FREE ESSAY ON THE LIFE AND WORKS OF FREDERICK CHOPIN

THE LIFE AND WORKS OF FREDERICK CHOPIN

The Life and Works of 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 Jozef 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 a 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-Zdroj) 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 Wurfel, who had been staying there for three years,
introduced him to the musical environment, and enabled Chopin to give two performances in
the Kartnertortheater. 
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
Kartnertortheater. 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 were not 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 Marianske Lazne 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 fiance 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 Vendome. He was buried in the
Pere-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
Bibliography
? Anonymous. "Frederic Chopin." . March 2000.
? Anonymous. "Frederic Chopin 1810-1849. . April 1998.
? Bachelder, Brian. "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.
? Pourtales, 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.