Mazurka

[2] The Mazurka, alongside the polka dance, became popular at the ballrooms and salons of Europe in the 19th century, particularly through the notable works by Frédéric Chopin.

It is a feminine form of the word "Mazur", which — until the nineteenth century — denoted an inhabitant of Poland's Mazovia region (Masovians, formerly plural: Mazurzy).

Chopin first started composing mazurkas in 1824, reaching full maturity by 1830, the year of the November Uprising, a rebellion in Congress Poland against Russia.

Eventually, Michel Fokine created a female solo mazurka dance dominated by flying grandes jetés, alternating second and third arabesque positions, and split-leg climactic postures.

[7] The form was common as a popular dance in Europe and the United States in the mid to late nineteenth century.

In Cape Verde the mazurka is also revered as an important cultural phenomenon played with acoustic bands led by a violinist and accompanied by guitarists.

It also takes a variation of the mazurka dance form and is found mostly in the north of the archipelago, mainly in São Nicolau, Santo Antão.

Czech composers Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, and Bohuslav Martinů all wrote mazurkas to at least some extent.

[9][10][11][12] Musician Caoimhín Mac Aoidh has written a book on the subject, From Mazovia to Meenbanad: The Donegal Mazurkas, in which the history of the musical and dance form is related.

Typical of Italian mazurkas are groups of triplets, strong dotted rhythms, and phrase endings of two accented quarter notes and a rest, unlike a waltz.

In Cuba, composer Ernesto Lecuona wrote a piece titled Mazurka en Glisado for the piano, one of various commissions throughout his life.

In Mexico, composers Ricardo Castro and Manuel M Ponce wrote mazurkas for the piano in a Chopin fashion, eventually mixing elements of Mexican folk dances.

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.

[17] 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.

[18] In addition to being part of the repertoire of Irish traditional music sessions, the mazurka has been played by a wide variety of cultural groups in California.

[20] During the early 20th century, the mazurka became part of the repertoire of Italian American musicians in San Francisco playing in the ballo liscio style.

[22] One mazurka, played on harmonica, was collected by Sidney Robertson Cowell for the WPA California Folk Music Project in 1939 in Tuolumne County.