The compositions of Chopin were exclusively for the piano; and alike
as composer and virtuoso he is the founder of a new school, or
perhaps may be said to share that honour with Robert Schumann--the
school which to-day is represented in its advanced form by Liszt and
Von Bülow. Schumann called him "the boldest and proudest poetic spirit
of the times." In addition to this remarkable poetic power, he was a
splendidly-trained musician, a great adept in style, and one of the
most original masters of rhythm and harmony that the records of music
show. All his works, though wanting in breadth and robustness of tone,
are characterised by the utmost finish and refinement. Full of
delicate and unexpected beauties, elaborated with the finest touch,
his effects are so quaint and fresh as to fill the mind of the
listener with pleasurable sensations, perhaps not to be derived from
grander works.
Chopin was essentially the musical exponent of his nation; for he
breathed in all the forms of his art the sensibilities, the fires, the
aspirations, and the melancholy of the Polish race. This is not only
evident in his polonaises, his waltzes and mazurkas, in which the wild
Oriental rhythms of the original dances are treated with the creative
skill of genius; but also in the _études_, the preludes, nocturnes,
scherzos, ballads, etc., with which he so enriched musical literature.
His genius could never confine itself within classic bonds, but,
fantastic and impulsive, swayed and bent itself with easy grace to
inspirations that were always novel and startling, though his boldness
was chastened by deep study and fine art-sense.
All of the suggestions of the quaint and beautiful Polish dance-music
were worked by Chopin into a variety of forms, and were greatly
enriched by his skill in handling. He dreamed out his early
reminiscences in music, and these national memories became embalmed in
the history of art. The polonaises are marked by the fire and ardour
of his soldier race, and the mazurkas are full of the coquetry and
tenderness of his countrywomen; while the ballads are a free and
powerful rendering of Polish folk-music, beloved alike in the
herdsman's hut and the palace of the noble. In deriving his
inspiration direct from the national heart, Chopin did what Schumann,
Schubert, and Weber did in Germany, what Rossini did in Italy, and
shares with them a freshness of melodic power to be derived from no
other source. Rather tender and elegiac than vigorous, the deep
sadness underlying the most sparkling forms of his work is most
notable. One can at times almost recognise the requiem of a nation in
the passionate melancholy on whose dark background his fancy weaves
such beautiful figures and colours.
Franz Liszt, in characterising Chopin as a composer, furnishes an
admirable study--"We meet with beauties of a high order, expressions
entirely new, and a harmonic tissue as original as erudite. In his
compositions boldness is always justified; richness, often exuberance,
never interferes with clearness; singularity never degenerates into
the uncouth and fantastic; the sculpturing is never disordered; the
luxury of ornament never overloads the chaste eloquence of the
principal lines. His best works abound in combinations which may be
said to be an epoch in the handling of musical style. Daring,
brilliant, and attractive, they disguise their profundity under so
much grace, their science under so many charms, that it is with
difficulty we free ourselves sufficiently from their magical
enthralment, to judge coldly of their theoretical value."
As a romance composer Chopin struck out his own path, and has no
rival. Full of originality, his works display the utmost dignity and
refinement. He revolted from the bizarre and eccentric, though the
peculiar influences which governed his development might well have
betrayed one less finely organised.
As a musical poet, embodying the feelings and tendencies of a people,
Chopin advances his chief claim to his place in art. He did not task
himself to be a national musician; for he is utterly without pretence
and affectation, and sings spontaneously, without design or choice,
from the fullness of a rich nature. He collected "in luminous sheaves
the impressions felt everywhere through his country--vaguely felt, it
is true, yet in fragments pervading all hearts."
Chopin was repelled by the lusty and almost coarse humour sometimes
displayed by Schubert, for he was painfully fastidious. He could not
fully understand nor appreciate Beethoven, whose works are full of
lion-marrow, robust and masculine alike in conception and treatment.
He did not admire Shakespeare, because his great delineations are too
vivid and realistic. Our musician was essentially a dreamer and
idealist. His range was limited, but within it he reached perfection
of finish and originality never surpassed. But, with all his
limitations, the art-judgment of the world places him high among those
"... whom Art's service pure
Hallows and claims, whose hearts are made her throne,
Whose lips her oracle, ordained secure
To lead a priestly life and feed the ray
Of her eternal shrine; to them alone
Her glorious countenance unveiled is shown."
_WEBER._