Polonaise
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The polonaise is a Polish dance. It started as a folk dance and then became popular among the Polish nobility. It is in 3/4 time and feels quite important in character. In the courts of the aristocracy musicians would often play a polonaise from the gallery while the people danced below in the reception hall.
Polish culture was very popular in Europe in the 1830s and so the polonaise became known in other countries. composers started to write polonaises for the piano. Pieces called Polonaise had already been composed by Bach, Handel, François Couperin and others, but it was Frédéric Chopin who in the 19th century wrote several Polonaise for piano which became really famous. Most of them are very hard to play, especially the famous Polonaise in A flat op.53. They really sound very Polish.
Several Russian composers wrote polonaises to give a Polish atmosphere, e.g. Tchaikovsky in his ballet Sleeping Beauty and in his opera Eugene Onegin .
