Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician

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This, then, was Pan Joseph Elsner, the ancestor of modern
Polish music, the teacher of Chopin, the fine connoisseur and
cautious guide of original talents. For he does not do as is
done only too often by other teachers in the arts, who insist
on screwing all pupils to the same turning-lathe on which
they themselves were formed, who always do their utmost to
ingraft their own I on the pupil, so that he may become as
excellent a man as they imagine themselves to be. Joseph
Elsner did not proceed thus. When all the people of Warsaw
thought Frederick Chopin was entering on a wrong path, that
his was not music at all, that he must keep to Himmel and
Hummel, otherwise he would never do anything decent--the
clever Pan Elsner had already very clearly perceived what a
poetic kernel there was in the pale young dreamer, had long
before felt very clearly that he had before him the founder
of a new epoch of pianoforte-playing, and was far from laying
upon him a cavesson, knowing well that such a noble
thoroughbred may indeed be cautiously led, but must not be
trained and fettered in the usual way if he is to conquer.

Of Chopin's studies under this master we do not know much more
than of his studies under Zywny. Both Fontana and Sowinski say
that he went through a complete course of counterpoint and
composition. Elsner, in a letter written to Chopin in 1834,
speaks of himself as "your teacher of harmony and counterpoint,
of little merit, but fortunate." Liszt writes:--

Joseph Elsner taught Chopin those things that are most
difficult to learn and most rarely known: to he exacting to
one's self, and to value the advantages that are only
obtained by dint of patience and labour.

What other accounts of the matter under discussion I have got
from books and conversations are as general and vague as the
foregoing. I therefore shall not weary the reader with them. What
Elsner's view of teaching was may be gathered from one of his
letters to his pupil. The gist of his remarks lies in this
sentence:--

That with which the artist (who learns continually from his
surroundings) astonishes his contemporaries, he can only
attain by himself and through himself.

Elsner had insight and self-negation (a rare quality with
teachers) enough to act up to his theory, and give free play to
the natural tendencies of his pupil's powers. That this was
really the case is seen from his reply to one who blamed
Frederick's disregard of rules and custom:--

Leave him in peace [he said], his is an uncommon way because
his gifts are uncommon. He does not strictly adhere to the
customary method, but he has one of his own, and he will
reveal in his works an originality which in such a degree has
not been found in anyone.

The letters of master and pupil testify to their unceasing mutual
esteem and love. Those of the master are full of fatherly
affection and advice, those of the pupil full of filial devotion
and reverence. Allusions to and messages for Elsner are very
frequent in Chopin's letters. He seems always anxious that his
old master should know how he fared, especially hear of his
success. His sentiments regarding Elsner reveal themselves
perhaps nowhere more strikingly than in an incidental remark
which escapes him when writing to his friend Woyciechowski.
Speaking of a new acquaintance he has made, he says, "He is a
great friend of Elsner's, which in my estimation means much." No
doubt Chopin looked up with more respect and thought himself more
indebted to Elsner than to Zywny; but that he had a good opinion
of both his masters is evident from his pithy reply to the
Viennese gentleman who told him that people were astonished at
his having learned all he knew at Warsaw: "From Messrs. Zywny and
Elsner even the greatest ass must learn something."

CHAPTER III

FREDERICK ENTERS THE WARSAW LYCEUM.--VARIOUS EDUCATIONAL
INFLUENCES.--HIS FATHER'S FRIENDS.--RISE OF ROMANTICISM IN POLISH
LITERATURE.--FREDERICK'S STAY AT SZAFARNIA DURING HIS FIRST
SCHOOL HOLIDAYS.--HIS TALENT FOR IMPROVISATION.--HIS DEVELOPMENT
AS A COMPOSER AND PIANIST.--HIS PUBLIC PERFORMANCES.--PUBLICATION
OF OP. I.--EARLY COMPOSITIONS.--HIS PIANOFORTE STYLE.

FREDERICK, who up to the age of fifteen was taught at home along
with his father's boarders, became in 1824 a pupil of the Warsaw
Lyceum, a kind of high-school, the curriculum of which comprised
Latin, Greek, modern languages, mathematics, history, &c. His
education was so far advanced that he could at once enter the
fourth class, and the liveliness of his parts, combined with
application to work, enabled him to distinguish himself in the
following years as a student and to carry off twice a prize.
Polish history and literature are said to have been his favourite
studies.

Liszt relates that Chopin was placed at an early age in one of
the first colleges of Warsaw, "thanks to the generous and
intelligent protection which Prince Anton Radziwill always
bestowed upon the arts and upon young men of talent." This
statement, however, has met with a direct denial on the part of
the Chopin family, and may, therefore, be considered as disposed
of. But even without such a denial the statement would appear
suspicious to all but those unacquainted with Nicholas Chopin's
position. Surely he must have been able to pay for his son's
schooling! Moreover, one would think that, as a professor at the
Lyceum, he might even have got it gratis. As to Frederick's
musical education in Warsaw, it cannot have cost much. And then,
how improbable that the Prince should have paid the comparatively
trifling school-fees and left the young man when he went abroad
dependent upon the support of his parents! The letters from
Vienna (1831) show unmistakably that Chopin applied to his father
repeatedly for money, and regretted being such a burden to him.
Further, Chopin's correspondence, which throws much light on his
relation to Prince Radziwili, contains nothing which would lead
one to infer any such indebtedness as Liszt mentions. But in
order that the reader may be in possession of the whole evidence
and able to judge for himself, I shall place before him Liszt's
curiously circumstantial account in its entirety:--

The Prince bestowed upon him the inappreciable gift of a good
education, no part of which remained neglected. His elevated
mind enabling him to understand the exigencies of an artist's
career, he, from the time of his protege's entering the
college to the entire completion of his studies, paid the
pension through the agency of a friend, M. Antoine
Korzuchowski, [FOOTNOTE: Liszt should have called this
gentleman Adam Kozuchowski.] who always maintained cordial
relations and a constant friendship with Chopin.

Liszt's informant was no doubt Chopin's Paris friend Albert
Grzymala, [FOOTNOTE: M. Karasowski calls this Grzymala
erroneously Francis. More information about this gentleman will
be given in a subsequent chapter.] who seems to have had no
connection with the Chopin family in Poland. Karasowski thinks
that the only foundation of the story is a letter and present
from Prince Radziwill--acknowledgments of the dedication to him
of the Trio, Op. 8--which Adam Kozuchowski brought to Chopin in
1833. [FOOTNOTE: M. Karasowski, Fryderyk Chopin, vol. i., p. 65.]

Frederick was much liked by his school-fellows, which, as his
manners and disposition were of a nature thoroughly appreciated
by boys, is not at all to be wondered at. One of the most
striking features in the character of young Chopin was his
sprightliness, a sparkling effervescence that manifested itself
by all sorts of fun and mischief. He was never weary of playing
pranks on his sisters, his comrades, and even on older people,
and indulged to the utmost his fondness for caricaturing by
pictorial and personal imitations. In the course of a lecture the
worthy rector of the Lyceum discovered the scapegrace making free
with the face and figure of no less a person than his own
rectorial self. Nevertheless the irreverent pupil got off easily,
for the master, with as much magnanimity as wisdom, abstained
from punishing the culprit, and, in a subscript which he added to
the caricature, even praised the execution of it. A German
Protestant pastor at Warsaw, who made always sad havoc of the
Polish language, in which he had every Sunday to preach one of
his sermons, was the prototype of one of the imitations with
which Frederick frequently amused his friends. Our hero's talent
for changing the expression of his face, of which George Sand,
Liszt, Balzac, Hiller, Moscheles, and other personal
acquaintances, speak with admiration, seems already at this time
to have been extraordinary. Of the theatricals which the young
folks were wont to get up at the paternal house, especially on
the name-days of their parents and friends, Frederick was the
soul and mainstay. With a good delivery he combined a presence of
mind that enabled him to be always ready with an improvisation
when another player forgot his part. A clever Polish actor,
Albert Piasecki, who was stage-manager on these occasions, gave
it as his opinion that the lad was born to be a great actor. In
after years two distinguished members of the profession in
France, M. Bocage and Mdme. Dorval, expressed similar opinions.
For their father's name-day in 1824, Frederick and his sister
Emilia wrote conjointly a one-act comedy in verse, entitled THE
MISTAKE; OR, THE PRETENDED ROGUE, which was acted by a juvenile
company. According to Karasowski, the play showed that the
authors had a not inconsiderable command of language, but in
other respects could not be called a very brilliant achievement.
Seeing that fine comedies are not often written at the ages of
fifteen and eleven, nobody will be in the least surprised at the
result.

These domestic amusements naturally lead us to inquire who were
the visitors that frequented the house. Among them there was Dr.
Samuel Bogumil Linde, rector of the Lyceum and first librarian of
the National Library, a distinguished philologist, who, assisted
by the best Slavonic scholars, wrote a valuable and voluminous
"Dictionary of the Polish Language," and published many other
works on the Slavonic languages. After this oldest of Nicholas
Chopin's friends I shall mention Waclaw Alexander Maciejowski,
who, like Linde, received his university education in Germany,
taught then for a short time at the Lyceum, and became in 1819 a
professor at the University of Warsaw. His contributions to
various branches of Slavonic history (law, literature, &c.) are
very numerous. However, one of the most widely known of those who
were occasionally seen at Chopin's home was Casimir Brodzinski,
the poet, critic, and champion of romanticism, a prominent figure
in Polish literary history, who lived in Warsaw from about 1815
to 1822, in which year he went as professor of literature to the
University of Cracow. Nicholas Chopin's pupil, Count Frederick
Skarbek, must not be forgotten; he had now become a man of note,
being professor of political economy at the university, and
author of several books that treat of that science. Besides
Elsner and Zywny, who have already been noticed at some length, a
third musician has to be numbered among friends of the Chopin
family--namely, Joseph Javurek, the esteemed composer and
professor at the Conservatorium; further, I must yet make mention
of Anton Barcinski, professor at the Polytechnic School, teacher
at Nicholas Chopin's institution, and by-and-by his son-in-law;
Dr. Jarocki, the zoologist; Julius Kolberg, the engineer; and
Brodowski, the painter. These and others, although to us only
names, or little more, are nevertheless not without their
significance. We may liken them to the supernumeraries on the
stage, who, dumb as they are, help to set off and show the
position of the principal figure or figures.

The love of literature which we have noticed in the young
Chopins, more particularly in the sisters, implanted by an
excellent education and fostered by the taste, habits, and
encouragement of their father, cannot but have been greatly
influenced and strengthened by the characters and conversation of
such visitors. Arid let it not be overlooked that this was the
time of Poland's intellectual renascence--a time when the
influence of man over man is greater than at other times, he
being, as it were, charged with a kind of vivifying electricity.
The misfortunes that had passed over Poland had purified and
fortified the nation--breathed into it a new and healthier life.
The change which the country underwent from the middle of the
eighteenth to the earlier part of the nineteenth century was
indeed immense. Then Poland, to use Carlyle's drastic
phraseology, had ripened into a condition of "beautifully
phosphorescent rot-heap"; now, with an improved agriculture,
reviving commerce, and rising industry, it was more prosperous
than it had been for centuries. As regards intellectual matters,
the comparison with the past was even more favourable to the
present. The government that took the helm in 1815 followed the
direction taken by its predecessors, and schools and universities
flourished; but a most hopeful sign was this, that whilst the
epoch of Stanislas Augustus was, as Mickiewicz remarked (in Les
Slaves), little Slavonic and not even national, now the national
spirit pervaded the whole intellectual atmosphere, and incited
workers in all branches of science and art to unprecedented
efforts. To confine ourselves to one department, we find that the
study of the history and literature of Poland had received a
vigorous impulse, folk-songs were zealously collected, and a new
school of poetry, romanticism, rose victoriously over the fading
splendour of an effete classicism. The literature of the time of
Stanislas was a court and salon literature, and under the
influence of France and ancient Rome. The literature that began
to bud about 1815, and whose germs are to be sought for in the
preceding revolutionary time, was more of a people's literature,
and under the influence of Germany, England, and Russia. The one
was a hot-house plant, the other a garden flower, or even a wild
flower. The classics swore by the precepts of Horace and Boileau,
and held that among the works of Shakespeare there was not one
veritable tragedy. The romanticists, on the other hand, showed by
their criticisms and works that their sympathies were with
Schiller, Goethe, Burger, Byron, Shukovski, &c. Wilna was the
chief centre from which this movement issued, and Brodziriski one
of the foremost defenders of the new principles and the precursor
of Mickiewicz, the appearance of whose ballads, romances,
"Dziady" and "Grazyna" (1822), decided the war in favour of
romanticism. The names of Anton Malczewski, Bogdan Zaleski,
Severyn Goszczynski, and others, ought to be cited along with
that of the more illustrious Mickiewicz, but I will not weary the
reader either with a long disquisition or with a dry enumeration.
I have said above that Polish poetry had become more of a
people's poetry. This, however, must not be understood in the
sense of democratic poetry.

The Polish poets [says C. Courriere, to whose "Histoire de la
litterature chez les Slaves" I am much indebted] ransacked with
avidity the past of their country, which appeared to them so much
the more brilliant because it presented a unique spectacle in the
history of nations. Instead of breaking with the historic
traditions they respected them, and gave them a new lustre, a new
life, by representing them under a more beautiful, more animated,
and more striking form. In short, if Polish romanticism was an
evolution of poetry in the national sense, it did not depart from
the tendencies of its elder sister, for it saw in the past only
the nobility; it was and remained, except in a few instances,
aristocratic.

Now let us keep in mind that this contest of classicism and
romanticism, this turning away from a dead formalism to living
ideals, was taking place at that period of Frederick Chopin's
life when the human mind is most open to new impressions, and
most disposed to entertain bold and noble ideas. And, further,
let us not undervalue the circumstance that he must have come in
close contact with one of the chief actors in this unbloody
revolution.

Frederick spent his first school holidays at Szafarnia, in
Mazovia, the property of the Dziewanowski family. In a letter
written on August 19, 1824, he gives his friend and school-fellow
William Kolberg, some account of his doings there--of his strolls
and runs in the garden, his walks and drives to the forest, and
above all of his horsemanship. He tells his dear Willie that he
manages to keep his seat, but would not like to be asked how.
Indeed, he confesses that, his equestrian accomplishments amount
to no more than to letting the horse go slowly where it lists,
and sitting on it, like a monkey, with fear. If he had not yet
met with an accident, it was because the horse had so far not
felt any inclination to throw him off. In connection with his
drives--in britzka and in coach--he does not forget to mention
that he is always honoured with a back-seat. Still, life at
Szafarnia was not unmixed happiness, although our hero bore the
ills with admirable stoicism:--

Very often [he writes] the flies sit on my prominent nose--
this, however, is of no consequence, it is the habit of these
little animals. The mosquitoes bite me--this too, however, is
of no consequence, for they don't bite me in the nose.

The reader sees from this specimen of epistolary writing that
Frederick is still a boy, and if I had given the letter in
extenso, the boyishness would have been even more apparent, in
the loose and careless style as well as in the frolicsome matter.

His letters to his people at home took on this occasion the form
of a manuscript newspaper, called, in imitation of the "Kuryer
Warszawski" ("Warsaw Courier"), "Kuryer Szafarski" ("Szafarnia
Courier"), which the editor, in imitation of the then obtaining
press regulation, did not send off until it had been seen and
approved of by the censor, Miss Dziewanowska. One of the numbers
of the paper contains among other news the report of a musical
gathering of "some persons and demi-persons" at which, on July
15, 1824, Mr. Pichon (anagram of Chopin) played a Concerto of
Kalkbrenner's and a little song, the latter being received by the
youthful audience with more applause than the former.

Two anecdotes that relate to this stay at Szafarnia further
exemplify what has already been said of Frederick's love of fun
and mischief. Having on one of his visits to the village of
Oberow met some Jews who had come to buy grain, he invited them
to his room, and there entertained them with music, playing to
them "Majufes."

[FOOTNOTE: Karasowski describes "Majufes" as a kind of Jewish
wedding march. Ph. Lobenstein says that it means "the beautiful,
the pleasing one." With this word opened a Hebrew song which
dates from the time of the sojourn of the Jews in Spain, and
which the orthodox Polish Jews sing on Saturdays after dinner,
and whose often-heard melody the Poles imitate as a parody of
Jewish singing.]

His guests were delighted--they began to dance, told him that he
played like a born Jew, and urged him to come to the next Jewish
wedding and play to them there. The other anecdote would be a
very ugly story were it not for the redeeming conclusion. Again
we meet with one of the numerous, but by no means well-loved,
class of Polish citizens. Frederick, having heard that a certain
Jew had bought grain from Mr. Romecki, the proprietor of Oberow,
sent this gentleman a letter purporting to be written by the
grain-dealer in question, in which he informed him that after
reconsidering the matter he would rather not take the grain. The
imitation of the jargon in use among the Polish Jews was so good,
and the spelling and writing so bad, that Mr. Romecki was taken
in. Indeed, he flew at once into such a passion that he sent for
the Jew with the intention of administering to him a sound
thrashing. Only Frederick's timely confession saved the poor
fellow from his undeserved punishment. But enough of Szafarnia,
where the young scapegrace paid so long a holiday visit (from his
letter to William Kolberg we learn that he would not see his
friend for four weeks more), and where, judging from what has
already been told, and also from a remark in the same letter, he
must have "enjoyed himself pretty well." And now we will return
to Warsaw, to Nicholas Chopin's boarding-school.

To take away any bad impression that may be left by the last
anecdote, I shall tell another of a more pleasing character,
which, indeed, has had the honour of being made the subject of a
picture. It was often told, says Karasowski, by Casimir
Wodzinski, a boarder of Nicholas Chopin's. One day when the
latter was out, Barcinski, the assistant master, could not manage
the noisy boys. Seeing this, Frederick, who just then happened to
come into the room, said to them that he would improvise a pretty
story if they would sit down and be quiet. This quickly restored
silence. He thereupon had the lights extinguished, took his seat
at the piano, and began as follows:--

Robbers set out to plunder a house. They come nearer and
nearer. Then they halt, and put up the ladders they have
brought with them. But just when they are about to enter
through the windows, they hear a noise within. This gives
them a fright. They run away to the woods. There, amidst the
stillness and darkness of the night, they lie down and
before long fall fast asleep.

When Frederick had got to this part of the story he began to play
softer and softer, and ever softer, till his auditors, like the
robbers, were fast asleep. Noticing this he stole out of the
room, called in the other inmates of the house, who came carrying
lights with them, and then with a tremendous, crashing chord
disturbed the sweet slumbers of the evil-doers.

Here we have an instance of "la richesse de son improvisation,"
by which, as Fontana tells us, Chopin, from his earliest youth,
astonished all who had the good fortune to hear him. Those who
think that there is no salvation outside the pale of absolute
music, will no doubt be horror-stricken at the heretical tendency
manifested on this occasion by an otherwise so promising
musician. Nay, even the less orthodox, those who do not
altogether deny the admissibility of programme-music if it
conforms to certain conditions and keeps within certain limits,
will shake their heads sadly. The duty of an enthusiastic
biographer, it would seem, is unmistakable; he ought to justify,
or, at least, excuse his hero--if nothing else availed, plead his
youth and inexperience. My leaving the poor suspected heretic in
the lurch under these circumstances will draw upon me the
reproach of remissness; but, as I have what I consider more
important business on hand, I must not be deterred from
proceeding to it by the fear of censure.

The year 1825 was, in many respects, a memorable one in the life
of Chopin. On May 27 and June 10 Joseph Javurek, whom I mentioned
a few pages back among the friends of the Chopin family, gave two
concerts for charitable purposes in the large hall of the
Conservatorium. At one of these Frederick appeared again in
public. A Warsaw correspondent of the "Leipzig Allgemeine
musikalische Zeitung" says in the course of one of his letters:--

The Academist Chopin performed the first Allegro of
Moscheles' Pianoforte Concerto in F [G ?] minor, and an
improvisation on the aeolopantaleon. This instrument,
invented by the cabinet-maker Dlugosz, of this town, combines
the aeolomelodicon [FOOTNOTE: An instrument of the organ
species, invented by Professor Hoffmann, and constructed by
the mechanician Brunner, of Warsaw.] with the piano-
forte....Young Chopin distinguished himself in his
improvisation by wealth of musical ideas, and under his hands
this instrument, of which he is a thorough master, made a
great impression.

Unfortunately we learn nothing of Chopin's rendering of the
movement from Moscheles' Concerto. Still, this meagre notice,
written by a contemporary--an ear-witness, who wrote down his
impressions soon after the performance--is very precious, indeed
more precious than the most complete and elaborate criticism
written fifty years after the occurrence would be. I cannot help
thinking that Karasowski somewhat exaggerates when he says that
Chopin's pianoforte playing transported the audience into a state
of enthusiasm, and that no concert had a brilliant success unless
he took part in it. The biographer seems either to trust too much
to the fancy-coloured recollections of his informants, or to
allow himself to be carried away by his zeal for the exaltation
of his hero. At any rate, the tenor of the above-quoted notice,
laudatory as it is, and the absence of Chopin's name from other
Warsaw letters, do not remove the doubts which such eulogistic
superlatives raise in the mind of an unbiassed inquirer. But that
Chopin, as a pianist and as a musician generally, had attained a
proficiency far beyond his years becomes evident if we examine
his compositions of that time, to which I shall presently advert.
And that he had risen into notoriety and saw his talents
appreciated cannot be doubted for a moment after what has been
said. Were further proof needed, we should find it in the fact
that he was selected to display the excellences of the
aeolomelodicon when the Emperor Alexander I, during his sojourn
in Warsaw in 1825, [FOOTNOTE: The Emperor Alexander opened the
Diet at Warsaw on May 13, 1825, and closed it on June 13.]
expressed the wish to hear this instrument. Chopin's performance
is said to have pleased the august auditor, who, at all events,
rewarded the young musician with a diamond ring.