Polonaise in F-sharp minor, Op.44
Polonaise · in F♯ minor · Op. 44
Frédéric Chopin 1810–1849
F♯ minor
Key
Polonaise
Form
Tempo di polacca
Tempo
Op. 44
Catalogue
Score
Listen
Finding a recording…
Difficulty
Our estimate Virtuoso
—No community ratings yet0 votes
Sign in to add your rating.
Themes & character
Darkest of the polonaises·Mazurka at its heart·Relentless rhythm·Composed 1841
At a glance
- Catalogue
- Op. 44
- Key
- F♯ minor
- Tempo / character
- Tempo di polacca
- Form
- Polonaise
About the piece
Composed in 1841, this is the fiercest and most uncompromising of Chopin's polonaises. Its outer sections drive forward on a hard, obsessive rhythm, closer to a war march than to a court dance.
At its centre Chopin does something unprecedented: he inserts an entire mazurka, a completely different Polish dance, in a gentler key, before the grim polonaise music returns to overwhelm it. Liszt described the piece as having the character of a dream.
The composer
Frédéric Chopin
1810–1849
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the early Romantic period who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leading composer of his era whose "poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation".
Comments
Sign in to join the conversation.
Loading…