Happy Birthday Claude Debussy! 22 August 1862

 

Happy Birthday Gustav Mahler! 7 July 1860

 

Happy Birthday Johannes Brahms! 7 May 1833

 

Happy Birthday Johann Sebastian Bach! 31 March 1685

 

*Beethoven’s birthday is unknown; December 17th, 1770 is his baptismal date

The Other Prodigy and His Childhood Polonaise

When one thinks about musical prodigies, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart may come to mind. A composer, pianist, and overall musical genius from as early as age four, Mozart came packaged with an eccentric personality typical of prodigies: unnervingly stoic as a child and whimsically erratic as an adult. With that in mind, it is easy to overlook another prodigy in the world of classical music: Fryderyk Chopin.

Though Chopin, melancholic and delicate, lacks the eccentricities typical of geniuses, he is undoubtedly one. Like Mozart, the pianist and composer was talented in music from a young age. At the age of seven he wrote a Polonaise in G Minor that was published by his father. Around that time he was also already giving concerts and winning the attention and gifts of aristocrats.

Though Chopin’s childhood polonaise lacks the sophistication and refinement typical of his adult self, it is a rare peek into his child mind and the musical gears that were undoubtedly already turning in it. The piece has an innocent quality that is absent from Chopin’s mature works. Whenever I play any of Fryderyk Chopin’s music, I always feel as if he is a dear friend and I am speaking with him. When I play Chopin’s childhood polonaise, unlike our normal conversations he is seven years old.

Chopin vs. Schumann's Kreisleriana

As much as I enjoy Robert Schumann’s music, I understand why it rubbed Fryderyk Chopin the wrong way. Case in point, Schumann dedicated his Kreisleriana, Op. 16 to Chopin, who commented unfavorably on it. Even though this assessment likely discouraged Schumann, as he was an admirer of Chopin’s genius, it is hardly surprising. By this time, both composers had already struck out and developed their own unique styles, and Schumann’s Kreisleriana in particular strikes me as very anti-Chopin.

Though Schumann and Chopin were born in the same year, they are different as night and day, with Schumann’s wildly bipolar nature contrasting against Chopin’s delicate melancholy. They hardly met, as Chopin was in the French school of Romanticism and Schumann was in the German school, but their fleeting conversations were fraught with tension. To someone like Fryderyk Chopin, who favored grounded refinement and thematic unity in his music, Robert Schumann’s Kreisleriana may have come across as confused and jarring in its wild themes and dramatic dynamic changes.

I personally enjoy both composers, though I prefer Chopin due to mostly personal reasons. Nevertheless, I find it fascinating how Chopin and Schumann both represent the evolving world of Romanticism, one that is elegant and sophisticated as well as stormy and untameable.