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Chapter 9:

Lyricism of Chopin
Born on Warsaw, Poland, in 1810

He was first mentioned in the Warsaw review of January


1818
a real musical genius If this boy had been born in
Germany or France, his fame would probably by now have
spread to all nations.

His major teachers were Adalbert Zywny and Josef Elsner.


Chopin wrote his first Opus, Rondo in C minor, in 1825

Two years later, he wrote Op. 2, the Variations in B Flat


Major for piano and orchestra on the duet L ci darem la
mano from Mozarts Don Giovanni

Also in 1827, his sister Emilia dies of tuberculosis.


In 1828, Paganini plays in Warsaw.

Chopin presented two concerts in Vienna in 1829, where he


was welcomed as a true artist

his touch, although neat and sure, has little of that brilliance
by which our virtuosos announce themselves as such in the first
bars; he emphasized but little, like one conversing in a company
of clever people
Wiener Theaterzeitung, Aug 1829
He had an incredible control of an infinite number of
subtle rhythmic and dynamic shadings, but his music had a
stronger appeal for the selective audience than for the
general public.

Chopin moves to Vienna in November 1830. Weeks later,


the Warsaw uprising (or Cadet Revolution) against Russia
broke out.

Vienna was more sympathetic with the Russians and their


musical tendencies were towards Strauss.
Chopin moves to Paris in 1831

He met the greatest musicians there such as Par, Rossini,


Kalkbrenner, Mendelssohn, Liszt, etc. as well as other
artists: Hugo, Balzac, and Delacroix.

He came to dislike public performance intensely. The


public frightened him.
His debut in Paris included:
F minor Concerto
Variations, Op. 2
Instrumental and vocal selections
Kalkbrenners Grand Polonaise

The endlessly renewed applause did not seem sufficiently


to express our enchantment at the demonstration of this
talent, which disclosed a new level in the expression of
poetic feeling and such felicitous innovations in artistic
form.
Liszt
In 1835 he met Maria Wodzinska, daughter of a familys
friend.

They got secretly engaged to Maria during a visit of Chopin


in Marienbad, in the summer of 1836

On his return to Paris, he was suddenly rejected, setting


Chopin in a crucial and agonizing time.
1837, England

The animation of his style is so subdued, its tenderness so


refined, its melancholy so gentle, its niceties, so studied
and systematic, the tout-ensemble so perfect, and
evidently the result of an accurate judgment and most
finished taste

Musical World review


According to Mendelssohn:

Chopin was the perfect virtuoso


His technical dexterity was complete
Highest level of physical coordination and freedom
Smooth and even touch, perfectly articulated with elegance
His control over the most subtle shades of dynamics probably
has never been surpassed.
As a teacher:
He strongly advocated studying both singing and Italian
opera.
One of his main objectives was to remove all stiffness of the
pupil. Suppleness is needed to acquire a beautiful style of
playing
He treated very completely the different kinds of touch.
He didnt begin with the key of C, it was not a natural position
of the hand.
He frequently used Clementis Preludes and Exercises and
Gradus ad Parnassum, Cramers Etudes, J.S. Bach suites and
fugues.
Contributions to technique:
His concept of rubato
Look at these trees! The wind plays in the leaves, stirs up life
among them, the tree remains the same, that is Chopinesque
rubato
Liszt
A style that demands the greatest control of dynamics shading

Radical changes in fingering and pedaling techniques of that


time
(thumb on black keys, 5-1 crossings, crossing between the longer
fingers with no thumb)

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