] The Polonaise (dance), Polonaise in A♭ major, Op. 53 (, ''Heroic Polonaise''; ) is a solo

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

piece composed by

Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period who wrote primarily for Piano solo, solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown ...

in 1842 The piece was published in 1843, and is one of Chopin's most admired compositions and has long been a favorite of the romantic piano repertoire. Pianist

Arthur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein Order of the British Empire, KBE OMRI (; 28 January 1887 – 20 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist.

once called it "the composition which is the closest to my heart." The piece requires exceptional piano skills and great

virtuosity ''Virtuosity'' is a 1995 American science fiction action film directed by Brett Leonard and starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. Howard W. Koch Jr. served as an executive producer for the film. The film was released in the United St ...

to be interpreted at a high degree of proficiency. It is also very physically demanding, and according to his student Adolphe Gutmann, Chopin played it more gently than most performers. The polonaise was dedicated to , a German banker and friend of Chopin. The autograph manuscript of the work is preserved in the

Morgan Library & Museum The Morgan Library & Museum (originally known as the Pierpont Morgan Library and colloquially known the Morgan) is a museum and research library in New York City, New York, U.S. Completed in 1906 as the private library of the banker J. P. Morg ...

Origin of the sobriquet 'Heroic'

George Sand Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. Being more renowned than either Victor Hugo or Honoré de Balz ...

, Chopin's longtime lover and companion, responded vigorously to the

Revolutions of 1848 The revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the springtime of the peoples or the springtime of nations, were a series of revolutions throughout Europe over the course of more than one year, from 1848 to 1849. It remains the most widespre ...

as did many intellectuals of the day. When the 1848 Revolution began in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, women had fewer rights than men. Sand believed women's rights were necessary for progress. Around this time, Sand started her own newspaper which was published in a workers' co-operative. This allowed her to publish more political essays, expressing her strongly felt convictions. In one of these, for example, she wrote, "I cannot believe in any republic that starts a revolution by killing its own

proletariat The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian or a . Marxist ph ...

." On hearing Chopin's Polonaise, Sand was left with a deep symbolic impression which she communicated to Chopin in their private correspondence. In one of their letters, she wrote passionately, " ("The inspiration! The force! The vigour! There is no doubt that such a spirit must be present in the French Revolution. From now on this polonaise should be a symbol, a heroic symbol"). In spite of Chopin's reluctance to bestow descriptive names on his music, music scholars and concert pianists have nevertheless associated the grand architecture of the music with this sobriquet, "Heroic."

Technical aspects

The polonaise features many difficult technical aspects, including: *Fast ascending chromatic

perfect fourth A fourth is a interval (music), musical interval encompassing four staff positions in the music notation of Western culture, and a perfect fourth () is the fourth spanning five semitones (half steps, or half tones). For example, the ascending int ...

s *Rapid, highly difficult

octave In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referr ...

scaling * Trills with the weaker fingers *Quick

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

*Fast

arpeggio An arpeggio () is a type of Chord (music), chord in which the Musical note, notes that compose a chord are individually sounded in a progressive rising or descending order. Arpeggios on keyboard instruments may be called rolled chords. Arpe ...

s *Broken chords *

Chords Chord or chords may refer to: Art and music * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord, a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * The Chords (British band), 1970s British mod ...

with wide fingering *Use of a wide range of the

piano keyboard A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, sho ...

*Large notational jumps

Structure

The tempo of the piece is ''Alla polacca e

maestoso () is an Italian musical term and is used to direct performers to play a certain passage of music in a stately, dignified and majestic fashion (sometimes march-like) or, it is used to describe music as such. ''Maestoso'' also is associated ...

'' ("like a

polonaise The polonaise (, ; , ) is a dance originating in Poland, and one of the five Polish folk dances#National Dances, Polish national dances in Triple metre, time. The original Polish-language name of the dance is ''chodzony'' (), denoting a walki ...

and majestic"). The form may be viewed as intermediate between ternary (A-B-A) and

rondo The rondo or rondeau is a musical form that contains a principal theme (music), theme (sometimes called the "refrain") which alternates with one or more contrasting themes (generally called "episodes", but also referred to as "digressions" or "c ...

(A-B-A-C-A), since the first interlude is much shorter than the second (16 vs. 74 bars). The main

theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical appearance for certain software. * Theme (linguistics), topic * Theme ( ...

is preceded by an

introduction Introduction, The Introduction, Intro, or The Intro may refer to: General use * Introduction (music), an opening section of a piece of music * Introduction (writing), a beginning section to a book, article or essay which states its purpose and g ...

of about thirty seconds in length. The piece features a grand introduction with fast ascending

chromatic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are used to characterize scales. The terms are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, es ...

notes in both hands, setting the mood of the piece; also, it shows the heroic side of Chopin's art. The first theme is a dance-like theme in the tonic key of

A major A major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor. The A major scale is: Changes needed for the ...

. It is the familiar part of the piece and has the left hand moving in pounding octaves. The theme is repeated up an octave with short

trill TRILL (Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links) is a networking protocol for optimizing bandwidth and resilience in Ethernet networks, implemented by devices called TRILL switches. TRILL combines techniques from bridging and routing, and ...

s that fill some of the auditory gaps in the theme. The first interlude presents a series of chord progressions that lead into a recount of the traditional

melody, with the polonaise rhythm employed in the left-hand

accompaniment Accompaniment is the musical part which provides the rhythmic and/or harmonic support for the melody or main themes of a song or instrumental piece. There are many different styles and types of accompaniment in different genres and styles of m ...

. The main theme then repeats once more. The second, main interlude (or trio section) opens with six loud

chords before switching to a very soft bass

ostinato In music, an ostinato (; derived from the Italian word for ''stubborn'', compare English ''obstinate'') is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch. Well-known ostinato-based pieces inc ...

of descending octaves first in the key of

E major E major is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equivalent, F-flat maj ...

and then in

(written as

D major D major is a major scale based on D (musical note), D, consisting of the pitches D, E (musical note), E, F♯ (musical note), F, G (musical note), G, A (musical note), A, B (musical note), B, and C♯ (musical note), C. Its key signature has two S ...

). A

march March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March. The March equinox on the 20 or 2 ...

-like melody follows the descending octaves and this occurs twice, and then a long lyrical interlude firstly with harmonic chord progressions and frequent

modulation Signal modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform in electronics and telecommunication for the purpose of transmitting information. The process encodes information in form of the modulation or message ...

s. This ends in a descending passage before the main theme is replayed. The theme is played louder and more dramatically and ends in a coda including material derived from the main theme. A typical performance of the polonaise lasts six and a half minutes. The piece is written in time but includes many implicit deviations from this metre.

Influence

The polonaise is quoted in the piano composition ''Anton Notenquetscher'' by

Moritz Moszkowski Moritz Moszkowski (23 August 18544 March 1925) was a German-Polish composer, pianist, and teacher.Heroic Polonaise sheet music
at

Musopen Musopen is an organization which creates, produces and disseminates Western classical music, via public domain recordings, sheet music and educational resources. It stands with the ChoralWiki and the Wind Repertory Project as among the most prom ...

''Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53''
performed by

Martha Argerich Martha Argerich (; ; born 5 June 1941) is an Argentine classical concert pianist. Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argerich gave her debut concert at the age of eight before receiving further piano training in Europe. At an early age, she won sev ...

(one of the greatest pianists of all time)
in A-flat major, Op. 53''
performed by

Yundi Li Yundi Li ( zh, s=李云迪, t=李雲迪, p=Lǐ Yúndí; born 7 October 1982), also known simply as Yundi (stylized as YUNDI), is a Chinese classical concert pianist. Yundi is considered one of the greatest contemporary interpreters of Chopin and ...

(youngest first-prize winner and juror of the

International Chopin Piano Competition The International Chopin Piano Competition (), often called the Chopin Competition, is a piano competition in Warsaw, Poland, held first in 1927 and every five years since 1955. The competition is one of the founding members of the World Federa ...

)
''Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53''
performed by

Rafał Blechacz Rafał Blechacz (; born 30 June 1985) is a Polish classical pianist who rose to fame after winning the XV International Chopin Piano Competition in 2005. Biography Blechacz began piano lessons at the age of five, and enrolled in the National ...

(the winner of the 15th

)
''Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53''
performed by

Seong-Jin Cho Seong-Jin Cho (; born May 28, 1994) is a South Korean concert pianist. He was the winner of the 2015 International Chopin Piano Competition, the first from the country. Since then, he has regularly performed recital programs in major venues an ...

(the winner of the 17th

)
Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53
Chopin's autograph manuscript in the Morgan Library & Museum {{DEFAULTSORT:Polonaises Chopin53 1842 compositions Polonaises by Frédéric Chopin Compositions in A-flat major