Description
The guitar part comes from Hans Neusiedler’s dance for vihuela.
The title of the piece has given rise to much discussion:
The original title of this piece was “Ein welscher Tanz” (= a dance from a nearby country, possibly Italy, Switzerland or even Poland)
and also “Wascha Mesa” (possibly a corruption of the Polish words Wasze Miejsce = your place – ie a dance from your country [Poland]).
It was mistranslated as Dance of the Washerwomen (Tanz der Wäscherinnen) because of the sound of the word “Wascha”.