Polka In The United States
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Polka In The United States
Polka is a music and dance style that originated in Europe in the 1830s and came to American society when people immigrated from Eastern Europe. A fast style in 2/4 time, and often associated with the pre–World War II era, polka remains a dynamic "niche" music in America. Description Several polka genres exist in the United States, each with its own unique characteristics and performers. Though these polka genres vary, all are unified in the expression of ethnicity by performers and participants. Polka enthusiasts gather to enjoy their love of the music and dance and to honor their heritage at polka festivals. Modern media enables these fans to stay connected and share their passion. Though it passed its heyday in the 1950sGreene, Victor, ''A Passion for Polka''. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1992. the polka remains an active music form with distinct genres, leading performers, and active organizations. Where it is popular, the polka is a manifestati ...
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Polka
Polka is a dance and genre of dance music originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though associated with Czech culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the Americas. History Etymology The term ''polka'' referring to the dance is derived from the Czech word ''Polka'' meaning "Polish woman" (feminine form corresponding to ''Polák'', a Pole)."polka, n.". Oxford University Press. (accessed 11 July 2012). Czech cultural historian Čeněk Zíbrt also attributes the term to the Czech word ''půlka'' (half), referring to both the half-tempo and the half-jump step of the dance.Čeněk Zíbrt, "Jak se kdy v Čechách tancovalo: dějiny tance v Čechách, na Moravě, ve Slezsku a na Slovensku z věků nejstarších až do nové doby se zvláštním zřetelem k dějinám tance vůbec", Prague, 189(Google eBook)/ref> The word was widely introduced into the major European languages in the early 1840s. Origin and popularity The polka' ...
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Frankie Yankovic
Frank John Yankovic (July 28, 1915 – October 14, 1998) was an American accordion player and polka musician. Known as "America's Polka King", Yankovic was considered the premier artist to play in the Slovenian style during his long career. He was not related to fellow accordionist and song parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic, although the two collaborated. Background Yankovic was born to Slovene immigrant parents: Andrew Yankovic (''Andreas Jankovič'', 1879–1949) from Kal and Rose T. Yankovic (née ''Theresia Mele'', 1886–1968) from Cerknica, who married in 1910. Yankovic was raised in the Collinwood neighborhood on Cleveland's East Side. He released over 200 recordings in his career. In 1986, he was awarded the first-ever Grammy in the Best Polka Recording category. He rarely strayed from Slovenian-style polka, but did record with country guitarist Chet Atkins and pop singer Don Everly. He also recorded a version of the "Too Fat Polka" with comedian Drew Carey. History Yankov ...
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Esteban Jordan
Esteban "Steve" Jordan (February 23, 1939 – August 13, 2010) was a jazz, rock, blues, conjunto and Tejano musician from the United States. He was also known as "El Parche", "The Jimi Hendrix of the accordion", and "the accordion wizard". An accomplished musician, he played 35 different instruments. Life Born in Elsa, Texas to migrant farm workers and partially blinded as an infant, Jordan was unable to work in the fields. Left at home, he found friendship and guidance among the elderly. At a very young age he was introduced to music, especially the accordion. At the time, the musician Valerio Longoria followed the community of migrant farm workers and played for them in the labor camps. These circumstances brought the two together and the young Esteban mastered the instrument quickly. While he remained close to his traditional conjunto roots, he never limited himself musically. More than any other accordionist, Jordan pushed the diatonic accordion to its limits, both mus ...
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Flaco Jimenez
José María Avizanda Glaría (born 24 May 1966), better known as Flaco, is a Spanish football coach and former player. He won the Norwegian Football Cup with Molde in 1994. Flaco has played for Rayo Vallecano from 1986 to 1990, where he was a teammate of Jan Berg. When he left Rayo Vallecano for Molde, he became the first and for many years the only Spaniard to have played in the Norwegian Premier League. During his coaching career he has coached Averøykameratene and Bryn from Møre og Romsdal Møre og Romsdal (; en, Møre and Romsdal) is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the town of Molde, while Ålesund is the .... After 17 years in Norway, he now lives in Spain. Career statistics Notes References External links * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Flaco 1966 births Living people Spanish footballers Molde FK players Rayo Vallecano players Associ ...
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Bajo Sexto
Bajo sexto (Spanish: "sixth bass") is a Mexican string instrument from the guitar family with 12 strings in six double courses. A closely related instrument is the bajo quinto (Spanish: "fifth bass") which has 10 strings in five double courses. In playing, the left hand holds the strings against frets on a fingerboard, while the right hand plucks or strums the strings. When played in older styles of music where the instrument assumes the role of a bass, the strings are usually plucked with the fingers. In modern chordal and melodic styles, a pick is frequently used. Origins and use The history of the bajo sexto is somewhat unclear. There are few written sources, and until very recently most music dictionaries and encyclopedias did not mention the instrument. A few contemporary researchers have been working from oral sources—living players and luthiers—to tracing the background of the instrument. They descend from the Spanish bandurrias and lutes that used double strings and ...
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Ranchera
Ranchera () or canción ranchera is a genre of traditional music of Mexico. It dates to before the years of the Mexican Revolution. Rancheras today are played in virtually all regional Mexican music styles. Drawing on rural traditional folk music, the ranchera developed as a symbol of a new national consciousness in reaction to the aristocratic tastes of the period. The classic "rancheras" songs usually talk about life in Mexico not only in rural areas, but also portray life in Mexico at the time of the bandits. That said, it refers to romanticizing canteens,charros "Mexican cowboy", firearms, love affairs and duels. Definitions The word ''ranchera'' was derived from the word ''rancho'' because the songs originated on the ranches and in the countryside of rural Mexico. Traditional themes in rancheras are about love, patriotism or nature. Rhythms can have a meter in (in slow tempo: '' ranchera lenta'' and faster tempo: ''ranchera marcha''), (''ranchera valseada''), or (' ...
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Conjunto
The term ''conjunto'' (, literally 'group', 'ensemble') refers to several types of small musical ensembles present in different Latin American musical traditions, mainly in Mexico and Cuba. While Mexican conjuntos play styles such as '' norteño'' and '' tejano'', Cuban ''conjuntos'' specialize in the ''son'', as well as its derivations such as ''salsa''. Mexican Mexican conjunto music, also known as ''conjunto tejano'', was born in south Texas at the end of the 19th century, after German settlers introduced the button accordion. The ''bajo sexto'' has come to accompany the button accordion and is integral to the ''conjunto'' sound. Many ''conjuntos'' are concentrated in the Southwestern portion of the United States, primarily in Texas and California. In Mexico, the term ''conjunto'' is associated with '' norteño'' and ''tejano'' music. Since ''tejano'' was bred out of ''norteño'' music originally, this association is not entirely false. However, due to various cultural and so ...
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Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk (March 11, 1903 – May 17, 1992) was an American accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted the ''The Lawrence Welk Show'' from 1951 to 1982. His style came to be known as "champagne music" to his radio, television, and live-performance audiences. Early life Welk was born in the German-speaking community of Strasburg, North Dakota. He was sixth of the eight children of Ludwig and Christiana (née Schwahn) Welk, Roman Catholic ethnic Germans who emigrated in 1892 from Odessa, Russian Empire (now Ukraine). Welk was a first cousin, once removed, of former Montana governor Brian Schweitzer (Welk's mother and Schweitzer's paternal grandmother were siblings). Welk's paternal great-great-grandparents, Moritz and Magdalena Welk, emigrated in 1808 from Germanophone Alsace-Lorraine to the Ukraine. The family lived on a homestead that is now a tourist attraction. They spent the cold North Dakota winter of their first year inside an upturned wagon cov ...
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Six Fat Dutchmen
The Six Fat Dutchmen was an American polka band, formed around 1932 by Harold Loeffelmacher in New Ulm, Minnesota, United States. The band was known mostly for playing the "Oom-pah" style of polka music that originated from Germany and the German-speaking areas of Czechoslovakia. They were regular performers at the then-famous George's Ballroom in New Ulm, and were voted Number One Polka Band for seven years in a row by the National Ballroom Operators Association. Compilations of their music continue to be produced and sold, more than 70 years after the band's founding. Like Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys, the band provided the name to its musical genre, "Dutchman Music". As might be surmised from the band's name, there were initially six members, but over time it grew to include about a dozen musicians. The band appeared often on a local television station in Mankato, Minnesota, and their popularity grew to the point where they played the Nebraska State Fair for 26 straight year ...
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Ländler
The Ländler () is a folk dance in time which was popular in Austria, Bavaria, German Switzerland, and Slovenia at the end of the 18th century. It is a partner dance which strongly features hopping and stamping. It might be purely instrumental or have a vocal part, sometimes featuring yodeling. When dance halls became popular in Europe in the 19th century, the Ländler was made quicker and more elegant, and the men shed the hobnail boots which they wore to dance it. Along with a number of other folk dances from Germany and Bohemia, it is thought to have influenced the development of the waltz. A number of classical composers wrote or included Ländler in their music, including Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert and Anton Bruckner. In several of his symphonies, Gustav Mahler replaced the menuet with a Ländler. The Carinthian folk tune quoted in Alban Berg's ''Violin Concerto'' is a Ländler, and another features in Act II of his opera ''Wozzeck''. The "German Dances" o ...
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Schottische
The schottische is a partnered country dance that apparently originated in Bohemia. It was popular in Victorian era ballrooms as a part of the Bohemian folk-dance craze and left its traces in folk music of countries such as Argentina ("chotis"Spanish Wikipedia and "chamamé"), Finland ("jenkka"), France, Italy, Norway (""), Portugal and Brazil (''xote'', '), Spain (''chotis''), Sweden, Denmark ("schottis"), Mexico (Norteño music), and the United States, among other nations. The schottische is considered by ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' to be a kind of slower polka, with continental-European origin. The schottische basic step is made up of two sidesteps to the left and right, followed by a turn in four steps. In some countries, the sidesteps and turn are replaced by Strathspey hopping steps. Schottisches danced in Europe (in the context of balfolk), where they originated, are different from how they are danced in the United States. The European (or Continental) version (ofte ...
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Line Dance
A line dance is a choreographed dance in which a group of people dance along to a repeating sequence of steps while arranged in one or more lines or rows. These lines usually face all in the same direction, or less commonly face each other.Knight, Gladys L. (2014). ''Pop Culture Places: An Encyclopedia of Places in American Popular Culture'', p.102. ABC-CLIO. .Lane, Christy (2000/1995). ''Christy Lane's Complete Book of Line Dancing'', p.2-4. Human Kinetics. .Zakrajsek, Dorothy; Carnes, Lois; and Pettigrew, Frank E. (2003). ''Quality Lesson Plans for Secondary Physical Education, Volume 1'', p.188. Human Kinetics. . Unlike circle dancing, line dancers are not in physical contact with each other. Each dance is usually associated with, and named for, a specific song, such as the Macarena (both eponymous) or Electric Slide (associated with the 1982 single "Electric Boogie") are a few of the line dances that have consistently remained part of modern American culture for years. Line da ...
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