This week I have found myself somewhat lacklustre as a consequence of an unexpected case of the dreaded lurgy. Idly trawling the net I came across this project on the CHARM website. According to the article, recent analysis has revealed that the average performance tempo for mazurkas has been dropping a few beats per minute per decade over a period from roughly 1860 to now.
http://www.mazurka.org.uk/ana/avgtempo/I decided to conduct my own research. I was greatly impressed to find that Stephane Delicq an almost metronomic 120bpm for almost every recorded version of Nadiejda and other mazurka compositions. Many clandestina (klandestina) impro performances are much slower.
Taking Delicq's 120bpm as a starting point I decided to rework one of my own compostions. This started life as a Dm waltz some 20 odd years ago. The theme is taken from an Émile Waldteufel piano compostion. I've reworked the theme many times, as a vals mexicano, valse mussette, Vienna Waltz, etc.. The second part was originally used as the theme for a dark ballad written as part of a collaborative project, for which it had the title 'The Olive Grove'.
For this current iteration the key has been changed to Bm. The melody is played on the D One Row, using just the MM reeds.
http://libtrad.eu/mp3/mazurka_en_si_mineur-15100101.mp3