Title: Nineteenth-century polkas with rising melodic and cadence gestures
Link: polkas
Abstract: The polka became a popular social dance very quickly in the early 1840s. Its music was the first to introduce rising melodic frames and cadence gestures as common features. This essay provides a series of examples with commentary. Most pieces come from the 1840s and early 1850s. Variants of the polka—polka-mazurka, polka française, and polka schnell—are also discussed and illustrated.
Keywords: Dodworth, Eduard Strauss, Carl Michael Ziehrer, polka, social dance, Delia Ward, Franz Boehme, Johann Strauss, Stephen Foster
