Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician

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I live as economically as possible, and take as much care of
every kreuzer as of that ring in Warsaw [the one given him by
the Emperor Alexander]. You may sell it, I have already cost
you so much.

He must have talked about his shortness of money to some of his
friends in Vienna, for he mentions that the pianist-composer
Czapek, who calls on him every day and shows him much kindness,
has offered him money for the journey should he stand in need of
it. One would hardly have credited Chopin with proficiency in an
art in which he nevertheless greatly excelled--namely, in the art
of writing begging letters. How well he understood how to touch
the springs of the parental feelings the following application
for funds will prove.

July, 1831.--But I must not forget to mention that I shall
probably be obliged to draw more money from the banker Peter
than my dear father has allowed me. I am very economical;
but, God knows, I cannot help it, for otherwise I should have
to leave with an almost empty purse. God preserve me from
sickness; were, however, anything to happen to me, you might
perhaps reproach me for not having taken more. Pardon me, but
consider that I have already lived on this money during May,
June, and July, and that I have now to pay more for my dinner
than I did in winter. I do not do this only because I myself
feel I ought to do so, but also in consequence of the good
advice of others. I am very sorry that I have to ask you for
it; my papa has already spent more than three groschen for
me; I know also very well how difficult it is to earn money.
Believe me, my dearest ones, it is harder for me to ask than
for you to give. God will not fail to assist us also in the
future, punctum!

Chopin was at this time very subject to melancholy, and did not
altogether hide the fact even from his parents. He was perhaps
thinking of the "lengthening chain" which he would have to drag
at this new remove. He often runs into the street to seek Titus
Woyciechowski or John Matuszynski. One day he imagines he sees
the former walking before him, but on coming up to the supposed
friend is disgusted to find "a d---- Prussian."

I lack nothing [he writes in July, 1831] except more life,
more spirit! I often feel unstrung, but sometimes as merry as
I used to be at home. When I am sad I go to Madame Szaszek's;
there I generally meet several amiable Polish ladies who with
their hearty, hopeful words always cheer me up, so that I
begin at once to imitate the generals here. This is a fresh
joke of mine; but those who saw it almost died with laughing.
But alas, there are days when not two words can be got out of
me, nor can anyone find out what is the matter with me; then,
to divert myself, I generally take a thirty-kreuzer drive to
Hietzing, or somewhere else in the neighbourhood of Vienna.

This is a valuable bit of autobiography; it sets forth clearly
Chopin's proneness to melancholy, which, however, easily gave way
to his sportiveness. That low spirits and scantiness of money did
not prevent Chopin from thoroughly enjoying himself may be
gathered from many indications in his letters; of these I shall
select his descriptions of two excursions in the neighbourhood of
Vienna, which not only make us better acquainted with the writer,
but also are interesting in themselves.

June 25, 1831.--The day before yesterday we were with
Kumelski and Czapek...on the Kahlenberg and Leopoldsberg. It
was a magnificent day; I have never had a finer walk. From
the Leopoldsberg one sees all Vienna, Wagram, Aspern,
Pressburg, even Kloster-Neuburg, the castle in which Richard
the Lion-hearted lived for a long time as a prisoner. Also
the whole of the upper part of the Danube lay before our
eyes. After breakfast we ascended the Kahlenberg, where King
John Sobieski pitched his camp and caused the rockets to be
fired which announced to Count Starhemberg, the commandant of
Vienna, the approach of the Polish army. There is the
Camaldolese Monastery in which the King knighted his son
James before the attack on the Turks and himself served as
acolyte at the Mass. I enclose for Isabella a little leaf
from that spot, which is now covered with plants. From there
we went in the evening to the Krapfenwald, a beautiful
valley, where we saw a comical boys' trick. The little
fellows had enveloped themselves from head to foot in leaves
and looked like walking bushes. In this costume they crept
from one visitor to another. Such a boy covered with leaves
and his head adorned with twigs is called a "Pfingstkonig"
[Whitsuntide-King]. This drollery is customary here at
Whitsuntide.

The second excursion is thus described:--

July, 1831.--The day before yesterday honest Wurfel called on
me; Czapek, Kumelski. and many others also came, and we drove
together to St. Veil--a beautiful place; I could not say the
same of Tivoli, where they have constructed a kind ol
caroitsscl, or rather a track with a sledge, which is called
Rutsch. It is a childish amusement, but a great number of
grown-up people have themselves rolled down the hill in this
carriage just for pastime. At first I did not feel inclined
to try it, but as there were eight of us, all good friends,
we began to vie with each other in sliding down. It was
folly, and yet we all laughed heartily. I myself joined in
the sport with much satisfaction until it struck me that
healthy and strong men could do something better--now, when
humanity calls to them for protection and defence. May the
devil take this frivolity!

In the same letter Chopin expresses the hope that his use of
various, not quite unobjectionable, words beginning with a "d"
may not give his parents a bad opinion of the culture he has
acquired in Vienna, and removes any possible disquietude on their
part by assuring them that he has adopted nothing that is
Viennese in its nature, that, in fact, he has not even learnt to
play a Tanzwalzer (a dancing waltz). This, then, is the sad
result of his sojourn in Vienna.

On July 20, 1831, Chopin, accompanied by his friend Kumelski,
left Vienna and travelled by Linz and Salzburg to Munich, where
he had to wait some weeks for supplies from home. His stay in the
capital of Bavaria, however, was not lost time, for he made there
the acquaintance of several clever musicians, and they, charmed
by his playing and compositions, induced him to give a concert.
Karasowski tells us that Chopin played his E minor Concerto at
one of the Philharmonic Society's concerts--which is not quite
correct, as we shall see presently--and adds that

the audience, carried away by the beauty of the composition
and his excellent, poetic rendering, overwhelmed the young
virtuoso with loud applause and sincere admiration.

In writing this the biographer had probably in his mind the
following passage from Chopin's letter to Titus Woyciechowski,
dated Paris, December 16, 1831:--" I played [to Kalkbrenner, in
Paris] the E minor Concerto, which charmed the people of the
Bavarian capital so much." The two statements are not synonymous.
What the biographer says may be true, and if it is not, ought to
be so; but I am afraid the existing documents do not bear it out
in its entirety. Among the many local and other journals which I
have consulted, I have found only one notice of Chopin's
appearance at Munich, and when I expectantly scanned a resume of
Munich musical life, from the spring to the end of the year 1831,
in the "Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung," I found mention made of
Mendelssohn and Lafont, but not of Chopin. Thus, unless we assume
that Karasowski--true to his mission as a eulogising biographer,
and most vigorous when unfettered by definite data--indulged in
exaggeration, we must seek for a reconciliation of the enthusiasm
of the audience with the silence of the reporter in certain
characteristics of the Munich public. Mendelssohn says of it:--

The people here [in Munich] have an extraordinary receptivity
for music, which is much cultivated. But it appears to me
that everything makes an impression and that the impressions
do not last.

Speaking of Mendelssohn, it is curious to note how he and Chopin
were again and again on the point of meeting, and again and again
failed to meet. In Berlin Chopin was too bashful and modest to
address his already famous young brother-artist, who in 1830 left
Vienna shortly before Chopin arrived, and in 1831 arrived in
Munich shortly after Chopin had left. The only notice of Chopin's
public appearance in Munich I have been able to discover, I found
in No. 87 (August 30, 1831) of the periodical "Flora", which
contains, under the heading "news," a pretty full account of the
"concert of Mr. Chopin of Warsaw." From this account we learn
that Chopin was assisted by the singers Madame Pellegrini and
Messrs. Bayer, Lenz, and Harm, the clarinet-player Barmann, jun.,
and Capellmeister Stunz. The singers performed a four-part song,
and Barmann took part in a cavatina (sung by Bayer, the first
tenor at the opera) with clarinet and pianoforte accompaniment by
Schubert (?). What the writer of the account says about Chopin
shall be quoted in full:--

On the 28th August, Mr. F. Chopin, of Warsaw, gave a morning
concert [Mittags Concert] in the hall of the Philharmonic
Society, which was attended by a very select audience. Mr.
Chopin performed on the pianoforte a Concerto in E minor of
his own composition, and showed an excellent virtuosity in
the treatment of his instrument; besides a developed
technique, one noticed especially a charming delicacy of
execution, and a beautiful and characteristic rendering of
the motives. The composition was, on the whole, brilliantly
and well written, without surprising, however, by
extraordinary novelty or a particular profundity, with the
exception of the Rondo, whose principal thought as well as
the florid middle sections, through an original combination
of a melancholy trait with a capriccio, evolved a peculiar
charm, on which account it particularly pleased. The concert-
giver performed in conclusion a fantasia on Polish national
songs. There is a something in the Slavonic songs which
almost never fails in its effect, the cause of which,
however, is difficult to trace and explain; for it is not
only the rhythm and the quick change from minor to major
which produce this charm. No one has probably understood
better how to combine the national character of such folk-
songs with a brilliant concert style than Bernhard Romberg
[Footnote: The famous violoncellist], who by his compositions
of this kind, put in a favourable light by his masterly
playing, knew how to exercise a peculiar fascination. Quite
of this style was the fantasia of Mr. Chopin, who gained
unanimous applause.

From Munich Chopin proceeded to Stuttgart, and during his stay
there learnt the sad news of the taking of Warsaw by the Russians
(September 8, 1831). It is said that this event inspired him to
compose the C minor study (No. 12 of Op. 10), with its passionate
surging and impetuous ejaculations. Writing from Paris on
December 16, 1831, Chopin remarks, in allusion to the traeic
denouement of the Polish revolution: "All this has caused me much
pain. Who could have foreseen it!"

With his visits to Stuttgart Chopin's artist-life in Germany came
to a close, for, although he afterwards repeatedly visited the
country, he never played in public or made a lengthened stay
there. Now that Chopin is nearing Paris, where, occasional
sojourns elsewhere (most of them of short duration) excepted, he
will pass the rest of his life, it may interest the reader to
learn that this change of country brought with it also a change
of name, at least as far as popular pronunciation and spelling
went. We may be sure that the Germans did not always give to the
final syllable the appropriate nasal sound. And what the Polish
pronunciation was is sufficiently indicated by the spelling
"Szopen," frequently to be met with. I found it in the Polish
illustrated journal "Kiosy," and it is also to be seen in Joseph
Sikorski's "Wspomnienie Szopena" ("Reminiscences of Chopin").
Szulc and Karasowski call their books and hero "Fryderyk Chopin."

CHAPTER XIII

CHOPIN'S PRODUCTIONS FROM THE SPRING OF 1829 TO THEEND OF 1831.--
THE CHIEF INFLUENCES THAT HELPED TO FORM HIS STYLE OF
COMPOSITION.

Let us pause for a little in our biographical inquiries and
critically examine what Chopin had achieved as a composer since
the spring of 1829. At the very first glance it becomes evident
that the works of the last two years (1829-1831) are decidedly
superior to those he wrote before that time. And this advance was
not due merely to the increased power derived from practice; it
was real growth, which a Greek philosopher describes as
penetration of nourishment into empty places, the nourishment
being in Chopin's case experience of life's joys and sorrows. In
most of the works of what I call his first period, the composer
luxuriates, as it were, in language. He does not regard it solely
or chiefly as the interpreter of thoughts and feelings, he loves
it for its own sake, just as children, small and tall, prattle
for no other reason than the pleasure of prattling. I closed the
first period when a new element entered Chopin's life and
influenced his artistic work. This element was his first love,
his passion for Constantia Gtadkowska. Thenceforth Chopin's
compositions had in them more of humanity and poetry, and the
improved subject-matter naturally, indeed necessarily, chastened,
ennobled, and enriched the means and ways of expression. Of
course no hard line can be drawn between the two periods--the
distinctive quality of the one period appears sometimes in the
work of the other: a work of the earlier period foreshadows the
character of the later; one of the later re-echoes that of the
earlier.

The compositions which we know to have been written by Chopin
between 1829 and 1831 are few in number. This may be partly
because Chopin was rather idle from the autumn of 1830 to the end
of 1831, partly because no account of the production of other
works has come down to us. In fact, I have no doubt that other
short pieces besides those mentioned by Chopin in his letters
were composed during those years, and subsequently published by
him. The compositions oftenest and most explicitly mentioned in
the letters are also the most important ones--namely, the
concertos. As I wish to discuss them at some length, we will keep
them to the last, and see first what allusions to other
compositions we can find, and what observations these latter give
rise to.

On October 3, 1829, Chopin sends his friend Titus Woyciechowski a
waltz which, he says, was, like the Adagio of the F minor
Concerto, inspired by his ideal, Constantia Gladkowska:--

Pay attention to the passage marked with a +; nobody, except
you, knows of this. How happy would I be if I could play my
newest compositions to you! In the fifth bar of the trio the
bass melody up to E flat dominates, which, however, I need
not tell you, as you are sure to feel it without being told.

The remark about the bass melody up to E flat in the trio gives
us a clue to which of Chopin's waltzes this is. It can be no
other than the one in D flat which Fontana published among his
friend's posthumous works as Op. 70, No. 3. Although by no means
equal to any of the waltzes published by Chopin himself, one may
admit that it is pretty; but its chief claim to our attention
lies in the fact that it contains germs which reappear as fully-
developed flowers in other examples of this class of the master's
works--the first half of the first part reappears in the opening
(from the ninth bar onward) of Op. 42 (Waltz in A flat major);
and the third part, in the third part (without counting the
introductory bars) of Op. 34, No. 1 (Waltz in A flat major).

On October 20, 1829, Chopin writes:--"During my visit at Prince
Radziwill's [at Antonin] I wrote an Alla Polacca. It is nothing
more than a brilliant salon piece, such as pleases ladies"; and
on April 10, 1830:--

I shall play [at a soiree at the house of Lewicki] Hummel's
"La Sentinelle," and at the close my Polonaise with
violoncello, for which I have composed an Adagio as an
introduction. I have already rehearsed it, and it does not
sound badly.

Prince Radziwill, the reader will remember, played the
violoncello. It was, however, not to him but to Merk that Chopin
dedicated this composition, which, before departing from Vienna
to Paris, he left with Mechetti, who eventually published it
under the title of "Introduction et Polonaise brillante pour
piano et violoncelle," dediees a Mr. Joseph Merk. On the whole we
may accept Chopin's criticism of his Op. 3 as correct. The
Polonaise is nothing but a brilliant salon piece. Indeed, there
is very little in this composition--one or two pianoforte
passages, and a finesse here and there excepted--that
distinguishes it as Chopin's. The opening theme verges even
dangerously to the commonplace. More of the Chopinesque than in
the Polonaise may be discovered in the Introduction, which was
less of a piece d'occasion. What subdued the composer's
individuality was no doubt the violoncello, which, however, is
well provided with grateful cantilene.

On two occasions Chopin writes of studies. On October 20, 1829:
"I have composed a study in my own manner"; and on November 14,
1829: "I have written some studies; in your presence I would play
them well." These studies are probably among the twelve published
in the summer of 1833, they may, however, also be among those
published in the autumn of 1837. The twelfth of the first sheaf
of studies (Op. 10) Chopin composed, as already stated, at
Stuttgart, when he was under the excitement caused by the news of
the taking of Warsaw by the Russians on September 8, 1831.

The words "I intend to write a Polonaise with orchestra,"
contained in a letter dated September 18, 1830, give rise to the
interesting question: "Did Chopin realise his intention, and has
the work come down to us?" I think both questions can be answered
in the affirmative. At any rate, I hold that internal evidence
seems to indicate that Op. 22, the "Grande Polonaise brillante
precedee d'un Andante spianato avec orchestre," which was
published in the summer of 1836, is the work in question. Whether
the "Andante" was composed at the same time, and what, if any,
alterations were subsequently made in the Polonaise, I do not
venture to decide. But the Polonaise has so much of Chopin's
early showy virtuosic style and so little of his later noble
emotional power that my conjecture seems reasonable. Moreover,
the fact that the orchestra is employed speaks in favour of my
theory, for after the works already discussed in the tenth
chapter, and the concertos with which we shall concern ourselves
presently, Chopin did not in any other composition (i.e., after
1830) write for the orchestra. His experiences in Warsaw, Vienna,
and Paris convinced him, no doubt, that he was not made to
contend with masses, either as an executant or as a composer.
Query: Is the Polonaise, of which Chopin says in July, 1831, that
he has to leave it to Wurfel, Op. 22 or another work?

Two other projects of Chopin, however, seem to have remained
unrealised--a Concerto for two pianos which he intended to play
in public at Vienna with his countryman Nidecki (letter of
December 21, 1830), and Variations for piano and violin on a
theme of Beethoven's, to be written conjointly by himself and
Slavik (letters of December 21 and 25, 1830). Fragments of the
former of these projected works may, however, have been used in
the "Allegro de Concert," Op. 46, published in 1842.

In the letter of December 21, 1830, there is also an allusion to
a waltz and mazurkas just finished, but whether they are to be
found among the master's printed compositions is more than I can
tell.

The three "Ecossaises" of the year 1830, which Fontana published
as Op. 72, No. 3, are the least individual of Chopin's
compositions, and almost the only dances of his which may be
described as dance music pure and simple--rhythm and melody
without poetry, matter with a minimum of soul.

The posthumous Mazurka (D major) of 1829-30 is unimportant. It
contains nothing notable, except perhaps the descending chromatic
successions of chords of the sixth. In fact, we can rejoice in
its preservation only because a comparison with a remodelling of
1832 allows us to trace a step in Chopin's development.

And now we come to the concertos, the history of which, as far as
it is traceable in the composer's letters, I will here place
before the reader. If I repeat in this chapter passages already
quoted in previous chapters, it is for the sake of completeness
and convenience.

October 3, 1829.--I have--perhaps to my misfortune--already
found my ideal, whom I worship faithfully and sincerely. Six
months have elapsed and I have not yet exchanged a syllable
with her of whom I dream every night. Whilst my thoughts were
with her I composed the Adagio of my Concerto.

The Adagio here mentioned is that of the F minor Concerto, Op.
21, which he composed before but published after the F. minor
Concerto, Op. 11--the former appearing in print in April, 1836,
the latter in September, 1833. [Footnote: The slow movements of
Chopin's concertos are marked Larglietto, the composer uses here
the word Adagio generically--i.e., in the sense of slow movement
generally.] Karasowski says mistakingly that the movement
referred to is the Adagio of the E minor Concerto. He was perhaps
misled by a mistranslation of his own. In the German version of
his Chopin biography he gives the concluding words of the above
quotation as "of my new Concerto," but there is no new in the
Polish text (na ktorego pamiatke skomponowalem Adagio do mojego
Koncertu).

October 20, 1829.--Elsner has praised the Adagio of the
Concerto. He says that there is something new in it. As to
the Rondo I do not wish yet to hear a judgment, for I am not
yet satisfied with it myself. I am curious whether I shall
finish this work when I return [from a visit to Prince
Radziwill].

November 14, 1829.--I received your last letter at Antonin at
Radziwill's. I was there a week; you cannot imagine how
quickly and pleasantly the time passed to me. I left by the
last coach, and had much trouble in getting away. As for me I
should have stayed till they had turned me out; but my
occupations and, above all things, my Concerto, which is
impatiently waiting for its Finale, have compelled me to take
leave of this Paradise.

On March 17, 1830, Chopin played the F minor Concerto at the
first concert he gave in Warsaw. How it was received by the
public and the critics on this occasion and on that of a second
concert has been related in the ninth chapter (p.131).

March 27, 1830.--I hope yet to finish before the holidays the
first Allegro of my second Concerto [i.e., the one in E
minor], and therefore I should in any case wait till after
the holidays [to give a third concert], although I am
convinced that I should have this time a still larger
audience than formerly; for the haute volee has not yet heard
me.

On April 10, 1830, Chopin writes that his Concerto is not yet
finished; and on May 15, 1830:--

The Rondo for my Concerto is not yet finished, because the
right inspired mood has always beep wanting. If I have only
the Allegro and the Adagio completely finished I shall be
without anxiety about the Finale. The Adagio is in E major,
and of a romantic, calm, and partly melancholy character. It
is intended to convey the impression which one receives when
the eye rests on a beloved landscape that calls up in one's
soul beautiful memories--for instance, on a fine, moonlit
spring night. I have written violins with mutes as an
accompaniment to it. I wonder if that will have a good
effect? Well, time will show.

August 21, 1830.--Next month I leave here; first, however, I
must rehearse my Concerto, for the Rondo is now finished.

For an account of the rehearsals of the Concerto and its first
public performance at Chopin's third Warsaw concert on October u,
1830, the reader is referred to the tenth chapter (p. 150).
[FOOTNOTE: In the following remarks on the concertos I shall draw
freely from the critical commentary on the Pianoforte Works of
Chopin, which I contributed some years ago (1879) to the Monthly
Musical Record.]

Chopin, says Liszt, wrote beautiful concertos and fine sonatas,
but it is not difficult to perceive in these productions "plus de
volonte que d'inspiration." As for his inspiration it was
naturally "imperieuse, fantasque, irreflechie; ses allures ne
pouvaient etre que libres." Indeed, Liszt believes that Chopin--