![40 Polish Folksongs for piano, Op. 6 [5] (1925) / 5 Folk Songs for soprano (tenor) and piano, Op. 6a (1934)](/upload/thumb/2024/09/40-piesni-ludowych_01_auto_1800x900.jpg)
40 Polish Folksongs for piano, Op. 6 [5] (1925) / 5 Folk Songs for soprano (tenor) and piano, Op. 6a (1934)
40 Polish Folksongs for piano, Op. 6
Dedication: No. 29 - „Dla Róży R.” [For Róża R.]
Manuscript: Unknown
Publication: "40 Polish Folk Songs." Józef Koffler. Published and owned by Anton J. Benjamin, Leipzig-Milano. Copyright 1926. A.J.B. 8390. 39 pages
Premiere: No data available
Contents: God Save Poland [Boże coś Polskę]; Poland Is Not Yet Lost [Jeszcze Polska]; With the Smoke of Fires [Z dymem pożarów]; In the Stillness of Night [Wśród nocnej ciszy]; God Is Being Born [Bóg się rodzi]; Lullaby, Little Jesus (Lulajże Jezuniu); News Has Come to Us [Stała się nam nowina]; Oh, Rock, Cradle, Rock [Oj! Kołyszże się kołysz]; You Had a Golden Horn, Peasant [Miałeś chłopie złoty róg]; Maciek Died, He Died [Umarł Maciek, umarł]; What's This Commotion? [Co to za gwar?]; Grey Goose [Siwa gąska];I Abandon My Cottage [Rzucam chatę]; Green Maple Stands [Stoi jawor zielony]; Let's Go Hunting [Pojedziemy na łów]; Oh My Rosemary [O mój rozmarynie]; Hey, In Yonder Field [Hej tam w polu]; The Soldier Goes [Idzie żołnierz]; Oh! Janicek Goes [Oj! Idzie se Janicek]; Mother Ordered Me [Przykazali mi matula]; I Sowed Millet [Siałem proso]; Mother, My Mother [Matuś moja matuś]; The Moon Is Shining [Świeci miesiączek]; When Spring Comes [A jak będzie wiosna]; The Winds Are Blowing [Wieją wiatry]; Which Way, Johnny? [Którędy Jasiu?]; Compare, Oh God [Porównaj Boże]; Close by My Garden [Koło mego ogródeczka]; You'll Go by the Hill [Ty pójdziesz górą]; Hey Now! Forest Violet! [Hejże ino! Fiołecku leśny!]; Already Tonight Is the Last Night [Już dziś ostatnią nockę]; He Lived Here Years Ago [Żył tu przed laty]; Horseshoes, Give Fire! [Podkóweczki dajcie ognia]; Wait, Hanka [Poczekaj Hanka]; Black Hen [Czarna kura]; A Woman Had a Rooster [Miała baba koguta]; I'm a Cracovian[Krakowiaczek ci ja]; Don't Go, Mary [Nie chodź Marysiu]; Are We Just Anybody [Albośmy to jacy tacy]; Jamie Drinks to James [Pije Kuba]
5 Folk Songs for soprano (tenor) and piano, Op. 6a
Movements: Kołysanka [Lullaby], Wojna [War], Miesiączek [The Little Moon], Wieją wiatry [Winds are Blowing], Fiołeczek [The Violet]
First press mention of performance: Vienna, 31 March 1935, Lola Urbach – voice (Der Wiener Tag 1935, no. 4236)
(Muzyk Wojskowy 3 (1927)), this collection occupies a special place in Koffler’s output as the first composition to have won a lasting place in his personal catalogue and the last one he wrote before embracing dodecaphony as an artistic technique. The collection fits into the folkloric-national trend characteristic of Poland’s interwar music. The cycle is based on selected popular traditional songs of varied provenance and on various themes. All of Koffler’s settings may be performed with voice (with text aligned above the piano part) or as purely instrumental miniatures.
drawing inspirations from Debussy’s impressionism, Bartók’s folklorism, and Prokofiev’s vitalism, among others. Koffler was convinced that every folk tune ‘is a living organism that generates its own harmony, counterpoint, texture, voice leading, type of sound and timbre’ (‘Drei Begengungen’, in Arnold Schönberg’s sixtieth birthday memorial book). He therefore drew such musical conclusions from the melodies of carols (such as ‘God Is Being Born’), old ritual songs (e.g. ‘Close by My Garden’), and folk dances (e.g. ‘A Woman Had a Rooster’). His arrangements use the full spectrum of musical means, from simple diatonic and tonal to modality (‘Oh! Janicek Goes’), whole-tone scale (‘I Abandon My Cottage’), and sharp dissonances (‘Hey, In Yonder Field’).
In his discussion of Koffler’s setting of ‘Oh, Rock, Cradle, Rock’, Jerzy Freiheiter even suggests that in this song ‘harmonies do not result […] from a functional interpretation of the notes of the melody, but from sounding those notes simultaneously’ (J. Freiheiter, ‘Reports on Contemporary Polish Musical Literature’, Muzyka Polska 6 (1935), 140), which foreshadows the twelve-note technique.
Koffler did not view this collection as an integral whole. He himself selected some pieces for concert performance. For instance, Ernst Křenek’s contemporary music concert series (‘Österreichische Studio’, Vienna 1935) included a programme featuring Koffler’s own cycle of five folksongs arranged for soprano and piano (‘Lullaby’, ‘War’, ‘Winds Are Blowing’, ‘The Moon’, ‘The Violet’). They were sung by Lola Urbach, with most likely Křenek himself as accompanist.
This collection was designated as Op. 6a in Koffler's list of works from 1935.