The Complete Works vol. 12: The Grand Duchy of Poznań part 4. Wrocław – Poznań 1963, pp. VIII+334. Photo-offset re-edition; first edition: Cracow 1879.

The fourth part of the regional monograph contains exclusively the folk songs of the region of Great Poland, divided by Kolberg into 16 thematic sections. Most of the 617 songs have a melody so that the volume is an invaluable documentation of folk-music of this region. Part of the material comes from Kolberg’s own notes, some songs were sent in by his correspondents, and a number of them were taken from printed sources, mainly from Lipiński’s collection of 130 songs. From this work Kolberg incorporated 83 songs, in some cases taking the melodies supplied by Lipiński; in other cases providing different melodies and places of origin probably recorded by Kolberg during his field work. The songs collected in the book received a commentary, characteristic to Kolberg’s method, in the form of references. In some cases they refer to the source (Lipiński, ‘Przyjaciel Ludu’ [Friend of the People]), but most often they indicate variations in text and melody. Sometimes, however, they point to minor and incidental convergences or similarities in situation and motif.