Art Collage JANG: 97. Classical Music: 12. Frédéric Chopin, ACJ Music Academy

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This week's lecture is “Frédéric Chopin”, the 12th topic of “Classical Music”, which is a summary of the contents of “97. Classical Music: 12. Frédéric Chopin” introduced on July 22nd, 2017.

Chopin, daguerreotype by Louis-Auguste
Bisson (c.1849)

Frédéric Chopin, born on March 1, 1810 and died on October 17, 1849, was a Polish composer and pianist of the Romantic era who wrote mainly for solo piano. He was born in Zelazowa Wola and grew up in Warsaw.

Chopin's birthplace, Żelazowa Wola

His father, Nicolas Chopin, was a Frenchman from Lorraine, France, who had emigrated to Poland in 1787 at the age of 16, and married Justyna Krzyżanowska of the Skarbeks. Chopin was the second child and only son of Nicholas and Justyna, and he had an elder sister, Ludwika, and two younger sisters, Izabela and Emilia.

Chopin's father, Nicolas Chopin,
Ambroży Mieroszewski (1829)

A child prodigy, he completed his musical education and composed his early works in Warsaw before leaving Poland at the age of 20, less than a month before the outbreak of the November 1830 Uprising, an armed rebellion in the Poland against the Russian Empire.

Taking of the Warsaw Arsenal, November Uprising, Marcin
Zaleski

After settling in Paris at the age of 21, he gave only 30 public concerts during the last 18 years of his life, preferring the salon's intimate atmosphere. Chopin became friends with Franz Liszt and was admired by many of his contemporary musicians, including Robert Schumann.

Franz Liszt, Josef Kriehuber (1838)

After breaking his engagement with Maria Wodzińska from 1836 to 1837, he maintained a relationship with the French writer Amantine Dupin, whose pen name was George Sand. A brief and unhappy trip to Mallorca with Sand in 1838-39 was one of his most productive periods of composition.

Self-portrait, Maria Wodzińska (1830s)

Chopin at 25, Maria Wodzińska (1835)

Portrait of George Sand, Thomas Sully
(1826)

Portrait of Frédéric Chopin and George Sand, Eugène
Delacroix (1838)

In his final years, he received financial support from his admirer Jane Stirling, who arranged for him to visit Scotland in 1848.

Jane Stirling, Achille Devéria (c.1830)

After poor health throughout his life, Chopin died in Paris in 1849 at the age of 39, and the cause of his death appeared to have been pericarditis aggravated by tuberculosis.

Chopin on His Deathbed, Teofil Kwiatkowski (1849)

Chopin's death mask, Auguste Clésinger

His funeral, delayed almost two weeks after his death, was held on 30 October at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris, where Mozart's Requiem was sung and the Funeral March from Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 was played in the cemetery. Following his will, his elder sister Ludwika took his heart to Poland in 1850.

Chopin's grave, Père-Lachaise cemetery,
Paris

Funerary monument on a pillar in Holy
Cross Church, Warsaw, enclosing Chopin's
heart

All of Chopin's compositions include the piano. Most of them are for solo piano, but he also wrote two piano concertos, a few chamber pieces, and Polish songs with Polish lyrics.

Chopin's last (Pleyel) piano

His piano works were technically demanding and expanded the limits of the instrument, and his performances were known for their high sensitivity. His major piano works also include mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes, polonaises, the instrumental ballade, études, impromptus, scherzos, preludes, and sonatas, some of which were published only posthumously.

Frédéric Chopin Monument, Łazienki Park,
Warsaw

What influenced his compositional style were Polish folk music, the classical tradition of J. S. Bach, Mozart, and Schubert, and the atmosphere of the Paris salons where he was a frequent guest. His innovations in style, harmony, and musical form, as well as his association of music with nationalism, were influential throughout and after the late Romantic period.

Chopin plays for the Radziwiłłs, 1829, Henryk Siemiradzki
(1887)

His works remain very popular, and numerous films and biographies have been made about his life and music. Among his many memorials is the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, established by the Parliament of Poland to research and promote his life and works, which hosts the International Chopin Piano Competition, dedicated solely to his works.