Art will save the world…

Yes, I am strongly convinced that art will save the world. I don’t need any proof. Just Chopin’s soft piano during the dark night hours. 

The year is 1787. What can be left of a world ravaged by tuberculosis and wars? Art, that strong human desire to fight destruction through creation. 

Nicolas Chopin, a talented flute player from France, moves to Poland at the age of 16 to teach French. He soon meets the Polish amateur musician Justyna Krzyżanowska, the woman who will give birth to one of the greatest pianists that ever lived, Fryderyk Chopin.

This child prodigy began to give public concerts at the age of 7 and composed two polonaises (Polish traditional dances). The family moved to Warsaw when Chopin was only six months old. 

Can you guess how proud Poles are today of the prodigy that walked their streets? There is a Fryderyk Chopin Institute and Fryderyk Chopin Museum established in the past century in Warsaw. The University of Music and the airport in Warsaw are also named after him.

At the age of 20, this aspiring musician joins the home of hundreds of talented artists of the century – Paris. The political situation in Poland got only worse and Fryderyk never returned to his birthplace. Hanging around with Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, Eugène Delacroix, and Alfred de Vigny, among others, helped him bear the feeling of homesickness.

Poland gave him the knightly spirit and the suffering of the times, France – panache and grace, and Germany gave him romantic depth.

– Heinrich Heine 

The German poet Heine called Chopin ‘a poet’ whose music reflects the poetry of his soul. 

Paris was Chopin’s home, but his heart remained forever in his beloved Poland. And indeed, after his death, only his heart was taken to Warsaw, while his body was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery. 

The story goes like this, as told by the local guide in Żelazowa Wola: Chopin died at the age of 39 and two things stopped the poet of the piano from being buried in his native land. The Catholic church, opposed to his relationship with the controversial French writer George Sand, and the Russian authorities in Poland. 

Who was George Sand?

Chopin’s mistress George Sand was the definition of freedom in the 19th century. She was officially the first woman to wear pants and smoke tobacco in public at a time when such behavior was scandalous for a woman.

Find out why George Sand was one of the most influential female writers in the 19th century:

https://langlittravel.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/7-inspiring-female-authors-from-around-the-world/

Chopin was 26 when he met George Sand. She was 32. This iconic couple spent almost 9 years together and their separation eventually caused Chopin’s malaise. 

If you ever wish to thank Chopin for brightening up your life, you can find him in Paris, Warsaw, or his birthplace Żelazowa Wola. Paris is the city where he spent most of his artistic career, created, lived, loved, and died. Poland, on the other hand, was the country that gave us the child prodigy Chopin.

The poet of the piano lives, everywhere and forever. 

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