Understanding Western Art Music - Essay Example

Sur FNAR Understanding Western Art Music Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin, the world’s acclaimed genius: a composer, pianist and teacher, born 1810 March 1 to “French émigré father [Mikolaj (Nicolas) Chopin] (a schoolteacher working in Poland) and a cultured Polish mother [Tekla Justyna Krzyzanowska],”1 (Biography, www.chopin.pl) with three sisters in “the region of Mazovia, which was part of the Duchy of Warsaw”2. (Classical Music Pages, http//w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de). Controversially, Chopin’s baptismal certificate revealed that he was born 1810 February 22. Either date does not upset the gifted composer/pianist to conquer international prominence. In the years of “lively domestic music-making”3 Fryderyk was then five, his sister Izabela described her little brother, “‘soon began to display a sensitivity to musical impressions by crying’”3 (qtd in Chopin Diary, http://en.chopin.nifc.pl). Chopin’s talent was not concealed from public from his early childhood as he was commended the “child prodigy for his keyboard and composition skill”4 (Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin Biography, www.last.fm/music/Fr) which had been closely equated with Mozart as he showcased his gift with “two polonaises (in G minor and B flat major), the first being published in the engraving workshop of Father Cybulski. The prodigy was featured in the Warsaw newspapers”,5 as young as seven years old. (Music History, www.nivmusic.com). From this period, “little Chopin” was the Surname 2 adornment of the aristocratic salons in Warsaw. Seven was the age that Chopin made had his first concert. In the next twenty years, Chopin stayed in Warsaw. Chopin’s first formal piano lessons after his piano practices with his mother was with Wojciech Zywny and played his first public appearance at a charity concert by Czech composer Adalbert Gyrowetz. After Chopin stopped his piano lessons with Zywny, he started to learn compositions with Jozef Elsner taking organ lessons simultaneously with Wilhelm Wuerfl. Chopin’s formal schooling was attended at the Warsaw Lyceum where he spent most of his summer holidays in various parts of the countryside and developed keen interest to folk music and country traditions and “became well acquainted with the folk music of the Polish plains in its authentic form, with its distinct tonality, richness of rhythms and dance vigour”5 thereby, composing his first Mazurka. (Music History, www.nivmusic.com). From his holiday vacations, he wrote to his parents, “‘Through God’s grace I am well and time always passes most pleasurably. I neither read nor write, but I play, drawn, run, make the most of the fresh air...’”3. This first letter was followed by a series of ”amusing ‘letters’3, known as the ‘Kurier Szafarski’ [Szafarnia Courier], parodying the ‘Kurier Warszawski’ [Warsaw Courier].”3 (qtd in Chopin Diary, http://en.chopin.nifc.pl). At age 15, Chopin was already a published composer with a soft heart to the impoverished ones where he performed charity concerts. The growing Chopin is exposed to political flux which at one time and another influenced his compositions, At Surname 3 Warsaw, young Chopin witnessed “arrests […] made among the members of the Narodowe Towarzystwo Patriotyczne” 3. (qtd in Chopin Diary, http://en.chopin.nifc.pl). At Warsaw School of Music, Chopin started to study the theory of music. However, he showed disinterest in his piano class and did not attend classes by which was leniently tolerated by the school head Elsner in view of understanding the personality and temperament of Chopin being aware of his unmistakable superior talent of which he acclaimed in writing, “Chopin, Fryderyk, third year student, amazing talent, musical genius".6 (qtd. in Academy of Music, www.hrovatmusic.com). Previously, in the first and second year of young Chopin, he was commended “‘First-year: Chopin Fryderyk – special ability, second-year: Dobrzyński Ignacy – rare ability...’” 3. In another view of Chopin, Wilhelm Kohlberg recalls the time they were learning English, “[…]These lessons were livened up by an inexhaustible supply of ideas, gestures and gags, mostly coming from Chopin’” 3. (qtd in Chopin Diary, http://en.chopin.nifc.pl). And after his studies were completed at Warsaw School of Music, he arranged plans to travel abroad. His travels during his schooling years had not extended far from Warsaw countryside apart from the travel to Prussia and short excursions to Vienna and Berlin. In Berlin he purposefully acquainted himself to musical life. However, Chopin “reacts critically to early romantic exaltation; he calls ‘some German Korinna full of ahs, jas and neis’ encountered on a stage-coach ‘a veritable romantic ass’” 3 and he draws caricatures ‘with huge, formless noses’3 to represent nature scholars. (qtd in Chopin Surname 4 Diary, http://en.chopin.nifc.pl). Chopin’s intentions to travel Europe were to acquaint with musical life and acquire fame. His first travel abroad was headed to Vienna with intentions to proceeding to Italy. However, before his arranged travel, he had a series of public performances. At this time he performed two concertos. The first concerto was told to be inspired by Chopin’s feelings toward Konstancja Gladkowska and “[t]his was also the period of the first nocturne, etudes, waltzes, mazurkas, and songs to words by Stefan Witwicki”.5 (Music History, www.nivmusic.com). In Chopin’s expression of his inspiration, “[b]ecause, perhaps to my misery, I already have my perfect one whom I have, without saying a word, served faithfully for a year now, of whom I dream, in whose memory the adagio of my concerto has been put up".7 (Fryderyk Chopin – Piano Concertos, www.culture.pl). The concertos represented the romantic type which contained three movements “with the first movement composed in the form of a sonata with double exposition; the second movement (Romance)” 7 described by Chopin in his letter to Tytus Woyciechowski quoted in FRYDERYK CHOPIN - PIANO CONCERTOS, “[i]t is not meant to be powerful, but rather romantic, quiet, melancholic, should give the impression of a look back at a thousand loveable memories. It is like meditating in beautiful springtime, at moonlight’; and the finale “composed in the form of rondos, contain references to Polish folk dances: the kujawiak and the masur”7 (Fryderyk Chopin – Piano Concertos, www.culture.pl). Surname 5 In Vienna, Chopin performed two concerts at Kärntnerthortheater of which he was admired and noticed by the Viennese newspapers writing, “Mr Chopin has made our acquaintance as one of the finest pianists, full of gentleness and deepest emotion".8 (Tadeusz Andrzej Zielinski, www.culture.pl/). Shortly, while in Vienna, the November Rising outbreak which began the Russo-Polish war in Warsaw, news reached him and a surge of desperation to go back home to Poland to participate in the uprising was discouraged by his friend Woyciechowski. While all of Chopin’s friends participated in the uprising, he remained in Vienna and made acquaintances though discontent expressed in his letter to Elsner, “In vain does Malfatti try to convince me that every artist is a cosmopolitan. Even if so, as an artist, I am still in my cradle, as a Pole, I am already twenty; I hope, therefore that, knowing me well, you will not chide me that so far I have not thought about the programme of the concert”.6 (qtd. in Academy of Music, www.hrovatmusic.com). Chopin’s early plans to travel to Italy was surrendered and decided to depart for Paris instead. He stopped at Stuttgard, Germany for a concert before proceeding to Paris where he learned the collapse of the November uprising and captured Warsaw by the Russians. The news had great impact in his reactions with “fever”6 and “nervous crisis”.6 Accounts of the event were revealed from his diary, “The enemy is in the house (...) Oh God, do You exist? You do and yet You do not avenge. - Have You not had enough of Moscows crimes - or - or are You Yourself a Muscovite [...] I here, useless! And I here empty-handed. At times I can only groan, suffer, and pour out my despair at Surname 6 my piano!"6 (qtd. in Academy of Music, www.hrovatmusic.com). It is also at this time and place that he composed the ETUDE IN C MINOR OP. 10 NO. 12, called Revolutionary. In Paris, he met many of his countrymen in exile and actively participated in organizations as he made close contacts with the Great Emigration. He performed for charity concerts which rapidly intensified his reputation as an artist. Chopin was decided to settle in Paris where he felt most welcome with his growing prominence. However, his most important source of income was giving lessons to Polish and French aristocracy where he gained the respected popularity being a teacher. Chopin denied himself of the legality to revisit his family and homeland despite his burning desire to see his family by denying obedience to the Tsarist regulations and did not extend his passport in the Russian embassy which consequently regarded him as a political refugee. For such disobedience Chopin had to meet his parents outside Poland to satisfy his yearning and loneliness for his distant family. For this scheduled meeting, his father expressed to their family, ”‘having learned from my letters that I was to travel to Karlsbad, he wished to give us the most pleasant of surprises; he abandoned his activities in Paris and travelled for several nights in order to arrive here before us. He has not changed a bit. […] We shed tears of joy’”.3 (qtd in Chopin Diary, http://en.chopin.nifc.pl). Surname 7 Subsequently after the one month reunion with his family he proceeded to Dresden where he renewed his relationship with Wodzinski family and met Maria whom he fell in love with and desired to marry. For the gatherings, Chopin played improvised compositions such as “Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła [Poland Has Not Yet Perished],”1 of which was noted by Count Józef Krasiński that charged him to the Russian Embassy that questioned, “How could I be in a home where patriotic, revolutionary songs were being sung?“1 Such displeasing circumstance to the Russian resulted to the denial to renew Krasiński residence permit and the order for the Wodzinski family to leave Dresden. Furthermore, the rendezvous between Maria and Fryderyk was broken. His proposal was conditionally accepted with such agreement to improve his failing health condition. However, with the worsening condition of his illness, the arrangement was denied which gravely saddened Chopin revealed from his bundle of letters for the Wodzinski labeled “my sorrow”1. (Biography, www.chopin.pl). From his depressive love affair, Chopin traveled to London in his struggle to forget about his despair. In London, Chopin met the French novelist George Sand whose real name was Mme. Aurore Dudévant, divorced with two children. In their liaison Chopin grew gravely ill with symptoms of tuberculosis, until they moved together from Majorsca to Central France where they were treated highly with respect as a couple although they were not married. His relationship with George Sand showed to be the most prolific part of his life and later on proved to be the most excruciating upon Surname 8 their parting due to the unfavorable response of George’s son toward the relationship which influenced the separation of the couple. Setting aside the bitter ending of such an inspiring romance that the couple used to share, George Sand expresses her thoughts of Chopin to Marliani while they were in Majorca, “His goodness, tenderness and patience are worrying […] He is too subtle a being, too exceptional and too perfect to live long.”3 (qtd in Chopin Diary, http://en.chopin.nifc.pl). With the lost of his love George Sand, his illness severely progressed and gradually lost his artistic inspiration for his compositions. Chopin is best illustrated as a man of passion, a friendly figure, an artist genius with determined patience toward his pupils in the mastery of his majestic teachings. Of what he was not popularly acclaimed was his genuine charm in infusing mastery of artistic freedom of expression in music to his students resulting to a gift of genuine talent which his students inherited with gratitude. Chopin set his heart in teaching with utmost respect to this profession. For such long patience of a teacher reaps the sweet pronouncements of appreciation from his pupils but vainly recognized by the public. Chopin for most of his core substance was applauded for his originality in his music with much exploitation of a free spirit. The brilliance in his compositions revealed his passionate emotions and his music expresses that of freedom in varying expressions with emphasis of poetry and expressive depth which for most occasions Surname 9 dubbed his music as that of “romanticism in the nineteenth century classical music.”4 (Frederic Chopin’s Biography, www.last.fm). Chopin is greatly inspired by his passionate affection toward a lady of his heart’s desire. Such is evidently expressed in his previous works dedicated to his ‘first love’. Such claim has been shown in his first significant compositions after his graduation. The two concertos were highly acclaimed by the public and the press. Chopin himself revealed that his inspiration in the composition of the two concertos was drawn from his intimate feelings for his ‘first love’ Konstancja Gladkowska, shown in the second movement (Lhargettos) “referred to in Chopins letter as Adagias, which was a term commonly used at the time for all slow movements of concertos and sonatas.”7 From his letter to Tytus Woyciechowski, Chopin expressed, “‘Because, perhaps to my misery, I already have my perfect one whom I have, without saying a word, served faithfully for a year now, of whom I dream, in whose memory the adagio of my concerto has been put up’”.7 (FRYDERYK CHOPIN - PIANO CONCERTOS, www.culture.pl) Chopin, a legendary artist died at a young age of 39 with pulmonary tuberculosis in Paris. His remains were cremated and brought home to Warsaw by his sister upon his request and placed “in an urn installed in a pillar of the Holy Cross church in Krakowskie Przedmiescie”,1 (Biography, www.chopin.pl) which to this day is remembered for the works of a genius which brought international popularity for Poland. Surname 10 Endnotes 1Zielinska, Barbara Smolenska, “Biography” from Fryderyk Chopin’s Life http://www.chopin.pl/biografia/index_en.html. 2Boynick, Matt, “Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)”, Classical Music Pages, extracted with permission from The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/chopin.html (1996). 3Chopin, Fryderik, “Chopin Diary”, Published in internet Chopin Information Center, http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/life/calendar/year/1830. 4BajaMar, “Frédéric Chopin’s Biography”, http://www.last.fm/music/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric+Chopin/+wiki. 5Zielinska, Barbara Smolenska, “Music History: Biography Fryderyk Chopin” Where Past Masters Meet the Future, http://www.nivmusic.com/BioChopin.html. 6PianoTeam, “Frederick Chopin – Biography” from the Forte Academy of Music, http://www.hrovatmusic.com/resources.htm. 7Polish Music Information Center, “Profiles Music: Fryderyk Chopin”, http://www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/dz_chopin_koncerty_fortepianowe (2004). 8Zielinski , Tadeusz Andrzej, “Fryderyk Chopin” retrieved from Profiles Music, http://www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/os_chopin_fryderyk, (2002). Surname 11 Works Cited Boynick, Matt (1996). “Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)”. Classical Music Pages, extracted with permission from The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music. http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/chopin.html Chopin, Fryderik. “Chopin Diary”. Published in internet Chopin Information Center. http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/life/calendar/year/1830 Zielinska, Barbara Smolenska. “Biography”. from Fryderyk Chopin’s Life. http://www.chopin.pl/biografia/index_en.html Zielinska, Barbara Smolenska. “Music History: Biography Fryderyk Chopin”. Where Past Masters Meet the Future. http://www.nivmusic.com/BioChopin.html BajaMar. “Frédéric Chopin’s Biography”. retrieved from last.fm. http://www.last.fm/music/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric+Chopin/+wiki PianoTeam. “Frederick Chopin – Biography”. from the Forte Academy of Music. http://www.hrovatmusic.com/resources.htm Polish American Journal. “FrédéricChopin”. http://www.polamjournal.com/Library/Biographies/Chopin/chopin.html Zielinski , Tadeusz Andrzej (2002). “Fryderyk Chopin” retrieved from Profiles Music. http://www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/os_chopin_fryderyk. Polish Music Information Center (2004). “Profiles Music: Fryderyk Chopin”. Retrieved from Music Works. http://www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/dz_chopin_koncerty_fortepianowe Read More