The primary purpose of this study is to address performance issues in the Polish Fantasy, Op. 19, by examining characteristics of Polish folk dances and how they are incorporated in this unique work by Paderewski. The study includes a comprehensive history of the fantasy in order to understand how Paderewski used various codified generic aspects of the solo piano fantasy, as well as those of the one-movement concerto introduced by nineteenth-century composers such as Weber and Liszt. Given that the Polish Fantasy, Op. 19, as well as most of Paderewski's compositions, have been performed more frequently in the last twenty years, an analysis of the combination of the three characteristic aspects of the Polish Fantasy, Op.19 - Polish folk music, the generic rhetoric of a fantasy and the one-movement concerto - would aid scholars and performers alike in better understanding the composition's engagement with various traditions and how best to make decisions about those traditions when approaching the work in a concert setting. Chapter 1 provides biographical and factographical information about Paderewski as a composer, pianist, and statesman. Chapter 2 examines characteristics of Polish folk music with regard to melody, rhythm and tempo. Musical examples of the Polish folk songs from the book Lud by Oskar Kolberg, and the characteristics of Mazur, Kujawiak, Oberek and the Krakowiak, all of which are used in the Polish Fantasy, are examined. Aforementioned examples are paralleled by those selected from Chopin's Mazurkas, as well as selected sections from Paderewski's Polish Fantasy, and other pieces by Paderewski containing Polish folk music elements. Chapter 3 is divided into two sections. The first, the history of fantasy, presents various stylistic and formal aspects of the fantasies of the eighteenth century and nineteenth centuries. The second section offers an analysis of the Polish Fantasy in light of this history, and considers how Paderewski combined fantasy elements used by composers of earlier times with his own compositional technique style. Chapter 4 discusses performance issues including pedaling, tempo rubato, and composer's own fingering. Chapter 5 provides a summary and conclusion of the study.

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