Chopin, FREDERIC

FRANÇOIS, 1809-1849. Pianist and composer, b. near Warsaw of a French father and a Polish mother. He was musically precocious in childhood, and had a dreamy, IMG:content-0868.png:[graphic][subsumed][subsumed] melancholy temperament, which is reflected in all his music. Few, if any, composers have shown so little change or development. He settled in Paris, where he speedily became the hero of the salons. The last ten years of his life were made wretched by bronchitis, consumption, and an unhappy intrigue with Mme. Dudevant, known as George Sand. As a composer his chief succe es were won in the smaller forms, with marked rhythmical characteristics, as the polonaise, mazurka, bolero, tarantelle, and waltz, though perhaps there is more elegance/ of melody, eloquence of harmony and refinement of feeling in his preludes and studies. In cla ical forms he was le happy, though his two concerti still have great charm. His published works number 73.