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 honor with Robert Schumann--the school which
to-day is represented in its advanced form by Liszt and Von Billow.
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
characterized 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 ardor 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 recognize the requiem of
a nation in the passionate melancholy on whose dark background his fancy
weaves such beautiful figures and colors.
Franz Liszt, in characterizing 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 inthrallment, 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 organized.
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 pretense
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 humor 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."