During the summer and early autumn of 1835 Chopin was in Germany. He met his father at Karlsbad, and in Dresden fell in love with and became engaged to Marie Wodzinski, whose brothers had been his schoolmates. Chopin thought of giving up Paris and settling near Warsaw after his marriage. But 1\ larie's father objected to the engagement on the ground of Cho pin's lack of means, and it was broken in 1837. In July of that year he made a trip to England of only eleven days, but this sufficed to develop the germs of consumption latent in his constitution. (This disease was in the family. A sister died of it, and his father succumbed to combined chest and heart trouble.) Chopin met George Sand in 1837. The liaison which resulted between them, and which she deftly turned into 'copy' in Luere.:ia Floriani and Histoire de ma vie. seems to have begun to weary the 'polyandrous Sand' in 1844, and the final break occurred in 1847. Sand's de scriptions of Chopin and his playing are of little valve, because of their exaggerated note and rub bishy sentimentalism. She tells, for instance, of being delayed, while in Majorca. by a storm. On returning to her house she found Chopin at the piano. Terror-stricken by her absence in the storm, and dreading the danger to which she might be exposed, he bad composed the tragic sixth prelude in B minor. Unfortunately for this pretty story, many of the preludes. this among them, were composed before Chopin went to Majorca. After his breach with Sand he wrote: "I have never cursed any one; hut now I am so weary of life that I am near cursing Luerezia. But she suffers, too. and more because she grows older in wickedness." Chopin paid a second visit to England in April, MA. Ile played with sueeess. In January, 1849, he returned to Paris to die. He had so often been at death's door that, to quote Heller, the news of his death came it was doubted. kind women soothed his last days. Jane Stirling, a Scotch woman who had been his pupil and was in love with him (the two "Nocturnes," Op. 55. are dedicated to her), sent him 25, 000 francs, for he was poor. His sister Louise, and his 'sisterly friend,' the Countess Delphine I'otocka, were with him to the end. "She told me I would die in no arms but hers." he said, two days before he died, referring to Sand. His last utterance was "Pius," in answer to a ques tion if he suffered. He died on October 17, and was buried in Pere Lachaise, between Cherubini and Bellini.
Chopin is the emancipator of the pianoforte from the thraldom of the orchestral style of com position. Ile thought pianistically, and not orchestrally. Every tone color, every effect of
the urtrument is capable, he divined. Ile placed pianoforte music definitely upon an inde pendent basis. This is the reason why, although practically lie composed only for the pianoforte, and almost wholly within smaller forms, he ranks among the great composers.
"I cannot create a new school, because I do not even know the old." he once said. But this very absence of conservative prejudice made him the leader of modern romanticism. An admirer of Bach and Mozart, he brought a marvelous insight into the laws of harmony, and a love of orderliness, as concerns form, to his work. He was one of the most adventurous of harmonists, reveling in chromatics and in other new and exquisite effects. Through his greatness and permanence lie may be called the originator of the 'single-piece' composition. as distinguished from the suite or sonata. A Pole, his music is tinged with melancholy for his country's mis fortunes. The "Mazurkas," which are among his most exquisite works, are flowers scattered over the grave of Poland. The "Nocturnes," developed from Field and marvelously enriched, are more personal and therefore sad in expression. Of the '•Valses," graceful, vivacious, tender, Schumann said "the (lancers should be countesses;" of the they are "cannon buried in flow ers:" of Chopin as a melodist, "he leans over Germany into Italy"—all concise and apt charac terizations. In his comment on the "Valses." however. Schumann doubtless excepted the one that Chopin wrote after watching Sand's dog chasing its tail. Among his most beautiful com positions are the "Preludes." Chopin's own delicate playing led to a style of Chopin interpretation in which the effeminate in his work was cultivated at the expense of the virile. The latter is found in the F minor "Fantaisie," and in plenty among the "Polo naises," the "Ballades," the "Scherzos," and the "Etudes." No modern pianist can afford to ig nore this virile side of Chopin's work. Ile com posed two concertos, not ranked among his great est productions, yet which would be sadly missed; "Impromptus," a very few pieces of chamber music: and songs.
Consult: Iluneker, Chopin: The Man and His Music (New York, 1900), the standard Ufa of Chopin, both as regards his personality and his work; Finck, Chopin, and Other Musical Essays (London, 1889) ; Karnsowski, FreWric Chopin, from the German by Emily Hill (London, 1879) Niecks, Chopin as Man and Musician. (London, 1889) ; Liszt, Life of Chopin, translated by Cook (London, 1877).