22 「脱帽の天才」ショパン♪

1810年2月22日（3月1日説も）は、ショパンの生まれた日♪

1835年 マリア・ヴォジンスカ画

父親ニコラ・ショパンは、1787年に16歳でポーランドに移住してきたフランス人。ポーランドではポーランド風の名前、ミコワイと名乗った。フランス語が堪能であったため貴族の家庭教師になり、その遠い親戚ユスティナと結婚する。フレデリック・ショパンは2人目の子どもとして生まれた。

ショパンの生家

ショパンの家族は皆音楽の才能に恵まれていた。父ニコラはフルートとヴァイオリンを、母ユスティナはピアノに長けており、寮生たちに指導していた。幼いショパンは母が弾くピアノを聴いて感極まって涙を流したという♪

ショパンは幼少の頃からいろいろな面で才能を発揮し、ユーモアにあふれ、ものまねと漫画を描くのが得意で（笑　学校ではクラスの人気者だった♪

ショパンが本格的にピアノを習ったのは1816〜1822年、指導者はチェコ人ヴォイチェフ・ジヴヌィだった。あっという間に師匠を超えた7歳の「ショパン少年」は公開演奏を行うようになる。この時期に2つのポロネーズを作曲し、ジヴヌィに捧げられた。

1826年にワルシャワ音楽院に入る。通知表には「音楽の天才」と書かれた♪　

1831年にはシューマンが、ショパンの「ラ・チ・ダレム変奏曲」を評して言った。「諸君、帽子を脱ぎたまえ！天才だ」

ミエロシェフスキ作1829年

ショパンの伝記作家エドゥアール・ガンシュは、ミエロシェフスキのこの肖像画から、「この若者が結核に罹っていることがわかる。」と記している。

Frédéric François Chopin (22 February 1810 – 17 October 1849), born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin , was a Polish composer and a virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era, who wrote primarily for the solo piano. He gained and has maintained renown worldwide as one of the leading musicians of his era, whose "poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation." Chopin was born in what was then the Duchy of Warsaw, and grew up in Warsaw, which after 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 the age of 21 he settled in Paris. Thereafter, during the last 18 years of his life, he gave only some 30 public performances, preferring the more intimate atmosphere of the salon. He supported himself by selling his compositions and teaching piano, for which he was in high demand. Chopin formed a friendship with Franz Liszt and was admired by many of his musical contemporaries, including Robert Schumann. In 1835 he obtained French citizenship. After a failed engagement to Maria Wodzińska, from 1837 to 1847 he maintained an often troubled relationship with the French writer George Sand. A brief and unhappy visit to Majorca with Sand in 1838–39 was one of his most productive periods of composition. In his last years, he was financially supported by his admirer Jane Stirling, who also arranged for him to visit Scotland in 1848. Through most of his life, Chopin suffered from poor health. He died in Paris in 1849, probably of 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 songs to Polish lyrics. His keyboard style is highly individual and often technically demanding; his own performances were noted for their nuance and sensitivity. Chopin invented the concept of instrumental ballade. His major piano works also include mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes, polonaises, études, impromptus, scherzos, preludes and sonatas, some published only after his death. Influences on his compositional style include Polish folk music, the classical tradition of J. S. Bach, Mozart and Schubert, the music of all of whom he admired, as well as the Paris salons where he was a frequent guest. His innovations in style, musical form, and harmony, and his association of music with nationalism, were influential throughout and after the late Romantic period.