Today, March 1 is the birthday of Frédéric Chopin, one of the great musical geniuses of the Romantic Era in classical music. Frédéric Chopin was born on March 1, 1810 in Żelazowa Wola, a village near Warsaw. A renowned child-prodigy pianist and composer, he grew up in Warsaw where he completed his musical education. At age 20, he left Poland and settled in Paris just before the Russian suppression of the Polish Uprising of November 1830. He kept body and soul together by composing and performing pieces for piano and supplemented this income by giving piano lessons. Between 1837 to 1847 he was romantically involved with Amantine Dupin, a French writer who wrote under the pen name George Sand. Although his relationship with Sand was turbulent, it was during this period that Chopin wrote some of his greatest music. Throughout his life, Chopin suffered from poor health and he died in 1849 at the age of 39 from a heart condition aggravated by tuberculosis.
Chopin’s compositions are technically demanding, yet they seem deceptively simple and invoke feelings of deep pathos, perhaps reflecting the sadness that pervaded his short life. He made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude as well as inventing the musical form known as the ballade.
Unlike some of his deep reflective ballades, Chopin’s polonaises were bombastic and defiant. When Germany invaded Poland in World War II, the Polish people felt the despair that accompanies feelings of hopelessness. Attempting to raise the morale of the citizenry during its darkest hour, Polskie Radio played incessantly Chopin’s 1838 Polonaise in A major–now known as the military polonaise–raising the middle finger against the invading army. Today, the Ukranians might choose to do the same. You can access this polonaise at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzHI32aHz_M
