A

David

Darling

waltz

A waltz is a dance in triple (3/4) time, with a strong accent on the first beat. The word comes the German walzen, meaning to roll, turn, or to glide. Popular in Austrian, German, and French culture, the waltz was among the most common ballroom dance forms in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Johann Strauss wrote extensively using the form. Chopin wrote a set of Waltzes for piano. Originally used as music to be danced to, the form was given a heightened respectability thanks to Weber's Aufforderung zum Tanz (Invitation to the Dance), which paved the way for the "concert-waltz", where the form stands alone as an instrumental or orchestral composition.