Dance and the Music of Chopin: The Polonaise (original) (raw)

Chopin and His World, 2017

Abstract

This chapter discusses how the polonaise served as an emblem of Poland's ruling class or as a template for genteel behavior. It also represented the nation of Poland, its people, customs, and history. Well aware of their shared noble associations, Polish dance commentators often began their discussion of the polonaise by comparing it to the minuet. Their endgame was to show how native Polish elements made the polonaise far superior, in their view, to the more theatrical and artificial minuet. The chapter also explores several of the polonaise's expressive and cultural associations in currency during the last quarter of the eighteenth century and beyond: national identity, otherness, and the Polish nobleman.

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