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Frédéric Chopin was born in 1810 in Żelazowa Wola near Warsaw; the son of a French father and a Polish mother. As a child he was already celebrated in Warsaw as a piano prodigy. At 20 he left Poland for a concert tour: shortly afterwards Russia crushed the Polish November Uprising, and Chopin never returned to his homeland. He settled in Paris, the capital of musical Romanticism, and from then on carried Poland with him in his music: in the mazurkas and heroic polonaises that turned Polish dances into high art. Chopin is the poet of the piano: almost his entire output is devoted to this one instrument. Nocturnes, ballades, préludes, waltzes and études flowed from his pen: pieces that transform technical studies into pure poetry. The 'Revolutionary Étude' is said to reflect his despair at the fall of Warsaw; the 'Minute Waltz' supposedly portrays a little dog chasing its own tail. Chopin avoided large concert halls, preferring the intimate atmosphere of the Paris salons, where his subtly shaded playing told best. He earned his living mainly as a sought-after piano teacher to high society. For nearly a decade he was bound up in a famous and stormy relationship with the writer George Sand. Their winter on Majorca in 1838 to 1839 (wet, cold, and nearly fatal for the consumptive Chopin) became the stuff of literary history, for it was there that he completed his 24 Préludes, among them the 'Raindrop Prélude'. Chopin died in Paris in 1849, aged only 39, probably of tuberculosis. Did you know that at his own request his heart was taken to Warsaw? It rests there to this day, inside a pillar of the Holy Cross Church: his body in Paris, his heart in Poland.
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Romanticism
He is considered one of the greatest piano composers of the Romantic era.
💡 Did you know? Chopin wrote almost exclusively for his instrument, the piano: no other great composer is so closely tied to a single instrument.
Poland
His father was French, his mother Polish. He left Poland at 20 and never returned.
💡 Did you know? Chopin left Poland at 20 and never returned: after the failed uprising against Russia he carried Polish soil with him for life.
piano
He is called the 'poet of the piano'.
💡 Did you know? Nearly every work he wrote involves the piano: he composed no purely orchestral works.
Paris
He preferred the intimate salons of Parisian society to large concert halls.
💡 Did you know? In Paris Chopin was a celebrated salon star but avoided large concert halls; he preferred to play for a small audience.
mazurka and polonaise
In them he carried his lost homeland with him: more than 50 mazurkas survive.
💡 Did you know? In his mazurkas and polonaises, Chopin wove the dances of his Polish homeland into high art music.
Revolutionary Étude
Op. 10 No. 12 in C minor: written around 1831, when Russia crushed the Polish uprising.
💡 Did you know? The „Revolutionary Étude“ is said to express Chopin's fury and despair on learning, while travelling, of Warsaw's fall to the Russians.
nocturne
21 nocturnes survive: the genre was invented by the Irishman John Field, but Chopin perfected it.
💡 Did you know? Chopin perfected the dreamily melancholy „nocturnes“ (night pieces) into an art form of their own.
George Sand
Their famous winter on Majorca in 1838 to 1839 nearly proved fatal for the consumptive Chopin.
💡 Did you know? The writer George Sand (a woman's pen name) was Chopin's companion: a woman scandalously emancipated for the time.
Raindrop Prélude
D-flat major, Op. 28 No. 15: its steadily repeated note is said to evoke dripping rain.
💡 Did you know? The „Raindrop Prelude“ was written during a rainy, sickly winter with George Sand on Mallorca.
Minute Waltz
Despite its name, it takes about one and a half to two minutes to play.
💡 Did you know? The little dog belonged to George Sand.
39
He died in Paris in 1849, probably of tuberculosis.
💡 Did you know? Chopin died at just 39 of tuberculosis: his heart was taken to Warsaw and entombed in a church pillar there.
It was taken to Warsaw
At his own request: his body rests in Paris (Père Lachaise), his heart inside a pillar of Warsaw's Holy Cross Church.
💡 Did you know? His sister smuggled the heart to Poland in a jar of alcohol: reputedly cognac.
Foto: Louis-Auguste Bisson · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric Chopin was a Polish-French Romantic composer who, as the „poet of the piano“, wrote almost exclusively for that instrument.
💡 Did you know? After his death his heart was, at his own wish, taken to Warsaw and entombed in a church pillar.
Foto: Louis-Auguste Bisson · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Nocturne in E-flat, Op. 9 No. 2
Chopin's most tender nocturne: a singing, richly ornamented melody over a gently rocking accompaniment.
💡 Did you know? The nocturne as a genre was invented not by Chopin but by the Irishman John Field: Chopin perfected it.
Foto: Louis-Auguste Bisson · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Funeral March
The heavy, trudging march from Chopin's 2nd piano sonata is THE funeral-music cliché.
💡 Did you know? It was played at the funerals of Chopin himself, John F. Kennedy and Winston Churchill, among others.
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