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The mazurka ( Polish: ''mazur'' Polish ball dance, one of the five Polish national dances and ''mazurek'' Polish folk dance') 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". The mazurka, alongside the polka dance, became popular at the
ballroom A ballroom or ballhall is a large room inside a building, the primary purpose of which is holding large formal parties called balls. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions and palaces, especially historic ...
s and salons of Europe in the 19th century, particularly through the notable works by Frédéric Chopin. The mazurka (in Polish ''mazur'', the same word as the mazur) and mazurek (rural dance based on the mazur) are often confused in Western literature as the same musical form.


History

The folk origins of the ''mazurka'' are three Polish folk dances which are: * '' mazur'', most characteristic due to its inconsistent rhythmic accents, * slow and melancholic ''
kujawiak The Kujawiak is a Polish folk dance from the region of Kujawy in central Poland.Don Michael Randel. ''The Harvard Dictionary of Music''. Harvard University Press. 2003. p. 449. It is one of the five national dances of Poland, the others being the ...
'', * fast '' oberek''. The ''mazurka'' is always found to have either a triplet, trill, dotted eighth note (quaver) pair, or an ordinary eighth note pair before two quarter notes (crotchets). In the 19th century, the form became popular in many
ballroom A ballroom or ballhall is a large room inside a building, the primary purpose of which is holding large formal parties called balls. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions and palaces, especially historic ...
s in different parts of Europe. "Mazurka" is a Polish word, it means a Masovian woman or girl. It is a
feminine Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered fe ...
form of the word "Mazur", which — until the nineteenth century — denoted an inhabitant of Poland's Mazovia region ( Masovians, formerly plural: ''Mazurzy''). The similar word "Mazurek" is a
diminutive A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A ( abbreviated ) is a word-form ...
and
masculine Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors ...
form of "Mazur". In relation to dance, all these words (''mazur, mazurek, mazurka'') mean "a Mazovian dance". Apart from the ethnic name, the word ''mazurek'' refers to various terms in Polish, e.g. a cake, a
bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
and a popular surname. ''Mazurek'' is also a rural dance identified by some as the ''oberek''. It is said ''oberek'' is a danced variation of the sung ''mazurek'', the latter also having more prominent accents on second and third beats and less fluent of a rhythmical flow, which is so characteristical of ''oberek.'' Several classical composers have written mazurkas, with the best known being the 59 composed by Frédéric Chopin for solo piano. In 1825
Maria Szymanowska Maria Szymanowska (Polish pronunciation: ; born Marianna Agata Wołowska; Warsaw, 14 December 1789 – 25 July 1831, St. Petersburg, Russia) was a Polish composer and one of the first professional virtuoso pianists of the 19th century. She tou ...
wrote the largest collection of piano mazurkas published before Chopin. Henryk Wieniawski also wrote two for violin with piano (the popular "Obertas", Op. 19), Julian Cochran composed a collection of five mazurkas for solo piano and orchestra, and in the 1920s, Karol Szymanowski wrote a set of twenty for piano and finished his composing career with a final pair in 1934. Alexander Scriabin, who was at first conscious of being Chopin's follower, wrote 24 mazurkas. Chopin first started composing mazurkas in 1824, but his composing did not become serious until 1830, the year of the November Uprising, a Polish rebellion against the Russian tsar. 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. The mazurka began as a dance for either four or eight couples. Eventually,
Michel Fokine Michael Fokine, ''Mikhail Mikhaylovich Fokin'', group=lower-alpha ( – 22 August 1942) was a groundbreaking Imperial Russian choreographer and dancer. Career Early years Fokine was born in Saint Petersburg to a prosperous merchant an ...
created a female solo mazurka dance dominated by flying '' grandes jetés'', alternating second and third arabesque positions, and split-leg climactic postures.


Outside Poland

The form was common as a popular dance in Europe and the United States in the mid to late nineteenth century.


Cape Verde Islands

In
Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...
the mazurka is also revered as an important cultural phenomenon played with acoustic bands led by a violinist and accompanied by guitarists. It also takes a variation of the mazurka dance form and is found mostly in the north of the archipelago, mainly in São Nicolau, Santo Antão. In the south it finds popularity in the island of Brava.


Czechia

Czech composers Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, and
Bohuslav Martinů Bohuslav Jan Martinů (; December 8, 1890 – August 28, 1959) was a Czech composer of modern classical music. He wrote 6 symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. He be ...
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, and a mazurka for violin and orchestra.


France

In France, Impressionistic composers Claude Debussy and
Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...
both wrote mazurkas; Debussy's is a stand-alone piece, and Ravel's is part of a suite of an early work, ''La Parade''. Jacques Offenbach included a mazurka in his ballet '' Gaîté Parisienne'';
Léo Delibes Clément Philibert Léo Delibes (; 21 February 1836 – 16 January 1891) was a French Romantic composer, best known for his ballets and operas. His works include the ballets ''Coppélia'' (1870) and '' Sylvia'' (1876) and the opera ''Lakm� ...
composed one which appears several times in the first act of his ballet ''
Coppélia ''Coppélia'' (sometimes subtitled: ''La Fille aux Yeux d'Émail'' (The Girl with the Enamel Eyes)) is a comic ballet from 1870 originally choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon to the music of Léo Delibes, with libretto by Charles-Louis-Étie ...
''. 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 creolised version of the mazurka is ''mazouk'' which—beginning around 1979 in Paris—morphed into the globally popular dance style “ zouk” developed in France and popularised by Paris's Island-creole supergroup
Kassav' Kassav' is a French Caribbean band formed in Guadeloupe in 1979. The core members of the band are Jacob Desvarieux, Jocelyne Béroard, Jean-Philippe Marthély, Patrick St. Eloi, Jean-Claude Naimro, Claude Vamur, and Georges Décimus (who left ...
; ''mazouk'' had been introduced to the French Caribbean in the late 1800s. In the 21st century in Brazil and the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, ''zouk'' (and its progenitor band Kassav') remains very popular. In popular 20th century folk dancing in France, the Polish/classical-piano (see Chopin) ''mazurka'' evolved into ''mazouk'', a dance at a more gentle pace (without the traditional 'hop' step on the 3rd beat), fostering more-intimate dancing and associating mazouk with a "seduction" dance (see also tango from Argentina). This "sexy" style of mazurka has also been imported to “ balfolk" dancing in
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
and the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, hence the name "Belgian Mazurka" or "Flemish Mazurka". Perhaps the most enduring style of intimate dancing music of this origin moved ''zouk'' from the 1980s–2000s into its wildly popular (especially in Brazil and Africa) slow-dancing variant called ''zouk love'', which remains a staple of French-Caribbean dance venues in Paris and elsewhere.


Ireland

Mazurkas constitute a distinctive part of the traditional dance music of
County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrcon ...
, Ireland. As a couple's dance, it is no longer popular. The Polish dance entered the UK in the 1840s, but is not widely played outside of Donegal. Unlike the Polish mazurek, which may have an accent on the second or third beat of a bar, the Irish mazurka (''masúrca'' in the
Irish language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...
) is consistently accented on the second beat, giving it a unique feel. Musician Caoimhín Mac Aoidh has written a book on the subject, ''From Mazovia to Meenbanad: The Donegal Mazurkas'', in which the history of the musical and dance form is related. Mac Aoidh tracked down 32 different mazurkas as played in Ireland.


Italy

Mazurkas are part of Italian popular music including the Liscio style. Typical of Italian mazurkas are groups of triplets, strong dotted rhythms, and phrase endings of two accented quarter notes and a rest, unlike a waltz.


Brazil

In
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, the composer
Ernesto Nazareth Ernesto Júlio de Nazareth (March 20, 1863 – February 1, 1934) was a Brazilian composer and pianist, especially noted for his creative Maxixe and Choro compositions. Influenced by a diverse set of rhythms like the polka, the habanera, and the l ...
wrote a Chopinesque mazurka called "Mercedes" in 1917. Heitor Villa-Lobos wrote a mazurka for classical guitar in a similar musical style to Polish mazurkas.


Cuba

In
Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...
, composer Ernesto Lecuona wrote a piece titled ''Mazurka en Glisado'' for the piano, one of various commissions throughout his life.


Nicaragua

In
Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the coun ...
, 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 (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the coun ...
.


Curaçao

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 Wim Statius Muller ( Curaçao, 26 January 1930 – Curaçao, 31 August 2019) was a Curaçaoan composer and pianist, nicknamed "Curaçao's Chopin" for his romantic piano style of composition.Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
, composers
Ricardo Castro Ricardo Castro Herrera (Rafael de la Santísima Trinidad Castro Herrera) (7 February 1864 – 27 November 1907) was a Mexican concert pianist and composer, considered the last romantic of the time of Porfirio Díaz. Life Castro was bo ...
and Manuel M Ponce wrote mazurkas for the piano in a Chopin fashion, eventually mixing elements of Mexican folk dances.


Philippines

In the
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
, the mazurka is a popular form of traditional dance. The Mazurka Boholana is one well-known Filipino mazurka.


Portugal

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 Castelo de Vide.


Russia

In Russia, many composers wrote mazurkas for solo piano: Scriabin (26), 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 ''Swan Lake'' ( rus, Лебеди́ное о́зеро, r=Lebedínoye ózero, p=lʲɪbʲɪˈdʲinəjə ˈozʲɪrə, link=no ), Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failur ...
'', '' Eugene Onegin'', and '' Sleeping Beauty''. Rachmaninoff's Morceaux de salon Op 10 includes a Mazurka in D-flat major as its 7th piece. The mazurka was a common dance at the balls of the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...
and it is depicted in many Russian novels and films. In addition to its mention in
Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
'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. During Russian balls, it was danced elegantly and famously by the Tsarina Maria Feodorovna, the second-to-last tsarina of the Russian empire before its collapse in 1918.


Sweden

In
Swedish folk music Swedish folk music is a genre of music based largely on folkloric collection work that began in the early 19th century in Sweden. The primary instrument of Swedish folk music is the fiddle. Another common instrument, unique to Swedish traditions, ...
, the quaver or eight-note
polska Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
has a similar rhythm to the mazurka, and the two dances have a common origin. The international version of the mazurka was also introduced under that name during the nineteenth century.


United States

The mazurka survives in some old-time fiddle tunes, and also in early
Cajun music Cajun music (french: Musique cadienne), an emblematic music of Louisiana played by the Cajuns, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Although they are two separate genres, Cajun music is often mentioned in tande ...
, though it has largely fallen out of Cajun music now. In the Southern United States it was sometimes known as a "mazuka". Polish Mazurka was danced in upstate New York in the 1950s and 1960s (similarly to the krakowiak, millenium of Christianity) in Polish community centers or social clubs, which can be found throughout the US. The polka remains the best known dance of the Nation of Poland and its people and is regularly danced at weddings, dance halls and public events (e.g., summers outdoors, barn dances) in US.


California

In addition to being part of the repertoire of Irish traditional music sessions, the mazurka has been played by a wide variety of cultural groups in California. The mazurka first came to Alta California during the Spanish period and danced among Californios. Later, the renowned guitarist Manuel Y. Ferrer, who was born in
Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...
to Spanish parents and learned guitar from a Franciscan friar in Santa Barbara but made his career in the
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...
, arranged mazurkas for the guitar. During the early 20th century, the mazurka became part of the repertoire of Italian American musicians in San Francisco playing in the '' ballo liscio'' style. Pianist Sid LeProtti, an important Oakland-born early jazz musician on the west coast, stated that before jazz took off, he and other musicians in Barbary Coast clubs played mazurkas in addition to
waltz The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position. History There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...
es, two-steps, marches, polkas, and schottisches. One mazurka, played on harmonica, was collected by
Sidney Robertson Cowell Sidney Robertson Cowell (born Sidney William Hawkins; June 2, 1903 – February 23, 1995) was an American ethnomusicologist, collector of folk songs, and the wife of the composer Henry Cowell. Life and career She was born on June 2, 1903, i ...
for the WPA California Folk Music Project in 1939 in
Tuolumne County Tuolumne County (), officially the County of Tuolumne, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 55,620. The county seat and only incorporated city is Sonora. Tuolumne County comprises th ...
.


See also

*
Mazur (dance) Mazur is a traditional Polish national dance, one of the five Polish national dances]Don Michael Randel. ''The Harvard Dictionary of Music''. Harvard University Press. 2003. p. 495. in vivid tempo and triple metres of 3/4 or 3/8. Characterised b ...
*
Bourrée The bourrée ( oc, borrèia; also in England, borry or bore) is a dance of French origin and the words and music that accompany it. The bourrée resembles the gavotte in that it is in double time and often has a dactylic rhythm. However, it is ...
* Fandango * Ländler * Mazurkas (Chopin) * Polish music * Polonaise (dance) * Polska (dance) *
Waltz The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position. History There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...
*
Pols The pols and springar are Norwegian folk dances in 3/4. They are essentially fast versions of the Nordic polska. References Norwegian folk dances Norwegian folk music Dance in Norway {{Music-genre-stub ...


Notes


Bibliography

* Downes, Stephen.
Mazurka
Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 17 November 2009. * Kallberg, Jeffrey. "The problem of repetition and return in Chopin's mazurkas." Chopin Styles, ed. Jim Samson. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1988. * Kallberg, Jeffrey. "Chopin's Last Style." Journal of the American Musicological Society 38.2 (1985): 264–315. * Michałowski, Kornel, and Jim Samson.
Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek
Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 17 November 2009. (esp. section 6, "Formative Influences") * Milewski, Barbara. "Chopin's Mazurkas and the Myth of the Folk." 19th-Century Music 23.2 (1999): 113–35. * Rosen, Charles. The Romantic Generation. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1995. * Winokur, Roselyn M. "Chopin and the Mazurka". Diss. Sarah Lawrence College, 1974.


External links


history, description, costumes, music, sources

Mazurka within traditional dances of the County of Nice (France)



The Mazurka Project
*


'Vincent Campbell's Mazurka' as played by Vincent Campbell in Co. Donegal
{{Authority control Mazurka, Dance forms in classical music Irish dances Irish music Polish dances Triple time dances