Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin,was a Polish composer and
virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era, who wrote
primarily for the solo piano. He gained and has
maintained renown worldwide as one of the leading
musicians of his era, whose "poetic genius was based on
a professional technique that was without equal in his
generation." Chopin was born in what was then the Duchy
of Warsaw, and grew up in Warsaw, which after 1815
became part of Congress Poland. A child prodigy, he
completed his musical education...(+)
Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin,was a Polish composer and
virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era, who wrote
primarily for the solo piano. He gained and has
maintained renown worldwide as one of the leading
musicians of his era, whose "poetic genius was based on
a professional technique that was without equal in his
generation." Chopin was born in what was then the Duchy
of Warsaw, and grew up in Warsaw, which after 1815
became part of Congress Poland. A child prodigy, he
completed his musical education and composed many of
his works in Warsaw before leaving Poland at the age of
20, less than a month before the outbreak of the
November 1830 Uprising.
The piano pieces of Chopin changed the way the piano
was played, not so much in the technical sense as with
Liszt, but in the expressiveness required of the
pianist. In shorter works, Chopin experimented with
textures and sonorities, creating an utterly distinct
piano style. Perhaps the most unusual and individual of
the shorter forms is the mazurka, which reflects the
merging of Chopin's cosmopolitan influences in Paris
with his growin consciousness of being Polish. While
retaining the flavor and rhythm of traditional Polish
dances, the mazurkas also reflect the sophisticated
melodic nuances and the coloristic harmonies found in
Chopin's other music. These brief, intimate evocations
of his homeland are perhaps some of Chopin's greatest
contributions to the piano repertoire.
The Trois Valses, Op.64 (published between 1846 and
1847) were the last set of such works to be published
during Frédéric Chopin's lifetime, and were among the
very last works sketched by his prodigious pen before
his disease rendered further work impossible. Each of
the three is among the shortest of his entries in the
waltz form (making them entirely unsuitable for
effective use in the ballroom--a use that, at this
stage in his life, would have been unthinkable to the
composer); they are, rather than actual dances,
dance-poems that reflect the weakened composer's
attitudes from three very different points of view. It
is as if Chopin's latter-day musical personality were
put through a prism, with the light of the resulting,
rather distinct persona cast upon three separate sheets
of music-paper. More subdued than No.1 (and strikingly
Slavic in tone, with undercurrents of mazurka-rhythm
mingling with the characteristic waltz figure) is the
Valse in C-sharp minor, Op.64, No.2 that follows.
Although the opening is marked Tempo giusto, one hardly
ever hears this work played without a heavy dose of
rubato. The "veiled melancholy", as Huneker called it,
of the primary melody is unrivalled among Chopin's
works. The sad protagonist is called to the dance floor
by a spinning passage in running eighth notes (which
returns two times throughout the piece, each time its
tiny antecedent-consequent phrase pair being stated
twice), while the piu lento, D-flat major middle
section offers some consolation.
The Waltz in D-flat major, Op. 64, No. 1, sometimes
known as "Valse du petit chien" (French for "Waltz of
the puppy"), and popularly known in English as the
Minute Waltz, is a piano waltz by Polish composer and
virtuoso Frédéric Chopin. It is dedicated to the
Countess Delfina Potocka. Chopin composed the waltz in
1847 and had it published by Breitkopf & Härtel in
Leipzig the same year, as the first of the Trois
Valses, Op. 64. The second waltz is in the enharmonic
parallel minor key of C-sharp minor.
The waltz is in the key of D-flat major and has a tempo
marking of molto vivace (very lively). Chopin indicates
that the waltz is to be played with the sustain pedal
used, and makes frequent use of crescendi and
diminuendi. It is in a simple ternary form, as are many
of Chopin's compositions. The A section is marked
leggero, and the B section sostenuto. The A section
itself can be divided into two themes, separated by a
double barline. The first consists of the familiar
opening melody over standard waltz accompaniment,
frequently rising an octave only to drop back down. The
second theme is similar, but not identical, and
features several broken scales over several octaves
between a repeated quarter note and triplet motive. The
B section is somewhat calmer, using alternating half
and quarter notes over waltz accompaniment. Following a
lengthy trill, the A section is repeated, modified only
in the ending, which features a three-octave descent
instead of a two-octave one. The piece is given the
tempo marking Molto vivace. Although it has long been
known as the "Minute" Waltz, its nickname was intended
to mean "small" in the sense of a "miniature" waltz,
given by its publisher. Chopin did not intend for this
waltz to be played in one minute. A typical performance
of the work will last between 1+1⁄2 and 2+1⁄2
minutes. The waltz is 140 measures long with one
fifteen-measure repeat included, and thus it would have
to be played at almost 420 quarter notes per minute in
order to play it completely within a single minute.
Playing the piece as fast as possible is still a feat
some pianists attempt. Camille Bourniquel, one of
Chopin's biographers, reminds the reader that Chopin
got the inspiration for this waltz as he was watching a
small dog chase its tail, which prompted the composer
to name the piece Valse du petit chien, meaning "The
Little Dog Waltz".
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minute_Waltz).
Although composed for solo piano, I created this
Interpretation of the Waltz in Db Major (Op. 64 No. 1)
for String Quartet (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).