Frédéric François Chopin (1810–49,) Fryderyk Franciszek Szopen in Polish, was a Polish-born French composer and pianist. He ranks as one of music’s greatest tone poets, attributable to his superior imagination and meticulous artistry.
Born in Żelazowa Wola, near Warsaw, Chopin was the son of a Frenchman. A concert pianist from the age of eight, his talents were much in demand in the prominent aristocratic households in Warsaw. In 1831, he moved to Paris to escape political repression and endeared himself in Parisian salons. He made a comfortable living from teaching and the sales of his published music. He enjoyed the friendship of some of Europe’s distinguished artists and composers.
Chopin wrote almost exclusively for the piano. Inspired by Polish folk music, his fifty-five mazurkas and thirteen polonaises were to become his trademarks.
Chopin is also noted for short piano pieces full of poetic intensity; good examples are his nineteen nocturnes, twenty-four preludes, thirteen waltzes, and four ballades. As well as writing for solo piano, he wrote two piano concertos (1829, 1830.)
For some years, Chopin was the lover of the French novelist George Sand (pseudonym of Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin.) Their affair ended two years before his death from tuberculosis.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Frederic Chopin
Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.
—Frederic Chopin
Topics: Simplicity
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