Euro Mazurkas

Featuring Mazurka de st Andiol . Mazurka du Morvan . Shillelagh . Mazurka . Zef Musike Mazurka . Mazurka di Augusto Migliavacca. Suona Francesco Nigro di Rossano Calabro . Par dessus les Alpes . Danse folklorique Provençale . Marien lina . Mazurka des filles

Polish Music Center. : The mazur and mazurek (i.e. small mazur), or in English mazurka, are general terms for a series of Polish folk dances in triple meter, which originated in the plains of Mazovia around Warsaw. The people of the province were called Mazurs; thus, the dance mazur bears the same name as the male inhabitant of the region.

Donegal : Mazurkas are basically 3/4 time dance tunes (originally Polish), typically with an emphasis on the second beat and at any rate played with a rhythmic swing, and sometimes with a “Scotch snap” (as in strathspeys). According to Caoimhín Mac Aoidh they made their way to Donegal by “travelling with various military regiments” (liner notes to The Fiddle Music of Donegal).

Maja Trochimczyk : The introduction of the mazurka to art music is usually credited to Fryderyk Chopin, though his predecessors included Maria Szymanowska, and others. While Chopin’s borrowings from folk, urban, or salon types of the mazurka have been extensively discussed by scholars (e.g. Mieczysław Tomaszewski, Elżbieta Witkowska, Barbara Milewski), certain melodic, harmonic, rhythmic and formal traits point to their close relationship with the idiosyncratic features of the folk mazur-type dances.

Central French Dances : A sultry seductive couple dance, the mazurka is found in much of western, central and northern Europe. The form most often danced in France is a variation combining the basic mazurka step and the waltz step.

World And Folk Rarities : Norrlåtar is a folk group from the Norrbotten province in the north ofSweden. Its first ambition was to preserve and continue the localtradition of folk music in the 1970’s.

Blowzabella on MySpace : Many European bands who experiment beyond the boundaries of “folk” music cite Blowzabella as a major influence. Their music has developed a lot over time but their mission has always remained the same : to go to interesting places, meet interesting people and get them to dance.

Altan : The seeds of the band lie in the music and fun of gatherings and sessions in kitchens and pubs in Donegal where virtuoso music was heard in an atmosphere of respect and intimacy – it is here that the band’s heart lies still whether they are performing on tv in Australia or jamming with Ricky Skaggs on the west coast of the United States.

MSN : If you still think the accordion should be relegated to endless regurgitations of “Lady of Spain,” then you need to hear this record. What Armand Lassagne plays is a kind of jazzy bal musette, the café music that simply evokes Paris.