simplicity is the final achievement

Welcome to chopindaily, a blog dedicated to the life and works of the Polish composer Frédéric Chopin.

[chopindaily]

A lock of Chopin’s hair, cut on the day of his death (October 17, 1849).

[chopindaily]

On this day in 1849, Frédéric Chopin passed away.

Rest in peace.

[ohchopin]

[chopindaily]

[chopindaily]

Happy Birthday Frédéric Chopin (March 1, 1810)

Happy 210th birthday to Chopin 💖 listen to some of his music today to celebrate!

[fryderykdelicateflower]

Chopin’s pocket diary for the year 1848, containing several of his drawings and notes concerning his journey to England and Scotland of the same year, dates and names of cities where he performed and names of his students. On this page he made a drawing of a cemetery, with a few crosses and gravestones (perhaps foreshadowing the imminence of his own death).

Placed inside one of the pockets of the binding, was that envelope, which contained a lock of George Sand’s hair.

[eclogues]

[geniuss-loci-deactivated2021052]

[linchuiliu]

Me, listening to music: Hmm, Chopin is definitely my favourite composer. His pieces have such beauty and elegance. I feel so many emotions listening to his pieces… joy, playfulness, solemness, anguish…. I think I truly understand why people call him the poet of the piano

Me, sitting at the piano: Chopin is the worst, why would he do this to me, how do human fingers play this thing

[kanamorimasaki-deactivated20210]

chopin

[windflowerfairy]

Chopin in Chopin (1978) by George Richard Marek

[chopindaily]

Do you ever wonder what would have happened if Chopin and Maria Wodzińska actually got married She would have been known as Maria Chopin and since she was an excellent pianist they could have performed together and written music together and had children oh my gosh my heart hurts

[chopindaily]

Happy 201st birthday to Maria Wodzińska, who was born on this day in 1819.

[frycek-chop]

New year, new George Sand biography finds.

Same old stupid me.

[chopindaily]

Happy 2020 from chopindaily! ✨

Listen to some Chopin today!

[ohchopin]

Chopin at the piano, Leo B. Eichhorn.

“As Christmas approached, and with no news from his family, Chopin succumbed to homesickness. On Christmas Eve he wandered near midnight into St. Stephen’s Cathedral. The congregation had not yet arrived for the traditional nativity service and he found himself standing in a dark corner by a gothic pillar. Overwhelmed by the splendor of the cathedral, and by its vast silence, he fell into a kind of trance. Only the sound of the sacristan’s footsteps, as this worthy went around lighting tapers in the depths of the shrine, aroused Chopin from his somber thoughts. „A grave lies behind me, another lies beneath me; the only thing missing is a grave above my head,” he wrote. „A gloomy harmony arose within me- I felt my isolation more than ever!” People and lights began to appear on the scene, and the service was about to begin, so Chopin pulled up the collar of his greatcoat to shield himself against the cold and joined a crowd of revelers walking toward the Imperial Chapel, where he listened to Christmas mass. He got home at 1:00 a.m. and sank into his bed, and once more dreamed of his friends and family in Warsaw.

Chopin soon found that the Vienna of 1831 was not the Vienna that he had visited less than two years earlier. The November Uprising had changed the public mood and Poles were regarded with suspicion. Austria had been the recipient of a large portion of Polish territory when the country was dismembered at the time of the last partition. If the Poles continued to make trouble, Austria would side with her two neighboring powers, Prussia and Russia. As he was eating his Christmas dinner at an Italian restaurant, he was infuriated by the conversation that drifted toward him from a nearby table. „God made a mistake when he created the Poles!” declared one diner. „Yes,” responded another, „Nothing good comes out of Poland”. Chopin fumed at the smugness of his fellow diners. „The b——s are really enjoying themselves just now,” he declared, allowing himself an expletive. Of the bloodbath that was to follow during the months ahead, no one had the slightest conception.” -Dr. Alan Walker

[chopindaily]

Merry Christmas from chopindaily! 💚❤️