# Chopin is wonderful



## Gondur (May 17, 2014)

The simplicity of this piece makes me think about order and mathematical structure where I can picture the universe and move stars, planets and galaxies with my hand. It makes me feel light and as though I am floating above reality as a 'God'. Does the opening start with enharmonic punning? The piece feels perfectly balanced like the weight of the world could topple over with a breath of air and it almost does. It reminds me of 'pure' thought in which there is only logic and reason but then self doubt and bad feelings start to creep in. It reminds me of the second law of thermodynamics which describes how order falls into chaos. Its simplicity reminds me of how Isaac Newton derived the formula F=Gmm/r^2 which describes massive objects with such simplicity. I can see one of those mechanical planetary models or orbit tellurium that has the Sun and planets orbiting it.






Chopin is wonderful!


----------



## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

Yes he is. Wrote some of the most beautiful music ever. I learned this piece in Junior High School and still play it today.

V


----------



## Gondur (May 17, 2014)

Varick said:


> Yes he is. Wrote some of the most beautiful music ever. I learned this piece in Junior High School and still play it today.
> 
> V


I first heard it in a movie, which ironically was about space, our 'designers' - or 'God's.


----------



## Donata (Dec 28, 2013)

One of my favorites.


----------



## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

I've always loved Chopin. Another great prelude is the A flat major one (no. 7), so short and simple, yet says all it needs to say, like capturing a moment of serenity during a hectic day. And of course, his Nocturnes are works of genius


----------



## CypressWillow (Apr 2, 2013)

Chopin: my Alpha and Omega.


----------



## Mister Man (Feb 3, 2014)

I never got Chopin. It's my fault, no doubt. I like his usuals, but when I try to expand deeper into his repertoire, it doesn't really click. Hopefully it will, one of these days.


----------



## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

I can appreciate Chopin, I grew up listening to My Favorite Chopin performed by Van Cliburn back in 1975, (RCA Victor 60358 -2-RC) since he was my mother's favorite composer. It brings back good memories. Another standout performance, in my opinion, is Chopin: Piano Concertos Nos. 1&2 performed by the Polish Festival Orchestra Cond. Krystian Zimerman (Deutsche Grammophon 289 459 684-2). It is not staid and unmemorable, as some other interpretations I have heard.


----------



## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

I love the Polonaises and am having Bolognese for dinner


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Antiquarian said:


> I can appreciate Chopin, I grew up listening to My Favorite Chopin performed by Van Cliburn back in 1975, (RCA Victor 60358 -2-RC) since he was my mother's favorite composer. It brings back good memories. Another standout performance, in my opinion, is Chopin: Piano Concertos Nos. 1&2 performed by the Polish Festival Orchestra Cond. Krystian Zimerman (Deutsche Grammophon 289 459 684-2). It is not staid and unmemorable, as some other interpretations I have heard.


I loved Cliburn's playing. Heard him live.


----------



## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

I envy you hpowders. I've always thought Van Cliburn was an underappreciated pianist.


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

There's a recording by van Cliburn of the 3rd Scherzo, live from Moscow, which is exceptional.

Two very worthwhile Chopin pianists are Alfred Cortot and Vladimir Sofronitsky. In more recent times, Imwould say that Pletnev played Chopin with great imagination and sensitivity. Cortot did a particularly fine job with that raindrops prelude in the opening post, in a live recording from Munich in 1955.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Antiquarian said:


> I envy you hpowders. I've always thought Van Cliburn was an underappreciated pianist.


Well he was very popular after winning the Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow. His repertoire was limited, however-Brahms, Chopin, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev, mainly. Learning new pieces wasn't his thing unfortunately, but man could he play what he did know. He had the hugest hands I've ever seen!


----------



## Mesenkomaha (Jun 24, 2014)

I'm listening to Chopin right now. He is quickly becoming my favorite and also my go to composer. My only question, how do you pronounce Chopin correctly? I say "choppin'" like choppin wood for a fire. How wrong is that?


----------



## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Mesenkomaha said:


> I'm listening to Chopin right now. He is quickly becoming my favorite and also my go to composer. My only question, how do you pronounce Chopin correctly? I say "choppin'" like choppin wood for a fire. How wrong is that?


That's pretty wrong.

It's a French name, so you pronounce it like sho-pan but you gotta end it with sort of a soft ng sound.


----------



## Mesenkomaha (Jun 24, 2014)

violadude said:


> That's pretty wrong.
> 
> It's a French name, so you pronounce it like sho-pan but you gotta end it with sort of a soft ng sound.


Thanks for the clarity. I'm pretty bad with French names. I'm the guy who gave a presentation for class and referred to Lyons as "lions" ugh so embarrassing.


----------



## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Mesenkomaha said:


> I'm listening to Chopin right now. He is quickly becoming my favorite and also my go to composer. My only question, how do you pronounce Chopin correctly? I say "choppin'" like choppin wood for a fire. How wrong is that?


You can use google translate for these things: https://translate.google.com.ar/?hl=en#fr/en/Frédéric Chopin

Press the little speaker there and you will hear the french pronunciation. Also, press the speaker in the english side and be horrified by the difference, haha.


----------



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Chopin seemed to be one of those guys, like Jimi Hendrix, who could express his thought processes instantly, as if the instrument and musical ideas were a direct extension of his mind. Amazing!


----------



## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Gondur said:


> Chopin is wonderful!


That says it all.


----------



## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

violadude said:


> That's pretty wrong.
> 
> It's a French name, so you pronounce it like sho-pan but you gotta end it with sort of a soft ng sound.


You mean polish?


----------



## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

Ravndal said:


> You mean polish?


Polish - Frederyk Szopen


----------



## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Headphone Hermit said:


> Polish - Frederyk Szopen


ssssss
Fryderyk


----------



## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Ravndal said:


> You mean polish?


No, I'm pretty sure Chopin's name is French since his ancestry was French.


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

violadude said:


> No, I'm pretty sure Chopin's name is French since his ancestry was French.


Chopin's father, Nicolas Chopin, was a Frenchman from Lorraine who had emigrated to Poland: his mother was Justyna Krzyżanowska, a Pole. 
His parents gave him the name Fryderyk Franciszek (Chopin.)

Chopin left Poland when he was 20, and by the age of 21 he had moved to and settled in Paris.
In 1835, age 25, Chopin obtained French Citizenship.


----------



## Forte (Jul 26, 2013)

Chopin is one of the most genuine poets of sound ever imo. It doesn't matter that he composed mostly for piano. That was his voice.


----------



## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

Mister Man said:


> I never got Chopin. It's my fault, no doubt. I like his usuals, but when I try to expand deeper into his repertoire, it doesn't really click. Hopefully it will, one of these days.


Just listen to Rubinstein doing his Nocturnes. If you are not moved by that, you just may be souless.

Also listen to Rubinstein playing the Romance (2nd Mvmt) of his 1st Piano Concerto. If you are not moved by that........

V


----------



## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

Most of CHOPIN music sounds way better than hip hop/rap & other forms of crap music.


----------



## Matsps (Jan 13, 2014)

mtmailey said:


> Most of CHOPIN music sounds way better than hip hop/rap & other forms of crap music.


_Most_ of Chopin?!


----------



## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

I have grave suspicions that the OP put far more thought into the D Flat Major prelude than Chopin himself.



> The piece feels perfectly balanced like the weight of the world could topple over with a breath of air and it almost does.


Now I'm all for raving over music and making whimsical/emphatic similes; for me, however, this does not follow.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

mtmailey said:


> Most of CHOPIN music sounds way better than hip hop/rap & other forms of crap music.


I agree. Melody always trumps monotonous rhythm with obscene language thrown in.


----------



## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

> Originally Posted by mtmailey
> 
> Most of CHOPIN music sounds way better than hip hop/rap & other forms of crap music.
> 
> hdpoweders: I agree. Melody always trumps monotonous rhythm with obscene language thrown in.


A Bordeaux claret will always taste better than gin and juice; at least to people_ with _taste.


----------



## Piwikiwi (Apr 1, 2011)

Marschallin Blair said:


> A Bordeaux claret will always taste better than gin and juice; at least to people_ with _taste.


Or some people dislike a wine producer who never innovates his formula for all of his wines and sometimes want something else like gin and juice.


----------



## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

As others have clarified, Chopin was half French on his father's side, so his name is pronounced like 'show-PAN'

Anyway, just listened to his op. 49 Fantaisie the other day, one of my favorite pieces by him that surprisingly isn't played that often.


----------



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

As an instrumentalist, this gave Chopin expressive power and none of the bother of writing for anyone else; his creativity was undisturbed and unhindered, and unquestioned. Chopin no doubt got a lot of flak from conservatives, just as Monteverdi did, for ushering-in another new style of 'modernism.'

This is the key to 'art' music; it came about via instrumental innovations and thinking, maybe based on vocal models, but ultimately creating a new territory of instrumental music, not burdened by the tradition of choirs, or in the case of portable keyboards, by church settings.

Now, 'secret laboratories' of composers were bringing strange new creations to life; alien harmonic forms, unexplainable by standard methods, yet, living and resonating with a strange new life.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Piwikiwi said:


> Or some people dislike a wine producer who never innovates his formula for all of his wines and sometimes want something else like gin and juice.


Two things I come to TC for: advice on 1. classical music and 2. wine.


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Does anyone think that some of Chopin's music is political -- a sort of coded message for Polish independence from Russia or something? I'm thinking of some of the more violent nocturnes and the Polonaises and some of the later mazurkas.

Patriotic and independentist or not, he certainly seemed to have had a penchant for traditional Polish forms. And his music can be so exlosibve it's hard not to think of war, struggle.

Another aspect seems to be psychological. At least the way Cortot and Pletnev play some of the notcturnes they seem deep, not just s bunch of tunes. I don't know if other people sense this -- here's Cortot in op 27/1:






Same with Sofronitsky's first recording of the Barcarolle


----------



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Mandryka said:


> Does anyone think that some of Chopin's music is political -- a sort of coded message for Polish independence from Russia or something? I'm thinking of some of the more violent nocturnes and the Polonaises and some of the later mazurkas.
> 
> Patriotic and independent-ist or not, he certainly seemed to have had a penchant for traditional Polish forms. And his music can be so explosive it's hard not to think of war, struggle.
> 
> Another aspect seems to be psychological. At least the way Cortot and Pletnev play some of the nocturnes they seem deep, not just a bunch of tunes. I don't know if other people sense this...


Yes, I sense this, and more...That's the good thing about the independent Romantic; the individual, by nature, opposes the State, and in this sense, is inherently 'political' in that sense. So, yes, I can see Chopin as using his national identity to oppose Russian domination.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Piwikiwi said:


> Or some people dislike a wine producer who never innovates his formula for all of his wines and sometimes want something else like gin and juice.


Gin and tonic water is always a favorite at my house. My #1 mixed drink.


----------



## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Mandryka said:


> At least the way Cortot and Pletnev play some of the notcturnes they seem deep, not just s bunch of tunes


Whoa, it doesn't take any special pianist to make nocturnes by Chopin more than "just a bunch of tunes", no extra genius from interpreter is required to be added to the compositions, they are much, much more just by themselves.


----------



## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

As I've said, he was one of the first composers whom I started listening to, and he still remains in the top echelon. So powerfully expressive and genuine. A demigod of the piano. No other pianist comes close, for me.


----------



## SnakeGnim12333 (Jun 26, 2020)

Well that's a shame, you don't get to appreciate Chopin's beauty. But you know, I can't tell you what music you're supposed to like and what music you're not, so I won't. What music does click with you then?

btw this is for the guy who said he liked chop in's usuals but it didn't really click for him when he got deeper into chop in's reportoires.


----------



## SnakeGnim12333 (Jun 26, 2020)

Well while taste is subjective, I do agree that Chopin's music is so much deeper than some of today's pop music. In modern music, missing skill in certain areas can easily be compensated for with background effects, dancing, etc. And because it is such a new era of music, people can't really differentiate actual skill from mediocre efficiency presented in a new way, which is often the root of musical arguments. Some of Chopin's works are still held in high regards today, and honestly, I don't think Miley Cyrus's twerking will be held at such status hundreds of years from today.

Btw this post is for Marschallin Blair


----------



## SnakeGnim12333 (Jun 26, 2020)

op 27 no 2 is similar to the raindrop prelude surprising...and they are in the same key!


----------



## SnakeGnim12333 (Jun 26, 2020)

neither is op 55 no 2 
Yes his name is pronounced with an a


----------



## SnakeGnim12333 (Jun 26, 2020)

haha. Leon, a German name, I also once pronounced "lions" XD


----------



## SnakeGnim12333 (Jun 26, 2020)

Chopin changed his name from Fryderyk to Frederick


----------



## aioriacont (Jul 23, 2018)

Some of his music is a bit better than most of the mediocre stuff we have nowadays.


----------



## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

aioriacont said:


> Some of his music is a bit better than most of the mediocre stuff we have nowadays.


What's mediocre in you objective ears?


----------



## aioriacont (Jul 23, 2018)

Rogerx said:


> What's mediocre in you objective ears?


it was a sarcastic post mocking at how people generalize current music as bad. I thought people would get it, considering the "forced" wording of my sentence.

That said, he is my favorite piano-focused composer. My currently favorite Chopin pieces are his Etudes, which I have never listened to properly until a couple of years ago. I still can't get into some of the Mazurkas though. I prefer when he sounds more "ethereal", like in his preludes.


----------



## Maxwell Birch (Jun 27, 2020)

Chopin is awful.


----------



## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

Who knows, advanced aliens from outer space may have all agreed on the best music of Earth being from Chopin and Grieg.


----------



## Donna Elvira (Nov 12, 2017)

Cosmos said:


> I've always loved Chopin. Another great prelude is the A flat major one (no. 7), so short and simple, yet says all it needs to say, like capturing a moment of serenity during a hectic day. And of course, his Nocturnes are works of genius


Chopin's Nocturnes are some of my most frequently played of his works.
Not only beautiful, but relaxing, if you will forgive using music for such a mundane purpose.
After reading the opening post, comparing his Prelude in Db, "Raindrop," to the order of the Universe, I feel a bit embarrassed.
It seems that others have eluded to a natural phenomenon when naming this piece, does anyone know the origin of the nickname, I doubt that it was Chopin's.


----------



## Donna Elvira (Nov 12, 2017)

Maxwell Birch said:


> Chopin is awful.


What kind of music, for solo piano, do you enjoy?


----------



## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Maxwell Birch said:


> Chopin is awful.


Very informative, please tell us why?


----------



## Donna Elvira (Nov 12, 2017)

Varick said:


> Just listen to Rubinstein doing his Nocturnes. If you are not moved by that, you just may be souless.
> 
> Also listen to Rubinstein playing the Romance (2nd Mvmt) of his 1st Piano Concerto. If you are not moved by that........
> 
> V


We all have our own special "soul."
I agree Rubenstein playing Chopin's Nocturnes is very moving...also like Pires.
Most agree that Rubinstein had a very special connection to Chopin, kind of like Gould with Bach.


----------

