Brilliant, Poetic, Melancholy - Analysis Of Chopin Waltz

Chopin, who is a unique artist during the romantic period in the 18th century and also the great pianist and composer, can be indeed called the soul of "musical poet". He created the unique keyboard performance style.Chopin’s music is rich in connotation and there is certain national spirit and artistic color. Because of Chopin, the musical poet, waltz which is a kind of keyboard music with a history of over 300 years has already greatly changed. Waltz is no longer the "accompany of dancing". Chopin’s waltz was separated and formed the perfect piano music. He designed the music again and added his love for country, his attitude of life, the understanding of humanity, the desire for love and others to the waltz. This makes us be able to know Chopin in every aspect and every period, to explore Chopin deeply until his soul from his music.In this paper, through the development of waltz, the real history is shown, which can let the readers know the meaning of the dance first. Then they are able to know the development and history of music behind it. With the time go by, this kind of musical form was separately taken out and formed the original waltz in the early period. From the start in the 14th century to its prosperity in the 19th century, we can research and analyze it step by step.Since waltz became popular in Vienna, many composers appeared. They were captivated and explored it deeply, then improved it. At last, they created the waltz with their own composing style, for example, Invitation to the Dance by Weber, Evening Star Waltz and Romantic Waltz by Joseph Lanner. Finally, John Stratus---father and son---pushed this classical music form to its most splendid status. Their classics are Emperor Waltz, Tritsch Tratsch Polka, Blue Danube and others.Although waltz was very popular around Europe in the 19th century, its music was still not separated from dance.This traditional form was not broken until Chopin. Chopin separated waltz from it and made it the independent instrumental music.It was no longer the accompany to the dance, and the recreation music in the salon. It was Chopin who gave waltz the new definition and sublimation. In Chopin’s waltz, the lively and seething atmosphere can be expressed by the glorious and gorgeous music.Behind the magnificence, there was also the Polish national temperament and heroic color. When Chopin enjoyed the sweet life and love, we can hear the rhythmic beauty like in the poet and the painting from his waltz. It seemed to be the quiet and beautiful life Chopin was longing for. However, Chopin’s contradictory character was the fact that cannot be changed in his life.Therefore, in his waltz, we explored another kind of "beauty", beauty of depression, sadness and somberness. He composed all his pain in his heart through music.This also seemed the "real and perfect" Chopin. This is also the real life with all kinds of flavor combined together. The reason why Chopin’s waltz is enduring is that he created the new and independent waltz form, music characteristics, structure, melody and color, mode, harmony and other aspects. Its aesthetic significance and existence value is also very profound, which is worth the deep study. In this paper, Chopin’s waltz is analyzed from each perspective to let the readers and performers understand each of his music pieces thoroughly.