Fryderyk Chopin was born in
Żelazowa Wola, some fifty kilometers west of
Warsaw in
Sochaczew County in what was then part of the
Duchy of Warsaw. His father was Nicolas (in
Polish,
Mikołaj) Chopin, originally a Frenchman from
Lorraine who had emigrated to Poland in 1787 at age 16 and served during the
Kościuszko Uprising in Poland's National Guard. Mikołaj subsequently worked in
Żelazowa Wola as a tutor to some aristocratic families, including the Skarbeks, one of whose poorer relations, Tekla Justyna Krzyżanowska, he married.
[9]According to the composer's family, Fryderyk (Frederick) Chopin, the couple's second child, was born on
March 1,
1810. There is no known
birth certificate. His
baptismal certificate gives the birthdate as
February 22,
1810.
In October 1810, when Fryderyk was seven months old, the family moved to
Warsaw, where his father took a position as teacher of
French language at a
school housed in the
Saxon Palace. The family lived on the palace grounds.
In 1817-27, Chopin's family lived in this
Warsaw University building, now adorned (center) with Fryderyk's profile, adjacent to the
Kazimierz Palace.
In 1817 Mikołaj Chopin became a teacher of French at the Warsaw Lyceum, housed in
Warsaw University's
Kazimierz Palace. The family lived in a spacious second-floor apartment in an adjacent building. In 1823-26 Fryderyk himself would attend the Warsaw Lyceum.
A Polish spirit, and the
Polish language, pervaded Mikołaj Chopin's home, and as a result Fryderyk would never, even in Paris, perfectly master the
French language.
[10] The boy inherited his blond hair and blue eyes from his mother; his frail health, rather from his father. The father played the flute and violin, and the mother—the piano, and gave lessons to the boys who lived in their boarding house. Thus Fryderyk early became conversant with music in its various forms. He was drawn to the piano powerfully and exclusively from as early as his hands could reach the keyboard. On it he began picking out melodies on his own. He received his earliest "piano lessons" not from his mother but from his three-years-older sister Ludwika (in
English, "Louise").
[11]Mikołaj Chopin. Portrait by
Ambroży Mieroszewski, 1829
Chopin received his first professional piano lessons, in 1816–22, from the respected, elderly
Wojciech Żywny. Chopin later spoke highly of him, though the youngster's skills soon surpassed those of his teacher. Seven-year-old "little Chopin" gave public concerts, prompting comparisons with the earlier little
Mozart and with the still living
Beethoven. That same year, he composed two
polonaises,
G minor and
B flat major. The first was published in the engraving workshop of Father Cybulski, director of a School of Organists and one of the few music publishers in Poland; the second survives in a manuscript prepared by Mikołaj Chopin. These small works could withstand comparison with the popular polonaises of the leading Warsaw composers, and even with the famous polonaises of
Michał Kleofas Ogiński. A very substantial development of melodic and harmonic invention and of piano technique was shown in Chopin's next surviving polonaise, which the young artist offered in 1821 as a
name-day present to Żywny.
[12]In these years, Chopin would be invited to the
Belweder Palace as a playmate for the son of Russian
Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich, and charmed the irascible Grand Duke with his piano playing. "Little Chopin's" popularity is attested by
Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz's "dramatic
eclogue," "Nasze verkehry" ("Our Intercourse," 1818), in which one of the main motifs in the dialogs was the then-eight-year-old musician.
[13]Justyna Chopin. Portrait by
Ambroży Mieroszewski, 1829
As a child, Chopin showed a remarkable "open intelligence" that easily absorbed everything and made use of everything for its development. He retained as well in his mature age a certain ability in sketching, a gift for observation, a keen wit and sense of humor, and an uncommon talent for
mimicry.
[14] A famous anecdote from his school years recounts that a teacher was pleasantly surprised to find that Chopin had drawn a superb portrait of him in class.
[15] During vacations in the countryside when Chopin acquainted himself with the
folk melodies that he would later refine into his musical compositions, he wrote home famous letters that
parodied the Warsaw
newspapers. Another anecdote, from Maurycy Karasowski's family traditions, describes how Chopin helped quiet down the rowdy children by improvising a story, then putting everyone to sleep with a
berceuse; after he had shown the charming picture to the mother, he woke everyone with an ear-piercing
chord.
[16]To the age of thirteen, Chopin studied at home. In 1823 he enrolled in the Warsaw Lyceum. He continued working on piano under Żywny's direction, and when in 1825 he performed a concert of
Moscheles and entranced the audience with his free improvisation, he was acclaimed the best pianist in Warsaw.
[17]In 1827 the family moved to lodgings in the Krasiński Palace just across the street at
Krakowskie Przedmieście 5, now the Academy of Fine Arts (Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie). Chopin would live there until he departed Warsaw in 1830.
Thus, from the age of seven months until his final departure from
Warsaw and
Poland at the age of twenty, Chopin always dwelt with his family either in a
palace or in palace precincts.
In the autumn of 1826, Chopin began a three-year course of studies with the composer
Józef Elsner at the
Warsaw Conservatory, which was affiliated with
Warsaw University (hence Chopin is counted among the
University's alumni).
Fryderyk Chopin. Portrait by
Ambroży Mieroszewski, 1829
It was in 1829, during the latter part of Fryderyk's studies or soon thereafter, that the painter
Ambroży Mieroszewski executed a set of five portraits of the surviving members of the Chopin family: the 19-year-old composer (it was his first known portrait), his parents, and his elder sister Ludwika and younger sister Izabela. In 1913 Édouard Ganche would write that the precocious composer's portrait showed "a youth threatened by
tuberculosis. His skin is very white, he has a prominent
Adam's apple and sunken cheeks, even his ears show a form characteristic of
consumptives." Chopin's younger sister Emilia had already died of tuberculosis at age fourteen in 1827, and his father would succumb to the same disease in 1844.
[18]Chopin's contact with
Józef Elsner may have dated from as early as 1822, and it is certain that Elsner was giving Chopin informal guidance by 1823. Chopin now studied
music theory,
figured bass and
composition with him. In year-end evaluations, Elsner noted Chopin's "remarkable talent" and "musical genius." Like Żywny, Elsner observed the development of Chopin's talent more than he influenced its blossoming or gave it direction. He did not constrain him with narrow, academic, outdated rules but let him mature according to the laws of his own nature.
[19]On completing his composition studies with Elsner, Chopin was a fully-formed artist. According to Jachimecki, it is difficult to compare him with any earlier composer, for the style of his works already from the first half of his life is incomparably original. At his age,
Bach,
Mozart and
Beethoven were still epigones of earlier masters, whereas Chopin virtually from the first was no epigone but rather a precursor of the coming age.
[20]The beauty of Chopin's works is a purely musical one, requiring no reference to literature or painting. Chopin never gave programmatic titles to his works. His compositions did, however, take their origin in his emotional life. The first inspiration for his emotions and imagination was a beautiful young singer at the Warsaw Opera, Konstancja Gładkowska. In letters to his friend Tytus Woyciechowski, Chopin indicated which of his works and even which of their passages had arisen under the influence of his erotic transports. His artistic soul was also enriched through friendships with leading lights of Warsaw's artistic and intellectual world—with
Maurycy Mochnacki,
Jan Matuszewski,
Józef Bohdan Zaleski,
Julian Fontana and others.
[21]In 1827–30, Chopin lived with his family at the Krasiński Palace (
Krakowskie Przedmieście 5) before leaving Poland forever. In 1837–39 it would be home to poet
Cyprian Norwid, author of "Chopin's Piano" about Russians' 1863
defenestration of the instrument.
In September 1828 Chopin struck out for the wider world in the company of a Dr. Jarocki, who was going to a scientific congress in
Berlin. There Chopin saw several unfamiliar operas directed by
Gaspare Spontini, heard several concerts, and saw
Carl Friedrich Zelter,
Felix Mendelssohn and other famous people. On the way back from Berlin, he was a guest at
Antonin of Prince
Antoni Radziwiłł, governor of the
Grand Duchy of Poznań, himself an accomplished composer and cellist. For his host Chopin composed his
Polonaise for Cello and Piano Op. 3.
[22]In 1829, in
Warsaw, Chopin heard
Niccolò Paganini play and met the German pianist and composer
Johann Nepomuk Hummel.
In August 1829, three weeks after completing his studies at the
Warsaw Conservatory, Chopin made a brilliant début in
Vienna. He gave two piano performances and received very favorable reviews (along with some that criticized the small tone that he produced from the piano). This success opened the road for him to western Europe, if he wished to take it.
In December 1829, at Warsaw's Merchants' Club, he performed the première of his
Piano Concerto in F minor. On
March 17,
1830, at the
National Theater, he gave the first performance of his other piano concerto, in
E minor.
But Warsaw now seemed too small for Chopin. On
November 2,
1830, seen off by friends and admirers, with a ring from his beloved on his finger and carrying with him a silver cup containing soil of his native land, Chopin set out, writes Jachimecki, "into the wide world, with no very clearly defined aim, forever."
[23]Later that month the
November 1830 Uprising broke out, and his traveling companion Tytus Woyciechowski returned home to take part. Now alone by himself in
Vienna, Chopin, afflicted by nostalgia, disappointed in his hopes of giving concerts and publishing, matured and acquired spiritual depth. From a romantic poet he grew into an inspired bard who intuited the past, present and future of his country. Only now, at this distance, did he see all of Poland from the proper perspective, and understand what was great and truly beautiful in her, the tragedy and heroism of her vicissitudes. When, on the way from Vienna to
Paris, in September 1831 he learned in
Stuttgart that the November Uprising had been crushed, he poured profanities and blasphemies into the pages of a little journal that he would keep hidden to the end of his life. These outcries of a tormented heart found musical expression in his
Scherzo in B Minor, Op. 20, and his
Revolutionary Etude.
[24]
