwajs" / Bronislaw Bida (ur. 1927) - 1st fiddle, Mateusz Cieliszak - 2nd fiddle, Czeslaw Kotula - tambourine (Gródki, 2004)
20. Polka / Antoni Bednarz (ur.1928) flute, Stanislaw Bednarz - baraban drum, Stanislaw Bielecki - 1st fiddle, Wladyslaw Szymczuk - 2nd fiddle (Tomaszów Lubelski, 1986)
21. Oberek / Jan Mucha - harmonica, Stanislaw Denis - tambourine (Konstantów, 2004)
22. Oberek / Jan Mucha - fiddle, Stanislaw Denis - tambourine (2004)
23. Weeding Song "Zakukala kukawenka" / Singers from Lukowa (2004)
24. Polka / Stanislaw Glaz - fiddle, Stanislaw Denis - tambourine (Dzwola, 2005)
25. Oberek / Band from Turobin: fiddle - Józef Lewczyk, viola - Józef Podkościelny, Stanislawa Lewczyk - bass, baraban drum (1994)
26. Oberek "Krowiarz" / Stefan Maziarczyk - ocarina (2008)
27. Polka "Fest" / Weeding Band: Tadeusz Harbuz - valve trombone, Kowal Marian - accordion, Antoni Cioch - drums, Mieczyslaw Kogut - saxophone, Stanislaw Borowiec - tenor saxophone (Majdan Górny 2005; from T. Harbuz collection)
28. Ignacy Bednarz Slider "Zawislak" / Witek Broda - fiddle, Janusz Prusinowski - fiddle, Andrzej Bienkowski - tambourine (Warszawa, 1999)
About Music Lost & Found Series
Poland, 1980, and Communism is facing collapse. Petrol is being rationed, the shops are empty. I begin my journey through the countryside to record music. It’s strange, because there are a great many folk bands, but their services are no longer required in the villages or towns. Musicians stop playing and sell off their instruments; slowly but surely they are forgotten. The first difficulty we faced was finding them replacement instruments. I met musicians who hadn’t seen each other in years, having once played weddings together regularly; this was the last generation of village musicians. Then came the dawn of the pop era. We filmed and made unique music recordings in the musicians’ homes, which were natural, stress-free environments. We searched throughout Poland, Ukraine and Belarus and found 1500 musicians, as well as singers, and from this number we reconstructed eighty bands. Our archive contains recordings of some of the oldest village bands, as well as contemporary wedding music. We have thousands of field photographs. However, the real jewels in our collection are undoubtedly the photographs taken by the original village photographers, who faithfully captured weddings, parties, funerals and daily life.
Andrzej Bienkowski
Andrzej Bienkowski is a painter, ethnographer, writer and professor at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. For the last thirty years he has traversed rural Poland to document and record the music of village fiddlers, accordionists and singers. He has produced many books and films about rural Polish music, including the Music Lost & Found series. He owns the largest private collection of rural music in Poland.
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