About Fredrick Chopin

More than any other composer of his period, Fredrick Chopin was instrumental in the establishment and development of the contemporary piano style and technique (Springer 3). His influence on piano music composition extended beyond his age group and is still felt by contemporary composers. Chopin had a wide spectrum of harmonies, colors, and expressions in his dreams, and he made use of every innovation in the piano’s design. The enlarged keyboard with seven octaves and the better mechanism opened up new avenues for musical expression (Nicholas, 142). Compared to many of the keyboard composers of his period, Chopin had a deeper and richer poetic insight. He was among the first artists to compose music to be exclusively played by the piano. While Chopin was always wholly and convincingly pianistic, other composers such as Beethoven attempted to be orchestral in his writing while on the other hand, Schubert was more vocal (Szulc,12). However, a few of Chopin’s compositions could successfully be played by different instruments. It is worth noting that this romantic composer did not like association mainly because his inspiration did not come from painting or literature as it did other writers such as Liszt and Schumann. This paper will analyze the life and works of Fredrick Chopin in addition to assessing his musical influence on later composers.

Background

Fredrick Chopin was born in March 1810 and raised in a middle-class background. At the age of seven years, he published his initial work of art and started performing one year afterward. He went to Paris in1832 where he interacted with high-class society and was regarded an excellent piano teacher shortly after. Most of his compositions became quite influential during his lifetime and long after his death (Samson, 54). Nicholas, his father, worked as a bookkeeper when he met and married Justyna Krzyzanowska. Shortly after the birth of Fredric, Nicholas was employed as a tutor for the aristocratic families in Warsaw. The employment of his father exposed Chopin to the cultures of Warsaw society (Szulc, 14). His talent was noticed quite early in his life as he was able to compose basic tunes and play the piano at the age of 6 years. The family, realizing the boy’s musical gifts, engaged professional musician Woji Zywny to help him nurture the talent. Being a fast learner, Chopin would soon surpass his teacher in both imagination and technique at composing and playing the piano.

By 1818, Chopin could come up with his compositions such as the Polonaise in G Minor while being able to perform in elegant salons. By the year 1826, Chopin had composed several tunes which contributed to his enrollment at the Warsaw Conservatory of Music in in the same year where he carried out his studies for four years under Polish writer Josef Elsner. However, after discovering that he required a more extensive musical knowledge, Chopin was sent to Vienna by his parents where he successfully made his introduction to performance (Szulc, 22). The audiences were impressed by his poetically expensive and highly technical presentation. Chopin performed in Poland, Paris, Australia, and Germany where he had settled for five years. It is in Germany that he quickly established a relationship with other young artists. Among these composers are Felix Mendelssohn, Vincenzo, and Franz Liszt.

Chopin discovered that his delicate style did not usually enthrall a significantly high number of audiences who had experienced the works of Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert. New doors were opened to him upon excellent introduction to the Rothschild family (Samson, 77). He was soon employed at Paris’ great paroles as both an educator and recitalist. The improved earnings from this newly acquired job allowed him to lead a comfortable life while presenting him with the opportunity to compose further musical masterpieces.

Although Chopin experienced teenage love affairs and being engaged at one time, none of his relations lasted for more than one year. He started a relationship with Amandine Lucile Aurore Dupin a French novelist in 1838. The two spent unfavorable winter together at Majorca Spanish Island in 1839 during which time Chopin became ill. A friend of his, Sand, was fundamental in transferring him to Marseille on realizing the declining health of Chopin. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis and treated in the town. Sand and Chopin settled at Sand’s country home south of Paris in Nohant after a period of his recovery in Marseille (Springer 8). The following seven years would turn out to be the most productive and happiest moments of Chopin’s life. He frequently wrote various masterpieces including the Opus fifty-six Mazurkas, the Opus fifty-five Nocturnes, and Sonata in B Minor. The rising need for his new works and his higher knowledge of business publication also resulted in increased earnings and provided an elegant lifestyle to the artist.

Very few composers command universal love as Fredrick Chopin. Chopin is considered the only great composer who did every aspect of his work with the help of a piano. He never used choral, operas or symphonies. A small part of his composition, about 31 pieces out of his 200 works used other instruments apart from the piano.

Chopin’s Works

The genius of Chopin used techniques that were unmatched by his contemporaries. The pieces he wrote were mainly for the solo piano in addition to the fact that his compositions were accredited as containing ‘a poetic spirit’ and showing a vast number of ambivalent emotions (Springer 10). His music is heavily based in both Polish folklore and Vienna classics including a wide range of scherzos, waltzes, polonaises, sonatas, mazurkas, etudes, nocturnes, preludes, and impromptus (Siepmann and Lesser 145). While Chopin composed most of his tunes for solo piano, he did create two keyboard concertos, which are the most performed pieces, alongside the music for ensembles. His wide and long works such as Barcarole in F-sharp major, Op. 60, the four scherzi, sonatas, the Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49, and the four ballades provided an excellent basis within the repertoire. His short compositions including mazurkas, nocturnes, rondos, polonaises, impromptus, and waltzes took a more significant part of the music he composed and performed.

Fredric Chopin transformed waltz into a different kind of music. He added nuance, refinement and the result was a composition more suitable to the aristocracy instead of masses and for the private gathering as opposed to the ballroom. Also, more than half of the ladies were needed to be countess if Chopin’s waltz required dancing. Despite this fact, none of the waltz created by Chopin provides idealized reflections in the form of the ballroom dancing. Chopin wrote one of his best Waltzes and dedicated it to the Countess Delfina Potocka (Springer 12). This piece was vivacious, with a continuous use of pedal throughout the composition making it both an upper-class salon and a dreamy composition at the same time. The work was named ‘Minute’ to perhaps reflect the small form and little amount of time in which this waltz was formed (Bellman 48). Consequently, for this piece to be played within a single minute, one needed to play four hundred and twenty quarter section of the notes in one minute. The nature of the music and the dancing accompanying it resulted to the genre nicknamed “The Little Dog Waltz”. The name evoked imagery of a mall dog trying to catch its tail. Other famous works produced by Chopin are discussed below.

The Étude Op. Ten, number twelve in C minor was written in 1831 (Springer 6). The composition was the final piece of the first set Etudes Op. Number ten. The publishing of Polish November Uprising against the Bolshevik authorities’ coincided with the publication of Étude No. 12. Unfortunately, Poland’s failure to liberate itself seemed to affect Chopin and he frequently cried out ”All these has caused a lot of pain in me. Who could have predicted it?” His opponents, therefore, linked the stormy agreements and stated forzandos of the work with a confused state of mind resulting from a sense of disappointment and patriotic feelings. Chopin dedicated his work ”à son ami Franz Liszt” to his great friend and a famous Hungarian composer Franz Liszt.

Prelude, Op. 28, number fifteen, Raindrop Prelude, is one of the twenty-four preludes created by Fredric Chopin. The piece was also by far the longest, lasting between 5 and 7 minutes. Most of the Opus 28 was written at the time Chopin was staying in a monastery in 1883 in Majorca. He was in this religious residence together with his lover, and ally female writer George Sand along with her son (Szulc, 110). While the trip was meant to serve medical purposes, it turned out to be a prolific moment for the writer as he was able to come up with interesting tunes.

”A Young Girl’s Wish,” is a Polish traditional song written by Chopin partly because of his interest in the culture of the Polish folk, as well as his desire to play a role in music production for some traditional polish poetry. The piece by Stefan Witwicki advises a young lady declaring her love for a particular man, saying that she will be a permanently shining sun outside his window and not in any other place or a bird only singing for him. The song is performed in a more prevalent quasi-opera tone of the time. The same tone was used by Franz Liszt in some of his songs that were later transcribed for a piano solo.

Another significant piece written by Chopin is the Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53, and the Heroic Polonaise. This work was strongly linked to the independence as well as national pride. The piece is highly advanced and needed a particularly high level of piano skills to be interpreted correctly. The nickname of the polonaise resulted when George Sand wrote that ”The vigor! The strength! The inspiration! It is no uncertainty that such spirit should be presented in the French uprising. Beginning now polonaise will be a sign of heroicness” (Szulc, 111).

The Piano Concerto number two in F minor, Op. 21 was another classical work written by Chopin. Composed when he was only twenty years old, Chopin had not completed his formal education and yet the piece is considered a masterpiece. The composition was first performed in Warsaw on 17th March 1830 and the soloist part was played by Chopin. While being the first piece composed by piano, it was published as the second and hence its number 2 in the nomenclature (Szulc, 113). The last of the Concerto has a surprising moment when violas and violins of the assembly were asked to play with the wood of the bow.

In 1844, Chopin composed Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor. This piece of creation was considered to be one of the most demanding works written by Chopin in both the manners of playing the notes (articulation) as well as the loudness of changes (dynamics). It was claimed by the critics that Chopin composed the song based on the harsh opinions on his initial Sonata No. 2, Op. 35. The piece is quite long with four parts which include the uplifting Finale: Presto Monsanto, the slower Largo, and the cheerful Scherzo: Molto vivace and the melodious Allegro maestoso.

Performance History of Waltz by Different Pianists

Waltz is a well-known ballroom dance that originated from Landler in the 18th century. It is characterized by step in ¾ time and slide. The polite society was shocked by its turning and embracing of the couples when dancing. In the 19th century, the style became the ballroom dance par excellence and maintained its popularity throughout the 20th century. Its variation involved the gliding and whirling Viennese and dipping Boston. The most outstanding waltzes were composed by Johann Strauss and his sons, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Frédéric Chopin.

Chopin, Mahler, Brahms, Liszt and Schubert composed these pieces, but were not intended to be danced to; they are sang for orchestra or piano. It is for this reason that the danceable Waltzes of the Strauss dynasty became much impressive to the world. Dancing to the waltz is seen as a way of Viennese partying. Viennese balls were celebrated in almost all the places. The Viennese ball culture had started at approximately twenty years earlier, at the time of restructuring of Europe at the Vienna Congress.

First Person to Perform the Waltz

The waltz style of dancing had achieved considerable popularity by the time Chopin arrived in Paris after spending most of his young age in Poland. What differentiated them was the standardized structure made up of an introduction, coda, and some melodies. Out of the two styles that were mostly recognized, the French included three complementary dances of rising vigor, where the performance was accomplished with significant springing and leaping, while the Viennese held to an own underlying tempo and fixed rotating glide. The unique, distinctive accompaniment invariably gets a single chord in the three-beat measure, the remainder of the music on the second and the third is based on the downbeat. Carl Maria von Weber is regarded as the first person to play the waltz. He brought the style to concert hall during his invitation to dance in 1819. Carl Maria von Weber was a compelling portrait of ten minutes of a shy lady swept up in an excitement of waltz in the middle of episodes of the introspections which were more relaxed, and at the end left alone to ponder her memories.

The history of ballroom dance consists of essential moments and dances that made use of new styles which completely changed the fashion of dancing and enabled a complete transformation of the dancing culture. Among the leading influential dances that were able to do just that is the waltz. This style was first performed in Australia and Germany in the 18th century before reaching the modern ballrooms where it altered the fashion of dancing and becoming one of the most popular dances in the world.

The original waltz form was first used by peasants in the 13th century in Germany. The peasants devised a rolling folk dance which varied to a greater extent with all the court dances that were well known during the time. The folk dance overflowed with turns and glides that were highly welcomed before spreading to Volta in 1500s where it was adapted to the different local dance styles. Waltz was embraced by the people of Vienna during the 16th century, before being morphed into a dance style known as Wellar. A variation called Nizzarda was used by France.

Samson (33) notes that Waltz was for court and not for the folk dancers. During this period, all the court dancers performed with tight controls, rigid, procession based, solemn, stately, with complicated timing and moves. This trend was changed by the waltz style which introduced a free form of dance with close dancing positions. The style promptly sparked scandals and revolts from the old traditional ballroom lovers. France adopted a waltz form called allemande after the 18th century. The variation could soon change when the popularity of the ¾ timed turned overwhelming, enabling it to be standardized and passing its influence throughout Europe. Among the primary cause of the rise in popularity of ¾ time dance music was the unique music creation of Franz Lanner and Johann Strauss.

How People have Received the Waltz

Although waltz was highly criticized, it gradually entered into ballrooms, aided by the performances of the famous community figures. The acceptability of waltz rose when its inherent sensuousness was tempered with a playful exuberance, first by Polka and then Galop. The Polka became popular in the society ballrooms in 1844. The closed couples tuning would become acceptable after Polka’s good-natured quality joy (Samson, 139). The style introduced a vast number of dancers to the pleasure of whirling in arms of one another. The dancers quickly developed a desire for more of the unique technique after tasting this euphoria. Polka made various emerging forms of couple dances such as Mazurka and Galop, in addition to new variations on the earlier Waltz, Five-Step Waltz and Varsouvienne, Redowa, Valse à Deux Temps, and the Schottische. Besides, the increasing desire to move towards naturalness and the ease in dancing removed the intricate steps from the country and Quadrille dances simplified the performance to almost simple walking (Szulc 26). Gracious romance, exuberance, and excitement were the overall spirit of waltz dancing during the 1840s to 1860s. The dances were somewhat daring, youthful, inventive and fresh. The society fashion was elegant and costly. However, with the emphasis on simplicity the ballroom dance had peaked in the 1850s.

In the 19th century, the reception of the music written by famous composer, Choplin, well known for his preludes and waltz was reflected by a range of transcription. In the mid 19th century, arranging compositions for other media was a common practice. The objective was to make pieces by Chopin popular among the musicians playing various instruments such as music lovers and their repertoires. There was no formal music education between 1830 and 1961; the teaching of music was carried out in private homes. Music lessons were a must for the young ladies from wealthy families. The result was the rapid growth of demand for a repertoire that will be easy to play while maintaining attractiveness. Such demand may have made the famous compositions of Chopin to be simplified in terms transcription and techniques.

The transcription of Chopin’s work spread widely after the publication of the originals. His music became available in many forms such as in the creations of the composers of his time and those of successive generations (Nicholas, 35). One crucial element that caused a reaction and played a great influence of Chopin’s music is fascination and critics. Some of the responses to his music were sentimental and superficial while others were highly profound, arising from the spiritual closeness to Chopin. Both unconscious and conscious reactions were common with some referring to the composer’s attitudes and ideas, others to the general principles, and yet others just amounted to the use of particular idioms or phrases. The reaction was creative in some instances, targeting at the development and continuity, but in most cases, it would lead to mere imitation.

Although waltz was very popular, it experienced some opposition. The style was seen as a threat by the dancing masters. The significant steps that were involved in waltz could be acquired within the shortest time possible. On the other hand, the minute court dancers needed substantive practice to develop suitable deportment and posture. Substantive amounts of time were also needed to learn numerous complex patterns. The technique was also criticized for its morality by those who were on close hold and fast turning movements. Some of the religious leaders considered it sinful and vulgar while continental court circles were firmly against the style.

Style Analysis

The harmonic flow is one of the ingredients in a waltz. The flow together with the melodic contouring that springs from the natural breath and human voice is evident in the waltz (Nicholas, 96). Waltz results in emotions as it pours the hearts of both the performer and the audiences. Moreover, the setting in the technique blows the surface of the piece before delving into its melodic and harmonic outline. While playing in this style, the pianist examines both the historical context of compositions, the performance practice and the interpretation of the piece of work. Chopin made use of tempo rubato in his vernacular tongue as a key technique to enable flexibility (Nicholas, 142). The dizzying notes in the style give very little on how it will spring on the life of playing it. There is little clue of the global musical illusion and magic in this type of art.

The first passage in the Chopin’s waltz is constructed with merely three descending as well as three ascending motives. The next passages act as a reply to the first passage, still energetic and lively, making the waltz look like ballroom dance style. The key in the waltz is then changed to D flat major. This broad section is made up of three main parts. The motif of the central theme is used in A rather than B and movement is more expressive and slow. The second section looks like it is animated in base D and appears more lovely and tender while going up an octave. Different from the intersection of the initial part, which is sudden and brilliant, the second intersection is a genuinely delicate conversation full of continuous grace notes coming gently before falling to the brilliant D bass passage (Li 81). The third section appears to memorize, recall, and question what had been done in the animated part. In E flat major, which occurs when the central theme reaches a peak, it is repeated with strong octaves followed by a slowing down to provide a way for the coda. The coda then begins gradually in the base with modulates in many motives of the past parts as well as old notes in the low treble and fades away in the highest E. A small base, and three E flat majors end the waltz in the true Viennese style. In this work, the language cannot sustain a vivid division it has made. The structural division between the outer and the inner talking dissolves and the two voices, in spite of their semantic and formal variation, fall to form a tale talking about itself at the end.

The most famous of the Chopin’s waltz is the ‘Minute’, ranked among the best classical repertoire. The kinetic energy and the cheerful mood in this waltz contradicted the personal situation of the composer during its creation. Chopin composed this work during the period when he was severely declining in his stature. It was also at this time that his relationship with Aurore Dupin Dudevant, a novelist known for writing the pseudonym of Sand, was breaking. A best-known feature is the theme of this waltz (Li 81). It starts as is it fast winding itself up and followed by the left which had anxiously maintained the rhythm of the waltz. The other hand slides pleasingly upward and then downward. It finally resolves in quick swirls of notes which ascend, then at the final moment descend as the peak is reached. Everything seems to shimmer before the eyes and gleam in the hearing as it is being held together by the little melodic cell. The stately middle part, which is more conventional, does not suggest that it is hackneyed or stale. On the contrary, it is relaxed, as well as nonchalance manner gives the best contrast to vital energy of the opening theme. It ends with the restatement of the memorable and the joyous previous creation (Nicholas, 142).

The works composed by Chopin, especially the concert waltzes have a varying character from the official strand. Concert waltzes have larger dimensions, with a relatively more abundant pianistic nature. The degree of refinement reaches the peak and gets manifested explicitly through rich, subtle and melodious harmonies. Two fundamental types of eight masterful waltzes may be distinguished. The first, which characterizes many of the waltzes composed by Fredrick Chopin, is the striking ballroom music of virtuous panache. This kind of composition starts with a unique introduction and concludes with virtuosic coda, thereby fulfilling the role of a climax work. The next type is associated with various sorts of expressions including the melancholic and slightly sentimental type of waltz in relatively slower tempo (Li 81). The most common examples of these ballroom music are in C sharp Op. 64 number 2 minor and Waltz in a small, Op. 34 number 2. However, it should be noted that these two types are also found in the waltz of the single strand.

What Chopin Created while Composing Waltz

Among the works done by Chopin together with waltz is the Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 65. This forms one of the few pieces of Chopin that were intended for other musical instruments apart from the piano (Kelley, 45). There were only nine of this type of music. The piece was composed as a dedication to Auguste Franchomme, a French composer and cellist. Chopin and Auguste played the music together during the last public concert of Chopin that was performed at Salle Pleyel. Chopin also wrote 24 preludes, Op. 28 while composing the waltz.

One key feature of the Waltz by Fredrick Chopin is that it did not reproduce models. Instead, it provided inimitable music that was recognizable from the very initial bars. The waltzes created by Chopin during this period were full of brilliance, charm and elegance. They were not regularly marked by profound expression. Out of the waltz written by Chopin, the short pieces that can be typically described as miniatures were common. However, there were also more expensive waltzes having the character of dance poems.

Chopin considered some of his valse as presents and wrote them into albums. Such pieces belonged to a private strand in his composition. Some of his works were not meant for publication, however, some were indeed published upon his death. When he composed the waltz, he also wrote lyrical miniatures, subtle and virtuosic waltzes.

His Company While Composing Waltz

Chopin was with Mahler, Brahms, Liszt, and Schubert at the time he wrote the waltz. By this time, the Mazurka had made its way into ballrooms and salons of Warsaw (Hurwitz and Bryce n.p). Chopin appropriated it as a vehicle for his unique way of harmonic and melodic intervention by retaining the general character of the dance and the rhythms. He viewed his works in this form as concert music instead of ballroom fare.

The founding fathers of waltz include the legendary composers such as Johann Strauss the Father and his three sons Eduard Strauss, Josef Strauss, and Strauss the Son. Apart from these four composers, there are various other writers of this style such as Josef Lanner who played a critical role in ensuring that waltz is pushed as the number one ballroom dance (Smit, 167). Other composers including Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, and Carl Weber Maria van Maria also contributed to the development of the style. Finally, it is essential to know that not all the best waltzes were composed in Vienna; some foreign composers such as John Philipp Sousa, Juventino Rosas, Hans Christian Lumbye, and Emile Waldteufel distinguished themselves with their best waltz compositions.

The Impact of Chopin Music

Chopin made significant impacts on those that listened to his music with a majority making excellent compositions of their own. The contemporary musicians during Chopin’s time sought the inspiration from his music. Many of the musicians imitated the musical shape in the compositions of Chopin’s melodies, harmonic methods and types of expressions that were specific to polish culture (Bellman 68). Besides, they copied from the genres that were used by Chopin and adopted his poetic attitudes. For instance, the view of music as a sound language, viewing elements of folk poetry and music as composing material, and at the same time ensuring a balance between expression and form are some of the ideas adopted by the later generation of musicians (Lee 9).

Most of Chopin’s older and younger friends accepted his talent without reservation. However, none of them succeeded in reaching the high standards he had set. The reception of the music composed by Chopin in his home was superficial as a result of insufficient knowledge of his entire output (Kelley, 123). The composers failed to take up the inventory ideas of Chopin as they preferred to stay with early romantic and classical models. Nevertheless, various musicians just churned the copies of the maestro’s work, imitating such features as sentimentality, sweetness, tenderness, and dreaminess in a primitive manner.

Chopin’s musing nature was very important in various ways in his influence to his peers and later com posers. The immense popularity of Chopin’s work encouraged Polish composers to follow his footsteps by being more reflective of the music and how to best present it. Although many of the composers failed, some of them were considered to be of reasonably good standards. The generation of Chopin’s friends wrote mazurkas in the style that he had preferred. This was carried on by his pupils and those who discovered it relevant to express their admiration. However, Chopin’s mazurka was not generally understandable and some artists believed that they were too much sentimental and lacked nothing in common with ballroom mazurka and brisk peasant mazurka.

The impact of the Chopin’s music moved across global boundaries. The music resulted in ripples throughout Europe, more specifically that which originated from Paris, where the writer resided and wrote his compositions (Lee 10). It should be noted that Friedrich Kalkbrenner, Franz Liszt, and Robert Schumann were among the peers of Chopin. The texture as well the harmony of Chopin’s music fascinated Schumann, particularly during the 1830s when he composed his Nocturne in G minor op.15 (Kelley 65). The work was later completed by Joachim. Kalkbrenner dedicated some of his works to Chopin as a sign of appreciation. Later generations of Polish composers were inspired by Chopin’s Polonaises. The generation of artists that came after Chopin including Zygmunt Noskowski, Władysław Żeleński, Ignacy Krzyżanowski, and Antoni Stolpe composed polonaises.

The early 20th century and the late 19th-century national schools acknowledged the inspirational role of Fredric Chopin. A team of Composers in Russia known as The Mighty Handful frequently referred to Fredric Chopin, more so Mily Balakirev and Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The transcription of Chopin’s waltz was included in the works of Balakirev’s Orchestral Suite. The admiration of what was composed by Chopin by Balakirev was so huge that it made the Russian musician visit the place where the Polish expert was born (Lee 13). He went on pilgrimage from St Petersburg to Żelazowa Wola in 1891.The love for this man led to Chopin’s statue being unveiled in 1894 in Poland. The unveiling of Chopin’s statue encouraged many initiatives to be founded for his remembrance.

The music composed by Chopin on the modernist works was seen in the compositions made by Claude Debussy, Gustav Mahler, Max Reger, and Maurice Ravel. Gustav Mahler used shorter fragments that were used in the composition of Fredrick Chopin. For example, he used the remains of Berceuse in D flat major op. 57 while composing one of his songs (Smit, 56). Chopin appeared in the music of Zygmunt Noskowski and Władysław Żeleński in the 19th and 20th century. Both of these artists admired the works of Chopin, and by their admission, they failed to comprehend the musical genius that Chopin possessed. Zygmunt Noskowski, a traditionalist, criticized the weaknesses of Chopin in his large forms design and as a result of the absence of logical order and compositional plan in his works (Lee 24). Noskowski, a committed follower of the program trend music, tried to show Fredrick Chopin‘s whole composition as having been impacted by Polish nature and landscape (Bellman 71). This attitude was as a result of a profound appreciation of the work by Chopin, evident in the stylized illustration. Chopin was readily accepted in almost all parts of Europe and the expression, as well as the innovative character of his texture, impressed many.

Conclusion

Chopin was successful in his claim to immortality not by composing many works, but in miniatures (the mazurka, etude, prelude, nocturne and many others) that include emotions of tremendous power. His three sonatas and two concertos were very short, explaining why they were combined into significant classical forms. Chopin’s works had a huge influence on many other composers who came after him. The great Pole was hypothetical in everything he wrote, and the musing being played was with such certainty and apparently non-ending effort on flowing melody significantly contributed to the growth of waltz. He was described by George Sand as going frantic in trying to put down on paper whatever was in his mind, rubbing it, destroying, starting it again, scripting once more, and working on one par an uncountable number of times. Many of his compositions can be considered to be genuinely inspired in addition to being quite reflective and carefully considered. The apparently infinite variety of ideas and moods, possible discrimination as well as an endless supply of beautiful melodies combine to make many of compositions by Chopin one of th...