A Polish national dance of a stately and festive character. The music is always in moderate triple metre and typically phrases end with feminine cadences. The basic Polonaise rhythm is generally given to the left hand accompaniment, and the right hand accentuates it by its melody. WF Bach brought the form to artistic perfection. Beethoven, Schubert, Weber, Liszt all wrote Polonaises, but Chopin made it a symbol of Polish heroism.