FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN

WRITTEN BY GÎŢ BIANCA MILENA

RISE-ENGLISH, I YEAR, GROUP 1
BABES BOLYAI UNIVERSITY, CLUJ

Frederic Chopin was a Polish composer and a piano virtuoso of the Romantic period
and he is widely regarded as one of music`s greatest tone poets. “His work is dedicated almost
entirely to the piano but there are some exceptions like his voice melodies (published after his
death), a trio and a sonata for the cello and the piano”1.In his compositions, boldness is always
jusitfied; ” richness, even exuberance, never interferes with clearness; singularity never
degenerates into uncouth fantasticalness; the sculpturing is never disorderly; the luxury of
ornament never overloads the chaste eloquence of the principal lines. His best works abound
in combinations which may be said to form an epoch in the handling of musical styles”2. It is
simply daring, brilliant and attractive.

Childhood and education

Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin was born on March 1, 1810 in Zelazowa Wola in

Sochaczew County, fifty kilometers west of Warsaw, in what was then part of the Duchy of
Warsaw. Even since his birth, some contreverses around the seemingly normal child, later to
become a prodigy-child, existed. Despite the fact that in Chopin`s birth certificate the birth
date 22 April 1810 is written, later, his true birth date was found from his corespondences:
March 1.
Frederic`s father was Mikolaj Chopin, originally a Frenchman (this subject was long
time disputated until a relevant document was discovered 3) from Lorraine, who had
emigrated to Poland in 1787 at the age of 16. He rapidly got himself attached to this country
and in 1794 he served in Poland`s National Guard during the Kosciuszko Uprising. The elder
Chopin subsequently worked in Zelazowa Wola as a tutor for the Count of Skarbek`s children.
He had moved with the aristocratic family in 1802 and this choice changed his life by
marrying one of their long relatives, Justyna Krzyznowska in 1806.
The Chopin family moved after a month of Frederic`s birth, in Warsaw where they
lived on the grounds of the Saxon Palace, receiving this acommodation because of Mikolaj`s
post as a French professor . In 1817 he began to work, still teaching French, at the Warsaw
Lyceum, housed in Warsaw University's Kazimierz Palace. The family lived in a spacious
second-floor apartment in an adjacent building. The son himself would attend the Warsaw
Lyceum from 1823 to 1826. And because of such a big space, Mikolaj transformed a part of it
in a lodging for boys, becoming one of the most famous in Warsaw.
At the cultural spirit of the house contributed Justina, Mikolajs wife, as well, by
teaching the boys and her children piano lessons. This artistic atmosphere and the domination
of the female presence, 3 sisters (Louise, Izabela-Justina and Emily) and his mother,
influenced Frederic`s character. He was a sensitive boy and the sound of music provoked him
nervous attacks in his first years of life.Thus, Chopin`s existence started upon the sign of this
peculiar paradox. By six, he was already trying to reproduce what he heard or to make up new
melodies, based on what he saw around him. Hence, his mother started to give him technical
instructions for the piano.
Chopin's first professional piano tutor, from 1816 to 1822, was the respected, elderly
Czech, Wojciech Żywny.He was a strange man, but he was the first person who presented
Chopin what a sonata was, a trio and he tried to make him understand the secrets of music.
Although the youngster's skills soon surpassed those of his teacher, Chopin later spoke highly
of him. Eight-year-old "Little Chopin" began to give public concerts that soon prompted
comparison with Mozart as a child, and with Chopin's older contemporary, Beethoven.
Despite these apreciations, Chopin remained the same child with abilities in observation and
sketching, a keen wit and sense of humour and an uncommon talent for mimicry and other
1
Theodor Balan, Chopin,poetul pianului, Bucharest, Tineretului Publishing, p. 216
2
Franz Liszt, Life of Chopin, The Project Gutenburg eText
3
Theodor Balan, Chopin,poetul pianului, Bucharest, Tineretului Publishing, p.5

2
times, a serious, dreamy and sad boy. He sometimes showed a precocious maturity, illustrated
in his dedication for his father : „Dear father, although it would have been easier to confess
my feelings throughout music, if that is possible – but, as the best concert could not express
my whole and true love for you, dearest father, i have to use the simple words of my heart so
that i can offer you the homage of the most affectionate gratitude and of filial devotion.”4 That
same year, Chopin composed two polonaises, in G minor and B-flat major. The first was
published in the engraving workshop of Father Izydor Józef Cybulski (composer, engraver,
director of an organists' school, and one of the few music publishers in Poland); the second
survives as a manuscript prepared by Mikołaj Chopin. These small works were said to rival
not only the popular polonaises of leading Warsaw composers, but the famous polonaises of
Michał Kleofas Ogiński. A substantial development of melodic and harmonic invention, and
of piano technique, was shown in Chopin's next known polonaise (in A-flat major), which the
young artist offered, in 1821, as a name-day present to Żywny. About this time, at the age of
eleven, Chopin performed in the presence of Russian Tsar Alexander I, who was in Warsaw,
opening the Sejm (Polish parliament).
In the autumn of 1826, Chopin began a three-year course of studies with the composer
Józef Elsner at the Warsaw Conservatory, which was affiliated with Warsaw University
(hence Chopin is counted among that university's alumni). Chopin's first contact with the
Polish composer may have been as early as 1822; it is certain that Elsner was giving Chopin
informal guidance by 1823, and in 1826 Chopin officially commenced the study of music
theory, figured bass, and composition with Elsner. In year-end evaluations, Elsner noted
Chopin's "remarkable talent" and "musical genius." As had Żywny, Elsner observed, rather
than influenced or directed, the development of Chopin's blossoming talent. Elsner's teaching
style was based on his reluctance to "constrain" Chopin with "narrow, academic, outdated"
rules, and to allow the young artist to mature "according to the laws of his own nature."5
While in his mid-teens, he spent his vacations at the Mazowsze village of Szafarnia
(where he was a guest of Prince Antoni Radziwiłł), Chopin was exposed to folk melodies that
he would later transmute into original compositions that would become a trademark of his
work. His letters home from Szafarnia (the famous "Szafarnia Courier" letters) amused his
family with their spoofing of the Warsaw newspapers and demonstrated the „youngster's
literary talent”.6 During that period, because of his and his sister Emily’s bad health, he had to
go on a trip to the Reinertz spa, in order to have recovery treatments. But his artist's soul was
also enriched by friendships such as leading lights of Warsaw's artistic and intellectual world
as Maurycy Mochnacki, Józef Bohdan Zaleski and Julian Fontana. With them, Chopin
discovered the social life, the polish cafés, animated by different characters with whom he
discussed about the changes that occured in their country. All these aspects helped him
develop a unique personality and attitude.

Initiation journeys
4
Theodor Balan, Chopin,poetul pianului, Bucharest, Tineretului Publishing, p 19
5
Frederick Niecks, Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician, The Project Gutenburg eText
6
Theodor Balan, Chopin,poetul pianului, Bucharest, Tineretului Publishing, p. 26

3
 Mikolaj now, has no doubt in what concerns the great talent of his son and his future
musician career. Therefore, he thinks that the staying of Chopin in Warsaw would imply his
genius limitation, so he considers to send his child for further studies in Italy, France,
Germany and Austria. So he requests material support from the Minister of Culture but
surprisingly his request is denied. However this didn`t stop Chopin to travel to Vienna in
August 1829, three weeks after completing his studies at the Warsaw Conservatory.There he
made a brilliant debut and gave two piano concerts and received many favorable reviews —
in addition to some that criticized the small tone that he drew from the piano. After leaving
Vienna he didn`t return home, but visited Prague, Teplitz, Drezda and German Switzerland,
with stops in Wroclaw, Kalisz and Antonin, accompanied by his friends. Chopin loved
journeys. It was also the desire to see, to know as many places as he could, „it was the fretting
of the genius willing to know everything in a faster way”7.This period was followed by a
concert, in December 1829, at the War Saw Merchants' Club, where Chopin premiered his
Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, and by his first performance, on March 17, 1830, at the
National Theater, of his Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor. Those days he also began writing
his first études (1829–32).
Chopin's successes as a performer and composer opened the professional door for him
to Western Europe, and on November 2, 1830, seen off by friends and admirers, with a ring
from Konstancja Gładkowska on his finger and carrying with him a silver cup containing soil
from his native land, Chopin set out, writes Jachimecki, "into the wide world, with no very
clearly defined aim, forever."
In his way to Vienna he had to make a stop at Kalisz in order to meet Titus
Woiceychowski, his very good friend with whom, Chopin will spend his time in Austria`s
capital. Here he had a hard time, partly because of his Polish origins, knowing that the
austrians were reluctant to Poland`s position in world power. And after the November
Uprising broke out his plans were ruined because his friend and traveling companion, Tytus,
returned to Poland to enlist. Chopin, now alone in Vienna, writes Jachimecki, "afflicted by
nostalgia, disappointed in his hopes of giving concerts and publishing, matured and acquired
spiritual depth. From a romantic... poet... he grew into an inspired national bard who intuited
the past, present and future of his country. Only now, at this distance, did he see all of Poland
from the proper perspective, and understand what was great and truly beautiful in her, the
tragedy and heroism of her vicissitudes."Therefore, forced to remain in Vienna between
November 24, 1830 and July 20, 1831, he was heard there in some concerts, but the Viennese
public, generally so cultivated, so prompt to seize the most delicate shades of execution, the
finest subtleties of thought, during this winter were disturbed and abstracted. The young artist
did not produce there the effect he had the right to anticipate. When in September 1831
Chopin learned, while traveling from Vienna to Paris, that the uprising had been crushed, he
poured "profanities and blasphemies"8 in his native Polish language into the pages of a little
journal known as „The Stuttgart Journal” that he kept secret to the end of his life(exhibited to
the 1932 Warsaw Exhibition). These outcries of a tormented heart found musical expression
in his Scherzo in B Minor, Op. 20, and his Revolutionary Étude. He left Vienna with the
desire of going to London, but he came first to Paris, where he intended to remain only for a
short while. Upon his passport drawn up for England, he had caused to be inserted: "passing
through Paris." These words sealed his fate. Long years afterwards, when he seemed not only
acclimated, but naturalized in France, he would smilingly say: I am "passing through Paris."9

7
Theodor Balan, Chopin,poetul pianului, Bucharest, Tineretului Publishing, p. 48
8
ibidem
9
Franz Liszt, Life of Chopin, The Project Gutenburg eText

4
 Chopin arrived in Paris in the first part of September, still uncertain whether he would
settle there for good. But he surprinsingly found Paris the city of all oportunities where „you
can have fun, you can get bored, you can laugh and cry, you can do everything you like”10.
For the first time, after a long time of sorrow, he was content with the going of his life,
especially because of the great artists he met here (Rossini, Cherubini, Liszt etc) and the
Polish families with whom he will make a strong connection. In his letters he also mentions
Kalkbrenner for whom he has a great respect and veneration and with whom he will develop
a great friendship „rewarded” with a Concert in Mi Minor. The great master offered to teach
Chopin new techniques in order to improve his style. But this offer intrigued Elsner because
he always thought that a true and genius artist should not be influented by others’ rules and he
said that „the instrumental play in the domain of music is just a means to reach the expression
of feelings.” These words express the best of Chopin`s conception and attitude. He was a poet
of the piano, not a „pianist”11. Hence, Chopin abandoned the project of taking piano lessons
with Kalkbrenner.
This time was the celebrating of Parisian artistic life with all its celebrities. But this
was shadowed by the material deprivation and the miserable state of the city. So, there
remained the biggest challenge of all : a concerto, through which he will affirm and show his
great qualities. The concert took place on February, 26, 1832 at the Playel Saloon of which
Franz Liszt recounts that there „ the most enthusiastic and redoubled applause seemed
scarcely sufficient to express our enchantment for the genius which had revealed new phases
of poetic feeling, and made such happy, yet bold, innovations in the form of musical art.” Also
the influential musicologist and critic François-Joseph Fétis, wrote in Revue musicale: "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...”. And only three months earlier, in December
of 1831, Robert Schumann, in reviewing Chopin's Variations on "La ci darem la mano," Opus
2 (from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni), had written: "Hats off, gentlemen! A genius.”
Unlike the greater part of young debutants, he was not intoxicated or dazzled for a
moment by his triumph, but accepted it without pride or false modesty, evincing none of the
puerile enjoyment of gratified vanity exhibited by the parvenus of success. His countrymen,
who were then in Paris, gave him a most affectionate reception. He was intimate in the house
of Prince Czartoryski, of the Countess Plater, of Madame de Komar, and in that of her
daughters, the Princess de Beauveau and the Countess Delphine Potocka, whose beauty,
together with her indescribable and spiritual grace, made her one of the most admired
sovereigns of the society of Paris. But the incident that changed his plans to leave Paris was
the invitation to attend a reception given by the Rothschild family which soon opened doors
for him to other private salons and where the aristocracy asked him to give private piano
lessons. He accepted and in short time became the most famous and well paid piano professor
in Paris, though he never enjoyed his new occupation. He was disgusted with the aristocracy
but at the same time needed this job in order to survive although he had little time for his
studies and creation. In his first years in Paris he published four mazourkas (op.6), the
collection of five mazourkas (op7), the Trio in sol minor for the piano, violin and cello (op 8),
three nocturnes (op 9) dedicated to Camille Pleyel, his first „etude cahiers” dedicated to his
friend Franz Liszt and the Concerto in mi minor dedicated to Kalkbrenner.

The rise and wane

10
Frederic Chopin apud Theodor Balan, Chopin,poetul pianului, Bucuresti, Tineretului Publishing, p. 80
11
Theodor Balan, Chopin,poetul pianului, Bucharest, Tineretului Publishing, p. 81

5
 The Romantic climate in which Frederic Chopin lived, from the perspective given by
time, it is revealed today as an important background of the scene where the great artists of
the epoque performed. Though, at that time they did not suspect that they will create a new
passionate style, romanticism. Chopin's music is, however, considered by many to epitomize
the Romantic style. The relative classical purity and discretion in his music, with little
extravagant exhibitionism, partly reflects his reverence for Bach and Mozart. Chopin also
never indulged in explicit "scene-painting" in his music, or used programmatic titles,
castigating publishers who renamed his pieces in this way.
During his years in Paris, Chopin participated in a small number of public concerts. The list of
the programs' participants provides an idea of the richness of Parisian artistic life during this
period. Examples include a performance on April 24, 1833 with Liszt and the Hertz brothers
in the saloon of Lady Lannes; a concert on December 15, 1833, in which Chopin, Liszt and
Hiller performed Johann Sebastian Bach's concerto for three harpsichords;two concerts in
1834 and other two in 1835; and on March 3, 1838, a concert in which Chopin, Chopin's pupil
Adolphe Gutman, Charles-Valentin Alkan, and Alkan's teacher Pierre Joseph Zimmerman
performed Alkan's arrangement, for eight hands, of Beethoven's 7th symphony; in the same
year gives a concert at Rouen where he was very appreciated. Although „he was so
abundantly provided with friends, for, he could not do without company”12 (such as Hector
Berlioz, Franz Liszt, Vincenzo Bellini, Ferdinand Hiller, Felix Mendelssohn, Heinrich Heine,
Eugène Delacroix,) this period means too a more stressed feeling of missing his home (in
Polish this feeling is expressed with the word „Zal” as in Romanian we say „Dor”).
In 1835, Chopin went to Carlsbad, where, for the last time in his life, he met with his
parents this time being very happy for him even if he forgot about his very poor health
condition. After the dramatic separation of his parents he went to Dresda, where he met an old
friend, Felix Wodzinski who was with his family. There Chopin had met again their daughter
Maria, now sixteen, and fell in love with the charming, artistically talented, intelligent young
woman. Before he left he dedicated her a waltz (op 69 nr.1) and Maria named it „The
Farewell Waltz". On his return to Paris, he composed the "Étude in F minor," the second in
the Opus 25 cycle, which he referred to as "a portrait of Maria's soul."13 Along with this, he
sent Maria seven songs that he had set to the words of Polish Romantic poets Stefan Witwicki,
Józef Zaleski and Adam Mickiewicz. His journey did not stop, he went afterwards in Leipzig
where he met Frederic Wieck, the father of Clara, the future wife of Robert Schumann and
also a great performer of Chopin`s work. Later in September 1836, upon returning to Dresden
after having vacationed with the Wodzińskis at Marienbad, Chopin proposed marriage to
Maria. She accepted, and her mother Countess Wodzińska approved in principle but her father
din not approved this relationship because he thought that a young and ill artist is not suitable
for a young lady. Chopin`s sadness was so emphatic that he finally placed the letters from
Maria and her mother in a large envelope, on which he wrote the Polish words "Moja bieda"
("My sorrow"). It followed a period of 6 years untill the next concert in 1941, but with a short
journey to London where he kept his anonymity. During this time he wrote the first Scherzo in
mi minor, the four mazourkas dedicated to the Count of Perthuis, the Concert in Fa minor
dedicated to Delphina Potocka – „Which appeared episodically in Chopin's life as muse and
romantic interest”14- , Andante spinato and The Great Polonaise in E flat major, two
polonaises in C sharp and E flat minor, two nocturnes and the second book for studies
dedicated to Marie d`Agoult.

12
Frederick Niecks, Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician, The Project Gutenburg eText
13
Theodor Balan, Chopin,poetul pianului, Bucharest, Tineretului Publishing, p.116
14
James Huneker, The Man and His Music, The Project Gutenburg eText

6
 Chopin`s celebrity is the best envinced by Franz Liszt`s words „Let us remember the
ancient prayer of the Dorians whose simple formula is so full of pious poetry, asking only of
their gods: `To give them the Good, in return for the Beautiful!` „15.
Liszt was not the only person that had such a great appreciation for the artist but there
was a woman, Amandine Aurore Lucille Dupin, the Baroness Dudevant, better known by her
pseudonym, George Sand who was trying to capture his attention. Chopin met her in 1836, at
a party hosted by Countess Marie d'Agoult, friend of the composer Franz Liszt and at other
saloon parties. Initially he did not like her and told Ferdinand Hiller : "What a repulsive
woman Sand is! But is she really a woman? I am inclined to doubt it." Sand, however, in a
candid thirty-two page letter to her and Chopin's friend, Count Wojciech Grzymała, admitted
strong feelings for Chopin. Though she had many relations with different men, she maintained
strong relations of friendship with Latouche, Planche, Musset, Lamenais, Liszt, Bocage et
Balzac.16 She was described by Madame Audley as „ a woman of genius, but a woman with
sensual appetites, with insatiable desires, accustomed to satisfy them at any price, should she
even have to break the cup after draining it equally wanting in balance, wisdom, and purity of
mind, and in decorum, reserve, and dignity of conduct”17. Though they had different
personalities, by the summer of 1838 Chopin's and Sand's involvement was an open secret. In
that summer too, they were models for a Delacroix painting in which Chopin plays the piano
and Sand is listening to him. The picture became famous but was split into two, and nowadays
the portrait of Chopin can be found at Louvre and Sand`s portrait at Glyptoteca, Copenhagen.
Delacroix and Chopin became good friends even though they had some differences in their
views but agreed on the subject of double reflection, which characterizes the both artists.
A notable episode in their time together was a turbulent and miserable winter on
Majorca (8 November 1838 to 13 February 1839), where the four (including Sand`s two
children) had gone in the hope of improving Chopin's deteriorating health. They had difficulty
finding accommodations and ended up lodging in a scenic but stark and cold former
Carthusian monastery in Valldemossa. On 3 December he complained about his bad health
and the incompetence of the doctors in Majorca: "I have been sick as a dog during these past
two weeks. 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."18 He also had problems with
receiving his Pleyel piano, meanwhile he played a rickety rented piano. This winter in
Majorca is considered one of the most productive periods in Chopin's life because he had the
time, even if he was sick, to complete some works: Preludes (Op28), a revision of Ballade
No. 2 (Op38), two Polonaises (Op40), Scherzo No. 3 (Op39), a Mazurka (Op41) and he
probably revisited his Sonata No. 2 (Op35). During that winter, the bad weather had such a
serious effect on Chopin's health and chronic lung disease that, in order to save his life, the
entire party were compelled to leave the island and went to Barcelona and after that to
Marseille. Here Chopin fully recovered and paid more attention to his contracts with his
editors and from here went to Sand`s estate at Nohant for the summer. From 1839 until 1846
(with the exception of 1840) Chopin had split his life between Nohant and Paris, and here had
found quiet but productive days during which he had composed many works. They included
his great Polonaise in A flat major (Op.53), the "Heroic," one of his most famous pieces.
Though he enjoyed the country life with its fresh air, he coudn`t escape from Paris so he
bought himself a flat on rue Pigalle no.16 but in 1842, they moved to 80 rue Taitbout in the
square d'Orléans, living in adjacent buildings.

15
Franz Liszt, Life of Chopin, The Project Gutenburg eText
16
Theodor Balan, Chopin,poetul pianului, Bucharest, Tineretului Publishing, p.121
17
Ganche Edouard, Frederic Chopin, sa vie et ses oeuvres, Mercure de France Publishing,p.127
18
Theodor Balan, Chopin,poetul pianului, Bucharest, Tineretului Publishing, p.131

7
 As the composer's illness progressed, Sand gradually became less of a lover and more
of a nurse to Chopin, whom she called her "third child." Despite his condition, he continued to
teach piano lessons and on 26 April 1841 he had a concert. He was very appreciated and the
reviews of that time noted that everyone expected his return and another concert followed on
21 February 1942. Even though he was recognized as being the most famous piano teacher in
Paris he accepted students from all the social levels. Among these, there were two boys of
Romanian nationality, Carol Filtsch and Carol Miculi. The first one, was very appreciated by
Chopin and he had foreseen him a great future but the boy died at the age of 15. Miculi is
regarded as being a great composer and his memories are often used for describing Chopin`s
style. He and Liszt emphasize Chopin`s displeasure of giving concerts : ”I am not suited for
concert giving; the public intimidate me; their looks, only stimulated by curiosity, paralyze
me; their strange faces oppress me; their breath stifles me: but you—you are destined for it,
for when you do not gain your public, you have the force to assault, to overwhelm, to control,
to compel them."19
In 1845, even as a further deterioration occurred in Chopin's health, a serious problem
emerged in his relations with Sand. Those relations were further soured in 1846 by problems
involving her daughter Solange and the young sculptor Jean Baptiste Auguste Clésinger. In
1847 Sand published her novel Lucrezia Floriani, whose main characters, a rich actress and a
prince in weak health, could be interpreted as Sand and Chopin; the story was
uncomplimentary to Chopin, who could not have missed the allusions as he helped Sand
correct the printer's galleys. In 1847 he did not visit Nohant. Mutual friends attempted to
reconcile them, but the composer was unyielding. That year, 1847, brought to an end, without
any dramatics or formalities, the relations between Sand and Chopin that had lasted ten years,
from 1837. But it can not be denied the great impact and influence that George Sand had upon
Chopin`s life and works. Though some argue that she destroyed him, others claim that she
represented a continuos source of inspiration, whose energetic personality and electric genius
inspired the frail and delicate organization of Chopin with an intensity of admiration which
though, consumed him until his death.
Chopin's public popularity as a virtuoso waned, as did the number of his
pupils.Convinced by his friends, Camille Pleyel, Auguste Leo, Count De Perthuis and August
Franchomme, Chopin gave his last Paris concert in February 1848 which seemed to anticipate
his end. In April, with revolution underway in Paris, he left for London, where he performed
at several concerts and at numerous receptions in great houses. Toward the end of the summer
he went to Scotland, staying at the castle of his former pupil and great admirer Jane
Wilhelmina Stirling and her elder sister, the widowed Mrs. Katherine Erskine. Miss Stirling
proposed marriage to him but Chopin, sensing that he was not long for this world, set greater
store by his freedom than by the prospect of living on the generosity of a wife. In late October
1848 in Edinburgh, at the home of a Polish physician, Dr. Adam Łyszczyński, Chopin wrote
his last will and testament—"a kind of disposition to be made of my stuff in the future, if I
should drop dead somewhere," he wrote his friend Wojciech Grzymała. In his thoughts he was
now constantly with his mother and sisters, and conjured up for himself scenes of his native
land by playing his adaptations of its folk music on cool Scottish evenings at Miss Stirling's
castle. From his letters it can be observed his pain and his conscious of dying surrounded by
vails of melancholy and some times outbursts of pain and anger towards life.
He returned in Paris at the end of November.
He passed the winter in unremitting illness, his pulmonary tuberculosis being more
acute, but in spite of it he continued seeing friends and visited the ailing Adam Mickiewicz,
soothing the Polish poet's nerves with his playing. He no longer had the strength to give
lessons, but he was still keen to compose. He lacked money for the most essential expenses
19
Franz Liszt, Life of Chopin, The Project Gutenburg eText

8
and for his physicians. He had to sell off his more valuable furnishings and belongings.
Feeling ever more poorly, Chopin desired to have one of his family with him therefore in June
1849 his sister Ludwika Jędrzejewicz, agreed to come to Paris. She had a positive influence
and created a suitable atmosphere by making plans with Chopin, for the future months.
Though he was aware of his health condition he had taken up residence in a very beautiful,
sunny apartment at Place Vendôme 12. Starting with October from week to week, and soon
from day to day, the cold shadow of death gained upon him but M. Gutman and his sister
were in constant attendance upon him, never for a single moment leaving him. The Countess
Delphine Potocka, who was then absent from Paris, returned as soon as she was informed of
his imminent danger and also the Abbe Jelowicki was besides him to give him the last
confession. He called his friends a short time afterwards, one by one, to his bedside, to give
each of them his last earnest blessing and he requested that good music should be played
around him,therefore, Delphine Potocka had sang until his last breath on 17 October 1849. He
died as he lived – surrounded by love and friendship.
Later that morning, Auguste Clésinger made Chopin's death mask and casts of his
hands. Before the funeral, pursuant to Chopin's dying wish (which stemmed from a fear of
being buried alive), his heart was removed and preserved in alcohol. His sister later took it in
an urn to Warsaw, where it was sealed within a pillar of the Holy Cross Church on
Krakowskie Przedmieście, beneath an inscription from Matthew VI:21: "For where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also."
The funeral was held on October 30, 1849, attended by nearly three thousand people.
Chopin had requested that Mozart's Requiem be sung at his funeral. The Requiem has major
parts for female voices, but the Church of the Madeleine had never permitted female singers
in its choir. The funeral was delayed almost two weeks until the church relented, provided the
female singers remained behind a black velvet curtain. The soloists in the Requiem included
the bass Luigi Lablache, who had sung the same work at Beethoven's funeral and had also
sung at Bellini's funeral. Also played were Chopin's preludes no. 4 in E minor and no. 6 in B
minor.Chopin was buried, in accordance with his wishes, at Père Lachaise Cemetery. At the
graveside, the Funeral March from his Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35 was played, in
Napoléon Henri Reber's instrumentation.
„His creative genius was imperious, fantastic and impulsive. His beauties were only
manifested fully in entire freedom”20. This statement represents the best Chopin`s life and
work and we have the flattering duty to keep his memory alive for those who come.

20
Franz Liszt, Life of Chopin, The Project Gutenburg eText

9
 Bibliography :

• Balan, Theodor, Chopin, poetul pianului,

Bucharest,Tineretului Publishing, 1968
• Edouard, Ganche , Frederic Chopin, sa vie et ses
oeuvres 1810-1849, Mercure de France
Publishing, 1949
• Huneker, James, The Man and His Music, The
Project Gutenburg eText
• Liszt, Franz, Life of Chopin, The Project
Gutenburg eText
• Niecks, Frederick , Frederick Chopin as a Man
and Musician, The Project Gutenburg eText

10