Waltzes (Chopin)

Frédéric Chopin’s waltzes are pieces of moderate length for piano, all written between 1824 and 1849. They adhere to 3/4 waltz time but differ from earlier Viennese waltzes in not being intended for dancing. Some are accessible by pianists of modest capability, others require advanced technique.

Chopin may have written as many as 36 piano waltzes, but only twenty are numbered and only eight were published (in Opp. 18, 34, 42 and 64) before he died. His desire was that any unpublished works should be burned, but his sister Ludwika and Julian Fontana proceeded anyway to publish Waltzes 9–13 (as Opp. 69 and 70). Six waltzes composed 1826–1831 and present in Frédéric’s Paris home were at first preserved but then lost in an unintended 1863 fire in Ludwika’s house. Another six were eventually published as Waltzes 14–19. These Chopin had given to related persons without guarding the manuscripts. Waltz 18 was untitled; it is in 3/4 time and bears some characteristics of a waltz but is marked Sostenuto. Waltz 17 is not accepted as authentic by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute; to the other five in this group it has assigned WN numbers (29, 18, 28, 53 and 63). Waltz 20 is likewise inauthentic. Separately, the last variation of Chopin’s (authentic) Variations on a German National Air (Der Schweizerbub), WN 6, is in the form of a waltz. Besides, there remain:

  1. Extant waltzes in private hands, unavailable to researchers
  2. Waltzes believed destroyed or lost
  3. Waltzes of which documentary evidence exists but whose manuscripts are not known to exist

Famous are the Minute Waltz and the Waltz in C♯ Minor, both from Op. 64, the last set of waltzes Chopin wrote before his death.

List of waltzes by or attributed to Chopin

Series
number 		Key Composed Published Opus Number Brown Kobylańska Chominski Dedication Notes
1 E-flat major 1833 1834 (June) Op. 18 B.62 Laura Horsford Grande valse brillante; used in Les Sylphides
2 A-flat major 1835 1838 Op. 34/1 B.94 Josefine von Thun-Hohenstein The three waltzes, Op. 34 were also published as Grandes valses brillantes, but this title is usually reserved for the Waltz in E-flat major, Op. 18
3 A minor 1831 1838 Op. 34/2 B.64 Baroness C. d'Ivry
4 F major 1838 or earlier 1838 Op. 34/3 B.118 Mlle. A. d'Eichthal
5 A-flat major 1840 1840 Op. 42 B.131 Grande valse; sometimes called the 2/4 waltz since the main melody sounds as if in 2/4 time against a 3/4 bass.
6 D-flat major 1846-1847 XI 1847 Op. 64/1 B.164/1 Countess Delfina Potocka Valse du petit chien is the title Chopin gave this waltz, which is popularly known as Minute Waltz
7 C-sharp minor 1846-1847 XI 1847 Op. 64/2 B.164/2 Baroness Nathaniel de Rothschild (= Charlotte de Rothschild) Used in Les Sylphides and Secret
8 A-flat major 1846-1847 XI 1847 Op. 64/3 B.164/3 Countess Katarzyna Branicka (or Bronicka)
9 A-flat major 1835 (24 September) 1855 Op. posth. 69/1 B.95 Charlotte de Rothschild, Mme Peruzzi and Maria Wodzińska L'adieu
10 B minor 1829 1852 (Krakow) Op. posth. 69/2 B.35 Wilhelm Kolberg
11 G-flat major 1833 1855 Op. posth. 70/1 B.92 Used in Les Sylphides
12 F minor/A-flat major 1841 (June) 1852 (Krakow) Op. posth. 70/2 B.138 Marie de Krudner, Mme. Oury, Élise Gavard & Countess Esterházy
13 D-flat major 1829 (3 October) 1855 Op. posth. 70/3 B.40
14 E minor 1830 1868 Op. Posth B.56 KK IVa/15 P1/15 No autograph exists
15 E major 1829 1861 Lviv,Ukraine - B.44 KK IVa/12 P1/12 No autograph exists
16 A-flat major 1827 1902 - B.21 KK IVa/13 P1/13 Emilia Elsner[note 1] [note 2]
17 E-flat major 1827 1902 B 46 KK IVa/14 P1/14 Emilia Elsner [note 3]
18 E-flat major 1840 1955 - B.133 KK IVb/10 Émile Gaillard Headed "Sostenuto"; not always classified as a waltz.From 1938 present in the "Conservatoire Paris "
19 A minor 1847–49 ( ? ) 1955, 1958 Op. Posth B.150 KK IVb/11 P2/11 Charlotte de Rothschild or daughter Unedited edition pub. Paris 1955; ed. Jack Werner 1958. From 1901 present in the "Bibliotheque du Conservatoire de Paris "
20 F-sharp minor 1838 (?) 1932 - KK Ib/7 A1/7 Not by Chopin; first published in 1861, and in 1986 published under the name Valse mélancolique by Stanislaw Dybowski on the bi-weekly "Ruch Muzyczny", but in 2012 discovered by Luca Chierici to be a shortened version of a piece by Charles Mayer named Le Régret, op. 332.
- C major 1824 (?) - - KK Vb/8 Lost
- A minor 1824 - - - KK Vf Countess Lubienska Lost
- C major 1826 - - KK Vb/3 MS destroyed; copy of first line made by Chopin's sister Ludwika is extant
- A-flat major 1827 - - KK Vb/4 MS destroyed; copy of first line made by Chopin's sister Ludwika is extant
- D minor 1828 - - KK Vb/6 La Partenza; MS destroyed; copy of first line made by Chopin's sister Ludwika is extant
- A minor 1829 - - Discovered 1937; was in possession of H. Hinterberger of Vienna, but now believed destroyed
- A minor 1829 (?) - - - - Sketches for a brief prelude and main theme
- A-flat major 1829–30 (by 21 December 1830) - - KK Vb/5 Mentioned in a letter from Chopin to his family, 21 December 1830; MS destroyed; copy of first line made by Chopin's sister Ludwika is extant
- E-flat major 1829–30 - - KK Vb/7 MS destroyed; copy of first line made by Chopin's sister Ludwika is extant
- C major 1831 - - MS destroyed; copy of first line made by Chopin's sister Ludwika is extant
- ? 1845 (by) - - - KK Ve/12 Mentioned in diary of L. Niedźwiecki
- B major 1848 (12 October) - - B.166 KK Va/3 Madame Erskine According to a letter of Arthur Hedley (March 10 1960)

manuscript in a private collection (London)

- E-flat major 1829-30 - - KK Vb/7 Mentioned in letters from Breitkopf to Izabela Barcińska in 1878
- ? ? - - - KK Ve/10 Listed in auction catalogue, Paris, March 1906
- ? ? - - - KK Ve/11 Mentioned in letters from Breitkopf to Izabela Barcińska in 1878
- ? ? - - - KK Vf Several waltzes; lost

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Emilia Elsner kept an album of Chopin's manuscripts, which was destroyed during World War II.[1]: 29 
  2. ^ First published in 1902, from a manuscript in the possession of the family of Jósef Elsner, by F. Hoesick in Warsaw and Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig.[2]: 132 
  3. ^ This Waltz was published together with the Waltz in A-flat Major (see above, No 16).[3]: 133 

References

  1. ^ Orga, Ateş (2015). Fryderyck Franciszek Chopin. London, New York, Sydney: Omnibus Press. p. 192. ISBN 978-1-78038-444-3. [Tomasz] Nidecki married Elsner's daughter Emilia (by his second marriage). Chopin contributed seventeen pieces to her autograph album, destroyed in World War II.
  2. ^ Paderewski, Ignacy J., ed. (1949). Fryderyk Chopin Complete Works IX Waltzes. Warsaw: The Fryderyk Chopin Institute. This Waltz was published for the first time in 1902, from a manuscript in the possession of the family of Jósef Elsner, by F. Hoesick in Warsaw and Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig (as a supplement to the collected edition of Chopin's works, Klav. Bibl. No. 23 183 II). The Warsaw Musical Society has in its collections an autograph manuscript of Chopin dedicated to Madame Le Brun (Chopin, His Life and Work, Warsaw 1904, p. 533).
  3. ^ Paderewski, Ignacy J., ed. (1949). Fryderyk Chopin Complete Works IX Waltzes. Warsaw: The Fryderyk Chopin Institute. This Waltz was published together with the Waltz in A-flat Major (see above, No. 16).
  • v
  • t
  • e
  • Grande valse brillante in E♭ major, Op. 18
  • 3 Waltzes, Op. 34
  • Waltz in A♭ major, Op. 42
  • Waltz in D♭ major, Op. 64, No. 1 (Minute)
  • Waltz in C♯ minor, Op. 64, No. 2
  • Waltz in A♭ major, Op. 64, No. 3
  • Waltz in A♭ major, Op. 69, No. 1 (Farewell)
  • Waltz in B minor, Op. 69, No. 2
  • 3 Waltzes, Op. posth. 70
  • Waltz in E minor, Op. posth.
  • Waltz in E major, Op. posth.
  • Waltz in A minor, Op. posth.
  • {{Ballades}}
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