Waltz No. 1 in E‑Flat Major

Chopin’s waltzes are high-class salon music, as public as his mazurkas are private, written for immediate appeal and domestic popularity. The Waltz in E-flat major, Op. 18, composed in 1831, was the first that Chopin intended for publication. It is a significant advance on his earlier, unpublished waltzes, capturing the fashionable dance vogue that swept across Europe in the early 19th century in an extroverted style and with a fast tempo that exudes buoyant effervescence. After a stirring call to attention, the music seems to reflect the bustle of the dance floor and the spinning motions of dancing couples. The sparkling brilliance of the first section is contrasted with a lilting theme in thirds in D-flat major that has an almost coquettish sentimentality. Throughout, the music echoes the lightness and elegance of the ballroom dance. Finally, a coda links snippets of the main themes together before the music circles upward, ending in a heap of exhaustion. About Chopin's Waltzes By the time Chopin wrote his first waltzes, the dance was an international phenomenon, a refined offshoot of the Austrian ländler with a familiar triple-time sway. Chopin contributed to this popular craze, building on examples by Schubert and Weber in creating some of the best-loved waltzes of the 19th century, with swirling piano figurations and subtle cross-rhythms adding layers of sophistication. Chopin composed eight waltzes intended for publication (Op. 18; three waltzes, Op. 34; Op. 42; and three waltzes, Op. 64), and a further nine examples—mostly early works, some left in manuscripts he had presented as gifts—were published after he died. In addition, there are further pieces in a waltz style that Chopin didn’t explicitly title as such, and yet more that are dubiously attributed to him.