Polonaise through the White House receiving line. Sousa wrote it in 1886 at the request of President Chester A. Arthur who died before it was performed. Tchaikovsky's opera "Eugene Onegin", an adaption of Alexander Pushkin's novel in poetry verse, includes a famous polonaise. The polonaise is a Polish dance and is one of the five historic national dances of Poland. The others are the Mazurka (Mazur), Kujawiak, Krakowiak and Oberek, last three being old folk dances. Polonaise originated as a peasant dance known under various names – "chodzony" ("pacer"), "chmielowy" ("hops"), "pieszy" ("walker") or "wielki" ("great"), recorded as early as the
Polonaise de Concert, Op. 4 (Wieniawski) Polonaise de Concert, Op. 4 (Wieniawski) Polonaise Brillante (Polonaise de Concert) Op. 4 is the first of two polonaises composed by the Polish violin virtuoso Henryk Wieniawski. It was written in two versions: for violin with piano accompaniment, and for violin and orchestra. The version known to us today was published in Germany in 1853 as Polonaise de Concert in D major. However it was originally sketched out in 1848, by a thirteen year old Wieniawski. It was dedicated to the Polish virtuoso violinist Karol Lipiński. It was renamed to Polonaise Brillante when it was re-published in Paris in 1858.