The German The Polish and The Polka

 Ethnomusicologist Kip Lornell advocates that "today's polka music and dance is distinctly American". Lornell says that "because it has been over one hundred years since many of northern Europeans immigrated to the United States" (Lornell 236). These northern Europeans (the Germans and Polish) brought their forms of music to the new world. They hoped to sustain their culture and sustain their identity as a folk through their music in the melting pot of the new world. They strive to keep their folks ways alive with their music by handing it down to their children who were born in America but as generation from generation carried the music it adapted to the folk ways of America to a point where it became what it was not intended to become, American.

The music of polka has intertwined into the fabric of American folkways It as taken on new forms and styles making it the music American. Such styles include "Chicago style polka which has a distinctive sound and performance" (Bohlam Encyclopedia of Chicago). The polka way and music has become distinctly American.

The immigration experience for the Germans Poles, Czechs, and the Scandinavians in the Midwest differed greatly to that of the English, Irish and Scottish in the Appalachian region and the Africans down south. When the English , Irish, and Scottish came to America they came at a time when America was taking mass amounts of immigrants, They experienced great struggle trying to find work and make a new life for themselves. The Africans were stolen from their home land and forced to live in southern plantation. They experienced the great struggle due to the great oppression of the their white counter parts. While the northern Europeans on the other hand came to America after the second world war when the immigrants had been established and it was easier to gain a new life in America. The path was already cleared for them from their previous European brothers who ventured into the new world.

Not only were their experiences different but their musical response also differed. The musical responses of the English, Irish, and Scottish consisted of old English ballads that had been handed down from their parents parents and songs that describe life in the Appalachian region. The Africans response was emotional. Songs provoked inner emotional struggle working on a plantation and the pain of discrimination. The northern Europeans take was purely jovial which made for polka and dance music. The polka music was a way to define the folk as a people in a new world.

When immigrants came to the new world the brought with their luggage and their music. With their music they hoped to preserve their way of life so that it could be handed to the next generation. But with the passing down of music to generation to generation the music adapted and changed to the American folk ways much like the polka music of the Germans and polish. Each immigrant group also had their own response to music ranging from inner struggles to festive dances.


1. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Bundesarchiv_Bild_137-037542,_Westpreu%C3%9Fen,_Russlanddeutsche_Fl%C3%BCchtlinge.jpg

2. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/48/Polka_Dancers_at_National_Polka_Festival_in_Ennis,_Tx.jpg

3. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMqP4UxiJKIidC-TND_ZqULvYkOopfC6oLTdbIh4yZOXCrZyqBY2Fil0Cvs8qcTdZyN-_Ob_4SDmyew3CY3SzwtVKjcRDBfoe2JSMVyCVE58yFfzWsSurzx-DI7oBJz4wafBLaThCE1Oyt/s1600/PolkaClipArt1.jpg

4. http://3219a2.medialib.glogster.com/media/d3/d39760bd7ecb20145ea149e5f469142501222f0daf3df371e4e4a1970a63501a/polish-jpg.jpg

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