Triglavski Valcek or Triglav Waltz
Cleveland have adapted melodies that were composed and recorded by bands from Slovenia.
The story of "Triglavski Valcek" or "Triglav Waltz" is a case of a folk song going
full circle, from Slovenia to Cleveland and back to Slovenia. The Hoyer Trio first
recorded the song in 1926. Pecon-Trebar later called it the "Whispering Waltz" on
a Capitol recording. The Lojze Slak Ensemble recorded the song as "Triglavski Valcek"
on Jugoton records in 1969. The Hoyer recording of "Triglavski Valcek" on Columbia
Records, (#25044) had two main melodies based on folk songs that Matt Hoyer remembered
from growing up in Europe. The main melody, with some alteration, became the "Whispering
Waltz" on the Pecon-Trebar for Capitol (#57-90021). Pecon and Trebar added two different
second parts of their own. The flip side featured "An Old Fashioned Polka", and both
were released on 78 and 45 recordings. Where this gets interesting is that "Triglavski
Valcek" was not recorded in Slovenia until 43 years after Hoyer's record. The song
is on the Slak album "Triglav," The album states that "Triglavski Valcek" was based
on old themes, with new lyrics by Leo Svetek, while all of the other songs are original
melodies by Slak. That Lojze Slak LP album "Triglav" has supplied much material for
American Slovenian button box players, and the songs are part of their standard repertoire.
The five songs are: the title cut "Triglav Polka" (not to be confused with the waltz),
"Pozdrav Z Dolenjske" (called "Old Timer's Waltz" by Pecon-Trebar), "Mamici" (a tribute
to Slovenian mothers), "Ta Sosedov Francelj" (My Neighbor Frank), and Polhar Polka.
Special thanks to John Hasper, and his web-site www.polkas.nl for supplying some
of the above information.
Fred Ziwich.
