Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric-François Chopin (March 1, 1810 – October 17, 1849) was a Polish composer and pianist of Polish and French parentage who wrote almost exclusively for the piano. He was born as Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin, adopting the French variant "Frédéric-François" when he left Poland for Paris at age 20, never to return. His surname is also sometimes spelled Szopen in Polish texts.

Biography

According to the artist himself and his family, Chopin was born on March 1, 1810. However, his baptismal certificate, written several weeks after his birth, lists his birthdate as February 22. Chopin was born in ?elazowa Wola in central Poland near Sochaczew, in the region of Mazovia, which was part of the Duchy of Warsaw. He was born to Miko?aj (Nicolas) Chopin, a Pole of French ancestry, and to his Polish mother, Tekla Justyna Krzy?anowska.

Related Topics:
March 1 - 1810 - February 22 - ?elazowa Wola - Poland - Sochaczew - Mazovia - Duchy of Warsaw - Miko?aj (Nicolas) Chopin - French

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Formative years

The musical talent of young Chopin became apparent early on and can be compared with the childhood genius of Mozart. At the age of 7, he was already the author of two polonaises (in G minor and B-flat major), the first being published in the engraving workshop of Father Cybulski. The prodigy was featured in the Warsaw newspapers, and "little Chopin" became the attraction at receptions given in the aristocratic salons of the capital. He also began giving public charity concerts. At one concert, he is said to have been asked what he thought the audience liked best. 7-year-old Chopin replied, "My collar." His first professional piano lessons, given to him by the violinist Wojciech ?ywny (born 1756 in Bohemia), lasted from 1816 to 1822, when the teacher was no longer able to give any more help to the pupil whose skills surpassed his own.

Related Topics:
Mozart - Polonaise - Prodigy - Warsaw - Wojciech ?ywny - 1756 - Bohemia - 1816 - 1822

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The further development of Chopin's talent was supervised by Wilhelm Würfel (born 1791 in Bohemia). This renowned pianist and professor at the Warsaw Conservatory gave Chopin valuable (although irregular) lessons in playing organ, and possibly piano. From 1823 to 1826, Chopin attended the Warsaw Lyceum, where his father was a professor. In the autumn of 1826, Chopin began studying music theory, figured bass, and composition with the composer Józef Elsner (born 1769 in Silesia) at the Warsaw Conservatory. In 1831 he left Poland for Vienna before settling in Paris where he spent much of his life.

Related Topics:
Wilhelm Würfel - 1791 - Bohemia - Warsaw - Organ - Figured bass - Józef Elsner - 1769 - Silesia - 1831 - Vienna - Paris

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Career in Paris

Chopin first visited Vienna in early 1829, where he gave a piano performance and received his first favourable reviews. The following year he returned to Warsaw and performed the premiere of his Piano Concerto in F Minor at the National Theatre on March 17. By 1831 Chopin had left Poland for good and settled in Paris. He began work on his first scherzi and ballades as well as the first book of études. It is also at this time that he began his lifelong struggle with tuberculosis.

Related Topics:
Vienna - 1829 - Warsaw - March 17 - 1831 - Tuberculosis

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The early and mid-1830s in Paris were a productive time for the composer. He completed several of his most famous works and also performed regular concerts, to rave reviews. By 1838 Chopin had become a famous figure in Paris. Among his closest friends were opera composer Vincenzo Bellini (beside whom he is buried in the Père Lachaise), and painter Eugène Delacroix. He was also friends with composers Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt and Robert Schumann, and although he was at times critical of their music, Chopin dedicated some of his own compositions to them.

Related Topics:
1838 - Vincenzo Bellini - Père Lachaise - Eugène Delacroix - Hector Berlioz - Franz Liszt - Robert Schumann

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Chopin and George Sand

In 1836 Chopin was secretly engaged to a seventeen-year-old Polish girl named Maria Wodzinska. The engagement was later called off. In that same year, at a party hosted by Countess Marie d'Agoult, mistress of fellow composer Franz Liszt, Chopin met Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin, Baroness Dudevant, better known by her pseudonym as George Sand. She was a French Romantic writer, noted for her numerous love affairs with such prominent figures as Prosper Merimée, Alfred de Musset (1833–34), Alexandre Manceau (1849–65), and others.

Related Topics:
1836 - Marie d'Agoult - George Sand - Prosper Merimée - Alfred de Musset - Alexandre Manceau

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The composer did not first consider her attractive. "Something about her repels me," he said to his family. Their relationship ended in 1847 when Sand began to suspect that he had fallen in love with her daughter, Solange. It is also possible that behind the breakup was Sand's treatment of her daughter.

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Sand's correspondence suggests that Chopin was asexual; that is, that he had no inclination to have sexual relations with anyone, male or female. Even so, his relationship with Sand lasted for ten years until they parted after arguments over Sand's children Maurice and Solange.

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A notable episode in their time together was a turbulent and miserable winter on Majorca (1838–1839) living in unheated peasant huts and in the then-abandoned (and equally cold) Valldemossa monastery. http://www.valldemossa.com/museoin.htm Chopin would also later complain of having to go to great lengths to obtain a piano from Paris and of the difficulty of moving it uphill to the monastery. Chopin reflected much of the mood of this desperate time in the twenty-four préludes, Op. 28, the majority of which were written in Majorca. The weather had such a serious impact on Chopin's health and his chronic lung disease that he and George Sand were compelled to return to Paris to save his life. He survived but never recovered from this bout.

Related Topics:
Majorca - 1838 - 1839 - Valldemossa - Prélude

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Chopin and Sand's illustrious relationship is explored in the movie Impromptu which stars Hugh Grant as Chopin and Judy Davis as George Sand. Like the movie, Amadeus, however, it does not focus on fact as much as fiction.

Related Topics:
Impromptu - Amadeus

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Death and funeral

By the 1840s Chopin's health was rapidly deteriorating. He and Sand took several trips to remote locations, such as Nohant-Vic, to no avail. By 1849, the year in which Chopin died, most of his major works were completed and Chopin concentrated on mazurkas and nocturnes. His last work was a mazurka, in F minor.

Related Topics:
Nohant-Vic - 1849 - Mazurka - Nocturne

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Officially the cause of Chopin's death was tuberculosis, although there is some speculation that he may have had another disease such as cystic fibrosis or emphysema due in part to autopsy findings (reported only by his sister) seemingly inconsistent with the initial diagnosis. He had a terror of being buried alive, and asked to be "cut open", writing a few days before his death: "As this earth will suffocate me, I implore you to have my body open so that I may not be buried alive".

Related Topics:
Tuberculosis - Cystic fibrosis - Emphysema - Autopsy

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He had requested that Mozart's Requiem be sung at his funeral, which was held at the Church of the Madeleine and was attended by nearly three thousand people. The Requiem has major parts for female singers but the Madeleine had never permitted female singers in its choir. The funeral was delayed for almost 2 weeks while the matter raged, the church finally relenting and granting Chopin's final wish. Although Chopin is buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, his heart is entombed in a pillar in the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw. The Pere Lachaise site attracts numerous visitors and is invariably festooned with flowers, even in the dead of winter.

Related Topics:
Requiem - Church of the Madeleine - Père Lachaise - Warsaw

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