When I was growing up in the 1950s (am I really THAT old?) the BBC radio and TV were full of accordion music and non more prevalent was Jimmy Shand and his Band playing "The Bluebell Polka".

Now from my friend Brett Lowe in New Zealand, I have received a banjo arrangement of the accordion music...  What is not to like?  ;-)

Thank you Brett this is a really good arrangement of a great tune, and so nicely produced too!

I have added Brett's arrangement to the MUSIC LIBRARY.

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Tempo is not the only thing that defines a schottische or polka. The shape of the tune and which beats are emphasized is the main thing. That's why I say it's a schottische.  Bluebell Polka was definitely a gateway but it was a gateway to the music of Jimmy Shand. It was his theme song. 

Trapdoor2 said:

I also initially thought that the Shand recording was "too slow". However, I think that the speed at which he recorded it is part of its popularity. Not a showpiece, a "gateway" piece to the world of polkas. I would hazard to guess that record sales was very strong to elementary schools.

When I was a kid (early 60s), we were taught to dance to recordings just like this. I had to dance with a girl who was missing a front tooth...and was teased unmercifully about her (I teased my cohorts in return). I should have made friends with her rather than dancing with her like she had the plague. She turned into a Swan about 6 yrs later.

In my research yesterday, I saw several mentions that this is technically a schottische. I can see that but...meh.

I transmogrified Brett's arrangement into Tab and was playing it on the front porch yesterday. Neat tune, quite easy to play, lays well on the banjo. I need an accompanist! 

Many people treat polkas and schottisches as essentially the same thing; Polkas danced using Schottische steps, Schottisches danced to polka steps. Lots of regionalities worldwide.

Shand's recording was/is virtually unknown over here. We all danced to Frankie Yankovic...or Myron Floren (although "Lady of Spain" is hard to polka to). When I was a lad, the Germans (NASA, Werhner von Braun, etc.) had taken over and we were doing mostly Ooompah band polkas (and I drove a VW).

Jody Stecher said:

Tempo is not the only thing that defines a schottische or polka. The shape of the tune and which beats are emphasized is the main thing. That's why I say it's a schottische.  Bluebell Polka was definitely a gateway but it was a gateway to the music of Jimmy Shand. It was his theme song. 

In Texas the polka  you would have heard the most was probably Jesusita En Chihuahua. If an Anglo band played it they called it the Jesse Polka. It's reliably played at 126 bpm by thousands of bands even now. That's the tempo I've heard my whole life.  It's exactly the tempo at which FVE played Cupid's Arrow when he finally settled into a steady beat. Yes, it's too fast to bring out the beauty of the melody and yes most of Eno's triplets sound best played as he indicated though it's great fun playing them as individually picked notes.  

I am NOT saying that the Bluebell Polka should be played faster. It is played at the right speed. I was saying it is not a polka at all.  That said, in the 1930s a Scottish fiddle band called the Cameron Men recorded some gorgeous tunes they called polkas. They were faster than the Shand recording but not by much and the shape of tunes was related to the shape of The Bluebell Polka. This is leading me to speculate that the steps of the polka in Scotland at the time may have different from how it's danced elsewhere.  Meanwhile in Ireland Polkas are faaaaassst, especially in Slieve Luchra on the Cork/Kerry border. 130 bpm would be too slow.  150 is more like it. I once sat in (on fiddle) at the weekly dance with (button accordionist)  Johnny O Leary's house band in Knocknagree. Whoa!  The polkas went like the wind and so did the dancers.

Joel Hooks said:

In my rather unscientific survey of music dictionaries on the Internet Archive supported by random polka enthusiast websites it seem that the polka has steadily increased in speed over the decades. Mid to late 19th century would have you playing at a little over 100 BMP on the metronome. It has gone up from there and now the "official" speed is about 120 BPM.

Cupid's Arrow was played too fast on the FVE and Ossman recordings (even by modern standards)  The way Eno composed it, first strain triplets were to describe the fluttering of Cupid's wings.  This is achieved by playing with snaps and slurs in p. FVE sprints through it playing the triplets in position rapid fire and they lose something. 

Yes, the posted video recording is a bit slow-- but it goes both ways.

Of course this is up for debate as I know nothing about polka despite being exposed to Mexican (and some German) Polka growing up in Texas.  It was hard to get clear answers online about speed. So I am "all ears."  I am more interested in "historically informed" information and not modern acts like Brave Combo.

Marc, my elementary school had us square dancing.  We had this hard rubber floored gym and we all wore cheap straw cowboy hats with bandannas around our necks and awkwardly tried to follow the instructions.  Other than it happening (and those details) I don't remember a thing about it. I could not tell you what kind of music was played or anything else about it.  Now I know that it is a carry over from Henry Ford's "traditional values" initiative. 

Jody-- I don't know what I was hearing.  There were several radio stations in Dallas that played Mexican polka music.  To me it sounded like straight German oompah with Spanish singing and Mexican Gritos.  The accordion player was typically the front person and star of the group.  I went into many music stores that were stacked with button accordions decorated with Mexican Flags and roosters.  I did not understand it but I loved it!

Texas also has large German and Czech settlements that retain their traditions, esp. in central Texas.   While I don't remember radio stations dedicated to that music, there were shows on stations that I would listen to that focused on German and Czech polka.

I only know of schottisches and banjo music.  My wife once pointed out that they all sound like "If I Only Had a Brain" from "The Wizard of OZ" and now that is all I hear.  They tend to sound corny to me.  "With the Tide/ Sunflower Dance" ticks all the corny boxes.  Judging from the volume of compositions they must have been hot music at one time.  They sound dated to me.

I played this Bluebell a few times last night,  It would be a fun "jam" piece for sigh treading at rallies.  Easy to play both parts.

To be sure, we danced squares too...every year something different. The school had a dance festival every year and each class had to present some sort of ethnic dance. My cousin and I got in trouble the year they made us dance some sort of SE Asian/polynesian thing where you step between two bamboo poles. Mark (my cousin) and I were in charge of the poles...not a good choice. We slammed a few ankles between the poles...and got detention in separate rooms. You didn't put us in the same detention room!

Come to think of it, he got me in trouble regularly (paddled! I think I developed calluses on my butt). He was the instigator and I was always caught trying to retaliate. Next time I see him, I'm gonna punch him (I haven't seen him in 50 yrs).

In the 80s, I started dancing Contras, Squares and Circles with a dance group that started up in Huntsville (they're still active). My grade-school training came back and I had a lot of fun...but I wanted to play the banjo like their guy (Tommy Jackson, occasional player with Norman Blake and James Bryan). Tommy and I became friends but I never took a lesson from him. Local clawhammer players sometimes asked me if I did. I simply unconsiously adopted his style, I think.

I really enjoy the corn in Classic Banjo...much more than the serious stuff. I still attempt the eggheaded stuff...but I really end up playing corn and more corn. Makes me smile!



Joel Hooks said:

Marc, my elementary school had us square dancing.  We had this hard rubber floored gym and we all wore cheap straw cowboy hats with bandannas around our necks and awkwardly tried to follow the instructions.  Other than it happening (and those details) I don't remember a thing about it. I could not tell you what kind of music was played or anything else about it.  Now I know that it is a carry over from Henry Ford's "traditional values" initiative. 

Wait! Is that John Cleese playing a button accordion in a kilt?? :-)

Regarding schottische or polka. The way they play it is pretty much how one would play a Schottische in Swedish folk music. In Sweden it's called a "schottis". It has a distinctly different swing to it than a polka.

Here's a link to a swedish schottische with dancing (neither accordions or banjos though...):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIVsKsOl2p4

Haha! As long as people don't stock up on banjos....

Jody Stecher said:


Your wife is  right. If it doesn't sound  in some way like "If Only..." it's some other kinda tune. Or nearly so.

Now this reminds me of when I attended the 1990 Tennessee Banjo Institute. I got hired to provide banjo-guitar accompaniment to Irish tenor banjo and Jewish tenor banjo, and to play tambourine in the Minstrel Band (which included 1 row button accordion).  That was where I met Eli Kauffman who patiently answered all my questions both during the event and afterwords. That's really where I first got interested in Classic Banjo. But anyway.....I got there a day early and I was wandering around Ceders of Lebanon State Park when I heard the sound of banjo and fiddle. I walked up a hill and soon spied Franklin George sitting outdoors on a folding chair, playing the fiddle. Now we hadn't seen each other or communicated for 12 or 13 years and as he sees me approaching he lowers his fiddle (but continues to play) and says, just as if we were picking up the conversation from the last time we talked, "say, Jody is Hank Bradley still playing that Dracula Music? "  I said that he was. (Hank's a great American fiddler who also plays Eastern European tunes).  "Good" says Mr. George and continues: "You know I was listening to that Joe Pancerzewskii LP the other day and midway through side 2 it hit me. Every Damn TUNE on that album is FLOP EARED MULE!!"

(Joe was a fiddler and railroad engineer from North Dakota who played a lot of Central European music he learned there and in Saskatchewan.)


Joel Hooks said:

I only know of schottisches and banjo music.  My wife once pointed out that they all sound like "If I Only Had a Brain" from "The Wizard of OZ" and now that is all I hear. 

I think there may be an implication here that an accordion is the equivalent of toilet paper. Or am I reading too much into it?

Pär Engstrand said:

Haha! As long as people don't stock up on banjos....

Jody Stecher said:

Ouch! You're probably right. That thought didn't cross my mind. Which I'm quite thankfull for, actually. Shows I have a love for all instruments... :-)

Jody Stecher said:

I think there may be an implication here that an accordion is the equivalent of toilet paper. Or am I reading too much into it?

Pär Engstrand said:

Haha! As long as people don't stock up on banjos....

Jody Stecher said:

Here is a link to a nicely played version of Jesusita, a typical SW polka. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDXegIQf1oc

Note that the speed is faster than Van Eps' rendition of Cupid's Arrow. This is not too fast for Jesusita because except for one part it has plenty of long notes in each measure, and it's not too fast because this how the dancers like it.

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