Waltz in A flat major, Op.42

chopin: waltz in A flat op42

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

Waltz in A flat major Op.42 (1840)

The Waltz in A flat Op.42 written in 1840 and published not in a set but with an opus number all to itself, has attracted a useful nickname. It is known as the “Two-Four Waltz,” which is a reflection of the rhythmic interest creted by sustaining the first and fourth of the six quavers in every bar of the main theme to give an impression of duple time within a triple-time metre. A brilliantly frothy refrain links the six main sections (the last two of which recall the first and third respectively) and reappears in extended form as a coda.

Waltz in A flat major, Op.42

Chopin was once moved to confess that “I haven’t got what it takes for the Viennese waltz” and it is true that none of his waltzes could be mistaken for the work of such Viennese contemporaries as Joseph Lanner or Johann Strauss the elder. It is no mere concidence, however, that the earliest of his mature waltzes - the Valse brillante in E flat, Op.18 - was written in 1831 in Vienna, where he adopted and perfected the art of putting together a medley of waltz tunes in one integrated continuity. Composed in Paris eleven years later, The Grande Valse in A flat, Op.42 is a particularly sophisticated example of the medly form. It includes four distinct themes which are linked by a recurring flight of virtuoso finger work and minimally developed and partially recapitulated towards the end. The “Two-Four Waltz” nickname attached to the piece derives from the delightful metrical contradiction presented by the opening theme, where the apparently duple-time melody is carried by the right hand over a triple-time accompaniment in the left.

chopin: waltz in A flat op42

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

Waltz in A flat major, Op.42

“I haven’t got what it takes for the Viennese waltz,” Chopin once confessed. Certainly, there is no danger of mistaking any of Chopin’s twenty or so surviving waltzes with any of those he might have heard, by Joseph Lanner perhaps or the elder Johann Strauss, on the two visits he made to Vienna before he found that Paris was so much more congenial. Although he regularly adopted the medley form so favoured by the Viennese - and it is surely no coincidence that his first work of that specific kind (in E flat major, Op.18) originated in Vienna in 1831 - the Chopin waltz has a quite different character. For one thing, it was not intended for dancing, which immediately liberated it from the accepted tempo constraints. It is distinguished also by the Chopin romantic temperament, his voluptuous harmonies, his keyboard inspiration and, above all, by a triple-time rhythmic sense more at home with the Polish mazurka than with the Austrian Ländler.

It would take an uncommonly skilful Viennese ballroom dancer to accommodate the customary waltz steps to the Waltz in A flat, Op.42. Written and published in 1840, it was known at an early stage as the “Two-Four Waltz” in acknowledgement of the peculiar rhythmic interest of the first theme, where the first and fourth of the six quavers in every bar are sustained to give an impression of duple time within a triple-time metre. None of the three waltz tunes that follow is anywhere near as eccentric, although the second of them - the only one apart from the “two-four” theme to be recapitulated - has its own unsettling features. A brilliantly frothy refrain links the six main sections and reappears in extended form as a coda.