V prostem času - Freizeit Polka (B. Prešeren) [Sheet music] [Accompaniment track]

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This is a very unique and beautiful polka by Brane Prešeren (legendary Slovenian trumpet player Ivan Prešeren’s brother) and released by Alpski Kvintet (Alpenoberkrainer) from Slovenia in 1986. The Slovenian title, ‘V prostem času’ means ‘In my spare time’, and the German title, ‘Freizeit’ pretty much means the same thing (‘Spare time’ or ‘Leisure time’). The composer is also the mastermind behind some of Alpski Kvintet’s most unique and energetic instrumentals such as Ob šilcu slivovke (Oberkrainer Slivowitz) and Ko sonce vzhaja (Morgensonne), and many of his compositions excellently showcased his brother Ivan’s virtuosity on the trumpet. It features a melody that could be considered perhaps a little jazzy or swingy, and even a bit unusual for Alpine folk music. Although it’s only been executed as a quintet, I hope you like my arrangement for accordion which I hope still allows the song to shine. And please listen to Alpski Kvintet’s performances, they are amazing. I can’t ever just listen to this song once – I can just keep listening to it on repeat.

I first heard this polka when I just started to learn the accordion and get into this style of music, long before music streaming services or YouTube. Back in the dial-up internet days, when I was around 10 or 11, I stumbled upon this instrumental when searching for MP3s on AltaVista, a long gone search engine which had a feature that allowed you to search for MP3 files that were hosted on individual’s websites. I don’t know who hosted it at the time, or why, and I didn’t even know who Alpski Kvintet were at the time, nor what the song was called, but I fell in love with this polka. I later forgot about it, and years later I remembered it and started to hunt it down.