HD - Chopin 'Minute Waltz' Op.64 No.1 Paul Barton, piano

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The "Waltz in D flat major", opus 64, No. 1, popularly known as the "Minute Waltz" is a waltz for solo piano by Frédéric Chopin.

The piece is given the tempo marking "Molto vivace". He wrote it in 1847 and published it in Leipzig the same year, as the first of the opus 64 Trois Valses, dedicating it to "To Mme. la Comtesse Delphine Potocka". Since the second waltz is in the key of C-sharp minor, the "Minute" waltz contrasts by being in the enharmonic parallel major key (D-flat major).

Despite its nickname, a typical performance of the work will last between one and a half and two and a half minutes; this is because Chopin's publisher, who coined the nickname, intended the "minute" to mean "small". The waltz, though considered by many to be brilliant, is not grand or long. It is more playful than many of the other waltzes. Camille Bourniquel, one of Chopin's biographers, reminds the reader that Chopin, with this waltz, was trying to depict a dog chasing its tail; indeed, Chopin originally named the piece "Petit chien" (Little Dog).