Legendary Composer & Pianist Frédéric Chopin

Today is the anniversary of the birth of legendary piano virtuoso, leading Romanticism composer and Polish national hero Frédéric (Fryderyk) Chopin, on March 1, 1810. Born in Żelazowa Wola, Chopin’s family moved to nearby Warsaw when he was six months old. A child prodigy, Chopin completed his musical education and composed his earlier works in Warsaw before leaving Poland at age 20, finally settling in Paris the following year.

 

Throughout Chopin’s life, Poland did not exist as an independent country. It had disappeared from the map of Europe in 1795, following the Partitions in which Poland’s rapacious neighbors Russia, Prussia and Austria-Hungary divided the country among them. It was not until 123 years later, in 1918, when at the end of World War I Poland was reborn as an independent nation.

 

Chopin’s music incorporates important nationalistic themes which, along with the Polish church and literature, were instrumental in keeping Polish cultural identity alive through the many generations of Partition.

 

Indeed, his music was such a potent nationalistic force that during World War II, more than 90 years after Chopin’s death, the Germans banned his music in occupied Poland.

 

As 11-year-old Julian Kulski writes in The Color of Courage in April 1940: “Now, however, Poles have stopped going to the theater or concerts, although some give concerts at home. Mostly, they play music by Chopin, which is banned by the Germans.” (p. 60)  A month later, in late May 1940, Kulski notes in his diary that the Germans have even removed the statue of Chopin in Łazienki Park to melt down — and he says “Another attack on our pride!” (p. 67)

The beauty of Chopin’s music continues to inspire the wider musical world to this day.