Mazurka

The Polish anthem (below) is called Mazurka Dąbrowskiego -- "Dąbrowski's Mazurka".

You probably ask -- who is Dąbrowski, and what is a mazurka? 

The title refers to General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, who led the Polish Legions serving with Napoleon's army in Italy. The song was meant to rouse the soldiers' patriotism (Poland had recently ceased to exist) and boost their morale.

A mazurka is a Polish folk dance, whose name is taken from the word Mazur - which in the nineteenth century, I just found out in Wikipedia, actually referred to an inhabitant of the Mazowsze (in English: Mazovia) region, rather than the Mazury lakes region.

The mazurka is defined by its rhythm, with its emphasis on the third beat of a measure:

Autor: Hyacinth w anglo-jęczynej Wikipedii

Here is what appears to be an authentic folk performance of a mazurek, which took place at a folk dance competition. It was posted by Dom Tańca (Dance House), an organization founded in 1994 (so post-communist - after the period when folk culture was pretty much appropriated by the communist authorities) to promote the teaching of folk dances from Central Poland:

And here is another example posted by Dom Tańca -- from this example, we can see why people say that Mazurek Dąbrowskiego is actually too slow to be a true mazurek:

In the nineteenth century, folk dances became a part of high culture, too. Here is a performance of a mazurka in this context:

As performed by the famous Polish artistic folk ensemble Mazowsze.

The mazurka has also inspired many composers, including Chopin, whose mazurkas are one of my favorite things to play. And here is one of Chopin's mazurkas, as performed by Maurizio Pollini at Warsaw's Chopin Competition in 1960, when Pollini was eighteen years old:

Maurizio Pollini, piano

Frédéric Chopin, Mazurka in F sharp minor Op. 59, no. 3