Annotation:Schwanda Polka

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X:1 T:Schwanda Polka M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Polka N:From Weinberger’s opera “Schwanda the Bagpipe Player” K:F C|FF/G/ AA/c/|BB/c/ B/A/G|AA GG|F2F2| cc/d/ ee/g/|ff/g/ f/e/d|ee dd|c2c2| BB/c/ B/A/G|AA cc|BB dd|cc fd| c/d/c/B/ AG|c2 B2|AA/B/ AG|F2F2||



SCHWANDA POLKA. Czech, Polka (2/4 time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. A polka from the opera Schwanda the Bagpiper (1927) by Jaromir Weinberger (which disappointingly does not employ any bagpipe music, but did use a number of Czech folk melodies), employed by caller Dudley Laufman (Canterbury, New Hampshire) for contra dancing. Laufman recalled that his mother would play a recording of the Polka and Fugue from the opera and “danced by herself all around the house.” When Schwanda was translated into German (Schwanda der Dudelsackpfeifer), the opera proved popular, however it was suppressed by the Nazis in the late 1930's.

Additional notes

Source for notated version: -

Printed sources : - Laufman (Okay, Let's Try a Contra, Men on the Right, Ladies on the Left, Up and Down the Hall), 1973; p. 33.

Recorded sources: -



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