Donegal Mazurka

Subject: Donegal Mazurka
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 08 Aug 00 - 09:26 AM

Recently (probably yesterday) I posted a nice message saying how to learn a delightful tune called the Donegal Mazurka. If anybody ever saw that post, would you let me know?

I think it's strange that we can have posts about unwanted kittens and posts where people are bickering, but we can't have a post about a wonderful new tune.

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: alison
Date: 08 Aug 00 - 09:46 AM

Leenia, do you remember what the thread was called?

sometimes it takes a while to get an answer... but you are better to refresh the original thread rathr than start another one on the same topic.

welcome to mudcat

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: BeauDangles
Date: 08 Aug 00 - 09:51 AM

Hi Leeneia,

Sorry nobody got back to you right away. Don't give up on us. First of all, let me say that if you start a thread and no one responds it will creep off the list, but it has not gone away. You can search for it again and refresh it by replying to it yourself with a simple message saying "refresh." That will pop it back to the top of the list again for a while.

Secondly, be patient. Sometimes finding tunes can be more difficult that finding actual songs with words.

Thirdly, there are many, many wonderful tunes out there. There are quite a few lovely mazurkas out there. And a goodly number of those are called Donegal Mazurka. Why? Because Donegal is one of the places where the Mazurka thrives in Ireland. (The mazurka is a musical import from Norway, Sweden or some such place. It is a slightly waltz-like tune similar to the hambo. Am I wrong about this 'Catters?) Would it be possible for you to supply us with more than the very few details that you gave us, so we can identify this tune? I know of one such named tune on a recording by Altan called Island Angel. Could this be the one?

BeauDangles

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: alison
Date: 08 Aug 00 - 09:52 AM

found it here

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Alice
Date: 08 Aug 00 - 11:22 AM

Leenia, I read the other thread you started after seeing the link here. I agree, the mazurkas are beautiful, and we play both Donegal Mazurka and Sonny's Mazurka at our session.

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Sean Belt
Date: 08 Aug 00 - 11:34 AM

Leeneia,

I did see your post yesterday and read through the thread. I didn't make comment on it, because I had nothing to contribute to the discussion. No reflection on you, the tune or the thread. I'm sure it's a delightful piece of music. But right now, I'm pursuing about three other tunes and have to focus more on getting those right.

- Sean

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 08 Aug 00 - 10:34 PM

You can find the one I'm enjoying by going to www.celticmusic.com, then clicking on The Virtual Tunebook. I think the piece is a lot of fun.

The mazurka is in 3/4, but I plan to tell my friends that we can get the hang of it if we use our secret words for 4/4 (henrietta, pizza, coke) rather than the usual words for 3/4 (wonderful, one-lolly).

Ya know what I mean?

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Thomas the Rhymer
Date: 08 Aug 00 - 10:46 PM

The one I play is on Altan's "runaway sunday" CD.
I cant get enough of it

Sorry I missed your previous post, I get tunnel vision sometimes with all the input... I thank you !
('!')

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 09 Aug 00 - 12:16 AM

Now I see that my original post has re-appeared. Perhaps somebody borrowed it, thinking that no one would notice it was missing for a while.

I wish that my pincushion shaped like a tomato would re-appear in the same gratifying fashion.

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: alison
Date: 09 Aug 00 - 03:11 AM

I refreshed you thread, and the link (blue/purple writing)I put in above takes you directly to your tune...

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Alice
Date: 09 Aug 00 - 09:42 AM

Hey, leeneia, I have one of those tomato pinchusions, too. Maybe yours ran away to Montana to be with mine...

The Donegal Mazurka that we play is different than the one you referred to. Last night I recorded my son (age almost 13) playing it on the mandolin. If you (or anyone else) wants to hear this version, I uploaded it to a file on driveway.com and can email it to you. It's an MP3, about 500k. You can join the Mudcat and get personal messages to send your email address to me, or email a request for the sound file to [e-mail]. By the way, I don't get how you can change the tempo to 4/4 and still call it a Mazurka!??

Alice

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 09 Aug 00 - 11:21 AM

No, Alice, the tempo is still 3/4. Usually to count 3/4 we (our band and the classical music teachers we learned from) use words with three syllables such as "wonderful." But the mazurka works better with the customary words for 4/4 music. (This is the Karl Orff method of counting. We love it.)

This is what makes the mazurka so delightfully quirky.

My dictionary says that the word "mazurka" originates in a the name of a region in Poland, so I suppose the dance is Polish or similar, not Norwegian as posited heretofore.

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Alice
Date: 09 Aug 00 - 11:29 AM

Let me know if this link works for you. http://www.driveway.com/share?sid=59f84619.a21de&name=Mudcat+music Donegal Mazurka Ryan Flynn mandolin, Alice Flynn, guitar

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Alice
Date: 09 Aug 00 - 12:12 PM

Well, I seemed to have messed up that link so let's see if this works. I included one of me singing. http://www.driveway.com/share?sid=59f84619.a21de&name=Mudcat+music Donegal Mazurka and some singing.

Alice

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 09 Aug 00 - 12:30 PM

Very nice Alice and Ryan. I do it a little differently (I think it is a varient of the same tune). I have placed it at http://members.tripod.co.uk/jonbajo/Mazurka.rm

Jon

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Alice
Date: 09 Aug 00 - 12:37 PM

Yes, Jon, that is very close to the way we play it here. I have the notation of how we do it at our session if anyone is interested in getting a scan of the music.

Alice

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 09 Aug 00 - 01:36 PM

There's some discussion of mazurkas and how to dance them on this thread:  Dance Questions.  As I understand it, the Irish strand of that dance is of the "polka-mazurka" variety, but then, I don't dance so I may easily be wrong.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Crowhugger
Date: 09 Aug 00 - 02:10 PM

BeauDangles, as far as I know, mazurkas came from Poland, perhaps by a circuitous route, but a Polish dance.

Leeneia, maybe because it's summer things will take more time. Yours is the sort of thread I'd latch onto immediately, but I just got back from holiday and today is my first day to start an overview of what's been happening here. I prefer to let the chatters chat and the bickerers bicker, and trace the threads I want to keep an eye on, just in case they fall off the one-day default listing. I try not to post if I've nothing to say, unless I want to refresh. Could be that others do the same?

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 09 Aug 00 - 06:52 PM

Alice, why not put a scan of your session version up on driveway for us to see? I for one would like to see it (even though with my sight reading skills, I will have to make it into a MIDI first!).

Jon

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Alice
Date: 09 Aug 00 - 06:57 PM

Ok, give me about 15 minutes.

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Burke
Date: 09 Aug 00 - 07:11 PM

Mazurkas are from Poland but the Scandinavian Pols/Polska/Hambo has pretty much the same kind of tempo, feel. They are 3/4 but not the same as a waltz. One can Hambo to a Mazurka.

Polska is rooted in the term Polish. The Scandinavians & others had a way of creating dances that were their idea of a dance elsewhere. They probably stole the rhythm & put their own steps to it. The schottische is another, proportedly Scottish but really continental. I understand the Polka did not originate in Poland either.

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Alice
Date: 09 Aug 00 - 08:02 PM

Well, that took a little longer than fifteen minutes because I decided to put Sonny's Mazurka up, too, and made a page on my website. That way, anyone can see it with their browser, no need to download an image file from the driveway folder.

Donegal Mazurka and Sonny's Mazurka, notation.click here

Alice

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Alice
Date: 09 Aug 00 - 08:06 PM

Notice the second and fifth measures in Sonny's Mazurka have eighth notes that have notebook holes punched in them, so it's hard to see that they are eighth notes... should have touched that up after scanning, but missed it. sorry

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 09 Aug 00 - 10:32 PM

Thanks Alice, I will Midi them tommorrow to see how they compare to the versions I know. I am loosing track with the two threads and think I said this in the other but Sonny's has been a favourite tune of mine for a long while. In the sessions round here, we often play these tunes together, starting with Sonny's.

Jo

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 02:10 PM

Thanks Alice
I will have a go at playing them later
A question though - I have a book with tunes of the same titles and the notation is slightly different. Just had another look and it seems to be the same tune. The difference is like that of a hornpipe to a reel - the first of the pair of 'half notes' is dotted and the second halved in length - so stressing the first note and reducing the second. Does that make any sense??
Anyway I was really looking forward to hearing your music but I can't get it - the darn thing restarts after reaching about 70% each time. Never mind though I fell into your pond page - I love ponds - have two and considering a third. Also love plants and grow Trilliums ( not native here) in my garden
Roger

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Alice
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 03:04 PM

...another ponder. What is it about musicians and gardening? Love those ponds. I think we earlier had input on this subject that the dance mazurka has the third beat stressed, unlike the waltz, where the first beat of the measure is stressed. It is amazing how many versions of these tunes there are, isn't it? The old folk process at work - also, I've been thinking about this lately, and that there are so many people playing dance tunes without the dancers (!) that the music is changing (too fast, etc) because it is not being played or listened to so much in the context for which it was created.

Alice

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 05:52 PM

Alice, you are my kind of person. I like your notebook holes. They show that people are sharing and enjoying the music.

Speaking of dance music going faster all the time, I recently reread "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen. There is a scene in it where Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are doing country dancing, and they carry on a teasing conversation. Can you imagine anybody conversing while dancing nowadays? I can't.

I started reading Jane Austen again because of the bestseller "Bridget Jones Diary" and its sequel, "the Edge of Reason." There are a lot of links between these books. It's fun to discover them.

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Alice
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 08:28 PM

leeneia, every few years I re-read all my Jane Austin and Thomas Hardy books. Have you ever read "Under the Greenwood Tree"? If you do a forum search on MASON'S APRON, you will find part of it that I quote. Great T. Hardy. Just finished "The Song of The Lark" by Willa Cather. I used to re-read "Death Comes For the Archbishop", my favorite Cather, but now "Song of the Lark" is a real singer's novel, especially for someone who knows the history of the American West.

Thanks everyone, for listening to the sound clips... now if I can just get my son to quit referring to it as "Donny Goes Berserk-o".... he'll be thirteen in a week, teenagers, teenagers...

Alice

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 11 Aug 00 - 01:08 AM

There are also mazurkas in the book, The Northern Fiddler: Music and Musicians of Donegal and Tyrone, by Allen Feldman and Eamonn O'Doherty.

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: IanS
Date: 11 Aug 00 - 10:24 AM

-Does anybody know how to get hold of the book "The Northern Fiddler" and would love to get a copy. As far as I am aware it is out of print.

Ians

Subject: RE: Donegal Mazurka
From: Alice
Date: 11 Aug 00 - 12:35 PM

Try the out of print booksites, bibliofind.com and bookfinder.com . Barnes&Noble and Amazon also have used book search functions.