OPPapers.com

Chopin

Sun Chang

Passion Project- Chopin

Scott

June 2, 2008

When and where was Chopin born? Does this affect his composing career?

On March 1st, 1810, Frederic Chopin was born in Poland, in a village called Zelazowa Wola by Warsaw. Many factors including when and where Chopin was born affect his composing career.

The location of his birth and his childhood impacted Chopin’s composing career significantly. A number of Chopin’s music portrays his love for his homeland called Poland. For example, when you confront his piano works, you can easily observe that he composed more than ten polonaises, which are types of dances that originated from Poland. One of the most well known polonaises by Frederic Chopin is the andante spianato en grade polonaise. In addition to affects of his home country, the location of his birth inside Poland influenced Chopin in numerous ways. Because he was born near Warsaw, he later attended the Warsaw conservatory of music. In addition, being born in Europe, a continent well know for its music, made visiting the major music centers such as Vienna and Paris more simple.

The time Frederic was born also in a way affects his composing career. Chopin was born in 1810, which was the time when classical period was beginning to end and the romantic period was about to begin its reign. The romantic period did not officially start until roughly between the 1820s and 1900s, but Chopin is considered an influential Romantic Composer.

(3)

Is there a particular reason why Chopin composed every piece of music for the piano?

Nobody really knows if there was a special reason for Chopin to be such a major piano composer. However, I doubt that there is any particular reason why Chopin composed so many piano pieces.

One reason could be that he studied piano theory at the Warsaw school of music. Also, when he was young, he was considered a child prodigy pianist. His first concert with a piano was when he was only seven...