TUTORIAL - The difference between a Waltz and a Mazurka in Chopin - lecture by Greg Niemczuk 

Very enlightening lecture, it’s especially when you illustrated how a waltz sounds like in Mazurka’s beat, and vice versa

I'm just fascinated and mesmerized by your energy and love for Chopin and your motherland..it is being felt easily...wish u the best🎉

This is very interesting. I think those of us who grew up far from Poland will have to spend a lot of time thinking about this. I can't resist mentioning that the subtitles have a lot of trouble when you say "mazurka." The titles say "bazooka," "massacre," "muzzle" (several times), and -- my favorite -- "muscle car." We're all looking forward to two more videos from you on this topic: the one where you show us typical examples of the three styles of mazurka, and the one where you try to explain how some of Chopin's friends claimed that his mazurkas were in duple, not triple, time.

Thank you it is clear

Thank you, probably your most informative video until now! Simply brilliant! How about a video on each individual genre of Chopin's solo piano music with your insights?

Your playing a walz like a mazurka was hilarious! 🤣🤣🤣You really mad your point well!! Thank you!!

Great job man, RU-vid has desperately needed this video!

Jestem ponownie wdzięczny, tym razem za taki materiał. Często podczas ćwiczeń gram tego samego dnia, mazurki Chopina i Walce więc przyznam że jako średnio zaawansowany grajek (pianista to za duże słowo) takie uwagi pozwalają mi na samokontrole. For every viewers in ENG i have to say it: this is the best classical pianist channel in Poland and probably one of the best channel about Chopin's music in RU-vid. I would like to admire that Greg Niemczuk is very strict with "Chopin will" about his music i mean interpretation of course. Enjoy.

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!! Excellent video. Many many thanks from Australia

Playing the Mazurka Opus post 67 Nr 2 for the 1st time, I discovered this both very professional and easy understandable video. No prompt, everything coming from your expertise and, more importantly, your heart ❤. Thanks for sharing!

Very important video! So the 2nd and 3rd beat are quite active (you jump at the 2nd and land on the 3rd), and the 1st beat is just a transition. That must be why a former teacher of mine once told me that in a waltz the 1st beat is the most important but in a mazurka it is the "least important".

This helped so much. Just playing with the left hand, and contrasting the emphasis on the 1st beat with the 2nd & 3rd beats made this click for me. Much appreciated~

Thank you very much for this video. That was fun and weird to listen mazurka played in the style of waltz and vice versa. Now I understand more.

Yes, very helpful! It's remarkable how vapid the mazurka sounds when it's played like a waltz--but also how strange a waltz sounds when it's played with a mazurka rhythm. Thanks very much for the demonstration.

Thank you so much for your introducing Muzurka.Thank you so much to introduce your home country music for us

as usual a great video and a useful lesson. I play fews valzer and somes fews mazurka by Chopin and this is a very good help for me. Thank you Greg.

Thank you so much for the explanation! Now I understand the rhythm much better. I love your channel! Many greetings from Hamburg

Thank you for this lesson :) again, a topic that I was wondering about :) now, so much clearer

Thank you very much. 👍 I have never played a Mazurka, because I did not know how. My be I should try one this year. 🙋‍♀️

Study Guide for Waltzes and Mazurkas: Waltz: “It’s fast from 1 to 2, time between 2 and 3, and time between 3 and 1” (Fleisher, 2006) from the Documentary “Two Hands: The Leon Fleisher Story.” “An up-bow effect [retiré] contributes a great deal to the flexibility of the contours. To demonstrate this, returning to the Waltz op. 64/2 [. . .] we shall apply this gesture to the third beat left hand chords of each bar. Chopin did this', Schiffmacher told me; in the same way, he would anticipate the F double-sharp [of bar 2], as is indicated for the G [sharp] of the first bar. Played this way, this waltz takes on a great elasticity and a truly artistic allure. It becomes impossible, with such a touch, to strike the notes unvaryingly. Schiffmacher/Tasset, p. 50 [bars 9-16:]” (Eigeldinger, 88) from Chopin Pianist and Teacher as seen by his pupils about the rhythm of the left hand in Chopin’s Waltz Op. 64 No. 2 in C-sharp minor. Mazurka: “Connect beats one and two, staccato on beat two (with the hand/sometimes pedal), jumping up and falling down late on beat 3 sometimes with an accent, and beat 3 is glued/connected to beat one of the next bar” (Niemczuk, 2022) paraphrased from a lecture by Grzegorz Niemczuk, “TUTORIAL - The difference between a Waltz and a Mazurka in Chopin - lecture by Greg Niemczuk.” Types of dances in Chopin’s Mazurkas: Oberek: Fastest Mazur: Medium Kujawiak: Slowest Chopin’s interpretation of Mazurkas: “In the national dances such as the Polonaise, Mazurka, Krakowiak, Kujawiak, the main rhythmic notes should be strongly accentuated, followed by a gentle release of the rhythmic impulse wherever the accent (or long-held accented note) is omitted or displaced.169 But this must never degenerate into mere lack of rhythm” (Eigeldinger, 72). “A remarkable feature of his playing was the entire freedom with which he treated the rhythm, but which appeared so natural that for years it has never struck me. It must have been in 1845 or 1846 that I once ventured to observe to him that most of his Mazurkas (those dainty jewels), when played by himself, appeared to be written, not in 3/4, but in 4/4 time, the result of his dwelling so much longer on the first note in the bar. He denied it strenuously, until I made him play one of them and counted audibly four in the bar, which fitted perfectly. Then he laughed and explained that it was the national character of the dance which created the oddity. The more remarkable fact was that you received the impression of 3/4 rhythm whilst listening to common time. Of course this was not the case with every Mazurka, but with many. I understood later how ill advised I had been to make that observation to him and how well disposed towards me he must have been to have taken it with such good humour, for a similar remark made by Meyerbeer, perhaps in a somewhat supercilious manner, on another occasion, led to a serious quarrel, and I believe Chopin never forgave him. Halle, p. 34” (Eigeldinger, 72-73). “Once Meyerbeer arrived in Chopin's room during my lesson. He did not announce his arrival, of course: he was a king. We were playing the Mazurka in op. 33[/3) - one page of music which seems nevertheless to contain hundreds. I called it the epitaph of the Mazurka, so full does it seem of grief and sorrow - the weary flight of an eagle: Meyerbeer took a seat and I continued. 'That's in 2/4', said Meyerbeer. I had to repeat it while Chopin, pencil in hand, beat time on the piano; his eyes were blazing. '2/4', Meyerbeer calmly repeated. Only once have I have ever seen Chopin lose his temper, and it was at that moment - and what a wonderful sight he was! A faint red suffused his pale cheeks. 'It's in 3/4', he said in a loud voice. 'Give me that piece as a ballet in my opera', retorted Meyerbeer (he was then working in secret on L'Africaine), 'I'll prove it to you.' 'It's in 3/4', Chopin almost yelled, he who never normally raised his voice above a murmur. He pushed me aside and sat at the piano himself. Three times he played the piece, counting aloud and stamping out the beat with his foot; he was beside himself! Meyerbeer still held his own and they parted on bad terms. It pained me to have witnessed this scene. Without taking leave of me, Chopin had disappeared into his study. He was right, all the same: for though the third beat loses some of its value, submerged as it is in the flow of the melody, still it does not cease to exist. Lenz, CPV, p. 30” (Eigeldinger, 73). “Moscheles told me that his married daughter [Emily Roche), who took lessons from Chopin, had played [for Moscheles), among other things, a new Chopin Mazurka, with such a rubato that the entire piece gave the impression of being in 2/4 instead of 3/4” (Eigeldinger, 73).

Thank you for analyse . Now I am more clear to distinguish how to play between waltz and Marzuka

Very helpful video! love your content, keep it up :)

Very informative video and I also had a great laugh at the end! I was always ignorant about the difference and it seems that I tried composing a mazurka when in reality I was waltzing in a french castle.

Very good video, Greg. Thank you!🌼

Very clear . Thanks for sharing Greg

So helpful even to appreciate. Charming.

Very helpful and clearly explained! Thank you very much!

I really enjoyed this video! are you planning on releasing more of these lecture like videos? I would love to learn more about for example chopins life or even about music theory from you!

Thank you very much! This is so informative and helpful!

Gracias por la informacion ❤

5:33 Waltz op.34 no.1 played like a mazurka

Thank you for clarifying the unique characteristics of the Polish mazurka! I honestly had never been sure of this. I truly love that first set of his mazurkas! Of the great pianists of the past who do you think best performed the mazurkas?

If I remember correctly, you participated in the Chopin Competition, right? I don't see the video now, but I remember hearing the performance live for both the preliminary and other rounds. Isn't it? Your channel is very informative and has a lot of good performances. I was wondering how you practice for fast passage. Thank you for the good teaching.

Hi Greg! :D

🥰

Hi sir, what are names of mazurkas you played?

面白い!!　interesting

Hi maestro, I just encountered this same video that you published 11 hours ago, but that video is not in your collection of videos. Is that a bug in RU-vid?

🙏

I have not tried a Chopin Mazurka. From what I have been taught, a Waltz accent is almost exclusively on the first beat of the triple meter as a Mazurka will often emphasize the second or third beat, alternating between them. Also, the actual mazurka dance appears to be a lot more difficult to execute than a Waltz.

Mazurka: 8:40

Have you ever seen the video of Los Hermanos Cardenas playing a Mazurka on accordion and Bajo sexto? I’m curious to know the name of the mazurka that they’re playing.

Hi, you only speak from Chopin. I have full respect for Chopin and like to hear his music, but as a dancing teacher (and no musician) this is completely uninteresting, because neither waltzes nor mazurkas from Chopin are danceable. I'm very interested in the difference between waltzes and mazurkas from Strauss (preferrably interpreted by vienna philharmonics)and italian mazurkas, because my clients want to learn them!!! Is there any difference to Chopin?

日本人は、ショパンが大好き❤ 多くの若い優秀なピアニスト達が、貴方の国のコンクールを目指しています。 ショパンの国の貴方から、日本人の演奏するショパンはどのように聴こえますか？　ショパンの音に近づいてきてますか？ マズルカの表現、難しいですね。 　　　　😊🇵🇱😊❤😊🇯🇵😊

Myslalem ze bedzie po polsku