The episode in B major
gives pause for breathing. It has a hint of Meyerbeer. But again
with smothered explosions the Polonaise proper appears, and all
ends in gloom and the impotent clanking of chains. It is an awe-
provoking work, this terrible Polonaise in E flat minor, op. 26;
it was published July, 1836, and is dedicated to M. J. Dessauer.
Not so the celebrated A major Polonaise, op. 40, Le Militaire. To
Rubinstein this seemed a picture of Poland's greatness, as its
companion in C minor is of Poland's downfall. Although Karasowski
and Kleczynski give to the A flat major Polonaise the honor of
suggesting a well-known story, it is really the A major that
provoked it--so the Polish portrait painter Kwiatowski informed
Niecks. The story runs, that after composing it, Chopin in the
dreary watches of the night was surprised--terrified is a better
word--by the opening of his door and the entrance of a long train
of Polish nobles and ladies, richly robed, who moved slowly by
him. Troubled by the ghosts of the past he had raised, the
composer, hollow eyed, fled the apartment.
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