• Duration: 7'
• Instrumentation: 2121-2210-batt-archi
• Year: 1956
• Type: parts, score

In one of the feuilletons appearing in the Tygodnik Powszechny Stefan Kisielewski confessed that before the war he used to be fascinated with the poetry of Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński. There are such various treasures: lyricism and irony, a pamphlet, impiety, but also bright, concise diagnosis, brilliant virtuosity and a healthy dose of history and politics mixed together. After the war both artists found a common roof in a famous apartment house of writers and poets in the 22 Krupnicza Street in Kraków. The relationships between the neighbours were varied, but it was then that Stefan Kisielewski composed 12 songs to the words written by the author of Zielona Gęś. In 1959 he created songs to the two final poems of the Zaczarowana dorożka cycle. Earlier, in 1956, the composer had worked on the music to the ballet Niedziela nad Wisłą. Little is known about that ballet and it is difficult to determine whether it was inspired by a poem under the same title, written by Gałczyński. The Polka is the only extant part of the ballet and its musical content can point to the source of inspiration. The composition might as well be called Polka cyrkowa (circus polka) but such a title had already been usedThe music of this 5-minute composition, in an exceptionally vivid manner, evokes images similar to those from Wiechs feuilletons through the cheerful first theme taken over by various instruments, the march-like secondary theme bringing to mind a marching fireman orchestra, some sonic subterfuge and finally the return of both themes in the reprise after a section full of developmental adventures. A musical joke, but created with such a mastery!