"Polka on the old banjo"

[Joel Hooks]

So there I was listening to the local community radio station this afternoon when a show called North Texas Polka Radio came on.

After the 3rd or 4th song I began to wonder about when the polka band found its formula.  How did the accordion become cemented to polkas? 

As we all know, many polkas were composed or arranged for banjo, and without research, I suppose that the same goes for any other popular instrument of the mid-late 19th century.

These days, with the almost exclusive association to the accordion, polkas are not something that comes to mind when the banjo is thought of... well except for that novelty piece by Flatt and Scruggs.

It also is interesting that there are groups dedicated exclusively to playing polkas, that it became a genre of its own and not just part of a ball.

There are march bands.

Are there waltz bands? Schottische bands?  Cakewalk bands?

Seems strange to me.

Did the accordion/polka connection start with Lawrence Welk?

[Trapdoor2]

I think TV indeed "created" the accordian-polka as a std. joke. Some of the early post-war TV programs were run on a 'shoestring' budget and as we all know, one accordian = entire band. Of course, all polkas are not alike. There are many all brass polka bands, mostly german 0oompa-type.

Yes, there were (and maybe still are) many genre-specific bands...and free-reed instruments (accordians, concertinas, melodians, etc.) were used from the very beginning, esp. in the old bohemian regions where such instruments were generally made (cheaply).

Your question led me to do some quick web-surfing...and I found out that a "Galop" (very common in Classic Banjo music) is simply a fast polka. See? I learned something!

[Joel Hooks]

I read that about galops too. When I looked it up in my '93 Music Lovers Handbook it just gives the definition as "Galopade, Galopp, A rapid, lively dance in 2/4 time."

My '97 Funk and Wagnalls has the same.

The "Music Lovers" has Polka as "A dance in time originated among the peasants of Bohemia." The spot for time signature is blank (typo?).

F&W's has it as "A round dance in common time, with three steps to the measure; also, the music for it."

Fast-forward to the Harvard Brief... much more descriptive with examples of musical movements. It also points out that the polka is Bohemian and not Polish.

I'm a bit skeptical about the connection, but I don't know.

Yes! the brass bands! They were represented on the show too. Of the ones I heard, they still found time to let the accordion take it for a "break."

They also represented various latino variations, pretty much just polka in spanish.

[Jody Stecher]

I've been on holiday and away from computers for two weeks. I can add a few points to this discussion I think. Melodions, 1, 2 and 3 row Button accordions, keyboard accordions, press-and-draw concertinas and the same-n0te-in-each-direction kind each played their part in supplanting the traditional instruments used throughout Europe for accompanying dance and song and in some cases completely obliterating the use of bagpipes and fiddles. So the accordion got connected to polkas in the same way it got connected to other dance tune types: one form or another of accordion became the main or only instrument for all dance music. As for how the connection of polka and accordion happened in Texas specifically I would think the large population of folks of Czech and Bohemian descent in Texas explains that. Same thing for Mexico. Where there is beer there are Germans, Bohemians and Czechs. And where there is beer and these populations there usually can be found accordions and polkas.

Also there is a long-standing connection between 3 finger banjo and polkas that extends beyond "Polka on A Banjo". Bill Evans recorded a brilliant rendition of Clarinet Polka. Muzzle-loader and banjoist Bobby Thompson recorded at least Heel and Toe Polka and I seem to recall several five-string banjo and brass collaborations in the last 3 decades of the 20th century but my jet-lagged mind can't access what they are.

For a great banjo polka try Paul Eno's "Cupid's Arrow". It's a challenging piece to play but great fun and great to listen to as well. According to the sheet music btw it is a Concert Polka. It is however as danceable as any other polka.