In my e-book Mandolin Duos from around 1900 I chose a Mazurka by Ferdinando de Cristofaro as my next piece to play. In the notes to the piece you can read, that de Cristofaro advised the students using his method to play a Mazurka in the tempo of a Menuet.
Most Menuets are played at 110 to 130 BpM, but that seemed definitely to slow for the de Cristofaro Mazurka. So I set my metronome at 134 BpM.
https://soundcloud.com/tele1310/elec...-de-cristofaro
I then had a look at other Mazurkas:
Calaces Mazurka Op. 141 is about 120 BpM, but there is more action between the beats:
But, what really impressed me was the Italian LA MAZURKA DI PERIFERIA:
About 152 BpM, a tempo in which it is possible to play the Mazurka by de Cristofaro.
What do you think? What is the right tempo for de Cristofaros Mazurka?
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