Download Frederic Chopin Frederic Chopin The Romantic Composer

Frederic Chopin 1
Frederic Chopin
The Romantic Composer
Kristianna Wright
Music 1010
Mrs. Richardson
March 8, 2012
Frederic Chopin 2
Frederic Chopin
The Romantic Composer
Introduction
Frederic Chopin is a celebrated composer and musician. He is known as the poet of the
piano. In his early days, he was marked as a prodigy, and lived up to that reputation for the rest
of his life. His emotions strongly influenced the way he wrote his music. His completely original
compositions has made him one of the most famous musicians of all time. One of his widely well
known pieces is Fantasie-Impromptu, and a not so familiar piece is Piano Concerto No. 2
Movement 3, both of which have demonstrations of Chopin's distinctive style.
Early Life
The birth date of Chopin is often debated as to have been either on the 22 of February, or
the 1st of March, but he was born in the year 1810. He was born in Zelazowa Wola, a village in
Poland, to Nicholas Chopin and Mrs. Chopin. His baptism date was April 23, 1810, in the same
Brochow church his parents were married in. Both his parents were musicians: his dad played the
violin and the flute, his mom played and taught the piano. Ludwika, his older sister, was his first
piano teacher (later he had two younger sisters, Izabela and Emila). It's no wonder that while
growing up in Poland, he was a musical prodigy. His parents moved from the small village to
Warsaw after Chopin turned 7 months old. While there, the Chopin family lived in an
extraordinary second-floor apartment. By the time Chopin was six years old, he was already
trying to mimic songs he had heard, as well as make up melodies of his own. His formal training
then began, under the direction of Czech Wojciech Zywny. He began giving public performances,
around the age of 7; these concerts were easily comparable to those of Mozart and Beethoven.
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His first two composed pieces that we know of are two polonaises: G minor, and B-flat major.
When Chopin was 11, he performed with Alexander 1, Czar of Russia, present in the audience.
He attended Warsaw Lyceum, a school, from the age of 13 to 16. After his studies in the Warsaw
Lyceum, and in 1826, Chopin began studying with Jozef Elsner. His three-year course study
included music theory, figured bass, and composition. In 1829, after his course studies were
complete, Chopin went around Europe, and made his debut in Vienna with two piano concertos.
Because of his success as a composer, around 1831, Chopin decided to move from his homeland
to Paris, France.
Life in Paris
While in Paris, Chopin hardly ever performed publicly. He found that he liked playing
better in salons and with friends, rather than concert halls (which he despised). However, his first
concert debut in Paris in February, 1832, gave Chopin universal admiration. Francois-Joseph
Fetis, wrote in a musical review:
"Here is a young man who, taking nothing as a model, has found, if not a complete
renewal of piano music, then in any case part of what has long been sought in vain,
namely, an extravagance of original ideas that are unexampled anywhere..."
(Wikipedia, 2012)
After his concert, however, Chopin realized that his technique of light-handedness was not
optimal in large, spacious concert halls. He was soon introduced to a wealthy family, the
Rothschilds, and the doors to perform at private salons (what Chopin thought was a better place
for his type of compositions) were opened to Chopin. Composers, artists, and other company
soon became acquainted with Chopin, and friendships were formed. His precarious health was a
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contributing factor to his repugnance towards concert halls; it also made it so he hardly ever left
the capital. In his life, he performed only about thirty times in big public settings. He preferred to
play for his friends, and other aristocracy, in private settings. His main source of income was
teaching piano to rich students across Europe, and composing.
In 1835, he visited his parents, and on the way back to Paris, he ran into some old
Warsaw friends. He fell in love with their daughter, Maria Wodzinskis, five years earlier, and at
the time of their reunion, she was 16. The next year, after vacationing with the Wodzinskis at
Marienbad, Chopin proposed to Maria. She had said yes, and her mother approved, but because
of her young age, and Chopin's ever continuing bad health, they held off their marriage
indefinitely. He wrote many songs about her. During his final years, he did go out and perform in
a few more concerts, all of which showed an idea of the richness of art in the Parisian life.
Chopin died at the age of 39 due to his failing health.
Impact on Music
Chopin had a unique style of music, original in almost every way. He helped make major
innovations to the etude, mazurka, prelude, piano sonata, waltz, nocturne, impromptu, polonaise,
and scherzo. He wrote twenty-seven etudes, twelve of which he wrote before the age of twentyone. Most of his etudes were centered around a single technical problem (examples are the rapid
expansion and contraction of the hand, trills in double thirds, combination of two or more
outwardly conflicting rhythms, etc.) with few exceptions. With the mazurka, he made it a
common name in most musical circles of the world by making it one of the highest arts. His 24
preludes are wonderful works of art. He only wrote four piano sonatas: three for solo piano, and
one for cello and piano. Chopin's waltzes, more than anything else, best "typifies the glitter and
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grace of the Parisian salons" (Siepman, 1995). His waltz contributed more to the music world in that
it opened up for a large domestic market. Nice worthy middle-class homes generally always had
a piano, and a female pianist (whether be wife or daughter) who were affluent in the
waltzes/works of Chopin. His impromptus were some of the greatest manifestation of the
imagination and the boundless ways one forms notes and patterns on the piano. Chopin varied
from Haydn and Beethoven 's original models of the scherzo (actually an Italian word meaning
"joke", while Haydn simply used it to note his accelerated music, Beethoven was the one to
make the word a popular general form of music) by altering intensity and lyricism, rather than
the spirit of playfulness, like the two aforementioned composers.
Fantasie-Impromptu
Chopin's Fantasie-Impromptu is a song with what is known as cross-rhythms. It has 16th
note rhythm in the treble clef, and triplet rhythm in the bass clef. It is played in cut time (2/2) and
at the tempo allegro agitato. In the middle section, it changes to largo, and moderato cantabile
with a key change from C-sharp minor to D flat major. After this section, it returns to the style of
the beginning, and goes on towards the end. At the end, the right hand continues the frenzy of
never-ending 16th notes while the left hand plays the melody line that was heard in the middle
section. The ending is soft and very mysterious, which gives it its fantasy feel.
The reason this is one of my favorites is because of its intrigue, and always moving feel
to it. It is a very popular piece, and probably one of his most well known pieces.
Piano Concerto No. 2 3rd Movement
Written before he officially finished his musical training, Chopin composed Piano
Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 21 when he was about twenty years old. It was written before
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Piano Concerto No. 1, but because it was published afterwards, it got dubbed the second
concerto. Many critics do not believe Chopin to be a good orchestra composer, and one said that
his work with the orchestration parts was "nothing but a cold and useless accompaniment."
(Wikipedia, 2012).
However, with Chopin's style, and in accordance to what he believed the genre
demanded, he meant for the song to show off the virtuoso piano player performing the piece, in
contrast to a more "balanced, cohesive, and densely argued musical drama in the classical vein."
(Wikipedia, 2012).
The beginning of the piece starts out with piano with the melody and the strings in the
background. Then the strings and brass come to the foreground with a variation of the melody. It
returns to the piano, with the strings emphasizing in the background. The strings and brass take
back over with a short call and response with the woodwinds. A trumpet fanfares two notes, then
the orchestra responds, and this repeats a few times, until a slight resolution chord at 58 seconds.
The piano takes back over with an intense run, into the melody again. A clarinet plays for a few
bars, with the piano continuing on its crazy intensity, and the strings coming in for emphasis.
Then it drops back out and the piano continues. The piano drops out, and the melody jumps from
a clarinet, to the strings, to a flute. At 2:08, various percussion instruments come in the
background to the piano, as well as the strings. At 2:28 the percussion instrument drops out. At
2:40 the strings go a bit staccato. A clarinet comes back in, and the part where it was in before is
repeated, with a slight variation. The intensity builds in the piano and the strings together till
3:37, when it goes to a descending piano run. And it continues on, variation of piano, with
strings and brass, and the melody is varied, till the resolution all the way at the end.