Barndance/Polka

At the risk of sounding really ignorant, what is the difference between these two types? Thank you.

A barndance, as far as I can figure out, is a slow reel; a polka has two rather than four notes in a measure, making it easy for melodists and really annoying for the accompanists, seeing as the rhythm is essentially twice as fast as a reel.

Zazzaliss, thanks for answering even though polkas annoy you!! So it’s just a meter thing not a style thing? How cool to attend a school of Irish music. Around here (Oklahoma) it’s to get people to think any kind of music is worth learning/teaching.

Well, to further cloud the already murky waters, blame Professor Mark Dow Anderson, Department of Invincible Ethnomusicological Rhetoric and Alcohology, The Free (and Easy) University of Sydney, Orstrilia, for the following, and fair fux to him:

https://thesession.org/tunes/3352

I think I’ll just have a beer and play some waltzes.

Thank you, Jim Troy. That’s just what I needed to hear; it helps a lot to think of dancing. Most of the polkas I hear around here are Czech, and go like fire. I think I’m playing barn dances way too fast--but they sure are fun!
PS I am a lousy dancer…..

Ceolachan is definitely the person to ask about this. The problem is that there are a few different types of tune that get called polka. There’s the fast 2/4 Kerry style, and then there’s Sligo style ones which are different, and then there are ones that are sort of like quick barndances which are still a bit of a mystery to me. It’s all stupidly complicated. I would try and avoid thinking about it!

Miss yuh still Jamie ~ as always, your heart is in the right place, and your steppin’. So, next dance? You can lead…
😉

https://thesession.org/tunes/3371
https://thesession.org/tunes/3371/comments

https://thesession.org/tunes/3881
https://thesession.org/tunes/3881/comments

https://thesession.org/tunes/3359
https://thesession.org/tunes/3359/comments

https://thesession.org/tunes/3357
https://thesession.org/tunes/3357/comments

https://thesession.org/tunes/3397
https://thesession.org/tunes/3397/comments

https://thesession.org/tunes/3469
https://thesession.org/tunes/3469/comments

https://thesession.org/tunes/3462
https://thesession.org/tunes/3462/comments

Sorry ‘dmarie’, Czech! Damn, you guys are famous for polka-ing. You also make some damned nice guitars, Furch ~

http://www.furch.cz/

I’d love one of theirs, almost, and I’d love to visit and to learn some Czech polkas and dancing.

I know Jamie said ‘5’, but as usual I got carried away. I did edit it down though, by at least half, sticking to tunes only and some ‘dance descriptions’, the stepping, basic steps, is telling. There are a number of discussions on the topic too. As James says, the barndance fits in with the hornpipe family, and that includes the Highland Fling, Germans, Schottisches and even, where the ‘swing’ and dance moves are shared, mazurkas…

In other discussions you would find how the term ‘polka’ moves about, even into the 3/4 tune/dance forms, with regards to steps and moves, for example the ‘polka-mazurka’, but mainly ‘polkas’ are straight tunes, without swing, variously notated as 2/4 or 4/4. There are always exceptions and some tunes work both ways, straight or swung. Also, step-wise, both a simple ‘123’ or a ‘hop123’ or ‘123 hop’ can be found danced to different versions of the ‘polka’. While the ‘hop’ (really a ‘skip’) is the norm for the hornpipe family, some ‘smooth’ dancers dance a simple ‘123’ and pivot without the ‘hop/skip’…

I’ll save a dance or two for you…

Czech?, Oklahoma!, Cleveland! ~ sorry, I’m in a state of cofusion lately, too little sleep and not enough balance, meaning not enough music and dance. I’ll have to rectify that, but first, I need a good strong espresso…

That’s what I get, crossed wires, and me wearing these thick brightly coloured hand knit Czech booties…and dancing under the desk here while typing. Oh yeah, the espresso, almost forgot…

Oh yeah, a “lousy dancer”, then we should have a great time. The worst dancers in the world are those that think they’re great and know it all. At least this way we can do it for the craic and not be out to prove anything. You’d like Jim too. He’s also into it for the joy of it, not to prove anything. So, we’ve three up for a dance, you can choose which you’d like to dance with but I’d recommend Jimmy, a nicer partner would be hard to find. We need five more for a full set, or one more for a half set. I think we should choose something with both tune/dance forms in it, maybe the Mayo Lancers, though there are a few others with both the polka and the barndance or fling it them. We can do a few couple dances to the tunes too…

Hey, I just got another yes, so we’ve a half set. We’ll need some musicians too though unless I’m going to have to lilt us through it, though we could do it collectively? Now to choose the tunes, maybe by then we’ll have two more couples or even a few more sets worth? Yeeha! (~ the espresso is taking effect!)

We’ll take sides, so we don’t have to go first and can see what the top two couples make of it before we have our go…

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, that last posting reminds me of a party in Britany many years ago……………………………………………….Oh, & there weren’t no dancing at it either - least ways no vertical dancing ……………………….. 😉

:0

Y‘all are just too much fun of a Saturday mornin’! Ceolanchan, I’ not actually Czech, my friends are. There are a lot of small Czech communities in Oklahoma, great festivals, great dancing, great food---one of my students grandmas always brought kolaches when he came to lessons, yum.
I play polkas much better than I dance them. These are very straightforward, two to a bar, accordian rules the tempo polkas. The one time I joined the dance circle a very courtly old gentlemen escorted me back to my chair and told me to stick with the fiddle…Gee……

PS sorry, stuck an extra “n” in your name--ceolachan---that guitar site made my fingers itch for my credit card….

nnnnn!, oops, I mean mmmmmm! I forgot to mention I like the food too. It’s that mans loss not to dance with you and do it for the fun of it… If you’ve got the swing in your bow, well, hands and arms and feet and legs aren’t that far off of one another, it’s just our own insecurities in the way to delay the transfer of rhythm and joy. I suspect either Jim or I and you’d be laugin’ ~ meaning in the best way…

Ceolachan, thanks for that. The next time I go to a festival I’m going to dance and then laugh and try again if someone parks me back in my chair, instead of sitting there flame-faced with embarrassment. Insecurities can be so crippling---must be why God invented fiddles! (for me at least). I like the words rhythm and joy together; life is much too short to miss out on this wonderful pair. Ever’body Polka!!

Ah, would that it could be so! I’ve just returned home after playing a wedding--string quartet faking our way through Enya songs (even for the bridal march)--no dinner, not even invited to the reception. I’d love to twinkle my toes and sparkle and glow!

I thought a barndance was an evening spent in the English countryside, in a draughty insanitary building with a band perched precariously on a rickety farm cart, full of hearty people with no sense of rhythm wearing checked shirts and jaunty neckerchiefs (and cowboy hats if you’re lucky). They spend all evening being shouted at by some bloke who is not a good enough musician to be in the band so he just tells people how to dance. The result is like a battlefield and of they are lucky the stray animal poo with have dried, and the place will not burn down despite all the smokers amongst bales of hay whimsically arranged to give ‘atmosphere’.

Or maybe that’s Barn Dance. Sorry. I suffered for years in bands at such occasions - made me ashamed to be English.

Aye dmarie, that is the worst thing about those wedding functions, just being totally ignored by both sides of the family.
I never feel more like wall paper than when we’re playing at a wedding reception.
At the service it’s fine, as is playing for the Ceili, but that afternoon stint in the hotel with both families too busy to notice you, cause they are so busy eyeing up the other lot & all those members of their own family who they haven’t seen for years.

However, the worst gig I think we ever played was in a room above a bar, where we were all packed in like sardines & they were the noisiest crowd I think I ever heard.
Anyway, we were squashed into a corner on the only four chairs & we couldn’t even hear each other.
I got so bored, I started mucking around & for the craic I played the 2nd part of a jig 8 times & nobody noticed, none of the other musicians could hear enough to notice!
I then played the wedding march followed by the funeral march - still no reaction from the crowd!!
As we were about to finish, a young couple sidled up near us & that gave us comfort to know that at least two people were listening - but no, as soon as we started to put our instruments away, they shouted - “Can we have your seats?” That’s why they had come over to be near us!!

I think I’d rather try one of tigerpig’s Barn Dances!! Although I must admit, we didn’t have to dodge the “stray animal poo”!

Gosh, two great tales of torture. The Barn Dance sounds like something from these parts, cowboy hats, boots, spurs, all those good-ol‘-boy Okies who’ve never been near a horse. Yep, smokin’, drinkin‘, yellin’ and brawlin’. Yee-haw.

And Ptarmigan, you must come play with us sometime at one of our weddings! The Funeral March, how great is that? We had a bride that wanted to march in to a string quartet version of her college fight song (of course no arranging fee either)….we interspersed it with the William Tell Overture, Halleluiah Chorus, Dixie and Here Comes the Bride, all played at once. We got glares for desecrating the School Song. I hope you got paid well for your gig. Can we have your seats--jeez I hope you punched ’em out--oh, wait, that’s the barndance….

Sounds like we need a reroute - to a discussion of ‘tales of the unrespected’, sub category: ‘playing for weddings’?