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Frederic Chopin: Poland
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Chopin was born in the village of Żelazowa Wola, 60 km from Warsaw. His father Mikołaj (Nicolas) Chopin was French. He moved to Poland in 1787 where he married Tekla Justyna Krzyżanowska. They named their son Fryderyk Franciszek. Sometimes Chopin's date of birth is given as February 22 because this is what his birth paper says, but this was written by the priest at Chopin's christening eight weeks later and was almost certainly a mistake. Chopin and his family always celebrated his birthday on March 1.
Like so many composers, Frédéric Chopin was a boy wonder. At age seven, he published his first composition in Poland; only a year later, he made his debut as a concert pianist. His childhood was rich with the sounds of Poland's national dances, such as the polonaise and the mazurka — musical influences that filled his head and his music forever after.
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Chopin was born in Żelazowa Wola, near Sochaczew in the Masovia region, which was part of the Duchy of Warsaw. He was born to Mikołaj (Nicolas) Chopin, a Frenchman of distant Polish ancestry from Lorraine who had adopted Poland as his homeland when he moved there in 1787. Nicolas had married a woman from an upper-class but impoverished Polish family, Tekla Justyna Krzyżanowska.
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Most published sources list Chopin's birthday as February 22, 1810 but his mother reported that he was born on March 1, 1810. The reader should be aware that there is some question as to the correct birth date. By the age of 6, Chopin was already a good pianist. By the age of 8, he had already had a piano work published. His first composition teacher was Joseph Elsner. He studied at the Warsaw Conservatory then left Poland for Paris in September of 1831.
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) was a thin, frail virtuoso pianist from Poland (see Figure 1). Chopin ("sho-PAN," except that you don't really pronounce the final N; instead, you send it flying through your nose) single-handedly revolutionized the world of piano music. He changed everybody's idea of what was possible on the piano (intimate, brilliant, singing, diverse tone colors) and what was not (apparently nothing).
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Perhaps the greatest of all composers for the piano was Chopin. Called a "musical genius" when he was a teenager, Chopin composed a remarkable variety of brilliant pieces warlike polonaises, elegant waltzes, romantic nocturnes, and poetic ballades and etudes. His father, Nicholas, was a Frenchman who had lived in Poland for many years. His Polish mother was of noble birth. Even as a small child, Chopin loved piano music. He began to take piano lessons when he was 6 years old.
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