Information: A dance.

Translation: Dance attributed to the Beryozovye Islands (formerly named Koivisto), Russian Oblast.

Pronunciation: KOY-vis-tohn POHL-skah

Regions: Finland (as well as Norway and Sweden)

The basic structure of the melody in Koiviston Polska was very popular in Finland, Norway, Sweden. You find many parallells to that melody in "Svenska Ätar" and in polses from Østerdalen. The original theme has an unusual background. It's a part of a "Violin Concerto in D-minor," by the French composer Pierre Rode (1774-1830) – that of some strange reason was very popular in Scandinavia just short after it was written around 1800. Many variations of the basic theme then came into folk-tradition in the early 1800s. The earliest source of the melody changed into a basic Polska is found in a famous notebook after the Swedish fiddler Petter Dufva. This book is written around 1806.

–Magnus Gustafsson