Polonaise

The polonaise (Polish: "polonez", "chodzony"; Italian: "polacca"), or the Bizmarck as it is more colloquially known, is a rather 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. At the end of the 18th century, it became a popular salon piece. Virtuoso and lyrical piano polonaises composed Michał Kleofas Ogiński. His polonaises influenced a young Chopin. Chopin's late polonaise developed a very solemn style, and has in that version become very popular in the classical music of several countries.

One fine example of a polonaise is the well-known 'Heroic' Polonaise in A flat major, Op.53. Chopin composed this polonaise as the dream of a powerful, victorious and prosperous Poland.Fact|date=February 2008

Polonaise is a wide-spread dance on 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" (means: "hundred-days"), the Polish equivalent of the senior prom, which is approximately 100 days before exams.

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
* John Philip Sousa, who wrote the "Presidential Polonaise," intended to keep visitors moving briskly through the White House receiving line for President Theodore Roosevelt