‘Stil Polonaise’ comprises popular 18th-century Polish dances by Johann Heinrich Dahlhoff, performed by Orkiestra Czasow Zarazy. The dances were uncovered and recorded by a Swedish folklorist, Niels Dencker, in the beginning of 20th century.

J.H. Dahlhoff’s collection is by far the biggest compilation of 18th-century popular dance music in German-speaking countries. Johann Heinrich Dahlhoff (1704-1764) was himself a village musician, most probably a fiddler, from a village of Dniker, Westphalia, where he served as a churchwarden in an Evangelical church. Amongst his duties, he oversaw the provision of entertainment for local gatherings, which were usually dance parties, for which he picked and performed suitable repertoire. During the course of his long employment, a collection was born consisting of a couple of thousand dance melodies, which were later written down by his son, Johann Dietrich. A complete set comprising 10 volumes (over 1400 pages) is kept in Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin.

Polonaises from Dahlhoff’s collection were copied by Niels Dencker (1887-1963), a Swedish folklorist and teacher at Asa folkhogskola in Skoldinge. In his research, he worked mainly on traditional music and made extensive recordings of folk musicians. Dencker, aware of the Polish roots of Swedish traditional music, undertook an extensive research of the music archives on the historical territory of Rzeczpospolita and her fiefdoms like Livonia, Gdansk, Prussia Duchy, Pomerania or Mecklenburg in 1931-32. Dencker’s manuscript Ms 4023 is the biggest collection of Polish dances from first half of the 18th century from the lands of Rzeczpospolita.

Tracklisting:
1. J.H. Dahlhoff - 79 Polonoise nach Blitz, 43 Polonoise, 45 Polonoise Tantz
2. Ms 4023 from Gdansk - Tanic 124, Tanic 64
3. Ms 4023 - Tanic 128, Tanic 102
4. Ms 4023 - Tanic 153, Tanic 123, Tanic 105
5. Ms 4023 - Tanic 45, Tanic 108
6. Ms 4023 - Tanic 134, Tanic 119
7. Ms 4023 - Tanic 122
8. Ms 4023 - Tanic 103, Tanic 132
9. Ms 4023 - Tanic 120, Tanic 88
10. Ms 4023 - Tanic 97, Tanic 126
11. Ms 4023 - Tanic 121, Tanic 127
12. J.H. Dahlhoff - 66 Polonaise, 102 Polonaise, 126 Polonaise