- Chopin composed this waltz in 1847. He dedicated the whole of his Op. 64 the Polish Countess Delfina Potocka, who had been one of his many aristocratic piano students.1
- Chopin also dedicated his Second Piano Concerto to the Countess.
- Stylized waltzes for piano were a staple of Parisian salon culture. Playing in the many private salon gatherings of the artistic and fashionable in Paris was a significant part of Chopin’s career. Chopin’s waltzes and other dances for piano took this popular and simple salon genre and brought it to new artistic heights.2
- In his 1888 biography of Chopin, musicologist Friedrich Maternus Niecks related an anecdote claiming that this waltz was inspired by George Sand’s dog Marquis chasing its tail. This is why this waltz is sometimes called “Valse au petite chien” (Little Dog Waltz). Niecks’s biography, while well-regarded in its time, actually contains a great deal of unverified information, so take that story with a grain of salt.3
- The waltz picked up the nickname “Minute” over the years thanks to music publishers. The nickname was intended to mean “minute” as in “small,” not as in “this piece should take one minute to play.”4
Sources
- Kornel Michałowski and Jim Samson, “Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed February 19, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000051099.
- Ibid.
- Tad Szulc, Chopin in Paris: The Life and Times of the Romantic Composer (New York: Scribner, 1999), 271.
- Maurice Hinson, The Pianist’s Dictionary (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004), 114.
Cut IDs
40193 15402 45691 49262 12010 13624 13826 15325 19266