Biography
36
Brief Facts and Rumors on Chopin's Life
Some
Quotes
(1810-1849)
Chopin is Polish composer and pianist of the romantic school, regarded by several as the greatest of all composers of music for the piano. He was born as Fryderyk Chopin in Zelazowa Wola, near Warsaw, of a French father whose name is Nicolas Chopin, a French teacher at a girl’s school and a Polish mother, they were both amateur pianists. He preferred to use the French name Frédéric. When he was little, listening to music would make him break into tears. He started to study the piano at the age of four, as a medium for expressing his feelings, under Adalbert Zywny. During his first few lessons he began to compose his short works. When he was eight years old he played at a private concert in Warsaw, this was his first performance, which he was christened as “Poland’s Mozart”.
Chopin was also precocious as a composer: His first published composition is dated 1817. He gave his first concerts as a piano virtuoso in 1829 in Vienna, where he lived for the next two years.Later he studied harmony and counterpoint at the Warsaw Conservatory and was blessed with a competent teacher in the person of Joseph Elsner who encouraged him to take in opera and concert performances and was very pleased and proud to see the 19-year-old achieve success as a composer and pianist in far-off Vienna. The only criticism of the Viennese critics was that his playing was “too soft” or rather "there is to much luxuriance in the modulation". After 1831, except for brief absences, Chopin lived in Paris, where he became noted as a pianist, teacher, and composer. There he met Liszt, Berlioz and Mendelssohn and they soon became friends. Schumann once wrote in an essay: “Hat’s off, gentlemen! A genius!” He formed an intimate relationship in 1837 with French writer George Sand. Liszt introduced him to the writer. Chopin was actually shocked at first when he saw Sand and commented that she was most repellent and even doubted if Sand was really a woman. In 1838 Chopin began to suffer from tuberculosis and Sand nursed him in Majorca, in the Balearic Islands, and in France until continued differences between the two resulted in an estrangement in 1847. Thereafter his musical activity was limited to giving several concerts in 1848 in France, Scotland, and England. He died in Paris of tuberculosis. He was buried in Père-Lechaise Cemetery, but the soil sprinkled over his grave was Polish soil that had been taken from the pot containing Polish soil he used to bring with him and his heart is preserved in the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw, these by his request.
Nearly all of Chopin's compositions are for piano. Although an expatriate, he was deeply loyal to his war-torn homeland; his mazurkas reflect the rhythms and melodic traits of Polish folk music, and a heroic spirit marks his polonaises. Italian opera composer Vincenzo Bellini also influenced his melodies. His ballades, scherzos, and études exemplify his large-scale works for solo piano. His music, romantic and lyrical in nature, is characterized by exquisite melody of great originality, refined—often adventurous—harmony, subtle rhythm, and poetic beauty. Chopin greatly influenced other composers, notably the Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt, German composer Richard Wagner, and French composer Claude Debussy. Chopin's many published compositions include 55 mazurkas, 27 études, 24 preludes, 19 nocturnes, 13 polonaises, and 3 piano sonatas. Among his other works are the Concertos in E minor and in F minor, both for piano and orchestra, the cello sonata, and 17 songs.
36 Brief Facts and Rumors on Chopin's Life
1. Chopin didn’t
actually like Fantasie-Impromptu. He thought just little of it (it is thought
that he didn’t have any inspiration anymore when he composed it or his frail
health just became worse). He never permitted it to be published. But it was
still published, though, posthumously.
2. We all know that
Chopin and Sand broke up because of a misunderstanding between the two. One very
reliable source tells us that Sand in fact maneuvered Chopin into the
mother-daughter quarrel. Sand intended it so Chopin will take the side of her
daughter. This will then result into an estrangement.
3. Another source
contrasts to the one said above. Since Sand left her home, her children became
jealous and undisciplined. So one of them plotted the said misunderstanding
between the two, which caused the parting.
4. Even before the
break-up, Sand and Chopin already grew tensions and had small quarrels.
5. It is assumed
that Sand got bored of Chopin and didn’t like him anymore because of his frail
health (he was already coughing blood).
6. Chopin really
loves Sand. She is the inspiration I said above.
7. Since he really
loves Sand, he carried a lock of her hair till his death.
8. Chopin was afraid
to be buried alive. He told his sister to cut his body open after he dies. He
said this just a few days before he passed away. (Weird!!!)
9. He carries an urn
filled with Polish soil. It was given to him by Elsner, his teacher in Warsaw.
“May you never forget your native land wherever you may go, nor cease to love
it with a warm and faithful heart,”—Elsner.
10. He told the
people to sprinkle the soil from the urn on his grave. And it was done. He was
buried in France but the soil was from Poland.
11. His heart is
already in Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw. It is preserved, and this is
again done by his words.
12. The stupid
Chopin (forgive me for saying that) actually told his sister to burn all his
unpublished manuscript!
13. When revolution broke out in Poland, he was in Vienna, then. So, he thought he might want to fight the Russians, too. He actually decided to go back since his friend who was living with him did so. But in the middle of the journey, he instructed the driver (if that’s what you call it) to turn back. He was convinced of the argument with his mother that he shouldn’t come back because of his feeble health.
14. So what he did,
he poured his furiousness to the piano and composed the Revolutionary Etude
(Opus 10 no. 12).
15. When he came to
Paris in 1831, the known composers were so excited of him. They planned his
debut concert on January 25, 1832. But the Parisians didn’t like his playing.
One of the critics said that his playing was too soft and that there is “too
much luxuriance in the modulation, and disorder in the linking of phrases…”
But some composers like Liszt, Mendelssohn, Berlioz and etc. were fond of him.
16. Since the
Parisians didn’t like him, he considered the thought of leaving France for
America.
17. Then he met
Prince Radziwill, who persuaded him to stay, brought him to the salon of Baron
Jacques de Rothschild. There, he was praised and was made to teach the children
for 20 francs a lesson.
18.
He said himself that, “I give myself an impression of… a violin’s E string
on a bass viol,”
19. He also stated,
“Our best tuner has drowned himself… now I do not even have a piano tuned as
I like it… All I have left is a big nose and an underdeveloped fourth
finger.”
20. He had small
fingers, but as someone stated, it stretched like the jaws of a snake. This
astonished most pianists.
21. Chopin was in fact surrounded with such beautiful things. Sand once wrote:
“To
tear Chopin away from so many gateries, to associate him with a simple,
uniform, and constantly studious life, he who had been brought up on the knees
of princesses, was to deprive him of that which made him live, a factitious
life, it is true…”
22. Chopin
visited many salons each night to play. He goes to about 20-30 salons a day just
to satisfy himself.
23. He was “great
in small things” even though he was “small in great things” as someone
said.
24. Szopen is
supposed to be his family name but then it was changed to a more
Gallic—Chopin.
25. Schumann said
that Chopin is “the boldest and most proudest poetic spirit of our time”.
26. Chopin adores
Mozart. That is why Mozart's Requiem was played during his funeral.
27. He once stated
when he arrived in Paris—“I don’t know where there can be so many pianists
as in Paris, so many asses and so many virtuosi.”
28. He told Liszt
once, “The crowd intimidates me. I feel asphyxiated by its breath, paralyzed
by its curious looks, dumb before the strange faces.”
29. Berlioz said he
was dying all his life.
30. He fell in love
with a popular singer but never spoke to her. Then he got secretly engaged to a
young lady but her family wouldn’t allow marriage for Chopin’s insubstantial
health.
31. The love affair
between Sand and Chopin was a scandal for Sand was “that woman” to most of
Chopin’s acquaintances.
32. Sand and a few
other people once saw him before his piano, his eyes wild and his hair almost
standing on end. It was many moments later before he recognized them.
33. He composed his
piano concerto no. 2 before his piano concerto no. 1, concerto no. 2 was
published after concerto no. 1 which makes no.1 the first, and that's totally
the reason why it's not named the second.
34. His first
published work was Rondo in C major, op. 1 when he was 15.
35. “Chopin once wrote to a friend after his break-up with Sand, “I do my best to work, but it just won’t do. If I go on like this, my new works will not remind you of warbling birds and not even of broken china. …I work a little. I scratch a lot.”
36. Chopin composed "La Valse Minute" or the Minute Waltz op. 64 no. 1 for George Sand's dog.
"It
is dreadful when something weighs on your mind, not to have a soul to unburden
yourself to. You know what I mean. I tell my piano the things I used to tell
you."
"Bach
is like an astronomer who, with the help of ciphers, finds the most wonderful
stars.... Beethoven embraced the universe with the power of his spirit...I do
not climb so high. A long time ago I decided that my universe will be the soul
and heart of man."
"Nothing
is more beautiful than a guitar, except, possibly, two."
"One
needs only to study a certain positioning of the hand in relation to the keys to
obtain with ease the most beautiful sounds, to know how to play long notes and
short notes and to [attain] certain unlimited dexterity... A well formed
technique, it seems to me, [is one] that can control and vary a beautiful sound
quality."
"Nothing
is more odious than music without hidden meaning."
"I
wasn't meant to play in public... crowds intimidate me, their breath stifles me,
their stares petrify me, their strange faces throw me into confusion."
"How
distasteful this George Sand is! Is she really a woman? I'm inclined to doubt
it"
-
on his first hearing George Sand, 1836
"The
first said I was going to die; the second said I had breathed my last; and the
third said I was already dead."
-
on the incompetent doctors in Majorca