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{{Short description|Polish composer and pianist (1810–1849)}}
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{{Use British English|date=July 2019}}
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{{Infobox classical composer
| name               = Frédéric Chopin
| image              = Frederic Chopin photo.jpeg
| image_upright      = 
| alt                = 
| caption            = Daguerreotype, {{circa|1849}}
| birth_name         = Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1810|03|01|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Żelazowa Wola]], Duchy of Warsaw
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1849|10|17|1810|03|01|df=y}}
| death_place        = Paris, France
| occupation         = {{hlist|Composer|pianist}}
| works              = [[List of compositions by Frédéric Chopin by genre|List of compositions]]
| signature          = Chopins Unterschrift.svg
| signature_size     = 150
}}

'''Frédéric François Chopin'''{{refn|English: {{IPAc-en|UK|ˈ|ʃ|ɒ|p|æ̃|,_|ˈ|ʃ|ɒ|p|æ|n}}, {{IPAc-en|US|ˈ|ʃ|oʊ|p|æ|n|,_|ʃ|oʊ|ˈ|p|æ|n}};<ref>{{cite LPD|3}}</ref> {{IPA|fr|fʁedeʁik fʁɑ̃swa ʃɔpɛ̃|lang|small=no}}.|group=n}} (born '''Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin''';{{refn|{{IPA|pl|frɨˈdɛrɨk fraɲˈt͡ɕiʂɛk ˈʂɔpɛn|lang|small=no}}. Though none of Chopin's family spelled their surname in the [[Polonisation|Polonised]] form {{lang|pl|Szopen}},{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=289}} the latter spelling has been used by many Poles since his own day, including by his poet contemporaries [[Juliusz Słowacki]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/persons/text/id/6726 |title=Juliusz Słowacki |last=Tomaszewski |first=Mieczysław |date=2003–2018 |website=chopin.nifc.pl |publisher=[[Fryderyk Chopin Institute]] |lang=pl |access-date=29 November 2021 |archive-date=24 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211124032210/https://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/persons/text/id/6726 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and [[Cyprian Norwid]] in the poem ''{{ill|Chopin's Piano|pl|Fortepian Szopena}}'' ({{lang|pl|Fortepian Szopena}}).|group=n}} 1 March 1810{{spaced ndash}}17 October 1849) was a Polish<!--DO NOT CHANGE without prior consensus; see [[Talk:Frédéric Chopin#RfC:Chopin's nationality]]. --> composer and [[virtuoso]] pianist of the [[Romantic period]] who wrote primarily for [[Piano solo|solo piano]]. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leading composer of his era whose "poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation".{{sfn|Rosen|1995|p=284}}

Chopin was born in [[Żelazowa Wola]] and grew up in [[Warsaw]], which in 1815 became part of [[Congress Poland]]. A [[child prodigy]], he completed his musical education and composed his early works in Warsaw before leaving Poland at age 20, less than a month before the outbreak of the [[November Uprising|November 1830 Uprising]]; at 21, he settled in Paris. Thereafter he gave only 30 public performances, preferring the more intimate atmosphere of the [[Salon (gathering)|salon]]. He supported himself by selling his compositions and giving piano lessons, for which he was in high demand. Chopin formed a friendship with [[Franz Liszt]] and was admired by many musical contemporaries, including [[Robert Schumann]]. After a failed engagement to [[Maria Wodzińska]] from 1836 to 1837, he maintained an often troubled relationship with the French writer Aurore Dupin (known by her pen name [[George Sand]]). A brief and unhappy visit to [[Mallorca]] with Sand in 1838–39 proved one of his most productive periods of composition. In his final years he was supported financially by his admirer [[Jane Stirling]]. In poor health most of his life, Chopin died in Paris in 1849 at age 39.

All of [[List of compositions by Frédéric Chopin by genre|Chopin's compositions]] feature the piano. Most are for solo piano, though he also wrote [[Chopin's compositions for piano and orchestra|two piano concertos]] before leaving Warsaw, some [[chamber music]], and 19 [[Polish songs (Chopin)|songs set to Polish lyrics]]. His piano pieces are technically demanding and expanded the limits of the instrument; his own performances were noted for their nuance and sensitivity. Chopin's major piano works include [[Mazurkas (Chopin)|mazurkas]], [[Waltzes (Chopin)|waltzes]], [[Nocturnes (Chopin)|nocturnes]], [[Polonaises (Chopin)|polonaises]], the [[ballade (classical music)#Instrumental ballades|instrumental ''ballade'']] (which Chopin [[Ballades (Chopin)|created]] as an instrumental genre), [[Études (Chopin)|études]], [[impromptu]]s, [[Scherzos (Chopin)|scherzi]], [[Preludes (Chopin)|preludes]], and [[Piano sonatas (Chopin)|sonatas]], some published only posthumously. Among the influences on his style of composition were [[Polish folk music]], the classical tradition of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] and [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]], and the atmosphere of the Paris salons, of which he was a frequent guest. His innovations in style, [[harmony]], and [[musical form]], and his association of [[Musical nationalism|music with nationalism]], were influential throughout and after the late [[romanticism|Romantic]] period.

Chopin's music, his status as one of music's earliest celebrities, his indirect association with political insurrection, his high-profile love life, and his early death have made him a leading symbol of the Romantic era. His works remain popular, and he has been the subject of [[#In literature, stage, film, and television|numerous films and biographies]] of varying historical fidelity. Among his [[Memorials to Frédéric Chopin|many memorials]] is the [[Fryderyk Chopin Institute]], which was created by the [[Parliament of Poland|Polish parliament]] to research and promote his life and works, and which hosts the prestigious [[International Chopin Piano Competition]], devoted entirely to his works.

==Life==

===Early life===

====Childhood====
[[File:Żelazowa Wola - dworek.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Chopin's birthplace in [[Żelazowa Wola]]]]
Frédéric François Chopin was born in [[Żelazowa Wola]], 46 kilometres ({{convert|46|km|abbr=off|disp=output only}}) west of Warsaw, in what was then the [[Duchy of Warsaw]], a Polish state established by [[Napoleon]]. The parish baptismal record, which is dated 23 April 1810, gives his birthday as 22 February 1810, and cites his [[given name]]s in the Latin form {{lang|la|Fridericus Franciscus}} (in Polish, he was {{lang|pl|Fryderyk Franciszek}}).{{sfn|Temperley|1980|p=298}}{{sfn|Hedley|Brown|1980|p=292}}{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=4–5}}{{sfn|Cholmondeley|1998}} The composer and his family used the birthdate 1 March,{{refn|According to his letter of 16 January 1833 to the chairman of the [[Bibliothèque Polonaise de Paris|Société historique et littéraire polonaise]] (Polish Literary Society) in Paris, he was "born 1 March 1810 at the village of Żelazowa Wola in the Province of Mazowsze".{{sfn|Chopin|1962|p=116}}|group=n}}{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=4–5}} which is now generally accepted as the correct date.{{sfn|Cholmondeley|1998}}

His father, [[Nicolas Chopin]], was a Frenchman from [[Lorraine]] who emigrated to Poland in 1787 at the age of sixteen.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=3}}{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=21}} He married [[Tekla Justyna Chopin|Justyna Krzyżanowska]], a poor relative of the Skarbeks, one of the families for whom he worked.{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§1 ¶1}} Chopin was baptised in the same [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] church where his parents had married, in [[Brochów, Masovian Voivodeship|Brochów]]. His eighteen-year-old [[Godparent|godfather]], for whom he was named, was [[Fryderyk Skarbek]], a pupil of Nicolas Chopin.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=4–5}} Chopin was the second child of Nicolas and Justyna and their only son; he had an elder sister, [[Ludwika Jędrzejewicz|Ludwika]], and two younger sisters, Izabela and Emilia, whose death at the age of 14 was probably from [[tuberculosis]].{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=112}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/persons/detail/id/6368|title=Emilia Chopin|access-date=27 June 2021|website=[[Fryderyk Chopin Institute|Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina]]|last1=Mysłakowski|first1=Piotr|last2=Sikorsky|first2=Andrzej|archive-date=2 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180102165448/http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/persons/detail/id/6368|url-status=dead}}</ref> Nicolas Chopin was devoted to his adopted homeland, and insisted on the use of the [[Polish language]] in the household.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=4–5}}

[[File:Mikołaj Chopin.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Chopin's father, [[Nicolas Chopin]], by [[Ambroży Mieroszewski|Mieroszewski]], 1829]]
In October 1810, six months after Chopin's birth, the family moved to Warsaw, where his father acquired a post teaching French at the [[Warsaw Lyceum]], then housed in the [[Saxon Palace]]. Chopin lived with his family on the Palace grounds. His father played the flute and violin;{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=5–6}} his mother played the piano and gave lessons to boys in the boarding house that the Chopins kept.{{sfn|Szulc|1998|pp=41–42}} Chopin was of slight build, and even in early childhood was prone to illnesses.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=5–6}}

Chopin may have had some piano instruction from his mother, but his first professional music tutor, from 1816 to 1821, was the [[Czechs|Czech]]-born pianist [[Wojciech Żywny]].{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§1 ¶3}} His elder sister Ludwika also took lessons from Żywny, and occasionally played duets with her brother.{{sfn|Samson|1996|p=8}} It quickly became apparent that he was a [[child prodigy]]. By the age of seven he had begun giving public concerts, and in 1817, he composed two [[polonaise (dance)|polonaise]]s, in G minor and B{{music|flat}} major.{{sfn|Walker|2018|pp=50–52}} His next work, a polonaise in A{{music|flat}} major of 1821, dedicated to Żywny, is his earliest surviving musical manuscript.{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§1 ¶3}}

In 1817, the Saxon Palace was requisitioned by Warsaw's Russian governor for military use, and the Warsaw Lyceum was reestablished in the [[Kazimierz Palace]] (today the rectorate of [[Warsaw University]]). Chopin and his family moved to a building, which still survives, adjacent to the Kazimierz Palace. During this period, he was sometimes invited to the [[Belweder|Belweder Palace]] as playmate to the son of the ruler of [[Congress Poland|Russian Poland]], [[Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich of Russia]]; he played the piano for Konstantin Pavlovich and composed a march for him. [[Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz]], in his dramatic [[eclogue]], "{{lang|pl|Nasze Przebiegi}}" ("Our Discourses", 1818), attested to "little Chopin's" popularity.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=11–12}}

====Education====
[[File:Józef Elsner.PNG|thumb|upright=1.1|[[Józef Elsner]] after 1853]]
From September 1823 to 1826, Chopin attended the Warsaw Lyceum, where he received organ lessons from the Czech musician [[Wilhelm Würfel]] during his first year. In the autumn of 1826 he began a three-year course under the [[Silesia]]n composer [[Józef Elsner]] at the [[Fryderyk Chopin University of Music|Warsaw Conservatory]], studying [[music theory]], [[figured bass]], and [[musical composition|composition]].{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§1 ¶5}}{{refn|The Conservatory was affiliated with the [[University of Warsaw]]; hence Chopin is counted among the [[University of Warsaw#Notable alumni|university's alumni]]|group=n}} Throughout this period he continued to compose and to give recitals in concerts and salons in Warsaw. He was engaged by the inventors of the "aeolomelodicon" (a combination of piano and mechanical organ), and on this instrument in May 1825 he performed his own improvisation and part of a concerto by [[Ignaz Moscheles|Moscheles]]. The success of this concert led to an invitation to give a recital on a similar instrument (the "aeolopantaleon") before [[Alexander I of Russia|Tsar Alexander I]], who was visiting Warsaw; the Tsar presented him with a diamond ring. At a subsequent aeolopantaleon concert on 10 June 1825, Chopin performed his [[Rondo in C minor (Chopin)|Rondo Op. 1]]. This was the first of his works to be commercially published and earned him his first mention in the foreign press, when the Leipzig {{lang|de|[[Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung|Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung]]}} praised his "wealth of musical ideas".{{sfn|Walker|2018|pp=83–84}}

From 1824 until 1828, Chopin spent his vacations away from Warsaw, at a number of locations.{{refn|At [[Szafarnia, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship|Szafarnia]] (in 1824{{snd}}perhaps his first solo travel away from home{{snd}}and in 1825), [[Duszniki-Zdrój|Duszniki]] (1826), [[Pomerania]] (1827), and [[Sanniki, Masovian Voivodeship|Sanniki]] (1828).{{sfn|Szklener|2010|p=8}}|group=n}} In 1824 and 1825, at [[Szafarnia, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship|Szafarnia]], he was a guest of [[Dominik Dziewanowski]], the father of a schoolmate. Here, for the first time, he encountered Polish rural [[folk music]].{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§1 ¶2}} His letters home from Szafarnia (to which he gave the title "The Szafarnia Courier"), written in a very modern and lively Polish, amused his family with their [[parody|spoofing]] of the Warsaw newspapers and demonstrated the youngster's literary gift.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=19–20}}

In 1827, soon after the death of Chopin's youngest sister Emilia, the family moved from the Warsaw University building, adjacent to the Kazimierz Palace, to [[Chopin family parlor|lodgings just across the street from the university]], in the south annex of the [[Czapski Palace#History|Krasiński Palace]] (aka "Czapski Palace") on [[Krakowskie Przedmieście]],{{refn|The Krasiński Palace, now known as the Czapski Palace, is now the [[Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw|Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts]]. In 1960 the [[Chopin Family Parlor|Chopin family parlour]] ({{lang|pl|salonik Chopinów}}), a room once occupied by the Chopin household in the Palace, was opened as a museum.{{sfn|Mieleszko|1971}}|group=n}} where Chopin lived until he left Warsaw in 1830.{{refn|An 1837–39 resident here, the artist-poet [[Cyprian Norwid]], would later write a poem, {{lang|pl|italic=no|"{{ill|Chopin's Piano|pl|Fortepian Szopena}}"}}, about the instrument's [[defenestration]] by Russian troops during the [[January Uprising#Influence on art and literature|January 1863 Uprising]].{{sfn|Jakubowski|1979|pp=514–515}}|group=n}} Here his parents continued running their boarding house for male students. Four boarders at his parents' apartments became Chopin's intimates: [[Tytus Woyciechowski]], [[Jan Nepomucen Białobłocki]], [[Jan Matuszyński]], and [[Julian Fontana]]. The latter two would become part of his Paris milieu.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=43}}
[[File:Fryderyk Chopin.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Chopin, by [[Ambroży Mieroszewski|Mieroszewski]], 1829]]
Chopin was friendly with members of Warsaw's young artistic and intellectual world, including Fontana, [[Józef Bohdan Zaleski]], and [[Stefan Witwicki]].{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=43}} Chopin's final Conservatory report (July 1829) read: "Chopin F., third-year student, exceptional talent, musical genius."{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§1 ¶5}} In 1829, [[Ambroży Mieroszewski]] executed a set of portraits of Chopin family members, including the first known portrait of the composer.{{refn|The originals perished in World War II. Only photographs survive.{{sfn|Kuhnke|2010}}|group=n}}

Letters from Chopin to Woyciechowski in the period 1829–30 (when Chopin was about twenty) contain apparent homoerotic references to dreams and to offered kisses.
[[File:Tytus Woyciechowski ante 1970 (5565288) (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Tytus Woyciechowski]] before 1879]]{{Quote|text=I am going to wash now; don't kiss me, I'm not washed yet. You? If I were smeared with the oils of Byzantium, you would not kiss me unless I forced you to it by magnetism. There's some kind of power in nature. Today you will dream of kissing me! I have got to pay you out for the horrible dream you gave me last night.|sign=Frédéric Chopin to Tytus Woyciechowski (4.9.1830){{sfn|Chopin|1988|p=102}}}}

According to [[Adam Zamoyski]], such expressions "were, and to some extent still are, common currency in Polish and carry no greater implication than the 'love{{'"}} concluding letters today. "The spirit of the times, pervaded by the Romantic movement in art and literature, favoured extreme expression of feeling&nbsp;... Whilst the possibility cannot be ruled out entirely, it is unlikely that the two were ever lovers."{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=47}} 

Chopin's biographer [[Alan Walker (musicologist)|Alan Walker]] considers that, insofar as such expressions could be perceived as homosexual in nature, they would not denote more than a passing phase in Chopin's life, or be the result{{snd}}in Walker's words{{snd}}of a "mental twist".{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=156}} The musicologist [[Jeffrey Kallberg]] notes that concepts of sexual practice and identity were very different in Chopin's time, so modern interpretation is problematic.{{sfn|Kallberg|2006|p=66}} Other [[Scholar|scholars]] argue that these are clear, or potential, demonstrations of homosexual impulses on Chopin's part.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pizà |first=Antoni |date=13 January 2022 |title=Overture: Love is a Pink Cake or Queering Chopin in Times of Homophobia |url=https://turia.uv.es//index.php/ITAMAR/article/view/23608/0 |url-status=live |journal=Itamar. Revista de investigación musical: Territorios para el arte |language= |issn=2386-8260 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230328121607/https://ojs.uv.es/index.php/ITAMAR/article/view/23608 |archive-date=28 March 2023 |access-date=1 July 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Weber |first=Moritz |date=13 January 2022 |title=AKT I / ACTO I / ACT I Männer / Hombres / Men Chopins Männer / Los hombres de Chopin / Chopin's Men |url=https://turia.uv.es//index.php/ITAMAR/article/view/23609/0 |url-status=live |journal=Itamar. Revista de investigación musical: Territorios para el arte |language=de |issn=2386-8260 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326031308/https://ojs.uv.es/index.php/ITAMAR/article/view/23609 |archive-date=26 March 2023 |access-date=1 July 2022}}</ref>

Probably in early 1829, Chopin met the singer [[Konstancja Gładkowska]] and developed an intense affection for her, although it is not clear that he ever addressed her directly on the matter. In a letter to Woyciechowski of 3 October 1829 he refers to his "ideal, whom I have served faithfully for six months, though without ever saying a word to her about my feelings; whom I dream of, who inspired the Adagio of my Concerto".{{sfn|Walker|2018|pp=153–155}} All of Chopin's biographers, following the lead of [[Frederick Niecks]],{{sfn|Niecks|1902|loc= vol. 1, p. 125}} agree that this "ideal" was Gładkowska. After what would be Chopin's farewell concert in Warsaw in October 1830, which included the concerto, played by the composer, and Gładkowska singing an aria by [[Gioachino Rossini]], the two exchanged rings, and two weeks later she wrote in his album some affectionate lines bidding him farewell.{{sfn|Walker|2018|pp=173–177}} After Chopin left Warsaw, he and Gładkowska did not meet and apparently did not correspond.{{sfn|Walker|2018|pp=177–178}}

===Career===
====Travel and domestic success====
[[File:Chopin concert.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.75|Chopin plays for the [[Antoni Radziwiłł|Radziwiłłs]], 1829 (painting by [[Henryk Siemiradzki|Siemiradzki]], 1887)]]
In September 1828, Chopin, while still a student, visited Berlin with a family friend, zoologist [[Feliks Paweł Jarocki|Feliks Jarocki]], enjoying operas directed by [[Gaspare Spontini]] and attending concerts by [[Carl Friedrich Zelter]], [[Felix Mendelssohn]], and other celebrities. On an 1829 return trip to Berlin, he was a guest of Prince [[Antoni Radziwiłł]], governor of the [[Grand Duchy of Posen]]{{snd}}himself an accomplished composer and aspiring cellist. For the prince and his pianist daughter Wanda, he composed his [[Introduction and Polonaise brillante (Chopin)|Introduction and Polonaise brillante in C major for cello and piano]], Op.&nbsp;3.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=45}}

Back in Warsaw that year, Chopin heard [[Niccolò Paganini]] play the violin, and composed a set of variations, {{lang|fr|Souvenir de Paganini}}. It may have been this experience that encouraged him to commence writing his first [[Études (Chopin)|Études]] (1829–1832), exploring the capacities of his own instrument.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=35}} After completing his studies at the Warsaw Conservatory, he made his debut in Vienna. He gave two piano concerts and received many favourable reviews{{snd}}in addition to some commenting (in Chopin's own words) that he was "too delicate for those accustomed to the piano-bashing of local artists". In the first of these concerts, he premiered his [[Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" (Chopin)|Variations on {{lang|it|italic=no|cat=no|"Là ci darem la mano"}}]], Op.&nbsp;2 (variations on a duet from [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]'s opera ''[[Don Giovanni]]'') for piano and orchestra.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=37–39}} He returned to Warsaw in September 1829,{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=43}} where he premiered his [[Piano Concerto No. 2 (Chopin)|Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor]], Op.&nbsp;21 on 17 March 1830.{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§1 ¶5}}

Chopin's successes as a composer and performer opened the door to western Europe for him, and on 2 November 1830, he set out, in the words of [[Zdzisław Jachimecki]], "into the wide world, with no very clearly defined aim, forever".{{sfn|Jachimecki|1937|p=422}} With Woyciechowski, he headed for Austria again, intending to go on to Italy. Later that month, in Warsaw, the [[November Uprising|November 1830 Uprising]] broke out, and Woyciechowski returned to Poland to enlist. Chopin, now alone in Vienna, was nostalgic for his homeland, and wrote to a friend, "I curse the moment of my departure."{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§2 ¶1}} When in September 1831 he learned, while travelling from Vienna to Paris, that the uprising had been crushed, he expressed his anguish in the pages of his private journal: "Oh God!&nbsp;... You are there, and yet you do not take vengeance!".{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§2 ¶3}} The journal is now in the [[National Library of Poland]]. Jachimecki ascribes to these events the composer's maturing "into an inspired [[national bard]] who intuited the past, present and future of his native Poland".{{sfn|Jachimecki|1937|p=422}}

====Paris====
[[File:Chopin, by Wodzinska.JPG|thumb|upright=0.9|Chopin at 25, by his fiancée [[Maria Wodzińska]], 1835]]
When he left Warsaw on 2 November 1830, Chopin had intended to go to Italy, but violent unrest there made that a dangerous destination. His next choice was Paris; difficulties obtaining a visa from Russian authorities resulted in him obtaining transit permission from the French. In later years he would quote the passport's endorsement {{lang|fr|"Passeport en passant par Paris à Londres"}} ("In transit to London via Paris"), joking that he was in the city "only in passing".{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=202}} Chopin arrived in Paris on 5 October 1831;<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Helman|first1=Zofia|last2=Wróblewska-Straus|first2=Hanna|date=2007|title=The Date of Chopin's Arrival in Paris|journal=Musicology Today|publisher=Sciendo|volume=4|pages=95–103|issn=1734-1663}}</ref> he would never return to Poland,{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§1 ¶6}} thus becoming one of many expatriates of the Polish [[Great Emigration]]. In France, he used the French versions of his given names, and after receiving French citizenship in 1835, he travelled on a French passport.{{refn|A French passport used by Chopin is shown at the website "Chopin – musicien français"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://diaph16.free.fr/chopin//chopin7.htm |title=Passeport français de Chopin |last=Langavant |first=Emmanuel |date= |website=Chopin&nbsp;– musicien français website |access-date=28 March 2021 |archive-date=13 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170713074357/http://diaph16.free.fr/chopin/chopin7.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>|group=n}} Chopin remained close to his fellow Poles in exile as friends and confidants. He never felt fully comfortable speaking French or considered himself to be French, despite his father's French origins. According to [[Adam Zamoyski]], he always saw himself as a Pole.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=128}}

In Paris, Chopin encountered artists and other distinguished figures and found many opportunities to exercise his talents and achieve celebrity. During his years in Paris, he was to become acquainted with, among many others, [[Hector Berlioz]], [[Franz Liszt]], [[Ferdinand Hiller]], [[Heinrich Heine]], [[Eugène Delacroix]], [[Alfred de Vigny]],{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=106}} and [[Friedrich Kalkbrenner]], who introduced him to the piano manufacturer [[Camille Pleyel]].{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=219}} This was the beginning of a long and close association between the composer and Pleyel's instruments.{{sfn|Eigeldinger|2001|loc=passim}} Chopin was also acquainted with the poet [[Adam Mickiewicz]], principal of the Polish Literary Society, some of whose verses he set as songs.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=128}} He also was more than once guest of Marquis [[Marquis de Custine|Astolphe de Custine]], one of his fervent admirers, playing his works in Custine's salon.{{sfn|Walker|2018|pp=302 ff., 309, 365}}

Two Polish friends in Paris were also to play important roles in Chopin's life there. A fellow student at the Warsaw Conservatory, Julian Fontana, had originally tried unsuccessfully to establish himself in England; Fontana was to become, in the words of the music historian Jim Samson, Chopin's "general [[servant|factotum]] and copyist".{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§3 ¶2}} [[Wojciech Grzymała|Albert Grzymała]], who in Paris became a wealthy financier and society figure, often acted as Chopin's adviser and, in Zamoyski's words, "gradually began to fill the role of elder brother in [his] life".{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=106–107}}

On 7 December 1831, Chopin received the first major endorsement from an outstanding contemporary when [[Robert Schumann]], reviewing the Op. 2 Variations in the {{lang|de|Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung}} (his first published article on music), declared: "Hats off, gentlemen! A genius."{{sfn|Schumann|1988|pp=15–17}} On 26 February 1832 Chopin gave a debut Paris concert in the {{lang|fr|"salons de MM Pleyel"}} at 9 rue Cadet, which drew universal admiration. The critic [[François-Joseph Fétis]] wrote in the {{lang|fr|[[Revue et gazette musicale]]}}: "Here is a young man who&nbsp;... taking no model, has found, if not a complete renewal of piano music,&nbsp;... an abundance of original ideas of a kind to be found nowhere else&nbsp;..."{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=88}} After this concert, Chopin realised that his essentially intimate keyboard technique was not optimal for large concert spaces. Later that year he was introduced to the wealthy [[Rothschild family|Rothschild]] banking family, whose [[patronage]] also opened doors for him to other private [[salon (gathering)|salons]] (social gatherings of the aristocracy and artistic and literary elite).{{sfn|Hedley|2005|pp=263–264}} By the end of 1832 Chopin had established himself among the Parisian musical elite and had earned the respect of his peers such as Hiller, Liszt, and Berlioz. He no longer depended financially upon his father, and in the winter of 1832, he began earning a handsome income from publishing his works and teaching piano to affluent students from all over Europe.{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§2, paras. 4–5}} This freed him from the strains of public concert-giving, which he disliked.{{sfn|Hedley|2005|pp=263–264}}

Chopin seldom performed publicly in Paris. In later years he generally gave a single annual concert at the [[Salle Pleyel]], a venue that seated three hundred. He played more frequently at salons but preferred playing at his own Paris apartment for small groups of friends. The musicologist [[Arthur Hedley]] has observed that "As a pianist Chopin was unique in acquiring a reputation of the highest order on the basis of a minimum of public appearances{{snd}}few more than thirty in the course of his lifetime."{{sfn|Hedley|2005|pp=263–264}} The list of musicians who took part in some of his concerts indicates the richness of Parisian artistic life during this period. Examples include a concert on 23 March 1833, in which Chopin, Liszt, and Hiller performed (on pianos) a [[Harpsichord concertos (J. S. Bach)#Concertos for three harpsichords|concerto by J. S. Bach for three keyboards]]; and, on 3 March 1838, a concert in which Chopin, his pupil [[Adolphe Gutmann]], [[Charles-Valentin Alkan]], and Alkan's teacher [[Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann|Joseph Zimmermann]] performed Alkan's arrangement, for eight hands, of two movements from [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]'s [[Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven)|7th symphony]].{{sfn|Conway|2012|p=226 & note 9}} Chopin was also involved in the composition of Liszt's ''[[Hexameron (musical composition)|Hexameron]]''; he wrote the sixth (and final) variation on [[Vincenzo Bellini|Bellini]]'s theme. Chopin's music soon found success with publishers, and in 1833, he contracted with [[Maurice Schlesinger]], who arranged for it to be published not only in France but, through his family connections, also in Germany and England.{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§2 ¶5}}{{refn|For Schlesinger's international network see {{harvnb|Conway|2012|pp=185–187, 238–239}}.|group=n}}

[[File:Maria Wodzińska.jpeg|thumb|left|upright=0.9|[[Maria Wodzińska]], self-portrait]]
In the spring of 1834, Chopin attended the Lower Rhenish Music Festival in [[Aachen|Aix-la-Chapelle]] with Hiller, and it was there that Chopin met Felix Mendelssohn. After the festival, the three visited [[Düsseldorf]], where Mendelssohn had been appointed musical director. They spent what Mendelssohn described as "a very agreeable day", playing and discussing music at his piano, and met [[Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow]], director of the Academy of Art, and some of his eminent pupils such as [[Karl Friedrich Lessing|Lessing]], [[Eduard Bendemann|Bendemann]], [[Eduard Hildebrandt|Hildebrandt]] and [[Karl Ferdinand Sohn|Sohn]].{{sfn|Niecks|1902|loc= vol. 1, p. 274}} In 1835, Chopin went to [[Karlovy Vary|Carlsbad]], where he spent time with his parents; it was the last time he would see them. On his way back to Paris, he met old friends from Warsaw, the Wodzińskis, their sons, and their daughters, amongst which [[Maria Wodzińska|Maria]], whom he occasionally had given piano lessons in Poland.{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=279}} This meeting prompted him to stay for two weeks in Dresden, when he had previously intended to return to Paris via [[Leipzig]].{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=118–119}} The sixteen-year-old girl's portrait of the composer has been considered, along with Delacroix's, as among the best likenesses of Chopin.{{sfn|Szulc|1998|p=137}}
In October he finally reached Leipzig, where he met Schumann, [[Clara Schumann|Clara Wieck]], and Mendelssohn, who organised for him a performance of his own oratorio ''[[St. Paul (oratorio)|St. Paul]]'', and who considered him "a perfect musician".{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=119–120}} In July 1836 Chopin travelled to [[Marienbad]] and [[Dresden]] to be with the Wodziński family, and in September he proposed to Maria, whose mother Countess Wodzińska approved in principle. Chopin went on to Leipzig, where he presented Schumann with his [[Ballade No. 1 (Chopin)|G minor Ballade]].{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=126–127}} At the end of 1836, he sent Maria an album in which his sister Ludwika had inscribed seven of his songs, and his 1830 [[Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth. (Chopin)|Nocturne in C{{music|sharp}} minor, ''Lento con gran espresisione'']].{{sfn|Jachimecki|1937|p=423}}{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=299}} The anodyne thanks he received from Maria proved to be the last letter he was to have from her.{{sfn|Chopin|1962|p=144}} Chopin placed the letters he had received from Maria and her mother into a large envelope, wrote on it the words "My sorrow" ({{lang|pl|"Moja bieda"}}), and to the end of his life retained in a desk drawer this keepsake of the second love of his life.{{sfn|Jachimecki|1937|p=423}}{{refn|A photo of the letters packet survives, though the originals seem to have been lost during World War II.{{sfn|Walker|2018|p = 307}}|group=n}}

====Franz Liszt====
[[File:Franz-liszt-in-hungarian-costume-watercolour-by-josef-friehuber-1838.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Franz Liszt]], 1838]]
Although it is not known exactly when Chopin first met [[Franz Liszt]] after arriving in Paris, on 12 December 1831, he mentioned in a letter to his friend Woyciechowski that "I have met [[Gioachino Rossini|Rossini]], [[Luigi Cherubini|Cherubini]], [[Pierre Baillot|Baillot]], etc.{{snd}}also Kalkbrenner. You would not believe how curious I was about [[Henri Herz|Herz]], Liszt, Hiller, etc."{{sfn|Hall-Swadley|2011|p=31}} Liszt was in attendance at Chopin's Parisian debut on 26 February 1832 at the Salle Pleyel, which led him to remark: "The most vigorous applause seemed not to suffice to our enthusiasm in the presence of this talented musician, who revealed a new phase of poetic sentiment combined with such happy innovation in the form of his art."{{sfn|Hall-Swadley|2011|p=32}}

The two became friends, and for many years lived close to each other in Paris, Chopin at 38 {{lang|fr|italic=no|[[Rue de la Chaussée-d'Antin]]}}, and Liszt at the {{lang|fr|italic=no|Hôtel de France}} on the {{lang|it|italic=no|[[Rue Laffitte]]}}, a few blocks away.{{sfn|Schonberg|1987|p=151}} They performed together on seven occasions between 1833 and 1841. The first, on 2 April 1833, was at a benefit concert organised by Hector Berlioz for his bankrupt Shakespearean actress wife [[Harriet Smithson]], during which they played [[George Onslow (composer)|George Onslow]]'s ''Sonata in F minor'' for piano duet. Later joint appearances included a benefit concert for the Benevolent Association of Polish Ladies in Paris. Their last appearance together in public was for a charity concert conducted for the [[Beethoven Monument]] in Bonn, held at the Salle Pleyel and the Paris Conservatory on 25 and 26 April 1841.{{sfn|Hall-Swadley|2011|p=32}}

Although the two displayed great respect and admiration for each other, their friendship was uneasy and had some qualities of a love–hate relationship. [[Harold C. Schonberg]] believes that Chopin displayed a "tinge of jealousy and spite" towards Liszt's virtuosity on the piano,{{sfn|Schonberg|1987|p=151}} and others have also argued that he had become enchanted with Liszt's theatricality, showmanship, and success.{{sfn|Hall-Swadley|2011|p=33}} Liszt was the dedicatee of Chopin's Op. 10 {{lang|fr|italic=no|Études}}, and his performance of them prompted the composer to write to Hiller, "I should like to rob him of the way he plays my studies."{{sfn|Walker|1988|p=184}} However, Chopin expressed annoyance in 1843 when Liszt performed one of his nocturnes with the addition of numerous intricate embellishments, at which Chopin remarked that he should play the music as written or not play it at all, forcing an apology. Most biographers of Chopin state that after this the two had little to do with each other, although in his letters dated as late as 1848 he still referred to him as "my friend Liszt".{{sfn|Schonberg|1987|p=151}} Some commentators point to events in the two men's romantic lives which led to a rift between them; there are claims that Liszt had displayed jealousy of his mistress [[Marie d'Agoult]]'s obsession with Chopin, while others believe that Chopin had become concerned about Liszt's growing relationship with [[George Sand]].{{sfn|Hall-Swadley|2011|p=32}}

====George Sand====
[[File:Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix 043.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Chopin, 28, at piano, from [[Eugène Delacroix|Delacroix]]'s [[Portrait of Frédéric Chopin and George Sand|joint portrait of Chopin and Sand]], 1838]]
In 1836, at a party hosted by Marie d'Agoult, Chopin met the French author George Sand (born [Amantine] Aurore [Lucile] Dupin). Short (under five feet, or 152&nbsp;cm), dark, big-eyed and a cigar smoker,{{sfn|Schonberg|1987|pp=151–152}} she initially repelled Chopin, who remarked, "What an unattractive person ''la Sand'' is. Is she really a woman?"{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§3 ¶3}} However, by early 1837 Maria Wodzińska's mother had made it clear to Chopin in correspondence that a marriage with her daughter was unlikely to proceed.{{sfn|Chopin|1962|p=141}} It is thought that she was influenced by his poor health and possibly also by rumours about his associations with women such as d'Agoult and Sand.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=137–138}} Chopin finally placed the letters from Maria and her mother in a package on which he wrote, in Polish, "My Sorrow".{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=147}} Sand, in a letter to Grzymała of June 1838, admitted strong feelings for the composer and debated whether to abandon a current affair to begin a relationship with Chopin; she asked Grzymała to assess Chopin's relationship with Maria Wodzińska, without realising that the affair, at least from Maria's side, was over.{{sfn|Chopin|1962|pp=151–161}}

In June 1837, Chopin visited London incognito in the company of the piano manufacturer Camille Pleyel, where he played at a musical soirée at the house of English piano maker [[James Broadwood]].{{sfn|Załuski|Załuski|1992|p=226}} On his return to Paris his association with Sand began in earnest, and by July 1838 they had become lovers.{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§3 ¶4}} Sand, who was six years older than the composer and had had a series of lovers, wrote at this time: "I must say I was confused and amazed at the effect this little creature had on me&nbsp;... I have still not recovered from my astonishment, and if I were a proud person I should be feeling humiliated at having been carried away&nbsp;..."{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=154}} The two spent a miserable winter on [[Mallorca]] (8 November 1838 to 13 February 1839), where, together with Sand's two children, they had journeyed in the hope of improving Chopin's health and that of Sand's 15-year-old son [[Maurice Sand|Maurice]], and also to escape the threats of Sand's former lover [[Félicien Mallefille]].{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=159}} After discovering that the couple were not married, the deeply traditional Catholic people of Mallorca became inhospitable,{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=161–162}} making accommodation difficult to find. This compelled the group to take lodgings in a former [[Carthusian]] monastery in [[Valldemossa]], which gave little shelter from the cold winter weather.{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§3 ¶5}}

[[File:Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix 041.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|[[George Sand]] sewing, from [[Eugène Delacroix|Delacroix]]'s [[Portrait of Frédéric Chopin and George Sand|joint portrait of Chopin and Sand]], 1838]]
On 3 December 1838, Chopin complained about his bad health and the incompetence of the doctors in Mallorca, commenting: "The three most celebrated doctors on the island have seen me&nbsp;... The first said I was dead, the second that I am dying, and the third that I'm going to die."{{sfn|Chopin|1962|p=164}} He also had problems having his [[Pleyel et Cie|Pleyel piano]] sent to him, having to rely in the meantime on a piano made in [[Palma de Mallorca|Palma]] by Juan Bauza.{{sfn|Kildea|2018|pp=20–21}}{{refn|The Bauza piano eventually entered the collection of [[Wanda Landowska]] in Paris{{sfn|Kildea|2018|p=168}} and was seized following the [[Battle of France|Fall of Paris]] in 1940 and transported by the invaders to [[Leipzig]] in 1943.{{sfn|Kildea|2018|p=230}} It was returned to France in 1946, but subsequently went missing.{{sfn|Kildea|2018|p=295}}|group=n}} The Pleyel piano finally arrived from Paris in December, just shortly before Chopin and Sand left the island. Chopin wrote to Pleyel in January 1839: "I am sending you my [[Preludes (Chopin)|Preludes]] [Op. 28]. I finished them on your little piano, which arrived in the best possible condition in spite of the sea, the bad weather and the Palma customs."{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§3 ¶4}} Chopin was also able to undertake work while in Mallorca on his [[Ballade No. 2 (Chopin)|Ballade No. 2]], Op. 38; on two [[Polonaises Op. 40 (Chopin)|Polonaises, Op. 40]]; and on the [[Scherzo No. 3 (Chopin)|Scherzo No. 3]], Op. 39.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=168}}

Although this period had been productive, the bad weather had such a detrimental effect on Chopin's health that Sand determined to leave the island. To avoid further customs duties, Sand sold the piano to a local French couple, the Canuts.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=169}}{{refn|Two neighbouring apartments at the Valldemossa monastery, each long hosting a Chopin museum, have been claimed to be the retreat of Chopin and Sand, and to hold Chopin's Pleyel piano. In 2011 a Spanish court on Mallorca, partly by ruling out a piano that had been built after Chopin's visit there{{snd}}probably after his death{{snd}}decided which was the correct apartment.<ref>{{cite web |last=Govan |first=Fiona |date=1 February 2011 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/8296219/Row-over-Chopins-Majorcan-residence-solved-by-piano.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/8296219/Row-over-Chopins-Majorcan-residence-solved-by-piano.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Row over Chopin's Majorcan residence solved by piano |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |access-date=31 August 2013}}{{cbignore}}</ref>|group=n}} The group travelled first to [[Barcelona]], then to [[Marseille]], where they stayed for a few months while Chopin convalesced.{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§3 ¶5}} While in Marseille, Chopin made a rare appearance at the organ during a requiem mass for the tenor [[Adolphe Nourrit]] on 24 April 1839, playing a transcription of [[Franz Schubert]]'s {{lang|de|[[Lied]] Die Sterne}} (D. 939).{{sfn|Chopin|1988|p=200, letter to Fontana of 25 April 1839}}{{refn|Nourrit's body was being escorted via Marseille to his funeral in Paris, following his suicide in Naples.{{sfn|Rogers|1939|p=25}}|group=n}} George Sand gives a description of Chopin's playing in a letter of 28 April 1839:

{{quote|Chopin sacrificed himself by playing the organ at the Elevation – and what an organ! Anyhow our boy made the best of it by using the less discordant stops, and he played Schubert's {{lang|de|Die Sterne}}, not with a passionate and glowing tone that Nourrit used, but with a plaintive sound as soft as an echo from another world. Two or three at most among those present felt its meaning and had tears in their eyes.{{sfn|Chopin|1962|p= 177, letter from George Sand to Carlotta Marliani, Marseilles, 28 April 1839}}}}

In May 1839, they headed to Sand's estate at [[Nohant-Vic|Nohant]] for the summer, where they spent most of the following summers until 1846. In autumn they returned to Paris, where Chopin's apartment at 5 rue Tronchet was close to Sand's rented accommodation on the rue Pigalle. He frequently visited Sand in the evenings, but both retained some independence.{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§4 ¶1}} (In 1842, he and Sand moved to the [[Square d'Orléans]], living in adjacent buildings.){{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§4 ¶4}}

On 26 July 1840, Chopin and Sand were present at the dress rehearsal of Berlioz's {{lang|fr|[[Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale]]}}, composed to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the [[July Revolution]]. Chopin was reportedly unimpressed with the composition.{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§4 ¶1}} 

During the summers at Nohant, particularly in the years 1839–1843 (except 1840), Chopin found quiet, productive days during which he composed many works, including his [[Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53|Polonaise in A{{music|flat}} major, Op. 53]].{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=197}} Sand compellingly describes Chopin's creative process: an inspiration, its painstaking elaboration – sometimes amid tormented weeping and complaining, with hundreds of changes in concept – only to return finally to the initial idea.{{sfn|Jachimecki|1937|p=424}}

Among the visitors to Nohant were Delacroix and the mezzo-soprano [[Pauline Viardot]], whom Chopin had advised on piano technique and composition.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=197}} Delacroix gives an account of staying at Nohant in a letter of 7 June 1842:

{{quote|The hosts could not be more pleasant in entertaining me. When we are not all together at dinner, lunch, playing billiards, or walking, each of us stays in his room, reading or lounging around on a couch. Sometimes, through the window which opens on the garden, a gust of music wafts up from Chopin at work. All this mingles with the songs of nightingales and the fragrance of roses.{{sfn|Atwood|1999|p=315}}}}

====Decline====
{{main|Health of Frédéric Chopin}}
[[File:Frédéric Chopin.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Chopin, 1838]]
From 1842 onwards, Chopin showed signs of serious illness. After a solo recital in Paris on 21 February 1842, he wrote to Grzymała: "I have to lie in bed all day long, my mouth and tonsils are aching so much."{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=212}} He was forced by illness to decline a written invitation from Alkan to participate in a repeat performance of the Beethoven 7th Symphony arrangement at [[Sébastien Érard|Érard]]'s on 1 March 1843.{{sfn|Eddie|2013|p=8}} Late in 1844, [[Charles Hallé]] visited Chopin and found him "hardly able to move, bent like a half-opened penknife and evidently in great pain", although his spirits returned when he started to play the piano for his visitor.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=227}} Chopin's health continued to deteriorate, particularly from this time onwards. Modern research suggests that apart from any other illnesses, he may also have suffered from [[temporal lobe epilepsy]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Reardon|first=Sara|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/31/AR2011013104713.html|title=Chopin's hallucinations may have been caused by epilepsy|date=31 January 2011|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|accessdate=10 January 2014|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180722012952/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/31/AR2011013104713.html|archive-date=22 July 2018}}</ref>

Chopin's output as a composer throughout this period declined in quantity year by year. Whereas in 1841 he had written a dozen works, only six were written in 1842 and six shorter pieces in 1843. In 1844 he wrote only the [[Piano Sonata No. 3 (Chopin)|Op. 58 sonata]]. 1845 saw the completion of three mazurkas (Op. 59). Although these works were more refined than many of his earlier compositions, Zamoyski concludes that "his powers of concentration were failing and his inspiration was beset by anguish, both emotional and intellectual".{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=233}} Chopin's relations with Sand were soured in 1846 by problems involving her daughter [[Solange Dudevant|Solange]] and Solange's fiancé, the young fortune-hunting sculptor [[Auguste Clésinger]].{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§5 ¶2}} The composer frequently took Solange's side in quarrels with her mother; he also faced jealousy from Sand's son Maurice.{{sfn|Samson|1996|p=194}} Moreover, Chopin was indifferent to Sand's radical political pursuits, including her enthusiasm for the [[French Revolution of 1848|February Revolution]] of 1848.{{sfn|Walker|2018|pp=552–554}}

As the composer's illness progressed, Sand had become less of a lover and more of a nurse to Chopin, whom she called her "third child". In letters to third parties she vented her impatience, referring to him as a "child", a "poor angel", a "sufferer", and a "beloved little corpse".{{sfn|Jachimecki|1937|p=424}}{{sfn|Kallberg|2006|p=56}} In 1847, Sand published her novel ''Lucrezia Floriani'', whose main characters{{snd}}a rich actress and a prince in weak health{{snd}}could be interpreted as Sand and Chopin. In Chopin's presence, Sand read the manuscript aloud to Delacroix, who was both shocked and mystified by its implications, writing that "Madame Sand was perfectly at ease and Chopin could hardly stop making admiring comments".{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=529}}{{sfn|Miller|2003|loc=§8}} That year their relationship ended following an angry correspondence which, in Sand's words, made "a strange conclusion to nine years of exclusive friendship".{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§5 ¶3}} Grzymała, who had followed their romance from the beginning, commented, "If [Chopin] had not had the misfortune of meeting G. S. [George Sand], who poisoned his whole being, he would have lived to be Cherubini's age." Chopin would die two years later at thirty-nine; the composer Luigi Cherubini had died in Paris in 1842 at the age of 81.{{sfn|Szulc|1998|p=403}}

====Tour of Great Britain====
[[File:Jane stirling par deveria.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|[[Jane Stirling]] with young Fanny Elgin, {{circa|1830|lk=no}}]]
Chopin's public popularity as a virtuoso began to wane, as did the number of his pupils, and this, together with the political strife and instability of the time, caused him to struggle financially.{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=556}} In February 1848, with the cellist [[Auguste Franchomme]], he gave his last Paris concert, which included three movements of the [[Cello Sonata (Chopin)|Cello Sonata Op. 65]].{{sfn|Jachimecki|1937|p=424}}

In April, during the 1848 Revolution in Paris, he left for London, where he performed at several concerts and numerous receptions in great houses.{{sfn|Jachimecki|1937|p=424}} This tour was suggested to him by his Scottish pupil [[Jane Stirling]] and her elder sister. Stirling also made all the logistical arrangements and provided much of the necessary funding.{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§5 ¶3}}

In London, Chopin took lodgings at [[Dover Street]], where the firm of [[John Broadwood and Sons|Broadwood]] provided him with a grand piano. At his first engagement, on 15 May at [[Stafford House]], the audience included [[Queen Victoria]] and [[Albert, Prince Consort|Prince Albert]]. The Prince, who was himself a talented musician, moved close to the keyboard to view Chopin's technique. Broadwood also arranged concerts for him; among those attending were the author [[William Makepeace Thackeray]] and the singer [[Jenny Lind]]. Chopin was also sought after for piano lessons, for which he charged the high fee of one [[Guinea (British coin)|guinea]] per hour, and for private recitals for which the fee was 20 guineas. At a concert on 7 July he shared the platform with Viardot, who sang arrangements of some of his mazurkas to Spanish texts.{{sfn|Załuski|Załuski|1992|pp=227–229}} A few days later, he performed for [[Thomas Carlyle]] and his wife [[Jane Carlyle|Jane]] at [[Carlyle's House|their home]] in [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]].<ref>{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Nvdx-4-CzoC |title=The Carlyle Encyclopedia |publisher=[[Fairleigh Dickinson University Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8386-3792-0 |editor-last=Cumming |editor-first=Mark |location=Madison and Teaneck, New Jersey |pages=91–92 |chapter=Chopin, Frédérick |url-access=limited}}</ref> On 28 August he played at a concert in Manchester's Gentlemen's Concert Hall, sharing the stage with [[Marietta Alboni]] and [[Lorenzo Salvi]].{{sfn|Walker|2018|pp=579–581}}

In late summer he was invited by Jane Stirling to visit Scotland, where he stayed at Calder House near [[Edinburgh]] and at [[Johnstone Castle]] in Renfrewshire, both owned by members of Stirling's family.{{sfn|Załuski|Załuski|1993}} She clearly had a notion of going beyond mere friendship, and Chopin was obliged to make it clear to her that this could not be so. He wrote at this time to Grzymała: "My Scottish ladies are kind, but such bores", and responding to a rumour about his involvement, answered that he was "closer to the grave than the nuptial bed".{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=279–280|loc=Letter of 30 October 1848}} He gave a public concert in Glasgow on 27 September,{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=276–278}} and another in Edinburgh at the Hopetoun Rooms on Queen Street (now Erskine House) on 4 October.{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=593}} In late October 1848, while staying at 10 Warriston Crescent in Edinburgh with the Polish physician Adam Łyszczyński, he wrote out his last will and testament{{snd}}"a kind of disposition to be made of my stuff in the future, if I should drop dead somewhere", he wrote to Grzymała.{{sfn|Jachimecki|1937|p=424}}

Chopin made his last public appearance on a concert platform at London's [[Guildhall, London|Guildhall]] on 16 November 1848, when, in a final patriotic gesture, he played for the benefit of Polish refugees. This gesture proved to be a mistake, as most of the participants were more interested in the dancing and refreshments than in Chopin's piano artistry, which drained him.{{sfn|Szulc|1998|p=383}} By this time he was very seriously ill, weighing under 45&nbsp;kg (99 lb), and his doctors were aware that his sickness was at a terminal stage.{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§5 ¶4}}

At the end of November Chopin returned to Paris. He passed the winter in unremitting illness, but gave occasional lessons and was visited by friends, including Delacroix and Franchomme. Occasionally he played, or accompanied the singing of [[Delfina Potocka]], for his friends. During the summer of 1849, his friends found him an apartment in [[Chaillot]], out of the centre of the city, for which the rent was secretly subsidised by an admirer, Princess Yekaterina Dmitrievna Soutzos-Obreskova. He was visited here by Jenny Lind in June 1849.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=283–286}}

===Death and funeral===
{{further|Health of Frédéric Chopin|Heart of Frédéric Chopin}}
[[File:Ostatnie chwile Fryderyka Chopina.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|''Chopin on His Deathbed'', by [[Teofil Kwiatkowski]], 1849, commissioned by [[Jane Stirling]]. From left: [[Aleksander Jełowicki]]; Chopin's sister [[Ludwika Jędrzejewicz|Ludwika]]; [[Marcelina Czartoryska]]; [[Wojciech Grzymała]]; and Teofil Kwiatkowski]]

With his health further deteriorating, Chopin desired to have a family member with him. In June 1849 his sister Ludwika came to Paris with her husband and daughter, and in September, he took an apartment at the [[Hôtel Baudard de Saint-James]]{{refn|See the photo in the article on [[Memorials to Frédéric Chopin#Europe|memorials to Frédéric Chopin]], of the plaque on the {{lang|fr|italic=no|[[Hôtel Baudard de Saint-James]]}}, commemorating Chopin's death there.|group=n}} on the [[Place Vendôme]], with rent possibly supported by Jane Stirling.{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=613}} After 15 October, when his condition took a marked turn for the worse, only a handful of his closest friends remained with him. Viardot remarked sardonically, though, that "all the grand Parisian ladies considered it {{lang|fr|de rigueur}} to faint in his room".{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§5 ¶4}}

Some of his friends provided music at his request; among them, Potocka sang and Franchomme played the cello. Chopin bequeathed his unfinished notes on a piano tuition method, {{lang|fr|Projet de méthode}}, to Alkan for completion.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=291–293}} On 17 October, after midnight, the physician leaned over him and asked whether he was suffering greatly. "No longer", he replied. He died a few minutes before 2 a.m. He was 39. Those present at the deathbed appear to have included his sister Ludwika, Fr. [[Aleksander Jełowicki]],<ref>{{cite web |last=Jełowicki |first=Aleksander |title=Letter to Ksawera Grocholska |url=https://chopin.nifc.pl/en/chopin/list/401_priest-aleksander-jelowicki-to-ksawera-grocholska |access-date=29 June 2022 |website=chopin.nifc.pl |archive-date=2 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002030442/https://chopin.nifc.pl/en/chopin/list/401_priest-aleksander-jelowicki-to-ksawera-grocholska |url-status=live }}</ref> Princess Marcelina Czartoryska, Sand's daughter Solange, and his close friend Thomas Albrecht. Later that morning, Solange's husband Clésinger made Chopin's [[death mask]] and a cast of his left hand.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=293}}

{{multiple image
| align             = left
| footer            = Chopin's death mask, by [[Auguste Clésinger]]
| width             = 125
| direction         = vertical
| image1            = Chopin death mask (collection of Jack Gibbons).jpg
| image2            = Chopin death mask, side view (collection of Jack Gibbons).jpg
}}
The funeral, held at the [[Église de la Madeleine|Church of the Madeleine]] in Paris, was delayed almost two weeks until 30 October. Entrance was restricted to ticket holders, as many people were expected to attend.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=294}} Over 3,000 people arrived without invitations, from as far as London, Berlin and Vienna, and were excluded.{{sfn|Niecks|1902|loc=vol. 2, p. 323-324}}

[[Requiem (Mozart)|Mozart's Requiem]] was sung at the funeral; the soloists were [[Jeanne-Anaïs Castellan]], Viardot, [[Alexis Dupont]], and [[Luigi Lablache]]; Chopin's Preludes No.&nbsp;4 in E minor and No.&nbsp;6 in B minor were played by organist [[Alfred Lefébure-Wély]]. The funeral procession to [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]], which included Chopin's sister Ludwika, was led by the aged Prince [[Adam Jerzy Czartoryski|Adam Czartoryski]]. The pallbearers included Delacroix, Franchomme, and Camille Pleyel.{{sfn|Walker|2018|pp=620–622}} At the graveside, the ''Funeral March'' from [[Piano Sonata No. 2 (Chopin)|Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2]] was played, in [[Napoléon Henri Reber|Reber]]'s instrumentation.{{sfn|Atwood|1999|pp=412–413, translation of "Funeral of Frédéric Chopin", in {{lang|fr|italic=no|[[Revue et gazette musicale de Paris|Revue et gazette musicale]]}}, 4 November 1847}}
[[File:Interior column in Monastery Church of St. Casimir.jpg|thumb|upright|Monument on a pillar in [[Holy Cross Church, Warsaw]], enclosing (at bottom) Chopin's heart]]
Chopin's tombstone, featuring the [[muse]] of music, [[Euterpe]], weeping over a broken [[lyre]], was designed and sculpted by Clésinger and installed on the anniversary of his death in 1850. The expenses of the monument, amounting to 4,500 francs, were covered by Jane Stirling, who also paid for the return of the composer's sister Ludwika to Warsaw.{{sfn|Walker|2018|pp=623–624}} As requested by Chopin, Ludwika took [[Heart of Frédéric Chopin|his heart]] (which had been removed by his doctor [[Jean Cruveilhier]] and preserved in alcohol in a vase) back to Poland in 1850.{{sfn|Samson|1996|p=193}}{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=618}}{{refn|In 1879 the heart was sealed within a pillar of the [[Holy Cross Church, Warsaw|Holy Cross Church]], behind a tablet carved by [[Leonard Marconi]]. The [[epitaph]] at the top reads: "'Where your treasure is, there is your heart also.' – Matthew VI:21".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.inyourpocket.com/poland/warsaw/sightseeing/churches/Holy-Cross-Church_21356v |title=Holy Cross Church (Kościół Św. Krzyża) |website=In Your Pocket |access-date=7 December 2013 |archive-date=23 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150323165322/http://www.inyourpocket.com/poland/warsaw/sightseeing/churches/Holy-Cross-Church_21356v |url-status=live }}</ref> During the German invasion of Warsaw in World War II, the heart was removed for safekeeping and held in the quarters of the German commander, [[Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski]]. It was later returned to the church authorities, but it was not deemed safe yet to put it back in its former resting place. It was taken to the town of [[Milanówek]], where the casket was opened and the heart was viewed (its large size was noted). It was stored in St. Hedwig's Church there. On 17 October 1945, the 96th anniversary of Chopin's death, it was returned to its place in Holy Cross Church.{{sfn|Ross|2014}}|group=n}} She also took a collection of 200 letters from Sand to Chopin; after 1851 these were returned to Sand, who destroyed them.{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=633}}

Chopin's disease and the cause of his death have been topics of debate. His death certificate gave the cause as [[tuberculosis]], and his physician, Cruveilhier, was then the leading French authority on this disease.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=286}} Other possibilities advanced have included [[cystic fibrosis]],{{sfn|Majka|Gozdzik|Witt|2003|p=77}} [[cirrhosis]], and [[alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency]].{{sfn|Kuzemko|1994|p=771}}{{sfn|Kubba|Young|1998}} A visual examination of Chopin's preserved heart (the jar was not opened), conducted in 2014 and first published in the ''[[American Journal of Medicine]]'' in 2017, suggested that the likely cause of his death was a rare case of [[pericarditis]] caused by complications of chronic tuberculosis.{{sfn|Witt|Marchwica|Dobosz|2018}}{{sfn|McKie|2017}}{{sfn|Pruszewicz|2014}}
{{Clear}}

==Music==
{{See also|List of compositions by Frédéric Chopin by genre|List of compositions by Frédéric Chopin by opus number|Ballades (Chopin)|Études (Chopin)|Mazurkas (Chopin)|Nocturnes (Chopin)|Polonaises (Chopin)|Preludes (Chopin)|Scherzos (Chopin)|Waltzes (Chopin)|Miscellaneous compositions (Chopin)|Chopin's compositions for piano and orchestra}}
{{Listen
| type         = music
| filename     = Giorgi Latsabidze Plays Mazurka Op. 17, No. 4.oga
| title        = Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17, No. 4
| description  = [[Giorgi Latso]], piano
| filename2    = Muriel-Nguyen-Xuan-Chopin-valse-opus64-1.ogg
| title2       = Waltz in D{{music|flat}} major, Op. 64, No. 1 (so-called ''Minute Waltz'')
| description2 = Muriel Nguyen Xuan, piano
| filename3    = Frederic Chopin - Opus 10 - Twelve Grand Etudes - c minor.ogg
| title3       = Étude Op. 10, No. 12 (so-called ''Revolutionary'')
| description3 = [[Martha Goldstein]] playing an 1851 [[Sébastien Érard|Érard]] piano
| filename4    = Chopin Prelude Op 28 N 15 Giorgi Latsabidze performs.ogg
| title4       = Prelude in D{{music|flat}} major, Op. 28, No. 15 (so-called ''Raindrop'')
| description4 = [[Giorgi Latso]], piano
| filename5    = Frédéric Chopin - Scherzo no. 3 in C-sharp minor, op. 39 (Martha Argerich, 1962).flac
| title5       = Scherzo No. 3, Op. 39 in C{{music|sharp}} minor
| description5 = [[Martha Argerich]], piano
| filename6    = Hokanson - Chopin Ballade in F minor No 4 Op 52 90th Birthday Concert without applause.oga
| title6       = Ballade No. 4, Op. 52 in F minor
| description6 = [[Randolph Hokanson]], piano
}}

===Overview===
Over 230 works of Chopin survive; some compositions from early childhood have been lost. All his known works involve the piano, and only a few range [[Chopin's compositions for piano and orchestra|beyond solo piano music]], as either [[piano concerto]]s, songs or [[chamber music]].{{sfn|Temperley|1980|p=298}}

Chopin was educated in the tradition of Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, and Clementi; he used Clementi's piano method with his students. He was also influenced by [[Johann Nepomuk Hummel|Hummel]]'s development of virtuoso, yet Mozartian, piano technique. He cited [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]] and Mozart as the two most important composers in shaping his musical outlook.{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc= §6 para 7}} Chopin's early works are in the style of the "brilliant" keyboard pieces of his era as exemplified by the works of [[Ignaz Moscheles]], [[Friedrich Kalkbrenner]], and others. Less direct in the earlier period are the influences of [[Polish folk music]] and of [[Italian opera]]. Much of what became his typical style of ornamentation (for example, his ''[[fioritura|fioriture]]'') is taken from singing. His melodic lines were increasingly reminiscent of the [[mode (music)|modes]] and features of the music of his native country, such as [[drone (music)|drones]].{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc= §6 paras 1–4}}

Chopin took the new salon genre of the [[nocturne]], invented by the Irish composer [[John Field (composer)|John Field]], to a deeper level of sophistication. He was the first to write [[ballade (classical music)|ballades]]{{sfn|Kennedy et al.|2012|loc="Ballade"}} and [[scherzo|scherzi]] as individual concert pieces.{{sfn|Ritterman|1994|p=28}} He essentially established a new genre with his own set of free-standing preludes (Op.&nbsp;28, published 1839).{{sfn|Kallberg|1994|p = 138}} He exploited the poetic potential of the concept of the concert [[étude]], already being developed in the 1820s and 1830s by Liszt, Clementi, and Moscheles, in his two sets of studies (Op.&nbsp;10 published in 1833, Op.&nbsp;25 in 1837).{{sfn|Ferguson|1980|pp=304–305}}

Chopin also endowed popular dance forms with a greater range of melody and expression. [[Mazurkas (Chopin)|Chopin's mazurkas]], while originating in the traditional Polish dance (the ''[[mazurka|mazurek]]''), differed from the traditional variety in that they were written for the concert hall rather than the dance hall; as J. Barrie Jones puts it, "it was Chopin who put the mazurka on the European musical map".{{sfn|Jones|1998b|p=177}} The series of seven [[Polonaises (Chopin)|polonaises]] published in his lifetime (another nine were published posthumously), beginning with the Op.&nbsp;26 pair (published 1836), set a new standard for music in the form.{{sfn|Szulc|1998|p=115}} His [[Waltzes (Chopin)|waltzes]] were also written specifically for the salon recital rather than the ballroom and are frequently at rather faster tempos than their dance-floor equivalents.{{sfn|Jones|1998a|p=162}}

===Titles, opus numbers and editions===
[[File:Chopinamqsop53.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Autographed musical quotation from [[Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53 (Chopin)|Polonaise Op. 53]], signed 25 May 1845]]
Some of Chopin's well-known pieces have acquired descriptive titles, such as the [[Étude Op. 10, No. 12 (Chopin)|''Revolutionary'' Étude]] (Op.&nbsp;10,&nbsp;No.&nbsp;12), and the ''[[Minute Waltz]]'' (Op.&nbsp;64,&nbsp;No.&nbsp;1). However, except for his ''Funeral March'', the composer never named an instrumental work beyond genre and number, leaving all potential extramusical associations to the listener; the names by which many of his pieces are known were invented by others.{{sfn|Hedley|2005|p=264}}{{sfn|Kennedy et al. |2012|loc="Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek (Frédéric François)"}} There is no evidence to suggest that the ''Revolutionary'' Étude was written with the failed Polish uprising against Russia in mind; it merely appeared at that time.{{sfn|Hedley|Brown|1980|p=294}} The ''Funeral March'', the third movement of his Sonata No. 2 (Op.&nbsp;35), the one case where he did give a title, was written before the rest of the sonata, but no specific event or death is known to have inspired it.{{sfn|Kallberg|2001|pp=4–8}}

The last opus number that Chopin himself used was 65, allocated to the Cello Sonata in G minor. He expressed a deathbed wish that all his unpublished manuscripts be destroyed. At the request of the composer's mother and sisters, however, his musical executor Julian Fontana selected 23 unpublished piano pieces and grouped them into eight further opus numbers (Opp. 66–73), published in 1855.{{sfn|Ståhlbrand|2016}} In 1857, [[Polish songs (Chopin)|17 Polish songs]] that Chopin wrote at various stages of his life were collected and published as Op. 74, though their order within the opus did not reflect the order of composition.{{sfn|Ståhlbrand|2016}}

Works published since 1857 have received alternative catalogue designations instead of opus numbers. The most up-to-date catalogue is maintained by the [[Fryderyk Chopin Institute]] at its Internet Chopin Information Centre. The older Kobylańska Catalogue (usually represented by the initials 'KK'), named for its compiler, the Polish musicologist [[Krystyna Kobylańska]], is still considered an important scholarly reference. The most recent catalogue of posthumously published works is that of the [[Chopin National Edition|National Edition of the Works of Fryderyk Chopin]], represented by the initials 'WN'.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Smialek|first1=William|last2=Trochimczyk|first2=Maja|title=Frédéric Chopin: A Research and Information Guide|date=2015|isbn=978-0-203-88157-6|edition=2nd|publisher=[[Routledge]]|location=New York|oclc=910847554|page=144}}</ref>

Chopin's original publishers included Maurice Schlesinger and Camille Pleyel.{{sfn|Atwood|1999|pp=166–167}} His works soon began to appear in popular 19th-century piano anthologies.{{sfn|De Val|Ehrlich|1998|p=127}} The first collected edition was by [[Breitkopf & Härtel]] (1878–1902).{{sfn|De Val|Ehrlich|1998|p=129}} Among modern scholarly editions of Chopin's works is the version named after [[Ignacy Jan Paderewski|Paderewski]] (although he died before the work had begun),<ref name="Higgins">{{cite journal |last1=Higgins |first1=Thomas |title=Whose Chopin? |journal=19th-Century Music |date=1981 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=67–75 |doi=10.2307/746559 |jstor=746559 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/746559 |access-date=15 April 2024 |issn=0148-2076|url-access=subscription }}</ref> published between 1949 and 1961.<ref name="Samson">{{cite book |last1=Samson |first1=Jim |title=Chopin: The Four Ballades |date=30 October 1992 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-38615-9 |pages=30–31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yMj2p1NxKIwC |access-date=15 April 2024 |language=en}}</ref> However, scholarly opinion has moved against this edition.<ref name="Higgins"/><ref name="Samson"/> The more recent [[Chopin National Edition|Polish National Edition]], edited by [[Jan Ekier]] and published between 1967 and 2010, is recommended to contestants of the [[International Chopin Piano Competition|Chopin Competition]].<ref>{{Cite book|publisher=[[Fryderyk Chopin Institute]]|url=https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/media.chopin2020.pl/c38344d9c15a43779f60bfde310cdb08.pdf|title=Rules of The Eighteenth International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition|access-date=14 August 2021|archive-date=21 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220621194533/https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/media.chopin2020.pl/c38344d9c15a43779f60bfde310cdb08.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Both editions contain detailed explanations and discussions regarding choices and sources.{{sfn|Temperley|1980|p=306}}<ref>{{cite web |last=Ekier |first=Jan |title=Foundation for the National Edition of the Works of Fryderyk Chopin |publisher=[[Fryderyk Chopin Institute]] |access-date=28 March 2021 |url=http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/institutions/text/cat/1/page/2/id/1527 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140809202325/http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/institutions/text/cat/1/page/2/id/1527 |archive-date=9 August 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Chopin published his music in France, England, and the German states (i.e. he worked with as many as three separate publishers for each piece or set of pieces) due to the copyright laws of the time. Thus there are often three different "first editions" of each work. Each edition is different from the others; Chopin edited them separately, and at times he did some revision to the music while editing it. Furthermore, Chopin provided his publishers with varying sources, including autographs, annotated proofsheets, and scribal copies. Only recently have these differences gained greater recognition.<ref>{{cite web|title=Historical Background|url=http://www.chopinonline.ac.uk/cfeo/contexts/historical-background/|website=Chopin's First Editions Online|access-date=28 March 2021|archive-date=2 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202011744/http://www.chopinonline.ac.uk/cfeo/contexts/historical-background/|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Form and harmony===
[[File:Piano-Chopin.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Recreation of composer's last residence in [[Place Vendôme]], at the [[Salon Frédéric Chopin]], Paris.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bibliotheque-polonaise-paris-shlp.fr/index.php?id_page=221 |title=Les Musées |last= |first= |date= |website=[[Polish Library in Paris|Bibliotheque Polonaise de Paris]] |publisher= |access-date=7 March 2021 |quote= |archive-date=13 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413200854/http://www.bibliotheque-polonaise-paris-shlp.fr/index.php?id_page=221 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{refn|The piano in the picture, a [[Pleyel et Cie|Pleyel]] from the period 1830–1849, was not Chopin's.|group=n}}]]

[[Musical improvisation|Improvisation]] stands at the centre of Chopin's creative processes. However, this does not imply impulsive rambling: Nicholas Temperley writes that "improvisation is designed for an audience, and its starting-point is that audience's expectations, which include the current conventions of musical form".{{sfn|Temperley|1980|p=298}} The works for piano and orchestra, including the two concertos, are held by Temperley to be "merely vehicles for brilliant piano playing&nbsp;... formally longwinded and extremely conservative".{{sfn|Temperley|1980|p=305}} After the piano concertos (which are both early, dating from 1830), Chopin made no attempts at large-scale multi-movement forms, save for his late sonatas for piano and cello; "instead he achieved near-perfection in pieces of simple general design but subtle and complex cell-structure".{{sfn|Hutchings|1968|p=137}} Rosen suggests that an important aspect of Chopin's individuality is his flexible handling of the four-bar [[phrase (music)|phrase]] as a structural unit.{{sfn|Rosen|1995|pp=262–278}}

J. Barrie Jones suggests that "amongst the works that Chopin intended for concert use, the four ballades and four scherzi stand supreme", and adds that "the [[Barcarole (Chopin)|Barcarolle]] Op.&nbsp;60 stands apart as an example of Chopin's rich harmonic palette coupled with an Italianate warmth of melody".{{sfn|Jones|1998a|pp=161–162}} Temperley opines that these works, which contain "immense variety of mood, thematic material and structural detail", are based on an extended "departure and return" form; "the more the middle section is extended, and the further it departs in key, mood and theme, from the opening idea, the more important and dramatic is the reprise when it at last comes".{{sfn|Temperley|1980|p=304}}

Chopin's mazurkas and waltzes are all in straightforward [[ternary form|ternary]] or episodic form, sometimes with a [[coda (music)|coda]].{{sfn|Jones|1998b|p=177}}{{sfn|Temperley|1980|p=304}} The mazurkas often show more folk features than many of his other works, sometimes including modal scales and harmonies and the use of drone basses. However, some also show unusual sophistication, for example, Op.&nbsp;63 No.&nbsp;3, which includes a [[canon (music)|canon]] at one beat's distance, a great rarity in music.{{sfn|Jones|1998b|p=179}}

[[Polonaises (Chopin)|Chopin's polonaises]] show a marked advance on those of his Polish predecessors in the form (who included his teachers Żywny and Elsner). As with the traditional polonaise, Chopin's works are in triple time and typically display a martial rhythm in their melodies, accompaniments, and cadences. Unlike most of their precursors, they also require a formidable playing technique.{{sfn|Reiss|Brown|1980|p=51}}

[[Nocturnes (Chopin)|His nocturnes]] are more structured, and of greater emotional depth, than those of Field, whom Chopin met in 1832.{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=232–233}} Many of the Chopin nocturnes have middle sections marked by agitated expression (and often making very difficult demands on the performer), which heightens their dramatic character.{{sfn|Brown|1980|p=258}}

[[Études (Chopin)|Chopin's études]] are largely in straightforward ternary form.{{sfn|Jones|1998a|p=160}} He used them to teach his own technique of piano playing{{sfn|Hedley|2005|p=263}}{{snd}}for instance playing double [[third (chord)|thirds]] ([[Étude Op. 25, No. 6 (Chopin)|Op.&nbsp;25, No.&nbsp;6]]), playing in octaves ([[Étude Op. 25, No. 10 (Chopin)|Op.&nbsp;25, No.&nbsp;10]]), and playing repeated notes ([[Étude Op. 10, No. 7 (Chopin)|Op.&nbsp;10, No.&nbsp; 7]]).{{sfn|Jones|1998a|pp=160–161}}

[[Preludes (Chopin)|The preludes]], many of which are very brief, were described by Schumann as "the beginnings of studies".{{sfn|Jones|1998a|p=161}} Inspired by J. S. Bach's ''[[The Well-Tempered Clavier]]'', Chopin's preludes move up the [[circle of fifths]] (rather than Bach's [[chromatic scale]] sequence) to create a prelude in each major and minor tonality.{{sfn|Rosen|1995|p=83}} The preludes were perhaps not intended to be played as a group, and may even have been used by him and later pianists as generic preludes to others of his pieces, or even to music by other composers. This is suggested by [[Kenneth Hamilton]], who has noted a 1922 recording by [[Ferruccio Busoni]] in which the Prelude Op.&nbsp;28 No.&nbsp;7 is followed by the [[Étude Op. 10, No. 5 (Chopin)|Étude Op.&nbsp;10 No.&nbsp;5]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2008|pp=101–102}}

The two mature [[Piano sonatas (Chopin)|Chopin piano sonatas]] ([[Piano Sonata No. 2 (Chopin)|No.&nbsp;2]], Op.&nbsp;35, written in 1839 and No.&nbsp;3, Op.&nbsp;58, written in 1844) are in four movements. In Op.&nbsp;35, Chopin combined within a formal large musical structure many elements of his virtuosic piano technique{{snd}}"a kind of dialogue between the public pianism of the brilliant style and the German sonata principle".{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc= §9 ¶2}} This sonata has been considered as showing the influences of both Bach and Beethoven. The Prelude from Bach's [[BWV 1012|Suite No. 6 in D major for cello]] (BWV 1012) is quoted;{{sfn|Leikin|1994|p=175}} and there are references to the [[Piano Sonata No. 12 (Beethoven)| Sonata Opus 26]] by Beethoven, which, like Chopin's Op. 35, has a funeral march as its slow movement.{{sfn|Leikin|1994|p=161}}{{sfn|Petty|1999|p=289}} The last movement of Chopin's Op. 35, a brief (75-bar) [[perpetuum mobile]] in which the hands play in unmodified octave unison throughout, was found shocking and unmusical by contemporaries, including Schumann.{{sfn|Rosen|1995|pp=294–297}} The Op.&nbsp;58 sonata is closer to the German tradition, including many passages of complex [[counterpoint]], "worthy of [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]]" according to Samson.{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc= §9 ¶2}}

Chopin's harmonic innovations may have arisen partly from his keyboard improvisation technique. In his works, Temperley says, "novel harmonic effects often result from the combination of ordinary [[appoggiatura]]s or [[passing notes]] with melodic figures of accompaniment", and [[cadence (music)|cadences]] are delayed by the use of chords outside the home key ([[neapolitan sixth]]s and [[Diminished seventh chord|diminished seventh]]s) or by sudden shifts to remote keys. [[Chord progression]]s sometimes anticipate the shifting [[tonality]] of later composers such as [[Claude Debussy]], as does Chopin's use of modal harmony.{{sfn|Temperley|1980|pp=302–303}}

===Technique and performance style===
[[File:Op 62-1ms.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Extract from Chopin's [[Nocturnes, Op. 62 (Chopin)|Nocturne Op. 62 no. 1]] (1846, composer's manuscript)]]
[[File:Chopin op 62-1 pr.png|thumb|upright=1.2|The same passage (1881 [[G. Schirmer Inc.|Schirmer]] edition). The examples show Chopin's typical use of [[trill (music)|trills]], [[grace note]]s, and detailed [[pedal (piano)|pedalling]] and [[tempo]] instructions.]]
In 1841, [[Léon Escudier]] wrote of a recital given by Chopin that year, "One may say that Chopin is the creator of a school of piano and a school of composition. In truth, nothing equals the lightness, the sweetness with which the composer preludes on the piano; moreover nothing may be compared to his works full of originality, distinction and grace."{{sfn|Kallberg|1994|p=136}} Chopin refused to conform to a standard method of playing and believed that there was no set technique for playing well. His style was based extensively on his use of a very independent finger technique. In his {{lang|fr|Projet de méthode}} he wrote: "Everything is a matter of knowing good fingering&nbsp;... we need no less to use the rest of the hand, the wrist, the forearm and the upper arm."<ref>Cited in {{harvnb|Eigeldinger|1988|p=18}}</ref> He further stated: "One needs only to study a certain position of the hand in relation to the keys to obtain with ease the most beautiful quality of sound, to know how to play short notes and long notes, and [to attain] unlimited dexterity."<ref>Cited in {{harvnb|Eigeldinger|1988|p=23}}</ref> The consequences of this approach to technique in Chopin's music include the frequent use of the entire range of the keyboard, passages in double octaves and other chord groupings, swiftly repeated notes, the use of [[grace notes]], and the use of contrasting rhythms (four against three, for example) between the hands.{{sfn|Eigeldinger|1988|pp=18–20}}

[[Jonathan Bellman]] writes that modern concert performance style{{snd}}set in the "[[music school|conservatory]]" tradition of late 19th- and 20th-century music schools, and suitable for large auditoria or recordings{{snd}}militates against what is known of Chopin's more intimate performance technique.{{sfn|Bellman|2000|pp=149–150}} The composer himself said to a pupil that "concerts are never real music, you have to give up the idea of hearing in them all the most beautiful things of art".<ref>Cited in {{harvnb|Bellman|2000|p=150}}; the pupil was Emilie von Gretsch.</ref> Contemporary accounts indicate that in performance, Chopin avoided rigid procedures sometimes incorrectly attributed to him, such as "always crescendo to a high note", but that he was concerned with expressive phrasing, rhythmic consistency and sensitive colouring.{{sfn|Bellman|2000|pp=153–154}} Berlioz wrote in 1853 that Chopin "has created a kind of chromatic embroidery&nbsp;... whose effect is so strange and piquant as to be impossible to describe&nbsp;... virtually nobody but Chopin himself can play this music and give it this unusual turn".<ref>Cited in {{harvnb|Eigeldinger|1988|p=272}}</ref> Hiller wrote that "What in the hands of others was elegant embellishment, in his hands became a colourful wreath of flowers."<ref>Cited in {{harvnb|Bellman|2000|p=154}}</ref>

Chopin's music is frequently played with ''[[Tempo rubato|rubato]]'', "the practice in performance of disregarding strict time, 'robbing' some note-values for expressive effect".{{sfn|Latham|2011}} There are differing opinions as to how much, and what type, of ''rubato'' is appropriate for his works. [[Charles Rosen]] comments that "most of the written-out indications of rubato in Chopin are to be found in his mazurkas&nbsp;... It is probable that Chopin used the older form of rubato so important to Mozart&nbsp;... [where] the melody note in the right hand is delayed until after the note in the bass&nbsp;... An allied form of this rubato is the [[arpeggio|arpeggiation]] of the chords thereby delaying the melody note; according to Chopin's pupil [[Karol Mikuli]], Chopin was firmly opposed to this practice."{{sfn|Rosen|1995|p=413}}
[[File:Chopin Museum in Warsaw 03.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|Chopin's last ([[Pleyel et Cie|Pleyel]]) piano, used in 1848–49 ([[Fryderyk Chopin Museum]], Warsaw)]]
Chopin's pupil {{Ill|Friederike Müller|de|Friederike Müller (Pianistin)}} wrote:

{{quote|[His] playing was always noble and beautiful; his tones sang, whether in full ''[[forte (dynamic)|forte]]'' or softest ''[[Dynamics (music)|piano]]''. He took infinite pains to teach his pupils this ''[[legato]]'', ''[[cantabile]]'' style of playing. His most severe criticism was 'He{{snd}}or she{{snd}}does not know how to join two notes together.' He also demanded the strictest adherence to rhythm. He hated all lingering and dragging, misplaced ''rubatos'', as well as exaggerated ''[[ritardando]]s''&nbsp;[...] and it is precisely in this respect that people make such terrible errors in playing his works.{{sfn|Müller-Streicher|1949|p=138}}}}{{Clear}}

=== Instruments ===
When living in Warsaw, Chopin composed and played on an instrument built by the piano-maker [[Fryderyk Buchholtz]].{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=47}}{{refn|In 2018 a copy of Chopin's Buchholtz piano was first presented publicly at the [[Grand Theatre, Warsaw|Teatr Wielki, Warsaw]]{{snd}}Polish National Opera<ref>{{cite web|title=Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina|url=https://muzeum.nifc.pl/pl/muzeum/aktualnosci/955|access-date=24 June 2021|website=muzeum.nifc.pl|archive-date=7 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210207071936/https://muzeum.nifc.pl/pl/muzeum/aktualnosci/955|url-status=live}}</ref> and was used by Warsaw Chopin Institute for [[The 1st International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments|their First International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Moran|first=Michael|date=31 January 2018|title=1st International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments. 2–14 September 2018|url=https://michael-moran.org/2018/01/31/1st-international-chopin-competition-on-period-instruments/|access-date=24 June 2021|website=Classical Music Festivals and Competitions in Poland and Germany – with occasional unrelated detours|language=en|archive-date=13 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513112538/https://michael-moran.org/2018/01/31/1st-international-chopin-competition-on-period-instruments/|url-status=live}}</ref>|group=n}} Later in Paris Chopin purchased a piano from [[Pleyel et Cie|Pleyel]]. He rated Pleyel's pianos as "non plus ultra" ("nothing better").{{sfn|Audéon|2016}} [[Franz Liszt]] befriended Chopin in Paris and described the sound of Chopin's Pleyel as being "the marriage of crystal and water".{{sfn|Liszt|1863|p=91}} While in London in 1848, Chopin mentioned his pianos in his letters: "I have a large drawing-room with three pianos, a Pleyel, a [[John Broadwood & Sons|Broadwood]] and an [[Sébastien Érard|Erard]]."{{sfn|Audéon|2016}}

=== Polish identity ===
{{quote box| style=float:right; font-size:85%; width:40em; max-width:25%; min-width: 25em
|The "Polish character" of Chopin's work is unquestionable; not because he also wrote polonaises and mazurkas&nbsp;... which forms&nbsp;... were often stuffed with alien ideological and literary contents from the outside.&nbsp;... As an artist he looked for forms that stood apart from the literary-dramatic character of music which was a feature of Romanticism, as a Pole he reflected in his work the very essence of the tragic break in the history of the people and instinctively aspired to give the deepest expression of his nation&nbsp;... For he understood that he could invest his music with the most enduring and truly Polish qualities only by liberating art from the confines of dramatic and historical contents. This attitude toward the question of "national music"{{snd}}an inspired solution to his art{{snd}}was the reason why Chopin's works have come to be understood everywhere outside of Poland&nbsp;... Therein lies the strange riddle of his eternal vigour.
|source=[[Karol Szymanowski]], 1923<ref>Cited from Szymanowski's 1923 essay, "Fryderyk Chopin"; {{harvnb|Downes|2001|p=63 and n. 58}}</ref>}}
With his mazurkas and polonaises, Chopin has been credited with introducing to music a new sense of [[Musical nationalism|nationalism]]. Schumann, in his 1836 review of the piano concertos, highlighted the composer's strong feelings for his native Poland, writing:

{{quote|Now that the Poles are in deep mourning [after the failure of the [[November Uprising]] of 1830], their appeal to us artists is even stronger&nbsp;... If the mighty autocrat in the north [i.e. [[Nicholas I of Russia]]] could know that in Chopin's works, in the simple strains of his mazurkas, there lurks a dangerous enemy, he would place a ban on his music. Chopin's works are cannon buried in flowers!{{sfn|Schumann|1988|p=114}}}}

The biography of Chopin published in 1863 under the name of Franz Liszt (but probably written by [[Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein]]){{sfn|Cooke|1966|pp=856–861}} states that Chopin "must be ranked among the first musicians&nbsp;... individualizing in themselves the poetic sense of an entire nation".{{sfn|Liszt|1863|p=149}}

Some modern commentators have argued against exaggerating Chopin's primacy as a "nationalist" or "patriotic" composer. George Golos refers to earlier "nationalist" composers in Central Europe, including Poland's [[Michał Kleofas Ogiński]] and [[Franciszek Lessel]], who utilised polonaise and mazurka forms.{{sfn|Golos|1960|pp=439–442}} Barbara Milewski suggests that Chopin's experience of Polish music came more from "urbanised" Warsaw versions than from folk music, and that attempts by Jachimecki and others to demonstrate genuine folk music in his works are without basis.{{sfn|Milewski|1999|pp=113–121}} [[Richard Taruskin]] impugns Schumann's attitude toward Chopin's works as patronising,{{sfn|Taruskin|2010|pp=344–345}} and comments that Chopin "felt his Polish patriotism deeply and sincerely" but consciously modelled his works on the tradition of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, and Field.{{sfn|Taruskin|2010|p=346}}{{sfn|Rosen|1995|pp=361–363}}

A reconciliation of these views is suggested by William Atwood:

{{quote|Undoubtedly [Chopin's] use of traditional musical forms like the polonaise and mazurka roused nationalistic sentiments and a sense of cohesiveness amongst those Poles scattered across Europe and the New World&nbsp;... While some sought solace in [them], others found them a source of strength in their continuing struggle for freedom. Although Chopin's music undoubtedly came to him intuitively rather than through any conscious patriotic design, it served all the same to symbolize the will of the Polish people&nbsp;...{{sfn|Atwood|1999|p=57}}}}

=== Reception and influence ===
{{See also|Memorials to Frédéric Chopin}}
[[File:Pomnik Fryderyka Chopina w Łazienkach (1 of 1).jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|[[Frédéric Chopin Monument in Warsaw|Frédéric Chopin Monument]], [[Łazienki Park]], Warsaw, designed by [[Wacław Szymanowski]]]]
Jones comments that "Chopin's unique position as a composer, despite the fact that virtually everything he wrote was for the piano, has rarely been questioned."{{sfn|Jones|1998a|p=162}} He also notes that Chopin was fortunate to arrive in Paris in 1831{{snd}}"the artistic environment, the publishers who were willing to print his music, the wealthy and aristocratic who paid what Chopin asked for their lessons"{{snd}}and these factors, as well as his musical genius, also fuelled his contemporary and later reputation.{{sfn|Jones|1998a|p=160}} While his illness and his love affairs conform to some of the stereotypes of [[romanticism]], the rarity of his public recitals (as opposed to performances at fashionable Paris soirées) led Arthur Hutchings to suggest that "his lack of [[Lord Byron|Byronic]] flamboyance [and] his aristocratic reclusiveness make him exceptional" among his romantic contemporaries such as Liszt and Henri Herz.{{sfn|Hutchings|1968|p=137}}

Chopin's qualities as a pianist and composer were recognised by many of his fellow musicians. Schumann named a piece for him in his suite ''[[Carnaval (Schumann)|Carnaval]]'', and Chopin later dedicated his [[Ballade No. 2 (Chopin)|Ballade No. 2 in F major]] to Schumann.{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=291}} Elements of Chopin's music can be found in many of Liszt's later works.{{sfn|Walker|1988|p=184}} Liszt later transcribed for piano six of Chopin's Polish songs. A less fraught friendship was with Alkan, with whom he discussed elements of folk music, and who was deeply affected by Chopin's death.{{sfn|Conway|2012|pp=229–230}}

In Paris, Chopin had a number of pupils, including Friedericke Müller, who left memoirs of his teaching{{sfn|Walker|2018|pp=422–423}} and the prodigy [[Carl Filtsch]], to whom both Chopin and Sand became dedicated, Chopin giving him three lessons a week; Filtsch was the only pupil to whom Chopin gave lessons in composition, and, exceptionally, he on several occasions shared a concert platform with him.{{sfn|Walker|2018|pp=464–467}} Two of Chopin's long-standing pupils, [[Karol Mikuli]] and [[Georges Mathias]], were themselves piano teachers and passed on details of his playing to their students, some of whom (such as [[Raoul Koczalski]]) were to make recordings of his music. Other pianists and composers influenced by Chopin's style include [[Louis Moreau Gottschalk]], Édouard Wolff, and Pierre Zimmermann.{{sfn|Bellman|2000|pp=150–151}} Debussy dedicated [[Études (Debussy)|his own 1915 piano Études]] to the memory of Chopin; he frequently played Chopin's music during his studies at the [[Paris Conservatoire]], and undertook the editing of Chopin's piano music for the publisher [[Jacques Durand (publisher)|Jacques Durand]].{{sfn|Wheeldon| 2009| pp=55–62}}

Polish composers of the following generation included virtuosi such as [[Moritz Moszkowski]]; but, in the opinion of J. Barrie Jones, his "one worthy successor" among his compatriots was [[Karol Szymanowski]].{{sfn|Jones|1998b|p=180}} [[Edvard Grieg]], [[Antonín Dvořák]], [[Isaac Albéniz]], [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky]], and [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]], among others, are regarded by critics as having been influenced by Chopin's use of national modes and idioms.{{sfn|Temperley|1980|p=307}} [[Alexander Scriabin]] was devoted to the music of Chopin, and his early published works include nineteen mazurkas as well as numerous études and preludes; his teacher [[Nikolai Zverev]] drilled him in Chopin's works to improve his virtuosity as a performer.{{sfn|Bowers|1996|p=134}} In the 20th century, composers who paid homage to (or in some cases parodied) the music of Chopin included [[George Crumb]], [[Leopold Godowsky]], [[Bohuslav Martinů]], [[Darius Milhaud]], [[Igor Stravinsky]],{{sfn|Wojtkiewicz|2013}} and [[Heitor Villa-Lobos]].<ref>{{IMSLP|work=Hommage à Chopin, W474 (Villa-Lobos, Heitor)|cname=''Hommage à Chopin''}}</ref>

Chopin's music was used in the 1909 ballet ''[[Les Sylphides|Chopiniana]]'', choreographed by [[Michel Fokine]] and orchestrated by [[Alexander Glazunov]]. [[Sergei Diaghilev]] commissioned additional orchestrations{{snd}}from Stravinsky, [[Anatoly Lyadov]], [[Sergei Taneyev]], and [[Nikolai Tcherepnin]]{{snd}}for later productions, which used the title {{lang|fr|Les Sylphides}}.{{sfn|Taruskin|1996|pp=546–547}} Other noted composers have created orchestrations for the ballet, including [[Benjamin Britten]], [[Roy Douglas]], [[Alexander Gretchaninov]], [[Gordon Jacob]], and [[Maurice Ravel]],<ref>{{cite web |title=The Mystery of the Missing Music |work=SideBarre |publisher=[[American Ballet Theatre]] |url=https://www.abt.org/entry/the-mystery-of-the-missing-music/ |access-date=22 April 2021 |archive-date=6 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210106220926/https://www.abt.org/entry/the-mystery-of-the-missing-music/ |url-status=live }}</ref> whose score is lost.{{sfn|Zank|2005|p=266}}[[File:1937chopin competition.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|[[III International Chopin Piano Competition|3rd International Chopin Piano Competition]], 1937]]Musicologist Erinn Knyt writes: "In the nineteenth century Chopin and his music were commonly viewed as effeminate, androgynous, childish, sickly, and 'ethnically other.{{'"}}{{sfn|Knyt|2017|p=280}} Music historian Jeffrey Kallberg says that in Chopin's time, "listeners to the genre of the piano nocturne often couched their reactions in feminine imagery", and he cites many examples of such reactions to Chopin's nocturnes.{{sfn|Kallberg|1992|pp=104–106}} One reason for this may be "demographic"{{snd}}there were more female than male piano players, and playing such "romantic" pieces was seen by male critics as a female domestic pastime. Such genderization was not commonly applied to other genres among Chopin's works, such as the scherzo or the polonaise.{{sfn|Kallberg|1992|pp=106–107}} The cultural historian [[Edward Said]] has cited the demonstrations by pianist and writer [[Charles Rosen]], in the latter's book ''The Romantic Generation'', of Chopin's skills in "planning, polyphony, and sheer harmonic creativity", as effectively overthrowing any legend of Chopin "as a swooning, 'inspired', small-scale salon composer".{{sfn|Said|1995}}{{sfn|Rosen|1995|pp=284–285, 358–359, 452–453}}
Chopin's music remains very popular and is regularly performed, recorded and broadcast worldwide. The world's oldest monographic music competition, the [[International Chopin Piano Competition]], founded in 1927, is held every five years in Warsaw.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://konkurs.chopin.pl/en/about/competition|title=About Competition|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130707105707/http://konkurs.chopin.pl/en/about/competition|archivedate=7 July 2013|website=International Chopin Competition|accessdate=12 January 2014}}</ref> 

The [[Fryderyk Chopin Institute]] lists over eighty societies worldwide devoted to the composer and his music.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/institutions/search/cat/1/page/1|title=Institutions related to Chopin{{snd}}Associations|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140106032942/http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/institutions/search/cat/1/page/1 |archivedate=6 January 2014|website=Fryderyk Chopin Institute|accessdate=5 January 2014}}</ref> The Institute site also lists over 1500 performances of Chopin works on YouTube {{as of|2021|March|lc=y}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/youtube/search|title=Chopin on YouTube|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030120345/http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/youtube/search |archivedate=30 October 2013|website=Fryderyk Chopin Institute|accessdate=27 March 2021}}</ref>

{{Clear}}

== Recordings ==
The [[British Library]] notes that "Chopin's works have been recorded by all the great pianists of the recording era." The earliest recording was an 1895 performance by [[Pavel Pabst|Paul Pabst]] of the [[Nocturnes, Op. 62 (Chopin)|Nocturne in E major, Op. 62, No. 2]]. The British Library site makes available a number of historic recordings, including some by [[Alfred Cortot]], [[Ignaz Friedman]], [[Vladimir Horowitz]], [[Benno Moiseiwitsch]], [[Ignacy Jan Paderewski]], [[Arthur Rubinstein]], [[Xaver Scharwenka]], [[Josef Hofmann]], [[Vladimir de Pachmann]], [[Moriz Rosenthal]] and many others.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chopin |url=http://sounds.bl.uk/classical-music/chopin |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206192339/https://sounds.bl.uk/Classical-music/Chopin |archive-date=6 December 2022 |website=British Library|access-date=22 December 2013}}.  Recordings accessible free online throughout the [[European Union]].</ref> A select discography of recordings of Chopin works by pianists representing the various pedagogic traditions stemming from Chopin is given by James Methuen-Campbell in his work tracing the lineage and character of those traditions.{{sfn|Methuen-Campbell|1981|pp=241–267}}

Numerous recordings of Chopin's works are available. On the occasion of the composer's bicentenary, the critics of ''[[The New York Times]]'' recommended performances by the following contemporary pianists (among many others): [[Martha Argerich]], [[Vladimir Ashkenazy]], [[Emanuel Ax]], [[Evgeny Kissin]], [[Ivan Moravec]], [[Murray Perahia]], [[Maria João Pires]], [[Maurizio Pollini]], [[Alexandre Tharaud]], [[Yundi]], and [[Krystian Zimerman]].<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Tommasini |first1=Anthony |author-link1=Anthony Tommasini |last2=Kozinn |first2=Allan |author-link2=Allan Kozinn |last3=Smith |first3=Steve |last4=Schweitzer |first4=Vivien |date=27 May 2010 |title=1 Composer, 2 Centuries, Many Picks |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/arts/music/28chopinweb.html |access-date=1 December 2024 |work=[[The New York Times]] |archive-date=13 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241213173321/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/arts/music/28chopinweb.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The Warsaw Chopin Society organises the ''Grand prix du disque de F. Chopin'' for notable Chopin recordings, held every five years.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.grandprix.chopin.pl/hist_en.html|website=Grand Prix du Disque Frédéric Chopin|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160827174806/http://www.grandprix.chopin.pl/hist_en.html|title=International Record Competition|archivedate=27 August 2016|accessdate=2 January 2014}}</ref>

== In popular culture ==
[[File:Pere-Lachaise Chopin grave.jpg|thumb|Chopin's grave, [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]], Paris]]
{{further|Memorials to Frédéric Chopin}}

Chopin has figured extensively in Polish literature, both in serious critical studies and in fictional treatments. The earliest manifestation was probably an 1830 sonnet on Chopin by [[Leon Ulrich]]. French writers on Chopin (apart from Sand) have included [[Marcel Proust]] and [[André Gide]], and he has also featured in works by [[Gottfried Benn]] and [[Boris Pasternak]].<ref>{{cite web|author-first=Andrzej|author-last=Hejmej|translator-first=Philip|translator-last=Stoeckle|url=http://www.chopin.pl/chopin_literature.en.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131122073940/http://www.chopin.pl/chopin_literature.en.html|archivedate=22 November 2013|title=Chopin and his music in literature|website=Chopin.pl|accessdate=28 March 2021}}</ref>

There are [[#Bibliography|numerous English-language biographies of Chopin]].   

Possibly the first venture into fictional treatments of Chopin's life was a fanciful operatic version of some of its events: ''[[Chopin (opera)|Chopin]]'' (1901). The music{{snd}}based on Chopin's own{{snd}}was assembled by [[Giacomo Orefice]], with a libretto by {{ill|Angiolo Orvieto|it}}.{{sfn|Ashbrook|2002}}{{sfn|Lanza|2001}}

Chopin's life has been fictionalised in numerous films.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/filmography/search/page/1|title=Fryderyk Chopin – Information Centre – Filmography|website=en.chopin.nifc.pl|publisher=chopin.nifc.pl|year=2003–2018|access-date=5 March 2020|archive-date=8 September 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100908130750/http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/filmography/search/page/1|url-status=dead}}</ref> As early as 1919, Chopin's relationships with three women{{snd}}his youth sweetheart Mariolka, then Polish singer Sonja Radkowska, and later George Sand{{snd}}were portrayed in the German silent film [[Nocturne of Love (1919 film)|''Nocturno der Liebe'']] (1919).{{sfn|Soister|2002|p=62}} The 1945 biographical film ''[[A Song to Remember]]'' earned [[Cornel Wilde]] an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor for his portrayal of the composer. Other film treatments have included {{lang|fr|La valse de l'adieu}} (1928) by [[Henry Roussel]], with [[Pierre Blanchar]] as Chopin; ''[[Impromptu (1991 film)|Impromptu]]'' (1991), starring [[Hugh Grant]] as Chopin; {{lang|fr|La note bleue}} (1991); and ''[[Chopin: Desire for Love]]'' (2002).<ref>{{cite web|author-first=Iwona|author-last=Sowińska|translator-first=Philip|translator-last=Stoeckle|url=http://www.chopin.pl/chopin_films.en.html#1|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023044224/http://www.chopin.pl/chopin_films.en.html#1#1|archivedate=23 October 2013|title=Chopin goes to the movies|website=Chopin.pl|accessdate=4 January 2014}} The site gives details of numerous other films featuring Chopin.</ref>

Chopin's life was described in a 1999 [[BBC]] [[Omnibus (British TV programme)|''Omnibus'']] documentary by [[András Schiff]] and [[Mischa Scorer]],<ref>{{cite news |author=Michael Church |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/an-exile-from-the-modern-world-1093449.html |title=An exile from the modern world |newspaper=The Independent |date=13 May 1999 |access-date=3 May 2018 |archive-date=3 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180503132459/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/an-exile-from-the-modern-world-1093449.html |url-status=live }}</ref> in a 2010 documentary by Angelo Bozzolini and [[Roberto Prosseda]] for Italian television,{{sfn|Thompson|2016|pp=600–601}} and in a 2010 [[BBC Four]] documentary, ''Chopin{{snd}}The Women Behind The Music''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00v9qpb |title=Chopin – The Women Behind The Music |website=[[BBC]] |access-date=28 March 2021 |archive-date=13 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413201000/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00v9qpb |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=n|colwidth=35em}}

==References==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|25em}}

===Bibliography===
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* {{cite Grove |last=Ashbrook |first=William |author-link=William Ashbrook |year=2002 |orig-year=1992 |title=Chopin (opera by Orefice)|url= https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O008022}} {{Grove Music subscription}}
* {{cite book |last=Atwood |first=William G. |year=1999 |title=The Parisian Worlds of Frédéric Chopin |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |location=New Haven and London |isbn=978-0-300-07773-5 }}
* {{cite book |last=Audéon |first=Hervé |editor-first=Vanya |editor-last=Hug |year=2016 |title=Chopin et son temps / Chopin and his time |chapter=L'œuvre de Frédéric Kalkbrenner (1785–1849) et ses rapports avec Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) |publisher=Peter Lang |url=https://www.peterlang.com/view/9783035108637/9783035108637.00007.xml |url-access=subscription |language=fr |isbn=978-3-0343-2000-9 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Bellman |first=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Bellman |date=Autumn 2000 |title=Chopin and His Imitators: Notated Emulations of the 'True Style' of Performance |journal=[[19th-Century Music]] |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=149–160 |doi=10.2307/746839 |jstor=746839  |issn = 0148-2076 }}
* {{cite book |last=Bowers |first=Faubion |author-link=Faubion Bowers |year=1996 |title=Scriabin: A Biography |publisher=[[Dover Publications]] |location=Mineola |isbn=978-0-486-28897-0 }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Brown |first=Maurice |editor=Stanley Sadie |editor-link=Stanley Sadie |year=1980 |encyclopedia=[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]] |title=Nocturne |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers]] |location=London |volume=13 |pages=258–259 |isbn=978-0-333-23111-1 }}
* {{cite web |last=Cholmondeley |first=Rose |year=1998 |url=https://www.chopin-society.org.uk/articles/chopin-birthday.htm |title=The mystery of Chopin's birthday |website=The Chopin Society UK |access-date=28 March 2021 |archive-date=8 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170308225022/http://www.chopin-society.org.uk/articles/chopin-birthday.htm |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite book |last=Chopin |first=Frédéric |editor-last=Voynich |editor-first=E. L. |editor-link = Ethel Voynich|year=1988 |title=Chopin's Letters |publisher=[[Dover Publications]]|others = Compiled by Henryk Opieński|location=New York |isbn=978-0-486-25564-4 }}
* {{cite book |last=Chopin |first=Fryderyk |translator-last=Hedley |translator-first=Arthur |others=Compiled by Bronisław Edward Sydow |year=1962 |title=Selected Correspondence of Fryderyk Chopin |publisher=[[Heinemann (publisher)|Heinemann]] |location=London }}
* {{cite book |last=Conway |first=David |year=2012 |author-link=David Conway (music historian)|title=Jewry in Music: Entry to the Profession from the Enlightenment to Richard Wagner |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-107-01538-8}}
* {{cite journal |last=Cooke|first=Charles|edition=Winter 1965 – Winter 1966|year=1966|title=Chopin and Liszt with a Ghostly Twist|journal=[[Notes (journal)|Notes]]|volume=22|issue=2|pages=855–861|jstor=894930|doi=10.2307/894930 }}
* {{harvc|last1=De Val|first1=Dorothy|last2=Ehrlich|first2=Cyril|in=Rowland|year=1998|chapter=Repertory and Canon|pages=115–134}}
* {{cite book |last=Downes |first=Stephen |editor-last1=White |editor-first1=Harry |editor-link1=Harry White (musicologist) |editor-last2=Murphy |editor-first2=Michael |year=2001 |title=Musical Constructions of Nationalism: Essays on the History and Ideology of European Musical Culture 1800–1945 |chapter=Eros and PanEuropeanism |publisher=[[Cork University Press]] |location=Cork |pages=51–71 |isbn=978-1-85918-322-9 }}
* {{cite book |last=Eddie |first=William |year=2013 |title=Charles Valentin Alkan: His Life and His Music |publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]] |location=Farnham |isbn=978-1-4094-9364-8 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=08qhAgAAQBAJ}} }}
* {{cite book |last=Eigeldinger |first=Jean-Jacques |editor-first1=Jean-Jacques |editor-last1=Eigeldinger |author-link=Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger |year=1988 |title=Chopin: Pianist and Teacher As Seen By His Pupils|url=
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107049901 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|translator= Naomi Shochet |location=Cambridge |doi=10.1017/CBO9781107049901 |isbn=978-0-521-36709-7}}
* {{cite journal |last=Eigeldinger |first=Jean-Jacques |date=August 2001 |title=Chopin and Pleyel |journal=[[Early Music (journal)|Early Music]] |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=389–396 |doi=10.1093/earlyj/XXIX.3.389 |jstor=3519183 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/85212477.pdf }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Ferguson |first=Howard |author-link=Howard Ferguson (composer) |editor=Stanley Sadie |editor-link=Stanley Sadie |year=1980 |encyclopedia=[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]] |title=Study |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers]] |location=London |volume=18 |pages=304–305 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Golos |first=George S. |date=October 1960 |title=Some Slavic Predecessors of Chopin |journal=[[The Musical Quarterly]] |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=437–447 |doi=10.1093/mq/XLVI.4.437 |jstor=740748}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Hall-Swadley |editor-first=Janita R. |year=2011 |title=The Collected Writings of Franz Liszt: F. Chopin |publisher=[[Scarecrow Press]] |location=Lanham |isbn=978-1-4616-6409-3 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=DrivAkWuo8cC}} }}
* {{cite book |last=Hamilton |first=Kenneth |author-link=Kenneth Hamilton |year=2008 |title=After the Golden Age: Romantic Pianism and Modern Performance |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-517826-5 }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Hedley |first=Arthur |author-link=Arthur Hedley |year=2005 |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |title=Chopin, Frédéric (François) |edition=15th |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]] |location=Chicago |volume=3 |pages=263–264}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last1=Hedley |first1=Arthur |authorlink1=Arthur Hedley |last2=Brown |first2=Maurice |editor=Stanley Sadie |editor-link=Stanley Sadie |year=1980 |encyclopedia=[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]] |title=Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek [Frédéric François] |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers]] |location=London |volume=4 |pages=292–298, sections 1–6 |isbn=978-0-333-23111-1 }}
* {{cite book |last=Hutchings |first=A.G.B. |editor-last1=Robertson |editor-first1=Alec |editor-last2=Stevens |editor-first2=Denis |year=1968 |title=The Pelican History of Music 3: Classical and Romantic |chapter=The Romantic Era |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |location=Harmondsworth |pages=99–139 |isbn=978-0-14-020494-0 }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Jachimecki |first=Zdzisław |author-link=Zdzisław Jachimecki |year=1937 |title=Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek |encyclopedia=[[Polski słownik biograficzny]] |language=pl |volume=3 |publisher=[[Polish Academy of Learning|Polska Akademia Umiejętności]] |location=Kraków |pages=420–426}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Jakubowski |editor-first=Jan Zygmunt |year=1979 |title=Literatura polska od średniowiecza to pozytywizmu |trans-title=Polish Literature from the Middle Ages to Positivism |language=pl |publisher=[[Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe]] |location=Warsaw |isbn=978-83-01-00201-5 }}
* {{harvc|last=Jones|first=J. Barrie|in=Rowland|anchor-year=1998a|year=1998|chapter=Piano music for concert hall and salon c. 1830–1900|pages=151–175}}
* {{harvc|last=Jones|first=J. Barrie|in=Rowland|anchor-year=1998b|year=1998|chapter=Nationalism|pages=176–191}}
* {{cite journal |last=Kallberg |first=Jeffrey |author-link=Jeffrey Kallberg |date=Summer 2001 |title=Chopin's March, Chopin's Death |journal=[[19th-Century Music]] |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=3–26 |jstor=10.1525/ncm.2001.25.1.3 |doi=10.1525/ncm.2001.25.1.3 }}
* {{cite book |last=Kallberg |first=Jeffrey |editor-last1=Rink |editor-first1=John |editor-last2=Samson |editor-first2=Jim |editor-link2=Jim Samson |year=2006 |orig-year=1994 |title=Chopin Studies 2 |chapter=Small fairy voices: sex, history and meaning in Chopin |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-03433-3 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UVVqMCoeJIkC&pg=PA50 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=id=UVVqMCoeJIkC}} }}{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} (e-book version of 1994 publication)
* {{cite journal |last=Kallberg |first=Jeffrey |date=Summer 1992 |title=The Harmony of the Tea Table: Gender and Ideology in the Piano Nocturne |journal=[[Representations]] |volume=39 |issue=39 |pages=102–133 |jstor=2928597 |doi=10.2307/2928597 }}
*{{harvc|last = Kallberg|first = Jeffrey|in = Samson|year = 1994|chapter=Small 'forms': in defence of the prelude|pages = 124–144}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Kennedy |editor-first=Michael|editor-link=Michael Kennedy (music critic)|editor-last2 = Kennedy|editor-first2 = Joyce |year=2012|editor-last3 = Rutherford-Johnson|editor-first3 = Tim |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Music|edition= 6|url = https://doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780199578108.001.0001 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199578108.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-199-57810-8|ref = {{harvid|Kennedy et al.|2012}}}}
*{{Cite book |last=Kildea |first=Paul|title=Chopin's Piano: In Search of the Instrument that Transformed Music |date=2018 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-65222-2 |edition=1 |location=New York}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Knyt |first1=Erinn E. |year=2017 |title=Ferruccio Busoni and the 'Halfness' of Frédéric Chopin|journal=[[The Journal of Musicology]] |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=241–280 |doi=10.1525/jm.2017.34.02.241 |jstor=26414211}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Kubba |first1=Adam |last2=Young |first2=Madeleine |year=1998 |title=The Long Suffering of Frederic Chopin |url=http://graduateinstitute.ch/files/live/sites/iheid/files/sites/developpement/shared/developpement/mdev/soutienauxcours0809/rainhorn_sante/Kubba.Chopin.pdf |journal=Chest |volume=113 |issue=1 |pages=210–216 |doi=10.1378/chest.113.1.210 |pmid=9440592 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819085703/http://graduateinstitute.ch/files/live/sites/iheid/files/sites/developpement/shared/developpement/mdev/soutienauxcours0809/rainhorn_sante/Kubba.Chopin.pdf |access-date=28 March 2021 |archive-date=19 August 2014 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Kuhnke |first1=Monica |year=2010 |title=Oryginalne kopie, czyli historia portretów rodziny Chopinów |trans-title=Original Copies, or the History of the Portraits of the Chopin Family |url=http://cennebezcenne.pl/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/CBU_2010_1-s-08-12_KUHNKE.pdf |journal=Cenne Bezcenne Utracone |volume=62 |issue=1 |pages=8–12 |access-date=28 March 2021 |language=pl}} ([https://web.archive.org/web/20140122020235/http://www.nimoz.pl/upload/wydawnictwa/cenne_bezcenne_utracone/2010_1/Strony_48.pdf English summary])
* {{cite journal |last1=Kuzemko |first1=J. A.|year=1994 |title=Chopin's Illnesses |journal=[[Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine]] |volume=87 |issue=12 |pages=769–772 |pmid=7853308 |pmc=1294992}}
* {{cite Grove |last1=Lanza |first1=Andrea |year=2001 |title=Orefice, Giacomo |url = https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.20420}} {{Grove Music subscription}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Latham |first=Alison |year=2011 |title=Rubato |encyclopedia=[[Oxford Companion to Music]] online |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-957903-7 |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199579037.001.0001/acref-9780199579037-e-5796
|url-access=subscription |access-date=27 March 2021}}
* {{harvc|last=Leikin |first=Anatole|chapter=The Sonatas |in = Samson |year= 1994}}
* {{cite book |last1=Liszt |first1=Franz |authorlink=Franz Liszt |translator-first=Martha Walker |translator-last=Cook |year=1863 |title=Life of Chopin |edition=4th |publisher=Oliver Ditson Co.|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofchopin00lisziala/page/n3/mode/2up?q=crystal|access-date=12 November 2024|oclc=418834|location = Boston, Massachusetts}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Majka |first1=Lucyna |last2=Gozdzik |first2=Joanna |last3=Witt |first3=Michał |year=2003 |title=Cystic fibrosis&nbsp;– a probable cause of Frédéric Chopin's suffering and death |url=https://www.romania-muzical.ro/info/boala%20chopin.pdf |journal=Journal of Applied Genetics |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=77–84 |pmid=12590184 }}
* {{cite news |last1=McKie |first1=Robin |date=4 November 2017 |title=Examination of Chopin's pickled heart solves riddle of his early death |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/05/frederic-chopin-pickled-heart-solves-riddle-of-early-death |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=5 November 2017 }}
* {{cite book |last=Methuen-Campbell |first=James |year=1981 |title=Chopin Playing from the Composer to the Present Day |publisher=[[Victor Gollancz]] |location=London |isbn=978-0-575-02884-5 }}
* {{cite book |last=Mieleszko |first=Jadwiga |title=Pałac Czapskich |trans-title=Czapski Palace |year=1971 |publisher=[[Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe]] |location=Warszawa |language=pl }}
* {{cite journal |last=Milewski|first=Barbara|date=Autumn 1999|title=Chopin's Mazurkas and the Myth of the Folk|journal=[[19th-Century Music]]|volume=23|issue=2|pages=113–135|doi=10.2307/746919|jstor=746919}}
* {{cite news |last1=Miller |first1=Lucasta |author-link1=Lucasta Miller |date=21 June 2003 |title=The composer who never grew up |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/jun/21/featuresreviews.guardianreview4 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=18 December 2020}}
* {{cite book |last=Müller-Streicher |first=Friedericke |year=1949 |title=Chopin-Almanach zur hundertsten Wiederkehr des Todesjahres von Fryderyk Chopin |trans-title=Chopin Almanac for the Hundredth Anniversary of the Death of Fryderyk Chopin |chapter=Aus dem Tagebuch einer Wiener Chopin-Schülerin (1839–1841, 1844–1845) |trans-chapter=From the Diary of a Viennese Student of Chopin (1839–1841, 1844–1845) |publisher=[[Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Athenaion]] |location=Potsdam |oclc=460555146 |pages=134–142 |language=de }}
* {{cite book |last=Niecks |first=Frederick |year=1902 |title=Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician |edition=3rd |publisher=[[Novello & Co.]] |location=London |oclc=22702671 |access-date=27 March 2021 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4973/4973-h/4973-h.htm |via=[[Project Gutenberg]]}}
* {{cite journal |last=Petty |first=Wayne C. |date=Spring 1999 |title=Chopin and the Ghost of Beethoven |journal=[[19th-Century Music]]|volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=281–299 |jstor=746802 |doi=10.2307/746802 }}
* {{cite news |last=Pruszewicz |first=Marek |date=22 December 2014 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29915863 |title=The mystery of Chopin's death |access-date=31 January 2019 |work=[[BBC]]}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |title=Polonaise |encyclopedia=The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians |year=1980 |last1=Reiss |first1=Jozef |last2=Brown |first2=Maurice |editor-first=Stanley |editor-last=Sadie |editor-link=Stanley Sadie |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers]] |location=London |volume=15 |pages=49–52 |isbn=978-0-333-23111-1 }}
*{{harvc|last= Ritterman|first = Janet|chapter= Piano music and the public concert, 1800-1850 |in = Samson|year = 1994}}
* {{cite journal |first=Francis |last=Rogers |year=1939 |title=Adolphe Nourrit |journal=[[The Musical Quarterly]]|pages=11–25 |volume=25 |issue=1 |doi=10.1093/mq/XXV.1.11 |jstor=738696}}
* {{cite book |last=Rosen |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Rosen |year=1995 |title=The Romantic Generation |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |location=Cambridge, MA |isbn=978-0-674-77933-4}}
* {{cite news |last=Ross |first=Alex |author-link=Alex Ross (music critic) |date=5 February 2014 |title=Chopin's Heart |url=http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/chopins-heart |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |access-date=24 March 2021 }}
* {{cite book|editor-last=Rowland|editor-first=David|year=1998|title=The Cambridge Companion to the Piano|url=https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521474702|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|location=Cambridge|doi=10.1017/CCOL9780521474702 |isbn=978-0-521-47986-8}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Said |first1=Edward |author-link=Edward Said |date=12 December 1995 |title=Bach's Genius, Schumann's Eccentricity, Chopin's Ruthlessness, Rosen's Gift |journal=[[London Review of Books]] |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v17/n18/edward-said/bach-s-genius-schumann-s-eccentricity-chopin-s-ruthlessness-rosen-s-gift |volume=17 |issue=18 |access-date=24 March 2021 }}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Samson |editor-first=Jim |editor-link=Jim Samson |year=1994 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Chopin |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge |doi=10.1017/CCOL9780521404907 |isbn=978-0-521-47752-9|url= 
https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521404907}}
* {{cite book |last1=Samson |first1=Jim |author-link=Jim Samson |year=1996 |title=Chopin |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-198-16495-1}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Samson |first=Jim |author-link=Jim Samson |year=2001 |encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]] |title=Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford, England |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.51099 |isbn=978-1-56159-263-0 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000051099}} {{Grove Music subscription}}
* {{cite book |last=Schonberg |first=Harold C. |author-link=Harold C. Schonberg |year=1987 |title=Great Pianists |publisher=[[Simon and Schuster]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-671-63837-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/greatpianists00scho |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/greatpianists00scho/page/151 151] }}
* {{cite book |last=Schumann |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Schumann |editor-last=Pleasants |editor-first=Henry |year=1988 |title=Schumann on Music: A Selection from the Writings |publisher=Dover |location=New York |isbn=978-0-486-25748-8 }}
* {{cite book |last=Soister |first=John T. |year=2002 |title=Conrad Veidt on Screen: A Comprehensive Illustrated Filmography |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |location=Jefferson, North Carolina and London |isbn=978-0-7864-4511-0 }}
* {{cite web |first=Robert |last=Ståhlbrand |url=http://www.pianosociety.com/cms/index.php?section=636 |title=Chopin's Works&nbsp;– Complete list |publisher=Piano Society|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240421090538/https://www.pianosociety.com/pages/chopinworks/|archive-date = 21 April 2024|url-status=live |access-date=28 March 2021|year=2016}}
* {{cite journal |last=Szklener |first=Artur |year=2010 |title=Fryckowe lato: czyli wakacyjne muzykowanie Chopina |trans-title=Fritz's Summers: Chopin's Musical Vacations |journal=Magazyn Chopin: Miesięcznik Narodowego Instytutu Fryderyka Chopina |pages=8–9 |language=pl |issue=4}}
* {{cite book |last=Szulc |first=Tad |author-link=Tad Szulc |year=1998 |title=Chopin in Paris: the Life and Times of the Romantic Composer |publisher=[[Charles Scribner's Sons|Scribner]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-684-82458-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/chopininparislif00szul}}
* {{cite book |last1=Taruskin |first1=Richard |author-link=Richard Taruskin |year=1996 |title=Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-816250-6 }}
* {{cite book |last=Taruskin |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Taruskin |year=2010 |title=Music in the Nineteenth Century |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-538483-3 }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Temperley |first=Nicholas | author-link=Nicholas Temperley | editor-last=Sadie |editor-first=Stanley |editor-link=Stanley Sadie |title=Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek [Frédéric François] |encyclopedia=[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]] |year=1980 |volume=4 |pages=298–307, sections 7–14 |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers]] |location=London |isbn=978-0-333-23111-1 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Thompson |first=Brian Christopher |year=2016 |title=Fryderyk Chopin by Angelo Bozzolini and Roberto Prosseda (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/608937 |journal=[[Notes (journal)|Notes]] |volume=72 |issue=3 |pages=600–601 |doi=10.1353/not.2016.0042 |s2cid=193316471 |url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=Alan |author-link=Alan Walker (musicologist) |year=1988|title=Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years 1811–1847 |publisher=[[Faber and Faber]] |location=London |isbn=978-0-571-15278-0 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=Alan |year=2018 |author-link=Alan Walker (musicologist) |title=Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times |publisher=[[Faber and Faber]] |location=London |isbn=978-0-571-34855-8}}
* {{cite book |last1=Wheeldon |first1=Marianne |year=2009 |title=Debussy's Late Style |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |location=Bloomington |isbn=978-0-253-35239-2 }}
* {{cite journal |first1=Michał |last1=Witt |first2=Wojciech |last2=Marchwica |first3=Tadeusz |last3=Dobosz |year=2018 |title=Disease not genetic but infectious: multiple tuberculomas and fibrinous pericarditis as symptoms pathognomonic for tuberculosis of Frederic Chopin |journal=Journal of Applied Genetics |pages=471–473 |volume=59 |issue=4 |url=https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs13353-018-0456-3.pdf |doi=10.1007/s13353-018-0456-3 |pmid=30047032 |s2cid=51718815 |doi-access=free }}
* {{cite web |last=Wojtkiewicz |first=Mariola |translator-first=Jerzy |translator-last=Ossowski |year=2013 |title=The Impact of Chopin's Music on the Work of 19th and 20th Century Composers |website=Chopin.pl |url=http://www.chopin.pl/reception_works.en.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023044226/http://www.chopin.pl/reception_works.en.html |access-date=28 March 2021 |archive-date=23 October 2013 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Załuski|first1=Iwo|last2=Załuski |first2=Pamela |date=May 1992 |title=Chopin in London |journal=[[The Musical Times]] |volume=133 |issue=1791 |pages=226–230 |doi=10.2307/1193699 |jstor=1193699}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Załuski |first1=Iwo |last2=Załuski |first2=Pamela |year=1993 |title=Chopin's Scottish Autumn |url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Chopin's+Scottish+autumn.-a014234524 |journal=Contemporary Review |issue=1 July 1993 |access-date=28 March 2021}}
* {{cite book |last=Zamoyski |first=Adam |author-link=Adam Zamoyski |year=2010 |title=Chopin: Prince of the Romantics |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |location=London |isbn=978-0-00-735182-4 }}
** First published as: {{cite book |last=Zamoyski |first=Adam|year=1979 |title= Chopin: A Biography |publisher=Collins |location=London |isbn=0-00-216089-7|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Zank |first=Stephen |year=2005 |title=Maurice Ravel: A Guide to Research |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8153-1618-3 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=tKGNUoSTprsC}} }}
{{div col end}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Azoury |first=Pierre |year=1999 |title=Chopin through His Contemporaries |publisher=[[Greenwood Press]] |location=Westport, Connecticut |isbn=978-0-313-30971-7 |ref=none}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links|wikt=no|b=no|s=no|n=no|v=no}}
{{wikisourcelang|pl}}
* [[BBC]] 2010 documentary, ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM9mb1cUsHQ Chopin: the Women behind the Music]'', available on YouTube, 90 minutes.
* {{BBC composer page|chopin|Chopin}}
* {{Internet Archive author |search=(Chopin AND (Fryderyk OR Fr*d*ric))}}
* [http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/life/calendar Biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120125133246/http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/life/calendar |date=25 January 2012 }} on official site of the [[Fryderyk Chopin Institute]]
* [http://www.fortepian.instrumenty.edu.pl/en/pianos/show/piano/10 Chopin's last piano (Pleyel 14810)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116173653/http://www.fortepian.instrumenty.edu.pl/en/pianos/show/piano/10 |date=16 November 2018 }}
* [https://teatrwielki.pl/en/activity/opera-gallery/exhibitions-of-201718/chopins-pianos/ Chopin's pianos] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413201348/https://teatrwielki.pl/en/activity/opera-gallery/exhibitions-of-201718/chopins-pianos/ |date=13 April 2021 }}
* [http://iccpi.eu/en//The 1st International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments]
* [https://chopin.nifc.pl/en/chopin/listy Chopin's correspondence]

'''Music scores'''
* {{IMSLP|id=Chopin, Frédéric|cname=Frédéric Chopin}}
* [http://chopin.lib.uchicago.edu/ ''Chopin Early Editions''], a collection of over 400 first and early printed editions of musical compositions by Frédéric Chopin published before 1881
* [http://www.cfeo.org.uk/jsp/browsecollection.jsp ''Chopin's First Editions Online''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160104170812/http://www.cfeo.org.uk/jsp/browsecollection.jsp |date=4 January 2016 }} features an interface that allows three navigable scores to be open simultaneously in frames to facilitate comparison.

{{Chopin}}
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