Music History 102 Born: Zelazowa Wola, near Warsaw, March 1, 1810 Died: Paris, October 17, 1849 One of the best-known and best-loved composers of the Romantic period, Chopin was born in Poland and lived most of his life in Paris, which was at that time the musical hub of Europe. Chopin's entire musical output was devoted to his favorite instrument, the piano. His over 200 solo compositions for the piano all demonstrate his highly individual melodic style, and include two sets of etudes (studies), three sonatas, four ballads, many pieces he variously titled preludes, impromptus, or scherzos, and a great number of dances. Included among the latter are a number of waltzes, but also a great many mazurkas and six polonaises, both of which are dances from his native Poland. Some of these dance pieces are among Chopin's best-known works, including the proud Polonaise in A-flat major and the haunting Waltz in C-sharp minor. Among Chopin's most individual works are the Préludes.

Intended to serve as improvisatory beginnings to an intimate recital, these pieces range from tender melancholy to the dramatic utterances of the stormy Prelude in D minor. Many of Chopin's most beautiful compositions come from the series of short, reflective pieces he called Nocturnes. As can be heard in the Nocturne in F-sharp, these works are usually gentle and dreamlike with a flowing, rocking bass, and aptly demonstrate Chopin's predeliction for sweet, song-like melodies, very much in the style of Italian bel canto opera of the period.

Music History 102: a Guide to Western Composers and their music Designed, compiled and created by Robert Sherrane Frederic Chopin | Polish-French composer and pianist | Britannica.com Polish-French composer and pianist Alternative Titles: Frédéric François Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek Szopen Frederic Chopin Felix Mendelssohn Frédéric Chopin, in full Frédéric François Chopin, Polish Fryderyk Franciszek Szopen (born March 1, 1810, Żelazowa Wola, near Warsaw , Duchy of Warsaw [now in Poland] [see Researcher’s Note: Chopin’s birth date ]—died October 17, 1849, Paris , France ), Polish French composer and pianist of the Romantic period, best known for his solo pieces for piano and his piano concerti. Although he wrote little but piano works, many of them brief, Chopin ranks as one of music’s greatest tone poets by reason of his superfine imagination and fastidious craftsmanship.

Life Chopin’s father, Nicholas, a French émigré in Poland , was employed as a tutor to various aristocratic families, including the Skarbeks, at Żelazowa Wola, one of whose poorer relations he married. When Frédéric was eight months old, Nicholas became a French teacher at the Warsaw lyceum. Chopin himself attended the lyceum from 1823 to 1826. All the family had artistic leanings, and even in infancy Chopin was always strangely moved when listening to his mother or eldest sister playing the piano. By age six he was already trying to reproduce what he heard or to make up new tunes. The following year he started piano lessons with the 61-year-old Wojciech Zywny, an all-around musician with an astute sense of values. Zywny’s simple instruction in piano playing was soon left behind by his pupil, who discovered for himself an original approach to the piano and was allowed to develop unhindered by academic rules and formal discipline . Chopin found himself invited at an early age to play at private soirées, and at eight he made his first public appearance at a charity concert.

Three years later he performed in the presence of the Russian tsar Alexander I , who was in Warsaw to open Parliament. Playing was not alone responsible for his growing reputation as a child prodigy . At seven he wrote a Polonaise in G Minor, which was printed, and soon afterward a march of his appealed to the Russian grand duke Constantine, who had it scored for his military band to play on parade. Other polonaises, mazurkas, variations, ecossaises, and a rondo followed, with the result that, when he was 16, his family enrolled him at the newly formed Warsaw Conservatory of Music. This school was directed by the Polish composer Joseph Elsner, with whom Chopin already had been studying musical theory. Frédéric Chopin, detail of a photo by L.A. Bisson, 1849, taken in the home of his … Photos.com/Thinkstock Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent No better teacher could have been found, for, while insisting on a traditional training, Elsner, as a Romantically inclined composer himself, realized that Chopin’s individual imagination must never be checked by purely academic demands.

Even before he came under Elsner’s eye, Chopin had shown interest in the folk music of the Polish countryside and had received those impressions that later gave an unmistakable national colouring to his work. At the conservatory he was put through a solid course of instruction in harmony and composition; in piano playing he was allowed to develop a high degree of individuality. Listen: Chopin, Frédéric: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor Second movement, “Romanze larghetto,” of Frédéric Chopin’s … Despite the lively musical life of Warsaw, Chopin urgently needed wider musical experience, and so his devoted parents found the money to send him off to Vienna . After a preliminary expedition to Berlin in 1828, Chopin visited Vienna and made his performance debut there in 1829. A second concert confirmed his success, and on his return home he prepared himself for further achievements abroad by writing his Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor (1829) and his Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor (1830), as well as other works for piano and orchestra designed to exploit his brilliantly original piano style.

His first études were also written at this time (1829–32) to enable him and others to master the technical difficulties in his new style of piano playing. Listen: Chopin, Frédéric: Étude in G-flat Major (“Black Keys”) Étude in G-flat Major (“Black … In March and October 1830 he presented his new works to the Warsaw public and then left Poland with the intention of visiting Germany and Italy for further study. He had gone no farther than Vienna when news reached him of the Polish revolt against Russian rule; this event, added to the disturbed state of Europe, caused him to remain profitlessly in Vienna until the following July, when he decided to make his way to Paris. Soon after his arrival in what was then the centre of European culture and in the midst of its own late-flowering Romantic movement , Chopin realized that he had found the milieu in which his genius could flourish. He quickly established ties with many Polish émigrés and with a younger generation of composers, including Franz Liszt and Hector Berlioz and, briefly, Vincenzo Bellini and Felix Mendelssohn .

The circles to which Chopin’s talents and distinction admitted him quickly acknowledged that they had found the artist whom the moment required, and after a brief period of uncertainty Chopin settled down to the main business of his life—teaching and composing. His high income from these sources set him free from the strain of concert giving, to which he had an innate repugnance. Britannica Lists & Quizzes Listen: “Fantaisie-Impromptu” Excerpt from Fantaisie-Impromptu (1835) for piano, by … Initially, there were problems, professional and financial. After his Paris concert debut in February 1832, Chopin realized that his extreme delicacy at the keyboard was not to everyone’s taste in larger concert spaces. But an introduction to the wealthy Rothschild banking family later that year suddenly opened up new horizons. With his elegant manners, fastidious dress, and innate sensitivity, Chopin found himself a favourite in the great houses of Paris, both as a recitalist and as a teacher.

His new piano works at this time included two startlingly poetic books of études (1829–36), the Ballade in G Minor (1831–35), the Fantaisie-Impromptu (1835), and many smaller pieces, among them mazurkas and polonaises inspired by Chopin’s strong nationalist feeling. Listen: Chopin, Frédéric: Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat Major Frédéric Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat Major, … Chopin’s youthful love affairs with Constantia Gladkowska in Warsaw (1830) and Maria Wodzińska in Dresden (1835–36) had come to nothing, though he actually became engaged to the latter. In 1836 he met for the first time the free-living novelist Aurore Dudevant, better known as George Sand ; their liaison began in the summer of 1838. That autumn he set off with her and her children, Maurice and Solange, to winter on the island of Majorca .

They rented a simple villa and were idyllically happy until the sunny weather broke and Chopin became ill. When rumours of tuberculosis reached the villa owner, they were ordered out and could find accommodations only in a monastery in the remote village of Valldemosa. Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest The cold and damp, malnutrition, peasant suspiciousness of their strange ménage, and the lack of a suitable concert piano hindered Chopin’s artistic production and further weakened his precarious physical health. Indeed, the privations that Chopin endured hastened the slow decline in his health that ended with his death from tuberculosis 10 years later. Sand realized that only immediate departure would save his life. They arrived at Marseille in early March 1839, and, thanks to a skilled physician, Chopin was sufficiently recovered after just under three months for them to start planning a return to Paris. The summer of 1839 they spent at Nohant, Sand’s country house about 180 miles (290 km) south of Paris.

This period following the return from Majorca was to be the happiest and most productive of Chopin’s life, and the long summers spent at Nohant bore fruit in a succession of masterpieces. For a regular source of income, he again turned to private teaching. His method permitted great flexibility of the wrist and arm and daringly unconventional fingering in the interests of greater agility, with the production of beautiful, singing tone a prime requisite at nearly all times. There was also a growing demand for his new works, and, since he had become increasingly shrewd in his dealings with publishers, he could afford to live elegantly. Health was a recurrent worry, and every summer Sand took him to Nohant for fresh air and relaxation. Close friends, such as Pauline Viardot and the painter Eugène Delacroix , were often invited too.

Chopin produced much of his most-searching music at Nohant, not only miniatures but also extended works, such as the Fantaisie in F Minor (composed 1840–41), the Barcarolle (1845–46), the Polonaise-Fantaisie (1845–46), the ballades in A-flat major (1840–41) and F minor (1842), and the Sonata in B Minor (1844). Here, in the country, he found the peace and time to indulge an ingrained quest for perfection. He seemed particularly anxious to develop his ideas into longer and more-complex arguments, and he even sent to Paris for treatises by musicologists to strengthen his counterpoint . His harmonic vocabulary at this period also grew much more daring, though never at the cost of sensuous beauty.

He valued that quality throughout life as much as he abhorred descriptive titles or any hint of an underlying “program.” Trending Topics Eyjafjallajökull volcano Family dissension arising from the marriage of Sand’s daughter, Solange, caused Chopin’s own relationship with Sand to become strained, and he grew increasingly moody and petulant . Some have speculated that, aside from such personal conflicts, his mercurial behaviour may have been attributable to a certain type of epilepsy . In any event, by 1848 the rift between him and Sand was complete, and pride prevented either from effecting the reconciliation they both actually desired. Thereafter Chopin seems to have given up his struggle with ill health. Broken in spirit and depressed by the revolution that had broken out in Paris in February 1848, Chopin accepted an invitation to visit England and Scotland . His reception in London was enthusiastic, and he struggled through an exhausting round of lessons and appearances at fashionable parties. Chopin lacked the strength to sustain this socializing, however, and he was also unable to compose.

By now his health was deteriorating rapidly, and he made his last public appearance on a concert platform at the Guildhall in London on November 16, 1848, when, in a final patriotic gesture, he played for the benefit of Polish refugees. He returned to Paris, where he died the following year; his body, without the heart, was buried at the cemetery of Père Lachaise (his heart was interred at the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw). Grave of Frédéric Chopin, Père-Lachaise Cemetery, Paris. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Works As a pianist, Chopin was unique in acquiring a reputation of the highest order on the basis of a minimum of public appearances—few more than 30 in the course of his lifetime. His original and sensitive approach to the keyboard allowed him to exploit all the resources of the piano of his day. He was inexhaustible in discovering colourful new passage work and technical figures; he understood as no one before him the true nature of the piano as an expressive instrument, and he was able to write music that is bound up with the instrument for which it was conceived and which cannot be imagined apart from it.

His innovations in fingering, his use of the pedals, and his general treatment of the keyboard form a milestone in the history of the piano, and his works set a standard for the instrument that is recognized as unsurpassable. Listen: Chopin, Frédéric: Prelude No. 4 in E Minor (“Vivace”) Prelude No. 4 in E Minor, “Vivace,” of … Chopin’s works for solo piano include about 61 mazurkas, 16 polonaises, 26 preludes, 27 études, 21 nocturnes, 20 waltzes, 3 sonatas, 4 ballades, 4 scherzos , 4 impromptus , and many individual pieces—such as the Barcarolle, Opus 60 (1846); the Fantasia, Opus 49 (1841); and the Berceuse, Opus 57 (1845)—as well as 17 Polish songs.

As a composer, Chopin has acquired increased stature after a period in the late 19th century when his work often was judged by academic standards that were insensible to its individual character. In keyboard style, harmony, and form, he was innovative according to the demands of each specific compositional situation. He had the rare gift of a very personal melody, expressive of heartfelt emotion, and his music is penetrated by a poetic feeling that has an almost universal appeal. Although “romantic” in its essence, Chopin’s music has a classic purity and discretion, without a sign of exhibitionism. He found within himself and in the tragic story of Poland the chief sources of his inspiration. The theme of Poland’s glories and sufferings was constantly before him, and he transmuted the primitive rhythms and melodies of his youth into enduring art forms. At the same time, he subtly differentiated , for example, the intimate poetic inspiration of the mazurka from the more outward-looking, ceremonial aspect of the polonaise , which in works like the Polonaise-Fantaisie (1846) he expanded to the proportions of symphonic poems for the piano.

The waltz , meanwhile, offered him a courtly dance medium on a smaller scale, and he responded not by expanding it but by bringing it to unprecedented levels of polish and grace. From the great Italian singers of the age, he learned the art of “singing” on the piano, and his nocturnes reveal the perfection of his cantabile style and delicate charm of ornamentation. His ballades and scherzos, on the other hand, have a dramatic turbulence and passion that effectively dispel the notion that Chopin was merely a drawing-room composer. Listen: Chopin, Frédéric: Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major Frédéric Chopin’s Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major, Opus … Chopin’s small output was mostly confined to solo piano; yet within its limited framework its range is seen to be vast, comprehending every variety of musical expression. Though Chopin squandered too much time on the drawing-room Parisian aristocracy and disappointed critics who valued artistic worth only in terms of large-scale achievement, he was immediately recognized at his true worth by more-discerning contemporaries, who were astounded by the startling originality he reconciled with exquisite craftsmanship.

Present-day evaluation places him among the immortals of music by reason of his insight into the secret places of the heart and because of his awareness of the magical new sonorities to be drawn from the piano. The Life And Music Of Frederic Chopin : NPR The Life And Music Of Frederic Chopin March 2, 201012:00 PM ET Ted Libbey Grande Polonaise Brillante in E-flat, Op. 22 8:29 Embed Embed <iframe src="" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Waltz for piano No. 7 in C sharp minor, Op. 64/2, CT. 213 3:04 Embed Embed <iframe src="" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Etudes (12) for piano, Op. 10, CT. 14-25 [No.

12 in C minor, "Revolutionary" - "Fall of Warsaw"] 2:35 Embed Embed <iframe src="" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> More About Chopin Full Chopin Archive Chopin, Frederic Francois (b. Zelazowa Wola, March 1, 1810; d. Paris, October 17, 1849) Frederic Chopin was a Polish-born pianist and composer of matchless genius in the realm of keyboard music. As a pianist, his talents were beyond emulation and had an impact on other musicians entirely out of proportion to the number of concerts he gave — only 30 public performances in 30 years of concertizing. No one before or since has contributed as many significant works to the piano's repertoire, or come closer to capturing its soul. Early Years Chopin's mother was Polish, his father a Frenchman who had come to Poland as a young man and held jobs as a bookkeeper and tutor before marrying and settling in Warsaw.

Young Frederic studied piano with Wojciech Zywny and harmony and counterpoint with Jozef Elsner, gave his first concert when he was 8, and rather quickly outdistanced his teachers. His name became known outside of Poland when his Variations, Op. 2, for piano and orchestra on Mozart 's "La ci darem la mano" — written when he was 17 — were published in 1830, prompting Robert Schumann 's famous accolade in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung: "Hats off, gentlemen! A genius!" In the spring and autumn of 1830, Chopin treated the Warsaw audience to a pair of newly composed, marvelously poetic piano concertos. Seeking to expand his horizons, he left Poland for Vienna in November 1830, and after eight months there, headed for Paris. He would never again return to his native country, but Poland's loss would be Paris' gain. Article continues after sponsorship Off To Paris By the 1830s, Paris had become the undisputed center of European culture — a hotbed of new thinking in the arts and letters and the focal point of Romanticism in music.

After a sensational debut at the Salle Pleyel on Feb. 26, 1832, with Franz Liszt , Felix Mendelssohn and Luigi Cherubini among those in the audience, Chopin, three days shy of his 22nd birthday, took his place as one of the celebrities of the French capital. He found himself in such demand as a teacher that he was able to make a comfortable living, and he hobnobbed with the great artists of the day, forming particularly close friendships with Eugene Delacroix, who would paint a splendid portrait of him in 1838, and Liszt. Chopin's works from his first years in Paris include the Nocturnes of Opp. 9 and 15 (1830-32), the 12 Etudes, Op. 25 (1835-37), dedicated to Liszt's mistress, the Comtesse Marie d'Agoult, the Scherzo in B-flat minor, Op. 31 (1837), the Sonata in B-flat minor, Op. 35 (1837), and the G minor Ballade, Op. 23.

In 1836, Chopin became engaged to Maria Wodzinski, but the engagement was broken off by her family the following year. Reaching New Heights Chopin's art reached a new plateau in the late 1830s as a result of his involvement with the writer Aurore Dudevant, six years his senior, who in 1832 had taken to calling herself George Sand. Some of his greatest works emerged as a result of the emotional contentment he felt in the early days of their nine-year liaison. They spent the winter of 1838-39 together on Majorca, living in adjacent rooms in an abandoned Carthusian monastery. Chopin endured his first major bout of tuberculosis, but though seriously ill managed to complete the 24 Preludes, Op. 28 (1838-39). During the 1840s, in spite of emotional ups and downs and recurrent illness, he produced a remarkable body of compositions that included the Ballades in A-flat, Op. 47, and F minor, Op. 52, the Mazurkas of Opp.

50, 56, 59, 63 and 67, the A-flat major Polonaise, Op. 53, the Nocturnes of Opp. 48, 55 and 62, and the Sonata in B minor, Op. 58 (1844). The best of these works — the B minor Sonata, the Op. 55 Nocturnes and the Op. 56 Mazurkas — are characterized by remarkable refinement and complexity, along with a newly rich sense of ambivalence. The opening movement of the sonata finds Chopin at the summit of inspiration, weaving turbulence and romantic yearning into a beautifully seamless expression. The situation with George Sand began to deteriorate in 1843, and in 1847 the break came. By then, Chopin was gravely ill; seeking escape, he left Paris in April 1848 for an extended sojourn in England and Scotland, from which he returned, exhausted, in November. He composed virtually nothing in the final year of his life.

The Composer And His Piano Chopin was the first composer of genius to devote himself uniquely to the piano — every one of his works was written for it either as solo instrument or in combination with other instruments. The majority of his solo pieces are in shorter forms, and improvisatory by nature. These include 20 nocturnes, 25 preludes, 17 waltzes, 15 polonaises, 58 mazurkas and 27 etudes. In these works, especially the nocturnes, preludes and mazurkas, the emotions are fleeting, and precious because of that. Chopin also achieved success in larger forms, including the scherzo, a form he reinvented; the ballade, a genre he invented; and the sonata. The four Ballades and the Sonatas in B-flat minor and B minor are among his greatest creations, combining passionate drama and lyrical tenderness in a memorable way.

In his remarkably advanced treatment of harmony and rhythm, Chopin banished the ordinary from his music and opened the door to an emotional ambiguity that continues to intrigue listeners — one whose communication requires subtleties of execution that generations of pianists have labored devotedly to achieve. The luminous textures and haunting melodies he used to express his thoughts added to the piano's sound and range of color shadings that no one before him had imagined were there, but that all who have followed recognize as his. The same is true of the harmonic question marks one finds throughout his music — the equivalent of a look of gentle longing. He created a slimmer oeuvre than his important contemporaries, but every piece he produced was a pearl. Frederic Chopin biography Characters: Short info: Polish-French composer. Born to middle-class French parents in Poland, he published his first composition at age seven and began performing in aristocratic salons at eight. He moved to Paris in 1831, and his first Paris concert the next year thrust him into the realm of celebrity. Renowned as a piano teacher, he spent his time in the highest society. He contracted tuberculosis apparently in the 1830s.

In 1837 he began a 10-year liaison with the writer George Sand; she left him in 1847, and a rapid decline led to his death two years later. Chopin stands not only as Poland's greatest composer but perhaps as the most significant composer in the history of the piano; he exhaustively exploited the instrument's capacities for charm, excitement, variety, and timbral beauty. His innovations in fingering, his use of the pedals, and his general treatment of the keyboard were hightly influential. Apart from two piano concertos (both 1830) and four other works for piano and orchestra, virtually all his compositions are for solo piano; they include some 60 mazurkas, 27 études, 26 preludes, 21 nocturnes, some 20 waltzes, 16 polonaises, 4 ballades, 4 scherzos, and 3 sonatas. Biography: Frédéric François Chopin (1810-1849), a Polish-French composer and pianist, was one of the creators of the typically romantic character piece. All of his works include the piano.

The imaginative schemes of Frédéric Chopin for his piano pieces include the following features: concentration on one motive in preludes and études; elaboration of dance forms in mazurkas, waltzes, polonaises, the Bolero, and the Tarantella; improvisational effects from piano figurations in the nocturnes; and episodic, vigorous writing in the larger works such as the scherzos, ballades, impromptus, and the Fantasy. Thus, in an era when the piano was becoming the preeminent solo instrument in both the home and the concert hall, Chopin devised new figurations, delicate traceries, and elaborate quasivocal fioriture and fashioned them for use at the keyboard. He wrote no symphonies, no operas, no string quartets, and only one trio (piano, violin, and cello). Besides his two significant sonatas and two piano concertos, he is best known for his musical miniatures, many of which are within the technical grasp of amateurs. Chopin was not a conductor, or a writer on music, or a great teacher - although he earned substantial amounts from his teaching - nor did he concertize extensively.

Indeed, he represents the curious phenomenon of a legendary pianist who gave approximately 30 public performances in his entire lifetime. From all reports, his playing was extraordinary: quiet, controlled, exquisitely shaded, varying from pianissimo to mezzo forte with only a very occasional forte. Chopin was born on Feb. 22, 1810, near Warsaw, the second of four children of a French father, Nicholas Chopin, and a Polish mother, who had been a well-educated but impoverished relative in the Skarbek household, where Nicholas had been a tutor. Young Chopin had a good education and studied music privately with Joseph Elsner, founder and director of the Warsaw Conservatory. In 1817 Chopin's first composition was performed publicly; a year later he himself performed in public, playing a concerto by Adalbert Gyrowetz. Musical Training In 1826 Chopin became a full-time student at Elsner's conservatory, where he received an excellent foundation in theory, harmony, and counterpoint.

The earliest work to display Chopinesque figurations as we know them today is the set of variations on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's theme Là ci darem' la mano, from the opera Don Giovanni. Elsner, after recognizing that Chopin's style was too original to force into traditional patterns, granted him the freedom to develop along distinctly personal lines. Indeed, Chopin is one of the few composers whose style crystallized in his formative years and remained the same throughout his lifetime. Chopin's first acquaintance with the musical world beyond Warsaw occurred in 1828, when Johann Nepomuk Hummel, a Viennese pianist-composer, visited that city. Italian opera had been the exclusive local musical fare, and Hummel's visit made Chopin aware of happenings in the west. After visiting Berlin, where he was exposed to the music of George Frederick Handel and Felix Mendelssohn, Chopin heard Nicolò Paganini in Warsaw on his return and recognized that he must leave the city for exposure to other musicians. The government rejected his father's request for financial aid to send the boy abroad, so on his own Chopin went to Vienna to try to arrange the publication of several of his works.

After a successful debut at the Kärntnerthor Theater on Aug. 11, 1829, he returned home only to prepare for a concert tour, this time through Germany and Italy. His two concertos (the F Minor is the earlier), which he performed in a public concert in Warsaw in 1830, several fantasies incorporating national themes, and the first set of études stem from this period. After a trip through Breslau, Dresden, and Prague, Chopin arrived in Vienna, but owing to the unsettled political conditions he never reached Italy. He composed the B Minor Scherzo and the G Minor Ballade, as well as some songs, while he waited in Vienna. These works show Chopin's fully developed personal style long before he had met Franz Liszt, Vincenzo Bellini, or Hector Berlioz, all of whom were said to have influenced his writing. Besides Hummel, the only musician whose piano style inspired Chopin was the Irish composer John Field, who first used the term nocturne on several of his short, lyrical pieces.

Middle Period When the 20-year-old Chopin arrived in Paris, he first considered - then rejected - the idea of studying with F. W.M. Kalkbrenner, the renowned virtuoso. Poor physical health as well as an unsuitable temperament prevented Chopin from giving public performances. Nevertheless, he became a significant figure in Parisian artistic circles, numbering among his friends musicians, writers, and painters as well as many wealthy and talented women. His pupils were all aristocratic ladies who paid well for their lessons. Some were gifted, but not one was sufficiently accomplished to establish or to preserve a method derived from her teacher. Chopin recognized that he did not have the stamina to compete in public against such virtuosos as Liszt and Sigismund Thalberg. So long as he was able to earn enough by teaching, Chopin preferred to forgo concertizing for composition. His musical tastes are public knowledge. Friendly with Berlioz and Mendelssohn, he was not impressed with their music. Nor, for that matter, did he appreciate Robert Schumann's work, despite the latter's warm welcome written for the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik when Chopin first arrived in Paris.

Schumann introduced Clara Wieck to Chopin's work, and eventually her performances of Chopin's pieces made favorable impressions on innumerable audiences. Final Years Several young ladies appear to have been the object of Chopin's affections over the years, but the most celebrated female with whom he had a relationship was Aurore Dudevant, known as George Sand, whom he met in 1836. For 9 years, beginning in 1838, after he had composed the Funeral March (which later became part of the B-flat Minor Sonata), she was his closest associate. They spent the winter of 1838-1839 in Majorca, where she took Chopin in the belief that his health would improve. Unfortunately the weather was bad, Chopin's health deteriorated, and his Pleyel piano did not arrive until a week before they left. Nevertheless, the composer completed his 24 Preludes there at Valldemosa, which today is a Chopin museum. Chopin and Sand spent the following summer at Nohant, Sand's country place near Châteauroux, where Chopin composed the B-flat Minor Sonata and the F-sharp Minor Impromptu.

From 1839 to 1846, with the exception of 1840, they passed every summer at Nohant. Chopin kept to himself in Paris and played only occasionally at social gatherings in the homes of the aristocracy. Because he did not enjoy copying his music, his friend Julian Fontana, who as a student had boarded with the Chopin family in Warsaw, was his copyist. When Fontana left for America at the end of 1841, Chopin's output slowed considerably. In 1846 Sand's children became a problem. Chopin sided with Solange, her daughter, in arguments against Sand and her son Maurice. Separation became inevitable, and the beginning of the end for Chopin. His health failed, and he lost all interest in composition. The Revolution of 1848 brought Chopin to England, where he accepted a longstanding invitation from Jane Stirling, a Scottish pupil. He gave several private performances in London and on May 15 played for Queen Victoria. After a rest in Scotland he returned to London in the fall of 1848, where on November 16 he played a benefit for Polish refugees at the Guildhall.

He returned to Paris shortly afterward, living virtually on the generosity of the Stirlings. He died of tuberculosis on Oct. 17, 1849, in Paris. His Achievements Chopin's achievements are closely related to the improvements in the piano, particularly the extension of the keyboard. He was adroit in his use of the pedal to obtain gradations of color and sonority. He experimented with new fingerings, using the thumb or the fifth finger on black notes, sliding the same finger from a black note to a white one, and passing the fourth finger over the fifth. Even his most complicated pieces lie easily under a pianist's fingers because the works are idiomatically suited to the instrument. His creative imagination raised the étude from a practice piece to the concert stage. Chopin's harmonic innovations, often concealed beneath a soaring lyricism, place him on an equal footing with Liszt and Richard Wagner, both of whom extended conventional concepts of tonality. The popularity of Chopin's works has led to a multiplicity of editions, but the best publication today is the Polish national edition issued under the name of his compatriot Ignace Jan Paderewski.

1-800-235-4105 Classical Composers: Frederick Chopin Often regarded as the greatest piano composer to ever live, Chopin was one of the greatest pianists in Paris during the Romantic Era. Frederick Chopin was born in Poland and early in his young life exhibited his gift at the piano, playing for some of the aristocratic families of Warsaw the age of six. At the age of nineteen, Chopin moved away from Poland forever, first to Vienna and then to Paris. Chopin was readily accepted by the Parisian elite, but his demeanor and melancholic temperament was often at odds with the expectation of this circle. During his entire lifetime, Chopin gave only 30 public performances. Of his nearly 170 compositions, almost all of them are exclusively for the piano. Chopin performed most of these compositions for small private audiences. The intimate setting of these performances is significant because it is emblematic of Chopin's music. Chopin loved soaring melodies, particularly the singing-like playing of his right hand. These melodies were not overwhelmingly ornamental, however, but minimalist and traditional.

Chopin was lauded for his ability to infuse traditional forms like the sonata and the prelude (a short self contained piano piece) with intimacy and emotional intensity. Perhaps the most intense of his piano pieces dates to the period when Chopin dated the famous progressive novelist George Sand. He spend several years with her in Majorca, Spain in relative seclusion. Chopin used this time for reflection and composition, but the city had an ill effect on the health of Chopin, who suffered from tubercolisis. On top of this, his relationship with Sand soured and they returned to Paris. His music during this time took on a sad beauty. Though only 39 at his death, Chopin's legacy as a virtuous pianist and his poetic piano compositions remained. As Sadie puts it, it would be wrong to underrate Chopin's influence because of his dedication to the piano. With this instrument Chopin was able to communicate a range from the graceful to the grandiose, fromt the tenderly poetic to the tempestuously passionate.

Chopin and the piano: A beginner's guide - Classic FM Classic FM Guides Now Playing Schedule Chopin and the piano: A beginner's guide Frédéric Chopin wrote some of the most famous piano music ever, but where should you start? Our handy guide will show you what to listen out for and what to go for next. Chopin and the piano go together like peas in a pod. But where do you start with the composer who not only wrote the most famous piano music of all time, but wrote so darn much of it? Well, perhaps it's best to divide the works up. He wrote over 230 pieces for the piano, ranging from solo etudes, polonaises and nocturnes to full-on concertos, so let's take it one section at a time. Solo piano works So, the big-hitters here are the Funeral March (the third movement from the Piano Sonata No. 2) and the Minute Waltz (the Waltz in D flat major). The first one, well, you can get the gist of that quite easily. But the second, the Minute Waltz, is a superb intro to Chopin's art.

It's clever, nimble and an awful lot of fun for a piece that barely lasts two minutes. For a really good performance, have a look at Daniel Barenboim's below. Barenboim is a renowned Chopin interpreter, and here he makes it sound positively whimsical and effortless, even though it's tricky little piece to rattle off. While we're on solo piano pieces, there's much to enjoy in Chopin's etudes, of which there are many. A good one to go for is the fiery 'Revolution' etude, Op. 10 no. 12. It's pretty hair-raising stuff, but Chopin wrote it in a politically-induced rage after Poland's failed revolution against Russia in 1831. The Nocturne in E flat major, Op. 9 No. 2 is also recommended. This popular work allows the soloist to really open up and make the most of the beautifully nagging melodies. Piano and orchestra Chopin only wrote two piano concertos, which is surprising given his volume of other work for the instrument. But what he lacked in prolificacy, he more than made up for in quality - both of these concertos have much to recommend them. No.

1 (which was actually written after No. 2… don't ask…) has a lengthy intro, but once the piano comes in it's incredible stuff. Watch Martha Argerich tearing up the first movement below: The second concerto sees the piano take centre stage more than in most similar works. Indeed, critics at the time (including a rather grumpy Hector Berlioz) attacked Chopin for not giving the orchestra anything to do. But try this Arthur Rubinstein recording of the gorgeous second movement: it's all about the piano, but why not? Chamber works Aside from the wealth of solo piano work, Chopin also found time to write a few nuggets for strings, where the piano takes a more accompanying role than usual. One of his first published compositions was the Introduction and Polonaise Brillante for cello and piano. Look at this cracking video with James Kreger on the cello, proving that Chopin was completely able to let the piano take a back-seat. Well, for a little while, anyway.

Latest on Classic FM Frédéric Chopin - Pianist, Composer - Biography.com Frédéric Chopin Considered Poland's greatest composer, Frédéric Chopin focused his efforts on piano composition and was a strong influence on composers who followed him. IN THESE GROUPS » quotes “Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.” “I wish I could throw off the thoughts which poison my happiness, but I take a kind of pleasure in indulging them.” “Sometimes I can only groan, and suffer, and pour out my despair at the piano!” Frédéric Chopin Synopsis Born on March 1, 1810, in Zelazowa Wola, Poland, Frédéric Chopin, grew up in a middle-class family. He published his first composition at age 7 and began performing one year later. In 1832, he moved to Paris, socialized with high society and was known as an excellent piano teacher. His piano compositions were highly influential. He died on October 17, 1849, in Paris, France.

Early Years Frédéric Chopin was born Fryderyk Franciszek Szopen on March 1, 1810, in the small village of Zelazowa Wola, Duchy of Warsaw (now Poland). His Father, Nicholas, was a French émigré who was working as a bookkeeper when he met and married Justyna Krzyzanowska. Soon after Frédéric was born, Nicholas found employment as a tutor for aristocratic families in Warsaw. His father's employment exposed young Chopin to cultured Warsaw society, and his mother introduced him to music at an early age. By age 6, young Chopin was ably playing the piano and composing tunes. Recognizing his talent, his family engaged professional musician Wojciech Zywny for lessons, and soon pupil surpassed teacher in both technique and imagination. Child Prodigy By 1818, Chopin was performing in elegant salons and writing his own compositions, including the Polonaise in G Minor. By 1826, he had composed several piano pieces in different styles, and his parents enrolled him in the Warsaw Conservatory of Music, where he studied for three years under Polish composer Josef Elsner.

However, sensing he needed a broader musical experience, Chopin's parents eventually sent him to Vienna, where he made his performance debut in 1829. Audiences were enthralled with his highly technical yet poetically expressive performances. Over the next few years, Chopin performed in Poland, Germany, Austria and Paris, where he settled in 1832. There he quickly established relationships with other young composers, among them Franz Liszt , Vincenzo Bellini and Felix Mendelssohn . Life in Paris While in Paris, Chopin found his delicate style didn't always enthrall the larger concert audiences, who had been exposed to the works of Franz Schubert and Ludwig van Beethoven . A fortuitous introduction to the Rothschild family opened new doors, however, and Chopin soon found employment in the great parlors of Paris as both recitalist and teacher. His increased income allowed him to live well and compose such pieces as Nocturnes of Opp. 9 and 15, the Scherzo in B-flat minor, Op. 31 and the Sonata in B-flat minor, Op. 35.

Relationship with George Sand Though Chopin had had youthful love affairs and was at one time engaged, none of his relationships lasted more than a year. In 1838 he began a love affair with French novelist Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, aka, George Sand . The couple spent a harsh winter on the Spanish island of Majorca, where Chopin became ill. In March 1839, Sand realized that Chopin needed medical attention and took him to Marseille, where he was diagnosed with consumption (tuberculosis). After a period of recuperation in Marseille, in May 1839 Chopin and Sand settled south of Paris in Nohant, Sand's country home. The next seven years proved to be the happiest and most productive period of Chopin's life. He steadily composed a series of masterpieces, including the Sonata in B Minor, the Opus 55 Nocturnes and the Opus 56 Mazurkas. The growing demand for his new works and his greater understanding of the publishing business also brought increased income and provided Chopin an elegant lifestyle.

Final Years and Death By the mid-1840s, both Chopin's health and his relationship with George Sand were deteriorating. His behavior had also become erratic, possibly due to an undiagnosed form of epilepsy. Their affair ended in 1848 after, among other things, Sand's unflattering portrayal of their relationship in her 1846 novel Lucrezia Floriani. At the end, both parties were too proud to reconcile, and Chopin's spirit and health were broken. He made an extended tour to the British Isles, where he struggled under an exhausting schedule, making his last public appearance on November 16, 1848. He then returned to Paris, where he died on October 17, 1849, at age 39. His body was buried at Père Lachaise cemetery, but his heart was interred at a church in Warsaw, near the place of his birth. Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

Citation Information Chopin society » Biography You are here: Home » Chopin » Biography Biography Biographical Essay About Chopin By David Dubal FREDERIC CHOPIN 1810-1849-Poland He made his debut in 1818, playing a concerto by Gyrowetz. In 1824 he entered the Warsaw Conservatory; the following year saw the publication of his Rondo in C minor, Op.1. He premiered his own F minor and E minor Concerti in Warsaw in March and October of 1830. Late in that same year, he left Poland forever. He lived and performed in Vienna for eight months and in 1831 arrived in Paris, where he played his F minor Concerto and the La’ ci darem Variations early in 1832. After 1835, his appearances as a concert pianist were infrequent. In 1837 he entered into his celebrated liaison with the writer George Sand, which ended in 1846. His main source of income was teaching. He gave his last recital in Paris early in 1848, and later that year arrived in Great Britain.

He died in Paris in 1849. At his funeral, which was held at the Madeleine, Mozart’s Requiem was given. He is buried at Pere-Lachaise, where, according to legend, there has never been a day when flowers were not placed on his grave. Chopin spent most of the first twenty years of his life in Warsaw. The Polish capital was rather provincial; still he was able to hear many of the best artists of the time perform there. Italian opera and singing in general had an indelible effect on him, through the performances of such great singers as Angelica Catalani. Long before Liszt heard Paganini, Chopin was learning from his violinistic feats. Hummel, too, played in Warsaw, and his tentative Romanticism and richly ornamented keyboard layout ignited Chopin’s precocious genius. Other influences during his adolescence included Spohr’s then strangely exotic chromaticism, Field’s fragrant nocturnes, and the mysteriousness of Weber. Of equal importance were the dance forms of his homeland. From the age of eight, Chopin occupied himself with them, haunted by their rhythms, dreaming of an idealized Poland.

The last page of music he wrote was a mazurka. As a pianist, he was left to develop on his own. Warsaw had no piano teachers of importance, and Chopin’s instruction was given over to a local violinist, Adalbert Zywny. Awestruck by his pupil’s talents, he let Chopin sprout his own unique wings. To his credit, he instilled in him a love for Bach and Mozart, the only masters whom Chopin admired without reservation. There was also the fatherly guidance of his composition teacher Josef Elsner at the Warsaw Conservatory, who understood him and nourished him without too many strictures. When the twentyone-year-old Chopin arrived in Paris, he was momentarily dazed by the old-fashioned perfection of Kalkbrenner, who tried to convince him to enter upon a three-year course of study with him. Opinions on the matter roared back to him from Warsaw: the pianist Maria Szymanowska screamed, “He is a scoundrel.

His real aim is to cramp his genius.” Elsner, too, quickly realized that “they have recognized genius in Frederic and are already frightened that he will outstrip them, so they want to keep their hands on him for threeyears in order to hold back something of that whichnature herself might push forward.” Indeed, Chopin was a new and freer pianist, freefrom the conventional discipline of stiff bodily action.And his music was entirely new, demanding novel forms ofhand coordination. Schumann was the first to understandthis, ending his review of the Variations on “La cidarem la mano,” Op. 2, with the now-celebrated line:”Hats off, gentlemen. A genius!” Chopin waswell aware of his own originality. At nineteen, heannounced to a friend the creation of his Etudes: “Ihave written a big technical exercise in my own specialmanner.” These would soon be known as hisTwenty-four Etudes, Opp. 10 and 25. When first composed,they offered severe stumbling blocks to older players ofthe day.

The German critic Ludwig Rellstab advised,”Those who have distorted fingers may put them rightby practicing these studies; but those who have not,should not play them, at least, not without having asurgeon at hand.” But the Chopin Etudes havecome to rule the world of piano playing, forming anencyclopedic methodology, a summary of Chopin’s enlargedvision of piano technique. They provide the equipment forthe rest of Chopin’s almost invariably difficult music,and give the key to music after Chopin. If only one setof piano etudes were to be preserved, these would be theunanimous choice. They contain all that Clementi, Cramer,Czerny, Berger, Moscheles, Hummel, Steibelt, and otherswere striving for technically, couched in music ofincomparable beauty. They are a challenge for everygeneration of pianists, and few can feel equallycomfortable in all. They are small in form; as eachdevelops a single technical idea, they demand an enormousendurance, while musically they are as exposed as Mozartian writing. Chopin was one of the most original harmonists inhistory, creating an exquisite chromaticgarden.

“Chopin’schromaticism,” wrote Gerald Abraham,”marks a stage of the greatest importance in theevolution of the harmonic language. . . . “. He wasthe first composer seriously to undermine the solidsystem of diatonic tonalism created by the Vienneseclassical masters and the contemporaries in othercountries.” As a creator of ornamental fioritura, heis without equal in the nineteenth century. Chopindisplayed an almost inexhaustible resource in discoveringpianistic formations that are uniquely suited to theinstrument. To transcribe Chopin or to change the mediumin any way destroys the music’s evocative power, morethan with any other composer. It was born for the piano.Chopin extended the scope of the left hand to such adegree that it constitutes a miracle of imagination.Finally the entire range of the instrument was availablefor exploration. Just compare a Mozartian Alberti bass ora Field nocturne with a late Chopin nocturne. WithChopin, the impossible was achieved-singing upon thepiano. The instrument was suddenly capable of iridescentand shimmering tone, where the pedal counts for all. Itwas widely noted how Chopin’s feet were in constantmotion.

He was probably the first pianist to consistentlyuse half and quarter pedaling. Never had music beencapable of such fluidity, such palpitation, suchatmospheric effect. Hearing Chopin play the A-flat Etude Op. 25, No.1,Schumann imagined “an Aeolian harp that hadall the scales, and these were intermingled by the handof the artist into all sorts of fantastic embellishments.It was rather an undulation brought out more loudly hereand there with the pedal, all gorgeously entangled in theharmony.” Chopin’s influence, pianistically and harmonically,spans two centuries, from Liszt to Scriabin andRachmaninoff, to Debussy, Granados, and Szymanowski. Hismazurkas and polonaises let loose the flood tide ofethnicity in music, which is having an impact even today.This delicate, ethereal being created, in the words ofGeorge Sand, “a revolution in the language of musicand with only one instrument.” Chopin was consumptive, becoming more frail year byyear. He scaled down his playing as a result, developingdozens of gradations of soft sounds.

How he envied Liszthis power. Naturally he had a horror of large halls, andlate in life he begged his friend, the Irish pianistGeorge Osborne, not to attend a recital he had to give inScotland. “My playmg,” he told him, “willbe lost in such a large room, and my compositions will beineffective.” Nevertheless, his pupil GeorgesMathias attested, “What power! Yes, what power, butit lasted a few bars; and what exaltation andinspiration! The man’s whole BODY vibrated.” His technique was flawless, and he always caused greatexcitement with the evenness of his scales and thecareful manipulation of his legato. The pianist-writerWilhelm von Lenz noticed him “changing his fingerson a key as often as an organ player.” The chief characteristic of Chopin’s playing washis highly personal and wayward use of tempo rubato.

InChopin’s view of this device, “the left hand is theconductor; it must not waver or lose ground; do with theright hand what you will and can.” (Liszt’sdescription of the much-discussed tempo rubato is morepictorial: “Do you see those trees? The wind playsin the leaves, life unfolds and develops beneath them,but the tree remains.”) When Meyerbeer insisted thatChopin played his own mazurka in 4/4 time instead of 3/4,Chopin was furious and hotly denied it. Yet when histrusted friend Charles Halle’ pointed it out to him, thePole slyly called the rhythmic aberration a nationaltrait. Berlioz, too, said that Chopin simply could notplay in time. In truth, however, the freedom of hisplaying and his music was not fully understood. TheClassicist Ignaz Moscheles, whose playing Chopin called”frightfully Baroque,” could not understandChopin’s music until he heard him play it.

Moscheles thenconfessed, “The harsh modulations which strike medisagreeably when I am playing his compositions no longershock me, because he glides over them in a fairylike waywith his delicate fingers. Chopin’s piano music remains the most frequentlyplayed in history. He is one of the few universalmasters, and has never suffered an eclipse. Almost everynote he wrote is in the permanent repertoire. ArthurRubinstein confirmed: “When the first notes ofChopin sound through the concert hall, there is a happysign of recognition. All over the world men and womenknow his music. They love it; they are moved by it. Yetit is not Romantic music in the Byronic sense. It doesnot tell stories or paint pictures. It is expressive andpersonal, but still a pure art.” Anton Rubinstein called him “the Piano Bard, thePiano Rhapsodist, the Piano Mind, and the PianoSoul,” declaring that “whether the spiritof the instrument breathed upon him, I do not know . .

.but all possible expressions are found in hiscompositions, and are all sung by him upon thisinstrument.” The world rightly knows Chopin as”the poet of the piano.” Indeed, theinstrument’s very prestige would be in jeopardy withouthis contribution. 2016 – 2017 Season Chopin: Famous Piano Works - Elfrun Gabriel,Andreas Pistorius | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic Chopin: Famous Piano Works google+ AllMusic Review by Mike D. Brownell Ah yes...the Famous Chopin Piano Works. Out of a giant oeuvre of solo piano literature, how difficult it must be to select one album's worth of the most "famous" to be a representative sample. While this album does an adequate job of covering most of the styles in which Chopin composed, there's definitely a notable form absent: the waltz. The performances on the CD are as adequate as the program selection: nothing egregiously poor, but also nothing truly exceptional, making this album useful primarily for a listener seeking a very cursory introduction to Chopin .

The first nine tracks were recorded in 1983 by pianist Andreas Pistorius and feature everything from mazurkas, scherzos, and nocturnes. Pistorius ' technique is generally solid, but there are too many small instances of sloppy passagework and messy ornamentation. The recorded sound of his instrument is also very dull and lacking in resonance; this is particularly noticeable in the Op. 10, no. 2 C minor Etude. The final six tracks were recorded in 1990 by pianist Elfrun Gabriel and consist only of preludes. The seven years that passed between the two recordings did not advance the recorded sound quality, however, and Gabriel 's piano sounds even more distant than Pistorius and substantially lacking in bass resonance. Track Listing

Question: Frdric Chopin is best known for his compositions for which instrument?
Answer: Piano