Biography of Fryderyk Chopin

A look over the abyss

22 February 1810
17 October 1849
Chopin said Berlioz: "has only one point of similarity with no musician of my acquaintance"; and Schumann: "Chopin is recognized even during breaks." Giorgio Pestelli wrote: "Between the mysterious parts which crystallize in the miracle that is the music of Chopin, it is likely that, as today, the notion of the absolute originality of that recognizability depended on the invention of a" singing "in the voice had only distant ancestry, a song as original that actually had to invent his own sound from scratch , the voice of the piano". Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin (his name is also transcribed as Frederic Francois) was born in Zelazowa Wola (Warsaw, Poland) on 22 February 1810 and shortly after his birth, the family moved to Warsaw where Frydryk began studying piano at age eight, thus showing early quality, novel Mozart, from his first concert. Even the normal school offer a peek to his musical interests, since becoming enthusiast for Polish history, begins to compose music comments on the most important facts.
Was already alive that interest for the life of her country who would become a regular feature of his personality and his inspiration: in fact the sufferings, the aspirations, the desires for freedom of Poland often will be expressed through sound "desperate" (as he said) of his piano. After graduating with a known composer, j. Elsner, who is a friend more than teacher all his life, his acting career began in 1829 Frydryk prodigious pianist. In this short period Gladowska Constancy by which will know joy and many disappointments, and Niccolò Paganini that excites him for the wonderful violin technique. In 1830 Chopin moved to Vienna, given the adverse political situation in Poland. A few days after his arrival at the Austrian land in Warsaw insurrection breaks out at Russian Czarist power. But the Austrians were equally against Polish independence and the young Frydryk you immediately feel surrounded by hostility.
Remains just going through many difficulties, even economic, while positive news from Poland always come less than ever on the Russian advance on the cholera epidemic and the despair of his countrymen. When comes the news that Warsaw has fallen into Russian hands, desperate, composes the study (op. 10 No. 12) known as "the fall of Warsaw", full of dramatic and passionate outbursts. In 1831 he moved to Paris in a more relaxed environment, where he befriended artists like Mendelssohn, Liszt, Bellini, Delacroix (the great painter author inter alia of a famous portrait of the musician), Heine (poet) and many others. Also in the French capital his reputation as a pianist grows for although public concerts will be few, given that Chopin was not fond of the crowd, but is it enough to appreciate its subtle style fond and melancholy. He started attending the most prestigious cultural salons of Paris, frequented by leading French life characters of course.
Fame grows even more and in one of these lounges knows the writer George Sand, which will have a large part in his art and life. After a stormy and abrupt truncation with a Polish bride, the composer became ill and moved to try to recover from an influence transformed in tuberculosis, in that the island of Majorca, under guidance of the now ubiquitous Sand. The weather looks good at first but the isolation, due to the intensification of the disease, in a Carthusian, sneak into Frydryk a deep depression. In this troubled period composes narcotics Preludes, pages that have torn words of admiration and emotion more than a pen, without forgetting that it is still the most iconoclastic music frea than ever have been written (Hey, Schumann will say that the collection reminded him of "ruins and Eagle Feathers"). In 1838 George Sand and Chopin are wintering together in the island of Majorca: the poor conditions of the voyage and the restless staying on the island are exciting for the writer, but are fearful for the musician, even for the wet weather that significantly worsens his health. In 1847 he late binding of Chopin with Sand; the following year he went to England where he met Dickens and Thackeray; in London held his last concert for refugees from Poland and the following January returns to Paris in poor physical condition and in serious economic difficulties. Assisted by her sister Luisa, Chopin died in Paris on 17 October 1849. Great are the undertakers: is buried in Paris next to Bellini and Cherubim; his heart was brought to Warsaw, in the Church of the Holy Cross. Chopin found in piano the best medium of expression of his feelings.
In fact, almost all his works are devoted to the piano with a kind of melodies perhaps unique in the history of music (simple, pure and elegant). Chopin is termed ' romantic ' musician par excellence, perhaps because of its strong melancholy, but don't forget that his music full of passionate outbursts is a dramatic force now now that sometimes verges on the violence. With Chopin Piano history reaches a crucial turning point. He makes this tool the most confidant, companion of a lifetime. His piano works can be divided into various groups of compositions that do not follow a predetermined pattern, but the just course of the artist's imagination. The Polish aristocratic dance 16 follow the flow and the ardour of a fervent love of country. The 59 Mazurkas, composed from 1820, are closest to the traditional Polish folk songs. Heights of virtuosity are the 27 Studies (collected in three sets, 1829, 1836, 1840), while in 21 Nocturnes (1827-46) music chopiniana loses any external reference to become pure inwardness. This work, along with 26 Preludes (1836-39), to the immediacy and simplicity of form, represents one of the apexes of the European romanticism. The 4 ballads, inspired by the Polish poet Mickiewicz, are the translation of one kind of composition until then related to the word Sung.
Preset scheme sonata form seems fit less to the imagination of Chopin, linked to the suggestion of free improvisation extemporaneous; He serves in the two Youth Concerts, and three sonatas, one of which called for the famous Funeral March that replaces the traditional Adage. Additionally, Chopin seldom uses the orchestra, whose technique known only approximately. A few orchestral compositions: variations on the Duet from Mozart's "Don Giovanni" (1827), la Grande fantasia on Polish themes (1828), the Rondo Krakowiak (1828), the two concerts (1829-1830), the Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise (polonaise) (1831-1834), the Allegro from concerto (1841). The production is not strictly for piano is limited: 19 Polish songs for voice and piano (1829-47); pieces for cello and piano, including the Sonata in g minor op. 65 (1847); a Trio in g minor op. 8 (1828); a Rondeau in c op. 73, for two pianos (1828). To these works should be added: twenty Waltz (1827-1848), four Impromptus (1834-1842), four jokes (1832-1842), Bolero (1833), Tarantella (1841), the Fantasia in f minor (1841), and two masterpieces la Berceuse (1845) and the barcarolle (1846).
Its tenacious and unexpected modulations are opening new horizons towards the future, foretelling Wagner and the development of modern harmony, until the impressionism of Debussy and Ravel. But this is firmly tied to the classics of Chopin modernism: a Bach, Chopin and Mozart, which mainly is linked by affinities. Despite being hostile to melodrama, Chopin is deeply affected. Many of his melodies are instrumental melodramatic French and Italian models and translations especially of Bellini, which the Polish composer had a high regard. Although waste each literary intrusion in his compositions, he is a man of culture opened and warned: This makes his work one of the most profound and perfect summary of the romantic spirit. Despite the large and constant spread that his music had over time, few seem to have figured out what shocking content lies behind the art apparently so accessible by Chopin and suffice, in this regard, remember the words of the always infallible Baudelaire: "pop music and passionate resembling a brilliant bird soaring on the horrors of the abyss".
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.