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.
Precz Z Moich Oczu
Frédéric Chopin Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Posłucham od razu
Precz z mego serca
I serce posłucha
Precz z mej pamięci
Nie Tego rozkazu
Moja i twoja pamięć nie posłucha
Tym szerzej koło żałobne roztoczy
Tak moja postać im dalej ucieka
Tym grubszym kirem twą pamięć pomroczy
Na każdym miejscu i o każdej dobie
Gdziem z tobą płakał gdziem się z tobą bawił
Wszędzie i zawsze będę ja przy tobie
Bom wszędzie cząstkę mej duszy zostawił
Czy zadumana w samotnej komorze
Do arfy zbliżysz nieumyślną rękę
Przypomnisz sobie właśnie o tej porze
Śpiewałam jemu tę samą piosenkę
Czy grając w szachy gdy pierwszymi ściegi
Śmiertelna złowi króla twego matnia
Pomyślisz sobie tak stały szeregi
Gdy się skończyła nasza gra ostatnia
Czy to na balu w chwilach odpoczynku
Siedziesz nim muzyk tańce zapowiedział
Obaczysz próżne miejsce przy kominku
Pomyślisz sobie on tam ze mną siedział
Czy książkę weźmiesz gdzie smutnym wyrokiem
Stargane ujrzysz kochanków nadzieje
Złożywszy książkę z westchnieniem głębokiem
Pomyślisz sobie ach to nasze dzieje
A jeśli autor po zwilej próbie
Parę miłosną na ostatek złączył
Zagasisz świece i pomyślisz sobie
Czemu nasz romans tak się nie zakończył
Wtem błyskawica nocna zamigoce:
Sucha w ogrodzie zaszeleszczy grusza
I puszczyk z jękiem w okno zatrzepioce
Pomyęlisz sobie że to moja dusza
Tak w każdym miejscu i o każdej dobie
Gdziem z tobą płakał gdziem się z tobą bawił
Wszędzie i zawsze będę ja przy tobie
Bom wszędzie cząstkę mej duszy zostawił
In "Precz Z Moich Oczu," Chopin sings of longing and heartbreak. He implores the subject of the song to leave his sight and his heart, so that he can forget about their love. However, he acknowledges that his heart will still listen to theirs, and his memory will remain in love. He compares his pain to a long shadow cast when something is far away and how his image, as it recedes farther, continues to darken their memories. He also talks about his memories with this person, how they cry and play together, how they will always be together, and how he has left his soul-stained in every place they've been.
Chopin's lyrics are hauntingly beautiful and capture the pain and yearning of unrequited love. The imagery used in the song is evocative, and the emotions are raw and real. The song captures the essence of Chopin's musical style, which is noted for its delicacy and vulnerability. It was not until 1880, five years after Chopin's death, when the lyrics of this song were discovered in a notebook by Julian Fontana along with several other songs, which were unknown and unpublished.
Line by Line Meaning
Precz z moich oczu
Out of sight, out of mind
Posłucham od razu
I will listen immediately
Precz z mego serca
Out of my heart
I serce posłucha
And my heart will listen
Precz z mej pamięci
Out of my memory
Nie Tego rozkazu
Not this command
Moja i twoja pamięć nie posłucha
My memory and yours will not obey
Jak cień tym dłuższy gdy padnie z daleka
Like a shadow that grows longer from a distance
Tym szerzej koło żałobne roztoczy
The wider it will spread the shadow of mourning
Tak moja postać im dalej ucieka
As my figure runs farther away from them
Tym grubszym kirem twą pamięć pomroczy
The thicker will be the veil that obscures your memory
Na każdym miejscu i o każdej dobie
In every place and at every time
Gdziem z tobą płakał gdziem się z tobą bawił
Wherever I cried with you, wherever I played with you
Wszędzie i zawsze będę ja przy tobie
Everywhere and always I will be with you
Bom wszędzie cząstkę mej duszy zostawił
For I left a part of my soul everywhere
Czy zadumana w samotnej komorze
Whether lost in thought in a lonely chamber
Do arfy zbliżysz nieumyślną rękę
You will touch the harp with an unintentional hand
Przypomnisz sobie właśnie o tej porze
You will remember this time exactly
Śpiewałam jemu tę samą piosenkę
I sang him the same song
Czy grając w szachy gdy pierwszymi ściegi
Whether playing chess with the first moves
Śmiertelna złowi króla twego matnia
Mortal will capture your king with the mate
Pomyślisz sobie tak stały szeregi
You will think how steadfast the ranks were
Gdy się skończyła nasza gra ostatnia
When our last game ended
Czy to na balu w chwilach odpoczynku
Whether it's at a ball during moments of rest
Siedziesz nim muzyk tańce zapowiedział
You sit before the musician announced the dance
Obaczysz próżne miejsce przy kominku
You will notice the empty spot by the fireplace
Pomyślisz sobie on tam ze mną siedział
You will think he sat there with me
Czy książkę weźmiesz gdzie smutnym wyrokiem
Whether you take a book where a sad sentence
Stargane ujrzysz kochanków nadzieje
You will see lovers' hopes torn apart
Złożywszy książkę z westchnieniem głębokiem
After closing the book with a deep sigh
Pomyślisz sobie ach to nasze dzieje
You will think, oh, those were our own stories
A jeśli autor po zwilej próbie
And if the author after great effort
Parę miłosną na ostatek złączył
Unites a pair of lovers in the end
Zagasisz świece i pomyślisz sobie
You will blow out the candles and think to yourself
Czemu nasz romans tak się nie zakończył
Why didn't our romance end like that
Wtem błyskawica nocna zamigoce:
Suddenly, a nighttime lightning flashed
Sucha w ogrodzie zaszeleszczy grusza
The pear tree rustles dry in the garden
I puszczyk z jękiem w okno zatrzepioce
And the owl will hoot mournfully at the window
Pomyęlisz sobie że to moja dusza
You will think that it is my soul
Tak w każdym miejscu i o każdej dobie
So in every place and at every time
Gdziem z tobą płakał gdziem się z tobą bawił
Wherever I cried with you, wherever I played with you
Wszędzie i zawsze będę ja przy tobie
Everywhere and always I will be with you
Bom wszędzie cząstkę mej duszy zostawił
For I left a part of my soul everywhere
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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