Dissociated Thoughts

2/25/22 - Chopin

February 25, 2022

Frédéric Chopin

I had a hard time of it yesterday, my mind "short circuiting" after work while I was attempting to write my daily entry for "The Soundtrack of Your Life" . Somehow during this mental lapse, I erased everything I had written to that point; which was a significant amount, as I was to the point of adding my final touches to the entry. My mind just was not willing to function enough to rewrite the entry in its entirety last night, so I decided to take a step back and decompress. Music is a great way to decompress, and one of my favorite ways to do so is by listening to classical music. To help me relax and meditate last night, I chose a compilation of works by Chopin which I have saved in my "Liked Videos" for occasions just like this one. It helped me to calm and center myself, separating my mind from its stress and providing a new focus for thought. I have used Chopin and the music of many other great classical musicians over the course of the last few years to get me through the panic attacks and chaos of thought which happened so frequently before a medication was found that could help with some of these issues. Because of how readily it works for me, I was inspired to include it in my soundtrack.

Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin (later changed to Frédéric François Chopin) was born in March 1810 and died in October 1849. He was a Polish virtuoso pianist and composer during the Romantic period who wrote primarily for solo piano. He is known worldwide as a leading musician of his era, whose "poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation." Chopin was a child prodigy and had completed his music education and began composing works before the age of twenty. In final eighteen years of his life, he preferred to perform in the salon, performing for the public a mere thirty times during this period. He supported himself by giving piano lessons and selling his compositions.

All of Chopin's compositions include the piano. The majority of the compositions are for solo piano however he also wrote two piano concertos, a handful of chamber pieces, and some songs set to Polish lyrics. Chopin's major works include mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes, polonaises, the instrumental ballade (which Chopin created as an instrumental genre), études, impromptus, scherzos, preludes, and sonatas. It is interesting to note that all of the names his works have acquired through time were given to them by people other than Chopin. He tended to title his creations as per their genre and number, only giving a descriptive title to his Funeral March. He preferred to allow his listeners to associate the pieces however the music moved them individually.

Chopin's students include masters such as Friederike Müller and Carl Filtsch and piano teachers like Karol Mikuli and Georges Mathias. Müller wrote memoirs of Chopin's teachings, describing his style of playing and teaching as such, "His playing was always noble and beautiful; his tones sang, whether in full forte or softest piano. He took infinite pains to teach his pupils this legato, cantabile style of playing. His most severe criticism was 'He – or she – does not know how to join two notes together.' He also demanded the strictest adherence to rhythm. He hated all lingering and dragging, misplaced rubatos, as well as exaggerated ritardandos..."

To me, his compositions are clean and moving. The piano takes you through a host of emotions: loss, sadness, hope, triumph, love, these are but just a few of the emotions Chopin's mastery of music will lead you through. There is a plethora of compositions by Chopin to soothe the stressed soul - and that's exactly what the purity of his music does. But don't take it from me, listen to some of his works for yourself.