Poland

Very much the same to Russian music, Poland has a high Western influence but also many ethnic cultures have a foothold in Poland, that’s why in this account of Polish music, we will still have one paragraph on Classical music. Polish folk music was revived in the 19th century by Oskar Kolberg, as part of a wave of Polish nationalism. With the coming of World War I, II and then the Communist state, folk traditions were minimized to state-approved folk ensembles. The most famous of the state ensembles are Mazowsze and Śląsk, both of which still perform. Though these bands had a regional touch to their performance, the overall product was a mixture of Polish styles. There were more authentic state-supported groups, like Słowianki, but the Communist didn't like the image of folk music made the whole field seem unpopular to young audiences, and many traditions was lost. Polish dance music, especially the mazurka and polonaise, were a favourite by Frederick Chopin, and they soon spread across Europe and elsewhere with his influence. Another form of dance called Krakowiak became the national dance of Poland. These are triple time dances, while five-beat forms are more common in the northeast and duple-time dances like the krakowiak come from the south. The polonaise comes from the French word //Polish// to identify its origin among the Polish aristocracy, who had evolved the dance from a slower walking dance called chodzony. The polonaise then re-entered the lower-class musical life, and became an integral part of Polish music. Classical music of Poland is also very strong and influential with some very prominent composers. Poland’s most famous composer is probably Chopin, the “poet of the piano”. Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, etude, impromptu and prelude. This Youtube video here is a showcase of the dance Krakowiak: [|Link] A folk song: [|Link]
 * Poland:[[image:http://www.dipc.ie/Flags%5CPolandF.gif width="299" height="202" align="right"]] **