Frederick Chopin, as a Man and Musician — Complete

While the novelist has absolute freedom to follow his artistic instinct and intelligence, the biographer is fettered by the subject-matter with which he proposes to deal. The fo...

GOETHE playfully describes himself as indebted to his father for his frame and steady guidance of life, to his mother for his happy disposition and love of story-telling, to his...

FREDERICK'S FIRST MUSICAL INSTRUCTION AND MUSIC-MASTER, ADALBERT ZYWNY.--HIS DEBUT AND SUCCESS AS A PIANIST.--HIS EARLY INTRODUCTION INTO ARISTOCRATIC SOCIETY AND CONSTANT INTER...

FREDERICK ENTERS THE WARSAW LYCEUM.--VARIOUS EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES.--HIS FATHER'S FRIENDS.--RISE OF ROMANTICISM IN POLISH LITERATURE.--FREDERICK'S STAY AT SZAFARNIA DURING HIS...

FREDERICK WORKS TOO HARD.--PASSES PART OF HIS HOLIDAYS (1826) IN REINERZ.--STAYS ALSO AT STRZYZEWO, AND PAYS A VISIT TO PRINCE RADZIWILL.--HE TERMINATES HIS STUDIES AT THE LYCEU...

THE golden age of Polish music, which coincides with that of Polish literature, is the sixteenth century, the century of the Sigismonds. The most remarkable musician of that tim...

Fourteen days in Berlin (From September 14 to 28, 1828).--Return by Posen (Prince Radziwill) and Zullichau (anecdotes) to Warsaw.--Chopin's doings there in the following winter...

IT was about the middle of July, 1829, that Chopin, accompanied by his friends Celinski, Hube, and Francis Maciejowski, set out on his journey to Vienna. They made a week's halt...

The only works of Chopin we have as yet discussed are--if we leave out of account the compositions which the master neither published himself nor wished to be published by anybo...

IN the preceding chapter I alluded to a new element that entered into the life of Chopin and influenced his artistic work. The following words, addressed by the young composer o...

Three days before the concert, which took place in the theatre, neither box nor reserved seat was to be had. But Chopin complains that on the whole it did not make the impressio...

This time the audience, which Chopin describes as having been more numerous than at any other concert, was satisfied. There was no end to the applause, and when he came forward...

MUSIC IN THE WARSAW SALONS.--MORE ABOUT CHOPIN'S CAUTION.--MUSICAL VISITORS TO THE POLISH CAPITAL: WORLITZER, MDLLE. DE BELLEVILLE, MDLLE. SONTAG, &c.--SOME OF CHOPIN'S ARTISTIC...

The success of the concert made Chopin forget his sorrows. There is not one complaint in the letter in which he gives an account of it; in fact, he seems to have been enjoying r...

CHOPIN IS JOINED AT KALISZ BY TITUS WOYCIECHOWSKI.--FOUR DAYS AT BRESLAU: HIS VISITS TO THE THEATRE; CAPELLMEISTER SCHNABEL; PLAYS AT A CONCERT; ADOLF HESSE.--SECOND VISIT TO DR...

VIENNA MUSICAL LIFE.--KARNTHNERTHOR THEATRE.--SABINE HEINEFETTER.--CONCERTS: HESSE, THALBERG, DOHLER, HUMMEL, ALOYS SCHMITT, CHARLES CZERNY, SLAVIK, MERK, BOCKLET, ABBE STABLER,...

Let us pause for a little in our biographical inquiries and critically examine what Chopin had achieved as a composer since the spring of 1829. At the very first glance it becom...

PARIS IN 1831.--LIFE IN THE STREETS.--ROMANTICISM AND LIBERALISM.--ROMANTICISM IN LITERATURE.--CHIEF LITERARY PUBLICATIONS OF THE TIME.--THE PICTORIAL ARTS.--MUSIC AND MUSICIANS...

ACQUAINTANCES AND FRIENDS: CHERUBINI, BAILLOT, FRANCHOMME, LISZT, MILLER, OSBORNE, MENDELSSOHN.--CHOPIN AND KALKBRENNER.--CHOPIN'S AIMS AS AN ARTIST.--KALKBRENNER'S CHARACTER AS...

CHOPIN'S SUCCESS IN SOCIETY AND AS A TEACHER.--VARIOUS CONCERTS AT WHICH HE PLAYED.--A LETTER FROM CHOPIN AND LISZT TO HILLER.--SOME OF HIS FRIENDS.--STRANGE BEHAVIOUR.--A LETTE...

MATUSZYNSKI SETTLES IN PARIS.--MORE ABOUT CHOPIN'S WAY OF LIFE.--OP. 25.--HE IS ADVISED TO WRITE AN OPERA.--HIS OWN IDEAS IN REGARD TO THIS, AND A DISCUSSION OF THE QUESTION.--C...

PUBLICATIONS IN 1835 AND 1836.--FIRST PERFORMANCE OF LES HUGUENOTS.-- GUSIKOW, LIPINSKI, THALBERG.--CHOPIN'S IMPRESSIONABLENESS AND FICKLENESS IN REGARD TO THE FAIR SEX.--THE FA...

It is now necessary that the reader should be made acquainted with Madame Dudevant, better known by her literary name, George Sand, whose coming on the scene has already been an...

THE LOVES OF CELEBRITIES.--VARIOUS ACCOUNTS OF CHOPIN AND GEORGE SAND'S FIRST MEETING.--CHOPIN'S FIRST IMPRESSION OF HER.--A COMPARISON OF THE TWO CHARACTERS.--PORTRAYALS OF CHO...

CHOPIN'S VISITS TO NOHANT IN 1837 AND 1838.--HIS ILL HEALTH.--HE DECIDES TO GO WITH MADAME SAND AND HER CHILDREN TO MAJORCA.--MADAME SAND'S ACCOUNT OF THIS MATTER AND WHAT OTHER...

Happily, my ambulance is doing well. To-morrow we depart for the Carthusian monastery of Valdemosa, the most poetic residence on earth. We shall pass there the winter, which has...

is only afraid of frost, a thing unknown here. But the little Chopin [FOOTNOTE: Madame Marliani seems to have been in the habit of calling Chopin "le petit." In another letter t...

STAY AT MARSEILLES (FROM MARCH TO MAY, 1839) AS DESCRIBED IN CHOPIN'S AND MADAME SAND'S LETTERS.--HIS STATE OF HEALTH.--COMPOSITIONS AND THEIR PUBLICATION.--PLAYING THE ORGAN AT...

GEORGE SAND AND CHOPIN'S RETURN TO NOHANT.--STATE OF HIS HEALTH.--HIS POSITION IN HIS FRIEND'S HOUSE.--HER ACCOUNT OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP.--HIS LETTERS TO FONTANA, WHICH, AMONG M...

RETURN OF GEORGE SAND AND CHOPIN TO PARIS.--GEORGE SAND IN THE RUE PIGALLE.--CHOPIN IN THE RUE TRONCHET: REMINISCENCES OF BRINLEY RICHARDS AND MOSCHELES.--SOIREES AT LEO'S AND S...

TWO PUBLIC CONCERTS, ONE IN 1841 AND ANOTHER IN 1842.--CHOPIN'S STYLE OF PLAYING: TECHNICAL QUALITIES; FAVOURABLE PHYSICAL CONDITIONS; VOLUME OF TONE; USE OF THE PEDALS; SPIRITU...

CHOPIN'S PECUNIARY CIRCUMSTANCES, AND BUSINESS EXPERIENCES WITH PUBLISHERS.--LETTERS TO FRANCHOMME.--PUBLICATIONS FROM 1842-7.--SOJOURNS AT NOHANT.--LISZT, MATTHEW ARNOLD, GEORG...

CHOPIN IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS: HIS PREDILECTION FOR THE FASHIONABLE SALON SOCIETY (ACCOUNTS BY MADAME GIRARDIN AND BERLIOZ); HIS NEGLECT OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTISTS (ARY SCHEFFER...

As Chopin rarely played in public and could not make a comfortable living by his compositions, there remained nothing for him but to teach, which, indeed, he did till his streng...

RUPTURE OF THE SAND-CHOPIN CONNECTION.--HER OWN, LISZT'S, AND KARASOWSKI'S ACCOUNTS.-THE LUCREZIA FLORIANI INCIDENT.--FURTHER INVESTIGATION OF THE CAUSES OF THE RUPTURE BY THE L...

DIFFERENCE OF STYLE IN CHOPIN'S WORKS.----THEIR CHARACTERISTICS DISCUSSED, AND POPULAR PREJUDICES CONTROVERTED.----POLISH NATIONAL MUSIC AND ITS INFLUENCE ON CHOPIN.----CHOPIN A...

is in its own way nearly as perfect as No. 1. Tender, love-sick longing cannot be depicted more truthfully, sweetly, and entrancingly. The excellent No. 3 (in A flat major), wit...

CHOPIN'S ARRIVAL IN LONDON.--MUSICAL ASPECT OF THE BRITISH METROPOLIS IN 1848.--CULTIVATION OF CHOPIN'S MUSIC IN ENGLAND.--CHOPIN AT EVENING PARTIES, &C.--LETTERS GIVING AN ACCO...

P.S.--I have played in Edinburgh; the nobility of the neighbourhood came to hear me; people say the thing went off well--a little success and money. There were this year in Scot...

DETERIORATION OF CHOPIN'S STATE OF HEALTH.--TWO LETTERS.--REMOVES FROM THE SQUARE D'ORLEANS TO THE RUE CHAILLOT.--PECUNIARY CIRCUMSTANCES.--A CURIOUS STORY.--REMINISCENCES AND L...