Polka Polka The polka is originally a Czech dance and genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. The polka remains a popular folk music genre in many European countries, and is performed by folk artists in the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Finland, and to a lesser extent in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Hungary, Italy, Ukraine, Romania, Belarus, Russia, and Slovakia. Local varieties of this dance are also found in the Nordic countries, Spain's Basque Country, the United
Polonaise, Op. 89 (Beethoven) a precursor to Chopin's more well-known polonaises. The piece is marked "Alla Polacca, vivace" (as a polonaise, lively)"." After four measures, there is a brief barless passage of ascending and descending scales moving to "adagio" (slow) and then to "più presto" (faster). At the conclusion of this unusual introduction, the piece returns to the first tempo and meter, and the polonaise rhythm and main theme are introduced. The piece ends with a lengthy coda. It takes about five minutes to perform. Polonaise, Op. 89 (Beethoven) The Polonaise in C major, Op. 89, by Ludwig van Beethoven is a polonaise for