[Gutenberg 4681] • Frederick Chopin, as a Man and Musician — Volume 1

Fryderyk (Frederic/Frederick) Chopin (1810-1849) was a Polish virtuoso pianist and piano composer of the Romantic period. He is widely regarded as one of the most famous, influential, and prolific composers for piano of all time. Chopin was born in the village of Zelazowa Wola, in the Duchy of Warsaw, to a Polish mother and French-expatriate father and came to be regarded as a child-prodigy pianist. In 1830, at the age of twenty, Chopin went abroad. After the suppression of the Polish 1830-31 Uprising, he became one of the many expatriates of the Polish Great Emigration. In Paris he made a comfortable living as a composer and piano teacher. Chopinas extant compositions all include the piano, predominantly alone or as a solo instrument among others. Though his music is technically demanding, its style emphasizes nuance and expressive depth rather than technical virtuosity. Chopin invented new musical forms such as the ballade, and made major innovations to existing forms such as the piano sonata, waltz, nocturne, etude, impromptu, and prelude. His works are mainstays of Romanticism in 19th-century classical music.