Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek [Frédéric François]
- Kornel Michałowski
- and Jim Samson
Extract
(b Żelazowa Wola, nr Warsaw, March 1, 1810; d Paris, Oct 17, 1849). Polish composer and pianist. He combined a gift for melody, an adventurous harmonic sense, an intuitive and inventive understanding of formal design and a brilliant piano technique in composing a major corpus of piano music. One of the leading 19th-century composers who began a career as a pianist, he abandoned concert life early; but his music represents the quintessence of the Romantic piano tradition and embodies more fully than any other composer’s the expressive and technical characteristics of the instrument....
