Chopin was born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin in the Duchy of Warsaw and grew up in Warsaw, which in 1815 became part of Congress Poland. A child prodigy, he completed his musical education and composed his earlier works in Warsaw before leaving Poland at the age of 20, less than a month before the outbreak of the November 1830 Uprising. At 21, he settled in Paris. Thereafter—in the last 18 years of his life—he gave only 30 public performances, preferring the more intimate atmosphere of the salon. He supported himself by selling his compositions and by giving piano lessons, for which he was in high demand. Chopin formed a friendship with Franz Liszt and was admired by many of his other musical contemporaries (including Robert Schumann). In 1835, Chopin obtained French citizenship. After a failed engagement to Maria Wodzińska from 1836 to 1837, he maintained an often troubled relationship with the French writer Amantine Dupin (known by her pen name, George Sand). A brief and unhappy visit to Majorca with Sand in 1838–39 would prove one of his most productive periods of composition. In his final years, he was supported financially by his admirer Jane Stirling, who also arranged for him to visit Scotland in 1848. For most of his life, Chopin was in poor health. He died in Paris in 1849 at the age of 39, probably of pericarditis aggravated by 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 19 songs set to Polish lyrics. His piano writing was technically demanding and expanded the limits of the instrument: his own performances were noted for their nuance and sensitivity. Chopin invented the concept of the instrumental ballade. His major piano works also include mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes, polonaises, études, impromptus, scherzos, preludes and sonatas, some published only posthumously. Among the influences on his style of composition were Polish folk music, the classical tradition of J.S. Bach, Mozart, and Schubert, and the atmosphere of the Paris salons of which he was a frequent guest. His innovations in style, harmony, and musical form, and his association of music with nationalism, were influential throughout and after the late Romantic period.
Chopin's music, his status as one of music's earliest superstars, his (indirect) association with political insurrection, his high-profile love-life, and his early death have made him a leading symbol of the Romantic era. His works remain popular, and he has been the subject of numerous films and biographies of varying historical fidelity.
Over 230 works of Chopin survive; some compositions from early childhood have been lost. All his known works involve the piano, and only a few range beyond solo piano music, as either piano concertos, songs or chamber music.
Chopin was educated in the tradition of Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart and Clementi; he used Clementi's piano method with his own students. He was also influenced by Hummel's development of virtuoso, yet Mozartian, piano technique. He cited Bach and Mozart as the two most important composers in shaping his musical outlook. Chopin's early works are in the style of the "brilliant" keyboard pieces of his era as exemplified by the works of Ignaz Moscheles, Friedrich Kalkbrenner, and others. Less direct in the earlier period are the influences of Polish folk music and of Italian opera. Much of what became his typical style of ornamentation (for example, his fioriture) is taken from singing. His melodic lines were increasingly reminiscent of the modes and features of the music of his native country, such as drones.
Chopin took the new salon genre of the nocturne, invented by the Irish composer John Field, to a deeper level of sophistication. He was the first to write ballades and scherzi as individual concert pieces. He essentially established a new genre with his own set of free-standing preludes (Op. 28, published 1839). He exploited the poetic potential of the concept of the concert étude, already being developed in the 1820s and 1830s by Liszt, Clementi and Moscheles, in his two sets of studies (Op. 10 published in 1833, Op. 25 in 1837).
Chopin also endowed popular dance forms with a greater range of melody and expression. Chopin's mazurkas, while originating in the traditional Polish dance (the mazurek), differed from the traditional variety in that they were written for the concert hall rather than the dance hall; as J. Barrie Jones puts it, "it was Chopin who put the mazurka on the European musical map." The series of seven polonaises published in his lifetime (another nine were published posthumously), beginning with the Op. 26 pair (published 1836), set a new standard for music in the form. His waltzes were also written specifically for the salon recital rather than the ballroom and are frequently at rather faster tempos than their dance-floor equivalents.
Narzeczony
Frédéric Chopin Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Nie w czas nie w czas koniu
Nie w czas chłopcze czarnobrewy
Lecisz tu po błoniu
Nie w czas chłopcze czarnobrewy
Lecisz tu po błoniu
Czy nie widzisz tam nad lasem
Jak podleci krąży czasem
I w las znów zapada
Jak podleci krąży czasem
I w las znów zapada
„Gdzieżeś gdzieżeś dziewczę hoże
Czemuż nie wybieży"
„Jakże jakże wybiec może
Kiedy w grobie leży
Jakże jakże wybiec może
Kiedy w grobie leży"
„O puszczajcie Żal mnie tłoczy
Niech zobaczę onę
Czy konając piękne oczy
Zwróciła w mą stronę
Czy konając piękne oczy
Zwróciła w mą stronę"
„Gdy usłyszy me wołanie
Płacz mój nad swą głową
Może z trumny jeszcze wstanie
Zacznie żyć na nowo
Może z trumny jeszcze wstanie
Zacznie żyć na nowo"
The song "Narzeczony" by Frédéric Chopin is a hauntingly beautiful and melancholic ballad that tells the story of a young man riding on horseback through a meadow, lost in thought and longing for his lost love. The wind rustles through the bushes as he rides, and he notices a flock of crows circling above the forest. He wonders if his beloved, who has passed away, can see him from beyond the grave. He calls out to her, begging for her to release him from his grief and allow him to see her one last time, even if it is only in death. He believes that if he cries out to her, she might respond and give him a sign, and that he might even be able to bring her back to life if he calls out to her loudly enough.
The lyrics are full of sorrow and longing, capturing the sense of loss and grief that the young man is feeling. The use of repetition and the mournful melody of the piece add to the emotional depth of the song, creating a powerful sense of nostalgia and melancholy.
Line by Line Meaning
Wiatr zaszumiał między krzewy
The wind rustled through the bushes
Nie w czas nie w czas koniu
Not now, not now, my horse
Nie w czas chłopcze czarnobrewy
Lecisz tu po błoniu
Not now, dark-browed boy, you fly over the field
Czy nie widzisz tam nad lasem
Tego kruków stada
Jak podleci krąży czasem
I w las znów zapada
Do you not see there above the forest, that flock of crows, how it sometimes flies and then disappears into the woods
„Gdzieżeś gdzieżeś dziewczę hoże
Czemuż nie wybieży"
„Jakże jakże wybiec może
Kiedy w grobie leży
Jakże jakże wybiec może
Kiedy w grobie leży"
'Where are you, where are you, fair maiden? Why do you not come out?' 'How can I come out when I am lying in the grave?'
„O puszczajcie Żal mnie tłoczy
Niech zobaczę onę
Czy konając piękne oczy
Zwróciła w mą stronę
Czy konając piękne oczy
Zwróciła w mą stronę"
'Oh, let me go, grief is pressing on me! Let me see her! Did she, with beautiful dying eyes, turn towards me?'
„Gdy usłyszy me wołanie
Płacz mój nad swą głową
Może z trumny jeszcze wstanie
Zacznie żyć na nowo
Może z trumny jeszcze wstanie
Zacznie żyć na nowo"
'When she hears my cry, let my weeping be over her head. Maybe, even from the coffin, she will rise and start to live again, maybe she will rise from the coffin and start to live again.'
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind