Preview

Life Span Chopin Analysis Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
705 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Life Span Chopin Analysis Essay
Composer: Fryderyk Franciszek [Frédéric François] Chopin

Composer’s Life Span: 1810-1849

Location: Chopin grew up in Warsaw, Poland, but then left to tour Europe in 1830, starting in Vienna, where he stayed for eight months. After leaving Vienna, he went to Munich, then Stuggart, and then ended his tour in Paris, where he eventually died. He composed mostly in the summer at in the village of Nohant.

Genres: Chopin’s main genre was the character piece for the piano, but he also wrote a few concertos and sonatas.

Bio:
Chopin was a major figure during the romantic era and exclusively wrote music for the piano, aside from two concertos he wrote in his younger years. Fitting into the romantic era well, emotional significance was at the forefront of his most respected works.
…show more content…
However, at short some points, the melody becomes less tuneful, notably towards the end. The point behind the melody, as in most romantic pieces, is to portray emotion.

Harmony: The song remains in the major mode throughout the piece. The piece is usually consonant, but some dissonance in created towards the end that stands out from the calmness of the rest of the piece.

Rhythm: The meter is in groups of three. The tempo is consistently quite slow, but as Chopin uses rubato, it speeds up a few times throughout the piece, sometimes as a transition between sections. Towards the end, the tempo increases, but then goes back to the stable beginning that it started at. The notes are played in a staccato fashion.

Dynamics: The music is soft and delicate aside from a few moments where the piece gets louder and more passionate. The change from loud to soft happens quite suddenly, but transitions back to a more delicate sound in a crescendo manner. Since this is a solo piano piece, this transition is accomplished by the performer simply playing the notes

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The famous main melody, introduced after a few counts of quarter notes from the lower instruments, is played and repeated by the upper instruments three times with slight changes each time. During this melody, it can be difficult to play the notes short and precise while maintaining the delicacy. It then completely shifts to a moving section with chromatic eighth notes from the upper instruments that through crescendo and decrescendo with the lower instruments playing an interesting part in between repetitions. Eventually, it switches back to the main melody until the song ends with a rich long tone from the lower…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The orchestras played this piece to create a great closing to the concert. The conductor made a great decision to arrange this song to be at the end giving almost a sense of closure. The addition of the percussionist again helped give the piece the nice lifted feeling, as well as help the orchestra stay together; however the dynamic contrast between the four sections was rather light.The use of a snare drum drastically changed this piece, it feels more like a slow waltz. The little use of dynamics, however, kept the melody from popping out as much as it should have. In the beginning of the piece everybody played the notes with space between then; however towards the end, a few of orchestra members played the notes smoothly and connected whereas the rest of the orchestra played the notes spaced. The intonation and a steady tempo was retained throughout the performance which gave this piece a focused tone. The violins and violas did an excellent job using full bows, but the cellos needed to use long bows so they can create a deep, rich, and crisp sound. This piece made the audience feel excited and eager to hear more because many of the audience members recognized this…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The music runs through the development with a mixture of both themes in major and minor chords before experiencing a thematic degradation. Here the tempo moves from largo to grave creating feelings of…

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frederic Chopin was a Polish composer whose works featured the Romantic period and Polish nationalistic music. His work ranges from Mazurkas to Nocturnes, from Polonaises to Waltzes, includes concertos, sonatas and much more. He was born in March 10, 1810 in ¯elazowa Wola to Nicolas Chopin. He grew up as a sickly but talented child, often hailed the child prodigy in Poland. When he was seven years old, he authored two polonaises. He had various instructors, including his own sister and his mother. He had two professional piano courses before he attended the Warsaw Lyceum. Chopin experienced great successes in the performing and composing field throughout his musical career. During his ten year relationship with George Sand (in which he experienced…

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Concert Report

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The distance between the notes was mainly medium but sometimes, we could discern a narrow distance between the notes. The change of range happened periodically and made the movement understandable. In addition, the shape of the music went up and down and during a certain period of time, that was the opposite. The movement of this performance had two essential parts. The first section was a little confusing because it seemed like every instruments were playing at the same time. Second, it…

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For the second song “Variations in C Major on God Save the King” which was played by Cziffra on the piano and composed by Beethoven; I was able to hear the chord starting with the beginning note and ending with the same note, so it sounded like tonality. There was a meter, and the dynamic was piano forte. The tone color was only the piano. The song had theme and variation, and the tempo was rubato. I think there was more than one chord. It was pleasing to the ears so the song had consonance. The texture was monophony. The song had low density, and there was no blend since it was only the piano. The register was…

    • 454 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chopin Prelude 15

    • 312 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In this piece, Chopin uses a lot of crescendos and diminuendos, and there is a wide range of dynamics (from pianissimo to fortissimo) but there are no sudden contrasts. Section A in the piece is quieter than section B, which climaxes to fortissimo twice.…

    • 312 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mozart Sonata K545

    • 1011 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The exposition stretches from bar 1-28. Overall two themes are present in the exposition. The first theme starts in bar 1-12 in C-major. The primary idea is identified in bar 1-4. The first note in bar one starts on the tonic which is C (I) and then in bar two the second measure starts on the tonic note again but is followed by a rest. The idea is repeated again in bar 3-4, the tonic key in bar three and then the tonic key again in bar four followed by a rest. What is catching about this composition is the eight note sixteen patterns, which is present from bar five and then later on expands in bar 46-48. In bar five a scale is seen going from A-A, up and then down again. A similar pattern follows in bar 6-8 (Kemper, 2013). In bar six there’s a scale from G-G. In bar seven a scale from F-F and in bar eight a scale from E-E. This is a sequence, each time the scale starts in a new bar it moves one step lower (Piano World, 2005). Between bar ten and eleven a half-cadence is seen. In bar thirteen the transition takes place. Before the transition takes place we note that in bar twelve on the third beat the dominant chord is…

    • 1011 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The piece from Gustav Mahler was very dynamic and only included a timbre of string instruments that were well blended. The piece included very long drawn out notes that made it “a bittersweet song of love and longing dedicated to the composer's wife, it's emotionally affecting music in any event” according to James Mcquillen of the Oregonian. The second piece from Britten was more dissonant…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Gustav Mahler

    • 293 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Gustav Mahler played piano; however as a conductor and composer, he had to be familiar with all symphonic instruments. In fact, he invented several instruments to enhance his own compositions. He was a passionate composer and an extremely talented conductor.…

    • 293 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frederic Chopin

    • 921 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) was born in a tiny village of Zelazowa about thirty miles away from Warsaw where he was raised as the son of a Polish mother and French father. While growing up in Warsaw much of his childhood compositions are known today as some of the most significant achievements for a composer in the Romantic era. At a very young age his original style of playing and composing astonished the polish aristocracy. After a fire broke out in his village many years later the home of Chopin was one of the few left standing. The house was set up for restoration as a museum and small concert hall. Chopin is the only composer labeled as "great" to write almost exclusively for the piano. Coming from a poor family he found his love for music at an early age. As a gifted child he began writing and composing his own pieces and has his first published by the age of seven. After realizing his fragile stature couldn’t last with composers like Liszt he was left to teach for most of his wages while playing in smaller concerts. Before he even set foot in high school Chopin had already written four polonaises, a variation set, and a rondo though most of his work was concentrated on virtuoso piano music.…

    • 921 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Scarlatti Sonata

    • 1214 Words
    • 6 Pages

    relative major or minor) in a series of strong cadences. The second half departs from this…

    • 1214 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    In romantic period, poetry was influential in compositions as poetry contains certain emotion that is similar to the essentials of making romantic music. A lot of nineteenth century composer used poetry as the root of their works, like how Schumann portrayed Goethe's Faust. Chopin also depicted poetry in his piano works in certain spheres. This essay involves how Chopin's works have musical poetry that he received the name "The Poet of the Piano".Chopin was different with Mozart or Schubert as in they composed in a facile manner while he composed two concertos for piano and orchestra, piano sonatas, polonaises, nocturnes, etudes, waltzes, mazurkas, scherzos, ballades, rondos, impromptus, sets of variation, fantasia, barcarolle, bolero, tarantella, Polish songs for solo voice with piano accompaniment and preludes. Chopin earned the name " The Poet of the Piano" for his contribution of 80 opuses to the instrument piano.…

    • 1523 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The piece has a homophonic melody and accompaniment. This sounds fuller and robust with added chords. The range of notes is increased as the piece progresses and there is an expressive use of loud and soft pedals. There is a broken chordal accompaniment in section A which changes to a chordal accompaniment in section B. In the codetta the texture changes to monophonic.…

    • 619 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Chopin was born in Zellazowa Wola, Poland in the year 1810. His name was Fryderyk Franciszek Szopen, but he was most commonly known by the French pronunciation, Frédéric François Chopin. Raised in a family of musicians, Chopin developed a talent for the piano at a young age. His first public performance was at age seven, after which he began playing in Polish society. As a young adult, he attended the Warsaw Conservatory of Music where he was under the tutelage of Joseph Elsner. Elsner supported Chopin’s unique playing style and, while he insisted on Chopin studying musical theory and composition, Chopin was allowed to cultivate his individuality on the piano. After a handful of short musical tours, Chopin settled in Paris in 1830. He spent the remainder of his life there, battling with poor health while teaching piano and composing. Chopin never married, but his ten year relationship with the notorious female author, George Sand, was his most productive time and resulted “in a succession of masterpieces” (Hedley). The ending of their connection in 1848 caused “the beginning of the end” for Chopin (Frédéric François Chopin) and he died at the young age of 39 after a long struggle with depression and illness (Hedley).…

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays