Musical Form
Waltz
One-two-three, one-two-three - the whirling dance that conquered the 19th century.
Form / Dance
A waltz is a dance in three beats to the bar - ONE-two-three, ONE-two-three - in which couples turn continuously as they glide around the floor. It became the most popular dance of the 19th century, and composers from Schubert to Tchaikovsky and Ravel wrote waltzes for the ballroom, the concert hall, the ballet, and the opera.
A scandalous new dance
The waltz grew out of turning folk dances from Austria and southern Germany, such as the Ländler, in the late 18th century. Its name comes from the German walzen, "to turn" or "to revolve." Unlike the stately, distanced minuet, the waltz had couples holding each other closely and spinning together, and many people at first found it shocking. Within a few decades it was danced everywhere, from Vienna's grand ballrooms to London and Paris.
The Waltz Kings
The waltz is inseparable from Vienna and the Strauss family. Johann Strauss I and his rival Joseph Lanner made the Viennese waltz an international craze in the 1820s and 1830s, and Johann Strauss II, the "Waltz King," perfected it with hundreds of dances, including The Blue Danube (1867). A typical Strauss waltz begins with a slow introduction, then strings together a chain of different waltz tunes, and ends with a coda that recalls the best of them. The Viennese style also has a famous lilt: the second beat comes slightly early, giving the dance its irresistible swing.
Waltzes for concert, ballet, and opera
Weber's Invitation to the Dance (1819) was an early concert waltz for piano. Chopin wrote about twenty waltzes for piano, not for dancing but for listening, from the dazzling to the melancholy. Brahms wrote a set of waltzes for piano duet, including the famous lullaby-like Waltz in A-flat.
Tchaikovsky filled his ballets with glorious waltzes, and Berlioz put a ball scene with a waltz at the heart of his Symphonie fantastique. In opera, waltzes appear in Puccini's La bohème and in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. In 1920 Ravel wrote La valse, a dizzying tribute to the Viennese waltz that spins out of control, as if the whole world of the waltz were collapsing.
Famous waltzes
- Johann Strauss II - The Blue Danube - the most famous waltz of all.
- Tchaikovsky - "Waltz of the Flowers" from The Nutcracker. See ballet music.
- Chopin - "Minute" Waltz in D-flat major, Op. 64 No. 1, for piano.
- Shostakovich - Waltz No. 2 from the Suite for Variety Orchestra.
- Brahms - Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 39 No. 15.
- Ravel - La valse.
- Puccini - "Musetta's Waltz" ("Quando m'en vo") from La bohème.
Where to start listening: The Blue Danube, then Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of the Flowers" and Chopin's "Minute" Waltz. Finish with La valse to hear the waltz taken apart. See also ballet music and march.