Basy ludowe w Polsce – stan badań, próby rekonstrukcji, zbiory w polskich muzeach, analiza składów kapel

This article focuses on wide range of issues related to the traditional Polish musical instrument – „basy ludowe” (folk basses). One of the aims is an attempt to systematize information with an instrumentological profile in the literature about Polish „basy ludowe”. Another goal of the work is an attempt to juxtapose and describe the „basy ludowe” in the collections of five Polish museums. The next goal was to analyze three reconstructed instruments, made as part of the Polish program of the Institute of Music and Dance “Szkoła mistrzów budowy instrumentów ludowych” (School of masters of building folk instruments). The last and main goal of the article was to analyze 3,729 recordings with bass in terms of instrumental configurations in which bass appeared in Polish folk music, regions where this instrument performed and the personalities of bassists from Poland, whose music has been phonographically documented. The most original, peculiar instrumental configurations in which „basy ludowe” appeared, or still occur, were also distinguished.