The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #19461 Message #198182
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
20-Mar-00 - 02:41 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Put Your Little Foot (Varsouvienna)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Varsouvianna
Sorcha is right; "Varsovienne" is a generic term for a type of mazurka originating in Warsaw, but the form became widely popular around 1850-70, and a lot were written at that time, amongst them the one MTM is presumably talking about, which was rapidly absorbed into the tradition. This from the notes accompanying English Country Music (Topic Records 1976):
The Waltz Vienna:
La Varsoviana, a French dance devised supposedly in the Warsaw style, was introduced into Parisian society in 1853 and quickly spread around Europe and America. Francisco Alonso's original composition was in eight parts and although traditional musicians have developed many melodic variations, most versions of the tune seem to relate to some part or other of the original. The dance, at least as it was done in Sussex, is a round dance with one phrase of stepping -heel, toe, chassé, chassé- and one of waltzing. Known also as Verse Vienne, La Va, Step Waltz, Paddy Candy, Shoe The Donkey, Cock Your Leg Up Hi Ho and La Valse Du Pauvre Garçonnet, it has been recorded by many Irish, Scots, English and American musicians.
There's a 1952 recording of Sligo fiddler Michael Gorman playing The Varsoviana on one of Peter Kennedy's Folktracks tapes; it's very similar to the version that was current in East Anglia at the same time, though taken at a slightly faster pace and with a more emphatic rhythm. Gorman says that it was danced much the same way as the Polka Mazurka.
All this doesn't really answer the original question, except to show that the piece was never intended to be a song, and cosequently doesn't have lyrics as such, though of course odd bits of words such as Jacob B. gives have sometimes become attached to it.