Chopin - Wydawnictwo BOSZ

Chopin
Text, selection of images and concept
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ISBN 978‑83‑7576‑075‑0 (BOSZ, jacket)
ISBN 978‑83‑7576‑084‑2 (BOSZ, box)
Mieczysław Tomaszewski
Graphic design
Władysław Pluta
Translation
Lindsay Davidson
Editor
Christopher Cary, Joanna Kułakowska-Lis
Co-ordination of editorial work
Joanna Kułakowska-Lis, Jakub Kinel
Collaboration
Małgorzata Fiedor, Agnieszka Simonides
Third edition, corrected
Publisher BOSZ
Olszanica, Poland, 2010
Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne SA
Kraków, Poland, 2010
Editing of captions and list of illustrations
Joanna Kułakowska-Lis
DTP
BOSZ, Jakub Kinel
Contemporary photographs
Waldemar Panów, Zbigniew Panów,
Wojciech Buss
Preparation of images for printing
Studio Kolor
Printing
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Muzyczne SA, Kraków 2009
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© Copyright by BOSZ, Olszanica 2009
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No part of this publication may be used with­
ISBN 978‑83‑224‑0908‑4 (PWM)
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out written permission from the publishers
Exhibits and archival materials found in
this book are drawn from the collections:
Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina,
Towarzystwo im. Fryderyka Chopina,
Muzeum Fryderyka Chopina w Warszawie,
Biblioteka Jagiellońska, Muzeum Narodowe
w Warszawie, Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie,
Biblioteka Narodowa, Fundacja XX Czartory-
skich, Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu, Polskie
Wydawnictwo Muzyczne, Muzeum Historyczne
Miasta Stołecznego Warszawy, Muzeum Lite-
ratury im. Adama Mickiewicza w Warszawie,
Fundacja im. Ciechanowieckich w Warszawie,
Tate Galery, London, Musée Carnavalet,
Paris (©Bridgeman/BE&W), Musée
du Louvre, Paris (©RMN/BE&W)
List of Contents
1
H o m e 6
3
Village36
2
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Roots24
Wa r s a w 5 2
First wanderings78
Uprising116
Paris142
The Romantic Movement160
The pianist176
Composer190
Salons202
Meeting in Marienbad218
Majorca232
Nohant252
Dissonances270
Homeland and Faith284
Last years300
Last days318
Resonance338
List of illustrations352
Home
1
The environment in which Chopin saw the light of day and developed was
apparently a safe and welcoming nest, the atmosphere was saturated with
agreement, peace and diligence; so those examples of simplicity, devotion and
delicacy remained for him forever the dearest and sweetest
Franz Liszt, Chopin, 1852
Home
8
All sources – letters, diaries, memoirs and recollections – and different
voices say the same thing: Fryderyk Chopin came into the world, grew
up and stayed to the end of his days surrounded by a happy, loving family. Franz Liszt was right: Chopin’s family home was indeed an oasis of
“agreement, peace and diligence.” Liszt’s opinion, as Chopin’s friend and
first monographer, was given with undoubted truthfulness, confirmed
by other accounts: “In an atmosphere of pure domestic virtues, religious
tradition, merciful actions and severe modesty, his imagination developed
like sensitive plants, that have never been exposed to the dust of big,
bustling drove roads.”1
If, in respect of any composer, we could speak about “idyllic-angelic”
childhood years, it would be in regards to Chopin. When discussing Justyna
and Mikołaj Chopin’s home, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz coined the phrase “the
singular home” and closed with this comparison: “This is one of the few
examples of a family home in which its individual members are linked by
an unusually strong relationship and attachment. Whilst Beethoven had to
fight with his drunken father, and Bach, so early orphaned, was placed at
the mercy and grace of his brother, Chopin was surrounded in his family
nest by the sincere love of his mother, father and sisters.”2
At the time of his birth that “singular home,” filled with an atmosphere
of love, stood in Żelazowa Wola; in a quiet place, far from the hustle of the
world, next to the slowly flowing Utrata river, on the edge of the Kampi-
noska Forest, on the ground of Sochaczewo district, in the Mazovia region,
fifty kilometres from Warsaw.
Although the future author of Fantasy on Polish Themes lived here no
longer than the first six or seven months of his life (later he merely glanced
there a few times in passing visits), it is a special place on earth, as his
birthplace, and has become permanently associated with his name. For
those to whom Chopin’s music is close and dear it has become a focus for
nostalgic pilgrimages and visits.
Chopin’s parents met in Żelazowa Wola, fell in love, and in 1806 mar-
ried in nearby Brochów. The village had belonged for a mere eight years to
the Skarbek family. The family was marked for a strange and quite specific
turn of fate – the stuff novels are made from. The owner of Żelazowa Wola,
Tekla Justyna Chopin, née Krzyżanowska,
Fryderyk’s mother (1782–1861)
9
Count Kacper Skarbek, captain of the National Cavalry, a playboy and
reveller, married Ludwika, the daughter of a Toruń banker called Jakub
Fenger to escape from his debts. The dowry was insufficient, the debts grew,
and the count saved himself by escaping abroad, leaving a brave wife with
five children in Żelazowa Wola. Her distant cousin and friend, Justyna
Krzyżanowska, who had probably already been orphaned, assisted her in
running the estate; probably orphaned, as genealogists researching her in
detail have found the family line broken.3 We know nothing about Chopin’s
grandparents on the maternal side, Jakub Krzyżanowski and Antonina of
the Wołomińska line, except that they existed, and that they gave birth
to a daughter, Tekla Justyna, on 14 September in the year 1782 (in Izbica
Kujawska, which belonged to the Skarbeks). On the day that she married
the six years older Mikołaj Chopin, the 24-year-old Justyna had only notable, noble features, the traces of which are still visible in the portrait by
Ambroży Mieroszewski painted 24 years later, and nothing more.
Mikołaj Chopin appeared in Żelazowa Wola in the year 1802 as gov-
ernor and tutor to the young Skarbeks, abandoned by their thoughtless
father. He was free; he had just finished educating two young ladies, the
Łączyński girls from nearby Kiernozia. One of them, Maria, immediately
found a husband, and as Madam Walewska charmed Napoleon not only
by her beauty, but also with her subtlety and ability in speaking French.
The education of the young Skarbeks resulted first and foremost with the
character of Count Fryderyk. In the history of Polish culture he features
as a scholar, historian and writer; in Chopin’s biography as his godfather4,
and the person after whom the composer was named. Their fates entangled
again: Fryderyk’s son, Józef, married the lady whom Chopin had intended
to wed, Maria Wodzińska (only to be divorced shortly thereafter). Another
of Mikołaj’s pupils, Michał, the heir to Żelazowa Wola, committed suicide.
Until recently, the history of Chopin’s father’s family was full of mys-
tery and uncertainty. Thanks to toilsome research, mainly by Gabriel La-
daique,5 many, but not all, of the mysteries have been explained and many
uncertainties clarified. Finally, the once popular hypothesis about the
Polish roots of Mikołaj’s family that went to Lorraine with Stanisław
Leszczyński has been rejected. Although through contact with a group
Mikołaj Chopin, the future composer’s father
(1771–1844)
Home
10
of former participants of the Confederation of the Bar Mikołaj Chopin
found himself (in 1787) in Poland, settled and ‘polonized’, the French
origins of his family are not subject to any doubt.
Some newly discovered details of the family history may be quite as-
tonishing. For example, the Chopin family does not come from Lorraine,
but from the Alpine region of Dauphiné. Chopin’s paternal grandfather,
Françoise (after whom the composer was given his middle name), was
engaged for years in smuggling, especially of tobacco before he settled
in Marainville, undertaking work as a wheelwright and wine-grower.
Apparently his trail led from the Mediterranean to Lorraine.6
In the only remaining letter from Mikołaj to his parents, written in
Warsaw in September 1790,7 he speaks of his eagerness to return to
Marainville. What persuaded him to stay in Poland, take part in the
Kościuszko Uprising, become a professional tutor, and finally, a teacher
and professor of French, is still today unknown. Similarly unknown is
Justyna Izabela Chopin (1811–1881), the
composer’s sister, later wife of Antoni Feliks
Barciński, mathematics teacher
what Fryderyk knew about the facts and circumstances of his father’s
and grandfather’s life. Why, when living in France, did he make no effort
to visit his French family?
Family life buzzed in the four walls of the Chopins’ annex in Żelazowa
Wola, and shortly thereafter in the professor’s apartment in the Saski
Palace in Warsaw: happy and joyful, as noted by diarists. Naturally, the
father led the way. He was a man of the Enlightenment, a rationalist and
pragmatist, a little stiff, but loved, but not without distance. “My dearest
Papa!” wrote the eight-year-old Chopin on St Nicholas’ Day, “it would be so
much easier for me to say what I feel if I could express myself with musical
tones …”8 In the future, father and son would take different viewpoints.
Despite the greatest respect and dedication, it was impossible to convince
Chopin neither to political loyalty, nor to ‘fitting in’ nor, to use his father’s
constantly repeated principle, ‘to save a penny for a black hour!’ But his
death, in the spring of 1844, caused Chopin a severe psychological trauma.
Memories remained of idyllic moments when Mikołaj played melodies
such as Malbrough s’en va-t-en guerre on the flute or violin.
Justyna Chopin filled the house by humming songs from a repertoire
currently being reconstructed. Apparently she was particularly keen
Ludwika Marianna, eldest sister of Fry-
deryk (1807–1855), married Józef Kalasanty
Jędrzejewicz, professor of law and administration
11
about the romance of Laura and Filon “Już miesiąc wzeszedł, psy się
uśpiły…” (“Already the moon has risen and the dogs are sleeping …”).
In her free time, between the household chores, she would sit down and
play the piano for the children to dance. In the memoirs she is seen as
the soul of the house, as a person with simply “an extraordinarily sweet
character.” To her, it seems, we owe thanks for some traits of Chopin’s
character, an openness to all that is poetic and spiritual. In the Paris years
she kept an eye on him from afar. “Dear Fryderyk, what can I say to you
on your birthday and name day? Always one thing, that I ask for Divine
Providence, and beg every day for the blessing of your body and soul, for
without it everything is nothing.”9
Chopin was lucky that he grew up surrounded by sisters. The youngest of
three, Emilia, who participated in playing with him and in artistic activities,
passed away early. Of the two remaining, one-year-younger Izabela and
three-years-older Ludwika, the latter was closer to him. They understood
each other in the blink of an eye. There are signs that as a child she was
the first to introduce him to the world of music; in later years she became
his confidante. Both sisters established their own families, but lived in
awe at the phenomenal talent of their brother. They almost lived his life.
“Not a day goes by,” wrote Izabela, “without us thinking and speaking of
you several times; our comfort – to cuddle a sweet thought about you.”10
All of Chopin’s letters say the same thing: the sense of family became
the anchor of his life. He uncompromisingly gave as much as he received.
While in Paris or in Nohant, waiting for a letter from home was added to
his repertoire of daily activities. Nostalgia for home and country seeped
into the pages of his musical manuscripts.
“I always have one foot with you – one foot in the next room – where
the Lady of the House is working,” he wrote in summer 184511 from the
hospitable manor house in Nohant where the slowly flowing Indre River
could be seen from the window, which reminded him of the Utrata. In
autumn of the following year the state of his spirit was expressed in an
even more nostalgic tone: “I would like to fill my letter with the best news,
but I do not know anything except that I love you and love you. I play a
little, write some.”12
Emilia Chopin (1812–1827), the youngest
of the Chopins, highly talented; died of
tuberculosis
Home
12
Norwid, ideally versed in the music of Chopin, summed up his un-
derstanding of art in one sentence: “What do you know about beauty?
Its shape is love.”13
In conclusion, a few more words about Chopin’s birthday.
It is certain that Chopin was born in 1810, in the village of Żelazowa
Wola in Mazovia, on the banks of the River Utrata, on the rim of the
Kampinoska forest, 54 kilometres west of Warsaw.
It has not been possible to determine to this day, however, on what
date it happened. According to the official entry in the baptismal records
at the parish church in Brochów, Chopin came into the world on
February 22. According to his own statement in letters and the family
tradition, it was March first. The first date is supported by the weight
of the document and the authority of Chopin’s father, who reported his
son’s birth; the second, by his mother’s memory. Thus, in the biography
of the composer both dates have been recorded and co-exist – each one
wondering at the other’s presence.
1Franz Liszt, Chopin (Paris 1852), Kraków 1960, p. 123.
2Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Chopin, Kraków 1955, p. 16.
3Andrzej Sikorski, Piotr Mysłakowski, Rodzina matki Chopina. Mity i rzeczywistość,
Warsaw 2000.
4Pamiętniki Fryderyka hrabiego Skarbka, edited by P. Mysłakowski, Warsaw 2009.
5Gabriel Ladaique, Les ancêtres paternels de Frédéric François Chopin, Lille-Paris 1987.
6Compare A. Sikorski, P. Mysłakowski, Rodzina matki Chopina, op. cit., pp. 16–17.
7From the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Facsimile of the letter in:
Krystyna Kobylańska, Chopin w kraju, Kraków 1956, pp. 2–3.
8Chopin congratulatory scroll (home made greeting card) from 6 Dec. 1818.
9Justyna Chopin to her son, Feb. 1848.
10Izabela Barcińska, to her brother, 16 Oct. 1842.
11Chopin to his family, Nohant 18–20 July 1845.
12Chopin to his family, Nohant 11 Oct. 1846.
13Cyprian K. Norwid, Promethidion, 1851.
The Skarbeks’ Manor House in Żelazowa
Wola; wood engraving by Ignacy Chełmicki
according to a sketch by an unknown author.
The Chopins lived in the left annex after
their marriage in 1806; and there Fryderyk
entered the world
13
Home
14
Anna Skarbek (1793–1873), Fryderyk Skarbek’s sister, Fryderyk Chopin’s godmother.
In 1820 married Stefan Wiesiołowski in this
church in Brochów. According to records she
remained in good relations with the Chopins
Fryderyk Franciszek’s baptismal certificate.
The child was christened on 23 April 1810 in
St Roch’s Church in Brochów, the certificate
was written by Józef Morawski, the Vicar
Fryderyk Skarbek, economist, novelist,
the christening: Franciszek Grembecki in
Chopin’s godfather
of Brochów parish. Fryderyk was held for
the place of Fryderyk Skarbek and Countess
Anna Skarbek
professor at Warsaw University, Fryderyk
15
Fortified church in Brochów, contemporary
view
Illustration of the church in Brochów
Home
16
Weir in the area of Brochów
Mazovian landscape
17
Haystacks in the meadows in the area of
Żelazowa Wola
Żelazowa Wola, the park around
the Skarbeks’ Manor House
Home
18
The Manor House in Żelazowa Wola where
Fryderyk Chopin spent the first few months
of his life, today a museum dedicated to the
composer
Interior of the Manor House reconstructed
and furnished after the war, does not attempt
to be a reconstruction of the the appearance
from Chopin’s time, but rather to give an
impression of the atmosphere and style of
the era of the future composer
19
Napoleon Orda, Żelazowa Wola, illustration
in Album of Historical Views of Poland.
At the end of 1810 the Chopins, together
with small Fryderyk and the not much older
Ludwika moved to Warsaw, leaving the Skarbeks’ Manor House
Mother’s favourite song. Chopin included it
in the Fantasia in A major on Polish Themes for
piano and orchestra
Home
20
A card made by little Fryderyk for his father
on the occasion of his name day,
6 December 1816
Name day wishes written by Fryderyk for his
mother 16 June 1817
Saski Palace – location of the Warsaw
Lyceum and the Chopins’ apartment
21
Mother’s letter to Fryderyk from
February 1848
Grave of the Unknown Soldier – only this
arcade of the Saski Palace survived after the
destruction of the second world war
Roots
2
Poland has given him a knight’s sense and its historical suffering, France –
lightness, elegance and charm, Germany – romantic depth
Heinrich Heine, X Letter from Paris, 1838
Roots
26
Heine tried more than once to capture the phenomenon of Chopin in
words. He always used superlative tones. As a listener – almost excessively
sensitive – he grasped something in the music that had escaped from
the writings of others. It was he who first noticed and pointed out that
Chopin can not be classified as he had been, as a pianist-composer of
the masses, like Thalberg, Liszt, Moscheles and Kalkbrenner. “He is not
only a virtuoso,” he announced in his next, the tenth Letter From Paris,
“he is also a poet, and his music reflects the poetry that lives in his soul.
He is a poet of sounds (Tondichter) and nothing can equal the pleasure
which he gives us when sits at the piano and improvises.”1
And then follows a moment of speech in which Heine seems to deny
the intuition which dictated the phrase concerning the triple provenance
of Chopin’s music. He writes: “Therefore he is neither a Pole, nor Frenchman, nor German; he betrays origins of a higher order, he has sensitivity
that comes from the realm of Mozart, Raphael, Goethe, and his real
homeland is the dreamy kingdom of poetry.”2
Between the two positions there is, in fact, no conflict; they agree
with and complement each other. The first speaks about the triple gen-
esis, the second about being tuned into a higher, universal resonance.
And even though you can argue with the poet about the details of his
concept, about its incompletion, the fact of multilateral provenance is
incontestable.
Similarly, although in a different manner, Robert Schumann saw the
multifaceted nature of Chopin’s music. Its origins were drawn from the
spirit of the work of particular composers – Beethoven, Schubert and
John Field. Beethoven was to weave courage into Chopin’s soul, Schubert was to stir the tenderness in his heart, and finally, John Field was
to give fluency to Chopin’s fingers.3
Everything rhymes a bit too easily here for Schumann’s intuition to be
completely accurate. Chopin did not need to look outside of his country,
its history and customs, to find daring spirit or sensitivity of heart. And
he was born with fluency in his fingers. It is amazing, but in the art of
piano playing he had no real teacher. His only professional teacher was
a violinist rather than a pianist.
Wojciech Żywny, Chopin’s first teacher
27
Wojciech Żywny, colourful beyond description, appeared in Chopin’s
life at the moment when, as a child, his unprecedented talent and unique
sensitivity to music were identified. On the basis of not completely certain
information it is possible to ascertain that he lived in Warsaw from 1811
and made contact with the Chopin family five years later, and had such
close contact that he was almost a member of the family. He taught not
only Chopin the piano, but also his sisters and friends from the board-
ing house founded by his father for high-born youth. He was constantly
present in letters, always with humorous overtones. A Czech by birth,
Beginning of Prelude I in C major BWV 870
Jan Sebastian Bach from Das Wohltemperierte
Klavier
his Czech accent was amusing, he constantly used snuff and wore yellow
wigs reminiscent of Bach’s times.
A contemporary of Mozart, he brought a deeper-reaching tradition
to Poland: Bach. He made Bach’s music – at least the Wohltemperierte
Klavier – the foundation and Bible of Chopin’s musical thinking. With-
out Bach’s preludes and fugues there would not be Chopin preludes and
etudes. He travelled to Majorca with a volume of the Wohltemperierte, he
played “Bach and only Bach” to prepare for his concert performances,
and advised his students to do the same. One of his reliable students,
Fryderyka Müller, declares that one day he played her 14 preludes and
fugues from memory4. There are many indications that this unusual cult
shows Chopin – and his school – dependent upon “kind Żywny, always
in an old wig.”5
Lacrimosa dies illa from the Requiem in D minor KV 626 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(fragment)
Chopin studied with Żywny for six years, between the sixth and
the twelfth year of his life, when Józef Elsner took over his care. The
dedication to the Polonaise in A-flat major (WN 3) thanked his teach-
ers for their teaching. A few years later in answering a Viennese critic,
amazed at the level of education of this young virtuoso from Warsaw,
he politely said: “With Mr Żywny and Mr Elsner the biggest ass would
learn [something].”6
Amongst the music gods of Olympus for Chopin, Mozart came after
Bach. And after Mozart, Beethoven. The author of the Variations op. 2 on
La ci darem la mano considered Don Giovanni and the Requiem absolute
masterpieces, which he had heard and seen staged in Warsaw. He never
missed any opportunity to hear them again. According to Karol Mikuli,
Ludwig van Beethoven, Sonata F minor op. 7,
known as “Appassionata” (fragment)
Roots
28
his teacher “played Bach first and foremost, but it is hard to say whom
he liked more – the former or Mozart. He performed the works of both
of them in an equally incomparably great manner.”7 Chopin shared his
devotion to Mozart with Pauline Viardot, and above all, Eugène De-
lacroix. The painter noted the content of discussions with Chopin about
the author of Don Giovanni. One day he wrote “Mozart never makes
mistakes!” According to Liszt (which seems improbable) for Chopin,
Mozart opened the romantic era with his final works. In the opinion of
Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, “Chopin was Mozart’s heir.”8
The roots in Beethoven’s music do not reach so deeply. Chopin had
both admiration and distance for the author of the Appassionata. Although
he sat through the 9th Symphony several times – in Paris, Aachen, Lon-
don – in discussions with Delacroix he did not stray far from criticism.
He did not value all of Beethoven’s works equally. He played some of
Beethoven’s sonatas with pleasure, but in the opinions of experts, not in
the Beethovenian manner – he Chopinised them.9 However, if we look at
the matter from the perspective of compositional poetry, if it were not for
Beethoven there would not be any Chopin sonatas, ballads or scherzos.
Bach, Mozart and Beethoven – each influenced the development of
Chopin’s idiom in their own way and to their own extent. His idiom was
so much his own despite multilateral provenance. This multilateralism
was not exhausted through the impact of three great predecessors. Before
they appeared in the ears, and shortly after in the fingers of “the child
promising to replace Mozart,” there was already music of another sphere
and rank: Polish popular song. This already filled the acoustic spaces of
the manor house in Żelazowa Wola, and then in the Saski Palace. It was
rich and varied in themes, mood and character; from children’s lullabies
to Romances, from carols to singing patriotic songs. Chopin reached
back to this repertoire – embedded in youthful ears and imagination –
when he was overwhelmed by nostalgia. For example when he confided
in a late letter home; “the evening I spent at home, playing, engrossed
in songs from the Vistula …”10 Traces of popular songs can be found
from the early years: in reminiscences, allusions, quotations. Examples
include: “Już miesiąc zeszedł” in Fantasia on Polish Themes, notes from
Józef Elsner (1760–1854), composer, peda-
gogue, rector of the Conservatory and Main
Music School. Chopin attended lessons with
him from his thirteenth year of life
29
Aleksander Kokular, Portrait of Maria Szy-
manowska, circa 1825; Maria Szymanowska
(née Wołowska), born in 1789, pianist and
composer; she gave concerts all over Europe,
and towards the end of her life was the court
pianist for the Empress in St. Petersburg
Michał Kleofas Ogiński (1765–1833),
Title page of the first edition of Vingt Exercices et Préludes by Maria Szymanowska
composer, aristocrat, involved in the
independance movement, participant
in the Kościuszko Uprising, creator
of popular polonaises
Roots
30
the carol – Lulaj-że Jezuniu in the trio of Viennese Scherzos in B minor,
or the motive heard in the song Tam na błoniu błyszczy kwiecie which
forms the basis of the Mazurka in E minor composed on Majorca.
Chopin’s music has more roots in two areas very close to those previ-
ously mentioned; the area of contemporary Polish music surrounding
him, and a special area – historical song.
Although not researched methodically, one can easily imagine and
reconstruct the repertoire that reached the ears and was written into
the memory of the child and youth. This consisted mainly of songs,
ditties and dances: polonaises by Michał Kleofas Ogiński, mazurkas by
Jan Stefani and Maria Szymanowska, dumkas and polonaises by Karol
Kurpiński, sweet songs and Polish dances by Józef Elsner…. These were
not the peaks of artistry, rather more functional music than high art, but
they had a clear character that could be called the Polish idiom. If we
believe the diarists, some of them were sung or played to accompany
joyful dancing by Chopin’s mother Justyna.
The area of the second repertoire mentioned above existed and was fixed
in Chopin’s consciousness and memory in a different way. Niemcewicz’s
Śpiewy historyczne (Historical Songs), set to music as a patriotic gesture by
thirteen composers of his time became property of the nation. Published
for the first time in 1816, they immediately began to function as a history
of the homeland shown through words, songs and images. They were
sung and memorised by everyone, including at Mikołaj Chopin’s board-
ing house. “At dusk, in our spare moments from learning,” remembered
one of the participants,11 “we told of accidents from Polish history such
as the death of King Warneńczyk or Żółkiewski, battles fought by our
leaders, etc., – and young Chopin played it all on the piano… more than
once we cried listening to that moving music, and Żywny got excited
about his playing.”
Fate had it that a few years later, in Paris, Chopin came to improvise
on these songs in front of Niemcewicz himself. One may believe that
some reflection, some echo of these early improvisations on these pa-
triotic themes was called upon later, when Chopin’s music had already
reached its peak. Perhaps without these improvisations on Niemcewicz’s
Konstancja Dmuszewska in the title role
in Karol Kurpiński’s opera, Jadwiga
31
songs we would never have the Fantasy in F minor? Maybe the roots of
the idea for the Polonaise-Fantasy in A-flat major lie there?
1Heinrich Heine und die Musik, ed. Gerhard Müller, Leipzig 1987, p. 106.
2Heinrich Heine und die Musik, op. cit., p. 107.
3Robert Schumann, Schriften über Musik und Musiker, ed. Josef Häusler, Stuttgart 1982, p. 91.
Statement from 1836.
4Statement by Friederike Müller-Streicher, compare Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, Chopin
w oczach swoich uczniów, translated by Zbigniew Skowron, Kraków 2000, pp. 178–179.
5See Chopin’s letters to Jan Białobłocki from 27 July 1825 and to Tytus Woyciechowski
from 9 Sep. 1828.
6Chopin to his family, Vienna 19 Aug. 1829.
7Karol Mikuli, Introduction in F. Chopin’s Pianoforte-Werke, Leipzig 1879 F. Kistner.
8J. J. Eigeldinger, Chopin w oczach swoich uczniów, op. cit., p. 34.
9Wilhelm von Lenz, Die grossen Pianoforte-Virtuosen unserer Zeit aus persönlicher
Bekanntschaft. Liszt, Chopin, Tausig, Henselt, Berlin 1872.
10Chopin to his family, Paris 15 Apr. 1847.
11Eustachy Marylski, Z pamiętników, in Ferdynand Hoesick, Słowacki i Chopin,
Warsaw 1932, p. 90.
A. Molinari, Karol Kurpiński, 1825;
Kurpiński (1785–1857), composer and pedagogue, was conductor and later director in
the National Opera in Warsaw; he conducted
during the first performance of Chopin’s
Piano Concerto in F minor
Litwinka by Karol Kurpiński; inspired
Chopin to compose the Fantasia in F minor
op. 49
Roots
32
Young Fryderyk’s playing is listened to by
boys from the Chopins’ boarding house; pic-
ture by A. C. Gow, A Musical Story by Chopin
Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz (1758–1841),
poet, adjutant to Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, active participant in the Stronnictwo
Patriotyczne (Patriotic Party), President of
the Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk (Society
of the Friends of Science), his Historical Songs
became a textbook for subdued Poland;
already as a child Chopin improvised on
these themes
33
Title page of Niemcewicz’s Historical Songs,
published in 1816 “with music and draw-
ings” and a page with music of the song Jan
Kazimierz. The music for the songs was composed by thirteen contemporary Polish composers, including Franciszek Lessel, Karol
Kurpiński and Maria Szymanowska
Illustration to Duma about Stefan Potocki from
the Historical Songs
Village
3
If you see Szafarnia, Płonne, Gulbiny, Radomin, Ornówek,
mention my name…
Chopin to Jan Białobłocki, 20 June 1826
Your fields left me a kind of longing…
Chopin to Tytus Woyciechowski, 21 August 1830
Village
38
“I am not created for the village,” Chopin complained in a letter to his
family written in Nohant in the summer of 1845.1 A few days earlier, from
the same Nohant, he sent one of his friends in Paris these words of delight:
“The village is so beautiful, that I would feel sympathy for you shut away
in the city, if it weren’t Paris.”2
He was split into two. On one side, he was a person of the city, not
the village. But from the other side, perhaps especially as a person of the
city, he was under the influence of the sentimental image of village life
and gave in to the romantic aura: “Beautiful village, nightingales, larks,”3
charmed by Mrs Sand’s rural estate he tried to tempt Wojciech Grzymała
to visit. But when those days of bad weather came – rain, thunder and
gales – his fragile nature said no. Then, as George Sand noted, “all his
poor nerves were scattered.”4
13-year-old Chopin’s first full and deeper experience of village life met
with unbounded enthusiasm, fascination with a different way of living and
astonishment with exotic folklore. This took place in 1824 in Szafarnia,
a small village lost among the fields and forests around Dobrzyń, a point
where the regions of Mazovia, Pomerania and Kuyavia meet. It was his
first real vacation, spent amongst friendly people known and close to
him – the family of a friend, a pupil of noble extraction from his father’s
boarding house.
A series of letters sent from Szafarnia to family is compulsory reading;
in playful form, they parody a newspaper of the capital. The “Szafarski
Couriers” allow us to follow every stage of the city dandy’s wonder at the
village. Everything was new: country air and village bread, domestic fauna
and horse riding, and above all – songs, dances and customs, strangely
enticing outlandishness and crudeness.
At the beginning the observer’s viewpoint dominated: “In Obrowo it
was Harvest Home,” reported the “Szafarski Courier” of August 24. “The
whole village gathered before the Manor House and sincerely rejoiced,
especially after the vodka, and squealing lasses sang a well known ditty, a
semitone out of tune:
Before the House the ducks in mud
And our Lady all in gold”
Exposition in the Museum of the Mazovian
Village in Sierpc
Hearing “the village Catalani sitting on the fence, singing something full
39
throttle,” when passing by Nieszawa was enough to activate the collector
of folklore. Three pennies sufficed to persuade the girl to allow him to annotate words of the “mazureczek”:
“Hark behind the hillocks there, / how the wolf dances,
And still yet he has no wife / because he so worries. “
Finally, the newcomer from the city allowed himself to be embraced by
the magic of the village fete, to be drawn in and absorb it entirely. Playing,
dancing and singing together with the others, into the night, until they
dropped. And he reported everything in nearly perfect detail in a letter
from Szafarnia. His relation of events is worth quoting, at least in parts:
“We were sitting at dinner finishing the last dish, when in the distance we
heard a choir of untuned descants, first old wives gaggling through their
noses, then with lasses fulsomely squealing mercilessly a semitone higher,
accompanied by one three-stringed violin, which played an alto response
after every strophe, standing somewhere behind them.” Each couplet ‘took
a dig’ at somebody. Two digs were taken at dandies from the capital:
“A green bush before the Manor / Our Warsaw lad is like a dog.
Mayflies stand before the barn / Our Warsaw lad is nimble.”
At the end “the jumping, waltz and obertas began and to encourage the
farmhands who were standing silently keeping time I took Miss Tekla
[Borzewska] as first couple in the waltz; Mrs Dziewanowska at the end.
Later everyone was so enthused that we danced till we dropped in the
courtyard…” And Chopin, with enthusiasm, “I grabbed a dusty bow and
when I started to play the bass, I rasped so noisily that everyone came
to look…” And as a city person, he didn’t omit to note, “The night was
beautiful, the moon and the stars were shining…”5
Szafarnia, when it comes to Chopin’s relationship with Polish villages,
is not alone. It was surrounded by an entire constellation of hamlets, villages and small towns once called, not without reason, “Chopin’s district.”6
In 1824 and 1825 it was only a point of departure for trips throughout
the region, a melting pot for Mazovian-Kuyavian-Pomoranian folklore,
and not just folklore. Chopin found himself there, invited by the Dzie-
wanowski family, known for an honourable role in the Napoleonic epopee.
Interior of a house in the museum in Sierpc