Letter from Poland.

 

Chopin, the Warsaw boy

05.03.2008

We take a look at the little-known facts about Chopin in his early years.
Written by Anna Piwowarska
The 1st March marked the 198th birthday of probably the most famous Pole in the world – pianist and composer Fryderyk Chopin. Poland has always had a bit of a problem with the fact that the majority of the world thinks that Chopin was French. Many people don’t realise that the world’s greatest pianist was a Pole (a Varsovian, to be precise), which is crucial to understanding his work. It is here, in and around the Old town of Warsaw, that the musical genius grew up, went to school, composed his first pieces, gave his first concerts and soaked up his first inspirations. Without the nineteenth century polonaises that he heard in the Warsaw salons, as well as the mazurkas of the country estates that he visited as a boy, Chopin’s most famous pieces would have never come into existence.
What is most fascinating about these first nineteen years of Chopin’s life, these Warsaw years, are all the small details of his boyhood and teenage life that not everyone knows about. These give us a picture of the real man behind the legend. For example, his first teacher, Czech Wojciech Żywny was rather an eccentric figure. Chopin’s biographer, Adam Zamoyski writes of him: “He was a tall man, with a powerfully violet nose, toothless, wearing an askew, out-of-fashion, yellowed wig […] he never bathed, restricting himself to rubbing his body with vodka on hot days of summer.” Żywny was undoubtedly integral in forming Chopin’s musical genius by using unconventional teaching techniques and giving the young boy freedom to experiment.
Another figure from that time is Chopin’s (supposed) first love, young opera singer Constantia. Now most people seem to think that she was rather extraordinary and that she broke Chopin’s heart by ignoring him and flirting with Russian officers in front of him. However, writer Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz seems to think that she was no more than a “girl next door” who’s singing voice wasn’t all that remarkable. He writes of her and her friend, Miss Wołków: “They were two typical Conservatory students, just like one would see today […]. Singing, it seemed to them, was as good a way to catch a husband as any.” One of the most brilliant examples of Chopin’s great, dry sense of humour is connected to Constantia. When he said goodbye to her, before leaving for Paris, she gave him an album with poems and at the end of it she wrote the dedication: “Foreigners may better reward and value you, but they surely cannot love you more strongly than us.” Sometime later, Chopin wrote in the album: “yes they can.” Can you imagine how much Constantia must have been kicking herself that she flirted with all those Russian officers rather than marrying the most talented composer Poland has ever produced?
Another strong element of Chopin’s Warsaw youth was his extremely strong male friendships. From 1817, the Chopin family lived in the Kazimierzowski Palace where Fryderyk’s father, Frenchman Nicolas, presided over a boarding house for boys. Here, Fryderyk met his first real friends - Tytus Woyciechowski, Jan Białobłocki and Dominik Dziewanowski. Tytus was undoubtedly Fryderyk’s closest friend. He was older and stronger, and dazzled the young, sickly “Frycek”. We know from numerous letters that Chopin confided his deepest secrets to Tytus. In one letter he wrote: “To the piano I talk about what I tell you repeatedly […] No one besides you will have a true picture of me. There could only be one person, and no one above you, because Tytus is dearest to me.” The nineteenth century was a time when men thought nothing of sending each other letters in which they declared their love for each other – Chopin was no different.
Another important element of these boyhood friendships was that they allowed young Fryderyk to spend time in the countryside. His friend’s, Dominik Dziewanowski’s father was the owner of property in Szafarna, where little Fryderyk often went for his holidays. Those trips were important for the sake of Fryderyk’s poor health as he rested and breathed in the fresh, clean air. Yet above all, it was here that encountered for the first time Mazovian folk music, which influenced him tremendously. This music along with the memory of the beautiful Polish landscape would accompany and inspire Fryderyk until the end of his life.
During his teenage years, Chopin spent a lot of time with his friends in numerous cafes and salons, mainly on Miodowa Street near the Old Town. Dziurka (‘the little hole’) was one local place where young people who were fascinated with literature would meet. There, Chopin would discuss and debate the works of Mickiewicz, Shiller and other writers, along with Maurice Mochnacki and Bohdan Zaleski. Pod Kopciuszkiem (‘under the cinderella’) was a theatrical coffeehouse where Fryderyk would also often frequent. Honoratka was another one of his favourite haunts - in fact, it exists to this day on the corner of Kapitulna and Miodowa Street. It seems that Fryderyk’s talent didn’t stop him from having a normal teenage life. In one letter, he wrote: “from Thursday to Saturday, during Carnival time, I did not come home until two a.m. […], but it’s not because of this that I’m ill, as I always slept in the next day.” He was very obviously the life and soul of the party.
On the night of 1 November 1830, the Chopin family and their closest friends organized a farewell dinner for Fryderyk, at which they played and danced together for the last time. The next day at dawn, right where the Saxon Post Office can currently be found, Chopin stepped into a stagecoach and departed Warsaw forever. At the time, this 19-year-old boy didn’t realise that he would never see his homeland again. This fact haunted him, yet also inspired him, until his early death in 1849.
So, when we remember Chopin around the world let us get rid of the image of a foppish, sickly, melancholic Frenchman and let us remind ourselves that Fryderyk, although a musical genius, grew up as just a normal Warsaw boy.