![]() ![]() īy 1835, this dance had spread to the ballrooms of Prague. Historians believe the polka evolved as a quicker version of the waltz, and associate the rapid bourgeoning in popularity of the polka across Europe in the mid-1800s with the spread of the Romantic movement, which emphasized an idealized version of peasant culture. Some versions of this origin story placed the first polka as being danced in Hradec Kralove, while others claimed it occurred in the village of Labska Tynica. The dance was further propagated by Neruda, who put the tune to paper and taught other young men to dance it. As told by Čeněk Zíbrt, the music teacher Josef Neruda noticed her dancing in an unusual way to accompany a local folk song called " Strýček Nimra koupil šimla", or "Uncle Nimra Bought a White Horse" in 1830. The polka's origin story first appears in the periodical Bohemia in 1844, in which it was attributed to a young Bohemian woman named Anna Slezáková (born Anna Chadimová). The word was widely introduced into the major European languages in the early 1840s. Czech cultural historian Čeněk Zíbrt also attributes the term to the Czech word půlka (half), referring to both the half-tempo 2Ĥ and the half-jump step of the dance. The term polka referring to the dance is derived from the Czech word Polka meaning "Polish woman" (feminine form corresponding to Polak, a Pole). History Etymology Street musicians in Prague playing a polka Though associated with Czech culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the Americas. A full return of section A and a brief coda of descending scales closes the piece.Polka is a dance and genre of dance music originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Each melody of the B section is repeated. ![]() Broken chords played on all instruments open the contrasting tune, the second half of which consists of descending scales. The central section features the glockenspiel in the first of its two melodies, which derives its identity more from color than from melodic shape. A literal return of the first melody rounds out the A section. The second melody is quite different, with its falling scales, constant eighth note pulse and occasional rests. After a brief introduction, the first eight-measure tune falls into two sections and outlines chords with alternating eighth and sixteenth note rhythms. Possibly because of the limited instrumentation, Strauss seems to have attempted to provide as much contrast as possible in other ways, such as the rhythm and shape of melodies. As the title suggests, the entirety of the piece is scored for plucked strings, although a glockenspiel appears for the first half of the central section. Like other works on which Strauss collaborated with one or both of his brothers, the Pizzicato-Polka bears no opus number.Ĭonsisting of four melodies, the Pizzicato-Polka is arranged in ternary form. Scored for strings and glockenspiel, the polka was published in Vienna the next year and became very popular, especially in Italy, where Strauss included it on the program of every one of his tours. ![]() With his brother Josef, Johann Strauss had composed the Pizzicato-Polka in 1869 for one of his several visits to Russia. It exhibits a ternary (ABA) form with eight-measure subsections and sometimes includes an introduction and a coda. A French dictionary of dance terms dating from 1847 describes the polka as having a tempo of 104 beats per minute with an emphasis on the second beat of the measure. The polka was very popular in the late nineteenth century and examples were penned by nearly every major composer of dance music, performed by almost all military bands and distributed in the form of sheet music throughout the world. Local musicians created variants of the dance, and in the 1850s in Vienna, the elegant Polka française and the lively Schnell-Polka developed. By 1843-1844 it was the favorite dance of Parisians and in May, 1844, it was first performed in the U.S. The dance was exported to Vienna in 1839 by a Bohemian regiment band, precipitating its rapid spread throughout Europe. Whatever its origins, it is certain that the polka first appeared in Prague in 1837. The name may be derived from the Czech pulka (half) or polska, the Czech word for a Polish girl. A couple-dance in 2/4 meter, it seems the polka developed in Bohemia as a type of round-dance with three short, heel-and-toe half-steps on the first three half-beats and a rest on the fourth. Some of the characteristics of the polka appear in music performed by and written for Bohemian village musicians around 1800 aside from this, the dance's origins are obscure. ![]()
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