Ferdinand Beyer, "Der Flohwalzer", a polka for little people

Contrary to the widespread idea, the very popular piano piece known in Latin America as "polca de los perros" (although in Colombia it is called "polca de los gatos"... and in Hungary "monkey march", and in Bulgaria "cat march", and so on) did not arise from folklore nor is it a product of popular tradition without a recognized author. On the contrary, the little piece bears No. 8 in the series of 106 basic exercises published in 1860 under the title Vorschule im Klavierspiel (Preparatory School for the Piano) by the German pianist and composer Ferdinand Beyer.

Born in 1803 in southern Germany, Ferdinand Beyer was recognized in his time as a salon pianist, author of a variety of light music, and a willing arranger of national anthems and popular orchestral pieces. None of this is remembered today. But he left a great legacy: the aforementioned piano method which, at least in part, is still used today, with some of his exercises even included in anthologies on piano pedagogy.

Ferdinand Beyer (1803 - 1863)

The author, and his method, fit perfectly with the middle-class aspiration of his time to enjoy leisure, embodied in the music that could be made at home with a piano in the living room. He shared an era in which home piano teachers proliferated, as did the methods of study, and the publishing houses that released them. In his more affluent years, Ferdinand Beyer was professionally connected to a respected publishing house in Mainz, on the banks of the Rhine. He died there in 1863.

Vorschule im Klavierspiel, opus 101, No 8
The accompanying score is a transcription of the original piece. It is written in the key of D major (that is what its "key signature" shows: two sharps, F and C). But the truth is that to the ear, the piece is in the unusual key of G flat major (an accompanying guitar, for example, should sustain the harmony in that key).

We boldly assume that this is how it was originally written, in D major, and that the obligatory alterations were simply incorporated into each measure. To do otherwise would have meant confronting a child with a score whose key signature had a few flats: six, no more, and no less. The little pianists would have come out in a huff.

The piece is very simple, needless to say. And it can be approached by anyone who is taught it "by ear". This is due to a particular property that characterizes it. The performer's hands never play simultaneously. Using this "gadget", the annoying issue of both hands' independence is solved.

As for the pianist, we only know that her name is Namtan. An excellent interpreter. Tasteful and musically intelligent, she ends the piece with a very appropriate ritardando that Beyer did not write down in the score.