Project Gutenberg's Chopin: The Man and His Music, by James Huneker

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Title: Chopin: The Man and His Music

Author: James Huneker

Posting Date: June 14, 2010 [EBook #4939]
Release Date: January, 2004
First Posted: April 1, 2002

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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CHOPIN: THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC

by

James Huneker

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I.--THE MAN.

I. POLAND:--YOUTHFUL IDEALS
II. PARIS:--IN THE MAELSTROM
III. ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND FERE LA CHAISE
IV. THE ARTIST
V. POET AND PSYCHOLOGIST

PART II.--HIS MUSIC.

VI. THE STUDIES:--TITANIC EXPERIMENTS
VII. MOODS IN MINIATURE: THE PRELUDES
VIII. IMPROMPTUS AND VALSES
IX. NIGHT AND ITS MELANCHOLY MYSTERIES: THE NOCTURNES
X. THE BALLADES: FAERY DRAMAS
XI. CLASSICAL CURRENTS
XII. THE POLONAISES: HEROIC HYMNS OF BATTLE
XIII. MAZURKAS: DANCES OF THE SOUL
XIV. CHOPIN THE CONQUEROR

BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS BY JAMES HUNEKER

PART I.--THE MAN

I. POLAND:--YOUTHFUL IDEALS

Gustave Flaubert, pessimist and master of cadenced lyric prose, urged
young writers to lead ascetic lives that in their art they might be
violent. Chopin's violence was psychic, a travailing and groaning of
the spirit; the bright roughness of adventure was missing from his
quotidian existence. The tragedy was within. One recalls Maurice
Maeterlinck: "Whereas most of our life is passed far from blood, cries
and swords, and the tears of men have become silent, invisible and
almost spiritual." Chopin went from Poland to France--from Warsaw to
Paris--where, finally, he was borne to his grave in Pere la Chaise. He
lived, loved and died; and not for him were the perils, prizes and
fascinations of a hero's career. He fought his battles within the walls
of his soul--we may note and enjoy them in his music. His outward state
was not niggardly of incident though his inner life was richer,
nourished as it was in the silence and the pro