Frederick Chopin
The 1830s have been called "the decade of
the piano" because during
that period the piano and the music written for it
played a dominant role in
European musical culture. The piano had, of
course, already been popular for
more than half a century, but by the third
decade of the nineteenth century,
changes in the instrument and its audience
transformed the piano's role in
musical life. As the Industrial Revolution
hit its stride, piano manufacturers
developed methods for building many more
pianos than had previously been
feasible, and at lower cost. Pianos ceased to
be the exclusive province of the
wealthy; an expanding middle class could
also aspire to own them and make music
at home. Thousands of amateur pianists
began to take lessons, buy printed music,
and attend concerts. Virtuosos like
Friedrich Kalkbrenner, Sigismund Thalberg,
and Franz Liszt became the first
musical superstars, touring Europe and
astonishing audiences with music they
had composed to display their piano
technique. Frederick Chopin was born in a
small village named Zelazowa Wola
located in Poland on March 1st, 1810. His
passionate love of music showed itself
at an early age. There are stories,
for instance, of how when his mother and
sister played dances on their grand
piano he would burst into tears for the
sheer beauty of the sounds he heard.
Soon he began to explore the keyboard for
himself and delighted in
experimenting. By the age of seven he had become
sufficiently good for his
parents to try and find him a teacher. Their choice
fell on Adalbert Zywny, a
Bohemian composer then aged sixty-one and now
remembered solely as Chopin’s
first teacher. Within a few months of beginning
his studies with Zywny,
Chopin began to play in public, and by the end of 1817,
at the age of seven,
had already been described by many as ‘Mozart’s
successor’. Chopin began to
compose around this time, and continued to do so
throughout his student
years, but only a handful of these works were printed. In
the autumn of 1826,
Chopin began studying the theory of music, figured bass, and
composition at
the Warsaw High School of Music. Its head was the composer Józef
Elsner.
Chopin, however, did not attend the piano class. Aware of the
exceptional
nature of Chopin's talent, Elsner allowed him, in accordance with
his
personality and temperament, to concentrate on piano music but was
unbending
as regards theoretical subjects, in particular counterpoint.
Chopin, endowed by
nature with magnificent melodic invention, ease of free
improvisation, and an
inclination towards brilliant effects and perfect
harmony, gained in Elsner's
school a solid grounding, discipline, and
precision of construction, as well as
an understanding of the meaning and
logic of each note. This was the period of
the first extended works such as
the Sonata in C minor, Variations, on a theme
from Don Juan by Mozart, the
Rondo á la Krakowiak, the Fantaisie, and the Trio
in G minor. Chopin ended
his education at the High School in 1829, and after the
third year of his
studies Elsner wrote in a report: "Chopin, Fryderyk,
third year student,
amazing talent, musical genius". After completing his
studies, Chopin planned
a longer stay abroad to become acquainted with the
musical life of Europe and
to win fame. Up to then, he had never left Poland,
with the exception of two
brief stays in Prussia. In 1826, he had spent a
holiday in Bad Reinertz
(modern day Duszniki-Zdrój) in Lower Silesia, and two
years later he had
accompanied his father's friend, Professor Feliks Jarocki, on
his journey to
Berlin to attend a congress of naturalists. Here, quite unknown
to the
Prussian public, he concentrated on observing the local musical
scene.
Now he pursued bolder plans. In July 1829 he made a short
excursion to Vienna in
the company of his acquaintances. Wilhelm Würfel, who
had been staying there
for three years, introduced him to the musical
environment, and enabled Chopin
to give two performances in the
Kärtnertortheater. He enjoyed his tremendous
success with the public, and
although the critics censured his performance for
its small volume of sound,
they acclaimed him as a genius of the piano and
praised his compositions.
Consequently, the Viennese publisher Tobias Haslinger
printed the Variations
on a theme from Mozart (1830), a piece he performed at
the Kärtnertortheater.
This was the first publication of a Chopin composition
abroad, for up to
then, his works had only been published in Warsaw. Upon his
return to Warsaw,
Chopin, already free from student duties, devoted himself to
composition and
wrote, among other pieces, two Concertos for piano and
orchestra: in F minor
and E minor. The first concerto was inspired to a
considerable extent by the
composer's feelings towards Konstancja Gladkowska,
who studied singing at the
Conservatory. This was also the period of the first
nocturne, etudes,
waltzes, mazurkas, and songs to words by Stefan Witwicki.
During the last
months prior to his planned longer stay abroad, Chopin gave a
number of
public performances, mainly in the National Theatre in Warsaw where
the
premiere of both concertos took place. Originally, his destination was to
be
Berlin, where Prince Antoni Radziwill, the governor of the Grand Duchy
of Poznan,
had invited the artist. Radziwil, who had been appointed by the
King of Prussia,
was a long-standing admirer of Chopin's talent and who, in
the autumn of 1829,
was his host in Antonin. Chopin, however, ultimately
chose Vienna where he
wished to consolidate his earlier success and establish
his reputation. Chopin's
reputation as a composer was principally that of a
miniaturist who achieved
great melodic and harmonic richness within brief and
simple musical forms. Once
firmly established in Paris, however, Chopin began
to experiment with more
complex musical structures, most notably in his
scherzos, ballades, and
polonaises. As titles for independent piano pieces,
scherzo (Italian for
"joke") and ballade (usually a lyrical vocal work) had
no specific
meaning for nineteenth-century audiences, so Chopin was free to
define these
genres himself. Unlike the other composer-pianists of his time,
however, Chopin
rarely gave public concerts; his performing was generally
confined to the salons
of wealthy aristocrats and businessmen. Public
awareness of Chopin's music came
about primarily through its publication, and
the process of shepherding his
works into print assumed great importance for
him. However, this was not simply
a matter of converting his manuscripts into
printed form. Chopin felt that many
performance details regarding expression
were not fixed elements of his music,
even though they have a substantial
impact on the way it sounds. He was
inconsistent about including performing
instructions in his manuscripts, and
when publishers asked him to supply them
at the proof stage, he often changed
his mind several times. Some musical
changes also appeared first in proofs and
were never copied into his
manuscripts. Moreover, due to the inconsistencies of
contemporary copyright
law, nearly all of Chopin's works had to be issued
simultaneously by
publishers in France, Germany, and England in order to
discourage piracy.
Chopin's large-scale works werenot among his most popular
ones. They were
difficult to learn, and their musical form and content puzzled
contemporary
musicians. It is a measure of Chopin's stature that publishers not
only
printed these pieces but also paid substantial sums for them, even
though
they were unlikely to reap an immediate profit. Chopin's music sold so
well that
publishers were obliged to reprint his works frequently in order to
keep up with
demand. Most of these reissues used the plates from the first
editions; and
since printed scores of this period almost never bore
publication dates, later
printings are often distinguished only by changes on
the title pages, such as
the price or the publisher's address. However, there
are frequently alterations
in the music as well. In Paris editions, some of
these variants may be
corrections or second thoughts originating with the
composer, although it is
rarely possible to document his responsibility for
them. Maria Wodzinski, the
sister of three brothers of whom Chopin was close
friends of, was engaged to
Chopin shortly after a return to Warsaw Chopin
had made. She had shown
considerable musical and artistic talent, which
resulted in Chopin falling in
love with her and wanting to create a family
home of his own in exile. The
following year, during a holiday spent together
with the seventeen-year-old
Maria and her mother in Marienbad (modern day
Márianské Lázne in the Czech
Republic), and then in Dresden, he proposed
and was accepted on the condition
that he would take better care of his
health. The engagement was unofficial, and
did not end in marriage. After a
year-long "trial" period, Maria's
parents, disturbed by the bad state of the
health of her fiancé who was
seriously ill in the winter, and especially by
his irregular lifestyle, viewed
him as an unsuitable partner for their
daughter. Chopin found this rejection an
extremely painful experience, and
labeled the letters from the Wodzinski family,
tied into a small bundle, "My
sorrow". In July 1837, Chopin travelled
to London in the company of Camille
Pleyel in the hope of forgetting all
unpleasant memories. Soon afterwards, he
entered into a close liaison with the
famous French writer George Sand. This
author of daring novels, older by six
years, and a divorcee with two
children, offered the lonely artist what he
missed most from the time when he
left Warsaw: extraordinary tenderness, warmth,
and maternal care. Chopin and
Sand spent the winter of 1838 and 1839 on the
Spanish Island of Majorca,
living in a former monastery in Valdemosa. There, due
to unfavorable weather
conditions, Chopin became gravely ill and showed symptoms
of tuberculosis.
For many weeks, he remained so weak as to be unable to leave
the house.
Nonetheless, he continued to work intensively and composed a number
of
masterpieces: the series of 24 preludes, the Polonaise in C minor,
the
Ballade in F major, and the Scherzo in C sharp minor. On his return
from Majorca
in the spring of 1839, and following convalescence in
Marseilles, Chopin, still
greatly weakened, moved to George Sand's manor
house in Nohant, in central
France. Here, he was to spend long vacations
up to 1846, with the exception of
1840, returning to Paris only for the
winters. This was the happiest, and the
most productive, period in his life
after he left his family home. The majority
of his most outstanding and
profound works were composed in Nohant. In Paris,
the composer and writer
were treated as a married couple, although they were
never married. For
years, the couple enjoyed a deep love and friendship, but
with time the
increasingly hostile attitude of George Sand's son, who exerted a
strong
influence on the writer, caused ever more serious conflicts. A final
parting
of ways took place in July 1847. Grievous personal experiences so
important
for the health and creativity of the composer had a devastating effect
on
Chopin's mental and physical state. He almost completely gave up
composition,
and from then to the end of his life wrote only a few
miniatures. In April 1848,
persuaded by his Scottish pupil, Jane Stirling,
Chopin left for England and
Scotland. Together with her sister, Stirling
organized concerts and visits in
various localities, including the castles of
the Scottish aristocracy. This
exceptionally hectic lifestyle and excessive
strain on his strength from
constant travelling and numerous performances,
together with a climate injurious
to his lungs, further damaged his health.
On November 16, 1848, despite frailty
and a fever, Chopin gave his last
concert in the Guildhall in London. A few days
later, he returned to Paris.
His rapidly progressing disease made it impossible
to continue giving
lessons. In the summer of 1849, Ludwika Jedrzejewiczowa, the
eldest sister of
the composer, came from Warsaw to take care of her ill brother.
On 17
October 1849, Chopin died of pulmonary tuberculosis in his Parisian flat
in
the Place Vendôme. He was buried in the Pčre-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
In
accordance with his will, however, his sister brought his heart, taken
from his
body after death, to Warsaw where it was placed in an urn installed
in a pillar
of the Holy Cross church in Krakowskie Przedmiscie. Chopin
published 159 works
distributed among sixty-five opus numbers, but he also
composed more than
seventy other works that he chose not to publish. In some
cases, he may have
decided that the music was not up to his standards or that
it needed further
revision. Other works had been presented as personal gifts
to close friends, and
Chopin may have considered it inappropriate to
publish them. On his deathbed, he
had asked that all his unpublished
manuscripts be destroyed, but that wish was
not honored, and in 1853 his
mother and sisters asked Julian Fontana, Chopin's
friend and amanuensis, to
select from among them works that he considered worthy
and edit them for
publication. He selected twenty-three piano pieces, which he
grouped into
eight opus numbers (66-73). Chopin's music, no matter what the
setting, is
instantly recognizable. His unique sense of lyricism and
unparalleled melodic
genius produced some of the most purely beautiful music
ever written; music
which would influence many composers who followed, from
Brahms to
Debussy. He was a revolutionary light in Romantic music, the
ultimate
craftsman of whimsical melody and heart-rending harmony. In the
structure and
form of his compositions, he is quite alone; his sense of
balance and
architecture in music was not particularly related to the
Classical or budding
Romantic tradition, but seemed to spring from some
unknown well-source. The
overwhelming power and influence of his musical
legacy is forever assured.
Bibliography
"The Unofficial Frederic
Chopin Homepage."
. March 2000. ¨ Chopin Foundation of the United States,
Inc. "Fryderyk Chopin
– A Chronological Biography."
. March 2000. ¨
Leszczynski, Krzysztof. "Frederic Chopin:
Life—Works—Tradition."
.
November 1999. ¨ Orga, Ates. Chopin: His Life and Times. Tunbridge
Wells:
Midas Books, 1976. ¨ Pourtalčs, Guy De. Polonaise: The Life of
Chopin. New
York: Henry Holt and Company, 1927. ¨ Szulc, Tad. Chopin in
Paris: The Life and
Times of the Romantic Composer. New York: Scribner,
1989.