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Mazurka

Cool but I’m getting seasick!
 
My "guru" for mazurkas and valzers is Gaetano Galbato. Find him on UTube. He's not mechanical like this oriental guy
 
My grandfather came from Poland and played accordion in a Polish orchestra/band. I have some of his old sheet music and came across a few mazurkas and mazurs. So that's kind of what I was looking for on youtube. I seems that the original mazurkas have morphed into other styles like classical (Chopin) and others as well.

The mazurka is a Polish musical form based on stylised folk dances in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, with character defined mostly by the prominent mazur's "strong accents unsystematically placed on the second or third beat". Wikipedia
 
GeorgeH76 said:
I have some of his old sheet music and came across a few mazurkas and mazurs. So that's kind of what I was looking for on youtube.
Click to expand...
Mazur, folks:🙂

And Mazurka:🙂

Mazurka on accordion:🙂

Last, a historic example as played by Pietro Deiro c. 1931:🙂
 
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Thanks to all for the interesting material regarding Mazurkas!
I found a nice sounding polish style mazurka in my grandfathers sheet music. The arrangement was probably published in the 1930's
I am working on it with a tempo of 120 bpm and will put it on YouTube. Should be interesting as there aren't too many Polish style Mazurkas out there.
 
An off-shoot, development of or associate of the ‘mazurka’ is believed to be ‘La Varsoviana’. This dance, in halting 3/4 time, is probably better known, in the UK/Scotland at least, as ‘La Va’. My grandparents generation, born c. 1900, spoke of it and one played his version on his fiddle. He played by ear and I recorded it and transcribed it to paper. In a dance band playing career of about 40 + years I was only asked twice to play ‘La Va’ and sadly, like dances like the lancers and quadrilles they seem to have faded away. The tune my Grandfather played was a very close relation of the one on this video:-
la varsoviana
 
Yep, this is the type of "Mazurka" I'm familiar with from Irish trad. This is one of the first ITM tunes I played on accordion, learned from the re-released archival recordings of the wonderful fiddler Hughie Gillespie:


 
Re the Polish Mazurka, here is a delightful article about the trad/folk dance and music revival in Poland. Nearly crushed under the Soviet boot heel (as Irish trad dance and music was nearly destroyed by the iron rods of the Men In Long Dresses.)

Title: "The Mazurka Strikes Back!"


lamusdworski.wordpress.com/2018/06/26

www.dailysabah.com

Young urbanites help revive Poland's mazurka folk dance

Couples spin to the lively tempo of Poland's mazurka folk dance in scenes reminiscent of peasant life from centuries past. To rhythmic violin and...
www.dailysabah.com www.dailysabah.com


I came across these articles, documentaries, and youtube clips after seeing the haunting Polish film "Cold War," and loving the sequences of folk music/dance. It's a sad story, but well worth seeing for the music and dance sequences.
 
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After many hours of practice I was able to put up a video of Romeo Mazurka which came from my Grandfather's
music collection books circa 1930's. I'll put it on "I did that"
 
There are some wonderful old and neotrad Mazurkas played in the Balfolk traditions across France and Belgium…Bretagne Auvergne, Limousin. Some have been embraced by the Irish trad world.
 
I like those tunes Kevin Stone plays on his Saltarelle. I used to hunt around for new mazurkas to play, in Irish music there's the one everyone knows - which is named after a well known diatonic box player from the old days, Sonny Brogan - and then a few more from Donegal, and that's about it.

There's only one tune for the varsovienna, though, at least in Ireland. All this stuff is leftovers from the days of upper crust ballroom dancing. Mazurkas seem to fit into musical traditions everywhere though; here's a nifty tune from a 78 by El Ciego Melquiades, that is, the blind fiddler - from San Antonio.
 
The lovely mazurka "Septembre" by the late Stephane Delicq is one of his haunting tunes that's gained currency in trad circles even beyond his balfolk community. It is a tragedy that his recordings and the book or sheet music grouping that used to exist of his tunes are no longer available.

 
OuijaBoard said:
The lovely mazurka "Septembre" by the late Stephane Delicq is one of his haunting tunes that's gained currency in trad circles even beyond his balfolk community. It is a tragedy that his recordings and the book or sheet music grouping that used to exist of his tunes are no longer available.

Click to expand...

I just learned and recorded that one recently, along with his beautiful “Nadiejda,” ”La Femme de Marbre” and “Vivre”

I tend to learn them by ear, but if you prefer to learn tunes via scores, I’ve seen some decent transcriptions of Delicq’s music on MuseScore.com.
 
I can ear-learn folk tunes with no problem. My comment about the tragedy with Stephane Delicq's material is that whether audio or dots, a treasury of material that once was available is being lost. I guess no one with custody cares enough to put the PDFs and audio of the albums up for the folk music world to inherit and cherish. Yes, you can find a handful of the most well-known tunes on the 'tube, but there are many, and that music is being lost. It's very sad.
 
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