Polonaise
A Polish triple-time processional dance — stately and ceremonial
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A polonaise is a Polish triple-time processional dance: stately and ceremonial, danced by couples in a procession. Its rhythm often has a "step–step–rise" gait, with accents and phrasing carrying the order of a cortege; Chopin's polonaises turned the dance into a symbol of national identity.
It shares triple time with the mazurka but has the opposite character: the mazurka is displaced, flexible folk step; the polonaise is the dignity and display of an aristocratic procession. The usual mistake is to play it as a march — it is in three, not the two-beat step of an army.
Read deeper → mazurka
Sources
- 波罗乃兹的仪式性、三拍子与肖邦的用法，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Polonaise"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.