CHOPIN, FREDERIC FRANcOIS Polish musical composer and pianist, was born at Zelazowa-Wola, near Warsaw, on Feb. 22, 1810 (not Mar. 1, 1809). His father, of French origin, born at Nancy in 1770, had married a Polish lady, Justine Krzyzanowska. Frederic was their third child. His first musical education he received from Adalbert Ziwny, a Czech musician, who is said to have been a passionate admirer of J. S. Bach. He also received a fair general education at the recently founded Lyceum of Warsaw, where his father was professor of French. His musical genius opened to Chopin the best circles of Polish society, at that time unrivalled in Europe for its ease of intercourse, the beauty and grace of its women, and its liberal appreciation of artistic gifts. These early impressions were of lasting influence on Chopin's development. While at school he received thorough instruction in the theory of his art from Joseph Elsner, a learned musician and director of the conser vatoire at Warsaw. When in 1829 he left his native town for Vienna, where his debut as a pianist took place, he was in all respects a perfectly formed and developed artist. There is in his compositions little of that gradual progress which, for instance, in Beethoven, necessitates a classification of his works according to different periods. Chopin's individuality and his style were distinctly pronounced in that set of variations on "La ci darem" which excited the wondering enthusiasm of Robert Schumann. In 1831 he left Vienna with the intention of visiting London; but on his way to England he reached Paris and settled there for the rest of his life. Here again he soon became the favourite and musical hero of society. His connection with Mme. Dudevant, better known by her literary pseudonym of George Sand (q.v), is an important feature of Chopin's life. When in 1839 his health began to fail, George Sand went with him to Majorca, and it was mainly owing to her tender care that the composer recovered his health for a time. Chopin declared that the destruction of his relations with Mme. Dudevant in 1847 broke up his life. The association of these two artists has provoked a whole literature on the nature of their relations, of which the novelist's Un Hiver a Majorque was the beginning. The last ten years of Chopin's life were a continual struggle with the pulmonary disease to which he succumbed in Paris Oct. 17, 1849. The year before his death he visited England, where he was received with enthusiasm by his numerous admirers. Chopin died in the arms of his sister, who hastened from Poland to his death-bed. He was buried in the cemetery of Pere Lachaise.
In looking through the list of Chopin's compositions, teeming with mazurkas, valses, polonaises, and other forms of national dance music, one might hardly suppose that here one of the most melancholy natures revealed itself. This seeming paradox is ex plained by the type of Chopin's nationality, of which it has justly been said that its very dances are sadness intensified. Yet not withstanding its strongly pronounced national characteristics, Chopin's music is always expressive of his individual feelings and sufferings in the highest possible degree. He is indeed the lyrical composer par excellence, and the intensity of his expression finds its equal in literature only in the songs of Heinrich Heine, to whom he has been so often likened. Such high-strung passion cannot be prolonged, and hence it was in works of small compass, such as the nocturne and the etude, that Chopin found the hap piest expression of his genius. In compositions of larger scope he was out of his element, and even the beauty of his melodies and harmonies cannot wholly banish the impression of incongruity. Fortunately, he himself had an unerring sense of his own limita tions, though there could be no greater mistake than to suppose that because he wrote in the smaller forms he was not, even so, one of the greatest of masters. Chopin's piano-playing was as exquisite as his music, and many accounts left by his contem poraries have testified to the irresistible fascination which he exercised by performances described as the last word in delicacy, subtlety and refinement.
It is well to sift the posthumous works from those published under Chopin's direction, for the last three mazurkas are the only things he did not keep back as misrepresenting him. On these principles his mature works are summed up in the 42 mazurkas (Opp. 6, 7, 24, 33, 41, 50, 56, 59, 63, and the beautiful contribution to the col lection Notre temps) ; seven polonaises (Opp. 26, 40, S3, 61) ; 24 preludes (in all the major and minor keys), Op. 28, and the single larger prelude, Op. 45; 27 etudes (12 in Op. I o, 12 in Op. 25, and 3 written for the Methode des methodes) ; 18 noc turnes (Opp. 9, 15, 27, 32, 37, 48, 55, 62) ; 4 ballades, in forms of Chopin's own invention (Opp.
23, 38, 47, 52) ; 4 scherzos (Opp.
31, 39, 54) ; 8 waltzes (Opp.
18, 34, 64) ; and several pieces of various description, notably the great fantasia, Op.
49, and the impromptus, Opp. 29, 36, 51. The posthumous works number 35 pieces, besides a small volume of songs a few of which are of great interest.
The editions of Chopin's works by his pupil Mikuli and by Klindworth are full of valuable elucidation as to methods of per formance, but unfortunately they do not distinguish the com mentary from the text. The critical edition published by Breitkopf and Hartel, with all its mistakes, is absolutely neces sary for students who wish to know what Chopin wished to put into the hands of players of independent judgment.
The Chopin literature is very extensive. The standard biog raphy is the English work of Prof. F. Niecks (1888) , while other leading works are those by Liszt, Karasowski and Huneker. See also W. H. Hadow, Studies in Modern Music, Henry Bidou, Chopin (1927) and G. Ashton Jonson's useful Handbook to Chopin's Works.