Frederic Francois Chopin was born in Poland sometime during the year of 1810. He was a child prodigy, a virtuoso performer when he was only eight years old. He began studying at the famous Warsaw Conservatory when he was sixteen. He was always very weak and sickly, so he left his native Poland when he was twenty to seek a climate better for his health. After some travel, he settled in Paris, France, where he would spend the rest of his short life. By the age of thirty-seven, he became deathly ill with tuberculosis. He passed away on October 17, 1847.
Although Chopin wrote songs and orchestral works as well as solo piano pieces, the latter is what he has become famous for. His piano etudes are useful technique exercises as well as beautiful works of art. His Polish upbringing shows itself in the intricate Polish and Slavic harmonies that shine in his mazurkas and polonaises.
Chopin is a unique composer in that all accomplished musicians love and praise his work as much as the general public does. The flowing music he composed is as charming today as it was a century ago and will be a century from now. |
