Annotation:Violette (La)

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VIOLETTE, LA. (The Violet). English, Polka-Mazurka (3/4 time). G Major ('A' part) & D Major ('B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). ABB'. The title, 'The Violet', has been applied to several tunes on the Continent, although only a few in the polka-mazurka form. Sheet music for a polka-mazurka called "La Violette" by J.E. Ebrenz can be found at the American Memory website [1], although it is not musically related to the melody in the Hardy family manuscripts. The Hardy family tune is, however, a version of "La Violette", a mazurka by Carl Faust (1825-1892) [2],

The name La Violette was applied to a dancer named Eva Maria Veigel who become something of a celebrity of the London Stage in the mid-18th century; she was married to the great actor-manager David Garrick. She predates the introduction of the polka-mazurka form (mid-1840's), but there possibly is an association, if remote.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Trim (The Musical Heritage of Thomas Hardy), 1990; No. 82.

Recorded sources:

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