EN
The year 2009 sees the centenary of the birth of Józef Majchrzak (1909-1985), Polish folklorist, musicologist and radio editor who worked for Polish Radio Wroclaw. His research involved recording and investigating the music folklore of the indigenous Polish population inhabiting the north-eastern region of Lower Silesia. The article describes the main features of the collection of recordings made during the 1950s. These are phonographic field recordings and radio broadcasts with musical folklore in crudo. The field phonograms, which document the songs and verbal folklore, are probably the last recordings of the Lower Silesian variants of Polish Silesian dialects, while the radio programmes present vocal-instrumental music performed by folk ensembles made up of family members or families and neighbours. The article also provides a context of the historical, political and social conditions which influenced the content and shape of the recordings; these include the history of the indigenous Polish population in Lower Silesia during the twentieth century, a profile of the author of the recordings, and an analysis of the cultural policy in Poland during the 1950s. The phonograms presented here were previously unknown either to the musicological community or the radio community, yet they represent an interesting source for research as well as testifying to the period during which they were created.