CHAPTER XXXII
NEW LIGHTS UPON PIANISM
198. Chopin as a Tone-Poet.—During almost precisely the
same years as Mendelssohn lived the Polish pianist and composer
Chopin, contributing to musical art an influence that has
been singularly potent and persistent. Representing a different
racial stock and moved by a peculiar national spirit, Chopin
gave voice to an intense and poignant strain of poetic romanticism
that was eminently original and fresh. His genius was matured
before the world at large knew much about it, but, when
he stepped forth into publicity, his captivating qualities as a
virtuoso made his style instantly famous. His choice of Paris
as a residence introduced him to a society specially sensitive to
his artistic type. But the sentiments and the forms that he
loved lay so close to the modern spirit generally that he stands
out as an artist, not merely of a nation or a social class, but
at least of a period, if not of a constant aspect of experience.
Accordingly, his works, though relatively few and almost wholly
confined to a single field, have become standard everywhere in
both public and private use.
Emotionally, Chopin presents many contradictions, from languorous dreaminess and voluptuousness to fiery and heroic ardor, from a sentimentality that verges upon the morbid to noble virility. But this mixture of qualities is not unusual, and in his case the directness with which they were revealed and the consummate art with which they were embodied give his works an extraordinary appeal. His passionateness and pathos may well be traced to the tragic national history into which he was born, but his symmetry of form, his exquisite feeling for tonal beauty, his delicacy of detail, his finesse in planning his effects—all these recall rather the Gallic element in his blood. In the perfect unity and balance between conception and form, his style resembles Mendelssohn's, but the difference in materials and impulses was extreme.
