Frédéric Chopin was a Polish[2][3] composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period. He is widely regarded as the greatest Polish composer, and ranks as one of music's greatest tone poets.[4]

He was born in the village of Zelazowa Wola, in the Duchy of Warsaw, to a Polish mother and French-expatriate father, and in his early life was regarded as a child-prodigy pianist. In November 1830, at the age of 20, Chopin went abroad; following the suppression of the Polish November Uprising of 1830–31, he became one of many expatriates of the Polish "Great Emigration."

In Paris, he made a comfortable living as a composer and piano teacher, while giving few public performances. A Polish patriot,[5][6] in France he used the French versions of his names and eventually, to avoid having to rely on Imperial Russian documents, became a French citizen.[7][8][9] After some ill-fated romantic involvements with Polish women, from 1837 to 1847 he conducted a turbulent relationship with the French writer George Sand (Aurore Dudevant). Always in frail health, in 1849 he died in Paris, at the age of 39, of chronic pulmonary tuberculosis.[10][11]

Chopin's extant compositions were written primarily for the piano as a solo instrument. Though technically demanding, Chopin's style emphasizes nuance and expressive depth. Chopin invented musical forms such as the ballade[12] and was responsible for major innovations in forms such as the piano sonata, waltz, nocturne, étude, impromptu and prelude. His works are mainstays of Romanticism in 19th-century classical music.


Childhood
Frédéric Chopin was born in Zelazowa Wola in Sochaczew County, some fifty kilometers west of Warsaw, in what was then part of the Duchy of Warsaw. His father, Mikolaj Chopin, originally a Frenchman from Lorraine, had emigrated to Poland in 1787 at the age of 16, and had served in Poland's National Guard during the Kosciuszko Uprising. The elder Chopin subsequently worked in Zelazowa Wola as a tutor to the aristocracy, which included the Skarbeks (one of whose poorer relations, Justyna Krzyzanowska, he married).[13]

Her brother would become the father of American Union General Wlodzimierz Krzyzanowski.[14][15]

According to family records, the couple's second child (and only son), christened Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin, was born on March 1, 1810. A parish church document found in 1892 gives his birth date as February 22, 1810. Chopin and his mother, however, mentioned repeatedly in letters that he had been born not on February 22, but on March 1.

In October 1810, when the infant was seven months old, the family moved to Warsaw, where his father took a position as French-language teacher at a school in the Saxon Palace. The Chopin family lived on the palace grounds.

In 1817 Mikolaj Chopin began work, still teaching French, at the Warsaw Lyceum at Warsaw University's Kazimierz Palace. The family lived in a spacious second-floor apartment in an adjacent building. The son himself would attend the Warsaw Lyceum from 1823 to 1826.

In spite of Mikolaj Chopin's occupation, Polish spirit, culture, and language pervaded the Chopins' home, and as a result the son would never—even in Paris—perfectly master the French language.[16] All the family had artistic leanings. Chopin's father played the flute and violin; Chopin's mother played piano, and gave lessons to boys in the elite boarding house that the Chopins operated. Thus the boy early became conversant with music in its various forms.[17]

Józef Sikorski, a musician and Chopin's contemporary, recalls, in his Memoir about Chopin (Wspomnienie Chopina), that as a child Chopin wept with emotion when his mother played the piano. By six, he was already trying to reproduce what he heard or to make up new melodies.[18] He received his earliest piano lessons not from his mother, but from his older sister, Ludwika (in English, "Louise").[17]

Chopin's first professional piano tutor, from 1816 to 1822, was the respected, elderly Czech, Wojciech Zywny. Although the youngster's skills soon surpassed those of his teacher, Chopin later spoke highly of him. Seven-year-old "Little Chopin" began to give public concerts that soon prompted comparison with Mozart as a child, and with Chopin's contemporary, Beethoven. That same year, Chopin composed two polonaises, in G minor and B-flat major. The first was published in the engraving workshop of Father Izydor Jozef Cybulski (composer, engraver, director of an organists' school, and one of the few music publishers in Poland); the second survives as a manuscript prepared by Mikolaj Chopin. These small works were said to rival not only the popular polonaises of leading Warsaw composers, but the famous polonaises of Michal Kleofas Oginski. A substantial development of melodic and harmonic invention, and of piano technique, was shown in Chopin's next known polonaise (in A-flat major), which the young artist offered, in 1821, as a name-day present to Zywny.[17]

About this time, at the age of eleven, Chopin performed in the presence of Russian Tsar Alexander I, who was in Warsaw, opening the Sejm (Polish parliament).[18]

As a child, Chopin showed an intelligence that was said to absorb everything and make use of everything for its development. He early showed remarkable abilities in observation and sketching, a keen wit and sense of humor, and an uncommon talent for mimicry.[17] A story from his school years recounts a teacher being pleasantly surprised by a superb portrait that Chopin had drawn of him in class.[19] In those years, Chopin was sometimes invited to the Belweder Palace as playmate to the son of Russian Poland's ruler, Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich, and charmed the irascible duke with his piano-playing. Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz attested to "Little Chopin's" popularity in his dramatic eclogue, Nasze Verkehry ("Our Intercourse," 1818), in which the eight-year-old Chopin features as a motif in the dialogues.[17]

While in his mid-teens, during vacations spent at the Mazowsze village of Szafarnia (where he was a guest of Prince Antoni Radziwill), Chopin was exposed to folk melodies that he would later transmute into original compositions. His letters home from Szafarnia (the famous "Szafarnia Courier" letters) amused his family with their spoofing of the Warsaw newspapers and demonstrated the youngster's literary talent.[19]

An anecdote describes how Chopin helped quiet rowdy children by first improvising a story and then lulling them to sleep with a berceuse (lullaby) — after which he woke everyone with an ear-piercing chord.[19]

Early education
Chopin, tutored at home until he was 13, enrolled in the Warsaw Lyceum in 1823, but continued studying piano under Zywny's direction. In 1825, in a performance of the work of Ignaz Moscheles, he entranced the audience with his free improvisation, and was acclaimed the "best pianist in Warsaw."[17]

In the autumn of 1826, Chopin began a three-year course of studies with the composer Józef Elsner at the Warsaw Conservatory, which was affiliated with Warsaw University (hence Chopin is counted among that university's alumni). Chopin's first contact with the Polish composer may have been as early as 1822; it is certain that Elsner was giving Chopin informal guidance by 1823, and in 1826 Chopin officially commenced the study of music theory, figured bass, and composition with Elsner. In year-end evaluations, Elsner noted Chopin's "remarkable talent" and "musical genius." As had Zywny, Elsner observed, rather than influenced or directed, the development of Chopin's blossoming talent. Elsner's teaching style was based on his reluctance to "constrain" Chopin with "narrow, academic, outdated" rules, and to allow the young artist to mature "according to the laws of his own nature."[20]

In 1827, the family moved to lodgings just across the street, in the Krasinski Palace at Krakowskie Przedmiescie 5, in what is now the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. Chopin would live there until he left Warsaw in 1830.

In 1829, Polish portraitist Ambrozy Mieroszewski executed a set of five portraits of Chopin family members (the youngest daughter, Emilia, had died in 1827): Chopin's parents, his elder sister Ludwika, younger sister Izabela, and, in the first known portrait of him, the composer himself. In 1913, historian Édouard Ganche would write that this painting of the precocious composer showed "a youth threatened by tuberculosis. His skin is very white, he has a prominent Adam's apple and sunken cheeks, even his ears show a form characteristic of consumptives." Chopin's younger sister Emilia had already died of tuberculosis at the age of fourteen, and their father would succumb to the same disease in 1844.[20]

According to musicologist and Chopin biographer Zdzislaw Jachimecki, comparison of the juvenile Chopin with any earlier composer is difficult because of the originality of the works that Chopin was composing already in the first half of his life. At a comparable age, Bach, Mozart and Beethoven had still been apprentices, while Chopin was perceived by peers and audiences to be already a master who was pointing the path of the coming age.[20]

Chopin himself never gave thematic titles to his instrumental works, but identified them simply by genre and number.[21] His compositions were, however, often inspired by emotional and sensual experiences in his own life. One of his first such inspirations was a beautiful young singing student at the Warsaw Conservatory and later a singer at the Warsaw Opera, Konstancja Gladkowska. In letters to his friend Tytus Woyciechowski, Chopin indicated which of his works, and even which of their passages, were influenced by his erotic transports. His artist's soul was also enriched by friendships with such leading lights of Warsaw's artistic and intellectual world as Maurycy Mochnacki, Józef Bohdan Zaleski and Julian Fontana.[22]

The young man
In September of 1828, Chopin struck out for the wider world in the company of family friend, zoologist Feliks Jarocki, who planned to attend a scientific convention in Berlin. There Chopin enjoyed several unfamiliar operas directed by Gaspare Spontini, went to several concerts, and saw Carl Friedrich Zelter, Felix Mendelssohn and other celebrities. On his return trip, he was the guest of Prince Antoni Radziwill, governor of the Grand Duchy of Poznan — himself an accomplished composer and cellist. For his host, Chopin composed his Polonaise for Cello and Piano Op. 3.[23]

Back in Warsaw, in 1829, Chopin heard Niccolò Paganini play, and met the German pianist and composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel. In August of the same year, and three weeks after completing his studies at the Warsaw Conservatory, Chopin made a brilliant début in Vienna. He gave two piano concerts and received many favorable reviews — in addition to some that criticized the "small tone" that he drew from the piano. This was followed by a concert, in December 1829, at the Warsaw Merchants' Club, where Chopin premièred his Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, and by his first performance, on March 17, 1830, at the National Theater, of his Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor. He also began writing his first études (1829–32) in this period.[18]

Chopin's successes as a performer and composer opened the professional door for him to western Europe, and on November 2, 1830, seen off by friends and admirers, with a ring from Konstancja Gladkowska on his finger and carrying with him a silver cup containing soil from his native land, Chopin set out, writes Jachimecki, "into the wide world, with no very clearly defined aim, forever."[23]

Later that month, in Warsaw, the November Uprising broke out, and Chopin's friend and traveling companion, Tytus Woyciechowski, returned to Poland to enlist. Chopin, now alone in Vienna, writes Jachimecki, "afflicted by nostalgia, disappointed in his hopes of giving concerts and publishing, matured and acquired spiritual depth. From a romantic... poet... he grew into an inspired national bard who intuited the past, present and future of his country. Only now, at this distance, did he see all of Poland from the proper perspective, and understand what was great and truly beautiful in her, the tragedy and heroism of her vicissitudes."[23] When in September 1831 Chopin learned, while traveling from Vienna to Paris, that the uprising had been crushed, he poured "profanities and blasphemies" in his native Polish language into the pages of a little journal that he kept secret to the end of his life. These outcries of a tormented heart found musical expression in his Scherzo in B Minor, Op. 20, and his Revolutionary Étude.[23]

Paris
Chopin arrived in Paris in late September 1831, still uncertain whether he would settle there for good.[23] With a view to easing his entry into the Parisian musical community, he began taking lessons from the prominent pianist Friedrich Kalkbrenner. In February 1832 Chopin gave a concert that garnered universal admiration. The influential musicologist and critic François-Joseph Fétis wrote in Revue musicale: "Here is a young man who, taking nothing as a model, has found, if not a complete renewal of piano music, then in any case part of what has long been sought in vain, namely, an extravagance of original ideas that are unexampled anywhere..."[24] Only three months earlier, in December of 1831, Robert Schumann, in reviewing Chopin's Variations on "La ci darem la mano," Opus 2 (from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni), had written: "Hats off, gentlemen! A genius."[25]

After his Paris concert debut in February 1832, Chopin realized that his light-handed keyboard technique was not optimal for large concert spaces. However, later that year he was introduced to the wealthy Rothschild banking family, whose patronage opened doors for him to other private salons.[18]

In Paris, Chopin found artists and other distinguished company, as well as opportunities to exercise his talents and achieve celebrity, and before long he was earning a handsome income teaching piano to affluent students from all over Europe. [26] Chopin formed friendships with Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, Vincenzo Bellini, Ferdinand Hiller, Felix Mendelssohn, Heinrich Heine, Eugène Delacroix, as well as with Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, French writer Alfred de Vigny, and composer Charles-Valentin Alkan.[26]

However, Chopin seldom performed publicly in Paris. In later years he would generally give only a single annual concert at the Salle Pleyel, a venue that could seat an audience of three hundred. He played more frequently at salons — social gatherings of the aristocracy and artistic and literary elite of the period — but preferred to play, in his own home, for small circles of friends. His precarious health prevented his touring extensively as a traveling virtuoso, and beyond playing once in Rouen, he seldom ventured out of the capital.[26] His high income from teaching and composing freed him from the strains of concert-giving, to which he had an innate repugnance.[18] Arthur Hedley has observed that "As a pianist Chopin was unique in acquiring a reputation of the highest order on the basis of a minimum of public appearances—few more than 30 in the course of his lifetime."[27]

In 1835, Chopin went to Carlsbad, where, for the last time in his life, he met with his parents. En route through Saxony on his way back to Paris, he met old friends from Warsaw, the Wodzinskis. He had met their daughter Maria, now sixteen, in Poland five years earlier, and fell in love with the charming, artistically talented, intelligent young woman. The following year, in September 1836, upon returning to Dresden after having vacationed with the Wodzinskis at Marienbad, Chopin proposed marriage to Maria. She accepted, and her mother approved in principle, but Maria's tender age and Chopin's tenuous health (in the winter of 1835–36 he had been so ill that word had circulated in Warsaw that he had died) forced an indefinite postponement of the wedding. The engagement remained a secret to the world and never led to the altar. Chopin finally placed the letters from Maria and her mother in a large envelope, on which he wrote the Polish words "Moja bieda" ("My sorrow").[26]

Chopin's feelings for Maria left their traces in his "Valse in A-flat major, 'L'Adieu,'" ("The Farewell Waltz"), written on the morning of his September departure from Dresden. On his return to Paris, he composed the "Étude in F minor," the second in the Opus 25 cycle, which he referred to as "a portrait of Maria's soul." Along with this, he sent Maria seven songs that he had set to the words of Polish Romantic poets Stefan Witwicki, Jozef Zaleski and Adam Mickiewicz. [28]

After Chopin's matrimonial plans ended, Polish countess Delfina Potocka appeared episodically in Chopin's life as muse and romantic interest. For her he composed his "Waltz in D flat major," Opus 64 No. 1 — the famous "Minute Waltz."[26]

During his years in Paris, Chopin participated in a small number of public concerts. The list of the programs' participants provides an idea of the richness of Parisian artistic life during this period. Examples include a concert on March 23, 1833, in which Chopin, Liszt and Hiller performed Johann Sebastian Bach's concerto for three harpsichords; and, on March 3, 1838, a concert in which Chopin, Chopin's pupil Adolphe Gutman, Charles-Valentin Alkan, and Alkan's teacher Pierre Joseph Zimmerman performed Alkan's arrangement, for eight hands, of Beethoven's 7th symphony.

Chopin was also involved in the composition of Liszt's Hexaméron; Chopin's was the sixth (and last) variation on Bellini's theme.

George Sand
In 1836, at a party hosted by Countess Marie d'Agoult, the mistress of friend and fellow composer Franz Liszt, Chopin met French author and feminist Amandine Aurore Lucille Dupin, the Baroness Dudevant, better known by her pseudonym, George Sand. Sand's earlier romantic involvements had included Jules Sandeau and Alfred de Musset.

Chopin initially felt an aversion for Sand.[26] "Something about her repels me," he wrote his family.[citation needed] Sand, however, in a candid thirty-two page letter to her friend Count Wojciech Grzymala, admitted strong feelings for Chopin; in it she debated whether to abandon a current affair in order to begin a relationship with Chopin, and attempted to gauge the currency of his previous relationship with Maria Wodzinska, which she did not intend to interfere with should it still exist. [29] By the summer of 1838, Chopin's and Sand's involvement was an open secret.[30]

A notable episode in their time together was a turbulent and miserable winter on Majorca (8 November 1838 to 13 February 1839), where the four (including her two children) had gone in the hope of improving Chopin's deteriorating health. They had difficulty finding accommodations and ended up lodging in a scenic but stark and cold former Carthusian monastery in Valldemossa.

Chopin also had problems having his Pleyel piano sent to him. It arrived from Paris on 20 December but was held up by customs. (Chopin wrote on 28 December: "My piano has been stuck at customs for 8 days... They demand such a huge sum of money to release it that I can't believe it.") In the meantime Chopin had a rickety rented piano on which he practiced and may have composed some pieces.

On 3 December he complained about his bad health and the incompetence of the doctors in Majorca: "I have been sick as a dog during these past two weeks. Three doctors have visited me. The first said I was going to die; the second said I was breathing my last; and the third said I was already dead."

On 4 January 1839 George Sand agreed to pay 300 francs (half the demanded amount) to have the Pleyel piano released from customs. It was finally delivered on 5 January. From then on Chopin was able to use the long-awaited instrument for almost five weeks, time enough to complete some works: Preludes (Opus 28); a revision of Ballade No. 2, Opus 38; two Polonaises, Opus 40; Scherzo No. 3, Opus 39; a Mazurka (Opus 41); and he probably revisited his Sonata No. 2, Opus 35. This is why the winter in Majorca is still considered one of the most productive periods in Chopin's life.

During that winter, the bad weather had such a serious effect on Chopin's health and chronic lung disease that, in order to save his life, the entire party were compelled to leave the island. The beloved French piano became an obstacle to a hasty escape. Nevertheless George Sand managed to sell it to a French couple (the Canuts), whose heirs are the custodians of Chopin's legacy on Majorca and of the Chopin cell-room museum in Valldemossa.

The party of four went first to Barcelona, then to Marseille, where they stayed for a few months to recover. In May of 1839, they headed to Sand's estate at Nohant for the summer. In autumn they returned to Paris, where initially they lived apart; Chopin soon left his apartment at 5 rue Tronchet to move into Sand's house at 16 rue Pigalle. The four lived together from October 1839 to November 1842 at this address, while spending most summers until 1846 at Nohant. [31] In 1842, they moved to 80 rue Taitbout in the square d'Orléans, living in adjacent buildings. [32]

During the summers at Nohant, particularly 1839 through 1843, Chopin found quiet but productive days during which he composed many works. They included his great Polonaise in A flat major, Op.53, the "Heroic," one of his most famous pieces. It is to Sand that we owe the most compelling description of Chopin's creative processes, of the rise of his inspirations and of their painstaking working-out, sometimes amid real torments, amid weeping and complaints, with hundreds of changes in the initial concept and finally a return to the first idea.[32] She describes an evening with their friend Delacroix in attendance:


As the composer's illness progressed, Sand gradually became less of a lover and more of a nurse to Chopin, whom she called her "third child." But the nursing began to pall on her. In the years to come she would keep up her friendship with Chopin, but she often gave vent to affectionate impatience, at least in letters to third parties, in which she referred to Chopin as a "child," a "little angel," a "sufferer" and a "beloved little corpse."[32]

In 1845, even as a further deterioration occurred in Chopin's health, a serious problem emerged in his relations with Sand. Those relations were further soured in 1846 by problems involving her daughter Solange and the young sculptor Jean Baptiste Auguste Clésinger. In 1847 Sand published her novel Lucrezia Floriani, whose main characters — a rich actress and a prince in weak health — could be interpreted as Sand and Chopin; the story was uncomplimentary to Chopin, who could not have missed the allusions as he helped Sand correct the printer's galleys. In 1847 he did not visit Nohant. Mutual friends attempted to reconcile them, but the composer was unyielding. That year, 1847, brought to an end, without any dramatics or formalities, the relations between Sand and Chopin that had lasted ten years, from 1837.[32]ishings and belongings.[32]

Final years
Chopin's public popularity as a virtuoso waned, as did the number of his pupils. In February 1848 he gave his last Paris concert. In April he left for London, where he performed at several concerts and at numerous receptions in great houses. Toward the end of the summer he went to Scotland, staying at the castle of his great admirer Jane Stirling and her sister, Mrs. Erskine. Miss Stirling proposed marriage to him; but Chopin, sensing that he was not long for this world, set greater store by his freedom than by the prospect of living on the generosity of a wife.[32]

In late October 1848 in Edinburgh, at the home of a Polish physician, Dr. Adam Lyszczynski, Chopin wrote out his last will and testament—"a kind of disposition to be made of my stuff in the future, if I should drop dead somewhere," he wrote his friend Wojciech Grzymala. In his thoughts he was now constantly with his mother and sisters, and conjured up for himself scenes of his native land by playing his adaptations of its folk music on cool Scottish evenings at Miss Stirling's castle.[32]

Chopin made his last public appearance on a concert platform at London's Guildhall on November 16, 1848, when, in a final patriotic gesture, he played for the benefit of Polish refugees.[18] Then at the end of the month he returned to Paris.[32]

Chopin passed the winter in unremitting illness, but in spite of it he continued seeing friends and visited the ailing Adam Mickiewicz, soothing the Polish poet's nerves with his playing. He no longer had the strength to give lessons, but he was still keen to compose. He lacked money for the most essential expenses and for his physicians. He had to sell off his more valuable furnishings and belongings.[32]

Feeling ever more poorly, Chopin desired to have one of his family with him. In June 1849 his sister Ludwika Jedrzejewicz, who had given him his first piano lessons, agreed to come to Paris. He had lately taken up residence in a very beautiful, sunny apartment at Place Vendôme 12. It was there, in the small hours of October 17, 1849, that Chopin died.[32]

Later that morning, Auguste Clesinger made Chopin's death mask and casts of his hands. Before the funeral, pursuant to Chopin's dying wish (which stemmed from a fear of being buried alive), his heart was removed and preserved in alcohol, perhaps brandy. His sister later took it in an urn to Warsaw, where it was sealed within a pillar of the Holy Cross Church (Kosciol Swietego Krzyza) on Krakowskie Przedmiescie, beneath an inscription from Matthew VI:21: "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Chopin's heart has remained there—except for a period during World War II, when it was removed for safekeeping—within the church that was rebuilt after its virtual destruction in World War II.

Chopin had requested that Mozart's Requiem be sung at his funeral. The Requiem has major parts for female voices, but the Church of the Madeleine had never permitted female singers in its choir. The funeral was delayed almost two weeks until the church relented, provided the female singers remained behind a black velvet curtain.

The funeral was held on October 30, 1849, attended by nearly three thousand people. The soloists in the Requiem included the bass Luigi Lablache, who had sung the same work at Beethoven's funeral and had also sung at the funeral of Vincenzo Bellini. Also played were Chopin's preludes no. 4 in E minor and no. 6 in B minor.

Chopin was buried, in accordance with his wishes, at Père Lachaise Cemetery. At the graveside, the Funeral March from Sonata Op. 35 was played, in Napoléon Henri Reber's instrumentation.[34]

Chopin's grave, with its monument carved by Clésinger, attracts numerous visitors and is consistently decorated with flowers, even in winter.

Currently there is controversy over whether Chopin died of tuberculosis and not cystic fibrosis, an incurable genetic disease whose complete clinical spectrum was not recognized until the 1930s, decades after his death. The Polish government declines to allow scientists to remove Chopin's heart from its repository for DNA testing.[35]

In 1926, a bronze statue of Chopin designed by sculptor Waclaw Szymanowski in 1907, was erected in the upper part of Warsaw's Lazienki Park, adjacent to Aleje Ujazdowskie (Ujazdów Avenue). The statue was originally to have been erected in 1910, on the centennial of Chopin's birth, but its execution was delayed by controversy about the design, then by the outbreak of World War I.

During World War II, the statue was destroyed by the Germans, on May 31, 1940. It was reconstructed after the war, in 1958. Since 1959, free piano recitals of Chopin's compositions have been performed at the statue's base on summer Sunday afternoons. The stylized willow over Chopin's seated figure echoes a pianist's hand and fingers. Until 2007, the statue was the world's tallest monument to Chopin.

A 1:1-scale replica of Szymanowski's Art Nouveau statue is found in Warsaw's sister city, Hamamatsu, Japan. There are preliminary plans to erect another replica in Chicago's Chopin Park for the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth.

There are numerous other monuments to Chopin around the world. The most recent, and by a small margin taller than the Warsaw statue, is a modernistic bronze sculpture by Lu Pin in Shanghai, China, that was unveiled on March 3, 2007.

Founded in 1927, the world's oldest monographic music competition, the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition, is held every five years in Warsaw.

Periodically the Grand prix du disque de F. Chopin is awarded for notable Chopin recordings, both remastered and newly-recorded work.

Named for the composer are the largest Polish music conservatory, the Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy; Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport; and asteroid 3784 Chopin. music is the universal language of human communication. When I play Chopin I know I speak directly to the hearts of people!

Chopin, according to Arthur Hedley, "had the rare gift of a very personal melody, expressive of heart-felt emotion, and his music is penetrated by a poetic feeling that has an almost universal appeal.... Present-day evaluation places him among the immortals of music by reason of his insight into the secret places of the heart and because of his awareness of the magical new sonorities to be drawn from the piano."[36]

Chopin, unlike such composers as Mozart and Schubert, did not compose in a facile manner. He created barely 80 opuses, which all involve the piano. Only a few of them ranged beyond solo piano music, as chamber music or concertos for piano and orchestra. He composed two concertos for piano and orchestra, Op. 11 and 21; three piano sonatas, Op. 4, 35 and 58; a sonata for cello and piano, Op. 65 (Chopin's last composition published in his lifetime); 17 polonaises (one with orchestral accompaniment, and one for cello with accompanying piano); 21 nocturnes; 27 etudes (12 in the Op. 10 cycle, 12 in the Op. 25 cycle, and three in a collection without an opus number); 58 mazureks (several treated sketchily, as occasional pieces); 17 waltzes, 26 preludes, 4 ballades, 4 scherzos, 5 rondos, 4 sets of variations, 4 impromptus, one krakowiak for piano and orchestra, one fantasia on themes from Polish songs with accompanying orchestra, one fantasia for piano, three Scottish dances, a barcarolle, a bolero, a tarantella, an allegro de concert, a berceuse, a contredanse, a fugue, a Grand Duo on themes from Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera Robert le diable for cello and piano; a cantabile, a lento, a Funeral March, a Souvenir de Paganini, an Andante spianato before the polonaise in E-flat major, Op. 22; a Feuille d'album, 19 Polish songs for solo voice with accompanying piano.[37]

It is very difficult to briefly characterize Chopin's oeuvre. Robert Schumann, speaking of Chopin's Sonata in b-flat minor, wrote that "he alone begins and ends a work like this: with dissonances, through dissonances, and in dissonances," and in Chopin's music he discerned "cannon concealed amid blossoms." Franz Liszt, in the opening of his biography about Chopin, termed him a "gentle, harmonious genius." Thus disparate have been the views on Chopin's music. The first systematic, if imperfect, study of Chopin's style came in F.P. Laurencin's 1861 Die Harmonik der Neuzeit. Laurencin concluded that "Chopin is one of the most brilliant exceptional natures that have ever stridden onto the stage of history and life, he is one who can never be exhausted nor stand before a void. Chopin is the musical progone of all progones until now."[37]

Chopin's music for the piano combined a unique rhythmic sense (particularly his use of rubato), frequent use of chromaticism, and counterpoint. This mixture produces a particularly fragile sound in the melody and the harmony, which are nonetheless underpinned by solid and interesting harmonic techniques. He took the new salon genre of the nocturne, invented by Irish composer John Field, to a deeper level of sophistication. Three of Chopin's twenty-one nocturnes were only published after his death in 1849, contrary to his wishes.[38] He also endowed popular dance forms, such as the Polish mazurek and the Viennese waltz, with a greater range of melody and expression. Chopin was the first to write ballades[12] and scherzi as individual pieces. He also took the example of Bach's preludes and fugues, transforming the genre in his own preludes.

Chopin reinvented the étude,[citation needed] expanding on the idea and making it into a gorgeous, eloquent and emotional showpiece. He also used his études to teach his own revolutionary style,[39] for instance playing with the weak fingers (3, 4, and 5) in fast figures (Op. 10, no. 2) and playing black keys with the thumb (Op. 10, no. 5).

Several of Chopin's pieces have become very well known—for instance the Revolutionary Étude (Op. 10, No. 12), the Minute Waltz (Op. 64, No. 1), and the third movement of his Funeral March sonata (Op. 35), which is often used as an iconic representation of grief. Chopin himself never named an instrumental work beyond genre and number, leaving all potential extra-musical associations to the listener; the names by which we know many of the pieces were invented by others.[40] The Revolutionary Étude was not written with the failed Polish uprising against Russia in mind; it merely appeared at that time. The Funeral March was written before the rest of the sonata within which it is contained, but the exact occasion is not known; it appears not to have been inspired by any specific personal bereavement.[41] Other melodies have been used as the basis of popular songs, such as the slow section of the Fantaisie-Impromptu (Op. posth. 66) and the first section of the Étude Op. 10 No. 3. These pieces often rely on an intense and personalised chromaticism, as well as a melodic curve that resembles the operas of Chopin's day — the operas of Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, and especially Vincenzo Bellini.[42] Chopin used the piano to re-create the gracefulness of the singing voice, and talked and wrote constantly about singers.

Chopin's style and gifts became increasingly influential. Robert Schumann was a huge admirer of Chopin's music, and he used melodies from Chopin and even named a piece from his suite Carnaval after Chopin. This admiration was not reciprocated.

Franz Liszt was another admirer and personal friend of the composer, and he transcribed for piano six of Chopin's Polish songs. However Liszt denied that he wrote Funérailles (subtitled "October 1849", the seventh movement of his piano suite Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses of 1853) in memory of Chopin. Though the middle section seems to be modeled on the famous octave trio section of Chopin's Polonaise in A flat major, Op. 53, Liszt said the piece had been inspired by the deaths of three of his Hungarian compatriots in the same month.

Brahms and the younger Russian composers, too, found inspiration in Chopin's examples.[37]

Chopin's technical innovations also became influential. His Préludes (Op. 28) and Etudes (Op. 10 and Op. 25) rapidly became standard works, and inspired both Liszt's Transcendental Etudes and Schumann's Symphonic Etudes. Alexander Scriabin was also strongly influenced by Chopin; for example, his 24 Preludes, Op. 11, are inspired by Chopin's Op. 28.

Jeremy Siepmann, in his biography of the composer, lists pianists whose recordings of Chopin are generally acknowledged to be among the greatest Chopin performances ever preserved: Vladimir de Pachmann, Raoul Pugno, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Moriz Rosenthal, Jozef Hofmann, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alfred Cortot, Ignaz Friedman, Raoul Koczalski, Arthur Rubinstein, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Claudio Arrau, Vlado Perlemuter, Sviatoslav Richter, Vladimir Horowitz, Dinu Lipatti, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Martha Argerich, Maurizio Pollini, Murray Perahia, Krystian Zimerman, Evgeny Kissin.

Arthur Rubinstein said the following about Chopin's music and its universality:


Although Chopin lived in the 1800s, he was educated in the tradition of Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart and Clementi; he used Clementi's piano method with his own students. He was also influenced by Hummel's development of virtuoso, yet Mozartian, piano technique.

The series of seven polonaises published in his lifetime (another nine were published posthumously), beginning with the Op. 26 pair, set a new standard for music in the form, and were rooted in Chopin's desire to write something to celebrate Polish culture after the country had fallen back into Russian control. The A major polonaise Op. 40 No. 1, the "Military," and the polonaise in A-flat major Op. 53, the "Heroic," are among Chopin's best-loved and most-often-played works.

Rubato
Chopin's music is well known for benefiting from rubato (which was how he himself performed his music[43]), as opposed to a strictly regular playing. Yet there is usually call for caution when the music is performed with wobbly, over-exaggerated, inappropriate rubato.


However, while some can provide restrictive quotes about Chopin such as the above, often to the effect that "the accompanying hand always played in strict tempo", these quotes need to be considered in better context[45] in terms both of the time when they were made and of the situations that may have prompted the original writer to set down the thoughts. Constantin von Sternberg (1852-1924) has written:


There are also views of contemporary writers such as Berlioz.[45][47]

This suggests that Chopin is not to be found at one of the two commonly-encountered one-sided extremes. The two unbalanced views are:

• that Chopin requires restrictive performance, e.g., a maintenance of strict, even, metronomic rhythm in the left hand;
• that tasteless, wobbly performances of Chopin can somehow be justified with reference to "rubato".

Some performers' (and piano-schools') "too-strongly-held one-sided views on Chopin's way of playing rubato" may account for some unsatisfactory interpretations of his music.

Romanticism
Chopin regarded most of his contemporaries with some indifference, although he had many acquaintances associated with romanticism in music, literature and the arts (many of them via his liaison with George Sand). Chopin's music is, however, considered by many to epitomise the Romantic style.[48] The relative classical purity and discretion in his music, with little extravagant exhibitionism, partly reflects his reverence for Bach and Mozart. Chopin also never indulged in explicit "scene-painting" in his music, or used programmatic titles, castigating publishers who renamed his pieces in this way.

Polish heritage
Zdzislaw Jachimecki notes that "Chopin at every step demonstrated his Polish spirit — in the hundreds of letters that he wrote in Polish, in his attitude to Paris's [Polish] émigrés, in his negative view of all that bore the official stamp of the powers that occupied Poland." Likewise Chopin improvised music to accompany Polish texts[49] but never musically illustrated a single French or German text, even though he numbered among his friends several great French and German poets.[37]

According to Arthur Hedley, Chopin "found within himself and in the tragic story of Poland the chief sources of his inspiration. The theme of Poland's glories and sufferings was constantly before him, and he transmuted the primitive rhythms and melodies of his youth into enduring art forms."[50]

In asserting his own Polishness, Chopin, according to Jachimecki, exerted "a tremendous influence [toward] the nationalization of the work of numerous later composers, who have often personally — like [the Czech Bedrich] Smetana and [the Norwegian Edvard] Grieg — confirmed this opinion..."[37]

In popular culture
Chopin's life and his relations with George Sand have been fictionalized in film. The 1945 biopic A Song to Remember earned Cornel Wilde an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor for his portrayal of the composer. Other film treatments have included Impromptu (1991), starring Hugh Grant as Chopin; La note bleue (1991); and Chopin: Desire for Love (2002).

The role-playing video game Eternal Sonata is based on the fictional proposition of a world based on Chopin's music and life, as dreamt by Chopin while on his deathbed. Chopin is a playable character in the game, and much of the music within the game is based on his compositions. The game includes brief descriptions of major events in Chopin's life that reflect on the events and characters in the game.[51]

1.) Some sources give February 22; please see Life for details. 2.) Kennedy, Michael. Oxford Concise Dictionary of Music, Oxford, 2004, 4th ed., p. 141. 3.) Kornel Michalowski, "Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed January 28, 2008), (subscription access) 4.) Arthur Hedley et al., "Chopin, Frédéric (François), Encyclopaedia Britannica, p. 263. 5.) David Ewen, p. 164. 6.) Tad Szulc, Chopin in Paris, p. 12. 7.) Tad Szulc, Chopin in Paris, p. 69: "Chopin of course had not been deported and was not a political refugee, but the French granted him permission to stay in Paris indefinitely 'to be able to perfect his art'. Four years later, Frédéric became a French citizen and a French passport was issued to him on August 1, 1835." 8.) French passport: http://diaph16.free.fr/chopin//chopin7.htm 9.) Encyclopaedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9082338/Frederic-Chopin 10.) Smolenska-Zielinska, Barbara. "Chopin — Biography". Fryderyk Chopin. Retrieved on 2006-09-10. 11.) A more recent theory about Chopin's death is reported in a June 23, 2008, Times of India article: Polish cystic fibrosis specialist Wojciech Cichy says that the symptoms Chopin suffered throughout his life were typical of cystic fibrosis, a genetic illness which clogs the lungs with excess thick, sticky mucus. "From childhood he was weak, prone to chest infections, wheezing, coughing." As an adult weighing 40 kg at a height of five feet, seven inches, Chopin was chronically underweight—another symptom of cystic fibrosis. It has been proposed that Chopin's heart be retrieved from its alcohol-filled crystal urn, which reposes inside a pillar at Warsaw's Holy Cross Church, and be tested for the CFTR gene that is a marker for cystic fibrosis.[1] 12.) a b Scholes, Percy (1938), The Oxford Companion to Music, "Ballade". 13.) Zdzislaw Jachimecki, "Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek," Polski slownik biograficzny, vol. III, 1937, p. 420. 14.) Wladimir B. Krzyzanowski 15.) Jaroslaw Krawczyk, "Wielkie odkrycia ludzkosci. Nr 17," Rzeczpospolita, June 12, 2008. 16.) Benita Eisler, Chopin's Funeral, Abacus, 2004, p. 29: "Language was another matter, rooted in anxiety passed from father to son. A foreigner concerned with shrouding his origins and proving his Polishness, Nicolas was as cautious as a spy dropped behind enemy lines; he never seems to have mentioned his French family to his Polish children. French was the lingua franca of the nobility and the subject Nicolas taught to others' sons—but not to his own. (Did he fear that the accents of a former vineyard laborer would betray him at home?) Consequently Fryderyk's grasp of French grammar and spelling would always remain shaky. Surprising for one blessed with an extraordinary 'ear' and famed from earliest childhood as an extraordinary mimic, his pronunciation, too, was poor. More telling was his own unease in his adopted tongue: half-French, living in Paris, the paradise of expatriates, Chopin would always feel twice exiled—from his country and from his language. Imprisoned by foreign words, the expressive power of his music unbound him." 17.) a b c d e f Jachimecki, p. 420. 18.) a b c d e f Hedley, Encyclopaedia Britannica, p. 263. 19.) a b c Described in the Polish Wikipedia article on "Fryderyk Chopin." 20.) a b c Jachimecki, p. 421. 21.) Jachimecki, p. 421. Hedley, Encyclopaedia Britannica, p. 264: "He valued [sensuous beauty] throughout life as much as he abhorred descriptive titles or any hint of an underlying 'program.'"

# Programmatic titles were given to some of his works, against his wishes, by others, including opportunistic music publishers. 22.) Jachimecki, pp. 421–22. 23.) a b c d e Jachimecki, p. 422. 24.) Jachimecki, pp. 422–23. 25.) Sheppard, Linda. "Frédéric Chopin's Résumé". Musical overview (1600–2000): from the History à la carte series. Canada: Longbow Publishing Ltd, 2006. 26.) a b c d e f Jachimecki, p. 423. 27.) Hedley, Encyclopaedia Britannica, p. 264. 28.) Jachimecki, p 423. 29.) André Maurois, Léila: the Life of George Sand, trans. by Gerard Hopkins, Penguin, 1980 (c 1953), pp. 317-20. 30.) Jachimecki, p. 423. 31.) André Maurois, Léila, pp. 333, 337-8. 32.) a b c d e f g h i Jachimecki, p. 424. 33.) George Sand, Impressions et souvenirs, chapter V, p. 86, quoted in André Maurois, Léila, pp. 338-9. 34.) Fryderyk Chopin 1810–1849: A Chronological Biography 35.) http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_2364582,00.html Home is where the heart'll stay 36.) Hedley, Encyclopaedia Britannica, p. 264. 37.) a b c d e Jachimecki, p. 425. 38.) Letter of 12 December 1853 from Camille Pleyel to Chopin's sister, Louise Jedrzejewicz, cited in Chopin — Nocturnes, with note by Ewald Zimmermann, winter 1979/1980, published by G. Henle Verlag (ISM N M-2018-0185-8). 39.) Hedley, Encyclopaedia Britannica, p. 263. 40.) Jachimecki, p. 421. Hedley, Encyclopaedia Britannica, p. 264. 41.) Kornel Michalowski, Grove 42.) Hedley writes: "From the great Italian singers of the age he learned the art of 'singing' on the pianno, and his nocturnes reveal the perfection of his cantabile style and delicate charm of ornamentation." Hedley, Encyclopaedia Britannica, p. 264. 43.) Eigeldinger, Jean-Jacques (1986). Chopin: Pianist and Teacher as Seen by His Pupils. Cambridge University Press, pp. 52. ISBN 0-521-36709-3. 44.) Müller-Streicher, Friederike (1994). "Aus dem Tagebuch einer Wiener Chopin-Schülerin [1839–1841, 1844–1845]". Wiener Chopin-Blätter. International Chopin Society. Retrieved on 2007-10-09. 45.) a b "Tempo Rubato". by Ignacy Jan Paderewski; Polish Music Journal, Vol. 4; No. 1; Summer 2001. ISSN 1521 - 6039. 46.) Constantin von Sternberg (1852-1924) (c. 1920). "Tempo rubato, and other essays". 47.) John F. Strauss. "The puzzle of Chopin's Tempo Rubato". Clavier 22, no. 5 (May-June 1983). 48.) See e.g. Charles Rosen, The Romantic Generation, chapters 5-7, Harvard University Press 1995. ISBN 9780674779334 49.) Jachimecki, pp. 425–26. 50.) Hedley, Encyclopaedia Britannica, p. 264. 51.) NAMCO BANDAI Games - Eternal Sonata

• Chopin and Other Musical Essays (1889) by Henry T. Finck
• Michalowski, Kornel, and Jim Samson, Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek, Grove Music Online, edited by L. Macy (accessed October 31, 2006) (subscription access)
• Samson, Jim (1996). Chopin. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816495-5.
• Siepmann, Jeremy (1995). Chopin: The Reluctant Romantic. London: Victor Gollancz. ISBN 0-575-05692-4.
• Adam Zamoyski, Chopin: a Biography, New York, Doubleday, 1980, ISBN 0-385-13597-1.
• Tad Szulc, Chopin in Paris: the Life and Times of the Romantic Composer, New York, Scribner, 1998, ISBN 0-684-82458-2.
• Zdzislaw Jachimecki, "Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek," Polski slownik biograficzny, vol. III, Kraków, Polska Akademia Umiejetnosci, 1937, pp. 420–26.
• Arthur Hedley et al., "Chopin, Frédéric (Francois)," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th ed., 2005, vol. 3, pp. 263–64.
• Selected Correspondence of Fryderyk Chopin, collected and annotated by B.E. Sydow, translated and edited by Arthur Hedley, London, 1962.
• Chopin's Letters, collected by Henryk Opienski, translated by E.L. Voynich, New York, 1973.
• George Marek R. and Maria Gordon-Smith, Chopin: A biography, New York, Harper & Row, 1978.
• André Maurois, Leila: the Life of George Sand, translated by Gerard Hopkins, Penguin, 1980 (c 1953).
• David Ewen, Ewen's Musical Masterworks: The Encyclopedia of Musical Masterpieces, 2nd ed., New York, ARCO Publishing Company, 1954.
• Benita Eisler, Chopin's Funeral, Abacus, 2004.
• Krystyna Kobylanska, Chopin in His Own Land: Documents and Souvenirs, Kraków, P.W.M., 1955.
• The Book of the First International Musicological Congress Devoted [to] the Works of Frederick Chopin, Warsaw, 16th-22nd February 1960, edited by Zofia Lissa, Warsaw, PWN, 1963.
• [The Book of the Second International Musicological Congress, Warsaw, 10-17 October 1999:] Chopin and His Work in the Context of Culture, studies edited by Irena Poniatowska, vols. 1-2, Warsaw, 2003.
• (Dutch) Bastet, Frédéric L. (1997). Helse liefde: Biografisch essay over Marie d'Agoult, Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, George Sand. Amsterdam: Querido. ISBN 90-214-5157-3.
• Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, Chopin: Pianist and Teacher, as Seen by His Pupils, Cambridge University Press, 1989, ISBN 0521367093.
• (German) Wuest, Hans Werner (2001). Frédéric Chopin, Briefe und Zeitzeugnisse. ISBN 3-8311-0066-7.

His larger scale works such as the four ballades, the four scherzi, the Barcarolle Op. 60, the Fantaisie Op. 49, and sonatas have cemented a solid place within the repertoire, as well as shorter works like his impromptus, mazurkas, nocturnes, waltzes and polonaises taking a substantial portion of recorded and performed music. Two important collections are the 24 Preludes, Op. 28, and the etudes Op. 10 and 25, which are a staple of that genre for pianists. In addition, he wrote several song settings of Polish texts, and chamber pieces including a piano trio and a cello sonata.

Chopin's piano concertos (No.1 and No. 2) are two of the romantic piano concerto repertoire's most often-performed examples.

Both sections of this list use the traditional opus numbers, as well as catalogue numbers from Krystyna Kobylanska (KK), Josef Michal Chominski (A, D, C, P, E), and Maurice J. E. Brown (B).

Most of Chopin's compositions were for solo piano. He did compose two piano concertos as well as some other music for ensembles.


Ballade

• Opus 23: Ballade No. 1 in G minor (composed 1835-36)
• Opus 38: Ballade No. 2 in F major (1836-39)
• Opus 47: Ballade No. 3 in A-flat major (1841)
• Opus 52: Ballade No. 4 in F minor (1842-43)

Etude

• Opus 10:
  • No. 1: Etude in C major (composed 1830)
  • No. 2: Etude in A minor (1830)
  • No. 3: Etude in E major "Tristesse" (1832)
  • No. 4: Etude in C-sharp minor (1832)
  • No. 5: Etude in G-flat major "Black Key" (1830)
  • No. 6: Etude in E-flat minor (1830)
  • No. 7: Etude in C major (1832)
  • No. 8: Etude in F major (1829)
  • No. 9: Etude in F minor (1829)
  • No. 10: Etude in A-flat major (1829)
  • No. 11: Etude in E-flat major (1829)
  • No. 12: Etude in C minor "Revolutionary" (1831)
• Opus 25:
  • No. 1: Etude in A-flat major "Aeolian Harp" (composed 1836)
  • No. 2: Etude in F minor (1836)
  • No. 3: Etude in F major (1836)
  • No. 4: Etude in A minor (1832-1834)
  • No. 5: Etude in E minor (1832-1834)
  • No. 6: Etude in G-sharp minor (1832-1834)
  • No. 7: Etude in C-sharp minor (1836)
  • No. 8: Etude in D-flat major (1832-1834)
  • No. 9: Etude in G-flat major "Butterfly" (1832-1834)
  • No. 10: Etude in B minor (1832-1834)
  • No. 11: Etude in A minor "Winter Wind" (1834)
  • No. 12: Etude in C minor (1836)
• Trois Nouvelles Etudes:
  • No. 1: Etude in F minor (1839)
  • No. 2: Etude in A-flat major (1839)
  • No. 3: Etude in D-flat major (1839)

Fantaisie

• Opus 49: Fantaisie in F minor

Impromptu

• Opus 29: Impromptu No. 1 in A-flat major (1837)
• Opus 36: Impromptu No. 2 in F-sharp major (1839)
• Opus 51: Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat major (1843)
• Opus posth. 66: Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor (1834)

Mazurka

• Opus 6, Four Mazurkas:
  • No. 1: Mazurka in F-sharp minor
  • No. 2: Mazurka in C-sharp minor
  • No. 3: Mazurka in E major
  • No. 4: Mazurka in E-flat minor
• Opus 7, Five Mazurkas:
  • No. 1: Mazurka in B-flat major
  • No. 2: Mazurka in A minor
  • No. 3: Mazurka in F minor
  • No. 4: Mazurka in A-flat major
  • No. 5: Mazurka in C major
• Opus 17, Four Mazurkas:
  • No. 1: Mazurka in B-flat major
  • No. 2: Mazurka in E minor
  • No. 3: Mazurka in A-flat major
  • No. 4: Mazurka in A minor
• Opus 24, Four Mazurkas:
  • No. 1: Mazurka in G minor
  • No. 2: Mazurka in C major
  • No. 3: Mazurka in A-flat major
  • No. 4: Mazurka in B-flat minor
• Opus 30, Four Mazurkas:
  • No. 1: Mazurka in C minor
  • No. 2: Mazurka in B minor
  • No. 3: Mazurka in D-flat major
  • No. 4: Mazurka in C-sharp minor
• Opus 33, Four Mazurkas:
  • No. 1: Mazurka in G-sharp minor
  • No. 2: Mazurka in D major
  • No. 3: Mazurka in C major
  • No. 4: Mazurka in B minor
• Opus 41, Four Mazurkas:
  • No. 1: Mazurka in C-sharp minor
  • No. 2: Mazurka in E minor
  • No. 3: Mazurka in B major
  • No. 4: Mazurka in A-flat major
• Opus 50, Three Mazurkas:
  • No. 1: Mazurka in G major
  • No. 2: Mazurka in A-flat major
  • No. 3: Mazurka in C-sharp minor
• Opus 56, Three Mazurkas:
  • No. 1: Mazurka in B major
  • No. 2: Mazurka in C major
  • No. 3: Mazurka in C minor
• Opus 59, Three Mazurkas:
  • No. 1: Mazurka in A minor
  • No. 2: Mazurka in A-flat major
  • No. 3: Mazurka in F-sharp minor
• Opus 63, Three Mazurkas:
  • No. 1: Mazurka in B major
  • No. 2: Mazurka in F minor
  • No. 3: Mazurka in C-sharp minor
• Opus posth. 67, Four Mazurkas:
  • No. 1: Mazurka in G major
  • No. 2: Mazurka in G minor
  • No. 3: Mazurka in C major
  • No. 4: Mazurka in A minor
• Opus posth. 68, Four Mazurkas:
  • No. 1: Mazurka in C major
  • No. 2: Mazurka in A minor
  • No. 3: Mazurka in F major
  • No. 4: Mazurka in F minor
• S 1, No. 2, Two Mazurkas:
  • a. Mazurka in G major (1836)
  • b. Mazurka in B flat major (1836)
• S 2, Two Mazurkas:
  • No. 4, Mazurka No. 50 in A minor "Notre Temps" (1840)
  • No. 5, Mazurka No. 51 in A minor "Emile Gaillard" (1841)
• P 2, Four Mazurkas:
  • No. 1, Mazurka in B flat major (1832)
  • No. 2, Mazurka in D major (1832)
  • No. 3, Mazurka in C major (1833)
  • No. 4, Mazurka in A flat major (1834)
• A 1, No. 1: Mazurka in F major "Mazurek" (1820)
• P 1, No. 7: Mazurka in D major (1829)

Nocturne

• Opus 9:
  • No. 1: Nocturne in B-flat minor
  • No. 2: Nocturne in E-flat major
  • No. 3: Nocturne in B major
• Opus 15:
  • No. 1: Nocturne in F major (1830-1831)
  • No. 2: Nocturne in F-sharp major (1830-1831)
  • No. 3: Nocturne in G minor (1833)
• Opus 27:
  • No. 1: Nocturne in C-sharp minor
  • No. 2: Nocturne in D-flat major
• Opus 32:
  • No. 1: Nocturne in B major (1836-1837)
  • No. 2: Nocturne in A-flat major (1836-1837)
• Opus 37:
  • No. 1: Nocturne in G minor
  • No. 2: Nocturne in G major
• Opus 48:
  • No. 1: Nocturne in C minor
  • No. 2: Nocturne in F-sharp minor
• Opus 55:
  • No. 1: Nocturne in F minor
  • No. 2: Nocturne in E-flat major
• Opus 62:
  • No. 1: Nocturne in B major
  • No. 2: Nocturne in E major
• Opus posth. 72:
  • No. 1: Nocturne in E minor
• Posthumously published:
  • Nocturne in C-sharp minor (1830)
  • Nocturne in C minor (1837)

Polonaise

• Opus 26:
  • No. 1: Polonaise in C-sharp minor
  • No. 2: Polonaise in E-flat minor
• Opus 40:
  • No. 1: Polonaise in A major "Military"
  • No. 2: Polonaise in C minor
• Opus 44: Polonaise in F-sharp minor
• Opus 53: Polonaise in A-flat major "Heroic"
• Opus 61: Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat major
• Opus posth. 71:
  • No. 1: Polonaise in D minor
  • No. 2: Polonaise in B-flat major
  • No. 3: Polonaise in F minor
• KK IIa No. 1: Polonaise in G minor (1817)
• KK IVa:
  • No. 1: Polonaise in B flat major (1817)
  • No. 2: Polonaise in A flat major (1821)
  • No. 3: Polonaise in G sharp minor (1822)
  • No. 5: Polonaise in B flat minor "Adieu à Guillaume Kolberg" (1826)
  • No. 8: Polonaise in G flat major (1829).

Prelude

• Opus 28:
  • No. 1: Prelude in C major (composed 1839)
  • No. 2: Prelude in A minor (1838)
  • No. 3: Prelude in G major (1838-1839)
  • No. 4: Prelude in E minor (1838)
  • No. 5: Prelude in D major (1838-1839)
  • No. 6: Prelude in B minor (1838-1839)
  • No. 7: Prelude in A major (1836)
  • No. 8: Prelude in F-sharp minor (1838-1839)
  • No. 9: Prelude in E major (1838-1839)
  • No. 10: Prelude in C-sharp minor (1838-1839)
  • No. 11: Prelude in B major (1838-1839)
  • No. 12: Prelude in G-sharp minor (1838-1839)
  • No. 13: Prelude in F-sharp major (1838-1839)
  • No. 14: Prelude in E-flat minor (1838-1839)
  • No. 15: Prelude in D-flat major ("Raindrop") (1838-1839)
  • No. 16: Prelude in B-flat minor (1838-1839)
  • No. 17: Prelude in A-flat major (1836)
  • No. 18: Prelude in F minor (1838-1839)
  • No. 19: Prelude in E-flat major (1838-1839)
  • No. 20: Prelude in C minor (1838-1839)
  • No. 21: Prelude in B-flat major (1838-1839)
  • No. 22: Prelude in G minor (1838-1839)
  • No. 23: Prelude in F major (1838-1839)
  • No. 24: Prelude in D minor (1838-1839)
• Opus 45: Prelude in C-sharp minor (1841)
• Posthumously published: Prelude in A-flat major (1834, published 1918)

Rondo

• Opus 1: Rondo in C Minor
• Opus 5: Rondo à la Mazur in F major (1826)
• Opus 16: Rondo in E-flat major (1832)
• Opus posth. 73: Rondo in C major, two pianos (1828)

Scherzo

• Opus 20: Scherzo No. 1 in B minor (1831)
• Opus 31: Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor (1837)
• Opus 39: Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor (1839)
• Opus 54: Scherzo No. 4 in E major (1843)

Sonata

• Opus 4: Piano Sonata No. 1 in C minor
• Opus 35: Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor; movement number 3 is the famous "Funeral March"
• Opus 58: Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor

Waltzes

• Opus 18: Grande Valse brillante in E-flat major (1833)
• Opus 34:
  • No. 1: Valse brillante in A-flat major (1835)
  • No. 2: Grande Valse brillante in A minor (1831)
  • No. 3: Grande Valse brillante in F Major (1838)
• Opus 42: Valse in A-flat major
• Opus 64:
  • No. 1: Valse in D-flat major "Minute Waltz" (1846)
  • No. 2: Valse in C-sharp minor (1846)
  • No. 3: Valse in A-flat major
• Opus posth. 69:
  • No. 1: Valse in A-flat major (1835)
  • No. 2: Valse in B minor
• Opus posth. 70:
  • No. 1: Valse in G-flat major
  • No. 2: Valse in F minor
  • No. 3: Valse in D-flat major
• Posthumously published:
  • Valse in E minor
  • Valse in E major
  • Valse in A minor
  • Valse in A-flat major
  • Valse in E-flat major
  • Valse in E-flat major ("Sostenuto")
  • Valse in F-sharp minor (Doubtful)
• Partially lost:
  • Valse in C major (1826)
  • Valse in A-flat major (1827)
  • Valse in A-flat major (1829-30)
  • Valse in D minor (1827)
  • Valse in E-flat major (1829-30)
  • Valse in C major (1831)
• Unpublished (privately owned): Valse in B major (1848)

Miscellaneous

• Opus 12: Variations brillantes in B-flat major on "Je vends du Scapulaires" from Herold's "Ludóvic"
• Opus 19: Bolero in C major/A major
• Opus 43: Tarantelle in A-flat major
• Opus 46: Allegro de Concert in A major
• Opus 57: Berceuse in D-flat major
• Opus 60: Barcarolle in F-sharp major
• Opus posth. 72:
  • No. 2: Marche funèbre (1829)
  • No. 3: Trois Ecossaises (1830)
• B. 12a: Variations in D major on a Theme by Thomas Moore, piano four-hands
• B. 14: Variations in E major on the air "Der Schweizerbub: Steh'auf, steh'auf o du Schweitzer Bub"
• B. 17: Contredanse in G-flat major
• B. 37: Variations in A major, 'Souvenir de Paganini'
• B. 84: Cantabile in B-flat major
• B. 109a: Largo in E-flat major
• B. 129a: Canon in F minor
• B. 144: Fugue in A minor
• B. 151: Album Leaf in E major

Piano with orchestra

• Opus 2: Variations on 'Là ci darem la mano' in B-flat major (1827)
• Opus 11: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor (composed 1830)
• Opus 13: Fantaisie brillante on Polish Airs in A major (1828)
• Opus 14: Rondo à la Krakowiak in F major (1828)
• Opus 21: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor (1829-1830)
• Opus 22: Andante spianato et Grande Polonaise brillante (Chopin) (1830-1831)[1]

Cello and piano

• Opus 3: Introduction and Polonaise brillante in C major
• Opus 65: Cello Sonata in G minor (1845–46)
• B. 70: Grand Duo Concertante in E major on Themes from "Robert le Diable", cello and piano (1832; written jointly with August Franchomme, and published under both their names)

Violin, cello and piano

• Opus 8: Trio for Violin, Cello & Piano in G minor

Vocal music

• Op. posth. 74, 19 Songs (1829-1847; Polish)
  • No. 1 The Wish (Zyczenie) (1829)
  • No. 2 Spring (Wiosna) (1838)
  • No. 3 The Sad River (Smutna Rzeka) (1831)
  • No. 4 Merrymaking (Hulanka) (1830)
  • No. 5 What She Likes (Gdzie lubi) (1829)
  • No. 6 Out of My Sight (Precz z moich oczu) (1830)
  • No. 7 The Messenger (Posel) (1830)
  • No. 8 Handsome Lad (Sliczny chlopiec) (1841)
  • No. 9 Melody (Melodia) (1847)
  • No. 10 The Warrior (Wojak) (1830)
  • No. 11 The Double-End (Dwojaki koniec) (1845)
  • No. 12 My Darling (Moja pieszczotka) (1837)
  • No. 13 I Want What I Have Not (Nie ma czego trzeba) (1845)
  • No. 14 The Ring (Pierscien) (1836)
  • No. 15 The Bridegroom (Narzeczony) (1831)
  • No. 16 Lithuanian Song (Piosnka litewska) (1831)
  • No. 17 Leaves are Falling, Hymn from the Tomb (Spiew z mogilki) (1836)
  • No. 18 Enchantment (Czary) (1830)
  • No. 19 Reverie (Dumka) (1840)
• One other song.

In all possible cases, Opus numbers are given. However, because a number of Chopin's works were not part of his original Opus, or published in part of a posthumous group, alternate catalogue designations are used.

• Op. 1, Rondo in C minor (1825)
• Op. 2, Variations on "La ci darem la mano" from Mozart's Opera "Don Giovanni" in B-flat major (1827)
• Op. 3, Introduction and Polonaise brillante for Violoncello and Piano in C major (1829)
• Op. 4, Piano Sonata No. 1 in C minor (1828)
• Op. 5, Rondo à la Mazur in F major (1826)
• Op. 6, 4 Mazurkas (1830)
  • No. 1 in F-sharp minor
  • No. 2 in C-sharp minor
  • No. 3 in E major
  • No. 4 in E-flat minor
• Op. 7, 5 Mazurkas (1830-1831)
  • No. 1 in B-flat major
  • No. 2 in A minor
  • No. 3 in F minor
  • No. 4 in A-flat major
  • No. 5 in C major
• Op. 8, Trio for Violin, Violoncello and Piano in G minor (1829)
• Op. 9, 3 Nocturnes (1830-1831)
  • No. 1 in B-flat minor
  • No. 2 in E-flat major
  • No. 3 in B major
• Op. 10, 12 Études à son ami Franz Liszt (1829-1832)
  • No. 1 in C major (1830)
  • No. 2 in A minor (1830)
  • No. 3 in E major (1832)
  • No. 4 in C-sharp minor (1832)
  • No. 5 in G-flat major ("Black Key") (1830)
  • No. 6 in E-flat minor (1830)
  • No. 7 in C major (1832)
  • No. 8 in F major (1829)
  • No. 9 in F minor (1829)
  • No. 10 in A-flat major (1829)
  • No. 11 in E-flat major (1829)
  • No. 12 C minor - (Revolutionary etude) (1831)
• Op. 11, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in E minor (1830)
• Op. 12, Variations brillantes in B-flat major on "Je vends du Scapulaires" from Herold's "Ludóvic" (1833)
• Op. 13, Fantasia on Polish Airs in A major (1828)
• Op. 14, Rondo à la Krakowiak in F major (1828)
• Op. 15, 3 Nocturnes (1830-1833)
  • No. 1 in F major (1830-1831)
  • No. 2 in F-sharp major (1830-1831)
  • No. 3 in G minor (1833)
• Op. 16, Rondo in E-flat major (1832)
• Op. 17, 4 Mazurkas (1832-1833)
  • No. 1 in B-flat major
  • No. 2 in E minor
  • No. 3 in A-flat major
  • No. 4 in A minor
• Op. 18, Grande Valse brillante in E-flat major (1831)
• Op. 19, Bolero in C major/A major (1833)
• Op. 20, Scherzo No. 1 in B minor (1831)
• Op. 21, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in F minor (1829-1830)
• Op. 22, Andante spianato in G major and Grande Polonaise brillante in E-flat major (Piano Solo 1834; the Polonaise section orchestrated 1830-31)
• Op. 23, Ballade No.1 in G minor (1831-1835)
• Op. 24, 4 Mazurkas (1834-1835)
  • No. 1 in G minor
  • No. 2 in C major
  • No. 3 in A-flat major
  • No. 4 in B-flat minor
• Op. 25, 12 Études à son amie Mme la Comtesse d'Agoult (1832-1836)
  • No. 1 in A flat major (1836)
  • No. 2 in F minor (1836)
  • No. 3 in F major (1836)
  • No. 4 in A minor (1832-1834)
  • No. 5 in E minor (1832-1834)
  • No. 6 in G-sharp minor (1832-1834)
  • No. 7 in C-sharp minor (1836)
  • No. 8 in D-flat major (1832-1834)
  • No. 9 in G-flat major (1832-1834)
  • No. 10 in B minor (1832-1834)
  • No. 11 in A minor ("Winter Wind") (1834)
  • No. 12 in C minor ("Ocean") (1836)
• Op. 26, 2 Polonaises (1834-1835)
  • No. 1 in C-sharp minor
  • No. 2 in E-flat minor
• Op. 27, 2 Nocturnes (1835)
  • No. 1 in C-sharp minor
  • No. 2 in D-flat major
• Op. 28, 24 Preludes (1836-1839)
  • No. 1 in C major (1839)
  • No. 2 in A minor (1838)
  • No. 3 in G major (1838-1839)
  • No. 4 in E minor (1838)
  • No. 5 in D major (1838-1839)
  • No. 6 in B minor (1838-1839)
  • No. 7 in A major (1836)
  • No. 8 in F-sharp minor (1838-1839)
  • No. 9 in E major (1838-1839)
  • No. 10 in C-sharp minor (1838-1839)
  • No. 11 in B major (1838-1839)
  • No. 12 in G-sharp minor (1838-1839)
  • No. 13 in F-sharp major (1838-1839)
  • No. 14 in E-flat minor (1838-1839)
  • No. 15 in D-flat major ("Raindrop") (1838-1839)
  • No. 16 in B-flat minor (1838-1839)
  • No. 17 in A-flat major (1836)
  • No. 18 in F minor (1838-1839)
  • No. 19 in E-flat major (1838-1839)
  • No. 20 in C minor (1838-1839)
  • No. 21 in B-flat major (1838-1839)
  • No. 22 in G minor (1836-1839)
  • No. 23 in F major (1838-1839)
  • No. 24 in D minor (1838-1839)
• Op. 29, Impromptu No. 1 in A flat major (1837)
• Op. 30, 4 Mazurkas (1836-1837)
  • No. 1 in C minor
  • No. 2 in B minor
  • No. 3 in D-flat major
  • No. 4 in C-sharp minor
• Op. 31, Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor (1837)
• Op. 32, 2 Nocturnes (1836-1837)
  • No. 1 in B major (1836-1837)
  • No. 2 in A-flat major (1836-1837)
• Op. 33, 4 Mazurkas (1837-1838)
  • No. 1 in G-sharp minor
  • No. 2 in D major
  • No. 3 in C major
  • No. 4 in B minor
• Op. 34, 3 Waltzes (1831-1838)
  • No. 1 in A-flat major (1835)
  • No. 2 in A minor (1831)
  • No. 3 in F major (1838)
• Op. 35, Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor - Funeral March (1839)
• Op. 36, Impromptu No. 2 in F-sharp major (1839)
• Op. 37, 2 Nocturnes (1838-1839)
  • No. 1 in G minor (1838)
  • No. 2 in G major (1839)
• Op. 38, Ballade No. 2 in F major (1836-1839)
• Op. 39, Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor (1839)
• Op. 40, 2 Polonaises (1838-1839)
  • No. 1 in A major - Military (1838)
  • No. 2 in C minor (1838-1839)
• Op. 41 4 Mazurkas (1838-1839)
  • No. 1/2, in E minor (1839)
  • No. 2/3, in B major (1838)
  • No. 3/4, in A-flat major (1839)
  • No. 4/1, in C-sharp minor (1839)
• Op. 42, Waltz in A-flat major (1840)
• Op. 43, Tarantella in A-flat major (1841)
• Op. 44, Polonaise in F-sharp minor (1841)
• Op. 45, Prelude in C-sharp minor (1841)
• Op. 46, Allegro de Concert in A major (1832-1841)
• Op. 47, Ballade No. 3 in A-flat major (1840-1841)
• Op. 48, 2 Nocturnes (1841)
  • No. 1 in C minor
  • No. 2 in F-sharp minor
• Op. 49, Fantasia in F minor (1841)
• Op. 50, 3 Mazurkas (1841-1842)
  • No. 1 in G major
  • No. 2 in A-flat major
  • No. 3 in C-sharp minor
• Op. 51, Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat major (1842)
• Op. 52, Ballade No. 4 in F minor (1842)
• Op. 53, Polonaise in A-flat major - "Heroic" (1842)
• Op. 54, Scherzo No. 4 in E major (1842)
• Op. 55, 2 Nocturnes (1843)
  • No. 1 in F minor
  • No. 2 in E-flat major
• Op. 56, 3 Mazurkas (1843)
  • No. 1 in B major
  • No. 2 in C major
  • No. 3 in C minor
• Op. 57, Berceuse in D-flat major (1843)
• Op. 58, Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor (1844)
• Op. 59, 3 Mazurkas (1845)
  • No. 1 in A minor
  • No. 2 in A-flat major
  • No. 3 in F-sharp minor
• Op. 60, Barcarolle in F-sharp major (1845-1846)
• Op. 61, Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat major (1845-1846)
• Op. 62, 2 Nocturnes (1846)
  • No. 1 in B major
  • No. 2 in E major
• Op. 63, 3 Mazurkas (1846)
  • No. 1 in B major
  • No. 2 in F minor
  • No. 3 in C-sharp minor
• Op. 64, 3 Waltzes (1846-1847)
  • No. 1 in D-flat major - (Minute Waltz)
  • No. 2 in C-sharp minor
  • No. 3 in A-flat major (c. 1840)
• Op. 65, Sonata for Violoncello and Piano in G minor (1845-1846)
• Op. posth. 66, Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor (1835)
• Op. posth. 67, 4 Mazurkas (1835-1849)
  • No. 1 in G major (1835)
  • No. 2 in G minor (1849)
  • No. 3 in C major (1835)
  • No. 4 in A minor (1846)
• Op. posth. 68, 4 Mazurkas (1827-1849)
  • No. 1 in C major (1829)
  • No. 2 in A minor (1827)
  • No. 3 in F major (1829)
  • No. 4 in F minor (1849) (Last Composition)
• Op. posth. 69, 2 Waltzes (1829-1835)
  • No. 1 in A-flat major (1835)
  • No. 2 in B minor (1829)
• Op. posth. 70, 3 Waltzes (1829-1841)
  • No. 1 in G-flat major (1833)
  • No. 2 in F minor (1841)
  • No. 3 in D-flat major (1829)
• Op. posth. 71, 3 Polonaises (1825-1828)
  • No. 1 in D minor (1825)
  • No. 2 in B-flat major (1828)
  • No. 3 in F minor (1828)
• Op. posth. 72, (1826-1827)
  • No. 1 Nocturne in E minor (1827)
  • No. 2 Funeral March in C minor (1827)
  • No. 3 3 Ecossaises (1826)
  • No. 3a in D major
  • No. 3b in G major
  • No. 3c in D-flat major
• Op. posth. 73, Rondo in C major (for two pianos) (1828)
• Op. posth. 74, 19 Songs (1829-1847)
  • No. 1 The Wish (Zyczenie) (1829)
  • No. 2 Spring (Wiosna) (1838)
  • No. 3 The Sad River (Smutna Rzeka) (1831)
  • No. 4 Merrymaking (Hulanka) (1830)
  • No. 5 What She Likes (Gdzie lubi) (1829)
  • No. 6 Out of My Sight (Precz z moich oczu) (1830)
  • No. 7 The Messenger (Posel) (1830)
  • No. 8 Handsome Lad (Sliczny chlopiec) (1841)
  • No. 9 Melody (Melodia) (1847)
  • No. 10 The Warrior (Wojak) (1830)
  • No. 11 The Double-End (Dwojaki koniec) (1845)
  • No. 12 My Darling (Moja pieszczotka) (1837)
  • No. 13 I Want What I Have Not (Nie ma czego trzeba) (1845)
  • No. 14 The Ring (Pierscien) (1836)
  • No. 15 The Bridegroom (Narzeczony) (1831)
  • No. 16 Lithuanian Song (Piosnka litewska) (1831)
  • No. 17 Leaves are Falling, Hymn from the Tomb (Spiew z mogilki) (1836)
  • No. 18 Enchantment (Czary) (1830)
  • No. 19 Reverie (Dumka) (1840)

Without opus number
Note: The following works are ordered by whether or not they were published, and year of composition.

Published works

• S 1 No. 1, Polonaise in G minor (1817)
• S 1 No. 2, 2 Mazurkas (1826)
  • No. 2a in G
  • No. 2b in B flat
• S 2 No. 1, Grand Duo concertant for Violoncello and Piano in E (1832)
• S 2 No. 2, Variation No. 6 in E from 'Hexameron' (1837)
• S 2 No. 3, 3 Etudes (1839)
  • No. 3a in F minor
  • No. 3b in A flat
  • No. 3c in D flat
• S 2 No. 4, Mazurka in A minor - Notre Temps (1840)
• S 2 No. 5, Mazurka in A minor - Émile Gaillard (1841)
• A 1 No. 1, Mazurka in D major - Mazurek (1820)
• A 1 No. 2, Prelude in F major (1845)
• A 1 No. 3, Andantino animato in F major (1845)
• A 1 No. 4, Contredanse in G flat major (1826)
• A 1 No. 5, Variations in E major for flute and piano on the air "Non piu mesta" from the opera "La Cenerentola" (1824)
• A 1 No. 6, Nocturne in C sharp minor - Nocturne oublie (unknown)
• A 1 No. 7, Waltz in F sharp minor - Valse melancolique (unknown)

Posth. works

• P 1 No. 1, Polonaise in B flat (1817)
• P 1 No. 2, Polonaise in A flat (1821)
• P 1 No. 3, Polonaise in G sharp minor (1822)
• P 1 No. 4, Introduction et Variations sur un lied Allemande in E (1826)
• P 1 No. 5, Polonaise in B flat minor - "La Gazza Ladra" (1826)
• P 1 No. 6, Introduction, Theme and Variations in D On a Theme by Thomas Moore (1826)
• P 1 No. 7, Mazurka in D (1829)
• P 1 No. 8, Polonaise in G flat (1829)
• P 1 No. 9, Lied in C (Jakiez kwiaty, jakie wianki) (1829)
• P 1 No. 10, Variations in A - "Souvenir de Paganini" (1829)
• P 1 No. 11, Lied in D minor, Enchantment (Czary) (1830)
• P 1 No. 12, Waltz in E (1829)
• P 1 No. 13, Waltz in A flat (1827)
• P 1 No. 14, Waltz in E flat (1829-1830)
• P 1 No. 15, Waltz in E minor (1830)
• P 1 No. 16, Nocturne in C sharp minor (1830)
• P 2 No. 1, Mazurka in B flat (1832)
• P 2 No. 2, Mazurka in D (1832)
• P 2 No. 3, Mazurka in C (1833)
• P 2 No. 4, Mazurka in A flat (1834)
• P 2 No. 5, Klavierstuck in E flat (1837)
• P 2 No. 6, Klavierstuck in B flat (1834)
• P 2 No. 7, Prelude in A flat - "Pierre Wolf" (1834)
• P 2 No. 8, Nocturne in C minor (1837)
• P 2 No. 9, Lied in A minor, Rêverie (Dumka) (1840)
• P 2 No. 10, Klavierstuck in E flat (1840)
• P 2 No. 11, Waltz in A minor (1843)
• P 2 No. 12, Moderato in E - "Album Leaf" (1843)
• P 2 No. 13, Galop A flat - "Galop Marquis" (1846)
• P 3 No. 2, Fugue in A minor (1841-1842)
• D 2 No. 1, Bourree No. 1 in G (1848)
• D 2 No. 2, Bourree No. 2 in A (1846)

• 1. Chopin's Op. 22 is most often called "Grande Polonaise Brillante preceded by Andante Spianato". The first part, Andante Spianato, is a lengthy piano solo, which segues into the Grande Polonaise, which is a piece in the Polonaise style, composed for Piano and Orchestra. In this respect, it is best to classify the entire opus under "Piano with Orchestra", because the solo part can be played alone, but it is an extract of the entire work as a whole.

• (French) Poliquin, Robert (2007-03-23). "Catalogue des oeuvres Catalogue of Works". Music and Musicians. Retrieved on 2007-04-08.
• (French) Poliquin, Robert. "Works catalogues". Music and Musicians. Retrieved on 2007-04-08.
• Mueller, Roman (1997-11-18). "Frédéric François Chopin: Works List". Classical Net. Retrieved on 2007-04-08.
• Newman, Danny. "Works by Frédéric François Chopin as compiled by Krystyna Kobylanska" (TXT). Classical Archives. Retrieved on 2007-04-08.

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Chamber Music
Polonaise Brilliante Op. 3 performed by Wispelvey + Lizic
Trio Gm Op. 8. Mov 1 Allegro con Fuoco performed by Frank, Ma, Ax
Trio Gm Op. 8. Mov 2 Scherzo performed by Frank, Ma, Ax
Trio Gm Op. 8. Mov 3 Adagio Sostenuto performed by Frank, Ma, Ax

Orchestral
Piano Concerto No.1 Op.11 Part 1 performed by Unknown
Piano Concerto No.1 Op.11 Part 2 performed by Unknown
Piano Concerto No.1 Op.11 Part 3 performed by Unknown
Piano Concerto No.1 Op.11 Part 4 performed by Unknown
Piano Concerto No.1 Op.11 Part 5 performed by Unknown
Piano concerto No.2 Part 1 performed by Rubinstein
Piano concerto No.2 Part 2 performed by Rubinstein
Piano concerto No.2 Part 3 performed by Rubinstein
Piano concerto No.2 Part 4 performed by Rubinstein
Piano concerto No.2 Part 5 performed by Rubinstein

Piano
Ballade No. 1 performed by Horowitz
Ballade No.3 Op. 47 performed by Claudio Arrau
Etude Op 10-12 performed by Richter
Etude Op 10-12 performed by Stanislav Bunin
Etude Op 10-12 performed by Yefim Bronfman
Etude Op 10-4 performed by Valentina Lisitsa
Etude Op 10-9 performed by Freddy Kempf
Fantasie Impromptu, Op. 66 performed by Yundi Li
Impromptu Op. 51 performed by Georges Cziffra
Nocturne Op. 09-2 Eb performed by Yundi Li
Nocturne Op. 09-2 Eb performed by Arthur Rubinstein
Nocturne Op. 27-2 Db performed by Lang Lang
Polonaise Op. 40-1 performed by Artur Rubinstein
Polonaise Op. 53 in A flat major performed by Georges Cziffra
Polonaise Op. 53 in A flat major performed by Horowitz
Scherzo No. 1 Op 30 Bm performed by Yundi Li
Scherzo No. 2 Op 30 Bbm performed by Yundi Li
Scherzo No. 3 Op 39 C#m performed by Yundi Li
Scherzo No. 4 Op 54 E performed by Yundi Li
Sonata No. 2 performed by Horowitz
Valse Brilliante Op. 34-1 Ab performed by Lang Lang

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If you find some other high quality recording that is not featured in our database, and which is free to the public. Please contact us as well so we can keep the quality of this database as high as possible.

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Chopin - Ballade in A Flat Major, Op. 47
Chopin - Mazurka in A Minor, Op. 13
Chopin - Nocture in D Flat Major, Op. 27, No. 2
Chopin - Piano fireworks
Chopin - Polonaise In A Flat Major, Op. 53
Chopin - Scherzo in C Sharp Minor, Op. 39
Chopin - Waltz in F Major, Op. 34, No. 3

Let's see if I can read your mind! Your first thought about this page was - "Why make a page with almost the same content as Wikipedias classical section, YouTube and the top free classical music download sites on the internet?". Were I right? Well even if that wasn't your first thought it is a question worth answering!

The internet is a wonderful place - never before has so much information been so easily accessible and never before have so many people been able to work together so easily. However, the strength of the web is also it's weakness - for too much information published in an unorganized fashion will deter most people from ever digging deep enough to find the real nuggets.

In other words - the internet is full of amazing content but sometimes it can be hard to find.

That's where Al Segno comes in, well at least that's the idea. If what you're looking for is related to classical music and classical composers we hope that you will be able to find it here! For the first release of this website we have added four composers - Ludvig van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. For each of these composers you will find:

• An extensive biography including a list of their works (From Wikipedia)
• A comprehensive and easily browseable index of videos of high quality performances (YouTube)
• MP3s, podcasts and recordings of their music (Different pages).

As of now - August, 27th 2008 - Al Segnos composer portraits database has been officially launched.