Fryderyk Chopin

1810 - 1849

The "Poet of the Piano," Chopin is often considered as the composer who gave the piano its "voice." Influenced more by voice than the piano compositions of his time, Chopin made the piano "sing" in a way that no composer before him had conceived. Chopin's compositions demanded more from the pedal and touch of the piano than had ever been asked for before, and the popularity of his pieces moved piano development to concentrate on these parts of the piano.

Additionally, Chopin was the first composer to turn the Etude into an art form, furthering piano technique while also expounding the beauty of the instrument. These transcendent studies in technique and intensely concentrated poetic statements. Unlike thousands of contemporaneous piano etudes, those of Chopin successfully combine the practical goal of developing advanced technique with significant artistic content. Both Liszt and Brahms followed Chopin's lead in this regard, leaving behind the purely technical contemporaneous piano etudes.