Welcome to Komposers for Kossacks. This is my attempt to share my love for classical music, talk about it with Kossacks who know more than I do about the subject, and maybe even introduce a few new people to this amazing genre.
Please note, I'm not an expert on this subject, and I am sure I will make a mistake or two in going over the composers I plan to review. I'm not saying don't point out my mistakes, but please do so gently.
Today on Komposers for Kossacks: Fryderyk Chopin
Above, the last known photograph of Chopin.
Born: March 1, 1810
Died: Oct. 17, 1849
Nationality: Polish
"After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed, and mourning over tragedies that were not my own." --- Oscar Wilde
I can't get enough Chopin. The moods and feelings his music can fill you with show the real emotional range and timeless quality of classical music.
The composer himself was a child prodigy who reminded his peers of Mozart, fiercely patriotic of his native Poland, and unfortunately a sickly adult who died an early death of tuberculosis in a way that reminds me of Edgar Allen Poe.
Chopin has become well-known for his nocturnes, which are slow, dreamy pieces of music that are evocative of nighttime. You have probably heard and are familiar with Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2.
However, Chopin's etudes are where the composer's lasting impact on music comes from. Chopin's etudes, like the aptly-named Revolutionary Etude (Op. 10 No. 12), represented an advance in the way the piano could be played as an instrument. Many are still played in concert by virtuoso pianists today -- not simply because they are well-known, but because a player's interpretation of them demonstrates their level of expertise.
Chopin's music is described with the term "rubato," which is a deviation from strictly rythmic playing -- a speeding up or a slowing down of the tempo. The word means "robbed," meaning you're "stealing" time. Rubato can be the mark of a novice piano player, but in Chopin's hands, the sudden and sometimes jarring changes in pace fill his work with a spirit you can feel even if you don't know the term for what he's doing.
In fact, people who wrote about Chopin described how he could go deliberately off-tempo with one hand while playing out a strict rhythm with the other, creating a unique and stirring performance. Take a listen at Chopin's Ballade No. 4, and pay special attention to how the pace changes throughout the piece, and the impact it has on you, the listener.
However, due to Chopin's generally weak physical state, he played few large live performances. He played instead what we might call smaller gigs, at Parisian salons, or at home for a few friends and hangers-on.
Chopin spent his last winter on the Spanish island of Majorca on the Mediterranean Sea. The doctors gave him a grim prognosis, and his piano was stuck at customs. Chopin wrote, "Three doctors have visited me. The first said I was going to die; the second said I was breathing my last; and the third said I was already dead."
Yet despite this, the winter at Majorca proved to be one of the most productive periods of Chopin's life -- a testament that genius can still flow from a battered physical frame. Here is Mazurka Op. 41, No. 2, which Chopin composed on Majorca.
Chopin's last words were reportedly a request that Mozart's "Requiem" be played at his funeral. He also requested that his heart be preserved, and it was, in alcohol. It remains in Holy Cross Church, Warsaw, which was nearly destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis (during which time the heart was taken away for safekeeping).
Please enjoy this last bit of Chopin's music, his Fantasie Impromptu in C Sharp Minor, Op. 66.
I hope you've enjoyed the diary, and if there's a good response, I'll go over another classical composer later on. Thanks for reading.