Chopin

78 Posts
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The Title Is a Lie: Chopin’s Minute Waltz
Chopin was inspired by the antics of a small dog chasing its tail to write his Waltz No. 6 in D-Flat Major, Op. 64, No. 1. His publisher, Breitkopf & Härtel, added a title on it to let people know
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Famous Composers as Subjects of Opera
Recently, I had a chat with a young colleague who suggested that the writing of biographies of great composers was a boring myth-making exercise practiced in a cultural galaxy far away and two centuries removed. She had a point about
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The Sound of the Night: Chopin’s Nocturne, Op. 9, No.2
Best-Known Chopin Music: Nocturnes for the Piano At age 20, Frédéric Chopin composed one of his best-known nocturnes for the piano, the iconic Chopin music. Nocturnes were brief piano works that were inspired by the night. It was Chopin who
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Frédéric Chopin and Maria Wodzińska
Funeral March for the Heart
Frédéric Chopin had turned twenty-five when he fell passionately and hopelessly in love with sixteen-year old Maria Wodzińska. He had known her as a child, and “used to chase her through the rooms at Pszenny.” She in turn greatly “annoyed
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Musicians and Artists: Chopin and Delacroix
In a sense, Chopin (1810-1849) occupied two worlds. In Poland, he was Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin of Warsaw. And, after age 21, when he had settled in Paris, he was Frédéric François Chopin. This Polish/European duality drove his life.
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Polish Sensibility: the Mazurkas of Chopin and Szymanowski
Say ‘Mazurka’ and most people will reply ‘Chopin’. Fryderyk Chopin wrote at least 69 pieces in this form: 45 published during his lifetime, 13 published posthumously, and a further 11, which are known but where the manuscripts are in private
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Chilling With Chopin in the Tokyo Metro
Trying to catch a train at Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station during rush hours is not a pleasant task. As a main connecting hub for rail traffic throughout greater Tokyo, it handles an average of 3.64 million people per day! And that
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At the Center of the Musical Universe
Frédéric Chopin III
The Polish pianist Theodore Leschetizky (1830-1915) gave his public debut at age 9. He performed a Concertino by Czerny in the city of Lemberg, with the orchestra directed by Franz Xaver Mozart, the youngest surviving son of Wolfgang Amadeus. After
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