The Bohemian music
are closely related to the folk songs, and their rhythms are very original. What Chopin did for the mazurka and the valse, Smetana did for the polka, a Bohemian dance dating from 1830. His “Polkas” for piano-forte are congenial to Chopin’s sublime compositions. He wrote also ten other Bohemian dances for piano and inserted a “polka”, a “furiant,” and a “skočná” in his opera “Prodaná nevěsta”, and Dvořák used the furiant even as scherzo in his symphonies.
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