Minute Waltz

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Waltz Op. 64 No. 1 D flat major "Minute Waltz"*

Key/Time Signature:	D flat major, 3/4
Form:	Waltz
Date of composition:	1846-7
Opus Number:	64
Movements/Sections:	-
Dedication:	Madame la Comtesse Delphine Potocka
*Chopin's nickname for this piece was "Petit Chien", the Little Dog.

The "Waltz in D flat major", opus 64, No. 1, popularly known as the "Minute Waltz" is a waltz for solo piano by Frédéric Chopin.

The piece is given the tempo marking "Molto vivace". He wrote it in 1847 and published it in Leipzig the same year, as the first of the opus 64 Trois Valses, dedicating it to "To Mme. la Comtesse Delphine Potocka". Since the second waltz is in the key of C-sharp minor, the "Minute" waltz contrasts by being in the enharmonic parallel major key (D-flat major).

Despite its nickname, a typical performance of the work will last around one and a half to two minutes; this is because Chopin's publisher, who coined the nickname, intended the "minute" to mean "small". The waltz, though considered by many to be brilliant, is not grand, and it is not long. It is more playful than many of the other waltzes. Camille Bourniquel, one of Chopin's biographers, reminds the reader that Chopin, with this waltz, was trying to depict a dog chasing its tail; indeed, Chopin originally named the piece "Petit chien" (Little Dog).

This is how it starts:

The piece is famously used as the theme tune to the BBC radio show Just a Minute. It was also used to comic effect in the 1955 Warner Brothers cartoon "Hyde and Hare", in which Bugs Bunny refers to it as the "My-noot Waltz by Choppin". Ventriloquist Shari Lewis added lyrics to the waltz as part of her repertoire. To show off her abilities, Lewis and her puppet Lamb Chop would take turns singing the lines in rapid succession with the goal of finishing the song in a minute's time. Minute Waltz can also be heard playing in the 1969 film, "The Desperados", during a scene in which Jack Palance and his son, George Maharis team up to murder the wife of Vince Edwards and kidnap his son.