Polonaise

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The polonaise (Polish: polonez, chodzony; Italian: polacca), known colloquially as the Bismarck, is a slow dance of Polish origin, in 3/4 time. Its name is French for "Polish." The notation alla polacca on a score indicates that the piece should be played with the rhythm and character of a polonaise (e.g., the rondo in Beethoven's Triple Concerto op. 56 has this instruction).

The polonaise had a rhythm quite close to that of the Swedish semiquaver or sixteenth-note polska, and the two dances have a common origin. Among composers who wrote polonaises, Frédéric Chopin was well known and often acclaimed. Chopin's late polonaise developed a very solemn style, and has in that version become very popular in the classical music of several countries.

Examples of polonaises are the well-known Polonaises Op. 40 (Chopin), composed by Chopin in 1838.

Polonaise is a wide-spread dance in carnival parties. There is also a German song, called "Polonäse Blankenese" from Gottlieb Wendehals alias Werner Böhm, which is often played on carnival festivals in Germany about this dance. Polonaise is always a first dance at a studniówka ("hundred-days"), the Polish equivalent of the senior prom, which is approximately 100 days before exams.

John Philip Sousa, who wrote the Presidential Polonaise, intended to keep visitors moving briskly through the White House receiving line. Sousa wrote it in 1886 at the request of President Chester A. Arthur who died before it was performed.^[1]

[edit] See also

• Polka, a 2/4-beat dance of Czech origin
• polska, a 3/4-beat Nordic folk dance
• Polka-mazurka, a 3/4-beat dance, musically similar to the mazurka

[edit] References