Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician

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It is more difficult, or rather it is impossible, to form
anything like a clear picture of his wife, Justina Chopin. None
of those of her son's letters that are preserved is addressed to
her, and in those addressed to the members of the family
conjointly, or to friends, nothing occurs that brings her nearer
to us, or gives a clue to her character. George Sand said that
she was Chopin's only passion. Karasowski describes her as
"particularly tender-hearted and rich in all the truly womanly
virtues.....For her quietness and homeliness were the greatest
happiness." K. W. Wojcicki, in "Cmentarz Powazkowski" (Powazki
Cemetery), expresses, himself in the same strain. A Scotch lady,
who had seen Justina Chopin in her old age, and conversed with
her in French, told me that she was then "a neat, quiet,
intelligent old lady, whose activeness contrasted strongly with
the languor of her son, who had not a shadow of energy in him."
With regard to the latter part of this account, we must not
overlook the fact that my informant knew Chopin only in the last
year of his life--i.e., when he was in a very suffering state of
mind and body. This is all the information I have been able to
collect regarding the character of Chopin's mother. Moreover,
Karasowski is not an altogether trustworthy informant; as a
friend of the Chopin family he sees in its members so many
paragons of intellectual and moral perfection. He proceeds on the
de mortuis nil nisi bonum principle, which I venture to suggest
is a very bad principle. Let us apply this loving tenderness to
our living neighbours, and judge the dead according to their
merits. Thus the living will be doubly benefited, and no harm be
done to the dead. Still, the evidence before us--including that
exclamation about his "best of mothers "in one of Chopin's
letters, written from Vienna, soon after the outbreak of the
Polish insurrection in 1830: "How glad my mamma will be that I
did not come back!"--justifies us, I think, in inferring that
Justina Chopin was a woman of the most lovable type, one in whom
the central principle of existence was the maternal instinct,
that bright ray of light which, dispersed in its action, displays
itself in the most varied and lovely colours. That this
principle, although often all-absorbing, is not incompatible with
the wider and higher social and intellectual interests is a
proposition that does not stand in need of proof. But who could
describe that wondrous blending of loving strength and lovable
weakness of a true woman's character? You feel its beauty and
sublimity, and if you attempt to give words to your feeling you
produce a caricature.

The three sisters of Frederick all manifested more or less a
taste for literature. The two elder sisters, Louisa (who married
Professor Jedrzejewicz, and died in 1855) and Isabella (who
married Anton Barcinski--first inspector of schools, and
subsequently director of steam navigation on the Vistula--and
died in 1881), wrote together for the improvement of the working
classes. The former contributed now and then, also after her
marriage, articles to periodicals on the education of the young.
Emilia, the youngest sister, who died at the early age of
fourteen (in 1827), translated, conjointly with her sister
Isabella, the educational tales of the German author Salzmann,
and her poetical efforts held out much promise for the future.

CHAPTER II

FREDERICK'S FIRST MUSICAL INSTRUCTION AND MUSIC-MASTER, ADALBERT
ZYWNY.--HIS DEBUT AND SUCCESS AS A PIANIST.--HIS EARLY
INTRODUCTION INTO ARISTOCRATIC SOCIETY AND CONSTANT INTERCOURSE
WITH THE ARISTOCRACY.--HIS FIRST COMPOSITIONS.--HIS STUDIES AND
MASTER IN HARMONY, COUNTERPOINT, AND COMPOSITION, JOSEPH ELSNER.

OUR little friend, who, as we have seen, at first took up a
hostile attitude towards music--for his passionate utterances,
albeit inarticulate, cannot well be interpreted as expressions of
satisfaction or approval--came before long under her mighty sway.
The pianoforte threw a spell over him, and, attracting him more
and more, inspired him with such a fondness as to induce his
parents to provide him, notwithstanding his tender age, with an
instructor. To lessen the awfulness of the proceeding, it was
arranged that one of the elder sisters should join him in his
lessons. The first and only pianoforte teacher of him who in the
course of time became one of the greatest and most original
masters of this instrument, deserves some attention from us.
Adalbert Zywny [FOOTNOTE: This is the usual spelling of the name,
which, as the reader will see further on, its possessor wrote
Ziwny. Liszt calls him Zywna.], a native of Bohemia, born in
1756, came to Poland, according to Albert Sowinski (Les musiciens
polonais et slaves), during the reign of Stanislas Augustus
Poniatowski (1764--1795), and after staying for some time as
pianist at the court of Prince Casimir Sapieha, settled in Warsaw
as a teacher of music, and soon got into good practice, "giving
his lessons at three florins (eighteen pence) per hour very
regularly, and making a fortune." And thus teaching and composing
(he is said to have composed much for the pianoforte, but he
never published anything), he lived a long and useful life, dying
in 1842 at the age of 86 (Karasowski says in 1840). The punctual
and, no doubt, also somewhat pedantic music-master who acquired
the esteem and goodwill of his patrons, the best families of
Warsaw, and a fortune at the same time, is a pleasant figure to
contemplate. The honest orderliness and dignified calmness of his
life, as I read it, are quite refreshing in this time of rush and
gush. Having seen a letter of his, I can imagine the heaps of
original MSS., clearly and neatly penned with a firm hand, lying
carefully packed up in spacious drawers, or piled up on well-
dusted shelves. Of the man Zywny and his relation to the Chopin
family we get some glimpses in Frederick's letters. In one of the
year 1828, addressed to his friend Titus Woyciechowski, he
writes: "With us things are as they used to be; the honest Zywny
is the soul of all our amusements." Sowinski informs us that
Zywny taught his pupil according to the classical German method--
whatever that may mean--at that time in use in Poland. Liszt, who
calls him "an enthusiastic student of Bach," speaks likewise of
"les errements d'une ecole entierement classique." Now imagine my
astonishment when on asking the well-known pianoforte player and
composer Edouard Wolff, a native of Warsaw, [Fooynote: He died at
Paris on October 16, 1880.] what kind of pianist Zywny was, I
received the answer that he was a violinist and not a pianist.
That Wolff and Zywny knew each other is proved beyond doubt by
the above-mentioned letter of Zywny's, introducing the former to
Chopin, then resident in Paris. The solution of the riddle is
probably this. Zywny, whether violinist or not, was not a
pianoforte virtuoso--at least, was not heard in public in his old
age. The mention of a single name, that of Wenzel W. Wurfel,
certainly shows that he was not the best pianist in Warsaw. But
against any such depreciatory remarks we have to set Chopin's
high opinion of Zywny's teaching capability. Zywny's letter,
already twice alluded to, is worth quoting. It still further
illustrates the relation in which master and pupil stood to each
other, and by bringing us in close contact with the former makes
us better acquainted with his character. A particularly curious
fact about the letter--considering the nationality of the persons
concerned--is its being written in German. Only a fac-simile of
the original, with its clear, firm, though (owing to the writer's
old age) cramped penmanship, and its quaint spelling and
capricious use of capital and small initials, could fully reveal
the expressiveness of this document. However, even in the
translation there may be found some of the man's characteristic
old-fashioned formality, grave benevolence, and quiet homeliness.
The outside of the sheet on which the letter is written bears the
words, "From the old music-master Adalbert Ziwny [at least this I
take to be the meaning of the seven letters followed by dots],
kindly to be transmitted to my best friend, Mr. Frederick Chopin,
in Paris." The letter itself runs as follows:--

DEAREST MR. F. CHOPIN,--Wishing you perfect health I have the
honour to write to you through Mr. Eduard Wolf. [FOOTNOTE:
The language of the first sentence is neither logical nor
otherwise precise. I shall keep throughout as close as
possible to the original, and also retain the peculiar
spelling of proper names.] I recommend him to your esteemed
friendship. Your whole family and I had also the pleasure of
hearing at his concert the Adagio and Rondo from your
Concerto, which called up in our minds the most agreeable
remembrance of you. May God give you every prosperity! We are
all well, and wish so much to see you again. Meanwhile I send
you through Mr. Wolf my heartiest kiss, and recommending
myself to your esteemed friendship, I remain your faithful
friend,

ADALBERT ZIWNY.

Warsaw, the 12th of June, 1835.

N.B.--Mr. Kirkow, the merchant, and his son George, who was
at Mr. Reinschmid's at your farewell party, recommend
themselves to you, and wish you good health. Adieu.

Julius Fontana, the friend and companion of Frederick, after
stating (in his preface to Chopin's posthumous works) that Chopin
had never another pianoforte teacher than Zywny, observes that
the latter taught his pupil only the first principles. "The
progress of the child was so extraordinary that his parents and
his professor thought they could do no better than abandon him at
the age of 12 to his own instincts, and follow instead of
directing him." The progress of Frederick must indeed have been
considerable, for in Clementina Tanska-Hofmanowa's Pamiatka po
dobrej matce (Memorial of a good Mother) [FOOTNOTE: Published in
1819.] the writer relates that she was at a soiree at Gr----'s,
where she found a numerous party assembled, and heard in the
course of the evening young Chopin play the piano--"a child not
yet eight years old, who, in the opinion of the connoisseurs of
the art, promises to replace Mozart." Before the boy had
completed his ninth year his talents were already so favourably
known that he was invited to take part in a concert which was got
up by several persons of high rank for the benefit of the poor.
The bearer of the invitation was no less a person than Ursin
Niemcewicz, the publicist, poet, dramatist, and statesman, one of
the most remarkable and influential men of the Poland of that
day. At this concert, which took place on February 24, 1818, the
young virtuoso played a concerto by Adalbert Gyrowetz, a composer
once celebrated, but now ignominiously shelved--sic transit
gloria mundi--and one of Riehl's "divine Philistines." An
anecdote shows that at that time Frederick was neither an
intellectual prodigy nor a conceited puppy, but a naive, modest
child that played the pianoforte, as birds sing, with unconscious
art. When he came home after the concert, for which of course he
had been arrayed most splendidly and to his own great
satisfaction, his mother said to him: "Well, Fred, what did the
public like best?"--"Oh, mamma," replied the little innocent,
"everybody was looking at my collar."

The debut was a complete success, and our Frederick--Chopinek
(diminutive of Chopin) they called him--became more than ever the
pet of the aristocracy of Warsaw. He was invited to the houses of
the Princes Czartoryski, Sapieha, Czetwertynski, Lubecki,
Radziwill, the Counts Skarbek, Wolicki, Pruszak, Hussarzewski,
Lempicki, and others. By the Princess Czetwertynska, who, says
Liszt, cultivated music with a true feeling of its beauties, and
whose salon was one of the most brilliant and select of Warsaw,
Frederick was introduced to the Princess Lowicka, the beautiful
Polish wife of the Grand Duke Constantine, who, as Countess
Johanna Antonia Grudzinska, had so charmed the latter that, in
order to obtain the Emperor's consent to his marriage with her,
he abdicated his right of succession to the throne. The way in
which she exerted her influence over her brutal, eccentric, if
not insane, husband, who at once loved and maltreated the Poles,
gained her the title of "guardian angel of Poland." In her salon
Frederick came of course also in contact with the dreaded Grand
Duke, the Napoleon of Belvedere (thus he was nicknamed by
Niemcewicz, from the palace where he resided in Warsaw), who on
one occasion when the boy was improvising with his eyes turned to
the ceiling, as was his wont, asked him why he looked in that
direction, if he saw notes up there. With the exalted occupants
of Belvedere Frederick had a good deal of intercourse, for little
Paul, a boy of his own age, a son or adopted son of the Grand
Duke, enjoyed his company, and sometimes came with his tutor,
Count de Moriolles, to his house to take him for a drive. On
these occasions the neighbours of the Chopin family wondered not
a little what business brought the Grand Duke's carriage, drawn
by four splendid horses, yoked in the Russian fashion--i.e., all
abreast--to their quarter.

Chopin's early introduction into aristocratic society and
constant intercourse with the aristocracy is an item of his
education which must not be considered as of subordinate
importance. More than almost any other of his early disciplines,
it formed his tastes, or at least strongly assisted in developing
certain inborn traits of his nature, and in doing this influenced
his entire moral and artistic character. In the proem I mentioned
an English traveller's encomiums on the elegance in the houses,
and the exquisite refinement in the entertainments, of the
wealthy nobles in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. We
may be sure that in these respects the present century was not
eclipsed by its predecessors, at least not in the third decade,
when the salons of Warsaw shone at their brightest. The influence
of French thought and manners, for the importation and spreading
of which King Stanislas Leszczinski was so solicitous that he
sent at his own expense many young gentlemen to Paris for their
education, was subsequently strengthened by literary taste,
national sympathies, and the political connection during the
first Empire. But although foreign notions and customs caused
much of the old barbarous extravagance and also much of the old
homely simplicity to disappear, they did not annihilate the
national distinctiveness of the class that was affected by them.
Suffused with the Slavonic spirit and its tincture of
Orientalism, the importation assumed a character of its own.
Liszt, who did not speak merely from hearsay, emphasises, in
giving expression to his admiration of the elegant and refined
manners of the Polish aristocracy, the absence of formalism and
stiff artificiality:--

In these salons [he writes] the rigorously observed
proprieties were not a kind of ingeniously-constructed
corsets that served to hide deformed hearts; they only
necessitated the spiritualisation of all contacts, the
elevation of all rapports, the aristocratisation of all
impressions.

But enough of this for the present.

A surer proof of Frederick's ability than the applause and favour
of the aristocracy was the impression he made on the celebrated
Catalani, who, in January, 1820, gave four concerts in the town-
hall of Warsaw, the charge for admission to each of which was, as
we may note in passing, no less than thirty Polish florins
(fifteen shillings). Hearing much of the musically-gifted boy,
she expressed the wish to have him presented to her. On this
being done, she was so pleased with him and his playing that she
made him a present of a watch, on which were engraved the words:
"Donne par Madame Catalani a Frederic Chopin, age de dix ans."

As yet I have said nothing of the boy's first attempts at
composition. Little Frederick began to compose soon after the
commencement of his pianoforte lessons and before he could handle
the pen. His master had to write down what the pupil played,
after which the youthful maestro, often dissatisfied with his
first conception, would set to work with the critical file, and
try to improve it. He composed mazurkas, polonaises, waltzes, &c.
At the age of ten he dedicated a march to the Grand Duke
Constantine, who had it scored for a military band and played on
parade (subsequently it was also published, but without the
composer's name), and these productions gave such evident proof
of talent that his father deemed it desirable to get his friend
Elsner to instruct him in harmony and counterpoint. At this time,
however, it was not as yet in contemplation that Frederick should
become a professional musician; on the contrary, he was made to
understand that his musical studies must not interfere with his
other studies, as he was then preparing for his entrance into the
Warsaw Lyceum. As we know that this event took place in 1824, we
know also the approximate time of the commencement of Elsner's
lessons. Fontana says that Chopin began these studies when he was
already remarkable as a pianist. Seeing how very little is known
concerning the nature and extent of Chopin's studies in
composition, it may be as well to exhaust the subject at once.
But before I do so I must make the reader acquainted with the
musician who, as Zyvny was Chopin's only pianoforte teacher, was
his only teacher of composition.

Joseph Elsner, the son of a cabinet and musical instrument maker
at Grottkau, in Silesia, was born on June 1, 1769. As his father
intended him for the medical profession, he was sent in 1781 to
the Latin school at Breslau, and some years later to the
University at Vienna. Having already been encouraged by the
rector in Grottkau to cultivate his beautiful voice, he became in
Breslau a chorister in one of the churches, and after some time
was often employed as violinist and singer at the theatre. Here,
where he got, if not regular instruction, at least some hints
regarding harmony and kindred matters (the authorities are
hopelessly at variance on this and on many other points), he made
his first attempts at composition, writing dances, songs, duets,
trios, nay, venturing even on larger works for chorus and
orchestra. The musical studies commenced in Breslau were
continued in Vienna; preferring musical scores to medical books,
the conversations of musicians to the lectures of professors, he
first neglected and at last altogether abandoned the study of the
healing art. A. Boguslawski, who wrote a biography of Elsner,
tells the story differently and more poetically. When, after a
long illness during his sojourn in Breslau, thus runs his
version, Elsner went, on the day of the Holy Trinity in the year
1789, for the first time to church, he was so deeply moved by the
sounds of the organ that he fainted. On recovering he felt his
whole being filled with such ineffable comfort and happiness that
he thought he saw in this occurrence the hand of destiny. He,
therefore, set out for Vienna, in order that he might draw as it
were at the fountain-head the great principles of his art. Be
this as it may, in 1791 we hear of Elsner as violinist in Brunn,
in 1792 as musical conductor at a theatre in Lemberg--where he is
busy composing dramatic and other works--and near the end of the
last century as occupant of the same post at the National Theatre
in Warsaw, which town became his home for the rest of his life.
There was the principal field of his labours; there he died,
after a sojourn of sixty-two years in Poland, on April 18, 1854,
leaving behind him one of the most honoured names in the history
of his adopted country. Of the journeys he undertook, the longest
and most important was, no doubt, that to Paris in 1805. On the
occasion of this visit some of his compositions were performed,
and when Chopin arrived there twenty-five years afterwards,
Elsner was still remembered by Lesueur, who said: "Et que fait
notre bon Elsner? Racontez-moi de ses nouvelles." Elsner was a
very productive composer: besides symphonies, quartets, cantatas,
masses, an oratorio, &c., he composed twenty-seven Polish operas.
Many of these works were published, some in Warsaw, some in
various German towns, some even in Paris. But his activity as a
teacher, conductor, and organiser was perhaps even more
beneficial to the development of the musical art in Poland than
that as a composer. After founding and conducting several musical
societies, he became in 1821 director of the then opened
Conservatorium, at the head of which he continued to the end of
its existence in 1830. To complete the idea of the man, we must
not omit to mention his essay In how far is the Polish language
suitable for music? As few of his compositions have been heard
outside of Poland, and these few long ago, rarely, and in few
places, it is difficult to form a satisfactory opinion with
regard to his position as a composer. Most accounts, however,
agree in stating that he wrote in the style of the modern
Italians, that is to say, what were called the modern Italians in
the later part of the last and the earlier part of this century.
Elsner tried his strength and ability in all genres, from
oratorio, opera, and symphony, down to pianoforte variations,
rondos, and dances, and in none of them did he fail to be
pleasing and intelligible, not even where, as especially in his
sacred music, he made use--a sparing use--of contrapuntal
devices, imitations, and fugal treatment. The naturalness,
fluency, effectiveness, and practicableness which distinguish his
writing for voices and instruments show that he possessed a
thorough knowledge of their nature and capability. It was,
therefore, not an empty rhetorical phrase to speak of him
initiating his pupils "a la science du contre-point et aux effets
d'une savante instrumentation."

[FOOTNOTE: "The productions of Elsner," says Fetis, "are in the
style of Paer and Mayer's music. In his church music there is a
little too much of modern and dramatic forms; one finds in them
facility and a natural manner of making the parts sing, but
little originality and variety in his ideas. Elsner writes with
sufficient purity, although he shows in his fugues that his
studies have not been severe."]

For the pupils of the Conservatorium he wrote vocal pieces in
from one to ten parts, and he composed also a number of canons in
four and five parts, which fact seems to demonstrate that he had
no ill-will against the scholastic forms. And now I shall quote a
passage from an apparently well-informed writer [FOOTNOTE: The
writer of the article Elsner in Schilling's Universal-Lexikon der
Tonkunst] (to whom I am, moreover, otherwise indebted in this
sketch), wherein Elsner is blamed for certain shortcomings with
which Chopin has been often reproached in a less charitable
spirit. The italics, which are mine, will point out the words in
question:--

One forgives him readily [in consideration of the general
excellence of his style] THE OFFENCES AGAINST THE LAW OF
HARMONIC CONNECTION THAT OCCUR HERE AND THERE, AND THE
FACILITY WITH WHICH HE SOMETIMES DISREGARDS THE FIXED RULES
OF STRICT PART-WRITING, especially in the dramatic works,
where he makes effect apparently the ultimate aim of his
indefatigable endeavours.

The wealth of melody and technical mastery displayed in "The
Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ" incline Karasowski to think
that it is the composer's best work. When the people at Breslau
praised Elsner's "Echo Variations" for orchestra, Chopin
exclaimed: "You must hear his Coronation Mass, then only can you
judge of him as a composer." To characterise Elsner in a few
words, he was a man of considerable musical aptitude and
capacity, full of nobleness of purpose, learning, industry,
perseverance, in short, possessing all qualities implied by
talent, but lacking those implied by genius.

A musician travelling in 1841 in Poland sent at the time to the
Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik a series of "Reiseblatter" (Notes of
Travel), which contain so charming and vivid a description of
this interesting personality that I cannot resist the temptation
to translate and insert it here almost without any abridgment.
Two noteworthy opinions of the writer may be fitly prefixed to
this quotation--namely, that Elsner was a Pole with all his heart
and soul, indeed, a better one than thousands that are natives of
the country, and that, like Haydn, he possessed the quality of
writing better the older he grew:--

The first musical person of the town [Warsaw] is still the
old, youthful Joseph Elsner, a veteran master of our art, who
is as amiable as he is truly estimable. In our day one hardly
meets with a notable Polish musician who has not studied
composition under Pan [i.e., Mr.] Elsner; and he loves all
his pupils, and all speak of him with enthusiasm, and,
according to the Polish fashion, kiss the old master's
shoulder, whereupon he never forgets to kiss them heartily on
both cheeks. Even Charles Kurpinski, the pensioned
Capelhneister of the Polish National Theatre, whose hair is
already grey, is, if I am not very much misinformed, also a
pupil of Joseph Elsner's. One is often mistaken with regard
to the outward appearance of a celebrated man; I mean, one
forms often a false idea of him before one has seen him and
knows a portrait of him. I found Elsner almost exactly as I
had imagined him. Wisocki, the pianist, also a pupil of his,
took me to him. Pan Elsner lives in the Dom Pyarow [House of
Piarists]. One has to start early if one wishes to find him
at home; for soon after breakfast he goes out, and rarely
returns to his cell before evening. He inhabits, like a
genuine church composer, two cells of the old Piarist
Monastery in Jesuit Street, and in the dark passages which
lead to his rooms one sees here and there faded laid-aside
pictures of saints lying about, and old church banners
hanging down. The old gentleman was still in bed when we
arrived, and sent his servant to ask us to wait a little in
the anteroom, promising to be with us immediately. All the
walls of this room, or rather cell, were hung to the ceiling
with portraits of musicians, among them some very rare names
and faces. Mr. Elsner has continued this collection down to
the present time; also the portraits of Liszt, Thalberg,
Chopin, and Clara Wieck shine down from the old monastic
walls. I had scarcely looked about me in this large company
for a few minutes, when the door of the adjoining room
opened, and a man of medium height (not to say little),
somewhat stout, with a round, friendly countenance, grey
hair, but very lively eyes, enveloped in a warm fur dressing-
gown, stepped up to us, comfortably but quickly, and bade us
welcome. Wisocki kissed him, according to the Polish fashion,
as a token of respect, on the right shoulder, and introduced
me to him, whereupon the old friendly gentleman shook hands
with me and said some kindly words.