Friday, October 5, 2012

THE STORY OF FREDERIC CHOPIN, Part 3

Some final thoughts on the great man and his art, before we begin the listening portion of our course:

Chopin was never a robust person, though he was well and busy most of his life. But in the last years he suffered much from illness. This led him to travel to many places from Paris for the good of his health.

Chopin was devoted to Poland, the beloved land of his birth. Here is a picture of the great composer who has fallen asleep at the keyboard and is dreaming of a glorious future for Poland.
CHOPIN DREAMING OF POLAND

Once he went to England and to Scotland. He played in London and was highly praised for the beautiful way he performed his own music.

While it is true that Chopin was ill in the last years of his life, we must notice that he kept right on with his work. He played and composed just as he always had done. Chopin died in Paris, October 17, 1849, just two years after Mendelssohn, who died in 1847.

Many men, who would have given up everything had they not been brave, have worked right on through illness.

Milton was blind, but he dictated Paradise Lost to his daughter.

Beethoven was deaf, but he did not give up composing.

Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote the lovely Child's Garden of Verses, was ill all his life, but he kept on writing. Grieg was probably never well all his life, but he never gave up.
MILTON
BEETHOVEN
STEVENSON
GRIEG

No comments:

Post a Comment