Worshipped by women, Chopin had a mind most susceptible to feminine charms. One of the young ladies he fell in love with, Constan tia Gladkowska, assisted him at his farewell concert at Warsaw. She wore his engagement ring, but married another man. The adagio of the F minor concerto is an echo of his tran sient infatuation. In 1836 he proposed to Maria, the daughter of Count Wodzinski, but she refused him. In the following year, Liszt introduced him to the brilliant novelist, Mine. Dudevant, known to the world as George Sand. At first, Chopin did not feel attracted to her, but she knew how to overcome his coyness and ensnare his affections. A French writer says of her that she was writing she would often ask Chopin to sit down by the piano and improvise, and inspired by his playing, she wrote some of her finest novels." For a time, no doubt, her vivid imagination and her sym pathy and appreciation of his music stimulated his genius, too. A romantic episode in his life is the four months he spent with George Sand and her son and daughter on the island of Majorca in quest of health. It was during this sojourn (1838) that he wrote the most marvelously inspired of his works, the (Pre Wes,.).as is proved by his letters and George 'Sands 'Histoire de ma vie.' The natives, on discovering that he was suffering from con sumption, shunned him as if he had the plague, and he found it difficult to secure satisfactory lodgings. This, combined with the rainy weather, aggravated his illness. George Sand found him °a detestable invalid,* whereas his pupils declared, after his death (his friendship with the novelist terminated nine years after the return from Majorca) that she had killed him by her fickleness and cruelty. He visited England in 1848, but was already so weak that he usually had to be carried upstairs. His last days were made comfortable through a gift of $5,000 from a noble Scotchwoman and pupil of his, Miss Jane Stirling. Mozart's Requiem was sung at his funeral, and he was interred near the graves of Bellini and Cherubini in . the cemetery of Pere-la-Chaise.
Music is, as Rubinstein remarked, the most aristocratic of the arts, and Chopin was the most aristocratic of musicians. No other com poser equals him in the elegance and polish of style, which resembles that of the best Parisian literature. This is the French side of his genius. Equally fascinating, and much more vital, is its Polish side. Chopin contributed a new national element to the world language of music (as did the Hungarian Liszt in his day, the Bohemian Dvorak and the Norwegian Grieg afterward). This Polish element char acterizes all his works more or less, but par ticularly the songs, mazurkas and polonaises. Of the songs there are 17; they are simple in structure, but delightfully melodious, and several of them are as realistic reflections in music of the moods of the poems as are the best songs of Germany. The mazurkas, of which there are 56, are like as many orchids; no two are alike, yet all resemble one another. They are in three-four time, graceful, melan choly, tender. To most pianists they are music of the future; only those can properly interpret them who have mastered the Polish lzal* and the Polish °rubato.* The zal is a °compound of pain, sadness, secrecy, rancor, revolt,* such as naturally characterizes a nation with a tragic history like that of Poland. The tempo rubato is misrepresented in the biographies of Chopin, the writers of which have attached too much importance to Chopin's alleged injunction to his pupils that the left hand must keep strict time, while the right hand melody fluctuates freely. Berlioz attested, on the contrary, that Chopin °could not play strictly in time.* There can be no doubt that in his playing, as in Liszt's, Rubinstein's, and Paderewski's, both hands frequently retarded and accelerated, scorning the metronomic regularity of the dance hall. The mazurkas have the varium et
mutabile, the coquettish quality, of woman; they represent the feminine side of Chopin's genius, as do the dainty, graceful, lively valses (13 in number) which have been called °dances of the soul and not of the body;* and the 19 nocturnes, with their sweet melodies and dreamy, languorous harmonies. It is no longer permissible, however, to exaggerate this feminine side of Chopin's genius. The refine ment of his style and the exaggerated accounts of his ill-health and feebleness (before his last illness) have distorted his image. He really had' the °soul of a many of his works betray a strength, a virility, not surpassed by any other master.
To this class of his works belong his 15 polonaises, his four scherzos, four ballades, three impromptus, four fantasias, three sonatas and most of the 27 etudes and 25 preludes. The polonaises represent the chivalrous, mar tial side of Chopin's and Poland's genius. The scherzos are of marvelous originality, with a strong undercurrent of sadness — hallmark of Poland. The ballades are a creation of Cho-. pin's genius, in form as well as in content; they are legends without words. The im promptus, also, apart from their contents, give evidence, like the ballades, the scherzos and the fantasias, of Chopin's skill in creating new patterns of musical form. The sonatas contain some of his best inspirations; they have been criticized for lack of coherence, but, as a matter of fact, there is quite as much co herence between the movements as in the so natas of Beethoven. The etudes are infinitely more than technical studies; they include some of Chopin's most poetic pieces. The preludes Rubinstein considered the pearls of Chopin's work, and it may be asserted safely that, page for page, they contain more of the essence of musical genius than the same number of pages by any other master. Like many of the other works, they reveal Chopin as one of the three or four greatest creators of new melodies, harmonies, modulations and rhythmic varia tions and combinations in the whole realm of music. He started out with what he called the °perhaps bold but noble determination to create a new epoch in art,* and he succeeded. Schumann pronounced him °the boldest and proudest poetic spirit of the and called the G minor nocturne °a terrible declaration of war against a whole musical past.* Cho pin revolutionized the art of writing piano forte pieces as thoroughly as Wagner did the method of writing operas. Liszt and all other subsequent pianists followed in his footsteps. By the use of the sustaining pedal to unite the tones of scattered chords he marvelously en riched the harmonic capacities of the piano forte, and at the same time added countless new tints and shades to its color scheme. He was °the soul of the pianoforte,* as Rubin stein called him, the most idiomatic of all writers for that instrument.
All of his works are for or with pianoforte. Beside those named, mention must be made of two concertos; a trio with violin and 'cello; a 'cello sonata; an introduction and polonaise for the same instrument; several fantasias and sets of variations; three ecossaises; a ben ccuse; a bolero; a barcarole; a tarantella; three rondos. Of the books on Chopin the best is Huneker's, which also contains analyses of all the pieces and a complete bibliography. Niecke's work in two volumes is more elaborate, but less commendable in its judgments. Liszt's book on Chopin is not always reliable, but con tains valuable hints. Other books and essays are by Karasowski, Kleczynski, Janotha, Willeby, Bennett, Schucht, Niggli, Hadow, Ehlert, Lenz, Johnson, Finck. The different editions of Chopin's works are excellently discussed by Huneker; consult also the essay on the 'Greater Chopin' in his 'Mezzotints in Music.'