"Chopsticks" (original name "The Celebrated Chop Waltz") is a simple, widely known waltz for the piano. Written in 1877, it is the only published piece by the British composer Euphemia Allan (under the pen name Arthur de Lulli). Allan—whose brother, Mozart Allan, was a music publisher—was sixteen when she composed the piece, with arrangements for solo and duet. The title "Chop Waltz" comes from Allan's specification that the melody be played in two-part harmony with both hands held in a vertical orientation, little fingers down and palms facing each other, striking the keys with a chopping motion. The similar "The Coteletten Polka" was also first heard in 1877, with the piano collection Paraphrases elaborating on the theme by 1879.
Contents
Tati-tati and Paraphrases
An equivalent of this rudimentary two-finger piano exercise was known in Russia in duple meter as "tati-tati" or the "Cutlet Polka". This version alternates the notes between the hands, rather than playing them at the same time in harmony.
In 1877, Alexander Borodin's daughter Gania played "The Coteletten Polka", with four bars of music similar to the beginning of Allan's work, though there is no hard evidence of a common source between the two pieces. In 1878–1879, César Cui, Anatoly Lyadov, Borodin, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Nikolai Shcherbachov each wrote variations for piano duet on the theme, published together under the title Paraphrases. A supplementary paraphrase by Franz Liszt was later appended to the collection. In Borodin's version, the first four bars begin in a similar way to Allan's, but are nevertheless distinct. According to Fuld's book World-Famous Music, no common origins for the "Chop Waltz" and the "Coteletten Polka" have yet been discovered.
In popular culture
"Chopsticks" was used as the introductory music to Edgar Kennedy's series of short comedies made at the RKO Studios, from 1931 until his death in 1948.
American composer and educator John Sylvanus Thompson published a set of variations on "Chopsticks" in 1941.
The first three Pooch the Pup cartoons used "Chopsticks" as their opening music.
In the 1946 William Wyler film The Best Years of Our Lives, composer Hoagy Carmichael performs a duet of "Chopsticks" with Harold Russell, a World War II Navy veteran who lost both of his hands in combat. He played the simple piece (including variations) with Hoagy taking the lower part. Mr. Russell's hooks that served as hands seemingly did not deter him from delivering a rendering of the tune, complete with a final glissando up the keyboard.
While the 1946 Bugs Bunny short cartoon Rhapsody Rabbit mostly features Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2", at one point a mouse briefly plays the opening bars of "Chopsticks".
Liberace plays a virtuoso "Chopsticks" accompanied by full orchestra early in the 1955 film Sincerely Yours.
The theme music for the television series My Three Sons (1960–1972), written by Frank De Vol, was based on "Chopsticks", though key changes were added and the meter was changed to 44.
In the 1955 Billy Wilder film The Seven Year Itch, Tom Ewell played this together with Marilyn Monroe and tried to kiss her, only to fail.
In the 1955 season 4 episode of I Love Lucy "Ethel's Home Town", Fred Mertz (William Frawley) plays "Chopsticks".
In the 1972 Columbo episode "Etude in Black", Columbo plays "Chopsticks" as a way to get under the skin of the pompous murderer/conductor Alex Benedict (John Cassavetes).