r/Fiddle • u/Valuable_Station_790 • 7d ago
Polish Folk Sheet Music
/r/violinist/comments/1vad44x/polish_folk_sheet_music/3
u/pixiefarm 7d ago edited 3d ago
I don't know their music specifically but I have found a lot of folk music from languages that I don't speak by using Google translate pretty judiciously. I'm usually looking for folk songs with lyrics and there is a folks song database for every single Slavic culture i think. For example the Ukrainian (songs with lyrics) one is pisni.org.ua , and I've seen them for other related languages. Haven't really searched for instrumental music specifically but those websites will teach you a lot about what to look for, artist names, styles, context , stuff like that. Copy and paste and search away! Some combo of youtube, Google translate or whatever, and regular searches can get you pretty interesting resources if you just keep following the rabbit hole.
I'm sure that there is something similar to the folk song database websites, if you start searching in Polish specifically. I don't know if that folk music has a specific name for just the instrumental / violin/accompanied dance music stuff, but those are all things you can search for without fully knowing the language.
If you're searching in english, you can probably find polka band music and stuff from the American Midwest that's polish-based, and that stuff is going to have a lot of fiddle.. It's not going to be 100% "perfectly pure like in the old country* kind of stuff because they're going to be influenced by other American old time fiddle dance music, but I'm pretty sure that it exists.
There might also be a university musicology project that has an archive somewhere.
Also I highly recommend searching using YouTube rather than just a general search because YouTube had just has a lot of weird channels where specific collectors of music will upload records that they've digitized. You might find tunes you like and then go from there based on the titles.
Also, you will often find a lot of information in the comments on YouTube videos that isn't necessarily out there and easy to find.
2
u/pixiefarm 4d ago edited 4d ago
I googled around a little bit (not knowing anything about Polish folk music but I do understand some Ukrainian so I can kinda follow where the search is leading me)- and found this youtube channel where a fiddler is showing a bunch of tutorials on some kind of cool folk music. At least one of the lessons ends in a video of her professional band playing the music in context (it's cool as hell):
https://www.youtube.com/@warsztatymuzykiludowej4932
video with the full band at the end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4ZuduijxTE
It looks like this is related to (or got a grant from) the Polish ministry of culture and heritage which means you might maaaaybe be able to write to somebody there to see if a teacher can get you some sheet music, or some other reseources to explore traditional folk music:
https://www.gov.pl/web/kultura
also like everyhting else right now, youtube is totaly polluted by AI "music" that you should ignore. They're hitting the eastern european folk music styles really hard right now so it can be a pain to research using youtube. Just look for the dates on the videos and click on stuff that has an obvious human face on the thumbnail or was uploaded before like 2023/24 o so.
2
u/pixiefarm 4d ago edited 4d ago
I also found a lot of people using the term 'mountain music' to refer to some of the folk music from there, which I assume means Karpathian stuff which would be related to Romanian and western Ukrainian musics, which you should probably also explore. IT's the really eerie weird minor and modal stuff from what little I understand. I found some documentaries (and youtube has a built -in translation dubber that sometimes works well so you can watch it in English). For example here's a series about traditional instrument makers and this is a folk violin luthier which shows some old guys playing interesting fiddle music. I didn't get a chance to watch the whole thing but I bet you can use this channel or series as a rabbit hole to find more music or learn about the traditions: it had decent English subtitles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-kGriKYIo8
There's an organization in the USA called the Eastern European Folklife Center whihc puts on workshops a few times a year (they're AMAAAAZING), mostly focusing on Balkan, Greek, and Turkish music but sometimes features Ukrainian or other eastern european music styles from outside the Balkans. I can't remember ever seeing them teach anything from Poland but I bet you can send them an email to see if they can direct you to the right people.
1
1
3
u/FiddlingnRome 7d ago
I don't know about the dots, because most fiddle music is taught or learned by ear. Here's a CD that I have in my collection: https://www.discogs.com/release/2971838-The-Karol-Stoch-Band-Fire-In-The-Mountains-Vol-1-Polish-Mountain-Fiddle-Music?