Polonaise

(Fr.).

A Polish dance. Often of stately, processional character, it was much developed outside Poland in the 18th century. It came to be characterized by the rhythm shown in ex.1 but its origins lie in sung Polish folk dances of simple rhythmic-melodic structure. These dances, in triple metre and built from short phrases without upbeats, were performed at weddings and other festivals with regional variations of character, tempo and function. The folk polonez was adopted by the 17th-century Polish nobility, who transformed it into a more sophisticated dance, suitable for their refined, cultured courts. There are polonaises of transitional character, popular with the minor aristocracy, which retain elements of rural simplicity, but the court polonaise, when sung, employed more sophisticated texts. It became yet more elaborate as it developed into an instrumental piece for dancing at grand society occasions. Through its processional nature the dance assumed martial overtones and its status in Poland promoted its dissemination across Europe. At the end of the 17th century the polonez was becoming popular in the courts of many countries and by the middle of the 18th century it had firmly acquired the French title ‘polonaise’ even in Polish sources.

Jan z Lublina's tablature (1537–48) contains many dances with Polish titles. ‘Polnischer Tanz’, ‘chorea polonica’ and ‘polacca’ are terms that are used in several 16th-century sources, the earliest known being a Polish dance in a Nuremberg lute tablature of 1544 (later examples can be found in Ammerbach's organ tablature book of 1583, the Loeffelholtz manuscript of 1585 and Nörmiger's Tablulaturbuch of 1598). None of the pieces with these titles, however, resemble the later polonaise. The carol ‘Wżłobie leży’ (‘Lying in a Manger’), dating from the mid-17th century, is the earliest known piece that exhibits rhythmic and melodic features characteristic of the polonaise (ex.2). Courtly polonaises are included in lutebooks of this time – for example, in that of Virginia Renata of Gehemans (1640; D-Bsb 20052) – and theoretical classification of polonaise types can be found in Retzelius's De tactu musico from the end of the century (Uppsala, 1698).

In the 18th century Princess Anna Maria of Saxony (1728–97), daughter of King Augustus III of Poland, collected over 350 polonaises. The examples she brought together reveal that the the level of sophistication had notably increased. Instrumental accompaniments employ fashionable, rococo stylization and figurations. The harmonic language includes local colouration of detail to create a folk tone (for example, Lydian fourths). The structure has also been considerably extended with trio sections in binary or da capo form. The polonaise had now become an attractive part of the repertory of dance forms for European composers. Telemann, who visited Poland in 1704–7, composed many examples. Those of J.S. Bach (for example in the French Suite no.6 and Orchestral Suite no.2) exhibit many of the classic characteristics of the stylized 18th-century polonaise. In France, Couperin contributed examples, and in the second half of the century polonaises were written by W.F. Bach, Schobart and Mozart (the ‘Polonaise en rondeau’ in the Piano Sonata in D k284/205b). The combination of rondo and polonaise was also employed by Beethoven in the ‘a la polacca’ finale to his Triple Concerto for piano, violin and cello op.56. Beethoven also wrote a Polonaise in C op.89 for solo piano. Schubert composed 10 polonaises for piano four hands, four in d599 and six in d824.

In his Der vollkommene Capellmeister (1739) Johann Mattheson praised the passionate character that the dance offered. This rhetorical aspect of the polonaise became especially notable in examples by W.F. Bach (ex.3), but it was in the politically unstable Poland of the late 18th century that the dance began to assume a heightened emotional quality with contrasts between noble majesty and heartfelt melancholy. Inevitably, with the partition of the country between occupying powers, the dance became symbolic of the Polish ‘nation’. Prince Maciej Radziwiłł (c1751–1800) composed polonaises for large instrumental forces. His polonaise ‘La chasse’ is scored for two violins, viola, cello, bassoon, timpani, two clarinets, two horns and includes a part for an additional ‘Polnisch Horn’. The work also includes a programmatic text. For the theatre, Jan Stefani composed a folk opera Cud mniemany (‘The Supposed Miracle’) which included the polonaise among many Polish dance forms. In the work of Prince Michał Kleofas Ogiński (1765–1833) the instrumental polonaise became an independent keyboard work for the salon rather than for court dancing. He wrote 20 for piano (some for four hands) which are frequently melancholy in tone and have programmatic titles. That Ogiński had participated in the Kościuszko uprising of 1794, an event of profound symbolism for the Polish people, only increased the national resonance of his compositions, but these pieces assured the popularity of the polonaise not only in Polish salons but also across much of Europe. His ‘Pozegnanie Ojczyzny’ (‘Farewell to the Fatherland’) of 1794 became one of the most widely known programmatic polonaises of the day. It was pieces such as this that the poet Adam Mickiewicz must have been remembering when he wrote an impassioned description of a polonaise at the end of his epic poem Pan Tadeusz (1834).

Józef Kozłowski, Ogiński's teacher, was particularly prolific, writing nearly 70 polonaises for orchestra as well as examples for piano. He served in the Russian army and his choral polonaise Grom pobiedy rozdawajsia (‘Thunder of victory, resound!’), written for the 1791 celebrations of Catherine II's victory over the Turks, was until 1833 the Russian national hymn. Its success, ironically particularly strong after Russia's annexation of Polish lands in 1795, made it a model for future polonaises by 19th-century Russian composers. Back in Kozłowski's native Poland, however, as the 19th century progressed so the polonaise became increasingly ‘domesticated’. Karol Kurpiński commented in 1820 that the noble character of the polonaise had been lost since the turbulent years at the end of the 18th century. Chopin's teachers Wojciech Zywny and Józef Elsner continued to develop certain features of the dance but Elsner's view, expressed in 1811 to Breitkopf & Härtel, that ‘everything that is pleasing today may be converted into a polonaise’ conforms with Kurpiński's frustation. The latter's ‘Coronation’ Polonaise for chorus and orchestra (1826) may be an attempt to revive the dance's former glories, but his introduction of Rule, Britannia and God Save the Queen into a polonaise dedicated to the Duke of Cumberland suggests the exhibitionist's wish to please his audience. Kozłowski, too, was fond of incorporating pre-existing melodies (for example, by Pleyel and Mozart) into his polonaises.

Franciszek Lessel and Maria Szymanowska wrote polonaises in the virtuoso manner of Hummel. Pieces such as Weber's Grande polonaise op.21 (1808) and Polacca brillante op.72 (1819), which was later arranged by Liszt for piano and orchestra, exhibit a similarly ‘brilliant’ idiom. This style was an important musical stimulus for the young Chopin and polonaises figure strongly in his earliest works. His Variations on ‘Là ci darem la mano’ op.2 for piano and orchestra close with an ‘alla polacca’ finale. The virtuoso tradition of improvising on popular operatic themes of the day works its way into his Polonaise in B minor (1826), the trio of which contains embellishments of ‘Vieni fra queste braccia’ from Act 1 of Rossini's La gazza ladra. Two polonaises for piano date from 1817 and are therefore among Chopin's earliest surviving pieces. The influence of Ogiński is discernible, even to the extent that certain melodic contours and figurative designs are closely similar, but already in these very youthful pieces Chopin is reflecting a more profound engagement with folk and national dimensions when compared with many salon dance pieces of this time.

Chopin's later polonaises develop the dance to a level of technical complexity far beyond the examples of his predecessors. The Polonaise in F minor op.44 (1841), for example, combines daring rhetoric, formal expansion, poetic intensity and pianistic bravura. The heroic-military tone is amplified by imitative, percussive effects. The trio section is, by contrast, a lyrical ‘tempo di mazurka’. The piece is, then, an example of a tendency in Chopin's mature works for dance types and genres to be mixed (although mazurka features are also found in certain polonaises by Chopin's predecessors). In his later polonaises the ternary form, with a contrasting trio section, becomes modified. This is already apparent in op.44, but formal complexity and mixing of genres becomes most powerful in the Polonaise-Fantasy op.61.

Schumann wrote eight polonaises for piano four hands (1828) and one as the eleventh piece of Papillons op.2. There are two examples by Liszt (1851, and the Fest-Polonaise of 1876) and one by Wagner (published as his op.2), but it was in 19th-century Russia that the polonaise became especially popular. As the success of Kozłowski's examples demonstrated, the pomp and nobility of the polonaise was greatly approved by the Russian courts. Verstovsky, in the entr'acte to Act 3 of his opera Askold's Grave (1835), uses a polonaise to set the scene of the Russian palace. Glinka composed a polonaise setting, for chorus and orchestra, of the words ‘Great is our God’ (1837) and a Polonaise in E for orchestra (1839). At the beginning of Act 2 of his opera A Life for the Tsar (1836) he uses a polonaise to characterize the Polish nobility. Musorgsky employs the dance for similar dramatic purposes in Act 3 of Boris Godunov. Tchaikovsky turned to Kozłowski's example for the climax of Act 2 of his opera The Queen of Spades, quoting his choral refrain ‘Be glorified by this, O Catherine’ when Catherine II appears. In other Russian operas the polonaise style is employed for its ceremonial qualities, inevitably assuming Russian national resonance (for example, in Tchaikovsky's Vakula the Smith and Yevgeny Onegin, Rimsky-Korsakov's Mlada and Borodin's Prince Igor). Orchestral polonaises by Lyadov (1899) and Anton Rubinstein (1902) were both commissioned for the ceremonial unveiling of monuments. Skryabin's virtuoso Polonaise for solo piano is in the Chopin mould, but Szymanowski's example (the first of his Polish Dances of 1926) is in a more modernistic idiom.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MGG1 (F. Hoerburger and M. Sobieski)

MGG2 (D. Gerstner and T. Schallmann)

J.F. Reichardt: ‘Der hanakische Tanz’, Musikalisches Kunst-Magazin, (1782), 157

O. Kolberg: Lud, jego … pieśni, muzyka i tańce [The people, its … songs, music, dances] (Warsaw and Kraków, 1861–90/R1962–8)

W. Gostomski: Polonez i menuet (Warsaw, 1891)

A. Lindgren: ‘Die ältesten Polonaisen’, AMz, xix (1894) 263–4

A. Lindgren: ‘Contribution à l’histoire de la polonaise’, Congrès international d’histoire de la musique: Paris 1900, 215–220

F. Starczewski: ‘Die polnischen Tänze’, SIMG, ii (1900–01), 673–718

T. Norlind: ‘Zur Geschichte der polnischen Tänze’, SIMG, xii (1910–11), 501–525

A. Chybiński: ‘Die deutschen Musiktheoretiker im 16.–18. Jahrhunderts und die polnische Musik’, ZIMG, xiii (1911–12), 56–65

A. Simon: Polnische Elemente in der deutschen Musik (Zurich, 1916)

L. Kamienski: ‘Neue Beiträge zur Entwicklung der Polonaise bis Beethoven’, Beethoven-Zentenarfeier: Wien 1927, 66–74

L. Kamienski: ‘O polonezie staropolskim’ [On old Polish polonaises], Muzyka współczesna, v/3 (1928), 99

H. Opieński: ‘Przyczynek do dziejów poloneza w Polcew 18 wieku’ [Study of the history of the polonaise in Poland in the 18th century], KM, nos.17–l8 (1933), 36

R. Laufer: Der polnische Tanz und sein Eindringen in die Kunstmusik (diss., U. of Vienna, 1934)

C. Sachs: Eine Weltgeschichte des Tanzes (Berlin, 1933; Eng. trans., 1937/R)

H. Dorabialska: Polonez przed Chopinem [The Polonaise before Chopin] (Warsaw, 1938)

J. Kurczewski: Polonez w Polskiej muzyce ludowej [The polonaise in Polish folk music] (Poznań, 1950)

J.W. Reiss: ‘Polonez: jego pochodzenie i rozwój’ [The polonaise: its origin and development], Poradnik muzyczny, xl (1950); xli (1951)

A. Harasowski: The Golden Book of Polish Song (London, 1953)

C. de Nys: ‘Note sur les polonaises de Wilhelm Friedmann Bach’, The Works of Frederick Chopin: Warsaw 1960, 578–87

K. Hławiczka: ‘Ein Beitrag zur Verwandtschaft zwischen der Melodik Chopins und der polnischen Volksmusik’, ibid., 176–84

A. Slawiński: ‘Rytm a harmonia w polonezach Chopina’ [Rhythm and harmony in the polonaises of Chopin], ibid., 241–6

Z. Stęszewska: ‘Z zagadnień historii poloneza’ [Problems of the history of the Polonaise], Muzyka, new ser., v/2 (1960), 77–90

J. Hryniewicka: Tańce harnama: polonez, mazur, oberek, kujawiak (Warsaw, 1961)

K. Hławiczka: Polonezy z XVIII wieku na zespoły instrumentalne [18th-century polonaises for instrumental ensembles] (Kraków, 1967)

K. Hławiczka: ‘Grundriss einer Geschichte der Polonaise bis zum Anfang des 19. Jahrhundert’, STMf, l (1968), 51–124

K. Hławiczka: Polonez ze zbiorów Anny Marii Saskej [Polonaises from the collection of Anna Maria of Saxony) (Kraków, 1967–71)

Z. Steszewska: Saltus polonici, Polonoises, Lengjel tańtzok (Kraków, 1970)

Z. Lissa: ‘Klavierpolonaise und -mazurka im Jahrhundert 19.’, Gattungen der Musik in Einzeldarstellungen: Gedenkschrift Leo Schrade, ed. W. Arlt and others (Bern, 1973), 813–39

S. Burhardt: Polonez: katalog tematyczny (Krakow, 1976-)

T. Conder: The Development of the Mazurka and the Polonaise from their Dance Origins through their Use by Chopin as Salon Pieces for Piano (diss., California State U., 1982)

A. Thomas: ‘Beyond the dance’, The Cambridge Companion to Chopin, ed. J. Samson (Cambridge, 1992), 145–59

J. Kallberg: Chopin at the Boundaries (Cambridge, MA, 1996)

R. Taruskin: Defining Russia Musically (Princeton, 1997)

STEPHEN DOWNES