Slovenian Home Polka – Moj Prijatelj (M. Hoyer) [Sheet music]

Slovenian Home Polka is a popular Slovenian-American or Cleveland-Style polka, originally released as “Moj Prijatelj” (Slovenian for “My friend”) and was written by Matija Arko (also known as Matt Hoyer), a Slovenian from SodraĹľica who migrated to the United States and settled in Cleveland in the 1910s. Matt Hoyer made a name for himself as one of the earliest Slovenian recording artists, and a pioneer of Slovenian polkas and waltzes in America (known as Cleveland-Style Polkas) (long before Frankie Yankovic). Performing both the Chromatic Button Accordion, and the Styrian Diatonic Button Accordion (Steirische Harmonika), together with the Hoyer Trio he released over 100 instrumentals on the Columbia and Victor record labels. (It’s important to know that the city of Cleveland in Ohio had the largest population of Slovenians outside of Europe, at one point being the third largest Slovenian speaking city in the world, after Trieste and Ljubljana.)

This instrumental originally featured 2 parts, as recorded by the Hoyer Trio, however later in the 20th century other artists added their own 3rd part (Alex Meixner covers the various additions on a video, linked here). I hope you like my arrangement of the original 2 parts, influenced by various recordings including that of Hoyer’s. I’ve provided an arrangement in B-flat major, and another in F major.

If you’d like to read more about Matt Hoyer, I’ve supplied a list of articles (in English), below.

Sheet music

đź“ť Sheet music pdf (Bâ™­ major)

đź“ť Sheet music pdf (F major)

Original recording by the Hoyer Trio in the 1920s

Performance by Alex Meixner on the Styrian Diatonic Button Accordion, including extra 3rd parts which have been composed by various artists

Recording by the Steve Meisner Band, a Cleveland-Style Polka group

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