Dancing couples spin, whirl and pirouette on their heels transported by the lively tempo of traditional Polish folk dances brought to life on rustic instruments, some plucked straight out of the Middle Ages.
The spirited rhythms of dances like mazurkas, obereks or owijoks played at a popular annual folk music festival in the Polish capital, Warsaw, emerge from the belly of the kalisz bass.
The distant cousin of Renaissance and Baroque-era bass viols, it was made by peasants living near the eponymous small central town until the early 20th century and then all but forgotten.
Photo: AFP
Musician and instrument-maker Mateusz Raszewski is reviving the art of designing, building, stringing and playing this unique bass, traditionally carved by hand out of a single block of softwood like poplar or willow.
Its design was “only officially documented in the 1950s and it exists only in a small region near the river Prosna,” the bearded 38-year-old, dressed in a thick flannel shirt and leather apron, told reporters in his workshop in the village of Kaminsko, just north of the western Polish city of Poznan.
It is reminiscent of a cello, but with a shorter, thick neck and just two, or sometimes three, strings. One foot of its bridge pierces its front panel to act as a sound post sending vibrations to the back panel of the sound box.
“This is a very old design that one finds in the Welsh crwth,” Raszewski said, referring to an archaic type of bowed lyre, a string instrument, popular in medieval Europe.
“God only knows how these Kalisz peasants managed to find this design,” he added.
Each instrument was unique, depending on the technical know-how, materials and tools available to the peasants.
“Some used a candle to cast a shadow of a bass on the wall so they could copy its design,” Raszewski told reporters.
Raszewski uses axes, saws and chisels similar to those that would have been used centuries ago.
He also uses metal nails to build the basses, saying that this would be “unthinkable to modern luthiers” who use pegs and glue.
“Its sound is raw, hoarse, dull. It provides the bass line and rhythm on which the violinist plays his melody,” Raszewski said of the kalisz bass.
“It’s just like in the forest: We hear the hornets’ drone and the song of a blackbird perched high on a tree,” he added.
Raszewski learnt by coincidence a decade ago that his grandfather had been a luthier in Poznan, but the Nazis forced him out of business during World War II after they found out he worked with Jews.
The discovery encouraged Raszewski, who already made guitars, typical folk fiddles and various types of folk drums, to add another string to his bow.
He decided to develop his skills by researching old folk instruments in museums, archives, attics and by meeting elderly musicians.
“I met an old musician playing the kalisz bass after first finding him on a photo from the 1950s — nobody was interested in what he had been doing for over 50 years,” Raszewski said.
According to Katarzyna Zedel, an expert at the Szydlowiec Museum of Traditional Instruments in central Poland, the kalisz bass was forgotten when accordions arrived on the scene in the late 19th century.
“This old world no longer exists,” she said.
War and politics have also taken their toll, destroying cultural artifacts, communities, customs and local know-how.
The advent of electricity, the radio and rock ‘n’ roll also undermined folk culture, while Poland’s Communist party distorted it for propaganda purposes before the regime fell in 1989.
“Peasants were dressed up in costumes that they had never worn at home and were told what to sing and how to dance.
“Some of the costumes were beautiful, but nobody identified with them,” said Piotr Piszczatowski, a musician and leading commentator on Polish popular culture.
Authentic folk culture was regarded as “representing a backward society that was no longer wanted: poor, without electricity, without toilets, shameful,” he said.
A revival began about 30 years ago when followers of celebrated Polish theater director Jerzy Grotowski — who developed an eclectic theatrical style that included a wide range of vocal expression including folk songs — discovered elderly musicians near Warsaw who were still playing authentic folk music.
“It was a last chance” to preserve an art form with deep cultural, historic and artistic value, Piszczatowski said.
“Some experts believe that mazurkas were dances created by peasant serfs — wild, simple, primitive and energetic tunes,” he said.
The revival has gained steam in recent years, with rural folk dance halls springing up and the annual “All Mazurkas of the World” folk music festival in Warsaw drawing ever greater numbers of both young and old.
An American scientist convicted of lying to US authorities about payments from China while he was at Harvard University has rebuilt his research lab in Shenzhen, China, to pursue technology the Chinese government has identified as a national priority: embedding electronics into the human brain. Charles Lieber, 67, is among the world’s leading researchers in brain-computer interfaces. The technology has shown promise in treating conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and restoring movement in paralyzed people. It also has potential military applications: Scientists at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army have investigated brain interfaces as a way to engineer super soldiers by boosting
PHILIPPINE COMMITTEE: The head of the committee that made the decision said: ‘If there is nothing to hide, there is no reason to hide, there is no reason to obstruct’ A Philippine congressional committee on Wednesday ruled that there was “probable cause” to impeach Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte after hearing allegations of unexplained wealth, misuse of state funds and threats to have the president assassinated. The unanimous decision of the 53-member committee in the Philippine House of Representatives sends the two impeachment complaints to deliberations and voting by the entire lower chamber, which has more than 300 lawmakers. The complaints centered on Duterte’s alleged illegal use and mishandling of intelligence funds from the vice president’s office, and from her time as education secretary under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Duterte and the
Jailed media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai (黎智英) has been awarded Deutsche Welle’s (DW) freedom of speech award for his contribution to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. The German public broadcaster on Thursday said Lai would be presented in absentia with the 12th iteration of the award on June 23 at the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn. Deutsche Welle director-general Barbara Massing praised the 78-year-old founder of the now-shuttered news outlet Apple Daily for standing “unwaveringly for press freedom in Hong Kong at great personal risk.” “With Apple Daily, he gave journalists a platform for free reporting and a voice to the democracy movement in
As evening falls in Fiji’s capital, a steady stream of people approaches a makeshift clinic that is a first line of defense against one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics. In the South Pacific nation — a popular tourist destination of just under a million people — more than 2,000 new HIV cases were recorded last year, a 26 percent increase from 2024. The government has declared an HIV outbreak and described it as a national crisis. “It’s spreading like wildfire,” said Siteri Dinawai, 46, who came to be tested. The Moonlight Clinic, a converted minibus parked in a suburban cul-de-sac in Suva, is
RSS