Interviewer: Good day Ms. Brown and 1303 Music Appreciation Class. I will be giving an interview with Frederic Chopin also called the “Poet of the Piano”. I read that you come from a musical family. Is that true? Chopin: My family was not wealthy, but we had a strong appreciation for music. My mother could hold her own on the piano and my father played the violin and flute. I was even told that when I was a baby, when my mother would sing, I would be moved to tears. At what age did you pick up your first musical instrument and what was it? Chopin: I started playing the piano at the age of five with my sister, Ludwika. I loved playing the piano; so much I slept with wine corks between my fingers because I was told it might help me achieve a wider span on the piano. Were there any other amazing things you did as a child? Chopin: By the age of seven, I played in my first public concert; it was for a Russian Prince, by that time I was well known in my homeland as a “child prodigy”. My first compositions were published in a Warsaw newspaper and I was famous throughout Poland and oth...
The musical talent of Frederic became apparent extremely early on, and it was compared with the childhood genius of Mozart. Already at the age of 7, Frederic was the author of two polonaises, the first being published in the engraving workshop of Father Cybulski. The prodigy was featured in the Warsaw newspapers, and little Chopin became the attraction and ornament of receptions given in the aristocratic salons of the capital. He also began giving public charity concerts. His first professional piano lessons lasted from 1816 to 1822, when his teacher was no longer able to give any more help to a pupil whose skills surpassed his own. Wilhelm Würfel, a renowned pianist and professor at the Warsaw Conservatory, supervised the further development of Frederic’s talent. Würfel would offer valuable, although irregular, advice as regards playing the piano and organ to young Chopin.
Chopin was a piano instructor and composer of the Romantic Period. His body of work consists primarily of piano music. Born and classically trained in Poland, he left his homeland due to declining political conditions and moved to Paris, where he moved through the ranks and gained the respect of many other composers of the day. He had a famous relationship with the novelist George Sand, although the exact nature of the relationship is a bit unclear. He suffered from Tuberculosis and died at the young age of 39, not unlike so many other composers of this period.
...Chopin's The Awakening." Journal For Cultural Research 12.4 (2008): 335-347. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
Kate Chopin was born on February 8, 1851, into a wealthy Catholic family in St. Louis Missouri. As a little girl, her father died a few years later in 1855 and was raised at home with her other sisters and mother, strong willed and prominent women who believed in self sufficiency. Soon, on June 9, 1870, Chopin married a man named Oscar. She graduated from St. Louis convent school. In the meanwhile, Kate was soon busy by the occupations of a being a mother and wife to the prestigious business man, Oscar whom she married. Throughout this escapade of life, Kate was forced to relocate often due to her husband’s change of business. Although, it was difficult to build upon these circumstances, Kate managed a small farm and plantation farm to keep things running. Even through these circumstances, Kate pulled through only to discover that all these locals would soon be her inspirations and se...
Frederic Chopin was a composer, teacher, and pianist born on March 1, 1810 in Zelazowa Wola, Poland. He was raised in a musical family as his mother and his sister played piano. At a very young age, he would listen to them play the piano, and not long after he was trying to play their repertoire while trying to make up his tunes. He officially started getting piano lessons at the age of seven, lasting six years, but would soon surpass and leave the teacher to teach himself (Clark). He also wrote two different polonaises at the age of seven; one in B flat major and the other in G minor. He played his first concert at the age of eight, and at age eleven played
This site, based on a television presentation by the PBS, gives further information on Chopin. In contains a transcript of the television presentation, a chronology of major events in Chopin’s life, interviews with Chopin’s grandson, David Chopin and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese of Emory University, and shares links on the author.
The brilliant composer Clara Schumann was born as Clara Josephine Wieck on 13 September 1819. Even before her birth, her destiny was to become a famous musician. Her father, Friedrich Wieck, was a piano teacher and music dealer, while her mother, Marianne Wieck, was a soprano and a concert pianist and her family was very musically gifted. Her father, Friedrich, wanted to prove to the world that his teaching methods could produce a famous pianist, so he decided, before Clara’s birth, that she would become that pianist. Clara’s father’s wish came true, as his daughter ended up becoming a child prodigy and one of the most famous female composers of her time.
Kate Chopin was one of the most influential nineteenth century American fiction writers. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri on either one of three dates: February 8, 1851, February 8, 1850, or July 12, 1850, depending on the source. She once said that she was born in 1851, but her baptismal certificate states February 8, 1850 as her birthday (Inge, 2). There is also an indiscretion regarding the spelling of her name. Her full name is Katherine O’Flaherty Chopin, but one source spells her first name with a ‘C’ (Katherine, 1). Her father, Thomas O’Flaherty, was an Irish immigrant who became a successful merchant in St. Louis. Her mother, Eliza Faris O’Flaherty, came from a wealthy aristocratic Creole family (Inge, 2). Kate Chopin was a student at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis. Here she learned the Catholic teachings and great intellectual discipline. She graduated from this French school in 1868 (Inge, 2). On June 9th in 1870, she married Oscar Chopin. Together the couple had six children: Jean (1871), Oscar (1873), George (1874), Frederick (1876), Felix (1878), and Lelia (1879) (Inge, 3).
Mozart’s father, Leopold, was a composer, violinist, and assistant concert master at the Salzburg court. Due to the fact that his father was deeply involved in music, Mozart was influenced at a very young age. Mozart began learning how to play the piano as early as the age of three. Under his father’s advice, Mozart and his sister, Maria Anna, excelled greatly.
According to classical.net on March 25, 1881 one of the most important composers during the 20th century was born, his name was Bela Bartok. Bela was born in the Romanian town in Timis County called Sânnicolau Mare. His nationality was Hungarian, considering where he was born, also the fact that the town is so close to the borders of Serbia and Hungary. “He was a child prodigy with great music skills, which his mother recognized very early on,” Says thefamouspeople.com. Bartok had many talents not only being a composer and pianist, he was also an excessively quick learner. He began to show his great love of music in his early years as a child. According to thefamouspeople.com “it was said that he shown this love before he even began talking he could distinguish between different tunes of dance rhythms his mother played on the piano.” By the age of four Bela had already learnt to play more than 40 piano pieces (thefamouspeople.com). Seeing this accomplishment his family made the decision to get
Frederic Chopin is one of the most famous and influential composers from the nineteenth century. He is especially known for his piano music now and then. Chopin’s works include three sonatas, mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes, polonaises, etudes, impromptus, scherzos, ballades, preludes, two piano concertos, a few chamber music, and some Polish vocal pieces. He played an important role in the 19th century Polish nationalistic movement. In particular, his mazurkas and polonaises based on Polish dances best express his nationalistic passion and the musical features of the Polish culture.
Chopin, Kate, and Kate Chopin. The Story of an Hour. Logan, IA: Perfection Learning, 2001. Print.
Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. “Kate Chopin.” Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, Sep2013. Academic Research Database. 1 Nov. 2013
Franz Liszt was a Hungarian born composer. He was one of the best, and most respected pianist of his time. He was a very accomplished conductor, and one of the foremost educational instructors in history. In 1836, King Charles Halle described Franz Liszt as the following. "He is tall and very thin, his face very small and pale, his forehead remarkably high and beautiful; he wears his perfectly lank hair so long that it spreads over his shoulders, which looks very odd, for when he gets a bit excited and gesticulates, it falls right over his face and one sees nothing of his nose. He is very negligent in his attire, his coat looks as if it had just been thrown on, and he wears no cravat, only a narrow white collar. This curious figure is in perpetual motion: now he stamps with his feet, now waves his arms in the air, now waves his arms in the air, now he does this, now that." Franz Liszt, was born on October 22, 1811, In the Hungarian town of Raiding. Liszt was taught to play piano at a very young age by his father, who was also very involved in music. His father, Adam played the cello, and many other instruments, as he was a very passionate musician. Adam taught Franz to the extent that he was giving concerts by the age of nine and starting to compose his own pieces. His father, having obtained permission from his employer, Prince Nicholas Esterhazy, accompanied the young Franz to Vienna. Franz Liszt was financially supported by a man by the name of Antonio Salieri, who gave him free tuition in composition. The boy, Franz, gave some very successful performances before prominent people in Vienna and gained a lot of fame. He became very well known for his ability to take a melody provided by a member of the audience and work it into a...