A brief overview of "The Waltz to Westphalia"

The documentary DVD tells the fascinating story of a Polish folk song’s  metamorphosis into an American country fiddle classic.  The film captures a wide array of people, places and artifacts significant in the regional and national development of the "Westphalia Waltz."  Since the evolution of the tune took place in the twentieth century, some of the primary sources are still living, and shared their stories with Joe Weed.  Beginning in 2006, he traveled around the United States to speak with them, their children, or their grandchildren.

The melody of the Westphalia Waltz derives from a Polish song known by several titles -- "Pytala Sie Pani," "Wszystkie Rybki," and others.  Citing references from Poland’s National Library in Warsaw and the Polish Museum of America in Chicago, the film shows the presence of the song in Poland and the United States in the early twentieth century. It includes interviews with descendents of the Polish immigrants who worked the mills in Massachusetts and the coal mines in the Alleghenies.  The grandson of the lead trumpet player from Victor’s 1930 recording recalls his grandfather’s musical and professional life.  The son of a Pennsylvania coal miner relates his father’s insistence that he learn music as a way out of their coal town.