Customer Reviews

Polish Village Music - Historic Polish-American Recordings 1927-1933

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This sound track is very authentic from an ethnographic and
anthropoligic angle; this is true Polish folk music played on traditional, handmade instrumentation. I am using this CD for my Polish folk dance ensemble. This is music one would hear at a traditional Polish village wedding or celebration in times gone by.

Fascinating vintage polka 78s beautifully restored, with much variety in style to offset the inherent monotony of the simple and repetitious (but fun and lively!) strains. There is incredible historical background in the liner notes, along with unintentionally hilarious text translations, such as: "So, because of this opportunity, I saw those garters. It's nothing strange; They're made of elastic ribbon." Hopefully, in Polish such lyrics sound more lyrical. To be sure, these recordings are not for those whose idea of "folk" is Bob Dylan. In particular, the "highlander" style of track 4 (Last Evening in Podhale) is a jolt to most ears, courtesy of strange rhythmic figures and a stranger mode that features the perfect fourth AND tritone of the scale, with much emphasis on the former. Ouch! The pieces are 2/4 polkas and 3/4 "obereks," and they are recognizable in the modern-polka sense by a predominance of simple arpeggios, scale-runs, and mostly three-chord harmonies--not to mention lyrics about vodka, women, and dancing. The main difference resides in performance styles, which are generally as remote from Myron Floren as can be. This package is a joy, its only flaw consisting of inaccurate musical analysis. The notes promise modulation "between several keys, and between the major and minor." In fact, none of the tracks feature more than two key changes--usually, very traditional shifts to the keys of IV and or V (or IV only). Most of the tracks feature Major-mode melodic strains. Only three tracks (5, 9, and 24) feature minor mode, and only the last, "Devil in Jail," moves from major to minor, or vice-versa. Certainly, this music is exotic enough to begin with, without the assigning of harmonic and modal features that aren't present.

So i promise you that the music is original... it is also very old. Unfortunately, that means that it will not be the quality that we expect our CDs to be in. If you are Polish and I am, you can recognize the words... although you might notice that they are in different accents. Just because we learn the same language at school doesn't mean that what lies in roots of the nation is as unified. Those people that were recorded for this CD are barely musicians... they are mostly old... can't really sing but do remember the words of crazy old songs. Those people played and sang their whole life not for your recognition but for their own enjoyment to ease the hardships of whatever they were doing. I think that it is a good picture of what south Poland was long time ago when it came to celebrating weddings, baby showers and other things.

Good points:the instrumental part is amazing,especially"Icek w Kolomej". Bad points:the voices are awful.

I was apalled at the primitive quality of performances in this CD. In fact I feel cheated for having paid money to listen to it. The music in monotonously the same throughout, mostly uninspiring, and the voices are really bad. They do not even sound Polish. I do not recommend this CD.