Frederic Chopin as the Greatest Romantic Composer Essay

“Without Craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.” Johannes Brahms was an extraordinarily talented composer of his time, and, as said in one of his famous quotes, he truly crafted each piece of music he wrote with much care and delicacy. Ever since the early age of six years old, Brahms was infatuated with playing the piano, composing music, as well as conducting choral groups as well as symphonies throughout the entirety of his life. He was tremendously popular amongst friends, fellow composers, and other notable people of his time. His fame not only stood in the barriers of his lifetime, but also stood the test of time. His works are often compared to the likes of people such as the famous Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven. This impeccable trio

At the age of nineteen, Schumann left Leipzig to attend Heidelberg. While there, he followed Franz Schubert’s style in composing waltz. Schumann practiced vigorously and thought often about abandoning law to become a virtuoso pianist (Par 4). His mother agrees with him and he returns to Leipzig in 1830 to study with Wieck (Par 4). Although Wieck was pleased with Schumann talents, he was concerned about the constancy and ability to demonstration hard work from Schumann.

Chopin composed music primarily for the piano, but, like Poe, gravitated towards shorter pieces such as mazurkas, nocturnes, etudes, and preludes—though he did write a few sonatas and concertos. Chopin’s expression in music was founded on Romanticist ideals with the same subtlety of Poe. He never wrote a confusing motif. Instead, he used simplistic melodies, but dramatized and harmonized and developed those melodies with such gentle gusto that every note was needed. He, like Poe, noted simplicity as key, “Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.” As Poe wrote with his aching blood, Chopin composed on keys of crimson and darkness. His work was oft inspired by a longing for his homeland, Poland. To diminish his ache, he wrote in styles and forms of Polish folk music, heard in many of his compositions. Every note written is powerful in emotion and creates the same, painfully evident albeit a bit confusing feeling of passion that Poe could induce with his writing. He used this pain admittedly, “I wish I could throw off the thoughts which poison my happiness, but I take a kind of pleasure in indulging them.” His view of art and how it should be created parallels with

Fredrick Chopin was a famous composer of the 19th century. He had an exciting, busy, and well-lived life. Between starting as a child prodigy, and moving to Paris to further his career, Chopin wrote some of the world’s most famous, solo piano music. Throughout this essay, I will paint a picture of the amazing childhood, life and music career, of Fredrick Chopin.

The famed American pianist and composer Les Baxter once said, “Any good music must be an innovation.” Indeed, the works of Beethoven and the successors that he influenced have lived on because they possess a certain quality of enduring musical entrepreneurship. As Beethoven straddled the line between the Classical and Romantic period, he himself acted as both a messenger and a craftsman: translating the techniques of the Classical era to the early Romantic period, only to then transform these techniques into masterpieces that were considered to be radically

Music becomes a part in our daily life. We often hear music on radios, in the stores, or with our smartphone. I love music and want to investigate it more. Therefore, I chose a music composer in the 19th century, Frédéric François Chopin, in order to analyze the development or incarceration of ideologies to the current century. Frédéric François Chopin, who was born in 1810, was a Polish composer on the Romantic era. His talent appeared very early, which on the age of seven Chopin already composed two polonaises. Chopin then went abroad to Europe to learn about musical life and wanted to be renown. People acclaimed him as piano genius and great composer due to his extremely success performances. Chopin existed in Romanticism, which is an era

He brought change to music which inspired many future composers to follow his footsteps and shape music to what it has evolved to today. He is one of the most virtuosic composers of all time. His music is like no other composer in the world.

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) is recognized as one of the most famous composers of the Classical Era due to his contributions to the classical style. Not only is Haydn recognized today as a brilliant composer, but he was also popular during his time due to his originality and new ideas in music. Some of his new ideas include generating the basic development of formal structure in various styles of music and creating his own musical characteristics that deviate from the standards of his time. His individuality is demonstrated through his numerous symphonies, string quartets, piano trios, piano sonatas, masses, and operas—specifically the works that were composed while he was at the Esterhazy palace. Haydn’s success and originality is attributed to the time he spent working for the Esterhazy family while developing his unique style of composing.

Frederic Chopin was a well known Polish pianist born in 1810, and died in 1849 (Libbey). He wrote countless pieces, mazurkas, concertos, preludes, nocturnes, polonaises, and sonatas. Almost all the pieces he composed were just for the piano. He had his own unique style that can be described as poetic and lyrical (Hamilton). His songs could be light and almost dream like and yet dark and filled with emotion at the same time (Bellman). Known as "The Poet of the Piano", he is still considered one of the most important composers from the Romantic period, and it has been said that no one could understood the piano quite like him (Bellman).

As a music student who grew up in Asian culture, the piano was one of the most common instruments to start one's musical life. It is still hard to find the reason how this western instrument became so popular in Asian culture, but all my friends have experiences to learning piano when they were young. In contrast with the instruments such as alto saxophone or piccolo, there is no doubt that the sounds/music of piano is familiar for people and piano itself as well. There are numerous repertories for the pianist in the world, and the pianists have limitless references for their performance. Because of this reason, people tend to think that ‘Piano is not difficult to play well' or ‘Piano is simple. You can just play!'. I also thought in the same way when I was very young. However, I realized the potential complexity of the sounds that piano could make through the music at the first time when I heard this piece: Chopin's Ballade no.1 in G minor, op.23. This piece is the story of my musical life. For this assignment, I will focus on the first half part of this piece to explain how it becomes meaningful for me.

Frederic chopin was a Polish composer. He was famous for composing very beautiful piano solo pieces, such as “Fantasie" Impromptu, op. 66, Minute" Waltz , and op. 64 no. 1, "Funeral March". Chopin was famous for his emotional sonatas, waltzes, mazurkas, preludes and nocturnes. Being a child prodigy, he quickly rose to be one of the greatest piano composers.

Throughout the semester, I have come to realize that the period of music history that I appreciate the most is the cusp between the Classical and the Romantic eras. Prior to this class, I had studied the piano throughout my childhood and I recall longing to play Chopin. When I had reached the technical ability to play Chopin, I discovered that my hands could not reach many of the chord progressions that Chopin’s music required. It is interesting, however, to realize that those pieces, even as a child were in line with how I feel about the romantic period today. Thus, Johannes Brahms was an integral part of the romantic period I speak of, and yet he often wrote in classical or absolute form.

Chopin proved the people of France wrong. Within a year, Chopin was a fashionable celebrity, not only for his compositions but also for his unique and delicate style of playing. Chopin composed not just exquisite miniatures but also longer scale works. His fantasies balanced the famous B flat minor, one of the last works Chopin completed was the challenging Polonaise-Fantaisie. Most of Chopin’s composition was strengthened out by his extraordinary power of improvisation. Chopin was able to play without hesitation and just let his heart and mind complete the notes to the musical piece as if it was already written complete on paper.

All of Chopin’s known work involve the piano, and only a few range beyond solo piano music, as either piano concertos, songs or chamber music. He was the first to write ballades & scherzi as individual concert pieces. Also, he provided popular dance forms with a greater range of melody and expression. Chopin’s compositions were all unnamed and only named them by genre and number. Chopin's music remains very popular and is regularly performed, recorded and broadcast worldwide.

Ludwig van Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata is one of the most famous pieces of piano music. Another famous piece is Claire de Lune by Debussy. Both of these pieces are very beautiful and elegant. In these pieces of music, there is a lot of dynamics, and use of the pedal which makes them so beautiful. Over the years, the piano has been invented, played, and made better.