Frédéric Chopin

Only known photograph of Chopin (commonly mistaken for a daguerreotype), thought to have been taken by Bisson in 1849.

Frédéric Chopin (Polish: Fryderyk (Franciszek) Chopin, sometimes Szopen; French: Frédéric (François) Chopin; English family name pronunciation IPA: /ʃoʊˈpæn/) (March 1, 1810,^[1] – October 17, 1849) was a Polish^[2] virtuoso pianist and piano composer of the Romantic period. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers for the piano.

Chopin was born in the village of Żelazowa Wola, Duchy of Warsaw, to a Polish mother and French-expatriate father. Hailed in his homeland as a child prodigy, at the age of twenty Chopin left Poland forever. In Paris, he made a career as performer, teacher and composer, and he adopted the French version of his given names, Frédéric-François. From 1837 to 1847 he had a turbulent relationship with the French writer George Sand (Aurore Dudevant). Always in frail health, at 39 in Paris he succumbed to pulmonary tuberculosis.^[3]

All of Chopin's extant work includes the piano in some role (predominantly as a solo instrument), and his compositions are widely considered to be pinnacles of the piano's repertoire. Although his music is technically demanding, Chopin's style emphasizes nuance and expressive depth rather than technical virtuosity.

He invented new musical forms, such as the ballade,^[4] and introduced significant innovations into existing forms such as the piano sonata, waltz, nocturne, étude, impromptu and prelude. His works are often cited as mainstays of Romanticism in 19th-century classical music. Additionally, Chopin was the first western composer to imbue his music with Slavic elements; to this day his mazurkas and polonaises are the cornerstone of Polish national classical music.

Life

Early years

Chopin's birthplace at Żelazowa Wola, now venue to piano recitals.

Chopin was born in Żelazowa Wola, near Sochaczew in the Masovia region, which was part of the Duchy of Warsaw. His father was Mikołaj (Nicolas) Chopin, a Frenchman from Lorraine who had adopted Poland as his homeland when he moved there in 1787. Nicolas worked as a tutor to some aristocratic families, including the Skarbeks, at Żelazowa Wola, one of whose poorer relations, Tekla Justyna Krzyżanowska, he married.

According to the composer's family, Chopin was born March 1, 1810. There is no known birth certificate. His baptismal certificate lists the birthdate as February 22, 1810, but this was likely an error on the part of the priest.

In October 1810, when Frédéric was seven months old, the family moved to Warsaw, where his father took a position as teacher of French language at a school housed in the Saxon Palace. The family lived on the palace grounds.

In 1817-27, Chopin's family lived in this Warsaw University building, now adorned (center) with Fryderyk's profile, adjacent to the Kazimierz Palace.

In 1817 his father became a teacher of French at the Warsaw Lyceum, housed in Warsaw University's Kazimierz Palace. The family lived in a spacious second-floor apartment in an adjacent building. In 1823-26 Fryderyk himself attended the Warsaw Lyceum.

The family, including the French-teacher father, spoke Polish at home. Chopin grew up culturally Polish and never attained equal mastery of the French language. It was to Warsaw that, at the end of his life, he literally bequeathed his heart.

In his school years, Chopin was reported to be an accomplished sketch artist and a talented, witty letter-writer.^[5] A teacher was pleasantly surprised to find that Chopin had drawn a superb portrait of him in class.^[6] During vacations in the countryside during which Chopin acquainted himself with the folk melodies that he would later refine into his musical compositions, he wrote home now-famous letters that parodied the Warsaw newspapers.

In 1827 the family moved to lodgings in the Krasiński Palace just across the street at Krakowskie Przedmieście 5, now the Academy of Fine Arts (Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie). Chopin lived there until he departed Warsaw in 1830.

Thus, from the age of seven months until his final departure from Warsaw and Poland at the age of twenty, Chopin always dwelt with his family either in a palace or in palace precincts.

The young Chopin received his first piano lessons from his older sister Ludwika (Polish for "Louise") and was subsequently taught by his mother. His musical talent was soon apparent, and he gained a reputation in Warsaw as a "second Mozart." At the age of seven he was already the author of two polonaises (G minor and B flat major); the first was published in the engraving workshop of Father Cybulski, director of a School of Organists and one of the few music publishers in Poland.

The prodigy was featured in Warsaw newspapers, and "little Chopin" became an attraction in the capital's aristocratic salons. He also began giving public charity concerts. He is said to once have been asked what he thought the audience liked best; the seven-year-old replied, "My shirt collar."^{[citation needed]} He first appeared publicly as a pianist when he was eight.

Chopin received his first professional piano lessons, in 1816–22, from Wojciech Żywny. Chopin later spoke highly of Żywny, although the youngster's skills soon surpassed those of his teacher. The further development of Chopin's talent was supervised by Wilhelm Würfel. This renowned pianist, a professor at the Warsaw Conservatory, gave Chopin valuable though irregular lessons in playing the organ, and possibly also the piano.

Chopin, by Ary Scheffer

In 1827-30, Chopin lived with his family at the Krasiński Palace (Krakowskie Przedmieście 5) before departing Warsaw forever. In 1837–39 it was the residence of the poet Cyprian Norwid, author of "Chopin's Piano" about Russian troops' 1863 defenestration of the instrument.

In the autumn of 1826, Chopin began studying music theory, figured bass and composition with the composer Józef Elsner at the Warsaw Conservatory, which was affiliated with Warsaw University (hence Chopin is counted among the University's alumni). Chopin's contact with Elsner may date from as early as 1822, and it is certain that Elsner was giving Chopin informal guidance by 1823. Chopin completed a three-year course at the conservatory in 1829.

That year in Warsaw, Chopin heard Niccolò Paganini play, and he also met the German pianist and composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Also in 1829 Chopin met his first love, a singing student named Konstancja Gładkowska. This inspired Chopin to put the melody of the human voice into his works.^{[citation needed]}

In August 1829, three weeks after leaving the Warsaw Conservatory, Chopin made a brilliant début in Vienna. He gave two piano performances, and received many very favourable reviews, along with others that criticized the small tone that he produced from the piano.

In December 1829, at Warsaw's Merchants' Club, he performed the première of his Piano Concerto in F minor. On March 17, 1830, at the National Theater, he gave the first performance of his other piano concerto, in E minor.

On November 2, 1830, Chopin left Warsaw to give concerts in Western Europe. He was never to return to Poland. Later that month the November 1830 Uprising broke out, and his traveling companion Titus Woyciechowski returned home to take part. Chopin stayed in Vienna, in some anxiety about his loved ones, then he visited Munich and Stuttgart (where he learned of Poland's occupation by the Russian army) and by September 1831 he arrived in Paris. He had already composed a portfolio of important compositions, including his two piano concertos and some of his Études Op. 10.

Paris

Chopin plays at fancy-dress ball in Hôtel Lambert. Standing in left foreground: Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski. Painting by Teofil Kwiatkowski.

In Paris, Chopin was welcomed by eminent Polish exiles including Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, residing at the Hôtel Lambert, and by leading artists such as Heinrich Heine, Alfred de Vigny and Eugène Delacroix.

He was introduced to some of the foremost pianists of the day, including Friedrich Kalkbrenner, Ferdinand Hiller and Franz Liszt, and he formed personal friendships with composers Hector Berlioz, Felix Mendelssohn, Charles-Valentin Alkan and Vincenzo Bellini (beside whom he is buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery).

Chopin's music was already admired by many of his composer contemporaries, including Robert Schumann who, in his review of the Variations on "La ci darem la mano" (from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni), Op. 2, wrote: "Hats off, gentlemen! A genius."

During his years in Paris, Chopin participated in a number of concerts. The programs provide some idea of the richness of Parisian artistic life during this period, such as the concert on March 23, 1833, in which Chopin, Liszt, and Hiller played the solo parts in a performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's concerto for three harpsichords, and the concert on March 3, 1838, when Chopin, Alkan, Alkan's teacher (Pierre Joseph Zimmerman), and Chopin's pupil Adolphe Gutman played Alkan's 8-hand arrangement of Beethoven's 7th symphony. He was also involved in the composition of Hexaméron (1837) — the sixth (and last) variation on Bellini's theme is Chopin's.

Chopin, by Francesco Hayez, 1833.

A distinguished English amateur described seeing Chopin at a salon:

From Paris, Chopin made various visits and tours. In 1834, with Hiller, he visited a Rhenish Music Festival at Aachen organized by Ferdinand Ries. Here Chopin and Hiller met up with Mendelssohn, and the three went on to visit Düsseldorf, Koblenz and Cologne, enjoying each other's company and learning and playing music together.

In 1835 Chopin arranged to meet his family in Karlsbad. There he made the acquaintance of Count Franz von Thun-Hohenstein, whose daughters Chopin had taught in Paris. The Count invited Chopin and his parents to stay at his family castle on the Elbe at Děčín. Afterwards Chopin's parents returned to Warsaw; he never saw them again. He returned to Paris via Dresden, where he stayed for some weeks, and then Leipzig where he met up with Mendelssohn, Schumann and Clara Wieck. On the return journey he had a bronchial attack, so severe that some Polish newspapers reported that he had died.

In 1836 Chopin became engaged to a seventeen-year-old Polish girl, Maria Wodzińska, whose mother insisted that the engagement be kept secret. The following year the engagement was called off by her family.

George Sand

George Sand, by Auguste Charpentier, 1835.

Chopin, by Eugène Delacroix, 1838.

In 1836, at a party hosted by Countess Marie d'Agoult, mistress of fellow-composer Franz Liszt, Chopin met Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin, Baroness Dudevant, better known by her pseudonym, George Sand. She was a French Romantic writer noted for her numerous love affairs with Prosper Mérimée, Alfred de Musset (1833–34), her secretary Alexandre Manceau (1849–65) and others, possibly including the actress Marie Dorval.

Chopin initially did not find her attractive. "Something about her repels me," he told his family. Sand, however, in an extraordinary June 1837 letter to her friend Count Wojciech Grzymała, debated whether to let Chopin go with his fiancée Maria Wodzińska or to abandon another affair in order to begin a relationship with Chopin. Sand had strong feelings for Chopin and pursued him until a relationship developed.

A notable episode in their time together was a turbulent and miserable winter on Mallorca (1838–1839), where they had problems finding habitable accommodation and ended up lodging in the scenic but stark and cold Valldemossa monastery. Chopin also had problems having his Pleyel piano sent to him. It arrived from Paris after a great delay, to be stuck at Spanish customs, which demanded a large import duty. He could use it for little more than three weeks; the rest of the time he had to compose on a rickety rented piano to complete his Preludes (Op. 28).

Chopin, drawn by Rudolph Lehmann, 1847

During the winter, the bad weather had such a serious effect on Chopin's health and his chronic lung disease that—to save his life—he, George Sand and her two children were compelled to return first to the Spanish mainland where they reached Barcelona, and then to Marseille where they stayed for a few months to recover. Although his health improved, he never completely recovered from this bout. He complained about the incompetence of the doctors in Mallorca: "The first said I was going to die; the second said I had breathed my last; and the third said I was already dead."

Chopin spent the summers of 1839 until 1843 at Sand's estate in Nohant. These were quiet but productive days during which Chopin composed many works. They included his great Polonaise in A flat major, Op.53 "Heroic," one of his most famous pieces. On Chopin's return to Paris in 1839, he met the pianist and composer Ignaz Moscheles.

In 1845, even as a further deterioration occurred in Chopin's health, a serious problem emerged in his relations with George Sand, further soured in 1846 by problems involving Sand's daughter Solange and the young sculptor Jean Baptiste Auguste Clesinger. This was the year that Sand published Lucrezia Floriani, whose main characters — a rich actress and a prince in weak health — may be interpreted as Sand and Chopin; the story was uncomplimentary to Chopin. In 1847 the family problems finally brought to an end the relations between Sand and Chopin that had lasted ten years, since 1837.

Death

Chopin's grave at Paris' Père Lachaise Cemetery

Pillar in Warsaw's Holy Cross Church, containing Chopin's heart

In 1848 Chopin gave his last concert in Paris, and visited England and Scotland with his student and admirer Jane Stirling. They reached London in November, and although Chopin managed to give some concerts and salon performances, he was severely ill with tuberculosis. He returned to Paris, where in 1849 he became unable to teach or perform.

His sister Ludwika, who had given him his first piano lessons, nursed him in his apartment at Place Vendôme 12. There in the small hours of October 17 he died. Later that morning, Clesinger made Chopin's death mask and casts of his hands.

Before Chopin's funeral, pursuant to his dying wish, his heart was removed due to his fear of being buried alive. It was taken by his sister in an urn to Warsaw; there it remains sealed within a pillar of the Holy Cross Church (Kościół Świętego Krzyża) on Krakowskie Przedmieście, beneath an inscription from Matthew VI:21: "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Chopin had requested that Mozart's Requiem be sung at his funeral. The Requiem has major parts for female singers, but the Church of the Madeleine had never permitted female singers in its choir. The funeral was delayed almost two weeks until the church relented, provided the female singers remained behind a black velvet curtain.

The funeral was held on October 30, 1849, attended by nearly three thousand people. The soloists in the Requiem included the bass Luigi Lablache, who had sung the same work at the funeral of Beethoven and had also sung at the funeral of Vincenzo Bellini. Also played were Chopin's preludes no. 4 in E minor and no. 6 in B minor.

Chopin was buried, in accordance with his wishes, at Père Lachaise Cemetery. At the graveside, the Funeral March from Sonata Op. 35 was played, in Napoléon Henri Reber's instrumentation.^[8]

Later, some of Chopin's Polish friends journeyed to Paris with a jar of earth from their native land and scattered it over his grave so that Chopin would lie under Polish soil.

Chopin's grave attracts numerous visitors and is invariably festooned with flowers, even in the dead of winter.

Memorials

Chopin statue, Warsaw's Łazienki Park

Before World War II, a statue of Chopin was erected in the upper part of Warsaw's Łazienki Park, adjacent to Aleje Ujazdowskie (Ujazdów Avenue). At the statue's base, on summer Sunday afternoons, are performed free piano recitals of Chopin's compositions. The stylized tree over Chopin's seated figure echoes a pianist's hand and fingers.

Every five years, the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition is held in Warsaw; and periodically the Grand prix du disque de F. Chopin is awarded for notable Chopin recordings, both remastered and newly-recorded work.

Music

Chopin's music for the piano combined a unique rhythmic sense (particularly his use of rubato), frequent use of chromaticism, and counterpoint. This mixture produces a particularly fragile sound in the melody and the harmony, which are nonetheless underpinned by solid and interesting harmonic techniques. He took the new salon genre of the nocturne, invented by Irish composer John Field, to a deeper level of sophistication. Three of his twenty-one nocturnes were only published after his death in 1849, contrary to his wishes.^[9] He also endowed popular dance forms, such as the Polish mazurka and the waltz, Viennese Waltz, with a greater range of melody and expression. Chopin was the first to write ballades^[4] and scherzi as individual pieces. Chopin also took the example of Bach's preludes and fugues, transforming the genre in his own preludes.

Chopin's death mask.

Postmortem cast of Chopin's left hand.

Several of Chopin's pieces have become very well known—for instance the Revolutionary Étude (Op. 10, No. 12), the Minute Waltz (Op. 64, No. 1), and the third movement of his Funeral March sonata (Op. 35), which is often used as an iconic representation of grief. Chopin himself never named an instrumental work beyond genre and number, leaving all potential extra-musical associations to the listener; the names by which we know many of the pieces were invented by others. The Revolutionary Étude was not written with the failed Polish uprising against Russia in mind; it merely appeared at that time. The Funeral March was written before the rest of the sonata within which it is contained, but the exact occasion is not known; it appears not to have been inspired by any specific personal bereavement.^[10] Other melodies have been used as the basis of popular songs, such as the slow section of the Fantaisie-Impromptu (Op. posth. 66) and the first section of the Étude Op. 10 No. 3. These pieces often rely on an intense and personalised chromaticism, as well as a melodic curve that resembles the operas of Chopin's day — the operas of Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, and especially Bellini. Chopin used the piano to re-create the gracefulness of the singing voice, and talked and wrote constantly about singers.

Chopin's style and gifts became increasingly influential. Robert Schumann was a huge admirer of Chopin's music, and he used melodies from Chopin and even named a piece from his suite Carnaval after Chopin. This admiration was not reciprocated.

Franz Liszt was another admirer and personal friend of the composer, and he transcribed for piano six of Chopin's Polish songs. However Liszt denied that he wrote Funérailles (subtitled "October 1849", the seventh movement of his piano suite Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses of 1853) in memory of Chopin. Although the middle section seems to be modelled upon the famous octave trio section of Chopin's Polonaise in A flat major, Op. 53, Liszt said the piece had been inspired by the deaths of three of his Hungarian compatriots in the same month.

Chopin performed his own works in concert halls, but more often in his salon for friends. Later in life, as his disease progressed, Chopin gave up public performance altogether.

Chopin's technical innovations also became influential. His Préludes (Op. 28) and Études (Opp. 10 and 25) rapidly became standard works, and inspired both Liszt's Transcendental Études and Schumann's Symphonic Études. Alexander Scriabin was also strongly influenced by Chopin; for example, his 24 Preludes, Op. 11 are inspired by Chopin's Op. 28.

Jeremy Siepmann, in his biography of the composer, named a list of pianists he believed to have made recordings of works by Chopin generally acknowledged to be among the greatest Chopin performances ever preserved: Vladimir de Pachmann, Raoul Pugno, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Moriz Rosenthal, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alfred Cortot, Ignaz Friedman, Raoul Koczalski, Arthur Rubinstein, Mieczysław Horszowski, Claudio Arrau, Vlado Perlemuter, Sviatoslav Richter, Vladimir Horowitz, Dinu Lipatti, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Martha Argerich, Maurizio Pollini, Murray Perahia, Krystian Zimerman, Evgeny Kissin.

Arthur Rubinstein said the following about Chopin's music and its universality:

Style

Although Chopin lived in the 1800s, he was educated in the tradition of Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart and Clementi; he used Clementi's piano method with his own students. He was also influenced by Hummel's development of virtuoso, yet Mozartian, piano technique. One of his students wrote the following in her diary about Chopin's playing style:

The series of seven polonaises published in his lifetime (another nine were published posthumously), beginning with the Op. 26 pair, set a new standard for music in the form, and were rooted in Chopin's desire to write something to celebrate Polish culture after the country had fallen back into Russian control. The A major polonaise Op. 40 No. 1, "Military," and the polonaise in A flat major Op. 53, "Heroic," are among Chopin's best-loved and most-often-played works.

Romanticism

Chopin regarded most of his contemporaries with some indifference, although he had many acquaintances associated with romanticism in music, literature and the arts (many of them via his liaison with George Sand). Chopin's music is, however, considered by many to be a peak of the Romantic style. ^[12] The relative classical purity and discretion in his music, with little extravagant exhibitionism, partly reflects his reverence for Bach and Mozart. Chopin also never indulged in explicit "scene-painting" in his music, or used programmatic titles, castigating publishers who renamed his pieces in this way.

Works

Main article: List of compositions by Frédéric Chopin

All Chopin's works involve the piano, either solo or accompanied. Predominantly for solo piano, his oeuvre includes a small number of works for various ensembles, including a second piano, violin, cello, voice or orchestra.

Over 230 of Chopin's works survive. Some manuscripts and pieces from his early childhood have been lost.

Media

In Popular Culture

Chopin's life and his relations with George Sand have been fictionalized in film. The 1945 biopic A Song to Remember earned Cornel Wilde an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor for his portrayal of the composer. Other film treatments have included Impromptu (1991) starring Hugh Grant as Chopin; La note bleue (1991); and Chopin: Desire for Love (2002).

Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport is named for Chopin, as is asteroid 3784 Chopin.

The role-playing video game Eternal Sonata is based on the fictional proposition of a world based on Chopin's music and life, as dreampt by Chopin while on his deathbed. Chopin is a playable character in the game, and much of the music within the game is based on his compositions. The game includes brief descriptions of major events in Chopin's life that reflect on the events and characters in the game.^[13]

Notes

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Frédéric Chopin

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Frédéric Chopin

• Chopin Music - Website and forum dedicated to the music of Chopin, including recordings, sheet music and image galleries.
• Chopin: the poet of the piano - A favourite Chopin place since 1999 with biography, images, complete music and score, discussion forum, work list and analysis, quizzes and contests, noted interpreters/great pianists...
• Internet Chopin Information Centre, Chopin portal including calendar, catalogues, other information about Chopin, Chopin on the Web, and pianists' biographical notes.

Biographies

• Online biography of Chopin
• Brief Chopin essay at Classical Music Pages
• The Frederick Chopin Society in Warsaw. Contains a biography, an outline of Chopin's works and musical style and pictures of original manuscripts.
• Biography with Image Gallery and Citations from Chopin Music
• Fryderyk Chopin: Poet of the Piano
• Biographies (Project Gutenberg e-texts):
  • Life of Chopin, by Franz Liszt
  • Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician, by Frederick Niecks
  • Chopin: The Man and his Music, by James Huneker
• Frédéric Chopin discography at MusicBrainz

Music scores

• Chopin Piano Sheet Music (out of copyright)
• Free Sheet Music from Chopin Music
• www.kreusch-sheet-music.net Chopin's complete piano works
• Frédéric Chopin was listed in the International Music Score Library Project
• Chopin scores from Mutopia Project
• Frédéric Chopin free scores in the Werner Icking Music Archive
• Chopin Early Editions, a collection of over 400 first and early printed editions of musical compositions by Frédéric Chopin published before 1881.

Recordings

• Performances by Donald Betts: 3 ballades, 3 études, 2 nocturnes, 1 mazurka
• Performances by Paul Cantrell from In the Hands
• Performances by Alberto Cobo: Sonata #3, Ballade #1 & Fantasie-Impromptu, Sonata #2, Scherzo #2, Prelude #16
• Free MIDI Downloads from Chopin Music
• Various performers from PianoParadise (some links are broken)
• MIDI files from Kunst der Fuge
• Preludes No. 4 and No. 6 arranged for voices, guitar, and bass by the John Link Project
• Performances of works by Frédéric Chopin in MP3 and MIDI formats at Logos Virtual Library
• Artanhime - Chopin's mp3 Collection.
• Free Chopin Downloads (MP3 and WMA)
• the original Chopin Chopin as played by Angela Lear from autograph manuscripts. "Hear what Chopin really intended" BBC Music Magazine; "...Her Chopin recitals were altogether exceptional for perfect interpretation and maximum faithfulness to Chopin’s intentions " Le Matin.

Miscellaneous

• The Chopin Project
• University of Michigan Chopin Project
• International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition
• Valldemossa, Majorca small town whose major asset is the remains of The Royal Chartreuse of Jesus Nazareth where Chopin lived for a short period with George Sand (the memories of this period are recorded in her book "Winter in Majorca") in 1838-39.
• The International Foundation Can Mossenya - Friends of Jorge Luis Borges Historic estate, a significant part of The Royal Chartreuse of Jesus of Nazareth.