Polonaise

File:Polonaise - Antoni Kurzawa - 1888.jpg

The notation alla polacca ({{langx|it|polacca}} means "polonaise") on a musical score indicates that the piece should be played with the rhythm and character of a polonaise. For example, the third movement of Beethoven's Triple Concerto op. 56, marked "Rondo alla polacca," the last movement in Weber's Clarinet Concerto No. 2 is marked "Alla Polacca", his Horn Concertino likewise ends with a polka movement, and the finale of Chopin's Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" both feature this notation. In his book Classic Music: Expression, Form, and Style, Leonard G. Ratner cites the fourth movement from Beethoven's Serenade in D major, Op. 8, marked "Allegretto alla Polacca," as a representative example of the polonaise dance topic (Ratner 1980, pp. 12–13).

Frédéric Chopin's polonaises are generally the best known of all polonaises in classical music. But there was a long tradition of polonaise in European music at least 100 years before Chopin. Händel wrote a famous one, and Wilhelm Fiedemann Bach wrote a number of beautiful ones in major minor pairs. Other composers who wrote polonaises or pieces in polonaise rhythm include Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Georg Philipp Telemann, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Danzi, Bernhard Henrik Crusell, Karol Kurpiński, Józef Elsner, Maria Agata Szymanowska, Henryk Wieniawski, Franz Schubert, Carl Maria von Weber, Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johann Kaspar Mertz, Moritz Moszkowski, Modest Mussorgsky, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Alexander Scriabin.

Another more recent prolific polonaise composer was the American Edward Alexander MacDowell.

John Philip Sousa wrote the Presidential Polonaise, intended to keep visitors moving briskly through the White House receiving line. Sousa wrote it in 1886 after a suggestion from President Chester A. Arthur.Sousa: Marching Along, p.85 Integrity Press, 1994

Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin, an adaption of Alexander Pushkin's novel in poetry verse, includes a famous polonaise.

The polonaise is a Polish dance and is one of the five historic national dances of Poland.[http://chopinfound.brinkster.net/ip.asp?op=MusicMazurkas Polish Folk Music and Chopin's Muzurkas] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723033541/http://chopinfound.brinkster.net/ip.asp?op=MusicMazurkas |date=2011-07-23 }} The others are the Mazur (Mazurka), Kujawiak, Krakowiak and Oberek.{{cite web |last1=Trochimczyk |first1=Maja |title=Oberek (Obertas) |url=https://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/dance/oberek.html |website=usc.edu |access-date=14 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150226044136/https://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/dance/oberek.html |archive-date=26 February 2015 |date=2000}} Polonaise originated as a peasant dance known under various names – chodzony ("pacer"), chmielowy ("hops"), pieszy ("walker") or wielki ("great"), recorded as early as the 15th century. In later centuries, it gained popularity among the urban population and the nobles.Roderyk Lange. Tradycyjny taniec ludowy w Polsce i jego przeobrażenia w czasie i przestrzeni. PUNO. 1978. p. 40.Selma Jeanne Cohen. International encyclopedia of dance: a project of Dance Perspectives Foundation, Inc.'' Oxford University Press. 1998. p. 223. By the late 16th century, the folk versions of polonaise (accompanied by singing) were commonly danced by the lower Polish nobility, but the dance was not known under its current name until the 17th century.{{cite book |last1=Randel |first1=Don Michael |title=The Harvard Dictionary of Music |date=2003 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0674011632 |page=668}} With time, it also became a favorite dance of the Polish aristocratic class{{cite book |title=The World and Its Peoples: Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland |date=1965 |publisher=Greystone Press |page=182}} and acquired an instrumental form.

The polonaise was introduced in the 17th century in French courts, although the form originated in Poland and was very popular throughout Europe. This dance in 3/4 metre was designed to entertain the French royal court. The term polonaise was used over the term polonez at the start of the 18th century.

===Princess Anna Maria of Saxony===

Princess Anna Maria of Saxony collected sheet music for polonaises throughout her life time, collecting over 350. Her collection was focused on the finest examples of instrumentation.

The polones (from either the Dutch polonez, or possibly the Portuguese polonesa) is a common feature of wedding receptions in Maluku. A loosely-defined group dance, it typically resembles a country dance or cèilidh, or in some cases a line dance.

File:Jan Norblin- Polonais.jpg|Polish Noblemen dancing Polonaise, painting by Jan Piotr Norblin

File:Polonez Pod Gołym Niebem - Korneli Szlegel.jpg|Poles dance Polonez, painting by Korneli Szlegel

File:Kwiatkowski-chopin.jpg|Chopin's Polonaise - a Ball in Hôtel Lambert in Paris.

• Waltz
• Mazurka
• Varsovienne
• Kujawiak
• Krakowiak
• Redowa
• List of Intangible Cultural Heritage elements in Eastern Europe

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• [http://culture.pl/en/article/polonaise-the-royal-dance-every-polish-teenager-has-to-master Polonaise ‒ The Royal Dance Every Polish Teenager Has to Master]

Category:Polish styles of music

Category:Polish dances

Category:Dance forms in classical music

Category:Triple time dances