Twenty Polish Christmas Carols

Traditional Polish melodies with English translations. An acclaimed and refreshing addition to Christmas repertoire for solo soprano and female unison voices.

The melodic material for the '20 Carols' comes from three 19th century colections of traditional Polish carols: the Spiewnik Koscielny (Church Songbook) and Pastoralki i koledy z melodiami (Christmas songs and carols with melodies), both by Father Michael Martin Mioduszewski (1787 - 1868) and Ludzie (The People), by Oscar Kolberg (1814 - 90). Almost all the carols chosen from these collections by Lutoslawski are well-known, popular ones in Poland, although some are regional variations of the standard, traditional carols.

One of the carols, Lulajze, Jezuniu (Lullaby, Jesus), is that from which Chopin used fragments in his 'Scherzo in B minor'; and like Chopin, who wove the carol melody into a much larger form, Lutoslawski succeeds in producing a highly original work, by combining the simple folk melodies with his own, unmistakeably 20th century, technique and style of harmonisation.

The '20 Carols', in fact, come from a period in Lutoslawski's career when he was making frequent use of folk melodies in his music; prior to the '20 Carols' in 1945, he had composed a set of easy piano pieces based on Polish folk songs and dances, and the culmination of his work in this idiom during that period was the Concerto for Orchestra (1950 - 54).