Chopin's songs constitute an outstanding and unique
phenomenon in the history of Polish music. When they were composed, no
other existed to be compared to, although a lot of songs were composed
by many composers at that time (...) . That rich heritage was a living
tradition for Chopin, aside from popular songs (e.g. Laura and Filon,
or There on the Meadow) and authentic folk songs, especially loved by
Chopin. "Chopin's Songs," in the opinion of Mieczysław Tomaszewski
"bring a synthesis of those three streams of the Polish songs. They are
uniquely diverse in genres and forms, character and expression, and
each of them establishes an unwritten model for the newly created
Romantic Song. And "(...) had they been published earlier than
Moniuszko's compositions," concludes Zdzisław Jachimecki," they would
have been dubbed an epoch-making phenomenon in that field of the Polish
music."
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