Chopin, Frederic (1810-1849)

Born at Zelazowa Wola, near Warsaw, Poland, on February 22, 1810;died in Paris, France on October 17, 1849. The great "poet" of the piano was a child prodigy, and at the age of seven played at public concert a concerto by Gyrowetz. At nineteen he set off on a concertizing tour of Vienna, Munich, and Paris. He never again returned to Poland. Paris became and remained his home, and there his friends included the finest musicians and poets of the day. He was greatly in demand as a teacher and as a performer, and soon his compositions for the piano were attracting wide attention. Of his Preludes Op. 28, Mazurkas Op. 33, and Waltzes Op. 34 Schumann wrote "He is, and remains, the bravest and proudest poetic spirit of the time". From 1838 the malady which was to kill him -- consumption -- gradually developed. After he had departed from George Sand (Madame Dudevant), the novelist , he went to England for seven months of strenuous concert-giving, and then returned to Paris to die. In his own field, Chopin remains supreme. While Liszt often sought to make the piano reproduce the effect of a full orchestra, Chopin seemed to bring forth the very soul of the piano, whether in the smallest or most grandiose of his pieces.