Antonín Dvorák (* 8. Sep. 1841 in Mühlhausen/Moldau, † 1. May 1904 in Prague) composed the Polonaise in E-flat major in 1879 to promote the idea of a „Reform of dance music to give it a national character“ and dedicated it to the committee of the Academic Readers' Society who first performed it at a ball on 6 January 1880 in Prague.