Alla polacca

What it means

Alla polacca means “in the character of a polonaise” and asks the performer to adopt the proud, measured gesture of this Polish national dance, without an actual complete polonaise being present. The marking transfers the dance's tempo, accent pattern, and bearing onto a movement or section of a work belonging to another genre.

Typical of the polacca gesture is a moderately moving triple meter with a characteristic accent that often falls not on the first beat but on the second, along with dotted rhythms that give the whole a solemn, striding character.

Musical use

Composers often use alla polacca as the finale of larger works, such as chamber music or concertos, to give the ending a festive, ceremonial character. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the rhythm of the Polish national dance stood for courtly splendor and was therefore readily quoted without implying an actual social dance.

Alla polacca differs from a standalone polonaise as a work title in that it only borrows the character, not the full form: a movement marked “alla polacca” may formally be a sonata movement or a rondo that merely takes over the polonaise's tempo and rhythm.

Performance practice

Keep the pulse of the triple meter measured and upright rather than driving, and deliberately bring out the characteristic accented beat so the proud gesture comes through. Play dotted rhythms crisply rather than softly, so the striding character is preserved.