Op. 40 No. 1

Two Polonaises

in C sharp minor, Op.26, No.1

in A major, Op.40, No.1

Chopin’s first published work was a little Polonaise in G minor, which he wrote when he was seven. Between that and his next published work (the Rondo, Op.1, of 1825), he wrote four more polonaises and, during the next ten years, he wrote as many again. So obviously the “first” polonaises - the two published in 1836 as his Op.26 - by no means represent Chopin’s earliest attempt to convert the Polish national dance to his own use. But it was not until 1836 that the public would first experience the heroic quality we now associate with the Chopin polonaise, “the canon hidden amongst the flowers,” as Schumann once described it.

Unlike the mazurka, the opular as distinct from the courtly Polish dance, the polonaise had long been the common property of all European composer, not only Poles. J.S. Bach had written one in his Second Suite in B minor, and there are examples by Beethoven, Schubert, and Weber among others. But to them, to Polish composers before Chopin, and even to Chopin himself for a time, the polonaise meant little more than an interesting rhythm. Its status as an expression of Polish nationalism it owes to Chopin, who elevated it to that level after had had left Poland and after Poland had suffered cruel setbacks in its campaign for independence from Russian domination.

The C sharp minor Polonaise represents the form at an interesting transitional stage. It is neither the harmless salon piece nor yet in the heroic style of the E flat minor, Op.26, No.2, or the next in the established order, the famous “Military” Polonaise in A major, Op.40, No.1. Half-formed in style, it is also half-form in shape: it has two stirring bars of introduction, a first section with the characteristic strutting rhythm prominent in the left hand, and then a long and lyrical second section in D flat major. It actually ends in D flat, with no instruction that the first section should be repeated, although in fact most pianists do go back to the beginning at the point and end the work in c sharp minor.

The “Military” Polonaise, which was written three years later, has a clearly defined ternary shape, with fanfare-like outer sections in A major and a heroically melodious middle section in D major. By working more or less consistently on the form for most of his working life Chopin made the polonaise his own and finally transcended it in the great Polonaise-Fantaisie, Op.61, of 1846.