The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-07-27
EVOLUTION OF
THE WALTZ.
At the Commencement 1t Was
an Imitation of the Polka.
In Early Life 1t Was Danced Exceeding ely
slow-Its Name Was LANDER What Des-
TIMES Await the Waltz Of the Future.

n G<;EAE can scarcely oYere stlmate the in
AESsE9 finence of Lully, the chef d'orches-
ZEE - ~ ire in the time of Louis XIV, on
the art of dancing, writes contributor TO
the National Review. His band, which
was known as 1.-THE twenty-four violins,"
was required to furnish all the music for
the fetes and balls of the brilliant court to
which they were attached. The gayotte
and bOurree have been aScriDed to him, but
probably without reason. The c0tillon
however, has a more legitimate claim to
such a paternity, and most likely was at
least perfected in the brilliant bathrooms of
Versailles.
Despite these thousand and one varieties
of the dance, the genuine round dance"
to use the term at least in lis modern sig
MITIGATION, had no existence till some fifty
or sixty years ago. Why this omission
could have subsis.ed so long seems hard
to see, unless it were that the giddi-
ness resulting from the first experiments
in the style deferred mankind from
venturing further. The "round dance" OF
the Greeks and of the middle ages was
simply ring dance, and not by any means
all approach to the round dance Of to-day.
The dancing dervishes of Turkey, how
ever, and likewise the frenzied per-
lOlDeIS Ill tho lldlidu tdl dulclld
must he credited with discovering
great secret of art long ere sixty
years ago. and practcng it to the amaze
ment of all benolders, who thought them
mad or struck by divine vengeance. First
essays in round dancing, accompanied as
they ar6 by overpowerlng glddiness, often
lead the novice 10 the wild determination
Of spinning on and on until exhausted nat
ure can do no more. The dancing derVishes
are certainly affected with this fury Once
they begin TO turn their rotation increases
with ever-advancing celebrity, until at last
they sleep" like 2 top, though still spin
ming round. The Italian tarantella was
said to have come into existence from the
effects of the bite of a poisonous spider
(Whence il derives its name),
THE RESULT
OF which was TO cause the venom-stricken
patient to turn round and round in agony
and frenzy, All dancers of the tarantella
were vulgarly supposed to have been bitten
by this spider, and all pursued the same
principle OF gyratl0n IN common with the
dancing dervishes, namely, to spin round
and round until they sank exhausted to the
earth.
Such were the abortive and unconscious
attempts which mankind make at the polka.
When that dance first appeared fully
fledged on the scene-it Sprang on Europe
like Minerva from the head of J0ve, per-
feet and fully f0rmed-the tendency of
gun and never stop was made apparent in
its history 1t was danced in a Vienna ball
room by way OF experiment and In three
months had made the tour OF Europe. In
London, Paris. Madrid and Rome every
body danced the polka. 1t is Salu that in
these early days Of the craze the grayest
persOnages were seen footing the dizzy
dance, even Judges and bishops not
disdaining to test their powers
therein, on the same principle that
al ,tNl.N r.lt 70
experiment of "thoug ht-reading" nova
days, or other similar craze. What was
the home OF the polka? Where had been
its nursery before it made that sudden
and sensational appearance in a Vienna
ballroom sixty years ago? Some would
derive it from the peasantry of Bohemia,
put surely the name polka" which is SIM
ply ''polacca," points TO Poland as the land
OF its origin. Like many other things in
the world, its origin is hidden in night.
Nature Is reluctant to reveal beginnings.
The polka seems to US very slow dance.
Our ancestors thought it fast enough. but
this WAS before mankind had become accus-
toned to round" dancing.
The waltz, which was later in appearing
and was doubtless at its commencement an
imitation oil
THE POLKA,
Was danced exceedingly slow in early life.
Its original name was lander" aud it
halls from the country districts of Austria.
The Handler" went gravely and deliber-
ately round. To its slow motion the speed
of the polka seemed fury. The elder
Strauss must be accredited with the accel-
Grafton of the waltz to its present speed.
Finding the effect of his music gain greatly
from increased pace, he forced the time and
made the dancer follow him. The original
step of the. waltz was the simple chase,
which, as is obvious, is identical with the
step Of the polka, except that the feet are
brought more closely and more suddenly
together This was the valse deux temps.
Improvement in waltz melodies, which
mark the time far more rhythmically and
forclbly than in the early times
they did, brought the valse a trois
temps into being wherein the steps
are accommodated with greater precision to
the beats of the music. The waxed floors
of modern bathrooms have produced within
the memory of the youngest among us the
glide waltz and the rockaway waltz, in both
of which the feet slip or slide over the floor
in manner amazing to behold. Perhaps
the contemporaneOus introduction of roller
skating had something to do with this inno-
walton, since the motion of the feet in both
is the same.
What destinies await the waltz in future
time is impossible ut present to divine. One
thing, however, seems certain--so popular
and universally known is this dance, CON-
pared to the dissemination of any other
specific piece of human knowledge, that
amid distant posterty, when all our
achievements have faded from human
memory, we shall still be known as the
generation in whose time the waltz was