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 Sodražica 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.
- Book written by Drago and Rebeka Kunej in Slovenia: https://zalozba.zrc-sazu.si/en/publikacije/music-from-both-sides-1
- Article by Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame: http://www.clevelandstyle.com/matt~hoyer.html
- History of Slovenians in Cleveland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Slovenes_in_Cleveland
- Wikipedia article on Hoyer (in Slovenian): https://sl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Hoyer
Sheet music
📝 Sheet music pdf (B♭ major)
📝 Sheet music pdf (F major)