Introduction to Chopin's life; his piano music and its forms. Seventh of ten presentations on the piano and classical composers.

1. Frederic Chopin is buried in Paris, but his
heart is in Poland.

2. This is literally true.
Here’s his grave in Pere
Lachaise cemetery, Paris.
Here’s the plaque in the church
in Poland marking where they
keep his heart, preserved in
brandy (cognac).

3. Chopin’s father was French.And
Chopin himself lived in France and
composed most of his work there. But
he always thought of himself as being
Polish, and the Poles are very proud of
him.

4. Here’s the house in Poland
where Chopin was born.

5. He left Poland in 1830 and then there was an
uprising against Russia. When the Poles
lost, he couldn’t go back, so he moved to
France.
Poles fight at Poznan for their independence.

6. Chopin was 21 years old in
1830. He lived in Paris
until he died (when he was
39). He made his living
there giving piano lessons
and selling the music that
he wrote. He was never able
to go back to Poland.

7. He is the only important
composer who really only
wrote piano music. He not
only never wrote a symphony,
or an opera, but the vast
majority of his compositions
are for piano solo.

8. He wrote only two piano concertos and
only three piano sonatas.

9. Which kind of piano music uses an
orchestra? Concertos or sonatas?

10. That’s right. In a concerto
the pianist performs along
with an orchestra. Can you
tell me what the structure
of a piano concerto is? What
about a piano sonata?

11. That’s right. It’s not. It’s a form that
many different kinds of music can
have.
And is sonata form the same as a
piano sonata?

12. Chopin didn’t like to perform the music that he did
write at concerts for a large audience. Here he
is, performing as he preferred, in someone’s home.
Chopin plays for the Radziwiłłs, 1829 (painting by Henryk Siemiradzki, 1887)
The Radziwills were an important family of Polish aristocrats.

13. He composed:
 Waltzes
 Mazurkas
 Polonaises
 Etudes
 Impromptus
 Nocturnes
 Preludes
 Ballades

14. What do you think that ‘nocturnes’
might be? (Use your knowledge of
Latin.)
 “Noctis” in Latin means ‘of the night’, and
nocturnes are, basically, ‘night music’.
Listen to some of Chopin’s nocturnes on
youtube. Here is one (Opus 27 no. 2 D flat
major):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPErSyk5i
Hs

15. “Etude” means “ a study or exercise” in
French. Etudes for piano are like your
‘technic’, meant to help you strengthen
your fingers and improve your piano
technique. Chopin’s etudes, however, are
marvelous music as well as good finger
exercises (for advanced pianists).
Listen to some of them as well. Here’s a
good example. It’s called the
Revolutionary Etude.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u6iXQ5_M
CA

16. Actually, it’s Etude no. 12
in C minor, opus 10.
Remind me what ‘opus’ means
again?

17. Chopin’s ‘Preludes’ are very
interesting. Remember how we
talked before about ‘preludes’?
They are music that you play before
the main music.

18. They were necessary in the in
the Baroque period. You never
knew precisely how your
keyboard instrument might be
tuned before equal temperament
tuning— and you’d play a little
introductory piece to find out.
Later, people kept writing, and
playing preludes when there was
no practical reason for them
anymore.

19. Who wrote 24 preludes and 24
fugues?

20. We do seem to keep coming back
to Bach. He was an enormous
influence on Chopin…

21. …Who also wrote 24 Preludes, in the 24 keys, with a copy of The Well-
Tempered Clavier by his side. (That copy still exists, with Chopin’s
markings in it.) Chopin’s Preludes aren’t preludes to anything though.
They are stand alone piano pieces of great beauty.
Photograph of Chopin. Does he look more like Mozart or Beethoven? Would you
guess that he is a Classical or Romantic composer from this photograph? Why?

22. A great deal of Chopin’s
best music, though, is dance
music. The ‘waltz’ the
‘polonaise’ and the
‘mazurka’ are all types of
dances.

23. Composers have always liked to write dance
music. Remember when we talked about the
minuet?
Watch a minuet being danced at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doJ9bphxxKU

24. Bach wrote minuets. Mozart
wrote them, too.

25. Beethoven also wrote minuets. (His minuet
in G is very famous.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D73nsm-
h3s0

26. THE BAROQUE AND CLASSICAL
COMPOSERS ALSO WROTE BOURREES;
GAVOTTES; ALLEMANDES; GIGUES;
SARABANDES, AND MANY, MANY
OTHER KINDS OF DANCE MUSIC, AS
WELL AS DANCE SUITES (SETS OF
DANCES, ALSO CALLED
‘PARTITAS’).
Did you have fun trying to pronounce all
those strange words?

27. This music was sometimes meant to be actually
danced to (it was important to know how to dance
at this time, as a gentleman or lady)…

28. ..and sometimes not. A dance
movement can be part of a
piano sonata.

29. This happens when the sonata has four parts, not
three.. In that case, the format will be:
 First movement, fast tempo, original key signature
 Second movement, slow tempo, different key
 The movement in dance style is usually added here, and it will be named
after a specific dance. Often this dance is a minuet but it may be
something else. The dance movement MAY also be the second
movement, though and in that case, the third movement will be like a
second movement usually is, with a slow tempo.
 But in any case, the fourth movement will be fast again and revert to the
original key (just as in the 3-movement sonata that you are familiar
with) .

30. Obviously, no one danced
during sonata performances.
A lot of dance ‘suites’ also
were not meant to be danced
to. Composers would write
them as listening music,
enjoying the different
rhythms which varied the
musical style.

31. So, were Chopin’s dances
meant to accompany actual
dancing?

32. His music definitely can be
danced to.
The Mariinski Ballet dances to a variety of Chopin music in the
ballet Les Sylphides, also known as Chopiniana. (2012)

33. But that wasn’t the main idea. Chopin
played his dance music at the intimate
little performances he gave…

34. ..on his piano made by the French
company, Pleyel…

35. ..and you had to listen carefully. Chopin
played beautifully, but very, very softly,
especially in the last years of his life.
Cast of Chopin’s hand.

36. The dances Chopin chose to
write music for (with the
exception of the waltz) are
very nationalistic. Can you
guess what that means?

37. It means something like ‘patriotic’. Remember that Chopin
was very patriotic about Poland, especially after the
country was beaten by Russia in the 1830 uprising.

38. ‘Polonaise’ actually means
‘Polish dance’ in French.
Chopin wrote his first
polonaise when he was seven
years old. Famous ones are his
Military Polonaise and his
Polonaise Brillante.

39. A ‘mazurka’ is another kind
of Polish folk dance.

40. It’s in ¾ or 3/8 time with
the stress on the second
beat. Chopin was the first
composer to make mazurkas
well-known in Europe outside
of Poland, and his mazurkas
are the most famous examples
of this kind of music.

41. He started to write them in 1830. You
can guess why. Some famous ones are:
 Opus 59 no. 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAB5hM
nKQ3M
 Opus 59 no. 2
 Mazurka in A minor A Emile Gaillard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbRRq4S
z4nw

42. Chopin was a sick man when he came to Paris that
year, though he was so young. He looks the way
he does in the only photograph of him not
because he is posing as the Romantics so often
did…

43. ..but because he was in
constant pain. He was 5 ft 7
and about 99 lbs. He couldn’t
keep food down. He coughed up
blood, and he was physically
weak, possibly with
tuberculosis, possibly with
some other disease. Two of his
sisters had similar symptoms
and also died young.

44. Chopin on his death bed; painting by
Kwiatkowski, 1849. The seated woman is one of
his sisters.

45. However, Chopin did not play
the piano softly because he
was weak. He played softly
on purpose, aiming for a
beautiful sound. He often
said, he preferred Mozart’s
music to Beethoven’s…

46. ..although, as we saw, Beethoven was capable of writing
music that was very soft and expressive.

47. Chopin deliberately aimed for beautiful
effects in all his music though—and
achieved them.

48. Next time we will study some
of the effects he used to
make his music beautiful,
especially his use of the
damper pedal.

49. Chopin plays the piano for his friend George Sand.
George wrote novels. She and Chopin were in love. George is wearing a dress in this painting (by
Delacroix), but she usually wore pants, which women did not do at this time, and she also smoked
cigars, very shocking.
This painting is a reconstruction of one that was cut in half and is in two different museums now, one
part in France and one part in Copenhagen, Denmark. Sort of like Chopin himself –and his heart.

50. Chopin and George in photographs. George’s real first name was Amantine
(though she usually went by her middle name, Aurore) and she actually was a
Baroness, who owned a castle and lived there sometimes. If you ever read one
of her books though, the author will be listed as ‘George Sand’. Her books
are actually very good. Try Fanchon the Cricket or The Country Waif if you
are interested in her books for children.

51. Images from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ri
c_Chopin_and_George_Sand
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-arts-chopin-
idUSL2141309320070321
http://www.travelfranceonline.com/pere-lachaise-cemetery-
eloise-and-abelard/
http://www.classicfm.com/composers/chopin/news/heart-
exhumed-warsaw/#Wjx8bshcvxqcUHqy.97
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_Uprising
http://dineth.forodrim.org/pemberley-party.html
http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/50/10050-004-
C68DBE5C.jpg