Bach, Mozart, and Schubert, and the atmosphere of the Paris salons, of which he was a frequent guest. Among the influences on his style of composition were Polish folk music, the classical tradition of J. S. Chopin's major piano works include mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes, polonaises, the instrumental ballade (which Chopin created as an instrumental genre), études, impromptus, scherzi, preludes, and sonatas, some published only posthumously. His piano pieces are technically demanding and expanded the limits of the instrument his own performances were noted for their nuance and sensitivity. They are mostly for solo piano, though he also wrote two piano concertos, some chamber music, and 19 songs set to Polish lyrics. He died in Paris in 1849 at the age of 39, probably of pericarditis aggravated by tuberculosis.Īll of Chopin's compositions include the piano. For most of his life, Chopin was in poor health. In his final years, he was supported financially by his admirer Jane Stirling, who also arranged for him to visit Scotland in 1848. A brief and unhappy visit to Mallorca with Sand in 1838–39 would prove one of his most productive periods of composition. Chopin formed a friendship with Franz Liszt and was admired by many of his other musical contemporaries, including Robert Schumann.Īfter a failed engagement to Maria Wodzińska from 1836 to 1837, he maintained an often troubled relationship with the French writer Aurore Dupin (known by her pen name George Sand). He supported himself by selling his compositions and by giving piano lessons, for which he was in high demand. Thereafter – in the last 18 years of his life – he gave only 30 public performances, preferring the more intimate atmosphere of the salon. A child prodigy, he completed his musical education and composed his earlier works in Warsaw before leaving Poland at the age of 20, less than a month before the outbreak of the November 1830 Uprising. Ĭhopin was born in Żelazowa Wola in the Duchy of Warsaw and grew up in Warsaw, which in 1815 became part of Congress Poland. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leading musician of his era, one whose "poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation". The music may look “atonal” in places, but the ear will recognize the charged harmonic fluctuations as the ones the heart already knows and wants to hear.Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin 1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. In this transcription, once the central modulation from Db Major to C# Minor is taken care of enharmonically by carrying through the key signature of five flats to the end, there are no more serious obstacles to performing it on the harp that is the necessary “infringement” of the rules. His unique sentimental expression could be derived from habits such as dwelling on the dissonant note of appoggiaturas, moving between major and minor modes or, as illustrated in this particular prelude, lingering in a “harmonic daydream” upon repeated notes and chords, acting as a hypnotic drone. Chopin’s “accompanied melody” style bears close resemblance to Bellini’s cavatina. The fifteenth in a collection of preludes written in each of the 24 keys in imitation of Bach, this Prelude was considered “the most important and most highly finished of them all” by the French pianist Alfred Cortot, in his practice edition. Thus we must resort to transcriptions, if we can’t live without certain composers and pieces. As harpists, we sometimes miss the famous classics of the repertoire, since most of the great composers did not write for us.
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