Given that polkas are a dance …why is it that some are written in 2/4 and others in 4/4…I prpbably know the answer ! but blowed if I can recall it…it happens as you get old…er…Les.
I’ve yet to see a 4/4 polka. Can you provide an example?
If you’re seeing them online, my guess is that the person transcribing it
just doubled up two 2/4 measures into a 4/4 because they didn’t know
any better. Sounds like something I’d do, anyway.
Yeah, I’ve only ever seen polkas in 2/4. And I’d think that if one were written in 4/4, the phrases would be two measures long (instead of the standard four), meaning it should have been written in 2/4 anyway.
It’a shame that polkas aren’t played more in sessions (at least round my way!). They’re great tunes on the harmonica (though you have to work at keeping the rhythm rock-steady as well as making 'em sprightly). I think that one of the reasons is that they’re not so easy to accompany on the guitar or bodhran, especially by less-experienced players (which most of them are!).
Steve
Polkas? Great! 
Usually polkas are in 2/4.
I like play polkas on accordion, bu my wife have some problems with your… bodhran! This rhitm it’s too fast.
bye
That’s just it, and guitar-players have the same problem (makes their arms drop off!) 
Steve
I’ve yet to see a 4/4 polka. Can you provide an example?
If you’re seeing them online, my guess is that the person transcribing it
just doubled up two 2/4 measures into a 4/4 because they didn’t know
any better. Sounds like something I’d do, anyway.
I’ve seen polkas in 4/4 time in the way that 1/8 notes are transformed to 1/4 notes and so on. So same amount of bars, but doyuble the note values. For example http://www.darsie.net/tuneweb/polka/britches.gif
Polkas are really nice tunes, also wish they would be played more often. Good bodhran-player backing up and playing polka is great fun. But, even in the recordingss you don’t find them often. Is polka more like Kerry thing, and not traditionally played elsewhere (in Ireland) ? 
Yup, very much a Cork and Kerry thing in Ireland, though I think they are spreading as people move round more. In a workshop we once asked Liz Doherty (from Donegal) to play one, and she didn’t know any!
I love playing polkas on the fiddle, both English and Irish style. They have great lift, and there’s a huge number about.
Another nice thing about Cork and Kerry polkas is that they are largely in in D Ionian or A Mixolydian, which means you can easily assemble sets with nice key-changes that are easy on diatonic instruments such as the harmonica or a one-row accordeon.
Steve
Someone once told me I’d been playing a load of old polkas.
I think that’s what he said.
I started the theme on entirely the wrong info…sorry…it’s typical of me…I was actually comparing two books on English dance music, both containing polkas but in one 2/4 and the other 4/4…however even though I got it wrong the thread has so far been most interesting…learning both I T and English dance does lead me into some confusion…but no more than deciding what day it is or wether its breakfast or tea…ask the wife…she knows. Les.
I think many people who annotate traditional tunes don’t really know the difference between 2/4 , 4/4, C (common time) and cut-common time.
I know I don’t.
Uhmmm… I have some problems with music notation.
Sometimes I learn by ear… It’s a mistake?
That’s what you get when you rely on dots instead of ears 
Come to the flute forum and see… you know you want to… 
No mistake. It’s the best way.
Steve
No mistake. It’s the best way.
Steve
Oh Steve… you are a great man!
Well, what is the difference between 2/4 and 4/4 timing? That 2/4 is faster (but that should depend on how fast you choose to play)? When I play bluegrass chops on the mandolin it sounds the same.. The only difference I can see is that in 4/4 timing there are whole notes. But, I’m no expert in music theory. I can just read simple sheet music and create major chords and that’s about it.
Coming back to the original question, Niall Keegan in his lecture on Irish dance tune types told that Ireland has two traditions of polkas. First of all there’s the Sliabh Luachra polkas that we usually take as definitive Irish polkas/whatnot. They have a 2/4 beat.
Then there are the more northwestern polkas associated with Sligo, Leitrim etc. You couldn’t really dance the same steps with Sliabh Luachra and Sligo polkas, although sometimes you hear them played together - mostly with some obvious difficulty. These tunes have a beat closer to 4/4 than 2/4. They’re also generally played quite a bit slower than the Sliabh Luachra ones. Tunes such as Dark girl dressed in blue and My love is but a lassie or Fred Finn’s Polka would be good examples of the latter.
There are some who say that these different types of tunes shouldn’t even be called with the same name and those who - blissfully unaware of all this - play them happily together.
Markus
Huh. I was going to object that even though I thought I could hear a 4/4 beat to “My Love is But a Lassie”, no one ever notated it that way. Then I looked it up in Howe’s as a relatively neutral source (quite possibly sourced from Scotland rather the Ireland, for one thing, and free of the playing style influences of the last 135+ years) and darned if they don’t give it in 4/4.
I’ve just listened to the polka set from Music of Sligo and the Ballydesmond polkas from Star Above the Garter back to back. Perhaps it’s just the power of suggestion but it seems to me I can definitely hear what you’re talking about. If I listen to the Sligo polkas with an open ear, they definitely sound like they’re in 4, whereas the Sliabh Luachra polkas are definitely 2, and the Sligo polkas are a bit slower, I think, and without that distinctive polka pulse. Wacky.
I don’t know if this is true in general, but both of those Sligo polkas are also the melodies of songs…
I am also no expert, but I believe 2/4 is used when you want to have
a strong down beat every 2 beats, instead of every four beats. So,
in 2/4 you’d count:
1 2 | 1 2 | 1 2 | 1 2 |
But in 4/4 you’d count:
1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 |
(the 3 being slightly stronger than 2 and 4, but not as strong as 1)
Also, there’s probably some reason dealing with the phrasing of the
dance that goes with a polka, but I can’t really speak on that, since I
don’t know the dances.