What is Mazurka?
[[File:Mazurka 1845.jpg|thumb|right|219px|<center>Mazurka; 1845</center>]] The '''Mazurka''' is a [[Poland|Polish]] [[country dance]]. It comes from an area called [[Mazovia]] near [[Warsaw]] where the people are called Mazurs. It was known in the [[16th century]]. In the [[17th century]] its popularity spread all over Poland and by the [[19th century]] it was becoming known in [[England]] and then the [[United States]]. The Mazurka is very similar to the '''Kujawiak''' which is a dance from another district near Warsaw. The Mazurka is a lively dance in 3/4 [[metre]]. It has lots of dotted [[rhythm]]s and the fourth [[note (music)|note]] of the [[Scale (music)|scale]] is often [[sharps and flats|sharpened]]. The dancers often click their [[heel]]s on the 2nd or 3rd beat of the [[Bar (music)|bar]]. The speed is not always fast, it can be slow, but it is a wilder dance than the [[waltz]] which is also in 3/4 time and had become very popular as a ballroom dance. The [[composer]] [[Frédéric Chopin]] wrote more than 50 mazurkas for the piano. Chopin really shows his [[genius]] in these pieces. They are very beautiful and there is a lot of variety and interest in them. Many of them are not all that difficult to play. Some of them have very [[chromaticism|chromatic]] bits in them. There were other [[Classical music|classical composers]] who wrote Mazurkas, but none of them are as good as those of Chopin. Some [[Russia]]n composers like [[Mikhael Glinka|Glinka]] and [[Tchaikovsky]] wrote several mazurkas. It was danced a lot in Russia in the 19th century and it is mentioned a lot in Russian [[novel]]s. In the [[20th century]] [[Karol Szymanowski]] wrote several mazurkas. {{music-stub}} [[Category:Ballroom dances]] [[Category:Musical forms]]