26 Mowery ⦁ Chopin Polish Sympathies Example 3: Excerpt from Polonaise no. 1, Op. 26, m. 5.43 The polonaise is another example of Polish dances, one of the oldest ones, and it was “originally called the great, or pedestrian, dance,” and later it was called the polski and then the polonaise.44 It is in triple meter, and usually its rhythm pattern is of one long rhythm followed by two shorter rhythms, then four long rhythms. This simple rhythmic pattern allowed for much variety for composers who worked with it. There are two kinds of polonaises, the country polonaise and the salon-concert polonaise which “probably originated with the festive procession of Polish nobility at the celebration of Cracow in 1574” when Henri de Valois became the Polish king.45 The polonaise was generally danced “at carnival parties and at student dances.”46 In fact, the polonaise is still danced even today in modern Poland. Chopin notably wrote sixteen polonaises for piano, along with a chamber polonaise and an orchestral polonaise. His Polonaise no. 1 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 26 (see Example 3) features the distinctive rhythmic pattern in the fifth measure in the left hand with a 43 Chopin, Polonaises, 13. 44 Bakst, “Polish National Influences,” 55. 45 Bakst, “Polish National Influences,” 55. 46 Gengaro, Experiencing Chopin, 75.
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