Mazurka
Encyclopedia
The mazurka is a Polish
folk dance
in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, and with accent
on the third or second beat
.
musical forms—the slow machine
kujawiak
, and the fast oberek
. The mazurek is always found to have either a triplet, trill, dotted eighth note (quaver) pair, or an ordinary eighth note pair before two quarter note
s (crotchets). In the 19th century, the dance became popular in many ballroom
s in different parts of Europe. The Polish national anthem has a mazurek rhythm but is too slow to be considered a mazurek. There are many Polish versions of the mazurek but the most notable one is the mazurka.
In Polish
, this musical form is called "mazurek"—a word derived from "mazur," which up to the nineteenth century denoted an inhabitant of Poland's Mazovia
region, and which also became the root for "Masuria
". In Polish, "mazurka" is actually the genitive
and accusative case
s of "mazurek."
Several classical
composers have written mazurkas, with the best known being the 69
composed by Frédéric Chopin
for solo piano
. Henryk Wieniawski
also wrote two for violin with piano (the popular "Obertas", Op. 19), and in the 1920s, Karol Szymanowski
wrote a set of twenty for piano and finished his composing career with a final pair in 1934. Also, Maria Szymanowska
wrote mazurkas long before Chopin.
Chopin first started composing mazurkas in 1825, but his composing did not become serious until 1830, the year of the November Uprising
, a Polish rebellion against the Russian government. Chopin continued composing them until 1849, the year of his death. The stylistic and musical characteristics of Chopin's mazurkas differ from the traditional variety because Chopin in effect created a completely separate and new genre of mazurka all his own. For example, he used classical techniques in his mazurkas, including counterpoint
and fugue
. By including more chromaticism and harmony in the mazurkas, he made them more technically interesting than the traditional dances. Chopin also tried to compose his mazurkas in such a way that they could not be used for dancing, so as to distance them from the original form.
However, while Chopin changed some aspects of the original mazurka, he maintained others. His mazurkas, like the traditional dances, contain a great deal of repetition: repetition of certain measures or groups of measures; of entire sections; and of an initial theme. The rhythm of his mazurkas also remains very similar to that of earlier mazurkas. However, Chopin also incorporated the rhythmic elements of the two other Polish forms mentioned above, the kujawiak and oberek; his mazurkas usually feature rhythms from more than one of these three forms (mazurek, kujawiak, and oberek). This use of rhythm suggests that Chopin tried to create a genre that had ties to the original form, but was still something new and different.
(25), Balakirev
(7), Tchaikovsky
(6). Borodin
wrote two in his Petite Suite
for piano; Mikhail Glinka
also wrote two, although one is a simplified version of Chopin
's Mazurka No. 13.
Tchaikovsky also included mazurkas in his scores for Swan Lake
, Eugene Onegin
, and Sleeping Beauty
. Léo Delibes
composed one which appears several times in the first act of his ballet Coppélia
.
The mazurka is an important dance in many Russian novels. In addition to its mention in Leo Tolstoy
's Anna Karenina
as well as in a protracted episode in War and Peace
, 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.
Czech composers Bedřich Smetana
, Antonín Dvořák
, and Bohuslav Martinů
all wrote mazurkas to at least some extent. For Smetana and Martinů, these are single pieces (respectively, a Mazurka-Cappricio for piano and a Mazurka-Nocturne for a mixed string/wind quartet), whereas Dvořák composed a set of six mazurkas for piano.
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. The mazurka appears frequently in French traditional folk music.
In the French Antilles, the mazurka has become an important style of dance and music. A creolized version of the mazurka is mazouk, which was introduced to the French Caribbean during the 19th century.
Mazurkas are also popular in the traditional dance music
of County Donegal
, Ireland.
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.
The dance was common as a popular dance in Europe and the United States in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. It survives in some old time fiddle tunes, and also in early Cajun
music, though it has largely fallen out of Cajun music now. In the Southern United States
it was sometimes known as a mazuka.
In Cape Verde
the mazurka is also revered as an important cultural phenomenon played with a violin and accompanied by guitars.
It also takes a dance form found in the north of the archipelago, mainly in São Nicolau, Santo Antão, and Brava
.
In Portugal the mazurka became one of the most popular traditional European dances through the first years of the annual Andanças, a traditional dances festival held nearby São Pedro do Sul
.
In Cuba
, composer Ernesto Lecuona
wrote a piece titled Mazurka en Glisado for the piano, one of various commissions throughout his life.
In Nicaragua
, Carlos Mejía Godoy y los de Palacaguina and Los Soñadores de Saraguasca made a compilation of mazurkas from popular folk music, which are performed with a violin de talalate, an indigenous instrument from Nicaragua
.
In Curaçao
the mazurka was popular as dance music in the nineteenth century, as well as in the first half of the twentieth century. Several Curaçao-born composers such as Jan Gerard Palm
, Joseph Sickman Corsen, Jacobo Palm
, Rudolph Palm
and Wim Statius Muller have written mazurkas.
In Brazil
, the composer Heitor Villa-Lobos
wrote a mazurka for classical guitar in a similar musical style to Polish mazurkas.
In Australia
, Julian Cochran
composed a collection of five mazurkas for solo piano and orchestra.
In the Philippines
, the mazurka is a popular form of traditional dance
. The Mazurka Boholana is one well-known Filipino mazurka.
In popular folk dancing in France
, in recent years (after roughly 2005), the mazurka has evolved into a dance at a more gentle pace (without the traditional 'hop' step on the 3rd beat), allowing for more intimate dancing and giving it the status of a seduction dance. This style of mazurka has also been imported into "balfolk
" dancing in Belgium
and the Netherlands
.
Mouse Mazurka features Sylvester going after a rodent who does this sort of dance.
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
folk dance
Folk dance
The term folk dance describes dances that share some or all of the following attributes:*They are dances performed at social functions by people with little or no professional training, often to traditional music or music based on traditional music....
in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, and with accent
Accent (music)
In music, an accent is an emphasis placed on a particular note,either as a result of its context or specifically indicated by an accent mark.Accents contribute to the articulation and prosody of a performance of a musical phrase....
on the third or second beat
Beat (music)
The beat is the basic unit of time in music, the pulse of the mensural level . In popular use, the beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including: tempo, meter, rhythm and groove...
.
History
The folk origins of the mazurek are two other PolishPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
musical forms—the slow machine
kujawiak
Kujawiak
The Kujawiak is a Polish folk dance from the region of Kujawy in central Poland . It is one of the five national dances of Poland, the others being the krakowiak, mazur, oberek, and polonaise.The music is in triple meter and fairly slow...
, and the fast oberek
Oberek
The oberek, also called obertas or ober, is a lively Polish dance. The name "Oberek" is derived from "obracać się" which in Polish means "to spin". This dance consists of many lifts and jumps. . It is performed at a much quicker pace than the Polish waltz and is one of the national dances of Poland...
. The mazurek is always found to have either a triplet, trill, dotted eighth note (quaver) pair, or an ordinary eighth note pair before two quarter note
Quarter note
A quarter note or crotchet is a note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note . Often people will say that a crotchet is one beat, however, this is not always correct, as the beat is indicated by the time signature of the music; a quarter note may or may not be the beat...
s (crotchets). In the 19th century, the dance became popular in many ballroom
Ballroom dance
Ballroom dance refers to a set of partner dances, which are enjoyed both socially and competitively around the world. Because of its performance and entertainment aspects, ballroom dance is also widely enjoyed on stage, film, and television....
s in different parts of Europe. The Polish national anthem has a mazurek rhythm but is too slow to be considered a mazurek. There are many Polish versions of the mazurek but the most notable one is the mazurka.
In Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, this musical form is called "mazurek"—a word derived from "mazur," which up to the nineteenth century denoted an inhabitant of Poland's Mazovia
Mazovia
Mazovia or Masovia is a geographical, historical and cultural region in east-central Poland. It is also a voivodeship in Poland.Its historic capital is Płock, which was the medieval residence of first Dukes of Masovia...
region, and which also became the root for "Masuria
Masuria
Masuria is an area in northeastern Poland famous for its 2,000 lakes. Geographically, Masuria is part of two adjacent lakeland districts, the Masurian Lake District and the Iława Lake District...
". In Polish, "mazurka" is actually the genitive
Genitive case
In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
and accusative case
Accusative case
The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
s of "mazurek."
Several classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
composers have written mazurkas, with the best known being the 69
Mazurkas (Chopin)
Over the years 1825-1849, Frédéric Chopin wrote at least 69 mazurkas, based on the traditional Polish dance :* 58 have been published** 45 during Chopin's lifetime, of which 41 have opus numbers...
composed by Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
for solo piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
. Henryk Wieniawski
Henryk Wieniawski
Henryk Wieniawski was a Polish violinist and composer.-Biography:Henryk Wieniawski was born in Lublin, Congress Poland, Russian Empire. His father, Tobiasz Pietruszka, had converted to Catholicism. His talent for playing the violin was recognized early, and in 1843 he entered the Paris...
also wrote two for violin with piano (the popular "Obertas", Op. 19), and in the 1920s, Karol Szymanowski
Karol Szymanowski
Karol Maciej Szymanowski was a Polish composer and pianist.-Life:Szymanowski was born into a wealthy land-owning Polish gentry family in Tymoszówka, then in the Russian Empire, now in Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine. He studied music privately with his father before going to Gustav Neuhaus'...
wrote a set of twenty for piano and finished his composing career with a final pair in 1934. Also, Maria Szymanowska
Maria Agata Szymanowska
Maria Szymanowska was a Polish composer and one of the first professional virtuoso pianists of the 19th century. She toured extensively throughout Europe, especially in the 1820s, before settling permanently in St. Petersburg...
wrote mazurkas long before Chopin.
Chopin first started composing mazurkas in 1825, but his composing did not become serious until 1830, the year of the November Uprising
November Uprising
The November Uprising , Polish–Russian War 1830–31 also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress...
, a Polish rebellion against the Russian government. Chopin continued composing them until 1849, the year of his death. The stylistic and musical characteristics of Chopin's mazurkas differ from the traditional variety because Chopin in effect created a completely separate and new genre of mazurka all his own. For example, he used classical techniques in his mazurkas, including counterpoint
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
and fugue
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
. By including more chromaticism and harmony in the mazurkas, he made them more technically interesting than the traditional dances. Chopin also tried to compose his mazurkas in such a way that they could not be used for dancing, so as to distance them from the original form.
However, while Chopin changed some aspects of the original mazurka, he maintained others. His mazurkas, like the traditional dances, contain a great deal of repetition: repetition of certain measures or groups of measures; of entire sections; and of an initial theme. The rhythm of his mazurkas also remains very similar to that of earlier mazurkas. However, Chopin also incorporated the rhythmic elements of the two other Polish forms mentioned above, the kujawiak and oberek; his mazurkas usually feature rhythms from more than one of these three forms (mazurek, kujawiak, and oberek). This use of rhythm suggests that Chopin tried to create a genre that had ties to the original form, but was still something new and different.
Outside Poland
In Russia, many composers wrote mazurkas for solo piano: ScriabinAlexander Scriabin
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist who initially developed a lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language inspired by the music of Frédéric Chopin. Quite independent of the innovations of Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed an increasingly atonal musical system,...
(25), Balakirev
Mily Balakirev
Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev ,Russia was still using old style dates in the 19th century, and information sources used in the article sometimes report dates as old style rather than new style. Dates in the article are taken verbatim from the source and therefore are in the same style as the source...
(7), Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
(6). Borodin
Alexander Borodin
Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a Russian Romantic composer and chemist of Georgian–Russian parentage. He was a member of the group of composers called The Five , who were dedicated to producing a specifically Russian kind of art music...
wrote two in his Petite Suite
Petite Suite (Borodin)
The Petite Suite is a suite of seven piano pieces, written by Alexander Borodin, and acknowledged as his major work for the piano. It was published in 1885, although some of the pieces had been written as far back as the late 1870s...
for piano; Mikhail Glinka
Mikhail Glinka
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka , was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition within his own country, and is often regarded as the father of Russian classical music...
also wrote two, although one is a simplified version of Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
's Mazurka No. 13.
Tchaikovsky also included mazurkas in his scores for Swan Lake
Swan Lake
Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
, Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin (opera)
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts , by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Konstantin Shilovsky and the composer and his brother Modest, and is based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....
, and Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault or Little Briar Rose by the Brothers Grimm is a classic fairytale involving a beautiful princess, enchantment, and a handsome prince...
. Léo Delibes
Léo Delibes
Clément Philibert Léo Delibes was a French composer of ballets, operas, and other works for the stage...
composed one which appears several times in the first act of his ballet Coppélia
Coppélia
Coppélia is a sentimental comic ballet with original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon to a ballet libretto by Saint-Léon and Charles Nuitter and music by Léo Delibes. It was based upon two macabre stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann , and Die Puppe...
.
The mazurka is an important dance in many Russian novels. In addition to its mention in Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
's Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger...
as well as in a protracted episode in War and Peace
War and Peace
War and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in 1869. The work is epic in scale and is regarded as one of the most important works of world literature...
, the dance is prominently featured in Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...
's novel Fathers and Sons
Fathers and Sons
Fathers and Sons is an 1862 novel by Ivan Turgenev, his best known work. The title of this work in Russian is Отцы и дети , which literally means "Fathers and Children"; the work is often translated to Fathers and Sons in English for reasons of euphony.- Historical context and notes :The fathers...
. Arkady reserves the mazurka for Madame Odintsov with whom he is falling in love.
Czech composers Bedřich Smetana
Bedrich Smetana
Bedřich Smetana was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style which became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He is thus widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music...
, Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
, and Bohuslav Martinů
Bohuslav Martinu
Bohuslav Martinů was a prolific Czech composer of modern classical music. He was of Czech and Rumanian ancestry. Martinů wrote six symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. Martinů became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic...
all wrote mazurkas to at least some extent. For Smetana and Martinů, these are single pieces (respectively, a Mazurka-Cappricio for piano and a Mazurka-Nocturne for a mixed string/wind quartet), whereas Dvořák composed a set of six mazurkas for piano.
In France, Impressionistic
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
composers Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
and Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
both wrote mazurkas; Debussy's is a stand-alone piece, and Ravel's is part of a suite of an early work, La Parade. The mazurka appears frequently in French traditional folk music.
In the French Antilles, the mazurka has become an important style of dance and music. A creolized version of the mazurka is mazouk, which was introduced to the French Caribbean during the 19th century.
Mazurkas are also popular in the traditional dance music
Donegal fiddle tradition
The Donegal fiddle tradition is a type of Irish traditional music, based on a two-hundred year-old tradition of playing the fiddle in County Donegal, Ireland...
of County Donegal
County Donegal
County Donegal is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal. Donegal County Council is the local authority for the county...
, Ireland.
In Swedish folk music
Music of Sweden
Sweden shares the tradition of Nordic folk dance music with its neighboring countries including polka, schottische, waltz, polska and mazurka. The accordion, clarinet, fiddle and nyckelharpa are among the most common Swedish folk instruments. This instrumental genre is the biggest one in Swedish...
, the quaver or eight-note polska
Polska (dance)
The polska is a family of music and dance forms shared by the Nordic countries: called polsk in Denmark, polska in Sweden and Finland and by several names in Norway in different regions and/or for different variants - including pols, rundom, springleik, and springar...
has a similar rhythm to the mazurka, and the two dances have a common origin.
The dance was common as a popular dance in Europe and the United States in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. It survives in some old time fiddle tunes, and also in early Cajun
Cajun
Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles...
music, though it has largely fallen out of Cajun music now. In the Southern United States
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
it was sometimes known as a mazuka.
In Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
the mazurka is also revered as an important cultural phenomenon played with a violin and accompanied by guitars.
It also takes a dance form found in the north of the archipelago, mainly in São Nicolau, Santo Antão, and Brava
Brava, Cape Verde
Brava is an island in Cape Verde. It is the smallest inhabited island, but at the same time the greenest, of Cape Verde, in the Sotavento group. First settled in the 1540s, its population grew after Mount Fogo on neighbouring Fogo erupted in 1675...
.
In Portugal the mazurka became one of the most popular traditional European dances through the first years of the annual Andanças, a traditional dances festival held nearby São Pedro do Sul
São Pedro do Sul
São Pedro do Sul is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 349.0 km² and a total population of 19,215 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of 19 parishes and is located in the district Viseu....
.
In Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, composer Ernesto Lecuona
Ernesto Lecuona
Ernesto Lecuona y Casado was a Cuban composer and pianist of Canarian father and Cuban mother, and worldwide fame. He composed over six hundred pieces, mostly in the Cuban vein, and was a pianist of exceptional quality....
wrote a piece titled Mazurka en Glisado for the piano, one of various commissions throughout his life.
In Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
, Carlos Mejía Godoy y los de Palacaguina and Los Soñadores de Saraguasca made a compilation of mazurkas from popular folk music, which are performed with a violin de talalate, an indigenous instrument from Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
.
In Curaçao
Curaçao
Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
the mazurka was popular as dance music in the nineteenth century, as well as in the first half of the twentieth century. Several Curaçao-born composers such as Jan Gerard Palm
Jan Gerard Palm
Jan Gerard Palm was a 19th century composer. Palm is often referred to as the "father of Curaçao's classical music".-Biography:...
, Joseph Sickman Corsen, Jacobo Palm
Jacobo Palm
-Biography:Jacobo José Maria Palm is the grandson of Jan Gerard Palm who is often referred to as the "father of Curaçao classical music". At the age of seven Jacobo Palm started to take lessons in music from his grandfather. Jacobo played several musical instruments such as piano, organ, violin,...
, Rudolph Palm
Rudolph Palm
Rudolph Palm is a Curaçao born composer.- Biography :Rudolph Theodorus Palm is the grandson of Jan Gerard Palm who is often referred to as the "father of Curaçao classical music"...
and Wim Statius Muller have written mazurkas.
In Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, the composer Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known and most significant Latin American composer to date. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works...
wrote a mazurka for classical guitar in a similar musical style to Polish mazurkas.
In Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Julian Cochran
Julian Cochran
thumb|200px|Julian Cochran in 1998Julian Cochran is an English-born Australian composer.Cochran's earlier works show stylistic influences from Impressionist music and his later works are more noticeably influenced by Classical music and folk music of Eastern Europe...
composed a collection of five mazurkas for solo piano and orchestra.
In the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, the mazurka is a popular form of traditional dance
Philippine Dance
As varied are the people of the Philippines, so too are the dances. There are many dances performed in the Philippine Islands such as the popular "Tinikling", to the exoticized "Pangalay", to the skill-based interpretation of the "Banga" and Spanish-tinged "Jota"...
. The Mazurka Boholana is one well-known Filipino mazurka.
In popular folk dancing in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, in recent years (after roughly 2005), the mazurka has evolved into a dance at a more gentle pace (without the traditional 'hop' step on the 3rd beat), allowing for more intimate dancing and giving it the status of a seduction dance. This style of mazurka has also been imported into "balfolk
Balfolk
Bal Folk is a dance event for folk dance and folk music in a number of European countries, mainly in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. It is also known as folk bal.-History:Dancing to folk music is gaining popularity since the 70's...
" dancing in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
.
Media
The 1949 cartoonCartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
Mouse Mazurka features Sylvester going after a rodent who does this sort of dance.
See also
- Polish music
- PolonaisePolonaiseThe polonaise is a slow dance of Polish origin, in 3/4 time. Its name is French for "Polish."The polonaise had a rhythm quite close to that of the Swedish semiquaver or sixteenth-note polska, and the two dances have a common origin....
- Chopin's mazurkasMazurkas (Chopin)Over the years 1825-1849, Frédéric Chopin wrote at least 69 mazurkas, based on the traditional Polish dance :* 58 have been published** 45 during Chopin's lifetime, of which 41 have opus numbers...
- ZoukZoukZouk is a style of rhythmic music originating from the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe & Martinique. Zouk means "party" or "festival" in the local Antillean Creole of French, although the word originally referred to, and is still used to refer to, a popular dance, based on the Polish dance, the...
- WaltzWaltzThe waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
- Polska (dance)Polska (dance)The polska is a family of music and dance forms shared by the Nordic countries: called polsk in Denmark, polska in Sweden and Finland and by several names in Norway in different regions and/or for different variants - including pols, rundom, springleik, and springar...
- LandlerLändlerThe ländler is a folk dance in 3/4 time which was popular in Austria, south Germany and German Switzerland at the end of the 18th century.It is a dance for couples which strongly features hopping and stamping...
- FandangoFandangoFandango is a lively couple's dance, usually in triple metre, traditionally accompanied by guitars and castanets or hand-clapping . Fandango can both be sung and danced. Sung fandango is usually bipartite: it has an instrumental introduction followed by "variaciones"...
- BourréeBourréeThe bourrée is a dance of French origin common in Auvergne and Biscay in Spain in the 17th century. It is danced in quick double time, somewhat resembling the gavotte. The main difference between the two is the anacrusis, or upbeat; a bourrée starts on the last beat of a bar, creating a...