Waltz in C-sharp minor is the second work of Chopin

Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....

's opus 64 and the companion to the Minute Waltz

Minute Waltz

The Waltz in D flat major, Op. 64, No. 1, popularly known as the Minute Waltz, and also Valse du petit chien, is a waltz for solo piano by Frédéric Chopin. It is dedicated to the Countess Delfina Potocka.-History:...

 (Op. 64, No. 1), he dedicated this Waltz to Madame Nathaniel de Rothschild. It consists of three main themes

Theme (music)

In music, a theme is the material, usually a recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a composition is based.-Characteristics:A theme may be perceivable as a complete musical expression in itself, separate from the work in which it is found . In contrast to an idea or motif, a theme is...

:

• Theme A tempo giusto chordal
  Chord (music)
  A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...
  
   with a walking pace feel;
• Theme B più mosso (faster) — theme stated in running eighth note
  Eighth note
  thumb|180px|right|Figure 1. An eighth note with stem facing up, an eighth note with stem facing down, and an eighth rest.thumb|right|180px|Figure 2. Four eighth notes beamed together....
  
  s, with all harmony in the left hand.
• Theme C più lento (slower) — a sostenuto
  Sostenuto
  In music, sostenuto is a term from Italian which means "sustained." It occasionally implies a slowing of tempo, though more often it refers to a very legato style in which the notes are performed in a sustained manner beyond their normal values....
  
   in the tonic major (D-flat major, enharmonic
  Enharmonic
  In modern musical notation and tuning, an enharmonic equivalent is a note , interval , or key signature which is equivalent to some other note, interval, or key signature, but "spelled", or named, differently...
  
   equivalent to C-sharp major). Besides the slower general pace, the melody is in quarter note
  Quarter note
  A quarter note or crotchet is a note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note . Often people will say that a crotchet is one beat, however, this is not always correct, as the beat is indicated by the time signature of the music; a quarter note may or may not be the beat...
  
  s except for a few flourishes in eighth notes, giving this section the quality of an interlude before the dramatic restatement of Theme B

The overall layout of the piece is A B C B A B. The piece ends with a fade-out rather than the strident chords of his first Grande Valse Brillante

Grande Valse Brillante (Chopin)

The Grande valse brillante in E-flat major , Op. 18, was composed by Frédéric Chopin in 1833 and published in 1834. This was his first published waltz composition for solo piano...

  (Op 18). In an orchestrated version, it forms part of the ballet Les Sylphides

Les Sylphides

Les Sylphides is a short, non-narrative ballet blanc. Its original choreography was by Michel Fokine, with music by Frédéric Chopin orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov. Glazunov had already set some of the music in 1892 as a purely orchestral suite, under the title Chopiniana, Op. 46...

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External links

• Hear a performance of the piece at The Chopin Project site
• Waltz No. 2 sheet music available at Musopen.com