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[Theo]

But is it really a polka?I've just been playing "Balen i Karlstad" and the "Sunshine Schottische" and they have the same rythym and key changes.

Chris

Plenty of material here for a new topic?

[TomB-R]

Easy to answer sitting round with instruments, but a laugh in plain text!

Plenty of tunes that could be played as polkas even though they're called something else, and vice versa.

To my mind, the distinction with schottisches is an important one. Polkas faster and a different feel to the rhythm, even though the "dots" might look very similar.
Dare I hazard Schottische  Dum ticky Dum ticky - quite a relaxed feel
Whereas        Polka           um CHA um CHA quite a bit faster
Polka should count 123- 123-

Overall I'd take a dancer's view as definitive.

(Back to the workshop)
Tom

[george garside]

I suppose that the simplest definition would be something on the lines of'  ' any tune to which a polka can be danced properly - i.e. fitting in the correct steps etc' - The question then is  is there any such thing as a standard speed at which polkas are (or should be) danced. 

As to the Bluebell Polka I would certainly say that it is a polka, but a slow version makes a reasonable strathspey.    The oft overspeeded version makes a bit of a dogs dinner of a very nice tune. 

The same goes for any dance tune  - many unlikley tunes can be juggled to fit a particular dance style and this is generally much easier for a traditional musician to do ' on the hoof'  than for a classical musician who  may need the dots rewriting  to provide a rhythm different from what the maker intended.  I find the simplest way to make a tune fit is to start off with the A part of a tune that you know fits a dance and then run straight into the B part of the tune you think will adapt.  If you can get them to fit together seemlessly ( so the unknowing would think it was the A & B of the same tune you have cracked it.   Try this with a known 6/8jig A part followed by winster gallop played as a 6/8 to match - its an interesting exercise.

george

[Lars]

[Graham Spencer]

It would be nice to hear the German point-of-view, since this is where the polka originates...

Ooh, now there's a can of worms - as the polka pre-dates what is now considered to be "Germany", both the Austrians and the Czechs (at least!) lay claim to it as well.  I think we can probably agree it's not Polish, but I'm not going to stick my neck out and say where it sprang from!

[Bill Young]

It would be nice to hear the German point-of-view, since this is where the polka originates...

Ooh, now there's a can of worms - as the polka pre-dates what is now considered to be "Germany", both the Austrians and the Czechs (at least!) lay claim to it as well.  I think we can probably agree it's not Polish, but I'm not going to stick my neck out and say where it sprang from!

Here's a suggestion. Bohemia sounds good to me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polka

[oldclubII]

An interesting story about one of the most famous Polkas and complexity of its "origin" :
Beer Barrel Polka

[Graham Spencer]

Here's a suggestion. Bohemia sounds good to me.

Yes; having said I wouldn't stick my neck out, I have to agree and say I'd go for Bohemia - also the home of many good "German" melodeons! Perhaps it's best to draw a veil over the political past of the Czech lands, the Sudetenland et al, and settle for the polka being of Central European origin!