A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Polacca

by William Barclay Squire

POLACCA (Italian for Polonaise). Polaccas may be defined as Polonaises treated in an Italian manner, but still retaining much of the rhythm characteristic of their Polish origin. Polaccas are both vocal and instrumental, and are generally of a brilliant and ornate description, gaining in brilliancy what they lose in national character. Thus Chopin, in a letter from Warsaw, dated Nov. 14, 1829 (Karasowski, vol. i.), speaks of an 'Alla Polacca' with cello accompaniment that he had written, as 'nothing more than a brilliant drawing-room piece—suitable for the ladies,' and although this composition is probably the same as the 'Introduction et Polonaise Brillante pour Piano et Violoncello' (op. 3) in C major, yet from the above passage it seems as if Chopin did not put it in the same class as his poetical compositions for the pianoforte which bear the same name.

[ W. B. S. ]