Frédéric Chopin

Chopin was born near Warsaw, left Poland in 1830 and settled in Paris in 1831. He gave only about thirty public concerts and preferred the salon. He wrote almost entirely for the piano. The exceptions are two piano concertos from 1830, a few works for piano and orchestra, some chamber music and 19 songs.

John Field invented the nocturne; Chopin made it more structured, often with an agitated middle section. His ballades and scherzos were the first written as individual concert pieces. The Op. 28 Preludes, published in 1839 and inspired by Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, give one piece for each major and minor key. The études of Opp. 10 and 25 are mostly in ternary form, and each drills a technique such as double thirds, octaves or repeated notes. Mazurkas and polonaises bring Polish dances into the concert hall: mazurkas are mostly ternary or episodic, with modal scales and drone basses, and polonaises are in triple time with a martial rhythm.

Much of his ornamentation comes from singing. His harmony relies on appoggiaturas and passing notes against accompaniment figures, on delayed cadences using Neapolitan sixths and diminished sevenths, and on sudden shifts to remote keys. He also writes polyrhythms such as four against three. In the Sonata No. 2, Op. 35, the Funeral March is followed by a 75-bar finale in octave unison.