Sunday, October 3, 1999
63. Annual Pulaski Day Parade

Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Death of Frederick Chopin

This year marks the 150th anniversary of Fryderyk Chopin's death and Gen. Pulaski Memorial Parade Committee, Inc. wishes to commemorate it with a special acknowledgement.

The most gifted of all Polish composers and revered by the entire world for his unquestionable genius, Fryderyk Chopin was blessed with the soul of a great artist and the talent not surpassed by many, in his generation or ours. This enabled him, from his earliest childhood, to convey the deep love of his homeland's charms into the notes of music which was both haunting and soothing. His skillful fingers brought the world unique visions invented by an amazing mind that endured hardships and sorrows to emerge in the joy of masterful creations.

Chopin contributed largely to the development of piano music and helped establish the piano as a solo instrument. He took advantage of improvements in piano design by using the sustaining pedal to build masses of tonal color. A strong nationalist, Chopin brought the rhythmic and harmonic coloring of Polish folk music into his mazurkas, polonaises, and preludes. His music is often described as lyrical, expressive, and colorful.

1810  Frederick Francois Chopin is born in Zelazowa Wola, near Warsaw, as the second of four children of Nicholas Chopin and Tekla Krzyzanowska.

1816   The six-year old Chopin begins to learn the piano with Wojciech Zywny (1756-1842), a Czech teacher established in Warsaw who used to base his teaching on Bach and Mozart.

1817   First efforts at composition: the Polonaise in B flat major, written down by his father, and other dances, marches and variations, now lost.

1819   As a so-called "child prodigy", Chopin begins to play in aristocratic houses of the Czartoryskis, Sapiehas, Czerwertynskis, Radziwills, Lubeckis, Skarbeks, Tenczynskis, Zamoyskis and other families.

1822   Completes piano studies with Zywny and begins private composition lessons with Josef Elsner. He enters classes at the Warsaw Lyceum in September of 1823 concentrating on classical literature, singing, drawing, music theory and harmony.

1826   He completes his studies at the Warsaw Lyceum on July 27 with commendation. In September, he enrolls at the Fine Arts Department of the Warsaw University. There he composes his Sonata in C minor Opus 4 and the Variations in B flat Major on the theme La ci darem la mano op. 2 from Mozart's Don Giovanni.

1829   First visit to Vienna where he played concerts and received critical acclaim. The audience's response was very favorable, and Chopin was impressed with the warm acceptance of his music.

1830   Performs the Concerto in F minor with a small orchestra for family and friends. Then gives its premiere in Warsaw's National Theater on March 17. On October 11, he played the Concerto in E minor at the National Theater. From this period also came the Rondo a la Krakowiak, Fantasia on Polish Airs, and some of the Etudes Opus 10. The news of the Polish uprising against the Russians (so called November uprising) reaches him in Vienna.

1831   While in Vienna, he continues to compose mazurkas and etudes (studies), attends the opera and immerses himself in the local musical life. He leaves Vienna in the summer, traveling via Linz to Salzburg, Munich, Stuttgart and Paris, then the center of European culture, where he settles in an apartment at Boulevard Poissonniere 2 finding in Paris the exact milieu in which his genius could flourish.

1832   On February 26, he gives his first performance in Paris at the Salle Pleyel playing the Concerto in E minor, joined by other artists including Hiller, Osborne and Stamaty. Franz Liszt and Felix Mendelssohn were in the audience. Chopin becomes a well known teacher and frequents the best Parisian aristocratic, social and political circles. He dedicates his entire set of Etudes Opus 10 to Liszt, whose way of playing them quite impressed Chopin. His relationships with the Paris' artistic and literary elite intensify.

1833-1834   Very productive period during which a number of Chopin's works were published by M. Schlesinger in Paris, F. Kistner in Berlin and Breitkopf and Hartel in Leipzig. Among the works are the Variations Brillantes, the Rondo Opus 16, and the Waltz Opus 18.

1835   Completes the Andante Spianato, Grande Polonaise Brillante, and the Scherzo No. 1. Prepares the Mazurkas Opus 24 and the Polonaises Opus 26 for publication. He later meets the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz. He travels to meet with his parents and continues on to Dresden and Leipzig where he has a series of meetings with Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn. Chopin is very ill during the winter months and drafts a will and testament.

1836   His illness returns in the Spring, but in September he makes an offer for the hand of 17-year-old Maria Wodzinska. The engagement is kept secret. Later that year he travels to Leipzig and meets Schumann, playing for him fragments of the Ballade No. 2, some etudes, nocturnes, and mazurkas. The following works appear in print for the first time: Concerto in F minor, Polonaise Opus 22, Ballade Opus 23, Mazurkas Opus 24, Polonaises Opus 26, and Nocturnes Opus 27. In late October he meets for the first time George Sand at a soiree of Countess Marie d'Agoult.

1837   Continues to work on the Etudes Opus 25, Mazurkas Opus 30 and 33, Scherzo Opus 31 and the Nocturnes Opus 32. He travels to London in the summer with Camile Pleyel. Upon his return, his relationship with Madame Sand intensifies. In October, he publishes his Etudes Op. 25 dedicating them to Countess Marie d'Agoult. In November he writes the Trio from the Funeral March Sonata on the eve of the anniversary of the 1830's November uprising in Poland.

1838   The rave reviews continue in Paris. Chopin gives a concert in the Tuileries at the court of Louis Philippe I, then performs at a concert given by Valentin Alkan at the Pape salons. He also plays at the apartment of the Duc d'Orleans. Personalities such as Victor Hugo and Eugene Delacroix cross Chopin's path, attending the musical soirees where performances of Chopin's music took place and his many improvisations. In the autumn of that year Sand, her children and Chopin make their celebrated excursion to Majorca during which Chopin completed his Preludes Opus 28.

1839   On February 13, Chopin leaves Majorca as his health continued to deteriorate. The period following the return from Majorca turns out to be the happiest and most productive of his life. After a week in Barcelona, Madame Sand and Chopin arrive in Paris. He continues to work on the Nocturne Opus 37, No. 2, Mazurkas from Opus 41 and the Funeral March Sonata.

1840   His illness progresses as he continues to give piano lessons to members of aristocratic families. The following works were published during the summer of 1840: Sonata Opus 35, Impromptu Opus 36, Nocturne Opus 37, Ballade Opus 38, Scherzo Opus 39, Polonaises Opus 40, Mazurkas Opus 41, and the Waltz Opus 42.

1841-42   He continues to compose, among others: Polonaise Opus 44, Prelude Opus 45, Allegro de concert Opus 46, Ballade Opus 47, and Nocturnes Opus 48. He later completes the Fantasie in f minor and begins working on the Mazurkas Opus 50. He works on the Ballade Opus 52, Polonaise Opus 53, Scherzo Opus 54, the Impromptu, and the Mazurkas Opus 50. His fame reaches Poland, where rave reviews and articles about him are written frequently.

1843    As his health worsens, his reputation increases. Wrote Heinrich Heine in Lutece:
Chopin is a great poet of music, an artist of genius who can only be mentioned beside Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini or Berlioz.
The long summer spent at Nohant, George Sand's country estate, bore fruit in a succession of masterpieces, such as the Nocturnes Opus 55, Mazurkas Opus 56 and the Sonata Opus 58.

1845   His health continues to deteriorate as he composes and attends concerts in Paris and receives visits from the likes of Delacroix and Mickiewicz. He composes the Mazurkas Op. 59, completes the Sonata for cello, the Barcarolle and the Polonaise-Fantasie.

1846   This was the last summer at Nohant, a long and stormy one. He worked hard on the Nocturnes Op. 62, Mazurkas Op. 63, and the Sonata for cello Op. 65.

1848   February 16, at the Pleyel salon, he plays his last concert in Paris, which included some preludes, mazurkas, waltzes, the Berceuse, the Barcarolle, and with Auguste Franchomme his own cello sonata. The revolution of February 1848 produces a temporary dissolution of the society upon which he depended for his living. Thus, he travels to England and Scotland where he stays for seven months giving concerts in salons and public halls and lessons to the aristocracy; meets Queen Victoria, Charles Dickens and Lady Byron. His last public appearance on a concert platform was made at the Guidhall, London on November 16, 1848 when in a final patriotic gesture he played for the benefit of polish refuges. Chopin returns to Paris via London in November. He is very ill...

1849   He stops teaching, visits the sick Mickiewicz, plays and improvises there. He receives numerous visits from friends, pupils and aristocrats. Eugene Delacroix is among the regular visitors. Sketches of his last work, the Mazurka in f minor, dates from this summer. His sister Ludwika with her daughter and husband arrive in Paris in August to visit the ailing Chopin. He orders all his unpublished and uncompleted works to be thrown on the fire. He says to Wojciech Grzymala:

You will find many works, more or less worth of me; in the name of the affection which you hold for me, please burn them all apart from the beginning of my method for piano. The rest, without any exception, must be consumed by fire, for I have too much respect for my public and I do not want all the pieces unworthy of my public to be distributed on my responsibility under my name. On October 17, he dies.

Cyprian Kamil Norwid wrote in his obituary:
A member of the family of Warsaw by nationality, a Pole in his heart and a citizen of the world by his talent has passed from this world.

On October 30, funeral in the Church of St. Magdalene. Preludes in E minor and B minor as well as Mozart's Requiem were performed in accordance with his wishes. At the Pere-Lachaise cemetery the Funeral March from the Sonata Op. 35 was played in Napoleon-Henri Reber's instrumentation. Also in accordance to his wishes, his heart was taken to Warsaw and placed in the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw.

Courtesy of:
Chopin Foundation of the United States, Inc.
A Non-Profit Organization
1440 79th Street Causeway, Suite 117
Miami, FL 33141