mazurka

Over the years 1825–1849, Frédéric Chopin wrote at least 59 compositions for piano called Mazurkas. Mazurka refers to one of the traditional Polish dances.

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 of "Mazurek."

About 152 BpM, a tempo in which it is possible to play the Mazurka by de Cristofaro.

1: Hop lightly on the R foot, with L closed to the ankle in front (temps leve) 2: Glissade L forward to 4th position, keeping the straight R leg raised behind 3: Skate again on L fwd, keeping R raised behind. Repeat on opposite feet.

The main difference between mazurkas and waltzes is that they tend to have three definite accents in each bar, whereas waltzes have a pronounced accent only on the first beat (except the early German waltz).

The polonaise is a Polish dance and is one of the five historic national dances of Poland. The others are the Mazurka (Mazur), Kujawiak, Krakowiak and Oberek, last three being old folk dances.

As a transplanted Parisian, Chopin didn't place his nationalism under wraps; he kept the flame of Poland alive in himself by writing music that was part of the country's basic identity, namely dance forms – the mazurka and the polonaise.

Mazurka in F-sharp minor, Op. The piece begins with a memorable and powerful melody, the second theme is somewhat more joyful than the first. The left hand accompaniment of the piece experiments with descending chromatic harmonies, although this does not affect the melody which remains defined throughout the piece.

Counting it can be fairly standard or may take a little bit of thought, it depends on the music you're using. Mazurkas can be counted as I did above, 1 a2 3| 2 a2 3| 3 a2 3| 4 a2 3| etc. OR, depending on the mazurka you're using, you may find that it's more sensible to count it as a 6 count phrase.

The music is in 3/4 or 3/8 time with a forceful accent on the second beat. The dance, highly improvisatory, has no set figures, and more than 50 different steps exist. The music written for the dance is also called mazurka.

Even if there are dances that, clearly, create an intimacy between two people, we shouldn't associate all the mazurkas to the word romantic. It would be restrictive, especially as historically it was danced very differently. The tempo was much faster, the steps were much more marked and bouncy.

The main difference between mazurkas and waltzes is that they tend to have three definite accents in each bar, whereas waltzes have a pronounced accent only on the first beat (except the early German waltz).