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Frauenherz (A Woman’s Heart): Polka-Mazurka Op.166
by Josef Strauss (1827–1870)
Josef Strauss (1827-1870)
Frauenherz (A Woman’s Heart): Polka-Mazurka Op.166
In efforts to increase the musical interest of the polka, the Strauss family developed a slower version, the so-called French polka, and a fascinating hybrid, the polka-mazurka, which adapted the duple-time polka step to the triple-time mazurka. While it must be said that few of the Strauss polka-mazurkas offer the mazurka’s diagnostic transfer of the rhythmic emphasis from the first beat of the bar to the second or third, this example by Johann II’s younger brother Joseph has enticing tunes and a gentle step which is neither polka nor waltz but somewhere intriguingingly between
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Frauenherz.rtf”