The Celebrated Chop Waltz
Euphemia Allan
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Browse piano sheets by Euphemia Allan on Zen Virtual Piano. The Celebrated Chop Waltz, written in 1877, is the only published piece by the British composer Euphemia Allan, who put it out under the pen name Arthur de Lulli. Allan was sixteen when she composed the piece, which came with arrangements for solo and duet. A single published piece that outlived its author's pen name suggests how much one short waltz can carry. Her brother, Mozart Allan, was a music publisher, and he helped get the sheet music published under the pseudonym. That is where the title comes from: Allan wanted the melody in two-part harmony, played with both hands upright, little fingers down and palms toward each other, chopping at the keys. The original sheet music tells the player to turn both hands sideways with the little fingers lowest, so that the motion imitates the chopping that gives the waltz its name. Between a sixteen-year-old composer, a publisher brother and a made-up name, the waltz's first printing seems to have been something of a family affair. The surname appears as both Allan and Allen, while the original sheet music carries the name Arthur de Lulli. A waltz printed under an invented name, with a surname spelled two ways in print, has more than one identity before it reaches the player.
Browse piano sheets by Euphemia Allan on Zen Virtual Piano.
The Celebrated Chop Waltz, written in 1877, is the only published piece by the British composer Euphemia Allan, who put it out under the pen name Arthur de Lulli. Allan was sixteen when she composed the piece, which came with arrangements for solo and duet. A single published piece that outlived its author's pen name suggests how much one short waltz can carry.
Her brother, Mozart Allan, was a music publisher, and he helped get the sheet music published under the pseudonym. That is where the title comes from: Allan wanted the melody in two-part harmony, played with both hands upright, little fingers down and palms toward each other, chopping at the keys. The original sheet music tells the player to turn both hands sideways with the little fingers lowest, so that the motion imitates the chopping that gives the waltz its name. Between a sixteen-year-old composer, a publisher brother and a made-up name, the waltz's first printing seems to have been something of a family affair.
The surname appears as both Allan and Allen, while the original sheet music carries the name Arthur de Lulli. A waltz printed under an invented name, with a surname spelled two ways in print, has more than one identity before it reaches the player.
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Common questions
Euphemia Allan was a British composer who wrote The Celebrated Chop Waltz in 1877, her only published piece, which appeared under the pen name Arthur de Lulli.
She was sixteen when she composed it.
The title comes from Allan's instruction to hold both hands vertically, little fingers down, and strike the keys with a chopping motion.
Her brother, Mozart Allan, was a music publisher, and he helped get the sheet music published under the pseudonym Arthur de Lulli.