Frederic Francois Chopin, a Polish pianist and composer, born at Zelazowa-Wola, near Warsaw, Feb. 8, 1810, died in Paris, Oct. 17, 1849. His father was French, his mother Polish. His education in music was begun at the age of nine, and was for seven years conducted by Ziwny, and subsequently by Eisner. Prince Anton Radziwill was his patron, and introduced him into the best society in Warsaw. He made several journeys to Germany to study the masterpieces of his art, and was at Vienna when the Polish revolution of 1830 broke out. Here he gave several concerts, but the public was absorbed in politics, and his success was not great. He set out for London, but stopped at Paris, where he won immediate and brilliant fame as a composer, and performed in private concerts, but rarely appeared in public. For ten years previous to 1844 he gave only a single concert. In 1836 he formed an intimacy with Mme. Dudevant (George Sand). His health, always fragile, required a southern climate, and in 1837 they took up their residence in the island of Majorca, where she nursed him through a long and dangerous illness. The intimacy continued till 1847. In the spring of 1848 he made his long-projected visit to England, where he met with an enthusiastic reception.

Contrary to his former habits, he entered much into society, and performed frequently at private concerts, but only three times in public, the last being at a concert for the benefit of the Poles. He returned to Paris utterly broken in health, and thenceforth incapable of any continuous labor. He had projected a book upon the theory and art of music; but only a few pages of it were written, and these were destroyed with all his unfinished works. As a composer Chopin ranks in the first class, although he produced no great continuous work. Liszt, his friend and admirer, gives an elaborate analysis of the character of his works: "We meet with beauties of a high order, expressions entirely new, and a harmonic tissue as original as erudite. In his compositions boldness is always justified; richness, even exuberance, never interferes with clearness. Daring, brilliant, and attractive, his works disguise their profundity under so much grace, their science under so many charms, that it is with difficulty we free ourselves sufficiently from their magical enthralment to judge coldly of their theoretical value." This refers especially to the earlier compositions, "written in the commencement of his career, and characterized by a youthful vigor not to be found in some of his subsequent works, even when more elaborate, finished, and richer in combinations; a vigor which is entirely lost in his latest productions, marked by an over-excited sensibility, a morbid irritability, and giving painful intimations of his own state of suffering and exhaustion.

His nocturnes, ballads, impromptus, and scherzos are full of refinements of harmony never heard before; bold, and of startling originality. His concertos and sonatas are beautiful indeed, but we may discern in them more effort than inspiration. Some of these efforts, however, are resplendent with a rare dignity of style; and passages of exceeding interest, beauty, and grandeur may be found among them." A complete list of the works of Chopin is given in Lowinski's Musiciens polonais et slaves. His life by Liszt, which is critical rather than biographical, has been translated by Martha Walker Cook (Boston, 1863). His life has also been written by Barberdette (20th ed., 1869).