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It’s one of the most romanticized love affairs in music history: dashing cross-dressing woman novelist George Sand becomes obsessed with, and then seduces, the sickly consumptive pianist-composer Frédéric Chopin. But how much of this story is real, and how much of it is just mythologizing?
Mar 4, 2013 · In 1838, George Sand (the pen name of Aurore Dupin Dudevant) and Frédéric Chopin began a love affair that lasted nine years. This long-term relationship came to an end in 1847 when, according to Sa...
- Katharine Ann Jensen
- 2013
- He Was Incredibly Frail
- His Family Was Poor
- They Taught Him Music
- He Was Brilliant
- He Started Young
- The Rich and Powerful Wanted Him Around
- He Suffered A Tragedy
- He Made Some...Close Friends
- His Letters Were Juicy
- He Found His First Crush
From his first moments, Frederic Chopin had to fight for his life. Born a frail, sickly child in the Duchy of Warsaw (now Poland), Chopin's parents fretted over him constantly. They must have prayed their boy's health would improve as he grew older, yet it didn't. The years began to pass and little Frederic remained as feeble as ever. Yet the Chopi...
Chopin's parents didn't have it easy. Neither his father Nicolas nor his mother Justyna made nearly enough money to give Frederic and their three daughters much stability. The Chopins eked out a difficult existence in the Polish countryside, but then Nicolas got the opportunity of a lifetime. He landed a job teaching at the Warsaw Lyceum. The entir...
Both of Chopin's parents were musicians. His father played the flute and the violin, but young Frederic was far more interested in his mother's instrument: the piano. Justyna gave lessons to all of her children, ensuring the Chopin household always echoed with the sounds of music. However, it didn't take long for Justyna to realize something was di...
Young Frederic Chopin took to the piano like a fish to water. It very quickly became clear that he would need proper instruction to reach his potential. At just six years old, the family scraped together enough money to hire a professional tutor for the boy and his older sister. The teacher soon realized what Justyna had already known: Frederic Cho...
In typical child prodigy fashion, Chopin started giving his first public concerts when he was seven years old. That same year, he composed his first pieces of music. Word soon got out about this brilliant young boy who played the piano so beautifully. That kind of thing gets you noticed, and it was about to change Chopin's life forever. Getty Image...
Chopin was still just a boy when Europe's upper classes came calling. Though just the son of a teacher and a poor housewife, the city's rich and powerful lined up to see the boy genius. Eventually, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich invited Chopin to the Belweder Palace to be his son's playmate and to play music for him. It seemed as though the hard t...
Frederic Chopin wasn't the only person in his family cursed with ill health. His father dealt with respiratory issues for his entire life, and so too did his youngest sister, Emilia. In 1827, Emilia's illness suddenly took a turn for the worse. The family prayed this was just another flare-up—but it wasn't. Emilia Chopin was just 14 years old when ...
One of the ways the Chopin family made ends meet was by running a boarding house for male students at the academy. Four of these young men became extremely close to Frederic, and he remained in contact with them for his entire life. In fact, one of those relationships may have gotten even more intimate than anyone realized... At least, that's what ...
Frederic Chopin's controversial relationships always got him into trouble, and he may have started even earlier than anyone realized. His letters to one of his parents' boarders, a man named Tytus Woyciechowski, were shockingly explicit. He wrote of racy dreams and offered kisses and close embraces. Though the exact details of their relationship re...
Genius and obsession go together hand in hand, and Chopin was no different. When he first met Konstancja Gładkowska, a young, beautiful singer, he fell head over heels. Yet a sickly, awkward young man like Frederic Chopin couldn't just come out and tell her, so he pined after her from afar, never once making a move. If you know anything about his l...
Though Sand claimed not to have made a cartoon out of Chopin, the book's publication and widespread readership may have exacerbated their later antipathy towards each other. After Chopin's death, Sand burned much of their correspondence, leaving only four surviving letters between the two. [30]
Sep 16, 2010 · Did Chopin fall in love with Sand’s daughter Solange? In taking the part of the daughter against the mother did he betray George? The 18-year-old Solange was ungovernable. Despite Chopin’s warnings, her mother pushed her into the arms of Auguste Clésinger, a talented sculptor but a bad choice for a son-in-law.
Oct 1, 2020 · Roxanne Coady: Even someone who doesn’t know that much about Chopin knows that he had an almost ten-year affair with George Sand. When I think about resurrecting, Chopin had a shortcut reputation as being sort of a snob and a dandy.
When Chopin's relationship with Sand began in 1838, Solange was ten years old, and by the time of her marriage in 1847, she had spent more time and had more contact with him than with any other man in her mother's life. Chopin gave Solange her first piano lessons.
