ABSTRACT
A large lowland region of thick forests and fertile soil, Poland is bounded in the south by the Carpathian Mountains and in the north by the Baltic Sea. Some 40 million people, of whom 98 percent are Poles, inhabit its 312,000 square kilometers. Poland's history and geography have combined to yield five major cultural and musical regions. Three of which preserve the names of the Slavic tribes who settled there: Pomorze in the north, Mazowsze in the center and northeast, Malopolska with the Carpathian area in the south and southeast, Wielkopolska in the west, and Silesia in the southwest. Ensemble playing in Poland has been dominated by bowed stringed instruments. Traditionally, the most important melodic instrument was a fiddle, popular all over the country. As a rule, Polish folk-instrumental music is dance music. In the Middle Ages, folk songs penetrated religious repertoires, however, and religious songs, in turn, exist today as one of the most important folk genres.
