Podhale Music in Poland

While traditional music has lost popularity in Poland, particularly in the urban regions, the tourist destination of Podhale has reserved its customs lively. The province capital known as Zakopane, has been a point for art since the late 19^th century, when people like karol Szymanowski, who discovered Goral traditional music there, made the place chic among Europe’s scholars. However a part of Poland, Podhale’s musical life is more directly linked to Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine, Moravia in Czech Republic, Slovakia and Transsylvania. The people in the Tatra Mountains of Poland and Slovakia are descendants of Vlach marshals who established there during the 14^th to 17^th century.

source of picture: www.biweekly.pl

The indigenous bands use string instruments such as violins and a cello to play a unique scale known as Lydian mode. The unique singing pattern used in this scale in known as lidyzowanie. The lead violin known as prym is accompanied by several second violins like sekund and the three-stringed cello known as bazy. The duple-time dance such as krzesany, ozwodna and zbojnicki (Brigand’s dance) are well-known. The ozwodna has five bar melodic configuration which made it to be quite unique. The krzesany is an extremely rapid dance, while the zbojnicki is popular and it is perceived as being most distinctive of Podhale and Northern Slovakia. Traditional songs classically focus on heroes like Juraj Janosik.

Apart from Podhale, few areas have active traditional scenes; however there are music festivals like the Kazimierz Festival, which is renowned and well-known. Local traditional ensembles include Tadeusz Jedynak Band (Przystalowice Male), Gienek Wilczek Band (Bukowina), Franciszek Gola band (Kadzidlo), Stachy Band (Hazcow nad Wislokiem), Kazimierz Meto Band (Glina), Edward Markocki Band (Zmyslowka-Podlesie), Swarni Band (Nowy Targ), Kazimierz Kantor band (Glowaczowa), Trebunie-Tutki and Ludwik Mlynarczyk band (Lipnica).