Chopin - Waltz № 6 in D-flat major, Op. 64, No.1, "Minute Waltz"

The Waltz in D-flat major, Op. 64, No. 1, Valse du petit chien, popularly known as the Minute Waltz, is a piano waltz composed by Frédéric Chopin.

Chopin wrote 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 piece is given the tempo marking Molto vivace. Although it has long been known as the "Minute" (accent on second syllable) Waltz, a nickname meaning a "small" in the sense of "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 one and a half and two and a half minutes.

The waltz is 138 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".

Frederic Francois Chopin (22 February or 1 March 1810 - 17 October 1849) was a Polish composer, virtuoso pianist, and music teacher of French - Polish parentage. He was one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano".

Chopin was born in Zelazowa Wola, a village in the Duchy of Warsaw. A renowned child-prodigy pianist and composer, he grew up in Warsaw and completed his musical education there. Following the Russian suppression of the Polish November 1830 Uprising, he settled in Paris as part of the Polish Great Emigration. He supported himself as a composer and piano teacher, giving few public performances.

From 1837 to 1847 he carried on a relationship with the French woman writer George Sand. For most of his life, Chopin suffered from poor health; he died in Paris in 1849 at the age of 39. The vast majority of Chopin's works are exclusively for solo piano, the most notable exceptions being his two piano concertos.

His compositions are technically demanding but emphasize nuance and expressive depth. Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, etude, impromptu, scherzo, and prelude.

Performer :Muriel Nguyen Xuan (piano) iIt's Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0