Chopin, Frédéric

(1810-1849)

   Polish-French composer

   Born in Zelazowa-Wola, near Warsaw, to a Polish mother and a French father, Frédéric Chopin, who some consider the greatest composer of music for piano, was a prodigy who published his first composition in 1817 and gave his first concert as a piano virtuoso in 1829. Chopin, who greatly influenced Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, and claude debussy, has among his many compositions 55 mazurkas, 27 études, 25 préludes, 19 nocturnes, 13 polonaises, four waltzes, three piano sonatas, as well as piano concertos in E minor and F minor, and 17 songs. (Sources differ as to the number of each type of musical composition and may include works on which Chopin collaborated with other composers.)

   Settling in paris, Chopin had a liaison with the writer george sand and enjoyed a long friendship with eugène delacroix. Through his works, Chopin is admired for his originality, and no one else was so exclusively dedicated to the piano.