Despite its title, this is a composite work, with a mazurka embedded in the middle of the polonaise. (A polonaise is usually a dance in triple meter and moderate tempo, with the accent seeming to fall on the first beat thanks to its typical rhythmic pattern: an eighth note followed by two sixteenth notes, then four more eighths. A triple-meter mazurka, in Chopin's hands, tends to sound less belligerent and more graceful, with the accents shifting to the second or third beats.) The piece is dedicated to Princess Ludmilla de Beauveau, a prominent member of the Polish émigré community in Paris.

A short, menacing opening passage announces one of Chopin's most disturbing creations, a bold theme, defiant and rather sinister, with hammering chords and growling trills. It's answered, between statements, by a series of less aggressive melodic bits, sometimes apparently trying to soothe the main matter's fury, sometimes rising passionately across the keyboard. A second section takes this same material and strips it down to a savage bass ostinato with melodic fragments fluttering above. Suddenly the mood changes as the mazurka section begins. This is delicate music of moonlight and romance, its initial tinkly nature calling the courtly eighteenth century to mind. But soon the music slips into more ominous harmonies, two isolated torrents of notes dismiss the tender mazurka section, and the violent polonaise material from the beginning rumbles back in. At length, this reprise loses its force and seems about to fade into oblivion, but Chopin dismisses the work with one final angry gesture, a fortissimo chord of octaves.

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