Category: Biographies

Frederick Chopin, as a Man and Musician — Volume 1

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 grandfather for his devotion to the fair sex, to his grandmother for his love of finery. Schopenhau...

Chapters

1. Chapter 1

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...

2. Chapter 2

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...

3. Chapter 3

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...

4. Chapter 4

Warsaw, and made its appearance in Germany some years later. I do not know the exact time of its composition, but I presume it was a year or two after that of the previously men...

5. Chapter 5

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...

6. Chapter 6

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...

7. Chapter 7

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...

8. Chapter 8

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...

9. Chapter 9

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...

10. Chapter 10

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...

11. Chapter 11

12. Chapter 12

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...

13. Chapter 13

14. Chapter 14

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...

15. Chapter 15

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 ARTISTI...

16. Chapter 16

17. Chapter 17

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...

18. Chapter 18

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...

19. Chapter 19

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

20. Chapter 20

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...

21. Chapter 21

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

22. Chapter 22

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

23. Chapter 23

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 LETT...

24. Chapter 24

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.--...

25. Chapter 25

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...

26. Chapter 26

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...