Frédéric Chopin'swaltzes are pieces of moderate length for piano, all written between 1824 and 1849. They are all in waltz triple meter, specifically 3/4 (except Op. P1/13, which is in 3/8 time), but differ from earlier Viennese waltzes in not being intended for dancing; nonetheless, several have been used in ballets, most notably Les Sylphides. Some are accessible by pianists of modest capability, others require advanced technique.
Chopin may have written as many as 37 piano waltzes, but only nineteen (along with one inauthentic waltz) are numbered and only eight were published (in Opp. 18, 34, 42 and 64) before he died. His desire was that any unpublished works should be burned, but his sister Ludwika and Julian Fontana proceeded anyway to publish Waltzes 9–13 (as Opp. 69 and 70). Six waltzes composed 1826–1831 and present in Frédéric’s Paris home were at first preserved but then lost in an unintended 1863 fire in Ludwika's house. Another six were eventually published as Waltzes 14–19. These Chopin had given to related people without guarding the manuscripts. Waltz 18 was untitled; it is in 3/4 time and bears some characteristics of a waltz but is marked Sostenuto. Waltz 17 is not accepted as authentic by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute; to the other five in this group it has assigned WN numbers (29, 18, 28, 53 and 63). Waltz 20 is likewise inauthentic. Another authentic waltz in A minor was rediscovered in 2024 and has not yet been published or numbered.[1][2] Separately, the last variation of Chopin’s (authentic) Variations on a German National Air (Der Schweizerbub), WN 6, is in the form of a waltz. Besides, there remain:
Extant waltzes in private hands, unavailable to researchers
Waltzes believed destroyed or lost
Waltzes of which documentary evidence exists but whose manuscripts are not known to exist
Famous are the Minute Waltz and the Waltz in C♯ Minor, both from Op. 64, the last set of waltzes Chopin published before his death.
Unedited edition pub. Paris 1955; ed. Jack Werner 1958. From 1901 present in the "Bibliotheque du Conservatoire de Paris "
20
F-sharp minor
1838 (?)
1932
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KK Ib/7
A1/7
Not by Chopin; first published in 1861, and in 1986 published under the name Valse mélancolique by Stanislaw Dybowski on the bi-weekly "Ruch Muzyczny", but in 2012 discovered by Luca Chierici to be a shortened version of a piece by Charles Mayer named Le Régret, op. 332.
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C major
1824 (?)
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KK Vb/8
Lost
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A minor
1824
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KK Vf
Countess Lubienska
Lost
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C major
1826
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KK Vb/3
MS destroyed; copy of first line made by Chopin's sister Ludwika is extant
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A-flat major
1827
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KK Vb/4
MS destroyed; copy of first line made by Chopin's sister Ludwika is extant
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D minor
1828
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KK Vb/6
La Partenza; MS destroyed; copy of first line made by Chopin's sister Ludwika is extant
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A minor
1829
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Discovered 1937; was in possession of H. Hinterberger of Vienna, but now believed destroyed
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A minor
1829 (?)
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Sketches for a brief prelude and main theme
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A-flat major
1829–30 (by 21 December 1830)
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KK Vb/5
Mentioned in a letter from Chopin to his family, 21 December 1830; MS destroyed; copy of first line made by Chopin's sister Ludwika is extant
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E-flat major
1829–30
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KK Vb/7
MS destroyed; copy of first line made by Chopin's sister Ludwika is extant
^Emilia Elsner kept an album of Chopin's manuscripts, which was destroyed during World War II.[3]: 29
^First published in 1902, from a manuscript in the possession of the family of Jósef Elsner, by F. Hoesick in Warsaw and Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig.[4]: 132
^This Waltz was published together with the Waltz in A-flat Major (see above, No 16).[5]: 133
^Orga, Ateş (2015). Fryderyck Franciszek Chopin. London, New York, Sydney: Omnibus Press. p. 192. ISBN978-1-78038-444-3. [Tomasz] Nidecki married Elsner's daughter Emilia (by his second marriage). Chopin contributed seventeen pieces to her autograph album, destroyed in World War II.
^Paderewski, Ignacy J., ed. (1949). Fryderyk Chopin Complete Works IX Waltzes. Warsaw: The Fryderyk Chopin Institute. This Waltz was published for the first time in 1902, from a manuscript in the possession of the family of Jósef Elsner, by F. Hoesick in Warsaw and Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig (as a supplement to the collected edition of Chopin's works, Klav. Bibl. No. 23 183 II). The Warsaw Musical Society has in its collections an autograph manuscript of Chopin dedicated to Madame Le Brun (Chopin, His Life and Work, Warsaw 1904, p. 533).
^Paderewski, Ignacy J., ed. (1949). Fryderyk Chopin Complete Works IX Waltzes. Warsaw: The Fryderyk Chopin Institute. This Waltz was published together with the Waltz in A-flat Major (see above, No. 16).