CHOPIN.
FREDERIC FRANCOIS CHOPIN.
Born March 1, 1809, at Zelazowa-Wola, near Warsaw.
Died October 17, 1849, in Paris.
Chopin was the son of a French father who had lived in Warsaw and was teacher in the gymnasium there; his mother was a Polish woman. Chopin's early talent for music was unmistakable, both his parents having been gifted in this direction. The child, therefore, was put at music very young and appeared as a wonder-child at an early age. His teachers were a Bohemian named Zwyny and Joseph Elsner. But the most of his work he must have accomplished by himself, since we find that before he was nineteen he had written his theme and variations upon "La Ci Darem la Mano," and all his works up to and including the Concerto in E minor, opus 11. It is believed that the so-called second concerto in F minor was also completed before this period. This mass of works included not alone the very remarkable variations upon Mozart's air, already mentioned, and the brilliant concertos, with certain rondos and mazurkas and other characteristic illustrations of the Chopin genius, but also the studies for pianoforte, opus 10, which in methods of treating the piano amount to a most astonishing advance over anything which had appeared before them. They are also as beautiful and original from a musical standpoint as they are remarkable from that of piano-forte technic.
Frederic Francois Chopin
Accordingly, when Chopin, in 1828, went upon a concert tour to Paris, Vienna, and Munich, he was received everywhere with astonishing enthusiasm, and was very much surprised to hear himself called one of the first virtuosi of the time, as, indeed, he must have been. At Paris his opus 2 was published (the variations just mentioned), and this was the composition which attracted Schumann's attention and concerning which he wrote such a glowing and enthusiastic account. In 1829 he came to Paris to reside, and immediately became an active member of a small but extremely brilliant art circle, among the members of which were to be found such celebrities as Liszt, Berlioz, Heine, Balzac, Ernst, and Meyerbeer.
Chopin's father having died, he assumed the care of his mother, and supported himself partly by concert playing and partly by teaching. As early as 1838 the symptoms of pulmonary weakness began to appear, and from that time to the end of his life he was more or less an invalid, always in delicate health and sometimes unfit for any exertion. From the brilliancy of his position in Paris, the death of Chopin was a great shock to the artistic world, and he was buried with most impressive ceremonies. His grave is not far from those of Bellini and Cherubini. He was a man of fine wit, aristocratic presence, distinguished manners, and a highly sensitive and poetic nature, all of which qualities reached expression in his music.
The best biography of Chopin is that by Fr. Niecks, in two volumes. The so-called "Chopin," by Liszt, is merely a rhapsody upon his departed friend, having very little biographical but a great deal of critical value, because no one knew better than Liszt how to estimate the innovations which Chopin had made in piano playing.