Frédéric François Chopin

Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of

the Romantic era who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained
worldwide renown as a leading musician of his era, one whose "poetic
genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in
his generation." Wikipedia
Born: 1 March 1810, Żelazowa Wola, Poland
Died: 17 October 1849, Paris, France
Nationality: Polish
Parents: Justyna Krzyżanowska, Nicolas Chopin
QUOTES
Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of
notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning
reward of art.
I wish I could throw off the thoughts which poison my happiness, but I
take a kind of pleasure in indulging them.
Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later
on.
POLISH-FRENCH COMPOSER AND PIANIST

Alternative Titles: Frédéric François Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek Szopen

Frédéric Chopin
POLISH-FRENCH COMPOSER AND PIANIST
BORN

March 1, 1810
Zelazowa Wola, Poland

DIED

October 17, 1849 (aged 39)

Paris, France

NOTABLE WORKS

 “Chopin Preludes, Op. 28”

 “Heroic Polonaise”
 “Berceuse”
 “Polonaise in G Minor”
MOVEMENT / STYLE

 Romanticism
Frédéric Chopin, French in full Frédéric François Chopin, Polish Fryderyk Franciszek Szopen,
(born March 1, 1810, Żelazowa Wola, near Warsaw, Duchy of Warsaw [now in Poland]
[see Researcher’s Note: Chopin’s birth date]—died October 17, 1849, Paris, France), Polish French
composer and pianist of the Romantic period, best known for his solo pieces for piano and his piano
concerti. Although he wrote little but piano works, many of them brief, Chopin ranks as one
of music’sgreatest tone poets by reason of his superfine imagination and fastidiouscraftsmanship.
Frédéric Chopin (Composer)
Born: February 22 or March 1, 1810 - Warsaw,
Poland
Died: October 17, 1849 - Paris, France
Frédéric François Chopin, born Fryderyk
Franciszek Chopin, was a Polish composer and
virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era, who wrote
primarily for the solo piano. He gained and has
maintained renown worldwide as one of the
leading musicians of his era, whose "poetic genius
was based on a professional technique that was
without equal in his generation." Chopin was born
in what was then the Duchy of Warsaw, and grew
up in Warsaw, which after 1815 became part of
Congress Poland. A child prodigy, he completed
his musical education and composed many of his
works in Warsaw before leaving Poland at the age
of 20, less than a month before the outbreak of the
November 1830 Uprising.

At the age of 21 he settled in Paris. Thereafter,

during the last 18 years of his life, he gave only
some 30 public performances, preferring the more
intimate atmosphere of the salon. He supported
himself by selling his compositions and teaching
piano, for which he was in high demand. Chopin
formed a friendship with Franz Liszt and was
admired by many of his musical contemporaries,
including Robert Schumann. In 1835 he obtained
French citizenship. After a failed engagement to a
Polish girl, from 1837 to 1847 he maintained an
often troubled relationship with the French writer
George Sand. A brief and unhappy visit to
Majorca with Sand in 1838-1839 was one of his
most productive periods of composition. In his
last years, he was financially supported by his
admirer Jane Stirling, who also arranged for him
to visit Scotland in 1848. Through most of his life,
Chopin suffered from poor health. He died in
Paris in 1849, probably of tuberculosis.

All of Chopin's compositions include the piano.

Most are for solo piano, though he also wrote two
piano concertos, a few chamber pieces, and some
 songs to Polish lyrics. His keyboard style is highly
individual and often technically demanding; his
own performances were noted for their nuance
and sensitivity. Chopin invented the concept of
instrumental ballade. His major piano works also
include sonatas, mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes,
polonaises, études, impromptus, scherzos, and
preludes, some published only after his death.
Many contain elements of both Polish folk music
and of the classical tradition of J.S. Bach, W.A.
Mozart and Schubert, the music of all of whom he
admired. His innovations in style, musical form,
and harmony, and his association of music with
nationalism, were influential throughout and after
the late Romantic period.

Both in his native Poland and beyond, Chopin's

music, his status as one of music's earliest
superstars, his association (if only indirect) with
political insurrection, his love life and his early
death have made him, in the public consciousness,
a leading symbol of the Romantic era. His works
remain popular, and he has been the subject of
numerous films and biographies of varying
degrees of historical accuracy.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

RUSSIAN COMPOSER
Alternative Titles: Peter Ilich Tschaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich Chaikovskii, Pyotr Ilyich Chaikovsky

WRITTEN BY:

 Alexander Poznansky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
RUSSIAN COMPOSER
BORN

May 7, 1840
Votkinsk, Russia

DIED

November 6, 1893 (aged 53)

St. Petersburg, Russia

NOTABLE WORKS

 “Pathétique Symphony”
 “Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36”
 “The Nutcracker”
 “Romeo and Juliet”
 “Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor”
 “Marche Slave, Op. 31”
 “The Storm”
 “Cherevichki”
 “The Sleeping Beauty”
 “Swan Lake”
MOVEMENT / STYLE

 Romanticism
VIEW BIOGRAPHIES RELATED TOCATEGORIES
 dance
 musical composition
DATES
 November 6
 May 7
DID YOU KNOW?

 Tchaikovsky was reserved for a significant portion of his life. He only became a more social person following his
reception of the Order of St. Vladimir by the Russian czar, an award that sparked his fame.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Tchaikovsky also spelled Chaikovsky, Chaikovskii, or Tschaikowsky, name in
full Anglicized as Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, (born April 25 [May 7, New Style], 1840, Votkinsk, Russia—died
October 25 [November 6], 1893, St. Petersburg), the most popular Russian composer of all time. His music has
always had great appeal for the general public in virtue of its tuneful, open-hearted melodies, impressive
harmonies, and colourful, picturesque orchestration, all of which evoke a profound emotional response.
His oeuvre includes 7 symphonies, 11 operas, 3 ballets, 5 suites, 3 piano concertos, a violinconcerto, 11
overtures (strictly speaking, 3 overtures and 8 single movement programmatic orchestral works), 4 cantatas, 20
choral works, 3 string quartets, a string sextet, and more than 100 songs and piano pieces.
Pyotr (Peter) Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Vyatka region, Russia. He was the
second of six children (five brothers and one sister). His father, named Ilya Chaikovsky, was a mining
business executive in Votkinsk. His father's ancestors were from Ukraine and Poland. His mother, named
Aleksandra Assier, was of Russian and French ancestry.

Tchaikovsky played piano since the age of 5, he also enjoyed his mother's playing and singing. He was a
sensitive and emotional child, and became deeply traumatized by the death of his mother of cholera, in
 1854. At that time he was sent to a boarding school in St. Petersburg. He graduated from the St. Petersburg
School of Law in 1859, then worked for 3 years at the Justice Department of Russian Empire. In 1862-1865
he studied music under Anton Rubinstein at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In 1866-1878 he was a
professor of theory and harmony at the Moscow Conservatory. At that time he met Franz Liszt and Hector
Berlioz, who visited Russia with concert tours. During that period Tchaikovsky wrote his first ballet 'The
Swan Lake', opera 'Eugene Onegin', four Symphonies, and the brilliant Piano Concerto No1.

As a young man Tchaikovsky suffered traumatic personal experiences. He was sincerely attached to a
beautiful soprano, named Desiree Artot, but their engagement was destroyed by her mother and she
married another man. His homosexuality was causing him a painful guilt feeling. In 1876 he wrote to his
brother, Modest, about his decision to "marry whoever will have me." One of his admirers, a Moscow
Conservatory student Antonina Ivanovna Milyukova, was persistently writing him love letters. She
threatened to take her life if Tchaikovsky didn't marry her. Their brief marriage in the summer of 1877 lasted
only a few weeks and caused him a nervous breakdown. He even made a suicide attempt by throwing
himself into a river. In September of 1877 Tchaikovsky separated from Milyukova. She eventually ended up
in an insane asylum, where she spent over 20 years and died. They never saw each other again. Although
their marriage was terminated legally, Tchaikovsky generously supported her financially until his death.

Tchaikovsky was ordered by the doctors to leave Russia until his emotional health was restored. He went to
live in Europe for a few years. Tchaikovsky settled together with his brother, Modest, in a quiet village of
Clarens on Lake Geneva in Switzerland and lived there in 1877-1878. There he wrote his very popular Violin
Concerto in D. He also completed his Symphony No.4, which was inspired by Russian folk songs, and
dedicated it to Nadezhda von Meck. From 1877 to 1890 Tchaikovsky was financially supported by a wealthy
widow Nadezhda von Meck, who also supported Claude Debussy. She loved Tchaikovsky's music and
became his devoted pen-friend. They exchanged over a thousand letters in 14 years; but they never met, at
her insistence. In 1890 she abruptly terminated all communication and support, claiming bankruptcy.

Tchaikovsky played an important role in the artistic development of Sergei Rachmaninoff. They met in 1886,
when Rachmaninov was only 13 years old, and studied the music of Tchaikovsky under the tutelage of their
mutual friend, composer Aleksandr Zverev. Tchaikovsky was the member of the Moscow conservatory
graduation board. He joined many other musicians in recommendation that Rachmaninov was to be
awarded the Gold Medal in 1892. Later Tchaikovsky was involved in popularization of Rachmaninov's
graduation work, opera 'Aleko'. Upon Tchaikovsky's promotion Rachmaninov's opera "Aleko" was included
in the repertory and performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

In 1883-1893 Tchaikovsky wrote his best Symphonies No.5 and No.6, ballets 'The Sleeping Beauty' and
'The Nutcracker', operas 'The Queen of Spades' and 'Iolanta'. In 1888-1889, he made a successful
conducting tour of Europe, appearing in Prague, Leipzig, Hamburg, Paris, and London. In 1891, he went on
a two month tour of America, where he gave concerts in New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. In May of
1891 Tchaikovsky was the conductor on the official opening night of Carnegie Hall in New York. He was a
friend of Edvard Grieg and Antonín Dvorák. In 1892 he heard Gustav Mahler conducting his opera 'Eugene
Onegin' in Hamburg. Tchaikovsky himself conducted the premiere of his Symphony No.6 in St. Petersburg,
Russia, on the 16th of October, 1893. A week later he died of cholera after having a glass of tap water. He
was laid to rest in the Necropolis of Artists at St. Aleksandr Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Franz Liszt
HUNGARIAN COMPOSER
Alternative Title: Liszt Ferenc

WRITTEN BY:

 Humphrey Searle
Franz Liszt
HUNGARIAN COMPOSER
 View All Media

BORN

October 22, 1811

Raiding, Austria

DIED

July 31, 1886 (aged 74)

Bayreuth, Germany

NOTABLE WORKS

 overture
 “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-Sharp Minor”
 “Les Préludes”
 “Transcendental Études”
 “New Grand Overture”
 “Les Morts”
 “Bagatelle Without Tonality”
 “Hungarian Coronation Mass”
 “Christus”
 “On John Field’s Nocturnes”
MOVEMENT / STYLE

 Romanticism
SUBJECTS OF STUDY

 music
FAMILY

 Daughter Cosima Wagner

VIEW BIOGRAPHIES RELATED TOCATEGORIES
 musical composition
  instrumentalists
DATES
 July 31
 October 22
Franz Liszt, Hungarian form Liszt Ferenc, (born October 22, 1811, Doborján, kingdom of Hungary, Austrian
Empire [now Raiding, Austria]—died July 31, 1886, Bayreuth, Germany), Hungarian piano virtuoso and
composer. Among his many notable compositions are his 12 symphonic poems, two (completed) piano concerti,
several sacred choral works, and a great variety of solo piano pieces.
Franz Liszt (Composer,
Arranger)
Born: October 22, 1811 - village of Doborján,
near Sopron, Hungary
Died: July 31, 1886 - Bayreuth, Germany
Franz Liszt [Hungarian: Liszt Ferenc] was a
Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer. He
studied and played at Vienna and Paris and for
most of his early adulthood toured throughout
Europe giving concerts. His virtuosity earned him
approbations by composers and performers alike
throughout Europe. His great generosity with both
time and money benefited the lives of many
people: victims of disasters, orphans and the many
students he taught for free. He also contributed to
the L.v. Beethovenmemorial fund.

His piano compositions include works such as his

Piano Sonata in B minor, and two piano
concertos, which have entered the standard
repertoire. He also made many exuberant piano
transcriptions of operas, famous symphonies,
Paganini Caprices, and Schubert Lieder. As would
be expected from a pianist-composer of Liszt's
virtuosity, many of his piano compositions are
amongst the most technically challenging in the
repertoire.
Biography
Liszt was born in the village of Doborján, near
Sopron, Hungary, in what was then the Austrian
Empire (Doborján is now Raiding in Austria after
the Treaty of Trianon of 1920). His baptism
record is in Latin and lists his first name as
Franciscus. The Hungarian variant Ferenc is often
used, though Liszt never used this himself. His
father, Ádám Liszt, was Hungarian and his mother
was Austrian-born Anna Liszt, née Lagen.

Liszt displayed incredible talent at a young age,

 easily sight-reading multiple staves at once. His
father, who worked at the court of Count
Esterházy, gave him his first music lessons when
he was six years old. Local aristocrats noticed his
talent and enabled him to travel to Vienna and
later to Paris with his family. As a result, Liszt
never fully learned Hungarian; his later letters and
diaries show that he came to regret this deeply.
One letter to his mother begins in faltering
Hungarian, and after an apology continues in
French (his preferred language).

In Vienna he was educated in piano technique

by Carl Czerny. His father had wanted him to be
taught by Johann Nepomuk Hummel, but
Hummel's fees were too high. Antonio Salieri
taught him the technique of composition and
fostered the young Liszt's musical taste.

He formed an early friendship with Frédéric

Chopin, but later fierce competition turned the
men into rivals. He was a lifelong friend
of Camille Saint-Saëns, and the latter dedicated
his Symphony #3 in C Minor to Liszt.

On April 13, 1823, Liszt gave a concert, and it is

often said that the 53-year-old Ludwig van L.v.
Beethoven gave him a kiss for his marvelous
playing. An account of the episode can be found
in the separate article Liszt and L.v. Beethoven

Camille Saint-Saëns
FRENCH COMPOSER
Alternative Title: Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns

WRITTEN BY:

 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Camille Saint-Saëns
FRENCH COMPOSER
 View All Media

BORN

October 9, 1835
Paris, France

DIED

December 16, 1921 (aged 86)

Algiers, Algeria

NOTABLE WORKS

 “Organ Symphony”
 “Samson and Delilah”
 “Woodwind Sonatas”
 “The Carnival of Animals”
SUBJECTS OF STUDY

 music
VIEW BIOGRAPHIES RELATED TOCATEGORIES
criticism

 musical composition
 instrumentalists
DATES
 December 16
 October 9
Camille Saint-Saëns, in full Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns, (born October 9, 1835, Paris, France—died
December 16, 1921, Algiers [Algeria]), composer chiefly remembered for his symphonic poems—the first of
that genre to be written by a Frenchman—and for his opera Samson et Dalila. Saint-Saëns was notable for his
pioneering efforts on behalf of French music, and he was a gifted pianist and organist as well as a writer
of criticism, poetry, essays, and plays. Of his concerti and symphonies, in which he adapted the virtuosity
of Franz Liszt’s style to French traditions of harmony and form, his Symphony No. 3 (Organ) is most often
performed.
A child prodigy on the piano, Saint-Saëns gave his first recital in 1846. He studied organ and composition at the
Paris Conservatory, and in 1855 his Symphony No. 1 was performed. He became organist at the famed Church
of the Madeleine in Paris in 1857, an association that lasted for 20 years. Liszt, whom he met about this time
and with whom he formed an enduring friendship, described him as the finest organist in the world. From 1861
to 1865 he was professor of piano at the Niedermeyer School, where his pupils included Gabriel
Fauré and André Messager.
ADVERTISEMENT

In 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War, he helped found the National Society of Music, which promoted
performances of the most significant French orchestral works of the succeeding generation. In the same year, he
produced his first symphonic poem, Le Rouet d’Omphale (Omphale’s Spinning Wheel), which, with Danse
macabre, is the most frequently performed of his four such works. His opera Samson et Dalila, rejected in Paris
because of the prejudice against portraying biblical characters on the stage, was given in German at Weimar in
1877, on the recommendation of Liszt. It was finally staged in Paris in 1890 at the Théâtre Eden and later
became his most popular opera.
Excerpt from “Le Cygne” (“The Swan”), segment of Le Carnaval des Animaux by Camille Saint-Saëns, 1886.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

In 1878 Saint-Saëns lost both of his sons, and three years later he separated from his wife. Over the following
years, he undertook extensive tours throughout Europe, the United States, South America, the Middle East, and
East Asia, performing his five piano concerti and other keyboard works and conducting his
symphonic compositions. As a pianist, he was admired by Richard Wagner for his brilliant technique and was
the subject of a study by Marcel Proust. From roughly 1880 until the end of his life, his immense production
covered all fields of dramatic and instrumental music. His Symphony No. 3 (1886), dedicated to the memory of
Liszt, made skilled use of the organ and two pianos. In the same year, he wrote Le Carnaval des animaux (The
Carnival of Animals) for small orchestra, a humorous fantasy not performed during his lifetime that has since
won considerable popularity as a work for young people’s concerts. Among the best of his later works are
the Piano Concerto No. 5 (1895) and the Cello Concerto No. 2 (1902).
Though he lived through the period of Wagner’s influence, Saint-Saëns remained unaffected by it and adhered
to the classical models, upholding a conservative ideal of French music that emphasized polished craftsmanship
and a sense of form. In his essays and memoirs, he described the contemporary musical scene in a shrewd and
often ironic manner.
DAVID INGRES
Goya
Delacroix

Genicault

Neoclassismm
Romantic