en improvised in the
ball-room." And the words which the same critic applies to Op. 34 may be
applied to all the waltzes Chopin published himself--"They must please;
they are of another stamp than the usual waltzes, and in the style
in which they can only be conceived by Chopin when he looks in a
grandly-artistic way into the dancing crowd, which he elevates by his
playing, thinking of other things than of what is being danced." In the
A flat major waltz which bears the opus number 42, the duple rhythm of
the melody along with the triple one of the accompaniment seems to me
indicative of the loving nestling and tender embracing of the dancing
couples. Then, after the smooth gyrations of the first period, come
those sweeping motions, free and graceful like those of birds, that
intervene again and again between the different portions of the waltz.
The D flat major part bubbles over with joyousness. In the sostenuto, on
the other hand, the composer becomes sentimental, protests, and heaves
sighs. But at the very height of his rising ardour he suddenly plunges
back into that wild, self-surrendering, heaven and earth-forgetting
joyousness--a stroke of genius as delightful as it is clever. If we do
not understand by the name of scherzo a fixed form, but rather a state
of mind, we may say that Chopin's waltzes are his scherzos and not the
pieces to which he has given that name. None of Chopin's waltzes is more
popular than the first of Op. 64 (in D flat major). And no wonder! The
life, flow, and oneness are unique; the charm of the multiform motions
is indescribable. That it has been and why it has been called valse au
petit chien need here only be recalled to the reader's recollection (see
Chapter XXVI., p. 142). No. 2 (in C sharp minor); different as it is,
is in its own way nearly as perfect as No. 1. Tender, love-sick longing
cannot be depicted more truthfully, sweetly, and entrancingly. The
excellent No. 3 (in A flat major), with the exquisite serpentining
melodic lines, which play so important a part in Chopin's waltzes, and
other beautiful details, is in a somewhat trying position beside the
other two waltzes. The non-publication by the composer of the waltzes
which have got into print, thanks to the zeal of his admirers and the
avidity of publishers, proves to me that he was a good judge of his own
works. Fontana included in his collection of posthumous compositions
five waltzes--"Deux Valses," Op. 69 (in F minor, of 183