Heroic

I don't know how it is, but the Germans are amazed at me and I am amazed at them for finding anything to be amazed about.
~Frederic Chopin

Happy Music Monday! Heroic Polonaise (1842) by Frédéric Chopin today, performed by the Berlin Pro Musica Symphony Orchestra.

Flag of the November Uprising that carried the motto
"For our freedom and yours"

Info about the piece from 10 Pieces of Classical Music About Freedom by Emily E. Hogstad:

No sooner had [Polish composer Chopin] left for Vienna... than Warsaw broke out into armed conflict.

The November Uprising in Warsaw lasted from November 1830 until October 1831...

The Poles fought their occupiers, the Russians, but were ultimately crushed.

Chopin was devastated when he heard about the outcome. He wrote in his journal, “Oh God! … You are there, and yet you do not take vengeance!”

...He began incorporating polonaises – a dance form that originated in Poland – into his piano music.

He also began dating Paris-based authoress George Sand, who backed the Polish cause in her writings. After he wrote the Heroic Polonaise, she drew a direct line between the Polonaise and other countries’ fights for freedom and self-determination, writing, “The inspiration! The force! The vigour! There is no doubt that such a spirit must be present in the [1848] French Revolution. From now on, this Polonaise should be a symbol, a heroic symbol.”