In his polonaises Chopin takes on the tradition of a genre recently endowed with the function of national dance. Three childhood polonaises constitute a replica of the model of the functional dance, while each of the later worksof this genre has its own character: lyric, dramatic or heroic. Tied into the interpretations were subjects such as the struggle for freedom, the knightly andinsurgent traditions and sometimes they came to have a symbolic functionin Polish history.

Critical source-edit...