Westphalia Waltz
Notation:
Standard Notation
ABC Notation
Mandolin Tablature
Violin Tablature
traditional
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"Westphalia Waltz" is an American and Canadian waltz in 3/4 time and G Major.<br> The parts are played AB (Beisswenger & McCann), AA'B (Johnson)or AA'BB' (Brody,<br> Matthiesen, Perlman, Phillips).<br> This popular waltz is widely held to have been composed by<br> Cotton Collins, a Texas fiddler and member of the Lone Star Playboys. It<br> was popularized by Hank Thompson in 1955 on a Capitol Records recording.<br> The melody was derived from a ribald Polish drinking song called<br> "Pytala Sie Pani" (What the Woman Said), an old and well-known (and somewhat bawdy)<br> Polish song, sometimes played at weddings by Polish-American bands.<br> "Pytala Sie Pani" was recorded several times in the 1930's in America for ethnic<br> audiences and Steve Okonski, a fiddler from Bremond, the largest Polish settlement in<br> Texas, brought the tune from Chicago to Bremond in the late 1930's. However, it was in<br> Westphalia (35 miles west of Bremond) that Collins transformed the tune into an American<br> country waltz.<br> "Westphalia Waltz" is one of the ‘100 essential Missouri fiddle tunes’ according to<br> Missouri fiddler Charlie Walden, and according to Beisswenger & McCann, "likely gained<br> much of its popularity in the Ozarks through fiddle contests". Some Ozarks fiddlers<br> believe it to be an indigenous regional tune. Around the Philadelphia, Pa., area it is<br> known as the "West Philly Waltz".<br> It was printed in Beisswenger & McCann's Ozarks Fiddle Music (2008),<br> Brody's Fiddler’s Fakebook (1983),<br> Johnson's The Kitchen Musician's Occasional: Waltz, Air and Misc., No. 1 (1991),<br> Matthiesen's Waltz Book I (1992),<br> Perlman's The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island (1996),<br> Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 2 (1995) and<br> Silberberg's Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern (2002).<br> It was recorded by Herman Johnson on Champion Fiddling (1946),<br> Cece Webster on Dulcimer Wizardry,<br> Lone Star Playboys (w. Cotton Collins, fiddle) on Westphalia Waltz,<br> Kenny Baker and Bobby Hicks on Darkness on the Delta,<br> Cotton Combs on Parkin’ Lot Jammin’ (c. 1978),<br> Arm and Hammer String Band on New England Contra Dance Music (1977),<br> Doug Goodwin on New England Traditional Fiddling (1978),<br> Ernie Hunter on All About Fiddling and<br> Lonnie Robertson on Fiddle Tunes Ozark Style.<br>
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