Frédéric Chopin was of both French and Polish background but grew up in Warsaw. After the 1830 November Uprising in Poland, Chopin settled in Paris at age 21, taking up residence in an inn. He would live in nine other places in Paris until his untimely death at 39. Two months after arriving, he wrote to a friend, “I am slowly launching myself into this world although I have only one ducat in my pocket.” The musical prodigy had no trouble entering the creme of Parisian society. Yet, through personal accounts we know he was more than amazed at Paris, which had ten times the inhabitants of Warsaw. He wrote his friend ”This is here the greatest luxury, the greatest pigsty, the greatest virtue, the greatest displays, posters about venereal disease at very step,” he wrote, “There is more shouting, noise and and mud than one can… Read More
Frédéric Chopin was of both French and Polish background but grew up in Warsaw. After the 1830 November Uprising in Poland, Chopin settled in Paris at age 21, taking up residence in an inn. He would live in nine other places in Paris until his untimely death at 39. Two months after arriving, he wrote to a friend, “I am slowly launching myself into this world although I have only one ducat in my pocket.” The musical prodigy had no trouble entering the creme of Parisian society. Yet, through personal accounts we know he was more than amazed at Paris, which had ten times the inhabitants of Warsaw. He wrote his friend ”This is here the greatest luxury, the greatest pigsty, the greatest virtue, the greatest displays, posters about venereal disease at very step,” he wrote, “There is more shouting, noise and and mud than one can… Read More