The Mazurka Outside Poland
In Russia, Tchaikovsky composed six mazurkas for solo piano, one for his Swan Lake score, one in his opera Eugene Onegin, 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 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.
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 Europe the United States in the mid- to late 19th 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.
Marzurkas are also popular in the traditional dance music of County Donegal, Ireland. Groucho Marx mentions the Mazurka in his song "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" from "At the Circus": "For two bits, she will do a Mazurka in Jazz..."
John C.
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