Customer Reviews

Chopin's Letters (Dover Books on Music)

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Reading the early passages in Chopin's letters, one is almost heartbroken by the youth, the enthusiasm, the childlike good humor evident therein. Chopin at 17 was a wide-eyed kid from Warsaw with unparalleled musical talent and his whole life in front of him, the world apparently his oyster. To read his letters in subsequent years -- after the Russian invasion of Poland that stranded him in Paris; the abortive betrothal to Maria Wodzinska; the complex and finally tragic relationship with George Sand -- is to watch a man reach adulthood step by step. Though they contain only small, tantalizing glimpses of Chopin's opinions on music, the letters make for an effective counterpoint to his immortal compositions. The man who wrote the great Ballades and Scherzi was just a man like any other: he was annoyed at lazy servants, he unconsciously exploited his friends, he wanted to move in the circles of great aristocrats, he had provincial and prejudiced opinions. The lesson is banal, but true, and vividly made clear in these letters.

These letters make wonderful reading. Chopin's writing style is direct, at times humorous, and gives a great insight in his daily life, from his very young years untill just before his death in 1849.
In these letters he does not much write about his art (he hardly did that anyway: most of his thoughts on music are written down by his friend Eugene Delacroix in his journal, based on their conversations).
These letters cover a wide variety of subjects: holiday-planning, chit-chat,long letters to his sister Ludwika, letters to his lover George Sand and her children, rude business letters (no romantic dreamer here!),sad letters, passionate letters of a young Chopin,etc.
If you want to get to know the person Chopin this is a must-read.

After having listened the principal Romantic composers along the history of music, one tends to make oneself this decisive question: What's in last instance the main difference between Chopin and the rest of his colleagues?

To my mind, there are three basic factors that made it possible. First and foremost, the introspective character of his works. Indeed, Chopin found inspiration through the history, the geography and his emotional universe made the rest: to blend his livings with his dreamlike temperament. Second, his profound sensibility before the world that surrounded him blended with his poetic imagination allowed to hierarchy his musical thinking in several categories, the epic Scherzos, the declamatory Ballads, the charming Nocturnes, the Pre- Impressionistic Preludes (that must have inflamed the Pantheistic musical canvas of Claude Debussy), those cannons hidden between flowers (Polonaises), the Pastoral character of the Mazurkas, the febrile end exalted lyric jewels best known like his Etudes and the gentle accords emanated from his Waltzes, that captured the easy Romantic vein of most of audiences. Third, his music possesses probably the most ambitious scale of kaleidoscopic emotions, no other composer has been able to make that amazing journey: infinite sadness, deep melancholia, sumptuous lyricism, polychrome sense of the nostalgia, understood like a term that includes an impressive gamut of livings, missed loves, love for the ground, patriotic airs, the strong desire for the independence of his beloved Poland, the exaltation for the nature and finally a sense of universal embracement that may be found out even in the humblest thrill. Besides, there were other memorable evidences of his genius, hovered by the patina of the time. The Fantasy in F minor, composed at the summit of his artistic creativeness, the emblematic Berceuse and the enigmatic Barcarolle tinged and nourished a brief but febrile existence, where the poetry made the passion was even incorporeal which dictated the most elusive musical motives of inimitable fragrance.

All the composers after him, keep an eternal gratitude by his undeniable influence. Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Granados, Mac Dowell, Faure among the most representative ones.

These letters carve in relief the purity and grandness of his creative craft as well as his most intimate thoughts.

Don't miss it.

Shipped fast. Good condition. The one thing that was sort of strange, is that it dosen't show any letters that were sent to Chopin himself, so a lot of his replys do not make sense. Also every time that he wrote two or more consecutive letters to the same person, it is addressed "To the Same" so you have to look all the way back to the first. In the case of Juliana Fontana this can span for more than ten pages.

The title says it all, basically. This is a highly accurate book, of course, and it is mostly thanks to Chopin's beautiful writing. However, the preface provides highly accurate and careful/thoughtful information about Chopin and his letters. I really appreciated the amount of care that was put into editing Chopin's letters with the least bias possible- greatly done. For all Chopin fans, this is a must have; what better thing to read about the romantic genius than his actual writing (very detailed and colorful, too)? I highly recommend this book.

Enjoyed reading his letters as it gave an insight to the man Chopin was.