The music of Poland covers diverse aspects of music and musical traditions which have originated, and are practiced in Poland. Artists from Poland include world-famous classical composers like Frédéric Chopin, Karol Szymanowski, Witold Lutosławski, Henryk Górecki and Krzysztof Penderecki; renowned pianists like Karl Tausig, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Arthur Rubinstein and Krystian Zimerman; as well as popular music artists, and traditional, regionalised folk music ensembles that create a rich and lively music scene at the grassroots level. The musicians of Poland, over the course of history, have developed and popularized a variety of music genres and folk dances such as mazurka, polonaise, krakowiak, kujawiak, polska partner dance, oberek; as well as the sung poetry genre (poezja śpiewana) and others. Mazurek (Mazur), Krakowiak, Kujawiak, Oberek and Polonaise (Polonez) are registered as Polish National Dances, originating in early Middle Ages. The oldest of them is Polonaise that comes from the Medieval pageant dances and it was originally called "chodzony", a "walking dance".
Polish music exhibits influences from a broad variety of styles which are represented by critically acclaimed bands, such as Perfect (Zbigniew Hołdys), Status Qwo, Maanam (Kora), T.Love, Golec uOrkiestra, Budka Suflera, Czerwone Gitary, Dżem, Big Cyc, as well as many other renowned artists, e.g. Czesław Niemen, Magdalena Ostrowska, Jacek Kaczmarski, Wojciech Młynarski, Czesław Mozil, Jakob Węgiel, Marek Grechuta, and contemporary singer-songwriters and pop icons including Margaret, Maria Peszek, Myslovitz, Edyta Bartosiewicz, and Doda; jazz musicians Tomasz Stańko, Krzysztof Komeda, Włodek Pawlik, Adam Makowicz, Leszek Możdżer, and Michał Urbaniak; death and black metal music bands Behemoth, Vader, and Decapitated; and film and contemporary classical music composers Wojciech Kilar, Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, Zbigniew Preisner, Abel Korzeniowski, Krzesimir Dębski, and Krzysztof Meyer, among many others.
Classical music Medieval and Renaissance
The origin of Polish music can be traced as far back as the 13th century, from which manuscripts have been found in Stary Sącz, containing polyphonic compositions related to the Parisian Notre Dame School. Other early compositions, such as the melody of Bogurodzica, may also date back to this period. The first known notable composer, Mikołaj z Radomia (Nicholas of Radom), lived in the 15th century.
During the 16th century, mostly two musical ensembles – both based in Kraków and belonging to the King and the Archbishop of Wawel – led the rapid innovation of Polish music. Composers writing during this period include Wacław z Szamotuł, Mikołaj Zieleński, Nicolaus Cracoviensis, Marcin Leopolita and Mikołaj Gomółka, who composed "Melodies to Polish Psalter". Diomedes Cato, a native-born Italian who lived in Kraków from about the age of five, became one of the most famous lutenists at the court of Sigismund III, and not only imported some of the musical styles from southern Europe, but blended them with native folk music.
Baroque
During the 17th century, Polish composers from this period focused on baroque religious music, concertos for voices, instruments, and basso continuo, a tradition that continued into the 18th century. The most renowned composer of this period is Adam Jarzębski, known for his instrumental works such as Chromatica, Tamburetta, Sentinella, Bentrovata, and Nova Casa. Other composers include Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki, Franciszek Lilius, Bartłomiej Pękiel, Stanisław Sylwester Szarzyński and Marcin Mielczewski. Also, in the last years of the 16th century and the first part of the 17th century, a number of Italian musicians were guests at the royal courts of Sigismund III and Władysław IV. These included Luca Marenzio, Giovanni Francesco Anerio, and Marco Scacchi.
In addition, a tradition of operatic production began in Warsaw in 1628, with a performance of Galatea (composer uncertain), the first Italian opera produced outside Italy. Shortly after this performance, the court produced Francesca Caccini's opera La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina, which she had written for Prince Władysław three years earlier when he was in Italy. Another first, this is the earliest surviving opera written by a woman. When Władysław was king (as Władysław IV) he oversaw the production of at least ten operas during the late 1630s and 1640s, making Warsaw a center of the art. The composers of these operas are not known: they may have been Poles working under Marco Scacchi in the royal chapel, or they may have been among the Italians imported by Władysław.
Composers of the latter part of the 18th century included Maciej Radziwill, whose style has been characterized as being in the galant style.
Classical Feliks Janiewicz, Karol Kurpiński, Jan Stefani, Wojciech Żywny and Franciszek Ścigalski were Polish composers writing in the classical period style characteristic in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The first national opera, Krakowiacy i Górale written by Wojciech Bogusławski and Jan Stefani premiered on 1 March 1794.
Romantic
At the end of the 18th century, Polish classical music evolved into national forms like the Polonaise and Mazurka — perhaps the first distinctively Polish art music. Polonaises for piano were and remain popular, such as those by Jacek Szczurowski, Michał Kleofas Ogiński, Juliusz Zarębski, Henryk Wieniawski, Józef Elsner, and, most famously, Frédéric Chopin. Chopin remains very well known, and is regarded for composing a wide variety of works, including mazurkas, nocturnes, waltzes and concertos, and using traditional Polish elements in his pieces. The same period saw Stanisław Moniuszko, the leading individual in the successful development of Polish opera, still renowned for operas like Halka and The Haunted Manor.
In the 19th century the most popular composers were Maria Agata Szymanowska, Franciszek Lessel, and Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński. Important opera composers were Karol Kurpiński and Stanisław Moniuszko. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries the most prominent composers were Władysław Żeleński and Mieczysław Karłowicz. Karol Szymanowski gained prominence prior to World War II. Józef Koffler was the first Polish twelve-tone composer (dodecaphonist).
Contemporary
Between the wars, a group of new and emerging composers formed the Association of Young Polish Musicians; which included future luminaries Grażyna Bacewicz, Zygmunt Mycielski, Michał Spisak and Tadeusz Szeligowski.;"50 lat Związku Kompozytorów Polskich" [Fifty Years of the Polish Composers' Association] by , Warsaw: Związek Kompozytorów Polskich (1995) ;"Timeline of Warsaw Music Society 1871–2008", Warszawskie Towarzystwo Muszycne (in Polish)
Following World War II and the country becoming a communist system, some composers, such as Roman Palester and Andrzej Panufnik, fled the country and remained in exile. In the early 1960s, a number of Polish composers formed the Polish Composers' School, characterized by the use of sonorism and dodecaphonism. The style emerged from the political crisis in 1956, following Stalin's death. In the same year the Warsaw Autumn music festival was inaugurated, both closely connected. According to conductor Antoni Wit composers were given artistic freedom because the Polish regime wasn't as harsh as other Eastern European dictatorships and music wasn't considered ideologically relevant unlike literature, theater or cinema.Antoni Wit: "Creo que cada vez lo hago un poco mejor" . Scherzo, August–September 2015 Composers from the "Polish School" included Tadeusz Baird, Bogusław Schaeffer, Włodzimierz Kotoński, Witold Szalonek, Krzysztof Penderecki, Witold Lutosławski, Wojciech Kilar, Kazimierz Serocki, Tomasz Sikorski, Zygmunt Krauze and Henryk Mikołaj Górecki.
More modern classical and jazz composers include Krzysztof Meyer, Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, Paweł Szymański, Krzesimir Dębski, Hanna Kulenty, Eugeniusz Knapik, Paweł Łukaszewski, Paweł Mykietyn, Maciej Zieliński, Marcel Chyrzyński, Marta Ptaszynska and Agata Zubel.
Recordings The Polskie Nagrania Muza was the state recording company, from 1956. Following the fall of communism it was bought by Warner Music Poland. It dealt with the wide range of music tastes, folk, popular, classical and children's music.
Traditional folk music
Polish folk music was collected in the 19th century by Oskar Kolberg, as part of a wave of Polish national revival. After World War II, in the Polish People's Republic, folk traditions were commonly cultivated, but public performances and broadcasts had also highly organized and officially promoted forms. State-supported, large-scale folk ensembles became prominent. The most famous of these were Mazowsze and Śląsk, both of which still perform. Though such bands presented interpretations of regional folk repertoire, the overall sound was a homogenized mixture of Polish styles. There were more authentic groups, such as Słowianki, but the sanitized image of folk music made the whole field unattractive to some audiences, and many traditions dwindled rapidly.
Polish dance music, especially the mazurka and polonaise, were popularized by Frédéric Chopin, and they soon spread across Europe and elsewhere. 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 for 'Polish' used to identify its origin among the Polish aristocracy who had adapted 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 the Polish music.
Podhale While folk music lost popularity in Poland, especially in urban areas, the tourist destination of Podhale has retained its lively traditions. The regional capital, Zakopane, has been a center for art since the late 19th century, when people like composer Karol Szymanowski, who discovered Goral folk music there, made the area chic among Europe's intellectuals. Though a part of Poland, Podhale's musical life is more closely related to that found in the Carpathian mountains of Ukraine, Slovakia, Moravia in Czech Republic and Romania.
Local ensembles use string instruments like violins and a cello to play distinctive scales with augumented fourth, mainly the lydian mode and acoustic scale, in Poland called skala podhalańska. The distinctive singing style used in this scale is called lidyzowanie. The lead violin (prym) are accompanied by several second violins (sekund) and a three-stringed cello (basy). Duple-time dances like the krzesany, zbójnicki (the Brigand's Dance) and ozwodna are popular. The ozwodna has a five-bar melodic structure which is quite unusual. The krzesany is an extremely swift dance, while the zbójnicki is well-known and is perceived as being most "typical" of Podhale and Northern Slovakia. Folk songs typically focus on heroes like Juraj Jánošík.Broughton, Simon (2000), "Hanging on in the Highlands". In: Broughton, Simon, and Ellingham, Mark; with McConnachie, James, and Duane, Orla (ed.), World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books, pp. 219–222.
Other regions Outside of Podhale, other regions have folk scenes, in Kraków, for example, through the Dom Tanca movement, though they are lesser known. There are also music festivals, such as the Kazimierz Festival, which are well-known and popular. Regional folk bands include Gienek Wilczek Band (Bukowina), Tadeusz Jedynak Band (Przystalowice Male), Stachy Band (Hazców nad Wislokiem), Franciszek Gola Band (Kadzidło), Edward Markocki Band (Zmyslówka-Podlesie), Kazimierz Kantor Band (Głowaczowa), Swarni Band (Nowy Targ), Kazimierz Meto Band (Glina), Ludwik Młynarczyk Band (Lipnica), Kujawska Atlantyda (Kujawy) and Trebunie-Tutki.
Contemporary popular music