Heuschrecke (G)
gafanhoto (p)
grasshopper (e)
sauterelle (f)
caveletta/caveletto (i)
valdemossa, majorca, spain
Frederic Chopin was a Polish-born composer and pianist, who lived in France, writing pieces mostly for solo piano. He died in 1849 at, as they say, the tender age of 39. He composed some of the most famous and well-loved piano pieces ever to be attempted by piano prodigies whose feet don’t reach the floor but only wrote about 250 pieces during his short life. So, it was big news recently when a new Chopin piece of music was discovered in the vault of the Morgan Library and Museum in New York.
The piece is a waltz or valse (with a rhythm of 1, 2, 3; 1, 2, 3; but not one of those peppy Viennese waltzes you can dance to), likely written between 1830 and 1835. And it’s pretty short. Although no one can say for sure whether Chopin wrote it, it isn’t signed and likely wasn’t finished, the music contains Chopin’s distinctive bass clef. It’s the first new Chopin piece to be discovered in over 50 years. (Always surprising to your host when some important painting or document is discovered after years or decades, but then again, think about what most people’s attic or garage looks like.) The New York Times, who reported the story, asked the famous pianist, Lang Lang to record the piece.
The discovery was made by Robinson McClellan, the curator of the Morgan Library, sorting through the collection of A. Sherrill Whiton, Jr., the son of the founder of the New York School of Interior Design, and himself a composer, collector of autographs and Chopin fan. Although Mr. Whiton died in 1972, it wasn’t until 2019 that his collection was given to the Morgan Library by a friend who had purchased it from Mr. Whiton’s wife. It took another five years before anyone took a look at what the library had received.
Chopin was born in Poland in 1810 to a French father and a Polish mother but left Poland when he was 20 and moved to Paris. He became famous, both for his piano playing and his composing, although he preferred to play in small venues, such as salons, for wealthy and/or famous audiences. No Taylor Swift stadium concerts for him. Audiences at these concerts often asked for souvenirs, such as short pieces of music, and it’s possible that is how this newly discovered waltz came to be written. Much of Chopin’s music is sad and melancholy, possibly due to his separation from his family in Poland; his worry about the occupation of parts of Poland by the Russian Empire; and as we’ll discuss below, his ill health. Chopin used the Polish word “zal”, meaning nostalgia or regret, to describe the tone of his music.
As to Chopin’s love life, his main romantic relationship was with a French novelist, memoirist and journalist Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil, (yes, you’ve heard this name before), known by her nom de plume George Sand, who he met at a party in Paris in 1836. After their first meeting, Chopin described her as unattractive and questioned whether she was a woman. Perhaps because she wore men’s clothes and smoked cigar. She was six years older than he; divorced; with two children. But they soon began an almost 10-year romantic relationship. Her nicknames for him included my little grasshopper and Monsieur Velvet-Fingers.
Chopin had always suffered from ill health, including stomach aches, diarrhea and an inability to gain weight. As an adult, he supposedly was about five foot seven but only weight 99 pounds. He also suffered from laryngitis and bronchitis and, at age 21, had his first episode of coughing up blood. He treated his coughing fits with a mixture of sugar and opium. His death was attributed to tuberculosis and he may have suffered from it for years.
In 1838, George Sand, concerned about the health of both her son, who suffered from rheumatism, and Chopin, decided to spend the winter on what she thought would be the warmer and sunnier island of Majorca, off the coast of Spain. Chopin shipped his Pleyel piano to the island but it took ages to arrive. Sand eventually wrote a book, A Winter in Majorca or Un hiver a Majorque about the experience. At first, they rented a villa but in December, 1838, it started raining and the rain leaked into the villa, causing it to become cold and damp. Not a good place for someone with rheumatism or respiratory issues. The neighbors were disapproving of Sand and Chopin living together without benefit of marriage and were suspicious of Chopin’s illness, thinking it might be contagious.
The winter continued to be harsh, with fog, storms and cold temperatures. (Perhaps picture going to your favorite summer place in January?) Sand and Chopin eventually ended up at an empty Valldemossa Monastery, also none too cozy, living in one of the monks cells. They gave up on Majorca in early February 1839, heading back to France. But it was a productive period for Chopin. He wrote or finished a number of pieces, including his Preludes, op. 28. Chopin and Sand never returned to Majorca, instead spending summers at Nohant, George Sand’s chateau south of Paris, which hosts a Chopin music festival to this day. Chopin died in 1849 and had a funeral at the Church of the Madelaine in Paris, attendance by ticket only. Many mourners were turned away. He is buried (with the exception of his heart) at the Père Lachaise cemetery in the 20th arrondissement of Paris. His sister took his heart back to Poland and it was interred in a column in the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw.
This new piece of Chopin’s was discovered at the Morgan Library in New York City. The Morgan Library was originally the private library of Pierpont Morgan, a famous American financier. Built between 1902 and 1906, next to Morgan’s mansion, it was designed by Charles McKim of the famous architectural firm McKim, Mead & White as an Italian Renaissance-style palazzo. Prior to 1909, there had been a tax of twenty percent on art and antiques imported into the United States so Morgan had kept most of his treasures, which had been brought abroad, in England.
Pierpont Morgan died in 1913. In 1924, his son, J. P. Morgan, Jr. (1867–1943), opened the library to scholars and the public. J. P Morgan, Jr. who, in his lifetime, saw an incredible period of technological improvements; depression and two world wars was referred to by the American press and others as a “robber baron”. The term was applied to businessmen who might use unscrupulous practices to succeed such as creating monopolies to control markets; selling stock at inflated prices; influencing government officials; payment of low wages to employees and opposition to unionization. Of course, he wasn’t the only “robber baron” of the times: think Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Duke, Flagler, Stanford, Widener and others. Not surprisingly, names which adorn the walls of many institutions in the United States to this day.