Description
A century before Chopin's dramatic polonaises, this F major piece, BWV Anh. 117a, shows the dance in its plain domestic form. The polonaise began as a Polish processional dance and was in fashion at German courts and in German homes through the eighteenth century. This one comes from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach: short, simple and thoroughly domestic.
In triple time, the piece is carried by the characteristic polonaise figure that begins on the downbeat and shifts its weight onto the second beat. The melody is built straightforwardly from scales and broken chords over clear harmony, in a binary form with both halves repeated, and it is over in under a minute.
With around 230 notes across four octaves, it is a practical first dance for a beginner. The work lies in giving the rhythm its character: not three even beats, but the particular placing of weight the polonaise asks for. Holding the left hand back and letting the right hand's springing figures come forward is what gives it its lift.
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About the Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Johann Sebastian Bach was the towering figure of German Baroque music, serving for decades as Cantor of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. Renowned for his mastery of counterpoint, he laid the foundations of keyboard music with works such as The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Inventions. This site includes minuets and polonaises from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, the Inventions and Sinfonias, and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier. The Notebook pieces are catalogued with BWV Anh. (appendix) numbers, but many are by other composers - Petzold's minuets among them - or by no one known, and most of their song pages give the current view of who wrote them.
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