THE GERMANS AS DANGERS.

Waikato Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 3489, 3 November 1894, Page 5

THE GERMANS AS DANGERS.

Although tne Germans are passionately fond of dancing, and iu many cases are wore accomplished experts oil the light fantastic toe than ihe French, they can scarcely lay claim to having iuvented any dance of exceptional beauty, or ingenuity, or of universal acceptance. This statement will, of course, be immediately traversed by sympathisers with the Fatherland, who will not fail to allege that the very word 11 waltz " is an abbreviation of the German "waltzer," fiom " walzon," to roll ~ i.e., akin to our welter."

No one would dream of denying that the waltz has long been a national dance in Germany, and it is said on very doubtful authority to have i originated in Bohemia, and to have been thence brought into the Fatherland. Still, on the other jltind, there exists a great body of evidence to show that it is neither a Teutonic nor a Czech dance, and that in the twelfth century it was familiarly known in the South of France under the name of " volta," literally signifying in the Provencal dialect what we should vulgarly term a "wheel-about," ormerry-go-round." The "volta" was danced to ▼ocal music; the songs sung while the couples gyrated being called "balladas," In the reign of Louis VII it was brought to Paris, and it remained a favourite until late in the sixteenth century, It was then; taken up, by Germans, who, by a happy coincidence, found that ; their tongue contained the word, ( " waltzer," a term which could be at once made convertible with the Provencal i volta," The enormous popularity of the waltz beyond the Rhine is probably due to the fact of the Germans being not only a musical people, but more learnedly and thoroughly musical than any other nation Of the Continent. The greatest composers feftvd not disdained to waltzes, and} ihe {' Invitation a| {a value jCarl < Mara von Weber is famous. 1 The rhythm | of the waltz wa6 al«o frequently employed by Mozart, and in our times by' the two Strausses, Joseph and bis son Jotiann, while the coming of age of the only soil of Napoleon I inspired an Austrian musician to compose the exquisite music to what is known as the "Waltz of the Duke, of Reichstadt."

It does not, on the whole, perhaps matter very much where the waltz originally came from, except that the Germans are so extraordinarily " cockey" about it. As a matter of fact, a large number of continental d inces owe their origin to the savage tribes of Africa! The famous Spanish (< fandango" is only.a variety of a very rude and boisterous dance called the chico," whlnh the Moom imported into Spain from Barbary. Almost every Spanish dance, such as thebolero,", the- *1 cachucha," and the; '■seguidilla" are imitatiouVof the "chico.",, v gt fjf %}• ■ The Neapolitan which is yet performed for the benefit of British tourists who patronise hotels in Southern; Italy, was probably brought to Naples when the city and country were under Spanish rule, and it certainly bears; a suspiciously close resemblance to thei fandango. To the "bolero," which is nobler and far more modest and composed than the fandango, may, perhaps 'be accorded the merit of Spanish origin; and the same may be said of M jota Aragonese," while such sprightly movements as the *' guaracha," the. *' zarateado," and the 'zorongo" are, probatly of Naturally, both'in Spain'and Italy, many of the popular dances date from ancient Roman times,