The Polonaise genre
The polonaise as a genre of dance miniature stems from Polish folk music – the rural polonaise (also called pacer, hops, slow, round) was a slow dance in triple meter with a simple melodic and rhythmic structure. Having been adapted as a court dance by the Polish nobility in the 17th century, it became a sophisticated dance of refined character, worthy of elegant, rich manor houses. Its processional character made it popular not only in Poland, but also in the entire Europe – by the end of the 17th century it was one of the most popular dances at courts in numerous countries, while since the mid-18th century, its French name polonaise became to appear also in Polish sources.
A number of examples of dance melodies bearing Polish titles, such as polnischer Tanz, chorea polonica, or polacca, were collected in 16th-century lute and organ tablatures. The earliest known example of a dance with a Polish title can be found in a Nuremberg lute tablature of 1544; the later ones are in, e.g., the organ tablature of Jan of Lublin (1537-48), Ammerbach (1583), or Nörmiger (1598). However, those melodies do not display such polonaise characteristics as we know today. The first known example of a melody whose rhythmic and melodic features assign it to the genre of polonaise is the Christmas carol Infant Holy, Infant lowly (Polish: W żłobie leży) of the mid-17th century. Circa 100 years later, the polonaise was already a mature and better structured genre – it is confirmed by, e.g., the instrumental manner of leading the melody, the use of fashionable Rococo stylisations and figurations, delicate colour of the harmonic language imitating folklore (e.g. lydian fourths), or the fully developed trio part in the binary or da capo form. Such examples can be found in, among others, the collection of Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony, daughter of King Augustus III of Poland, which included over 350 polonaises (the 2nd half of the 18th century). Already at that time, polonaises belonged to the dance repertoire of such composers as François Couperin, Georg Philipp Telemann, or Johann Sebastian Bach, and in the 2nd half of the 18th century also Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, or Ludwig van Beethoven.
Johann Mattheson paid attention to the plenty of emotions and passions character of polonaise in his treaty Der vollkommene Capellmeister of 1739. That rhetoric was particularly reflected in the politically unstable Poland of the end of the 18th century, when the mixture of dignity and the honest, affecting melancholy described the moods of Poles who were uncertain of the fate of their homeland exceptionally well. Such polonaises were composed by, among others, Duke Maciej Radziwiłł, Jan Stefani, or Michał Ogiński. In Ogiński’s works, the melancholic element prevailed. His polonaises lost their functional character for the sake of instrumental dance miniatures characteristic for the sentimental tendency with programme, suggestive titles (e.g. the famous polonaise Farewell to the Homeland). In turn, Karol Kurpiński’s polonaises maintain the noble, majestic, solemn style, which also indicates the conditions in which the pieces were performed, e.g., the polonaise Welcome King was played to welcome the tsar of Russia in 1825. Yet already from the beginning of the 19th century, the polonaise started losing its symbolic character, thus becoming one of the most popular dance miniatures, constituting the basis of works by the composers of the brilliant style. Some of examples of those polonaises are, e.g., polonaises by Maria Szymanowska or Franciszek Lessel.
The polonaise was extremely popular in the 19th-century Russia (until 1833, a choral polonaise by Józef Kozłowski was the national anthem). The polonaise, thanks to its plenty of splendour and majesty character, was well received at Russian courts. Examples of such polonaises can be found in stage works by such composers as Mikhail Glinka (A Life for the Tsar), Modest Mussorgsky (Boris Godunov), or Pyotr Tchaikovsky (The Queen of Spades).
The polonaise was present in the works by Fryderyk Chopin from the very beginning – the composer wrote first pieces belonging to that genre already at the age of seven. However, those polonaises – full of child’s innocence – are a proof of the fact that young Chopin was absorbing the plenty of the newest trends Warsaw musical landscape. In those polonaises, we can find inspirations with the sentimental, functional, elegiac, and heroic trend; we also find the conventional form of the polonaise – symmetric phrases, characteristic rhythmic and melodic motifs, determined incipits and cadenzas. In his youth polonaises, Chopin, already consciously and each time more boldly, draws from the surrounding him tendencies and models. Chopin decided to publish the polonaises in print after leaving Warsaw. In seven pieces which were created in the next several years, we observe an each time more daring expansion outside of the genre framework of the polonaise, which is particularly visible in the free lead of the form, contrasts, style fusion, or an uncommon expression.
The Polonaise in B-flat major WN 17
The Polonaise in B-flat major (most probably finished in 1829), written during the composition studies with Józef Elsner, belongs to the youth phase of Chopin’s works. Its features fit into the model example of the genre: characteristic figures and phrases or the form’s symmetry; however, what is more important, its characteristics perfectly match the brilliant style, so popular back then. It should be added that it was a style that the young composer mastered to perfection, which is proved by the careless virtuosity of the piece – numerous figurations with plenty of ornaments certainly posed a challenge even to the most skillful pianist. Such factors as playing with registers, contrast of texture and articulation preview the characteristic features of Chopin’s works – contrasts, juxtapositions, and dialogue which would drive and shape the form of his later compositions. The Polonaise in B-flat major never entered the official, public stream of Chopin’s works. It was published only after his death as a testimony of the young composer’s development; by the way, it was performed contrary to his last will, in which he firmly objected to publishing the pieces which he did not release during his life. None of the two existing autographs of the piece has survived. Yet the first one was the base for copies made by Chopin’s sister – Ludwika Jędrzejewiczowa and by Juliusz Fontana who published the Polonaise as Op. 71, No. 2 in 1855. The second autograph, more complete, of which existence the two copyists were probably not aware, was the base for the first Polish edition by J. Chrząszcz of 1853.
Katarzyna Koziej
Principles adopted for the main text of the Polonaise in B
major WN 17
We adopt PE as the base text, as it is a source which was most probably based on the later and much more diligently prepared Chopin's autograph, [A]. We have corrected numerous errors of PE on the basis of comparison with the remaining sources, JC and EF, which were based – directly or indirectly – on another, draft autograph, [AI].