Frederic Chopin

Frederic Chopin was born in Poland in 1810. His parents were amateur musicians, and taught their
children all about music. Little Frederic was a child prodigy - he was better than his piano teacher
after only a few years of lessons!
He gave his first performance at just short of eight years old. At this concert, he wore a new jacket
with a white collar. When he finished playing, the audience clapped heartily. Chopin proudly
proclaimed to his mother that the applause was because they liked his new collar!
He was a talented child in general, with a large imagination. He was good at improvising -
everything from stories to music. He was a talented writer as well.
He was always jolly, and loved practical jokes. He was also a good mimic. Lots of people later in his
life thought he would make a good actor.
Fascinatingly enough, as an adolescent he was already regarded as a music master by Polish
society. They even called him the best pianist in Warsaw - at the age of fifteen! He had performed
his own pieces for the Tsar of Russia by this time.
When visiting Vienna as a young man, he was persuaded to give a performance. He played a piece
of his own, and improvised a bit as well. The audience loved it, and so did the press.
With this leg-up into Western Europe, Chopin returned to Vienna in 1830. But they didn't like him
as much the second time, so he travelled around a bit, visiting Munich and London. He thought
about going back to Poland, but the suppression of the Polish Uprising against the Russian Empire
and following vicious prosecution of Poles by occupying forces made him change his mind. He
stayed in Paris.
His beloved homeland was lost.
Chopin settled in Paris. There, he made friends with the social and artistic elite of the city, including
famous musicians like Franz Liszt.
He performed a few times in public in 1832, and was a big hit. His reputation grew meteorically.
Before long Frederic Chopin was a celebrity in the French capital, with a big list of wealthy students
to teach.
He preferred to play in salons or his own apartment, since he thought his playing style was more
suited to small spaces. From then on, his life would be filled with a vast collection of interesting
characters, from authors Victor Hugo and Heinrich Heine to a small army of princesses and
countesses! But, since Chopin was constantly ill, he didn't get to tour around much. He stayed in
Paris most of the time.
Apparently, he performed less than 30 times in public in Paris over his whole life.
When he was 26, Frederic Chopin met the feminist author George Sand (her pen-name). Sand was a
bit of a radical. She wore men’s clothes and was fond of smoking cigars. Chopin didn't like her at
first, but after a while the two became lovers.
The pair went to the Mediterranean island of Majorca, to try to improve Chopin's health. Frederic
loved the Spanish lifestyle in Palma, but the rest of the trip was a disaster.
The winter was savage, the highly religious locals didn't like that Chopin and Sand were staying
together but not married, and it took Chopin ages to get his favourite piano past customs.
Still, Chopin managed to be productive on his little island adventure, writing several new
compositions.
Chopin's life during the first half of the 1840s was merry. He had a good relationship with Sand, and
used to visit her estate Nohant in summer. There he had many fun times with his friends.
But towards the end of the 1840s, Chopin's life was on a downturn. He had split up with George
Sand, he was getting much sicker, and he was less popular with the public.
He visited England and Scotland a year before his death, to perform for aristocrats and to avoid the
Revolution that was happening in Paris.
The audience at a concert in Glasgow was only a third full, and a fair amount of those were Chopin's
own friends. His quiet drawing room playing style combined with his failing health meant that he
couldn't command attention well. A sad change.
He got sicker and sicker. George Sand used to call him "My Dear Corpse" because he was very thin
and pale.
His stay in England wasn't a total disaster. In the end, he was recognized for his talent and
developed the right connections. At that time, he was on his last legs, so no wonder he didn't like
the attention he got from the rich and famous!
He left Britain (he hated the weather and wasn't that fond of the locals) and went back to Paris. He
lived there with the financial help of Prince Adam Czartoryskhe (also a Polish émigré and a very
influential diplomat and a philanthropist), and the Scottish Lady Jane Sterling, an old pupil.
At one point in Paris, he got visits from three doctors. He later wrote that the first doctor said he
was going to die, the second said that he was actually dying, and the third told him he was already
dead!
But he did die, on October 17, 1849, of tuberculosis. He was thirty-nine. His heart was extracted
and buried in Warsaw.

No Chopin biography would be complete without looking at the composer's personality!

Frederic Chopin was extremely proud of being Polish (even though he was only half Polish - his
father was French!), and was very patriotic. But he never quite mastered the French language, even
though he lived in Paris for his whole adult life.
He was reserved, and didn't want glamor and celebrity like some of his fellow virtuoso pianists. In
fact, he was quite a quiet person (you could figure that out from his music), and people who met
him noted that he was polite and witty.
He once sent a nonsense letter to a friend in French, but written with Polish letters. The note ends
"carry ammunition in your soul, but don't let anybody suspect it from your nose"…
In fact, his letters are a great read, and very funny. You can see how cleverly witty and happy he
was, even if outwardly he appeared aloof and sick.