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.
Smutna Rzeka
Frédéric Chopin Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Czemu nurt twój tak zmącony
Czy się gdzie zapadły brzegi
Czy stopniały stare stare śniegi
Leżą w górach stare śniegi
Kwiatem kwitną moje brzegi
Ale tam przy źródle moim
Siedem córek piastowała
Siedem córek zakopała
Siedem córek śród ogrodu
Głowami przeciwko wschodu wschodu
Teraz się z duchami wita
O wygody dziatki pyta
I mogiły ich polewa
I żałośne pieśni śpiewa
The opening lines of Frédéric Chopin's song Smutna Rzeka (The Sad River) express a sense of confusion and disturbance. The singer addresses the river, questioning why its current is so murky and turbulent. The following lines suggest that perhaps the river's banks have disappeared or that the snow has melted, leaving the water in a state of chaos. The song's title and lyrics create a mournful tone, reflecting the singer's sense of loss and grief.
The following stanza introduces a new element to the song. The singer describes flowers blooming along the river's banks, but notes that at the source of the river, a mother weeps over her child. This image serves as a stark contrast to the beauty and vitality of the natural world. The third stanza reveals the cause of the mother's tears: she has lost all seven of her daughters. The daughters are buried in the garden, and their heads point east, perhaps in the direction of the rising sun. The final stanza suggests that the mother now greets the spirits of her daughters and sings sad songs over their graves.
Overall, Smutna Rzeka is a haunting lament that reflects on the fragility of life and the devastation of loss. The river serves as a symbol for the singer's feelings of confusion and disturbance, while the garden and the mother's grief highlight the sadness and tragedy that can accompany even the most beautiful aspects of life.
Line by Line Meaning
Rzeko z cudzoziemców strony
Oh river from lands of strangers
Czemu nurt twój tak zmącony
Why is your flow so disturbed?
Czy się gdzie zapadły brzegi
Have the shores disappeared somewhere?
Czy stopniały stare stare śniegi
Have the old, old snows melted away?
Leżą w górach stare śniegi
Old snow lays in the mountains
Kwiatem kwitną moje brzegi
My banks bloom with flowers
Ale tam przy źródle moim
But there, by my source
Płacze matka nad mym zdrojem
Mother weeps over my wellspring
Siedem córek piastowała
She raised seven daughters
Siedem córek zakopała
She buried seven daughters
Siedem córek śród ogrodu
Seven daughters, in the garden
Głowami przeciwko wschodu wschodu
Facing east with their heads bowed
Teraz się z duchami wita
Now she greets spirits
O wygody dziatki pyta
Asking about the comfort of children
I mogiły ich polewa
And waters their graves
I żałośne pieśni śpiewa
And sings sorrowful songs
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@44ZOFIA
Zamknąć oczy ..........słuchać tego pięknego głosu i tej czarownej muzyki.
@46mariella1
Jeden z piekniejszych glosow polskich , mloda i utalentowana spiewaczka z empatia , co dzis jest nieco rzadkie.Dziekuje.
@klamka471
Szukałem i znalazłem cos co porusza serce.
@jorgeaguirre7260
I don´t understand how Chopin´s Lied are not played and listed in recordings more often. It´s unfair. So remarkably beautiful and unique. Thanks for posting!
@Homoclassicus
My thoughts, too. All the lieder composed by him that I have heard are absolutely top notch, they deserved to be better known.
@rrsolo
a beautiful voice
@TheSamGamgee
Piękny głos
@franzschubert666
Chopin Grande Maestro , cuantos Cantos, Vals, Mazurkas, Baladas, Estudios, Polanesas, Scherzos, Sonatas, Nocturnos, Preludios.... se que eres el Pianista Romantico en el Paraiso
@tatianathomas2475
👏🌺🌹
@mariuszceller665
Głos dany z nieba