Polka such as accordion, fiddle, diatonic accordion, hardingfele and nyckelharpa. Bedřich Smetana incorporated the polka in his opera "The Bartered Bride" () and in particular, Act 1. While the polka is Bohemian in origin, most dance music composers in Vienna (the capital of the vast Habsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was the cultural centre for music from all over the empire) composed polkas and included the dance in their repertoire at some point of their career. The Strauss family in Vienna for example, while probably better-known for their waltzes also composed polkas that have survived obscurity. Josef Lanner and other Viennese composers
Polka in the United States Polka Festival, SloveneFest, and Tony Petkovsek's Thanksgiving Polka Weekend. Beginning in the early 1970s, the phenomenon of "polka masses" began appearing. Polka masses are usually held by members of the Roman Catholic Church who consider the polka an important part of their ethnic heritages. The first polka mass was created by Father George Balasko in 1972 and the idea was spread by Father Frank Perkovich throughout the '70s and '80s. Both were polka musicians. In composing a polka mass, a musician either alters the lyrics of polka pieces to become more appropriate for a spiritual setting or creates an entirely