{"id":103709,"url":"https://api.musopen.org/v2/scores/103709/","number":2,"title":"Waltz in A Minor, op. posth., B 150","edition":"","piece":{"id":4406,"url":"https://api.musopen.org/v2/pieces/4406/","slug":"waltz-in-a-minor-b-150","title":"Waltz in A Minor, B. 150","description":"Frédéric Chopin wrote his Waltz for piano in A minor sometime between 1843 and 1848. It was published over 100 years later, in 1955, thus lacking an opus number. Because of this, it is often designated by its Brown catalogue number, B. 150. It is a piece with a strong folkloric component, both in the harmonic progression and the form. Marked Alegretto, it is 56 bars long, and it takes around two minutes to be performed.","movements":"","composer":{"id":25,"url":"https://api.musopen.org/v2/composers/25/","slug":"frederic-chopin","first_name":"Frédéric","last_name":"Chopin","date_of_birth":"1st March 1810","place_of_birth":"Zelazowa Wola, Poland","date_of_death":"17th October 1849","description":"Frederic Francois Chopin was a Polish composer, virtuoso pianist, and music teacher of French–Polish parentage. He was one of the great masters of Romantic piano music. Chopin was born in Zelazowa Wola, a village in the Duchy of Warsaw. He was considered a child prodigy and, after completing his musical education and following the Russian suppression of the Polish 1830 Uprising, he settled in Paris. He supported himself as a composer and piano teacher, giving few public performances. From 1837 to 1847 he carried on a relationship with the French woman writer George Sand. For most of his life, Chopin suffered from poor health; he died in Paris in 1849 at the age of 39. The vast majority of Chopin's works are for solo piano, the most notable exceptions being his two concertos. His compositions, though technically demanding, emphasize nuance and expressive depth. Chopin invented the musical form known as 'instrumental ballade' and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, etude, impromptu, scherzo, and prelude.","image":"https://s.musopen.org/media/images/composers/Chopin.jpg","is_featured":true,"is_bookmarked":false},"form":{"id":34,"url":"https://api.musopen.org/v2/forms/34/","slug":"waltz","name":"Waltz","description":"The term 'Waltz' refers both to a traditional Austrian dance in triple time, and to the musical form which accompanies it. The waltz is almost always written in a 3/4 signature, using a harmonic rhythm of a chord per measure, with the root of the chord being played in the first beat and the remaining notes as a block on the second and third. Though notable composers had written waltzes as early as the late 18th century, they were mostly intended as dance accompaniment. The adoption of the waltz as an artistic form intended for listening only is probably marked by Chopin's sets of waltzes for piano solo. Since then, a great number of important composers have written waltzes, even outside the German sphere (for example, Maurice Ravel's 'Valses nobles et sentimentales'). Waltzes are usually considered light music, not suitable for heavily dramatic purposes.","is_bookmarked":false},"period":{"id":4,"url":"https://api.musopen.org/v2/periods/4/","slug":"romantic","name":"Romantic","description":"The term 'Romantic music' denotes a period of Western academic music that lasted throughout most of the 19th century, framing itself in Romanticism, the European artistic and literary movement. Romantic music is often characterized as being a reaction to the contained elegance and purity of the Classical period, though the reality is far more complex. Romantic composers were often fascinated with several -often contradictory- subjects: Nature and man's constant struggle against it, everything supernatural and fabulous, the mythical past, the autobiographical and the heroic, the isolated genius, the future of mankind. Improvements in instrumental design and technique, and the growth of orchestras, expanded the possibilities for composers. The rise of the middle class and the emancipation of musicians from courts and patrons represented a change in the way music reached the society. Some of the Romantic composers took an interest in nationalistic music, expressing the state of turmoil that Europe suffered. Musical forms continued to develop: while symphonies became longer and more complex, short musical forms blossomed (such as Chopin's nocturnes). Interest in preservation of the music of the past grew, as well as the will to develop music beyond its current state in terms of form, harmony, counterpoint, etc. ","is_bookmarked":false},"instruments":[{"id":37,"url":"https://api.musopen.org/v2/instruments/37/","slug":"piano","name":"Piano","description":"The piano is a keyboard-based music instrument. Its versatility and pervasiveness, together with its polyphonic capabilities have made it one of the world's most employed instruments, and a crucial piece in the development of the Western musical tradition. It's name is a shortened form of 'pianoforte', terms which in Italian respectively mean 'soft' and 'loud', referring the fact that the pianoforte had the capability of producing variations in volume which previous keyboard instruments could not.\r\nStandard pianos have 52 white keys and 36 black ones, for a total of 88. They are chordophones: pressing any key activates a mechanism which makes a hammer strike a set of strings. The sound produced is amplified via the soundboard and body of the piano. \r\nBeing one of the most influential instruments in the history of music, the piano has undergone many changes and technological innovations, from the insertion of the damper and tonal pedals, to the creation of electric, electronic, and digital pianos.","image":"https://s.musopen.org/media/images/instruments/pexels-juan-pablo-serrano-arenas-1246437_1.jpg","is_bookmarked":false}],"key":{"id":13,"url":"https://api.musopen.org/v2/keys/13/","slug":"a-minor","name":"A Minor","is_bookmarked":false},"licenses":["CC-PD"],"avg_duration":2,"practice_difficulty":"medium","rcm_difficulty_level":"","rating":4.75,"hits":301306,"is_bookmarked":false},"key":null,"instruments":[],"rating":0.0,"fileurl":"https://dl.musopen.org/sheetmusic/78abaab8-aba4-4b72-9a96-ac01328e5422.pdf?filename=Waltz%20in%20A%20Minor%2C%20op.%20posth.%2C%20B%20150.pdf","is_bookmarked":false}