Two Centuries of Chopin

If you are a lover of classical music, as I am, you may be aware that today is a rather notable day. It is the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of the great composers, Frederic Chopin. Now, whenever there is a milestone anniversary of the birthday of one of the great composers, it’s a big event, and there are usually a lot of big concerts and releases of recordings in that composer’s name in the classical music world. In fact, we had such an event in 2006 when we celebrated the 250th birthday of Mozart. This year, we have not only Chopin’s 200th to celebrate, but also Robert Schumann’s 200th as well.
Frederic Francois Chopin (or Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin, which is the Polish version of his name) was born on March 1, 1810, in the little town of Zelazowa Wola, Poland, which is not far from the capital of Warsaw. You may be thinking that the non-Polish version of his name sounds rather French, and in this you would be correct, for Chopin’s father was a Frenchman who had moved to Poland and married a Polish wife. Chopin showed considerable musical talent from a young age, and music quickly became his career, from which he was able to make a comfortable living. The composer was driven from his homeland by unrest between the Poles and their Russian occupiers, and he never returned, eventually settling in Paris. Still, Chopin remained loyal to his native country his entire life, especially in the music he wrote.
Chopin was a virtuoso pianist, although he was never as flashy in public performances as was his contemporary Franz Liszt. In fact, he is unique among the great composers in that he wrote most of his music for only one instrument, his own, the piano. He never even attempted a symphony, as did most of the great composers, and even the few works he wrote for orchestra contained a major role for the piano, as in the case of his two fine piano concertos. He never wrote much chamber music (which is music for small groups of instruments) or any operas.
Chopin’s entire body of major musical expression can be found in piano works, and many of them are small pieces. He wrote preludes in every one of the 24 musical keys. He perfected and put his own mark on the forms of the nocturne (a “night-time” piece) and the etude (usually a technically demanding piece for students). Some of his other short works are specifically Polish in nature – the mazurkas and the polonaises are patterned after actual Polish national dances, and Chopin was able to make his sound more authentic and original than those composed by many others, Polish or not, before or after him. Other examples of Chopin’s genius came in the form of the waltzes, ballades, and scherzos. More lengthy works for piano include his three piano sonatas and both of his piano concertos, which are regular concert-hall favorites.
One must listen to Chopin in order to understand his music in greater detail than this overview conveys. Some of his pieces might be familiar to ears that do not know classical music well, thanks to the universal popularity of some classical works. Among these well-known works are the “Minute Waltz”, a very fast waltz that, despite its name, has never been played in less than a minute and a half. There is also the famous Funeral March, which is contained in the second piano sonata and is actually followed by a remarkably quick and strangely eerie, but far lesser-known, final movement. There are the upbeat “Heroic” and “Military” polonaises. Two of his etudes are well-known to piano players. The “Revolutionary” Etude is fiery and dramatic, actually a bitter and spontaneous patriotic work written just after the uprising that drove Chopin from Poland failed; and the “Black Key” Etude is just that – a piece played only on the black keys of the piano. The “Raindrop” Prelude (one of the longest of Chopin’s twenty-four in that genre) is quite a descriptive piece – the constant, rhythmic repetition of one note throughout the entire piece suggests steady raindrops to the listener, as the name implies.
All of Chopin’s music, in general, is expressive of a wide range of human emotion. It can be angry and defiant, daring and dramatic, quiet and thoughtful, playful and fanciful, or even tragic and profoundly sorrowful. Some of these emotions can be heard conflicting with each other within the same piece, and by his skillful use of the piano, Chopin was able to convey his meaning in a far deeper and more intimate way than he might have had he attempted to use the most powerful of orchestras to do it. But as I said, one must really listen to and get to know this composer (as is true with any of the others, too) in order to see exactly what I mean.
Chopin’s health was never very strong, and he died of tuberculosis at the age of 39 on October 17, 1849. We can only guess how much more he would have added to his mighty catalog of music had he lived a longer life. Chopin is buried in Paris, but, interestingly, his heart was literally placed in an urn and returned to his native Poland, where it remains today.
Today Frederic Chopin retains his reputation around the world as being among the very greatest of classical composers, and in Poland he is regarded as one of that country’s heroes. He is among my personal favorite composers, and his piano works rank at the top of my favorites for that instrument. In fact, his “Raindrop” Prelude was the first classical piano piece that I ever learned to play, though most of his more difficult pieces remain out of my skill range. I plan to celebrate Chopin’s bicentennial all this month by listening to as much of his music as I can. Whether or not you are a classical music fan, I hope I have helped you learn some interesting things or perhaps inspired you to explore the world of this beautiful music some more on your own.