The Complete Works vol. 83/1-2: The Przemyśł Region. The supplement to volume 35 of CWOK. Collected from the manuscripts and printed sources and edited by E. Miller, musicological editing M. Prochaska. Poznań 2011, pp. C+440+552, illustrations.

Published under the scientific auspices of the Polish Academy of Sciences financed by the  Minister of Science and Higher Education and the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.

This is the two-volume supplement to the Przemyśl monograph published in 1891.

It was published by the eminent anthropologist and folklorist, Izydor Kopernicki, one year after Kolberg’s death. Kopernicki was a friend of Kolberg and the executor of his last will and testament. This supplementary volume contains new folkloric material that was excluded by Kopernicki, as well as commentaries to texts and melodies from the 19th century monograph which allows a reader to appropriately interpret and use the sources, and reconstruct the editing method of Kolberg.

As a result the whole material related to the region of Przemyśl is presented. It illustrates the characteristics of the Ukrainian-Polish borderland, where the two languages, religions and cultures meet. Kolberg’s notes from this region are unique taking into account the fact that he documented the coexistence of the two cultures in many aspects. Moreover, the material comes from the direct field research in the Przemyśl region, during which, Kolberg noted by ear not only texts, but also the melodies (no other researcher was able to do that in his day).

The main part of volume 83 includes most of all songs related to annual celebrations, weeding song and universal song (439 texts with 268 melodies; texts in Russian, Polish and mixed languages were written down in the original form i.e. including the dialectical changes), dances and melodies without texts (210 melodies, ordered according to musical criteria), the Kolberg’s translation of paper by J. Łoziński ‘Ruskoje wesile’ [Russian weeding], published in 1835 in Przemyśl. This text is a valuable document of the early research of Russian wedding celebrations and the continuity of tradition.

The rest of the volume includes fairy tales, language material (words, onomastic etc.), and an introduction to an ethnographical description of people and their beliefs, as well as commentaries to volume 35. The introduction to this part discusses Kolberg’s research in the Przemyśl region, his publishing plans, methods of collecting material, the origin of sources, the way of their edition etc.

The material presented in volume 83 shows details of this region valuable for folklorists. Very complicated history of this region demands the consolidation of this legacy.