This
dance form, since the death of the great composer, has been
chiefly developed on the virtuoso side. Beethoven, Schubert,
Weber, and even Bach--in his B minor suite for strings and flute-
-also indulged in this form. Wagner, as a student, wrote a
Polonaise for four hands, in D, and in Schumann's Papillons there
is a charming specimen. Rubinstein composed a most brilliant and
dramatic example in E flat in Le Bal. The Liszt Polonaises, all
said and done, are the most remarkable in design and execution
since Chopin. But they are more Hungarian than Polish.
XIII. MAZURKAS:--DANCES OF THE SOUL
I
"Coquetries, vanities, fantasies, inclinations, elegies, vague
emotions, passions, conquests, struggles upon which the safety or
favors of others depend, all, all meet in this dance."
Thus Liszt. De Lenz further quotes him: "Of the Mazurkas, one
must harness a new pianist of the first rank to each of them."
Yet Liszt told Niecks he did not care much for Chopin's Mazurkas.
"One often meets in them with bars which might just as well be in
another place.
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