By Kerry Rodgers, World Coin News February 22, 2010

Polish master pianist and composer Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin aka Franciszek Szopen aka Frédéric Chopin died on Oct. 17, 1849. Last year was the 160th since his death. This year marks the 200th following his birth. Those into coins with composers are being spoilt rotten by mints around the world celebrating this double anniversary.



Coins for Chopin

Chopin has figured on a number of past coins. Poland’s listing in the Standard Catalog of World Coins is a great place to start. Try Y-66, Y-90, Y-205, Y-365, Y-367 and Y-523 for starters. In 2007 Ivory Coast chipped in.

In the current round, Mongolia beat the gun with a 2008 issue consisting of a 25-gram, .925 fine silver 500-tugrik proof, 38.61 mm in diameter with a mintage of 1,000 pieces; and a 1/25-ounce, .9999 fine gold 1,000-tugrik proof, 12.92 mm in diameter with a mintage of 25,000. The two coins are available as a boxed set.

Andorra has gone for broke with a series of eight 10-dinar, .925 silver proofs that depict major events in Chopin’s life. Each coin weighs in at 25 grams and has a diameter of 38.61 mm. The legends of all coins are in Catalan, the language of Andorra. Some coins are selectively gold-plated. Others are colorized and contain CrystallizedTM Swarovski Elements. All eight are available as a boxed set with a mintage of just 1,810 sets.

Turkey has struck a single .925 silver 50-lira proof with a mintage of 1,000. The diameter is 38.61 mm and weight 36.08 grams.

Latest arrival is Tuvalu’s silver dollar struck by the Perth Mint, the most recent issue in their Great Composers’ series. Mintage of this 1-ounce, .999 fine silver, 40.60 mm diameter coin is 5,000.

Rest assured there are more to come.



Child Prodigy

Chopin was born in the Duchy of Warsaw on March 1, 1810, when Poland was part of the Russian Empire. His father was a French émigré who served in Poland’s National Guard before becoming a tutor to children of the aristocracy. His aristocratic mother, Justyna Krzy?anowska, was Polish to the core. Chopin was their only son.

From his earliest years, his mum imbued Chopin with all things Polish. So committed was he to his heritage that George Sand described him as, “more Polish than Poland.”

Music pervaded the Chopin household. Father played the flute and mother taught piano. His parents realized early on that in Chopin they had a musical-prodigy on their hands whose first and last love was the piano. His elder sister, Ludwika, gave him his first lessons.

Young Chopin’s musical reputation quickly spread. By age 7 he had composed two polonaises and at 11 gave his first public performance in Warsaw before Tsar Alexander I. He frequently played for Russia’s governor in Poland, the Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich.

In 1823 Chopin enrolled in the Warsaw Lyceum. Two years later, aged 15, he was acclaimed, “the best pianist in Warsaw,” and commenced a three-year course at the Warsaw Conservatory. At the end of his first year, the Polish composer Józef Elsner declared him a “remarkable talent” if not a “musical genius.” Elsner wisely chose to give Chopin his head and not constrain his remarkable gifts.

In August 1829 he made his debut in Vienna with two piano concerts followed by premiers of his Piano Concerto No. 2 in December and his Piano Concerto No. 1 in the following March. The performances were acclaimed. Chopin had arrived on the international stage. But there was a catch. Chopin had suffered from ill health since birth. Tuberculosis ran in the family. A painting from 1827 shows him already marked by the disease: his skin very pale, his Adam’s apple prominent, his cheeks sunken.



Of Exile and Women

And then in November 1830 came the Polish Uprising of 1830 and its brutal suppression. It became essential for Chopin, the well-known superpatriot, to flee his beloved Poland forever. He was just 20 when he became an expatriate, taking with him a silver cup of Polish soil. His torment is expressed in his Scherzo in B minor and his Revolutionary Étude.

He went to Paris, where he was warmly received. He made a comfortable living as a composer and piano teacher. His health allowed only the occasional public performance. He formed close friendships with Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, Vincenzo Bellini and Felix Mendelssohn, among many. It was here, too, he adopted the French version of his name which is how he is known to day outside Poland.

An acclaimed public recital in February 1832 caused Chopin to recognize for once and for all that his technique was not suited to large concert halls. Later that year, the patronage of the Rothschilds saw the doors of the Paris salons open to him, allowing him to perform in their more intimate atmosphere.

In 1835 Chopin met with his parents for the last time. He also encountered some old family friends and promptly fell in love with their daughter. She reciprocated but the mother had reservations and the wedding was indefinitely postponed.

He found solace with the Polish countess Delfina Potocka before meeting the cross-dressing, tobacco-smoking, French feminist and author, Amandine Aurore Lucille Dupin, the Baroness Dudevant, aka George Sand. Chopin was unimpressed at first: “What a repulsive woman Sand is! But is she really a woman? I am inclined to doubt it.” She, however, was smitten and quickly added Chopin to her long list of conquests. By the summer of 1837 they were an item, living together openly with her children.



Decline

All the time Chopin’s health continued to deteriorate. Over the next 10 years Sand became less of a lover and more of a nurse. Her novel Lucrezia Floriani is a thinly disguised and not very flattering commentary of their time together. They parted in 1847.

But regardless of circumstances, his musical life continued to be productive. In all he produced 58 mazurkas, 27 études, 26 preludes, 21 nocturnes, 20 waltzes, 17 polonaises, 5 rondos, 4 ballades, 4 impromptus, 4 scherzos, 4 sets of variations, 3 piano sonatas, 3 écossaises and 2 piano concertos, plus sundry other works for a total of 230 surviving manuscripts.

The majority of his repertoire was written for solo piano. He invented musical forms such as the ballade and introduced major innovations in the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, étude, impromptu and prélude. Today his masterpieces, infused with emotional and sensual passion, are mainstays of concert halls across the globe.

In 1848 Chopin gave his last Paris concert. Toward the end of the summer he visited Scotland where his hostess, great admirer and former pupil, Jane Wilhelmina Stirling, proposed marriage. Chopin declined.

His last public concert at London’s Guildhall on Nov. 16, 1848, was performed for the benefit of Polish refugees. He returned to Paris where his worsening health saw his first piano tutor, his sister Ludwika, join him in June 1849. She remained with him until his death on Wednesday, Oct. 17.



Death and Defenestration

Chopin had a morbid fear of being buried alive. His dying wish was to have his heart removed and preserved in alcohol. His sister took it to Warsaw where it was sealed within a pillar of the Holy Cross Church. Below are the words of Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

His funeral at Paris’s Church of the Madeleine on Oct. 30, 1849, was attended by about 3,000. He had asked for Mozart’s Requiem to be sung. This work required women to sing major parts and the Church of the Madeleine never countenanced female singers. It took two weeks for the Church authorities to compromise, the deal being that the women remained behind a black velvet curtain.

And in January 1863 one of the more notable defenestrations in history occurred. During yet another Polish uprising, Russian troops threw Chopin’s piano out of a second-story apartment window.



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