Flower arrangement from Chopin’s deathbed, collected by Solange Clésinger and attached to the setting of a medallion by Jean-François-Antoine Bovy depicting the composer’s face.
I have been thinking about this day for a while now. Today I mourn the loss of a man I have never even met, but oddly have felt close to almost all my life. The fact that I suffered a devastating loss of my own last fall makes this all the more poignant.
I feel a real sadness today, as I do on October 17 of every year. It is a day ingrained in me, a day I will never forget the meaning of, even if it means I feel grief for a total stranger who has been gone long before I was even thought of. It doesn’t make any sense, and I’ve tried to make sense of it, but there is a love in my heart for Chopin that is so special - and if you’re reading this here, I bet you feel that same love. I honestly feel as if I actually knew him… never in my life have I ever felt that for anyone else I never knew.
Our lives could not be more different - and yet it does not matter. His music makes me feel a magnitude of equal joy and sadness I have not experienced elsewhere. It is deeply moving and makes me cry a decent amount of the time.
It might seem silly, penning a letter to a man who never even knew my name, but I know his… and today, above all days, I will listen to his music and keep his memory alive, for he is always alive so long as we let him live through his music. Let his name never be forgotten among the crowd of talented composers. I like to think he watches us from Heaven and is overjoyed that his fans live on.
I am crying as I type this. Why does he affect me so? I don’t know. What I do know is that I’ll love him until the day I die, and I hope I can see him in Heaven someday.
Rest in peace, sweet Frédéric.
This is such an accurate description of what I feel <3
Whenever I’m sad I just remind myself that Chopin was so sensitive and precious that he would cry upon hearing beautiful music even as an infant
And then I get a lot more sad
OK THIS MAN was super homesick that he started crying in the middle of teaching because the piece his student was playing reminded him of Poland (which he couldn’t go back to) and just. Oh my god. That’s so precious and yet heartbreaking
Be still my heart
If you want to shed another tear just remember that around 1840 Chopin adopted a stray little puppy which had been following him on the street and George Sand describes how he spent the whole day looking after the puppy and hugging him, I mean just picture it
Oh and another cute little thing about him that completely melted my heart, on the summer of 1843, during his stay at Sand’s house in Nohant, their friend, the singer Pauline Viardot had to leave her baby daughter, Louisette, in the care of Chopin and Sand, while she sang in several concerts throughout Europe. George Sand describes how quickly little Louisette captivated everyone, including Chopin. She wrote: “Chopin adores her and spends his time kissing her hands” and how the baby “dances, laughs, babbles and talks to Chopin in polish”.
And this little girl went on to inspire Chopin, who on that summer started writing his beautiful Berceuse (listen here to this sweet, amazing interpretation by Ashkenazy).
Just imagining this lovely scene happening, Chopin cuddling a little baby on his arms and kissing her tiny hands, my heart feels so warm and cosy aaah god I love him
■ Ambroży Mieroszewski (1802–1884) was a Polish painter who was Fryderyk Chopin’s first known portraitist. In that same year, Mieroszewski also painted a portrait of the Fryderyk ’s first professional piano teacher,Wojciech Żywny.
■ The set of five 1829 portraits of the surviving members of the Chopin family (the youngest child, Emilia Chopin, had died of tuberculosis at age 14 in 1827) were painted about a year before Fryderyk Chopin would leave Warsaw and his native land forever in November 1830.
■ All six portraits were the property of Laura Ciechomska of Warsaw when they were lost in the opening days of World War II, in September 1939. Only black-and-white photographs of them survive.
what makes chopin so difficult to play isn’t necessarily the complexity or speed of his compositions, but is actually trying 2 see all the tiny notes through ur tears
So I just discovered this wonderful, complete recording of Chopin’s songs, played on a Pleyel piano from 1848 and although I don’t understand the polish language (very unfortunately) yesterday I was a sobbing mess listening to all these beauties ;_;
Although I love them all so much, my favorites are Wiosna, Spiew z mogily andPierscien. I looked up for an english translation of some of the songs and when I read the translation of Pierscien I instantly thought about Maria Wodzinska, because the poem is about giving your beloved a silver ring only to see her marrying another man, and then my heart shattered while listening to this song, not only because it is beautiful, but also because Fryderyk wrote it when Maria’s family broke their engagement. And I just can’t imagine how heartbroken he must have been when he composed it
Today is the first day of Spring! To mark the beginning of the new season I thought it would be nice to share this beautiful, dreamy song, composed in 1838. It’s unfortunate that Chopin’s songs are so rarely performed and recorded; they are little precious gems coming from a composer who wrote almost exclusively for the piano, and here, he grants us the rare opportunity to witness his music sung by a human voice, which he loved so much.
Poem: Stefan Witwicki (polish poet and friend of Chopin)
