Waltz No. 7 in C‑Sharp Minor

No one brought more urbane refinement to the waltz than Chopin, and nowhere is this more apparent than in his final pieces in the form, the three Waltzes Op. 64. These were composed in 1846-47, a difficult time for Chopin, whose declining health was compounded by a turbulent and soon terminal deterioration in his relationship with the novelist George Sand. Chopin worked hard to bring these waltzes to their final form, as his sketches reveal, and they are just as polished as his seemingly more ambitious late masterpieces. In the second waltz of the set, in C-sharp minor, the wistful opening theme in thirds and sixths opens out into a flowing refrain that circles in on itself, rather like Chopin’s earlier Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 42. The middle section is in the tonic major (although written as D-flat major rather than C-sharp major), with a more expansive lyricism often associated with Chopin’s music in this key. 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.