Mazurka

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The mazurka (Polish: mazurek, probably named after Poland's Masuria district) is a Polish folk dance in triple metre with a lively tempo, containing a heavy accent on the third or second beat. The dance became popular at Ballroom dances. The Polish national anthem is a mazurka.

Several classical composers have written mazurkas, with the best known being the 58 composed by Frédéric Chopin for solo piano. Henryk Wieniawski wrote two for violin with piano (the popular "Obertass", op. 19), and in the 1920s, Karol Szymanowski wrote a set of twenty for piano.

1 The Mazurka Outside Poland
2 Media
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] The Mazurka Outside Poland

In Russia, Tchaikovsky composed six Mazurkas for solo piano, one for his Swan Lake score and one for his Sleeping Beauty score; Leo Delibes composed one which appears several times in the first act of his ballet Coppelia; Borodin wrote two in his Petite Suite for piano; Mikhail Glinka also wrote two, and Alexander Scriabin used the form as well. The Mazurka is an important dance in many Russian novels. In addition to its mention in Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, the dance is prominently featured in Ivan Turgenev's novel Fathers and Sons. Arkady reserves the Mazurka for Madame Odintsov with whom he is falling in love.

In France, Impressionistic composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel both wrote Mazurkas: Debussy's is a stand-alone piece, and Ravel's is part of a suite of an early work, La Parade.

In Swedish folk music, the quaver or eight-note polska has a similar rhythm to the mazurka, and the two dances have a common origin.

In Brazil, the composer Heitor Villa-Lobos wrote a mazurka for classical guitar in a similar musical style to Polish mazurkas.

The dance was also common as a popular dance in the United States in the late 19th century. In the Southern United States it was sometimes known as a mazuka.

Marzurkas are also played in the music of Donegal, Ireland see Donegal fiddle tradition.