Waltzes (Chopin)

Frédéric Chopin at 25, by his fiancée Maria Wodzińska, 1835

Frédéric Chopin's waltzes are pieces of moderate length for piano, all written between 1824 and 1849. They are all in waltz triple meter, specifically 3
4 (except Op. P1/13, which is in 3
8 time), but differ from earlier Viennese waltzes in not being intended for dancing; nonetheless, several have been used in ballets, most notably Les Sylphides. Some are accessible by pianists of modest capability, others require advanced technique.

Chopin may have written as many as 37 piano waltzes, but only nineteen (along with one inauthentic waltz) 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 His desire was that any unpublished works should be burned, but his sister Ludwika and Julian Fontana proceeded anyway to publish Waltzes 9–13 (as Opp. 69 and 70).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 people 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. Another authentic waltz in A minor was rediscovered in 2024 and has not yet been published or numbered.[1][2] 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 published before his death.

List of waltzes by or attributed to Chopin

Series No. Key Composed Published Opus No. Brown Kobylańska Chominski Dedication Notes
1 E♭ major 1833 1834 (June) Op. 18 B.62 Laura Horsford Grande valse brillante; used in Les Sylphides
2 A♭ 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♭ 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♭ 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♭ 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♯ 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♭ major 1846–1847 XI 1847 Op. 64/3 B.164/3 Countess Katarzyna Branicka (or Bronicka)
9 A♭ 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♭ major 1833 1855 Op. posth. 70/1 B.92 Used in Les Sylphides
12 F minor/A♭ major 1841 (June) 1852 (Krakow) Op. posth. 70/2 B.138 Marie de Krudner, Mme. Oury, Élise Gavard & Countess Esterházy
13 D♭ 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♭ major 1827 1902 - B.21 KK IVa/13 P1/13 Emilia Elsner[note 1] [note 2]
17 E♭ major 1827 1902 B 46 KK IVa/14 P1/14 Emilia Elsner [note 3]
18 E♭ major 1840 1955 - B.133 KK IVb/10 P2/10 Émile Gaillard Headed "Sostenuto"; not always classified as a waltz (sometimes referred to as Klavierstück in E♭ major, 1840). 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♯ minor 1838 (?) 1932 - KK Anh. Ib/7 (formally Anh. Ia/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". However, in 2012 it was discovered by Luca Chierici to be a shortened version of a piece by Charles Mayer named Le Régret, Op. 332.
- A minor 1824 - - - KK Vf Countess Lubienska Lost. It was reported on Izabela Grabowska's lost album. "A delicious waltz dedicated to Countess Lubienska" (source: Koptiajev)
- C major 1824 (1831?) - - KK Vb/8 MS destroyed; copy of first line made by Chopin's sister Ludwika is extant
- C major 1826 - - KK Vb/3 MS destroyed; copy of first line made by Chopin's sister Ludwika is extant
- A♭ 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♭ 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♭ major 1829–30 - - KK Vb/7 MS destroyed; copy of first line made by Chopin's sister Ludwika is extant. Mentioned in letters from Breitkopf to Izabela Barcińska in 1878
- A minor 1830–35 - Manuscript discovered at The Morgan Library & Museum in 2024[1]
- ? 1845 (by) - - - KK Ve/12 Mentioned in diary of L. Niedźwiecki
- B major 1848 (12 October) - - B.166 KK Va/3 Madame Erskine Manuscript in a private collection (London), according to a letter of Arthur Hedley (March 10, 1960)
- B♭ major 1849 - - Discovered 1952; Arthur Hedley claimed to have seen it in a private English collection, according to Jeffrey Kallberg[6]
- ? ? - - - 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.[3]: 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.[4]: 132 
  3. ↑ This Waltz was published together with the Waltz in A♭ major (see above, No 16).[5]: 133 

References

  1. 1 2 Hernández, Javier C. (2024-10-27). "Hear a Chopin Waltz Unearthed After Nearly 200 Years". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-10-27.
  2. ↑ Guy, Jack (2024-10-29). "Lost Chopin music unearthed nearly 200 years after composer's death". CNN. Retrieved 2024-10-29.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ 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).
  5. ↑ 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).
  6. ↑ Kallberg, Jeff. "Chopin's 18th Waltz - privately owned". pianoworld.com. Piano World. Retrieved 14 August 2026.
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