Track 16: Karol Namyslowski's "Wloscianska " Orchestra
Tracks 17-20: Tadeusz Wesolowski's Accordions Ensemble
Recorded:
1963-1975, archival recordings from Polskie Nagrania's archives
About:
Kujawiak is a Polish dance from the region of Kujawy after which it is named (the region is in central Poland, on the Mazovian plains). The name itself appeared for the first time in 1827, in a text by T. F. Jaskólski (Pasterze na Bachorzy. Sielanki Kujawskie [Shepherds in Bachorz: Pastorals from Kujawy]. According to Ada Dziewanowska's description (in Polish Folk Dances and Songs) the kujawiak was originally danced with a calm dignity and simplicity, in a smooth flowing manner "reminiscent of the tall grain stalks in the fields swaying gently in the wind." The couples were spinning around the circle in a seemingly endless rotation. There were no vigorous stamps and no drastic changes of tempo. This style was passed on from generation to generation. There was no special schooling: children and young people would watch during parties and festive occasions and then try it on the side. While discussing the dance's history, Dziewanowska states that because of its beauty the kujawiak was embraced by the landed gentry and the nobility. Fascinated with the music, they collected and published kujawiak melodies. In order to learn the dance, the landowners invited the village musicians and dancers to their manors. They encouraged the peasants to show them fancier steps and figures. They themselves also improvised new figures or new ways of dancing the traditional steps; some of these improvisations were in turn adopted by the village dancers. As a result of this interchange, the kujawiak, in a polished but not completely changed form, was incorporated at elegant parties and fancy balls.
From Kujawy the dance was taken to similar festive occasions in Warsaw and other big cities. From there it spread all over Poland, where it underwent various transformations as, for instance, a tempo alternating from slow to fast and back to slow, show-off steps for men, new figures, etc.
According to Roderyk Lange (1966), the kujawiak exists in two forms: as a regional folk dance including many varieties, and as the unified "national dance," (one of the five so-called "national dances of Poland" with polonaise, krakowiak, oberek,and mazur). Both variants include rotations of couples which shift around a large circle of the dance space. The folk versions are notably faster than the national version, they are also more complicated, with a greater variety and difficulty of steps.
Folk music from the Kujawy area is predominantly in triple meter. The second part of each measure is frequently extended and accented; moreover, the performers often extend (or less frequently, shorten) whole measures of the melody. As a result, a folk version of the flexible tempo rubato emerges. In fact, it is this variety of the tempo rubato that has been linked to a similar phenomenon in the piano music of Fryderyk Chopin, especially his Mazurkas.
