Madeleine's Wals/ Soete Isabelle/ March de l'Archduchesse
Flemish piper and flautist Wim Poesen composed Madeleine's Wals. He has been active in numerous folk bands in Belgium for decades. Karen met him through their common flute maker Patrick Olwell. Soete Isabelle (Sweet Isabel) is from the early 18th-century collection Oude en Nieuwe Hollantse Boerenlieties en Contredansen (Old and New Dutch Farmers' songs and contradances). We first heard it from the Flemish group Kadril. The march comes from a manuscript of tunes notated in the 1700s by three generations of fiddlers of the Di Martinelli family in Diest. The Archduchess being honored in it is probably Maria Theresia, the only female ruler of the Austrian Habsburgs (who then governed the Netherlands) and mother of Marie Antoinette.
Paul often spends his summers delving into old dance music manuscripts from Belgium and France and this is one of the gems he found.