Frederic Francois Chopin
Polish composer and pianist. He combined a gift for melody, an adventurous harmonic sense, an intuitive and inventive understanding of formal design and a brilliant piano technique in composing a major corpus of piano music. One of the leading 19th-century composers who began a career as a pianist, he abandoned concert life early; but his music represents the quintessence of the Romantic piano tradition and embodies more fully than any other composer's the expressive and technical characteristics of the instrument.
From the New Grove Dictionary of Music Article on Chopin
Locations
- Warsaw (1810-1829)
- Warsaw Lyceum
- Warsaw Conservatory of Music
- Vienna (1829-1831)
- First nine Mazurkas
- Paris (1831-1849)
- Nohant (1839-1849)
- Chopin spent summers in Nohant and winters in Paris
Teachers
- Mother, Tekla Justyna Kryzanowska (Piano)
- Wojciech Zywny (Piano)
- Józef Elsner (Piano, composition, musicianship)
- Vilém Würfel (Organ)
Texts
- New Grove Dictionary of Music (NGDM) Article on Chopin
- NGDM Article on the Ballade
- Complete List of Works
- Book: Ballads Without Words: Chopin and the Tradition of the Instrumental Ballade
Images
- Pictures of Chopin
- George Sand
- Chopin's House
- Scores
Audio files
- Etudes, op. 10
- Ballade No. 1 G minor
- Polonaises, op. 40
- Mazurkas, op. 63
- Nocturnes, op. 27
- Preludes, op. 28
- Sonata no. 3 in B minor, op. 58
- Waltzes, op. 69
- Piano concerto no. 2
- Fantasia on polish airs, op. 13
Links
- Official Chopin Website (Polish) (English)
- The U.S. Chopin Foundation
- Chopin Vodka
- Chopin Files Free scores online
- The History of the Piano