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No. 21 B-flat major
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No. 22 G minor
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No. 23 F major
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No. 24 D minor
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The mysterious Preludes (published in 1839) are a set of 24 miniatures which contrary to what the name implies are not an introduction to any other composition. What they are is a vault of ingenuity balanced between lyricism and tragic drama. In this work Chopin achieved the highest possible condensation of expression: each of the Preludes, in some cases only several bars long, portrays more and tells more than many great symphonies.
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“What is music? An expression of thought. What is music? An expression of feelings. What is music? An expression of impressions” – this way Chopin began his unfinished piano book. Chopin’s music tells a story, it is a narrative of thoughts, feelings and impressions. The four Ballads are a direct embodiment of this idea (No. 1, published in 1836); they owe their name to fantastic ballads by Romantic poets. The essence here is to involve listeners in the story which the pianist needs to recite or sing, rather than play.
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Two sets of Chopin’s Etudes (op. 10, published in 1833 and op. 25, published in 1837) with which piano music took a new, Romantic course. Chopin found the means to express extreme emotions by portraying them with new shades and captivating virtuosity. At the same time each piece contains a purely technical difficulty: spinning disturbing chromatisms the G-sharp minor Etude is an exercise in pronounced but light and melodious play of thirds.
No. 12 C minor
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Etudes, musical pieces designed for developing particular finger skills, thanks to Chopin became individual musical drama pieces: small in size but grand in expression. Both sets end in mighty pieces: the first with what is known as The Revolutionary Etude, the latter with C minor Etude in which the masses of sounds roll over as waves of a stormy ocean.
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Krakow represents great history, great monuments but also great industry which itself became a monument of past times. Communism left behind it a gigantic steel mill, with Nowa Huta, ideal city of the era, today constituting the other part of Krakow, which grew next to it. A wheel once set in motion never stops, the steel mill through modernising entered the new millennium.
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The light of kerosene lamp. Soundless fire, delicate, controlled, bright. Today it is hard to remember, but its light witnessed the lives of a few generations. Malopolska is its… cradle. It was here that Ignacy Łukasiewicz, future constructor of the lamp, at the end of 1852 and beginning of 1853, distilled kerosene for the first time, using local oil deposits and at the same time started the greatest industry, fundamental to the contemporary world. Today Poland produces minimum amounts of oil, but the pumps are still there, standing in the fields of Malopolska. It all started here.
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Belgians know best that beer is a ritual. Monks of the Malopolska Szczyrzyc know that too, having produced beer since the 13th c.; so do the dwellers of Brzesko, where a pleasant scent of malt can be smelled around the old brewery of Okocim, one of the best in Poland. This ritual means also the sound of de-bunging, prelude to beer-lovers’ delight, the sound of air sucked into the barrel and eventually, the sound of pouring beer. Malopolska invites you. With or without the froth?
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There is no greater hit: everyone in Poland knows this tune, for dozens of years it has been played on the radio, and every hour it can be heard over the Krakow Market Square: the bugler plays it to the four corners of the world from the tower top of St Mary’s Church, the city’s representative temple. The tune of St Mary’s bugle call breaks off abruptly: legend has it that during the Tartar invasion of the city, in the early Middle Ages, when a watchman played the bugle to warn the city of imminent danger, a Tartar arrow pierced his throat half-note.
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From the Alps to the north slopes of Carpathian Mountains the sound of trombita can be heard wherever shepherds spend months with their flocks in high mountains. It is an unusual instrument: a hard to play, few meters long pipe (still, the Beskidy highlanders know haw to do it!). However its prolonged, low tone could be heard for centuries in the mountains informing fellow-shepherds of each flock’s whereabouts. As we can hear, trombita did not disappear from the mountains after mobile phones were introduced.
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Trains of Gypsy wagons have roamed Poland since the Middle Ages. Officially, their main occupation in the south of Poland was smithery and music. Vita brevis, ars longa: most of the Roma people have been compelled to settle, smithery sank into oblivion, but the music still remains the community’s living culture and pride. Today, when Gypsies are once again able to travel their endless routes, their music can be heard everywhere. And even though the violin is no longer popular in musicians’ hands, its wistful sound and frantic virtuosity conveys the archetypal soul of a Gypsy lifestyle.
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Although the Krakow district of Kazimierz, for centuries a separate Jewish town, reigns over all places related with Jews, Malopolska abounds in former sztetlech, some of which, like Bobowa, due to their schools, synagogues and eminent members of the Chassidic movement, forever remain part of history of Jewish culture and religiousness. Music is the most popular part of this culture today, as it speaks to everyone, regardless of their knowledge of Jews. The clarinet is one of its most traditional instruments; however, contemporary Jewish music takes on various sound forms, such as jazz and even rock. Kazimierz, a fantastic district full of bars and colourful tenements, is again its European capital. Once again we can meet Chassids with their black coats, hats and sidelocks (even if just visiting, they feel at home here); tourists also wear yarmulkes which they forgot to take off after leaving one of the synagogues, and crowds of multi-lingual guests enjoy themselves most by listening to the sounds of klezmer music.
