Frédéric Chopin
Poet of the piano, transformed piano music
Most quoted
"One needs only to study a certain positioning of the hand in relation to the keys to obtain with ease the most beautiful sounds, to know how to play long notes and short notes and to [attain] certain unlimited dexterity... A well formed technique, it seems to me, [is one] that can control and vary a beautiful sound quality."
— from Prose writings
"Paris is whatever you want it to be. You can amuse yourself, be bored, laugh, cry, do whatever you like, and no one will so much as look at you, because thousands of others are doing exactly the same thing, each in his own way."
— from Letter, 1831
"When one does a thing, it appears good, otherwise one would not write it. Only later comes reflection, and one discards or accepts the thing. Time is the best censor, and patience a most excellent teacher."
— from Attributed remark
All quotes by Frédéric Chopin (369)
I am not a sad man. I am a musician.
I am not a healthy man. I am a musician.
I am not a sick man. I am a musician.
I am not a living man. I am a musician.
I am not a dead man. I am a musician.
I am a revolutionary, I am a rebel, I am a man who has no country, no family, no friends, no God, no religion, no nothing.
I wish I could be with you, but I am so tired, so weary, so utterly exhausted.
My piano is my second self.
I am not a man of letters, but a man of music.
The piano is a monster, but it is my monster.
I am only a composer, not a performer.
I would rather be a composer than a king.
I am not well, I am very ill, I am dying.
I am a stranger in a strange land.
I am alone, quite alone, and I feel so lonely.
I am a Pole, and I will die a Pole.
Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a immense number of notes and many over-the-top ornaments, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.
Bach is an astronomer, discovering the most wonderful stars. Beethoven is a conqueror, scaling the highest mountains. I am a mere mortal, walking the earth, picking up a few flowers here and there.
Everything must be made to sing.
A composer's work is his confession.
Contemporaries of Frédéric Chopin
Other Musics born within 50 years of Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849).